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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6224891" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>This is a topic on which I have fairly strong views.</p><p></p><p>I think a primary reason why many fantasy RPGs do not put religion front-and-centre is because they do not have the mechanics, nor the broader orientation/approach to play, that would <em>make</em> it front-and-centre.</p><p></p><p>I think this is related to the "modelling" approach to many fantasy RPG rules - they aim at modelling, in various ways, physical events such as swordfights and lockpicking, and even when they don't model these (eg D&D's hp and AC don't really model very much) they determine outcomes by reference to them.</p><p></p><p>Whereas nothing in these rules typicaly models either the processes of, or the outcomes of, religious commitment <em>as experienced by the religious person</em>. Hence religious commitment becomes essentially neutralised in play, while mechanistic, physicalistic explanation are foregrounded, either expressly in the rules, or by allusion (as we model luck, for instance, by the generation of random numbers through the rolling of dice - how does this take at all seriously notions of providence, divine fortune and the like?).</p><p></p><p> [MENTION=99817]chaochou[/MENTION] and [MENTION=49017]Bluenose[/MENTION] have mentioned Runequest and Glorantha upthread, which tries to replace physicalistic and mechanistic explanations with mythical ones. (Though I'm personally not sure that RQ's ultra-simulationist mechanics are the best tool for conveying this.) Of versions of D&D, I think 4e goes furthest in integrating religous commitments and religious motivations into players' choices for their PCs, for instance via its distinctive build options for religious characters (even the fact that paladins can wield their weapons with CHA rather than STR takes us closer to the idea of expressing sainthood or divine grace in combat, rather than brute strength powered up by a Bless spell). But there is scope to go a lot further.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6224891, member: 42582"] This is a topic on which I have fairly strong views. I think a primary reason why many fantasy RPGs do not put religion front-and-centre is because they do not have the mechanics, nor the broader orientation/approach to play, that would [I]make[/I] it front-and-centre. I think this is related to the "modelling" approach to many fantasy RPG rules - they aim at modelling, in various ways, physical events such as swordfights and lockpicking, and even when they don't model these (eg D&D's hp and AC don't really model very much) they determine outcomes by reference to them. Whereas nothing in these rules typicaly models either the processes of, or the outcomes of, religious commitment [I]as experienced by the religious person[/I]. Hence religious commitment becomes essentially neutralised in play, while mechanistic, physicalistic explanation are foregrounded, either expressly in the rules, or by allusion (as we model luck, for instance, by the generation of random numbers through the rolling of dice - how does this take at all seriously notions of providence, divine fortune and the like?). [MENTION=99817]chaochou[/MENTION] and [MENTION=49017]Bluenose[/MENTION] have mentioned Runequest and Glorantha upthread, which tries to replace physicalistic and mechanistic explanations with mythical ones. (Though I'm personally not sure that RQ's ultra-simulationist mechanics are the best tool for conveying this.) Of versions of D&D, I think 4e goes furthest in integrating religous commitments and religious motivations into players' choices for their PCs, for instance via its distinctive build options for religious characters (even the fact that paladins can wield their weapons with CHA rather than STR takes us closer to the idea of expressing sainthood or divine grace in combat, rather than brute strength powered up by a Bless spell). But there is scope to go a lot further. [/QUOTE]
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