If you are looking to slowly draw them in, then it should be simple. Make the world match their level of immersion, and as they get more comfortable, the level will deepen. Continue sliding the scale along with them, never trying to push them faster than they want to go, and it will happen. Eventually, one of them will want to play a more serious character, maybe an Orphaned monk, or the last surviving barbarian from a far away tribe. Have the world react appropriately, as mandated by the level of immersion rather than as if the world were real already.
Wanting players to take in-game religion more seriously
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If you are looking to slowly draw them in, then it should be simple. Make the world match their level of immersion, and as they get more comfortable, the level will deepen. Continue sliding the scale along with them, never trying to push them faster than they want to go, and it will happen. Eventually, one of them will want to play a more serious character, maybe an Orphaned monk, or the last surviving barbarian from a far away tribe. Have the world react appropriately, as mandated by the level of immersion rather than as if the world were real already.
Yaarel
🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage
Definitely talk with them. Mostly so you as a storyteller get a better sense of what might interest.
For me, that kind of narrative immersion happens when, everything is described sensorially. And D&D technical terms rarely happen, if ever. Focus on visual descriptions of what is actually happening. Also describe sounds, and smells.
Rarely if ever, switch to the ‘author voice’, who explains what people are thinking, or what the players should do. In-game, if you need to get meta-information across to your players, have them meet someone who has a narratively-sensible reason to tell them what they need to know.
I havent done this myself, but a technique that seems helpful is for you to do ALL of the mechanical work, even rolling the dice for player attacks, and so on. That way, they focus exclusively on the narrative and how they − from their character’s perspective − interact with this narrative. Think of it like describing a movie to a blind person, where there is nothing but what the scene looks like and what the actors do.
Also, dont use minis. Keep the players focused on visualizing your narrative descriptions, rather than on the non-narrative "chess board". (Personally, I find it useful to sketch out a map of a new encounter, and it can help to use minis to show their relationship to it. But after that, ignore the minis and switch to narrative.)
Find a way to keep the player character sheet as simple and non-technical as possible. Some DMs have the character sheet be a sheet of paper with something like post it notes with things like items and spells that can be added and removed.
Finally, that kind of immersion seems to depend on individual personalities, and not all D&D players experience it.
If they "get it", great. If not, thats ok too. Either way, gently have them take over more and more of the mechanical stuff. Because, you know, its alot of work.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
The problem is that D&D's in-game religions are a joke.
Look at the dictionary definition of faith:
strong belief, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof
Basically what this means is that there cannot be any real devotion, any real faith, as long as the gods are patently real, as there is iron-clad proof of their existence through the manifestation that is spells and miracles.
Combine this with how many gods are depicted as Viking Asar, or Greek Olympians. That is, little more than actual men, with all their shortcomings and weaknesses.
While gods that are petty, jealous, vindictive and boisterous make for a real good history lesson or Xena episode, there is a reason those religions have few followers today. It is poor soil for anything resembling contemporary belief.
I suggest you save your wish for your players taking in-game religion more seriously, for a game that takes its in-game religions more seriously.
Best regards
How about you don't take a crap on people's real world faiths in order to make your point?
Satyrn
First Post
I would advise you to prepare for the possibility you are wrong about this. I mean, go for it, give your players the option to play "seriously." They may really take to it.
But I have played seriously, and not seriously. I would much rather play not seriously. They might too, and I feel it's our job as DM to provide the game they want to play (while still getting what we can out of it).
If we base on human history, Dnd worlds should be even more religious fanatical.
But do we want to play in this kind of world?
In fact Dnd gods look more like Kings or emperors. Faith is more like political allegiance.
True faith demand a kind of mystery and unknown.
In dnd god commands their clerics. There is no leap of faith.
I perfectly understand players who don't want to take religion too seriously in Dnd.
But do we want to play in this kind of world?
In fact Dnd gods look more like Kings or emperors. Faith is more like political allegiance.
True faith demand a kind of mystery and unknown.
In dnd god commands their clerics. There is no leap of faith.
I perfectly understand players who don't want to take religion too seriously in Dnd.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Consider on the other hand that the "spells and boons" granted by "the gods" are subject to a Dispel Magic spell from a regular old wizard. Even the most secret of the secret "holy" rites can be learned by a Lore Bard, and it works all the same, even with no god powering it. These things don't in any way behave like divine manifestations. They behave exactly like all the other magical and non-magical tools that PCs have access to on a regular basis, right down to the refresh rate (short rest or long rest). It doesn't take a hyperphysicist to suspect that there's some shared underlying causal mechanism there. Bards and wizards should be the most skeptical of the skeptics when it comes to the divinity of the so-called gods in D&D.
If I show you an advanced AI and holographic unit with capabilities in excess of but not qualitatively different from the technology that you use on a day-to-day basis, how would you rate my chances of persuading you that I'm actually a divine being worthy of your "worship," however it is that I define worship?
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
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Yaarel
🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage
Medieval Europe was *extremely* religiously diverse.
D&D is generally "medieval European fantasy".
To suggest that such a setting only has polytheists might be fantasy, but it is neither medieval, nor European.
From roughly year 400 to roughly year 1400, almost any kind of character concept that you can imagine, is in play somewhere, at sometime.
In terms of the D&D "medieval-esque Euro-esque fantasy", any character concept that a player can imagine − and I mean anything − can fit somehow someway in a D&D setting. And work well.
D&D is generally "medieval European fantasy".
To suggest that such a setting only has polytheists might be fantasy, but it is neither medieval, nor European.
From roughly year 400 to roughly year 1400, almost any kind of character concept that you can imagine, is in play somewhere, at sometime.
In terms of the D&D "medieval-esque Euro-esque fantasy", any character concept that a player can imagine − and I mean anything − can fit somehow someway in a D&D setting. And work well.
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Tony Vargas
Legend
One enthusiast to another, yes. But...
Can't say that I have. I've seen a lot of new players over the decades - most of 'em try D&D once and you never see them again.
The kind of casual play you're describing - not too 'heavy,' maybe humorous - worked well for new players under the Encounters program for years, IMX. I saw more new players return after their first experience than ever before. AL seems to enjoy similar success, though a lot of that is returning players, as well. If you have a group of relatively new players, and a more humorous or casual attitude is holding their interest, my opinion would be don't push them, the game's supposed to be fun.
There are heaps of things in DnD that are immensely powerful and grant spells to their followers that are not Gods.
Besides when Greek Olympians actually existed in the real world people used to mock them all the time which is why we have so many tales about what happens when mortals mock Greek Olympians or, you know, just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Greenstone.Walker
Adventurer
There is some great advice in this thread.
To add to it, I suggest the GM make religious observance very visible.
Perhaps the characters visit a town, but all the shops are closed for a religious ceremony. Do the characters join the ceremony or do they just go to the inn and grouse about the shops being closed? Perhaps the next day, the shopkeepers say "didn't you arrive in town yesterday? How come you weren't at the ceremony?" The shopkeepers might not care about answers, or might care a lot.
If the the NPCs all care a lot about religion, then the players will get the hint (maybe unconsciously) and make their characters care a lot.
To add to it, I suggest the GM make religious observance very visible.
Perhaps the characters visit a town, but all the shops are closed for a religious ceremony. Do the characters join the ceremony or do they just go to the inn and grouse about the shops being closed? Perhaps the next day, the shopkeepers say "didn't you arrive in town yesterday? How come you weren't at the ceremony?" The shopkeepers might not care about answers, or might care a lot.
If the the NPCs all care a lot about religion, then the players will get the hint (maybe unconsciously) and make their characters care a lot.
