Real Religion in Adventure Design

[Asisreo]

In the case of designing adventures, religion will often come up in parts of lore and background. Usually, these religions are either spin-offs of existing religions or entirely new religions with a host of different deities within the pantheon.

But I wonder...what about real, practiced religions being accessible in a TTRPG?

My interest is because real religions have such a rich and diverse set of traditions and cultures with iconic stories and memorable moments that define the beautiful aspects of the various regions they originate from. Having the party meet the Judeo-Christian Messiah or the Shinto Goddess of Sun Amaterasu or the Hindu Deity of Destruction Shiva would make for excellent encounters and events that not only show the lore of the fictional world but also gives context to real life religious figures and how they operate.

So, do you think these implementations of explicit religion can be done tactfully within an adventure, even one meant to be published for profit?

 

[uzirath]

So, do you think these implementations of explicit religion can be done tactfully within an adventure, even one meant to be published for profit?

I don’t see why not. Historical settings, of course, do this by default. For example, I was involved in a playtest recently for an upcoming GURPS book about the Southeast Asian empire of Srivijaya. This involved discussions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. The default assumption of the book was historical realism, but there were sections on adding fantasy elements and magic and whatnot. It was all quite respectful and tasteful.

This might be more difficult to pull off with a standard D&D adventure where there’s a strong “kill the monsters” vibe.

 

[CubicsRube]

I'd suggest looking at Joan of Arc rpg. It's largely Christian based,m but I think it does a historically just and quite respectful job.

 

[Fenris-77]

Much like as in forum discussions, i tend to avoid real religion in RPG play for the most part. It tends to be divisive. The exception would be modern games I guess, where actual religions are what's on offer. Even then, I'm not engaging woth the religions in any kind of core way, even in games where they mighr form the core background, as in a Conatantine sort of urban fantasy game.

 

[Li Shenron]

I have always included real-like extinct (or nearly so, at least as far as I know) religions without problems, such as the classic staples Roman/Greek paganism, Norse and Egyptian. The only contemporary religion I have used is Shinto, but presumably not very realistically represented.

I have never used major monotheistic religions of the present, the real reason being that I don't find them interesting for a RPG. I can definitely see some appeal in a RPG game based on the real-world, with contemporary religions but also all the supernatural folklore, superstitions and sectarian myths (pretty much what is always being used in many games, books and movies such as The Da Vinci Code or the Diablo series).

It obviously depends on the people you have sitting at your table. I don't hang around well at all with intolerant people, and even if I invited the elders of my Italian family branch (many of which are in fact deeply religious) to play D&D together, I am pretty sure they would handle a Diablo-like fantasy setting with a laugh! They would be a lot more likely to frown upon excessive description of violence or scantily dressed characters, neither of which I feature in my games anyway.

But in a public environment, I would probably not pursue the idea, there are always people at large with troublemaking attitudes.

 

[pemerton]

There are RPGs that use Christianity (eg Pendragon). There are RPGs that use Buddhism and Shinto (sometimes with a fig leaf of some other name - eg TSR's OA).

I don't think it has to be a bad thing, but obviously one wants to be careful to avoid offence.

 

[Aldarc]

In short, "nope." My general preference on this issue is using (i) fictive analogues of real world religions rather than real world religions but (ii) respectfully representing its cult, piety, day-to-day practices of the people with the authenticity and significance of its real world religion counterpart.

 

[Ulfgeir]

I mean here in Sweden we had a diocese belonging to the state church publish at least 3 small games ("Quo Vadis?", "Ansgar", "Vägen") that they used in their confirmation-studies. Small games published in the late 80s/early 90s. So there, there was obviously christianity. Would I like to play them? Hell no.

I know Scion 1e got a bad rep for its portayal of certain religions. 2e is supposedly much better. No idea how well other games where you regularily interact with the divine is.

Then you have the thing that if you use a modern religion (especially if is a from a cultural minority that has been downtrodden), then you might want to have someone from that faith go through it as a sensitivity-reader. Your mileage may vary though, as what will be totally fine for one person would be seen as blasphemy by the more easily enraged individuals that see everything that is not exactly as they think it should be as an attack on their religion. So you can't please everyone. Of course, from an outsiders point of view, said enraged persons make for good villains/antagonists depending on the game, but one should be careful there as those persons might irl be prone to violence.

 

[Voadam]

Modern, historical, and future RPGs use real world religion all the time. It can be done tastefully or poorly. World of Darkness, d20 Modern, Shadowrun, Deadlands, etc. you can have stuff like a PC Baptist preacher.

Sometimes powers are added to real world religion aspects so the PC preacher might have true faith in a vampire game and the game must decide how it handles some theological truths, like whether only certain religions actually get reality stuff or where the lines are.

Meeting Jesus or Ganesh can be done, but it has potential to go poorly that should be considered.

 

[Emerikol]

In the case of designing adventures, religion will often come up in parts of lore and background. Usually, these religions are either spin-offs of existing religions or entirely new religions with a host of different deities within the pantheon.

But I wonder...what about real, practiced religions being accessible in a TTRPG?

My interest is because real religions have such a rich and diverse set of traditions and cultures with iconic stories and memorable moments that define the beautiful aspects of the various regions they originate from. Having the party meet the Judeo-Christian Messiah or the Shinto Goddess of Sun Amaterasu or the Buddhist Deity of Destruction Shiva would make for excellent encounters and events that not only show the lore of the fictional world but also gives context to real life religious figures and how they operate.

So, do you think these implementations of explicit religion can be done tactfully within an adventure, even one meant to be published for profit?

It might be fraught with peril if people were genuine believers. You as GM might do something that the players feel does not represent the real world concept. This is why I tend to stay way way far away from real religions. If I want some of that flavor I change names, and mix things up a lot, to get the same effect without giving offense.