I remember during high school a friend wanted to play D&D, but was leery of it because he was the son of a preacher of a Church of Christ church which in my area was fairly stricked. He was also headed to be a preacher himself. Well to make a long story short. We started character creation, and we got to the picking a god part. I told him it’s ok you don’t have to pick one if you really don’t want to. He was a ranger so I figured it would matter just a huge amount. He said he would rather just put God as in the Christian God. I shrugged and said ok, and us and some more friends had a good game. In the end he decided against playing because he rather not have to deal with his parents, but this got me thinking about what would God’s domains be in Christianity. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but I created a Christian God options for people in my game that had problems with the idea of picking a god. In my opinion God would have the domains Good, Law, Healing, War, Retribution. This may have been because I was raised Southern Baptist and probably had a bit more of the vengful fire and brimstone teachings. I didn't bother tackling porfoilo or anything else just domains because honestly it seemed like a hard and sticky thing to do. What do you all think the Christian God's domains would be, and what do you think of having an option like this for someone who has this problem?
Fizz
I've been playing since I was 13 (now 22)and I've only had this problem twice, but I think this idea worked fairly well.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I tend not to like polytheism a lot (too many gods to keep track of and most players have a monotheistic mindset already in place which makes them very inherently intolerant of polytheism), so I tend to run my games using the Trinity, the Father (LN), the Son (LG) and the Spirity (NG). They each have a slightly different twist on being good and are obviously riffs on Christianity. The non-good faiths are represented by various pagan gods/devils, etc.
I tend not to like polytheism a lot (too many gods to keep track of and most players have a monotheistic mindset already in place which makes them very inherently intolerant of polytheism), so I tend to run my games using the Trinity, the Father (LN), the Son (LG) and the Spirity (NG). They each have a slightly different twist on being good and are obviously riffs on Christianity. The non-good faiths are represented by various pagan gods/devils, etc.
Oh WOW I really like the Trinity idea...hmmm I might have to steal that.
Fizz
I've been playing for years now (started at 8 and am now in my 30's) and never ran into this. Of course, many of my friends are not Christian, and those that are understand the difference between fantasy and reality enough that it was never a problem.
However, I think the domains look solid for the Christian G-d. The domains seem to represent the major ideals of Christianity. Unless there is one that turns water into wine and lets a fish and a loaf of bread feed thousands... :P
Question though, how do you reconcile the Christian traditional world view in a D&D setting? The idea of there being only one G-d who created the world and all that, in a world where there *is* more than one and it's proven there is.
I hope that doesn't come across as snarky in any way. I am curious though.
Question though, how do you reconcile the Christian traditional world view in a D&D setting? The idea of there being only one G-d who created the world and all that, in a world where there *is* more than one and it's proven there is.
I hope that doesn't come across as snarky in any way. I am curious though.
I don't know honestly. That's why I just used the domains. I would just take the easy way out and say that know one knows who really created the world, or say they all did. Let the people figure out their own beliefs...but that's just my little cop out.
Fizz
The "G-d is the only god" concept didn't come along until much later, in early xian and islamic thought. G-d as the one true god, that was around from ancient judaeism, especially as they were surrounded by the baals of the canaanites and the gods of egypt, sumer, babylon, persia, etc. The arguement has been made that early jews were not mono-theists, believing in the existence of only one god, but restricted poly-theists, which believed of many gods, thier god was the right one. He was also considered to be a god of the mountains, though the vistory over the assyrians (i think) chnaged that aspect of the portfolio.
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The usual translation of the First Commandment that I've seen is: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This need not deny the existence of other gods; instead it can merely deny them equality of respect/worship. As Ender notes, the "only true god" thing was a later addition to the dogma.
For a variety of reasons, I wouldn't go down this path in one of my campaigns, but that has to do with my choice not to risk offense to my players. If your players aren't offended, I don't see a problem.
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This is interesting to me. I play with a good number of Christians and I haven't really had this problem. I think that if you believe in the one god concept, that putting stats to him and making him a bit fantasy based seems a bit sacrilegious. That being said, in addition to the domains that you have listed, you might also want to look at including (especially if you break it up into the trinity concept) Celestial, Community, Creation, Divination, Exorcism, Guardian, Life, Purification, Wrath. Just some other domains to consider that could work.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I don't know honestly. That's why I just used the domains. I would just take the easy way out and say that know one knows who really created the world, or say they all did. Let the people figure out their own beliefs...but that's just my little cop out.Fizz
IMC, the Trinity's party line was that other gods did exist, but were not aligned with the interests of man-kind, and generally should be resisted (if not evil) or destroyed (if evil). I put the Trinity at a level above most of the other dieties in the setting, such that although clerics could gain spells from the various lesser gods/devils/demons, they were not nearly as powerful as any of the Trinity entities.
I found that the system tends to map well to player instincts - it's not quite monotheism but it gives them the freedom to kill the followers of rival gods because they are rival gods.
Being a pagan myself, I tend to stay away from the whole christian god thing unless it is the only way to make a player of mine fell comfortable.I have stated out all the major pantheons that are recognized throughout history. I have even done the god/goddess duality of the wiccan faith. In the end it is far easier to make up your own gods to wind up with the pantheon you want, or even the one god of your choice.
Re: How do monotheistic religions mesh with a polytheistic world.
"Our god created the world."
"No, ours did."
"You lie! We know our god is real, because we cast spells in his name."
"So do we."
I fail to see the issue.
I think there are rules for making monotheisms in the Complete Divine. I'm not sure if Christianity can be characterized as a monotheism though, becuase there is the God/Satan duality thing, so I'd use those rules instead.
On that note, I don't like using real pantheons in my campaigns. I like to make my own because it gives the world the flavor I want.
Just use Pelor. Look at the similarities: a sun god (the son of God, also the death of Jesus can be seen as a metaphor for the setting of the sun and his ressurection as the new dawn), a male manifestation, a doctrine of compassioin, charity, duty, and a strict order to help the poor while fighting the evils in the land. His domains are Sun, Good, Healing, and Strength, which also corrolates to the New Testement god who's all about forgiveness and helping people out.
I once talked to my dad, who is a part time scholar of Christian and Judaic faiths, about bringing the worship of Pelor to the real world and he said that it's already here in the form of Quaker christianity becuase the Quakers are mostly about loving everyone and not so much about casting sinners into hell.
If you wanted a more Southern Baptist or Puritan christianity in the game, I would look towards St. Cuthbert or Pholtus. In fact, the three gods could have an intense rivalry becuase of the similarities in faith, which would mirror the Jew-Muslim-Christian rivalries in this world.
As a Christian, I'm much less comfortable with the idea of modelling my God in the game than I am with the fictional pantheon of D&D as-is.
However, if you were going that route, what I would recommend is leaving God mostly off-stage, and acting only through his Clerics, Paladins and supernatural agents. I would also recommend adopting the Eberron rule that Clerics can be of any alignment, and further allowing Clerics to choose any two domains of their choice (possibly restricting the Evil and/or Chaos domains to thralls of demons/devils). It strikes me that this best fits the notion of a god of _everything_.
As for how a monotheistic Christianity would fit with a polytheistic D&D worldview... that's why it's best to keep God off-stage. If it's not clear what the specifics of the truth are, the various Clerics can argue it out amongst themselves to their hearts' content.
If, however, you reveal an objective truth, you start having major problems. The basic foundation of Christianity - that only through Christ can we be saved - really doesn't work if there are other gods, other paradises, and so forth.
(I would also note that your world will feel 'more real' if you build it from the ground up assuming a single creator deity than if you try to shoehorn God into, say, the Forgotten Realms, just as psionics fits better in a world designed for it than it does in a 'regular' world into which it has been added.)
tell me if im wrong (I havent studied the bible) but I was under the impression that the neither Jesus OR the Old Testament mentioned the devil or hell as a punishment for non-believers. I also dissagree with the retribution and war domains; nearly all of Jesus's teachings were about forgivness, not vengefulness that only came into church dogma hundreds of years later.
It's one of the many reasons that I disagree with modern fundamentalist Christianity that claims nonbelievers will go to hell yet also claims that they worship a kind and forgiving god.
So here would be my domains for a christian God:
Good
Healing
Sun
Protection
also from the sepp compendium:
Balance
Glory
Purification
Renewal
Celestia
I do not include Law or Chaos because I believe that the Christian god as preached in the Bible by Christ was more a being of balance that rigid control, that only came later with an organized chrurch.
note" I am not christian so please correct any misstatements about what is written in the Bible.
I would like to say I am not making God into D&D stats. I just used it to make a player fell more comfortable about playing D&D. He wrote God in the deity blank, and picked out some domains for a cleric. I was raised Southern Baptist now Agnostic, and I would never want to try to stat block God, to hard, to touchy of a subject. I was asking if you had ever had players that just wanted to keep their religion in game because it bothered them to "pretend" to have another God, and how they handled that. I just want to keep players including me happy, and this was something that came up when I was like 16. I just thought of it today.
Fizz
tell me if im wrong (I havent studied the bible) but I was under the impression that the neither Jesus OR the Old Testament mentioned the devil or hell as a punishment for non-believers. I also dissagree with the retribution and war domains; nearly all of Jesus's teachings were about forgivness, not vengefulness that only came into church dogma hundreds of years later.
It's one of the many reasons that I disagree with modern fundamentalist Christianity that claims nonbelievers will go to hell yet also claims that they worship a kind and forgiving god.
So here would be my domains for a christian God:
Good
Healing
Sun
Protectionalso from the sepp compendium:
Balance
Glory
Purification
Renewal
CelestiaI do not include Law or Chaos because I believe that the Christian god as preached in the Bible by Christ was more a being of balance that rigid control, that only came later with an organized chrurch.
note" I am not christian so please correct any misstatements about what is written in the Bible.
While I sympathize and agree 100% with your views, I'd be careful making assertions, even with qualifiers, about how people *should* portray God him/her/itself in their games. I'd have to say that the above posters are probably on the right track in the end- leave God out of actively participating in D&D. You could let a PC worship him, but just not bring up matters of faith with that character.
Luckily, here on Paizo, people are pretty tolerant about that kind of stuff, as they seem to be of a higher intellectual caliber. If you care to, there's a thread or two floating around, likely in the archives by now, concerning religion. It started as a kind of poll about religious affiliations of gamers, but evolved into an all-out discussion of faith.
You could make Pelor, Heironeous, etc. archangels or saints that channel power to humans. Not sure how to incorporate the neutral "deities."
Since the human race has no overgod like the Dwarves or the Orcs in DnD, I am considering making the christian god the deity of the entire human race. The other more humanistic gods like Pelor and Cuthbert would be his most powerful servants in the same way that the lesser Dwarf gods answer to Moradin. It allows the Christian god to be brought into the game and still include the traditional deities.
The "G-d is the only god" concept didn't come along until much later, in early xian and islamic thought. G-d as the one true god, that was around from ancient judaeism, especially as they were surrounded by the baals of the canaanites and the gods of egypt, sumer, babylon, persia, etc. The arguement has been made that early jews were not mono-theists, believing in the existence of only one god, but restricted poly-theists, which believed of many gods, thier god was the right one. He was also considered to be a god of the mountains, though the vistory over the assyrians (i think) chnaged that aspect of the portfolio.
Two points on this-
1. Since you aren't playing with ancient Christians, it is still an issue. Modern Christians believe there is One G-d and one G-d only. And the ones who ask to have the Trinity created in order to play tend to be sticklers for that kind of thing. And it's their mindset you're appeasing.2. They were mono-theists in that they worshipped only G-d, and not Baal and Set and Ahura Mazda (zoom zoom). G-d told the Isrealites "there is no G-d before me", because in the beginning most, if not all of them were idol worshipers. Thus G-d is referred to as "King of Kings", and the Almighty and all of that. When the Jews became "The Chosen People" they were then Chosen by G-d to carry the word and actually made a legal contract with G-d (reffered to as the Covenant).
Because knowing is half the battle...
There is an option for Clerics I believe that worship a pantheon instead of a single god, and they choose two domains. In my opinion I agree with the above poster that suggested this from the Eberron, all domains are the domains of the Christian God, different aspect and everything.
I had consider making a psudo-fantasy christian world at one time, where the Archangels were the 'gods' and God/Jesus was the 'Overgod'. Then of course you have the their enemies, the Archdemons and such. It was going to be based of the In Nomine archangel/archdemons, but I never bothered to work on it really.
Since the human race has no overgod like the Dwarves or the Orcs in DnD, I am considering making the christian god the deity of the entire human race. The other more humanistic gods like Pelor and Cuthbert would be his most powerful servants in the same way that the lesser Dwarf gods answer to Moradin. It allows the Christian god to be brought into the game and still include the traditional deities.
There is one given in Races of Destiny, Zarus...He is Lawful Evil and promotes slavery and killing half-anything half-orc, half-elf etc.
Fizz
I am a Christian and read and study the Bible and have played and DM’d since the late 70’s. Our groups have never had this issue, using Jesus or God the Father as a gaming deity; we just separate D&D into Tolkien & C. S. Lewis style fantasy realms. I have played with groups consisting of all Christians, some Christians, and no Christians and love each one regardless. (Of course our off topic discussions meander from films, comics, politics, and religion, where I hope to enlighten more than rebuff).
I do want to share some insight, and please don’t interpret this as a preaching session, but just sharing what Scripture states.
Rhavin wrote:
tell me if im wrong (I havent studied the bible) but I was under the impression that the neither Jesus OR the Old Testament mentioned the devil or hell as a punishment for non-believers. I also dissagree with the retribution and war domains; nearly all of Jesus's teachings were about forgivness, not vengefulness that only came into church dogma hundreds of years later.
.
Jesus in the New Testament: (New American Standard Version)
Matthew 5: 21-22
21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.
22 "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”
This Scripture passage is one of the first New Testament passages which demonstrates Jesus’ usage and acknowledgement of “Hell”. More examples in the New Testament: Matthew 5:29, Matthew 10:28, Luke 10:15 …
Saern wrote:
It's one of the many reasons that I disagree with modern fundamentalist Christianity that claims nonbelievers will go to hell yet also claims that they worship a kind and forgiving god.
Christianity in a nutshell in God created man (Adam), Adam sinned (disobedience) – Man and God forever separated by sin. Jesus takes the wrath of God as punishment for all man’s sin and through Jesus, Man and God is reconciled. (The by now sport venue famous John 3:16)
God never created Hell for man, Hell was created for the Devil and his fallen angels and God has given Man a way out, through Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 2:4
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.
Hope that shares some Biblical light. Blessings to all and good gaming, in my opinion, Dungeons and Dragons has always been great fun and a way to bond with friends and fellowship. FYI Goliath was a hill giant/fighter!
I am a Christian and read and study the Bible and have played and DM’d since the late 70’s. Our groups have never had this issue, using Jesus or God the Father as a gaming deity; we just separate D&D into Tolkien & C. S. Lewis style fantasy realms. I have played with groups consisting of all Christians, some Christians, and no Christians and love each one regardless. (Of course our off topic discussions meander from films, comics, politics, and religion, where I hope to enlighten more than rebuff).
I do want to share some insight, and please don’t interpret this as a preaching session, but just sharing what Scripture states.
Rhavin wrote:
tell me if im wrong (I havent studied the bible) but I was under the impression that the neither Jesus OR the Old Testament mentioned the devil or hell as a punishment for non-believers. I also dissagree with the retribution and war domains; nearly all of Jesus's teachings were about forgivness, not vengefulness that only came into church dogma hundreds of years later.
.
Jesus in the New Testament: (New American Standard Version)
Matthew 5: 21-22
21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.
22 "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”
This Scripture passage is one of the first New Testament passages which demonstrates Jesus’ usage and acknowledgement of “Hell”. More examples in the New Testament: Matthew 5:29, Matthew 10:28, Luke 10:15 …
Saern wrote:
It's one of the many reasons that I disagree with modern fundamentalist Christianity that claims nonbelievers will go to hell yet also claims that they worship a kind and forgiving god.
Christianity in a nutshell in God created man (Adam), Adam sinned (disobedience) – Man and God forever separated by sin. Jesus takes the wrath of God as punishment for all man’s sin and through Jesus, Man and God is reconciled. (The by now sport venue famous John 3:16)
God never created Hell for man, Hell was created for the Devil and his fallen angels and God has given Man a way out, through Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 2:4
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.
Hope that shares some Biblical light. Blessings to all and good gaming, in my opinion, Dungeons and Dragons has always been great fun and a way to bond with friends and fellowship. FYI Goliath was a hill giant/fighter!
Saern wrote:
It's one of the many reasons that I disagree with modern fundamentalist Christianity that claims nonbelievers will go to hell yet also claims that they worship a kind and forgiving god.
Whoa- Saern did not wrote that. It's not a big deal, and no offense has been taken, but I think you got mixed up navigating the quote brackets.
Please forgive the error.
No harm, no foul. :) Just wanted to point it out.
There is one given in Races of Destiny, Zarus...He is Lawful Evil and promotes slavery and killing half-anything half-orc, half-elf etc.Fizz
Whoa, sounds like a hard-ass. Any good human gods out there?
It commonly comes from a Judeo (Jewish) tradition, most omit the lower case "o" when referencing the Almighty.
Whoa, sounds like a hard-ass. Any good human gods out there?
There are others in the Races of Destiny but Zarus is the human creator god.
In Zarus defense the other races did band together and posioned him at his wedding when he was a mortal because they were all jealous of him. He was nice then, but after that he just wasn't the same...then the earth (who created him) made him a god. He made a big speach about how his children would take over and rule the world...I guess he had the last laugh.
Fizz
The "G-d is the only god" concept didn't come along until much later, in early xian and islamic thought. G-d as the one true god, that was around from ancient judaeism, especially as they were surrounded by the baals of the canaanites and the gods of egypt, sumer, babylon, persia, etc. The arguement has been made that early jews were not mono-theists, believing in the existence of only one god, but restricted poly-theists, which believed of many gods, thier god was the right one. He was also considered to be a god of the mountains, though the vistory over the assyrians (i think) chnaged that aspect of the portfolio.
I agree with you except for the first part. Specifically the bit about God becoming Monotheastic with early Christisans or later Islam. While ancient Judaism seems to have conceded to the idea that there are lots of Gods but only one for them this was no longer true hundreds of years before the rise of Christianity. Hence your line of argument might suffice for Jewish individuals a little squemish about all the Gods around its not going to work on Christians and certianly not on Islamic individuals.
tell me if im wrong (I havent studied the bible) but I was under the impression that the neither Jesus OR the Old Testament mentioned the devil or hell as a punishment for non-believers.
I've seen this as well (on the 700 club on a Sunday Morning or some channal like that of all places), however I think I've also seen passages that imply the existence of longer periods of torment. The basics of the 'no hell' theory, as far as I understand it, is that there is a description in the old testiment of what happens to the unbelievers. Essentially they get 'burnt in a lake of fire'. OK and then what? Well there does not seem to be an 'and then what'. They get burnt up and therefore miss out on living forever. That seems to be the sum total of their punishment.
Certianly our Dante-esque view of hell is not really supported by the Old and New Testiment and can probably trace its roots more to a Greek world view then anything in the Old Testiment - or maybe a Greek worldview filtered through the Old Testiment and New Testiment.
I tend not to like polytheism a lot (too many gods to keep track of and most players have a monotheistic mindset already in place which makes them very inherently intolerant of polytheism), so I tend to run my games using the Trinity, the Father (LN), the Son (LG) and the Spirity (NG). They each have a slightly different twist on being good and are obviously riffs on Christianity. The non-good faiths are represented by various pagan gods/devils, etc.
Ooh, a big can of worms here...but anyway.
I would put the alignments a bit differently, placing Son as NG (as Jesus did recommend not following the letter but the spirit of the law of the Father) and Spirit as LG (as Spirit is more a part of the Christian community and communities tend to have a bias towards lawful alignment).In regular D&D, it wouldn't indeed be too distant approximation to just use Pelor.
tell me if im wrong (I havent studied the bible) but I was under the impression that the neither Jesus OR the Old Testament mentioned the devil or hell as a punishment for non-believers. I also dissagree with the retribution and war domains; nearly all of Jesus's teachings were about forgivness, not vengefulness that only came into church dogma hundreds of years later.
Depending on the translation, the Bible does talk about the Devil (or, the Adversary, or other names) tempting Jesus when he was in the desert. Also, although it doesn't specifically say Hell, the New Testament does talk about sinners being "cast out into darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth."
It is not, however, entirely clear what form 'Hell' would take.
It's one of the many reasons that I disagree with modern fundamentalist Christianity that claims nonbelievers will go to hell yet also claims that they worship a kind and forgiving god.
Actually, there isn't a contradiction there. The premise is that God is forgiving and kind, but that the Christian must actively seek said forgiveness. Failure to do so, in effect rejecting the forgiveness, leads to the non-believer being barred from Heaven... and consequently consigned to Hell.
My problems with fundamentalism (particularly the American Religious Right version of it) is less in _what_ is being taught, and rather more in _how_ it is being taught. Trying to drive the fear of Hell into non-believers is hardly conducive to them accepting a kind and forgiving God. (I also really don't like the influence of the 'Christian' element on American politics.)
I have a lot more I could say on the subject, but it's well off-topic for this board, and religion is always a topic likely to cause offense, so I'll stop there.
I do not include Law or Chaos because I believe that the Christian god as preached in the Bible by Christ was more a being of balance that rigid control, that only came later with an organized chrurch.
Ironically, Jesus' major problems with the establishment in 1st Century Judea were were their equivalent of the 'religious right'. According to the New Testament, the Pharisees of the day had boiled the Old Testament down to a very extensive set of rules that you had to follow to please God. Provided you 'tick the boxes', you're fine, but if you fell short, you were stuck. According to his teachings, this rather missed the point, which was that one was supposed to have a relationship with a living God, rather than just following a set of rules.
That so many churches follow in exactly the same pattern, endlessly debating whether X or Y is sinful, is rather unfortunate.
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tell me if im wrong (I havent studied the bible) but I was under the impression that the neither Jesus OR the Old Testament mentioned the devil or hell as a punishment for non-believers.Luke 16:22-31 talks about Hell being a place of torment and it was told by Jesus. This is a bit off topic here and so I will stop.
Why type G-d and not God? Just curious.
Tam
Jester is right, I am of the Judeo (Jewish) persuasion, more specificaly Askenasic or Eastern European descent which tends to be a bit more conservative as far as our religion goes, and as such, to not take G-d's name in vain we - out the o.
I've seen this as well (on the 700 club on a Sunday Morning or some channal like that of all places), however I think I've also seen passages that imply the existence of longer periods of torment. The basics of the 'no hell' theory, as far as I understand it, is that there is a description in the old testiment of what happens to the unbelievers. Essentially they get 'burnt in a lake of fire'. OK and then what? Well there does not seem to be an 'and then what'. They get burnt up and therefore miss out on living forever. That seems to be the sum total of their punishment.
Certianly our Dante-esque view of hell is not really supported by the Old and New Testiment and can probably trace its roots more to a Greek world view then anything in the Old Testiment - or maybe a Greek worldview filtered through the Old Testiment and New Testiment.
According to Judaism, the traditional stance is that when the Messiah comes, the Kingdom of Heaven will come to Earth. And the righteous will rise and live in the Kingdom of Heaven for Eternity. Those bad people do not rise, do not live in the Kingdom of Heaven, do not pass go, or collect $200. You are correct though that when they die, they die. But only the righteous join the Kingdom of Heaven when it comes to Earth.
According to Judaism and the Torah (Old Testament) There is no Hell, per say. And no Devil. Folklore and superstition adds in demons and the like (some nasty, nasty ones too), but nothing direct from the Books.
My group has adopted the Overgod idea and called him The Everlasting One. For convenience we combined Pelor, Heronious and Cuthbert into one deity but with no Son or Spirit. The structure follows along the lines of Medieval Catholicism with most of the other “goodly” gods being regarded as servants or saints to the Big Guy.
I’m the writer of the bunch so I got the job of writing it all down. I took some pointers for Tolkien (The Silmarillion), Lewis (almost any of his fiction not just Narnia) and a RPG call “Testament”.
There was also a good article I fond a couple of years ago titled “Confessions of a Dungeons & Dragons Addict” by M. Joseph Young. It could help put things in perspective for the wary Christian.
The first paragraph is, “I am a Christian--born again, spirit-filled, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb--who for years played Dungeons & Dragons(tm) and other role-playing games. I write this so that other Christians will understand how it is possible for a Christian to become involved in such games.”
My group has adopted the Overgod idea and called him The Everlasting One. For convenience we combined Pelor, Heronious and Cuthbert into one deity but with no Son or Spirit. The structure follows along the lines of Medieval Catholicism with most of the other “goodly” gods being regarded as servants or saints to the Big Guy.
I’m the writer of the bunch so I got the job of writing it all down. I took some pointers for Tolkien (The Silmarillion), Lewis (almost any of his fiction not just Narnia) and a RPG call “Testament”.
There was also a good article I fond a couple of years ago titled “Confessions of a Dungeons & Dragons Addict” by M. Joseph Young. It could help put things in perspective for the wary Christian.
The first paragraph is, “I am a Christian--born again, spirit-filled, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb--who for years played Dungeons & Dragons(tm) and other role-playing games. I write this so that other Christians will understand how it is possible for a Christian to become involved in such games.”
Did he go on to explain that they were okay? I assume that he did, considering your posting of that here, but the title and the wording almost makes it sound like a primer on how D&D will corrupt you, and thus a defense against that. Which, of course, would be a bad thing.
Dragonlance eventually involved an overgod that is quite clearly meant to represent the Christian God. This makes perfect sense, having found out that Tracy Hickman is deeply religious.
Does it really matter what invisiable being's name your killing people in?
Does it really matter what invisiable being's name your killing people in?
Yes, it does.
This is what Jesus said to me:
"Soldier, you are content with what you are. Then that you shall remain until we meet again. As I go now to my Father, you must one day come to me" - Jesus Christ to Casca (in Casca: The Eternal Mercenary)
I probably shouldn't have put that spear into his side.
Does it really matter what invisiable being's name your killing people in?Yes, it does.
This is what Jesus said to me:
"Soldier, you are content with what you are. Then that you shall remain until we meet again. As I go now to my Father, you must one day come to me" - Jesus Christ to Casca (in Casca: The Eternal Mercenary)
I probably shouldn't have put that spear into his side.
Rotflmao
RotflmaoDoes it really matter what invisiable being's name your killing people in?Yes, it does.
This is what Jesus said to me:
"Soldier, you are content with what you are. Then that you shall remain until we meet again. As I go now to my Father, you must one day come to me" - Jesus Christ to Casca (in Casca: The Eternal Mercenary)
I probably shouldn't have put that spear into his side.
What is funny about that?