Question on the reaction of gamers...

[Tiefling]

If I (or someone else) were to writing a setting that was basically fantastic Europe, and major religious organizations such as the Catholic Church, the Knights Templar, etc. were often villains, would people get offended? Actually, people are sure to get offended, but what's important is would those people be among the target demographic (gamers)?

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Never Happen

Even if we gamers were not offended by the content (and trust me I wouldnt be since to a good degree it would be accurate) we the gamers would still see a potential PR nightmare.

 

[Skarp Hedin]

Just about everything seems to offend someone these days, so probably. I wouldn't be offended, but I wouldn't be all that interested either.

 

[Crothian]

You might very well offend some gamers. So What? You can't please everyone, so don't try. The best thing to do is write the best book you can and hope that the quality of the work will allow people to look past anything they might find offensive.

 

[Kilmore]

7th Sea

Not to pop your bubble, but that's basically similar to AEG's 7th Sea, though that is set in the age of Swashbucklers.

 

[DrSkull]

I don't think making the medieval Church and Knights Templar into villains is a "cutting edge" tactic that will offend people, rather it is a tired old cliche, so you should be safe.

Remember there was this thing called the Reformation, in which half of Europe fought the other half because they thought that the Catholic Church was a pack of evil-doing hypocrites and villains.

 

[GILGAMESH]

How about BIRTHRIGHT ? Sounds close enough to me. try www.birthright.net/

 

[Tom Cashel]

I'd be more interested in the setting you propose if there weren't any "heroes" or "villains," but rather people with different viewpoints trying to further their own agenda. Such a product could feature alternate alignment rules to simulate the "shades of gray" effect.

 

[Tiefling]

I'd be more interested in the setting you propose if there weren't any "heroes" or "villains," but rather people with different viewpoints trying to further their own agenda. Such a product could feature alternate alignment rules to simulate the "shades of gray" effect.

Well, yeah. I figured that if I was to write this, and I chose to make it d20, then I'd dump alignment. So the book wouldn't say "the Catholic Church is EEEVIL," rather such organizations would sometimes be the enemy of a particular adventure. Often the church would be doing nice things too. I suspect that on the local level you would find normal variation of personality and goals among the clergy, but as you rose higher in the ranks the power would tend to corrupt them.

 

[Umbran]

Also, isn't White Wolf's "Mage: The Sorceror's Crusade" in a similar setting? With now multiple games working this theme...

And fiction - Katheryn Kurtz's Deryni books are all in a world such as that. This hardly seems new and controversial.