Quote from: BedrockBrendan;586037I have no problem with real world religion making its way into games.

Yeah, me neither. And I am Roman Catholic.

Quote from: rway218;586039I'll change it up a bit.  What if the entire game is set on a common real world religion, as in stating that others are wrong for the game purposes?  Would that concept be too divisive or would it be taken as just a part of the game?

Well, isn't that basically the premise of Arrows of Indra, or Lords of Olympus, for that matter?

A game that comes to my mind instantly is In Nomine Satanis Magna Veritas. There is a God. And Angels. And Demons. And Satan. And they fight their own little war more-or-less secretly amongst humans. Muslims are an experiment launched by God when he had enough of the morons in his own camp. Vikings and other polytheists are reincarnated souls of worshippers of creatures born from the dreams and faith of humans in the Layers of Dream between Heaven, the Terrestrial layer and Hell. Etc. It's a Hell of a good game. One of my favorites.

Quote from: The Traveller;586043Why do you ask anyway? If you want to make the hobby cool again release an RPG detailing actual bona fide satanic rituals for the laughs. Are you thinking about an anti-Islamic RPG? Go for it, my taxes won't be paying to protect you, I'm not in the US.

:popcorn:

Funny! No, in all seriousness I've read some (and written to be fair) faith based games.  Some were extremely complex and entertaining, yet some sounded "preachy" to the nth degree.  That's why I ask.  Does it really matter if the game is good?  Or is it too much?  Not exactly why I started the thread, but the new question just came to me.

Quote from: rway218;586039I'll change it up a bit.  What if the entire game is set on a common real world religion, as in stating that others are wrong for the game purposes?  Would that concept be too divisive or would it be taken as just a part of the game?

You mean like Vampire the Dark Ages and VtDA Veil of Night, where faith in Christianity or Islam is of critical social importance for maneuvering through society? Where True Faith is a real thing and has in-game mechanical support? Or like Kindred of the East where their cosmology is essentially real (there are Yama Kings, and you just saw where your soul would have went in the cycle of rebirth)? Y'know, setting actually important and reflected in mechanics, but not telling players that's the game's overt bias.

Or like Seventh Seal where there is a deliberate and up front informing of design bias averring Christian mythology is true for this game, and thus having mood and mechanics, revolves around it?

Or more like In Nomine where most religions got at least important things right, and only a few things wrong, and in the end doesn't matter unless you alter canonical setting to strictly adhere to one vision (and the game goes out of its way to help you craft such a personalized setting vision)?

Or a game like Dragon Raid -- one of the oldest explicitly religious rpg games, and one of the oldest RPG games period -- where the game is explicitly about a religion's mysteries (Christianity) and designs the play to focus upon exploring those mysteries (as opposed to just a dungeon to be looted) within a setting flexible concept?

Religion and RPGs have been together almost since RPGs' inception. The question is what have you done with it lately.

Quote from: rway218;586050Funny! No, in all seriousness I've read some (and written to be fair) faith based games.  Some were extremely complex and entertaining, yet some sounded "preachy" to the nth degree.  That's why I ask.  Does it really matter if the game is good?  Or is it too much?  Not exactly why I started the thread, but the new question just came to me.

Are you trying to promote the faith or using it as a backdrop? Agenda games piss me off some to be honest.

Quote from: rway218;586050Funny! No, in all seriousness I've read some (and written to be fair) faith based games.  Some were extremely complex and entertaining, yet some sounded "preachy" to the nth degree.  That's why I ask.  Does it really matter if the game is good?  Or is it too much?  Not exactly why I started the thread, but the new question just came to me.

Ahh, that's a question of the writer's tone. Some people can't help but come off as a douche regardless of how awesome their creation. It's sort of seen as the curse of creative types in music, theater, etc. In rpgs, you're just seen as still just a douche, with albeit some good ideas to mine. Otherwise I don't place a big deal upon it.

I personally prefer religion, or at the very least their world view, forefront in my game. People believe in stuff (including atheism) and tend to behave on that. Cosmopolitan life is not a compliant pablum devoid of all civic mores. It's one of the things that pisses me off about many Pathfinder & D&D 4e tables with the assumption that everyone can be any obscure snowflake, anywhere, at any time, and the game will run without any repercussions.

Quote from: Libertad;585880Look at Cthulhutech.  It said in one of the world setting books that the emergence of aliens was one of the major driving forces behind the rapid spread of atheism around the world.  Religious people in general just could not stomach the idea of intelligent life not originating on Earth.

Well, obviously that's not true. The devil placed those aliens in space 6,000 years ago, just to lead you into temptation. It was an awfully crowded time in the celestial sphere back then, I can tell you, what with the dinosaurs chasing around Sodomites, and the Sodomites teaching the aliens how to do a probing  

Quote from: Soylent Green;585920I have no issue with real world religions in historical setting as seen through their social and cultural influence. Frankly I don't see how you could not deal with religion in those instances.

Isn't that how fantasy religions should be treated though in game worlds?

In published settings like FR, the gods only seem to have relevance if you happen to be walking down the "Street of the Gods" in some major city, or playing a cleric. Yet, it is pretty well spelled out what happens in the afterlife, so you'd think religion would penetrate deeply into day to day life of every individual.

Quote from: The Traveller;586058Are you trying to promote the faith or using it as a backdrop? Agenda games piss me off some to be honest.

I used a Tribulation Era backdrop for a game.  Not an agenda piece, in all fairness I don't believe in a tribulation anything even though I am christian.  Not agenda games, just single faith games I'd say.  But not ancient myths, active religions or non-religious groups is more the point.

I use all kinds of real religions, sometimes good, sometimes misguided. In general it depends on the setting. For example a game set in the real world for horror or urban fantasy often tough upon real world religions. Superheroes might, or ignore them altogether. Fantasy generally uses fantastic faiths. (High Valor for example has a  fantasy-folkloric version of Christianity called the Church of the Martyr, while my new fantasy setting has a pantheon called The Nine and the Pentacle of Evil respectively.)

My upcoming game EON, uses Christianity, Judasism, Buddhism, and so on, pretty much as they stand now, at least amongst survivors who still believe after the Eschaton Stigmata opened and unleashed the Neodemons upon humanity.

While my far in the future (writing not setting) SF game AEGIS: The Shield of Stars, will likely have variants of modern day faiths adapted in the couple hundred years to space travelers and the like.

Quote from: rway218;585818Baring the debacle of so many christians saying role-playing games were satanic (as a preacher's son avid D&D player you can only imagine)... what is your take on real world religion in a role-playing system?  This can be any religious or non-religious idea (eg. Christian, atheist, Buddhist, humanist...).  Should they be left alone, do they have a place in gaming, or do they just cause a problem even if done well?

They only cause a problem for people who take their make-believe too seriously. In other words, people I don't want to play with anyways.

I allow gods to exist only in such a way to provide a mythology, but, they do not really exist, and clerics are powerless.

If I'm running a modern day game, if we mention religion at all, it's based on real stuff.

If I'm running anything else, it's all made-up religions.

Quote from: rway218;585818Baring the debacle of so many christians saying role-playing games were satanic (as a preacher's son avid D&D player you can only imagine)... what is your take on real world religion in a role-playing system?  This can be any religious or non-religious idea (eg. Christian, atheist, Buddhist, humanist...).  Should they be left alone, do they have a place in gaming, or do they just cause a problem even if done well?

If a game is going to do it, they need to do it right.  

What do I mean by that?

If your depiction of a religion or political belief system in your setting is so obviously wrong, stupid, and/or useless that only a complete idiot would fall for it when the the analogous religious or political belief system in the real world appeals to millions, if not a significant percentage of the worlds population, including many who are not complete idiots, then you are not depicting that religion or belief system right.  You are depicting it as a straw man to knock down.  Straw men just aren't very interesting, especially to those who don't share the same biases as the author.  Really good authors can write characters with a variety of beliefs that feel authentic enough that those who have similar beliefs in the real world will happily identify with them.

Quote from: John Morrow;586126If your depiction of a religion or political belief system in your setting is so obviously wrong, stupid, and/or useless that only a complete idiot would fall for it when the the analogous religious or political belief system in the real world appeals to millions, if not a significant percentage of the worlds population, including many who are not complete idiots, then you are not depicting that religion or belief system right.  

Sounds like a lot of real world religions to me.