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Strongly Religious RPG's
William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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Inspired by the forum thread Religion in game settings
This list is to collate a collection of games that are marked by strong religious themes.
Dungeons and Dragons, all editions, are below the cutoff, since, with the exception of the D&D Immortals Rules, religion itself is pretty much ignored, even tho the gods are not. Even in the Immortals rules, religions themselves are a triviality.
Please list the major religious elements of the game/setting. Discussion encouraged!
Clarifications: If the game doesn't include the religions in the mechanics or setting, it doesn't belong. A game that is inspired by a religious bit, but itself avoids discussing religion, does not belong.
No adventures/campaigns/campaign settings.
fine print: as usual, if I believe an entry is inappropriate to the list, I will zap it, and make note of same in the comments.
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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The setting uses real-world religions, and has some recurrent themes of religious and cultural conflict.
The major conflict is Christian vs Pagan, but also Christian vs Wotanic is present.
All faiths have particular virtues ascribed; if the character is strong in those, they gain clear mechanical bonuses.
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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Several editions have extensive rules for the benefits of participation in religious services... and penalties for those not affiliated.
Religion is subtly but pervasively placed in rules mechanics.
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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(I'm not certain if it is as true in 4th or later eds...)
In 3rd Edition of Ars Magica, religion is an oppositional force...
The Wizards are opposed by the Church (& the Divine Regio), by the Demons and Devils (& The Infernal Aura), and by the secular humanists (with their Reason Aura)... the metaconflict in 3rd is the conflict between the 5 realms (Divine, Faerie, Infernal, Magical, and Reason). This conflict is worked into both setting and rules.
The Supplement, Pax Dei, covers the church in great detail as well as the effects of the practice of the faith upon the faithful, and those tied to the other realms as well.
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4.
RPG Item: Ironwood
[Average Rating:8.00 Unranked]
William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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The Ironwood setting has a clear use of Real-World Religion and yet diverting it to a fantasy setting realistically.
The Catholic Church is present on Ironwood's world... as is the Church Of Christ Crusader... also present is Islam, tho it's not treated with any real detail. We also know, from the comics, that the CoCC is, in fact, corrupt, due to Bishop-Major Simon... and his somewhat lethal tryst...
Were it not for the fact that the primary human kingdoms of the world are in fact monothesitic religious states, this wouldn't qualify. In fact, I'm not certain myself if it does...
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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Shintao - a fantasy hybrid of Shinto and Buddhism.
It dominates the setting, in part because the samurai setting is strongly influenced by religious praxis to begin with, and L5R ramps that up a bit. It's not quite to "overwhelming", but it's constant.
It doesn't hurt that the clanheads are in fact the first gods of the setting.
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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The Bene Gesserit and the Bene Tleilax are both religious... and both factor into Dune.
The Fremen don't figure in in Chronicles... because the relevant sourcebooks never got written.
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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This is a Dune Kock-off...
The technocracy of Nine, the Sisterhood, and the Jihadi are all religious groups, and the setting is a war for a planet under assault by Mua'dib's the emperor's jihadi.
In fact, the religious war is the sole metaplot in the setting. Rules for making use of faith, and for how to recharge by religious observance the special abilities of faith.
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Víctor Pérez
Other-Africa
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Aquelarre is a RPG set in the late Middle Ages in the Iberian Peninsula. War, plague and chaos run rampart, but there are menaces from beyond this world; the game focuses in the supernatural traditions of the Iberian folklore.
Of course, in the XIV century, an age of religious revival throughout Europe, the Catholic Church is one of the powers chasing and opposing the demons, witches and fantastic creatures the game revolves around.
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Kris Miller
United States
Lick Observatory
California
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Working as agents of the Catholic Church puts this solidly in a real-world religious setting.
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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Eastern Orthodoxy, Paganism, and Dvoverie all figure prominently in this game, and greatly impact the players. Even the most mundane characters can draw power from Saints, Gods, and even Kam.
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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This game uses an analog of the Catholic Church as a major power-broker. The Aluminat Church (led by Justus) is the force responsible for crushing magic and repressing the masses.
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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It's darn near impossible to roleplay in Glorantha without involving religion in some way.
I'm not going to list HeroQuest Core Rules Book since it is setting agnostic and therefore lacks any substantive discussion of Gloratha or its cults.
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paz AKA Matt Lewis
United Kingdom
Great Sutton
Cheshire
All hail Lord Fudge!
[PFRPG PBF Games] GMing: Crypt of the Everflame, 2x We Be Goblins! · Playing: Vestige's Margreve 'Hollow', Bearpaw's Pathfinder Society
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Dogs in the Vineyard is a game with religion at its core. Its setting is based on 19th century Mormon Utah. The PCs are the 'God's Watchdogs' of the title, members of the 'Order Set Apart to the Preservation of Faith and the Faithful'. They travel from town to town, enforcing the judgments of the True Faith.
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Kent Reuber
United States
San Mateo
California
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Even though the Deryni novels take place in a fantasy world, the Christian religion is represented intact. During some time periods, there are witch hunts from the Church against the Deryni (a human race with psionic abilities), but the Church itself is never portrayed as evil. The heroes in the novels often have very strong Christian beliefs.
The cover of the book is a good case in point. King Kelson is being crowned by a (very rare) Deryni bishop. St. Camber, a Deryni saint who seems to have obtained a Jedi-like immortality, watches over and blesses the coronation.
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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The Warhammer 40K setting is a theocratic state; the PC's are agents of the inquisition.
The RPG fills in a lot more of the praxis and beliefs than the rest of the setting. We finally have enough to actually determine what the imperial faith seems to teach.
(This is the entry for which I was reminded)
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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This setting seems to be Dune meets Warhammer40K...
The Church is a major part of the setting. It's teachings are discussed in the core book, as is (briefly) the praxis.
This is another one I'd like to run.
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William Hostman
United States
Eagle River
Alaska
Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
Yes, this really is what I looked like when I uploaded that avatar. Not that it's quite current anymore.
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This one has a divergence point of about 60AD... the lack of St Paul and the resultant ascendency of Gnostic Christianity!
The setting, as written, is a "what if" on which flavor of early christianity becomes the dominant church, and it goes much further afield than most by making Gnostic Christianity dominant.
Note that Gnostic Christianity survives in the real world only as small backwater cults throughout Arabia and the former Assyrian Empire, suppressed by both mainstream Christianity and Islam. Islam itself, however, has Gnostic Christian beliefs about Christ, however....
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Erik Tyrrell
United States
Unspecified
Unspecified
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Surprisingly my favorite of the year of the hunter books. Players play a group of humans trying to rid the world of supernatural creatures in the old world of darkness. There is a constant question of whether or not the work that the PC's are trying to do is in fact moral and the will of god or if it is murder of people who just happen to be different (in that they burn up in the light of the sun and feast upon the flesh of the living).
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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The players take on the roles of Cathars holding out against the Medieval Inquisition in one of the last Cathar strongholds in France.
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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This one draws heavily on Christian eschatology for its setting. Once the game's in play, the setting can quickly fade into the background, but I guess that's true of most games.
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Bryce Nakagawa
United States
California
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In these games, religions are typically treated as adversaries, with agendas largely incompatible with the further survival of humanity.
But then again, these things can be loosely applied to many existing religions, too...
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Tony Rowe
United States
West Hartford
Connecticut
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This Christian RPG was developed as a tool to give players "hours of enjoyment while teaching participants to resist sin, counter deceptive arguments, memorize Scripture, and build moral and spiritual character."
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Samuel Sol
Brazil
São Paulo
SP
All engines full to awesome land!
*tap* *tap* Is this thing on?
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That is easy. All the RPG revolves around the fight between angels and demons. It is fulled with religious, gnostics and esoteric themes.
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Bryce Nakagawa
United States
California
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The Jedi are often referred to as a religious order.
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stephen
United Kingdom
Burton on trent
Staffordshire
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The players are Angels sent out by the church to fight the armies of the Lord of Flies, there are reasons why this may background may not fit the requirements of this list, but as presented its religious all the way through.
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Gaming in Greater Anchorage area, Alaska since 1978. Looking for Indy-willing RPG players in Eagle River (or willing to drive to Eagle River). Geekmail me if interested.
