The topic of this month’s RPG Blog Carnival is religion. I find this a tricky subject to tackle, because there are so many ways to offend so many people. This might be the reason why religion in most fantasy roleplaying games feels flat and underdeveloped to me. If my character follows Grumbleguts, god of Hard Cheese and Outhouses, the primary effect in most game systems is defining what kewl powerz my character has and his Alignment (or other fairly generic, high-level moral code). The roleplaying ramifications are left up to the player and the gamemaster which, being an old grognard who prefers simple mechanics, is usually a good thing. However, there’s a lot of opportunity to use religion to add flavor, nuance, and story potential to a campaign that frequently gets overlooked. In this article, I’ll provide some guidelines and food for thought on incorporating religion more deeply into a campaign.
The Role of the Gods
Before you can determine anything else, you have to decide how active the gods are in the everyday affairs of mortals. Are they simply mythic figures who never show their hands directly, acting in mysterious ways, like Krom and the gods in Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories? Do they take an active interest in the affairs of men, appearing frequently to heroes, as in gods of Greek myth? Or do they simple view mortals as a form of entertainment, or pawns on some great chess board, as the lords of chaos and order in the Elric saga? Do they even exist at all, or is their existence a matter of faith rather than hard evidence? This is important, because it will help shape the beliefs, opinions and actions of individuals and organizations throughout the setting.
There are basically three types of gods, so far as their interactions with mortals are concerned. Active gods are right there, in the world, interacting with the masses. Their existence is an undisputed fact based on regular appearances at holy days, festivals, and major events. Passive gods show up once in a while, or may only interact with select people in mysterious ways. They’re around enough and have enough direct interaction with mortals that no one would dispute their existence. Unseen gods almost never appear among mortals, being uninterested, otherwise busy, or even non-existent. Their workings in the world are subtle and their worshipers rely greatly upon faith.
The status of various gods can be mix-and-match, but having mixed activity from god to god has implications. It’s easier to believe in an unseen god when it’s a fact that gods actually exist because that other god is standing right over there. It’s harder to do so when they’re all mysterious or uninvolved. The concept of faith is less important when a physical being shows up to smite you, or reward you, based on your actions. The Active gods are also more likely to attract followers than the Passive or Unseen gods unless the follower has faith that their actions will provoke some reward or retribution.
Organized Religion
The followers of each individual god are going to have their own form of organization. In most roleplaying games, the type of organization seems to follow the preferences and nature of the god. This makes sense sometimes, but not all of the time. An Active god might directly order his followers to build a temple to certain specification that please her. A Passive god might tell one person, or have sacred texts indicating a preference for forms of worship. An Unseen god’s congregation could take many forms, based on tradition, the interpretation of the god’s will by the clergy, or something the followers themselves decide might please the god. With no direct contact, this could lead to many different interpretations of how to worship a particular god.
Which brings us to the problems of orthodoxy. There are typically no schisms with an Active god telling her followers what to do. However, the god may intentionally separate her followers for designated purposes. Grumbleguts, from my example above, might have one sect of worshippers who deal with Hard Cheese, and another that deal with Outhouses. There’s probably no conflict, as they’d be operating under separate doctrines. The human (demi-human? humanoid?) factor comes when the god appears to favor one sect over the other, or the leaders begin making petty power plays. Evil gods would do this sort of thing on purpose to allow the strongest/most murderous to dominate, and trickster gods would just do this for their own amusement.
The orthodoxy of Passive gods can go either way. With little direct intervention, schisms can occur as sects are left to interpret doctrine on their own. If the god doesn’t really care what’s going on in his name, he might let the sects do what they want as long as it doesn’t bother him. He may only care about the sect (or sect leader) he’s speaking with, and let the “schismed” sects do their own thing, or leave it to his preferred sect to deal with blasphemers.
Orthodoxy with Unseen, absentee gods is where things can get dangerous. Without a physical god to step in and say “No, I did NOT say that“, religious leaders can take power unto themselves and use the organization’s resources and followers to their own ends. With no god to act as a guiding hand, the clergy really holds the power to decide upon doctrine. Schisms will happen and evolve into very different, sometimes very strange, directions. Followers often follow the clergy more than they follow the god and her teachings.
Church and State
Despite the best intentions of the Founding Fathers of the United States, it is nearly impossible to completely separate religion and politics. The morals and ethics of the dominant religion(s) frequently form the basis of a nation’s laws, and the leaders of the land can impact the role of religion in a culture. Religion will almost always have some role in, or influence upon, politics. There are a number of ways this can dramatically impact a game.
Active gods may get to pick who gets to be King, or demand the worship of a kingdom. There’s no religious freedom, because he’s standing right there. If he’s vengeful, he might smite you. If he’s generous, you might not get the good blessings. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good (or bad, depending on how the god rolls) for goodness’ sake. A cooperative pantheon of gods might share responsibilities, so different government functions might worship gods who preside over their job functions. The gods themselves will likely play some direct or indirect role in how the nation is led and run.
Passive gods may not be involved in politics at all, but may cherry-pick individuals or issues they wish to promote or dissuade. A Passive god may still exert influence with a prophet or a king as the means to make their will known. A politician may still use their status with a passive god to gain power and influence either as a legitimate representative of the god, for personal gain, or some degree of both.
Representatives of Unseen gods will rely on doctrine and sacred texts to influence the laws of the land. Without the god’s direct intervention and guidance, however, there will again be varying interpretations of the god’s desires for mortal behavior. Much of this will be well intentioned as the followers perform actions and promote political systems that reinforce their beliefs and serve as demonstrations of their faith. Much of this will also be mortals twisting and distorting doctrine to support their own agendas, for good or ill.
Opinion and Belief
When it gets down to individuals, conflicts of religion versus culture or religion versus politics become that of opinion versus belief. An opinion, according to the UncleBear dictionary, is a reasoned argument based on fact. You can say, “My opinion is that the best course of action is X, based on how I interpret this information”. Belief, on the other hand, can be based in logic but is largely based on faith and instinct. “I believe we should do X,” for example, “because The Teachings say that is the best course of action, and even though it may not seem to make sense right now there’s some purpose to doing this that we just can’t unsderstand at the moment”. There is nothing wrong with Opinion (unless your character is in a theocracy or an iron dictatorship), and there is nothing wrong with Belief (unless your character is in some godless oligarchy or happens to follow the wrong god at the wrong time), but one should never be mistaken for the other. If there is a theoretical overlap, it is very, very small in most situations. One who expresses an Opinion will not be swayed by sacred texts, unless that person is also a Believer. And one who expresses Belief may listen to facts and reason, until it comes into conflict with Faith. It can become a gulf that cannot be breached. As in the real world, the impact of religion in a fantasy world can come down to a handful of divisive issues, with Opinion dominating one side and Belief holding the other. In a best-case scenario, the two sides will tolerate each other and agree to disagree. In the worst case scenario, you get holy wars, inquisitions, crusades, concentration camps, pogroms, jihads, suicide bombers, and other violent outbursts intended to eliminate those who hold opposing viewpoints.
Summary
As always, I maintain that history and current events are the greatest inspirational tools for any roleplaying game. People will undoubtedly find parallels between what I’ve written here and the real world, but my intention has been neither to bash nor promote and point of view. I suggest you look to real-world religion for inspiration in your game world not in doctrine but in the behaviors and motivations displayed by individuals and organizations in response to those religions. The intention is to help you find interesting stories to tell and make your game worlds deeper, richer, and more textured.
It is entirely possible that I was the last gamer on Earth who had not played Munchkin. As a break from our regular weekly World of Darkness game, the group I’m in played Munchkin Bites, which is a stand-alone version of the Munchkin game that parodies the World of Darkness and its tropes and stereotypes. It’s a fun, fast-faced card game that worked well as a respite from our regular campaign.
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