Testament: An Awesome D&D Supplement

[TerraDave]

Actually, I think the MOST important element in making it a "realistic" game, so far, has been eliminating alignments. Once everyone behaves purely based on a combination of personal ethics, personal selfishness and nationalism, real "historical" behavior becomes much more possible, and I don't have to wonder about what alignment Baal-worshippers would be....

Jason

Are you using the piety/sin system and flaws?

 

[JoeGKushner]

And don't forget to add reviews of it to the database! Let peole know about it.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

At current, I have an excellent idea for an entire campaign using the setting that revolves around early Kabbalahist/Mystic theory

Oooo! Say more! Say more! Say more!

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Oooo! Say more! Say more! Say more!

I am by no means an expert or anything resembling an learned individual so far as Kabbalah goes... what follows is simply what I have learned in my Jewish Studies courses - if there's something wrong with it, I blame my teacher.

So - Lurianic Kabbalah is based on the belief that the world exists in spheres, and that each sphere represents a certain quality of G-d. When G-d created the world, the spheres had to contract ao allow room for that creation. Many of G-d's rays shattered, becoming the source of Evil**.

Man's job, therefore, is to - through prayer and devotion - put those pieces back together (I believe the phrase for this is Tiggum Olam, but I could be mis-remembering). This prayer and devotion will eventually restore goodness to the world and bring the Messiah to take the Jews back to Zion.

I would like to put a spin on the theory and say that the shards are *physical* things that must be retrived in order to bring the Messiah... so, essentially, the basic D&D game... there are X amount of powerful artifacts missing: go find them. I think it could be a lot of fun... and I would get to use all sorts of fun biblical stuff...

**When I initially attempted to type Evil, I typed Email... "Many of G-d's rays shattered, becoming the source of Email." THERE'S a profound statement.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Sure - I'll take your extra copy off your hands! Sounds like a cool book.

If you are interested, Taren Nighteyes - Paypal $24 (includes shipping) to lizbauman(at)cox(dot)net - and email me shipping details to the same address

We're all out to make a profit.

 

[ptolemy18]

Are you using the piety/sin system and flaws?

I considered it, but actually, no. It's just an alignment-free free-for-all. (Although I'm trying to encourage heroic behavior... I mean, CALL OF CTHULHU doesn't have alignments either, and the players aren't "bad" guys necessarily.) I'm keeping the presence of the gods a little farther away from the world of mortals (kind of like they suggest in EGYPTIAN ADVENTURES, actually, where you can have Lawful Good and Neutral Evil priests of the same deity -- it's all a matter of interpretation). For purposes of priests and such... no player-characters have tested the limits of their religion enough to get in any trouble.

I'd be interested in running or playing in a TESTAMENT campaign "as written", though, with piety/sin and everything. I just didn't end up doing it this time.

Jason

 

[ptolemy18]

Let me give you an example of the kind of weird stuff that happened in the period on the edge of TESTAMENT...

After Alexander the Great (what a movie... ) conquered the Persians, a priesthood of Alexander was established. There were shrines and priests to Alexander in different places in Egypt and Greece.

But in a D&D world, nobody would follow a priest who couldn't cast spells, right? So this means that either the deification of Alexander (and other famous people, like the Roman emperors) probably wouldn't happen... OR somehow, priests could actually get spells by praying to the "demigod" Alexander. Bizarre.

Another weird thing: the process of "assimilating" Gods together. This happened in ancient Egypt, with gods like Amun and Ra being gradually joined together to create "Amun-Ra." Later on, Zeus also got associated with Amun. It's kind of like the New-Agey "We're all really the same" motivation that underlies the merging of religions today.

In D&D terms, this would have to mean... !??! I don't even know what this would mean! Strangely enough, though, EGYPTIAN ADVENTURES actually had rules for this. (Their idea was that it was just the result of the human priests not really knowing what the deal was... but they could still get low-level spells by worshipping "composite gods" since the individual gods were real.)

Yes, ancient religion is strange.... and not entirely easy to D&D-ize...

Hmm... why did this thread get moved, I wonder? :/

Jason

 

[Krieg]

I would absolutely love to play in a campaign centered around Israelites going forth & obliterating the neighboring non-believers using fire & sword as dictated in the OT.

Unfortunately that would be a very hard campaign to handle without becoming offensive to one side or another.

By the way, are they ever going to reprint it without the black-on-dark-gray text? I scoffed at someone else's complaint about that, but when I went to read it myself, I did feel like it would make my eyes bleed.

There are several publishers who have gone this route with their products (Gamma World, Dark Legacies etc) and every time it has been very distracting for me.

Note to publishers or potential publishers:

Contrast is a good thing. Black print on a Gray background makes it difficult to read your product. It is not attractive nor is it practical. Don't do it. Ever.

 

[Bobitron]

Contrast is a good thing. Black print on a Gray background makes it difficult to read your product. It is not attractive nor is it practical. Don't do it. Ever.

This drives me nuts as well. I don't think it has any redeeming value in a book.

 

[ptolemy18]

I would absolutely love to play in a campaign centered around Israelites going forth & obliterating the neighboring non-believers using fire & sword as dictated in the OT.

Unfortunately that would be a very hard campaign to handle without becoming offensive to one side or another.
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Well, that's life, I guess.... personally I prefer to grab the offensiveness by the throat and run with it. Think of all the orcs who must be offended by the typical D&D campaign.

Jason