Quote from: Imperator;727816Dude.

Well it just irks me all the time, D&D is just rife with religion from christian to voodoo, with demons and devils in the books to Ishtar or Quetzalcoatl, Set, Thor & Ares but nobody gets bent out of shape unless Christianity is mentioned or hinted at (except when we use Demons, Devils or Angels in the game) but all the other shit is just fine, it's pretty damn two faced and ignorant if you ask me.

I have the solution, we all just quit playing any game that has anything to do with any religions at all, Hindi, Islam, Christianity, the Nordic, Egyptian, Celtic, Mezo-American, American Indians, Voodoo, etc, that includes their myths and monsters.  So what would that leave us, hummmm..........  One damn boring RPG right!   So get over yourselves, deal with it or quit playing the fuckin' games.

There end of my rant.

Quote from: David Johansen;726747As a Mormon, I'd say "thin" rather than "subtle."  As a reader, I honestly doubt Tracy Hickman has the craft neccessary to manage "subtle" in any case.

By subtle I certainly didn't imply in the literary sense!
Only in the sense that if you aren't a mormon and are an average person (ie. not a specialist in the study of religions, an anti-mormon crusader, etc) you would never notice.  I'd guess that 95% of the people who read the Dragonlance trilogy had no idea of its Mormon elements, much like most of the people who watched the original Battlestar Galactica, etc.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;728479By subtle I certainly didn't imply in the literary sense!
Only in the sense that if you aren't a mormon and are an average person (ie. not a specialist in the study of religions, an anti-mormon crusader, etc) you would never notice.  I'd guess that 95% of the people who read the Dragonlance trilogy had no idea of its Mormon elements, much like most of the people who watched the original Battlestar Galactica, etc.

RPGPundit

Having been raised outside of Christianity, I had no idea that the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had a heavy Christian theme until such was pointed out years later.  I just enjoyed it as an adventure story that sparked my childhood interest in fantasy.

All it takes not to notice religious elements in a story is to be clueless about the religion.

I saw Lewis's apologism in his ridiculous tryptich that he repeated in LtWatW:

"She's either lying, insane, or telling the truth"

Just like when he tried to use that line of reasoning to prove that Jesus was the son of God, he never actually gave a compelling reason to eliminate the first 2 options (Lewis was a pretty bad apologist).

But that didnt bother me in the least.

No, what caused me to throw the book away in anger halfway through was when frelling Santa Claus showed up and handed out magic weapons.

Seriously, I'd walk out of a D&D game where that happened.

Quote from: TristramEvans;728652I saw Lewis's apologism in his ridiculous tryptich that he repeated in LtWatW:

"She's either lying, insane, or telling the truth"

Just like when he tried to use that line of reasoning to prove that Jesus was the son of God, he never actually gave a compelling reason to eliminate the first 2 options (Lewis was a pretty bad apologist).

Not to mention that he misses the fourth option: "Misunderstood/misreported". To go with his threefold you need to assume that the New Testament's writers both accurately reported what Jesus said and properly interpreted what he meant by it, which is a decidedly [citation needed] prospect.

Which isn't to slam Christians, just saying religion doesn't really lend itself to snappy logical proofs because funnily enough faith (or the lack thereof) doesn't reduce to a mathematical equation.

Quote from: Old One Eye;728649Having been raised outside of Christianity, I had no idea that the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had a heavy Christian theme until such was pointed out years later.  I just enjoyed it as an adventure story that sparked my childhood interest in fantasy.

All it takes not to notice religious elements in a story is to be clueless about the religion.

I was raised Roman Catholic, and never noticed the Christian theme until it was pointed out either.

All it takes to not notice the religious elements in a story is to not be looking for them.  I read those books and saw the movies as fantasy movies.  Obviously now, after it being pointed out, some things are obvious.  But if you view it as a fantasy movie with no preconceived ideas about looking for religious elements, you probably won't notice them.

Quote from: TristramEvans;728652No, what caused me to throw the book away in anger halfway through was when frelling Santa Claus showed up and handed out magic weapons.

Seriously, I'd walk out of a D&D game where that happened.

Dude that was when the game got AWESOME!  However, it was Father Christmas / Saint Nicholas, not Santa Claus.  And it did happen in a story about modern children tranported to a polygot fantasy world that wasn't very old relative to our world.  In the context of a world with a mishmash of fantasy creatures from various mythologies Father Christmas was certainly appropriate and in context.

But then, I'd use Santa Claus in a superhero campaign too.  Or, perhaps, more appropriately Klaus from Badger because Santa as a Hells Angel with anti-air craft missiles mounted on his sleigh amused me.  "Fing Canadian air force!  I go through this, "Identify yourself.  Haw haw, no really!" bs every year"

Quote from: TristramEvans;728652I saw Lewis's apologism in his ridiculous tryptich that he repeated in LtWatW:

"She's either lying, insane, or telling the truth"

Just like when he tried to use that line of reasoning to prove that Jesus was the son of God, he never actually gave a compelling reason to eliminate the first 2 options (Lewis was a pretty bad apologist).

But that didnt bother me in the least.

No, what caused me to throw the book away in anger halfway through was when frelling Santa Claus showed up and handed out magic weapons.

Seriously, I'd walk out of a D&D game where that happened.

Lewis was totally a Monty Haul DM.

jg

Quote from: TristramEvans;728652I saw Lewis's apologism in his ridiculous tryptich that he repeated in LtWatW:

"She's either lying, insane, or telling the truth"

Just like when he tried to use that line of reasoning to prove that Jesus was the son of God, he never actually gave a compelling reason to eliminate the first 2 options (Lewis was a pretty bad apologist).

But that didnt bother me in the least.

No, what caused me to throw the book away in anger halfway through was when frelling Santa Claus showed up and handed out magic weapons.

Seriously, I'd walk out of a D&D game where that happened.

In the 6th grade, after having played one free form rpg session and without even knowing that rpg books existed, I designed my own rpg based on Narnia because I thought an rpg would be better if it had some rules.

As such, Narnia will always have a warm place in my heart.

And golly did I make axes powerful.  And the frog people too, because I liked the frog people for whatever reason.

Assuming you mean Marshwiggles, who while amphibians, aren't particularly frog-like beyond their webbed feet and hands, we'll it's because they're just plain awesome.  Puddleglum, in particular, is the best character in the entire Narnia series.

I once had a Marshwiggle boatman ferry the PCs through a marsh.  I've never seen such a scared party.  This thin, grey figure in ragged clothing and a broad hat, with his thin, razor sharp teeth and shock of ragged hair, who talked all the time of the horrors of the marsh and how poor their chances were of ever coming back and what diseases and infestations they would likely suffer if ever they did return home.

Well I tell you, great C'thulhu himself has never frightened my players half so badly.

Marshwiggles are awesome and one of the best things about Narnia.

Especially when played by a certain actor!

Who?

Quote from: David Johansen;729027Who?

Tom "The Fourth Doctor" Baker, would be my guess.