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Holy Rollers - Making & Using a Religion in Your Games
13 Plays4 days ago
In this episode, Daryl, Nick, & Robert explore how to create and use religions in roleplaying games to add depth, conflict, and story hooks. They share tips on building believable belief systems, integrating faith into characters and cultures, and using religion as a narrative tool without turning your table into a theology lecture. A concise, practical guide for GMs and players looking to make belief matter in their games.
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Transcript
Introduction to How We Roll Gaming
00:00:02
Speaker
with the coachman D20 Radio. at Your game is rolled.
00:00:17
Speaker
How will We Roll Gaming is dedicated to spreading enjoyment of great role-playing games. We hope to bring you insights into games you may not have played, tips to be a better game master and player, and share us stories of momentous events at our tables.
00:00:29
Speaker
Every game is a new story to
Birthday Surprise and Humor
00:00:31
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tell. I'm Daryl. I'm Nick. And here's Robert. And this is How We Roll.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome back to the How We Roll Gaming podcast, everyone. ah The very first thing that I want to say is, as we are recording this, this very day of our recording, happy birthday, Nick.
00:00:59
Speaker
Yes, happy birthday. Thank you. i It's not just my birthday. It's also my twin sister Nicole's birthday. What? like Twin sister has has a birthday on the same day? How's that work?
00:01:12
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that That was very coincidental. easier to i've Ask your parents about that. to know Explain it. So I hope you gave her a lot of what she wanted, Nick.
00:01:27
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Yeah. Oh, yes. She got a lot of cookies and she got a lot of plus toys. That's good. so we'll see you next year. o Yep.
00:01:39
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And now, you know, we, we still need, you know, still need to figure out, well, I guess it'll be a surprise because they are gifts. What you're getting all of us for in our group for, for Christmas. We went around and gave our Christmas list to you last weekend. Indeed.
00:01:54
Speaker
Indeed.
00:01:57
Speaker
Yeah, there's any guy's lap desks. I mean, if it's like yours, that'll work because I need a new one. Actually, he's right. Yeah, I'll take one just like yours. I desperately need a new one.
00:02:10
Speaker
So that that works for me. um If you compare it with the new laptop, I'd love it. ah In this economy? I think you can swing it. Okay.
Holiday Plans and Social Connections
00:02:25
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we We know gaming-wise what we did over the weekend, but just in general, what have you guys been up to since the last time we convened? Well, I've just been getting ready for the holidays. Got to get the remainder of my gifts, and then this week this week I've got a Christmas party tomorrow.
00:02:45
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Then I've got one on Friday, and then if I can make it, there's a movie night on Saturday. Sunday's going to be actually my kind of rest day, just to be like... I'll be with my family, but still, I won't have to do anything. Yeah. yeah yeah Personally, just sort of the same thing. ah Talking and communicating with old friends.
00:03:07
Speaker
I spent most of the day actually getting calls and just talking, catching up with some people that I can't see as often as I used to, but still wanted to wish me a happy birthday.
00:03:20
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And also ah preparing for it's going to be pretty chill ah movie night this Saturday. We're just going to watch so some some we're going to watch a holiday special that we all know and.
00:03:34
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Tolerate, and we're going watch one of my favorite holiday specials, too. We don't we don't tolerate it, Nick. We experience it. Yes. It's it's a rite of passage.
00:03:49
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And our Sunday's going to be spent in our last minute rush to finish getting the house ready because going to have family in next week. And I just get through work Monday and then I'm off until the new year.
Using PTO and Work-Life Balance
00:04:07
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Similarly, a Sunday will be a rest day for, i guess it would be a pseudo rest day for most of us. Yeah, and then...
00:04:18
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Good on you, Daryl. I'll just get off Christmas and the Friday after that and i still gotta go to work the next next week. Oh, that's rough. Eh, it's okay.
00:04:29
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It could be worse. It could be worse. It's not like... don't always be like, oh you got you gotta to give it at least three days. In my opinion. well i I try to give myself four-day weekends after a holiday.
00:04:42
Speaker
Well, really and truly, I'm only taking six days of PTO. Because of holidays that are in there. But I always hold off because my dad comes in from out of town for a few days. And so... Go in and wish him a hello from us. Because he's been a big... Without being a... He's been a big part of your... Walking Dead campaign. Yeah, he gives you all the ideas because he actually lives there.
00:05:15
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So... We would like to yes send him our well-welcomes that he's helped you so much with that, even though he's not seen. yeah You make the game so much fun, sir.
00:05:27
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i think Be sure to let him know how many times you his contributions has led to your character's death. Yeah, I guess so too.
00:05:38
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i Yes, and then... I'm sure that will elicit some joy for him. Yeah, is your job one of those, if you don't use your PTO, you lose it kind of deals, Daryl? Yes, under under the new company that I'm doing the same job that I've been doing for 15 years.
00:05:56
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Yes, it's use it or lose it. But i I've always you know taken off about this same amount of time every year at the end of the year because my dad always comes in around Christmas because the day after Christmas is also our son's birthday.
00:06:13
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And snow so by the time you factor in the days that we're closed for holidays, it's like, why am I going back in until...
00:06:30
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you why am i staying why would I go in before January 2nd? Now, this year, it's kind of silly. I am going in on the 2nd, which is a Friday. I will be back on a Friday and then take a weekend off because I didn't think about how, since it's use it or lose it, Friday the 2nd is a whole new year's worth of PTO pool.
00:06:55
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Yeah, that's kind of the same for me. I forgot to do that. I might still have time to request it off here in the next couple of days. i ah I'll figure it out.
00:07:07
Speaker
Yeah, with with my job, we're allowed to roll over about 40 hours. But yeah, i'm I'm too late in December. where it's not far enough out that I can request PTO on a Friday, they'll be like, no, we've already scheduled it. We can't do that.
00:07:21
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That's wrong. Yeah. My previous company doing the same job at the same time. At least roll over 40. The same client.
00:07:32
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Yeah, we we could roll over up to 40 under the old company. And that's why I wasn't thinking anything of it. I was just so used to that after 15, 16 years.
00:07:44
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um of being able to roll over up to 40 that back in September, October, our boss and our corporate headquarters is in Prague.
00:07:58
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And our boss is like, hey, you guys have PTO o that you need to use. You've got a lot of PTO that you need to use. Hi, Germany. that's a That's a really cool story, Daryl.
00:08:13
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cool story darrell Yes, Nick, we know you toil so much at your own job that you can barely get time off. Yes.
00:08:24
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Nick, yeah your your boss is unreasonable with how little PTO he gives you. Well, I was trying trying to tee you off for something, Daryl. what I figured that there was a setup, but I couldn't figure out what the setup was for.
00:08:39
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yeah because we still haven't given our little shout-out before we get started. It's a good story you told.
Spotlight on The Story Told Podcast
00:08:47
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Oh, I see what you did there now. Okay, yeah.
00:08:52
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Because we're going to talk about... hey it It's been too early to bully me, Daryl. That's the end of the podcast. ah Yes, but there there will... Oh, so much bullying.
00:09:06
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We have so much... But we we do want to let everybody know about another one of the wonderful shows here on the D20 Radio Network. And that is the Story Told podcast, which continues its exploration of RPGs with discussion and reviews, interviews and more with Logan as your main host and a currently still a rotating array of guest hosts.
00:09:36
Speaker
In fact, as we record this, the most recent episode brings Clark Rowenson to the show to discuss his book Spawn Point and the world of lit RPGs. Give the Story Told Podcast a listen, wherever you get your podcasts, or through the handy link to their site in the show notes.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yep. Now, are we ready to dive into our topic? Oh, we
Exploring Religions in RPGs
00:10:02
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are ready. At least I am. I'm all right. Well, we do want to take a quick moment before we dive in to this episode's subject matter for a bit of introductory groundwork, some boilerplate, if you will, because we know that on the surface, the subject matter that we're going to be talking about can be a bit of a hot button.
00:10:23
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ah Now, while some RPG world religions can reflect or be based on real world religions, that's really not what we're going to be talking about. you know We're not going to be talking about real-world religions, pro or con, advocating for or against or anything like that.
00:10:43
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However, even in some fantasy settings like D&D, religions can be front and center and baked into the game's structure. So we're going to be examining how to use these themes in your fictional settings and narratives.
00:10:59
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and Exactly. and I'll frame beforehand that as Christian myself, some of what I will talk about or think about will be colored from that perspective. Just heads up. I myself am a Christian as well, but of a potentially different flavor. I've never gone into the exact nature of my faith, but that's a sort of, I keep it to myself.
00:11:23
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And, and I am our resident heathen atheist.
00:11:28
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ha But the main factor is, like I think a good thing to start off is saying that that should be something brought up during a session zero boundaries.
00:11:42
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Exactly, because I know every time we do a session zero, one of our new campaigns, my thing is always, I don't want religion bashing, or at least in my case, Christian religious bashing in any of the campaigns I'm in.
00:11:56
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Personally, I believe that... the I will acknowledge that certain games have more rey religious connections to the real world or not.
00:12:08
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But I would say that, like especially in fantasy zones, is' like yes there's some it's impossible to not see that there are inspirations from the real world for fictional religions.
00:12:19
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I asked it to just accept them as they are, especially like some as hostile in one of my campaigns in the Hope the Situation Warriors, the Church of the Silver Frame is rather controversial.
00:12:34
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But they are meant to be controversial. Yeah, they were made to be controversial, and it's not the only controversial religion in there. There's the the kingdom. The kingdom is escaping me, but basically Carnath. Carnath. They're basically a bunch of necromancers that worship death or something.
00:12:52
Speaker
Yeah. And they have themselves. that They're a nation that built an army of death and have a cult that they are kind of their pseudo statefulism, but many people don't like it. It also is bunch of necromancers.
00:13:07
Speaker
Even the D&D show That Critical Role is now on Amazon, Mighty Nein. One of the big forces in there is the Korean dynasty, which has a religion, like fully they're like basically a theocracy and they kind of get into that as well.
00:13:23
Speaker
Again, like did and they are often based off of because they are, we live in a real world and those fictional worlds do take inspiration from the realist.
00:13:34
Speaker
But it's like in in a religion, if it's in a fictional scenario, I say like acknowledge that there are some unfortunate parallels to past and or moments of religious moments that are dramatic.
00:13:51
Speaker
Yes. But it's part of the story. Because I ascribe to the thing, it's not the religion itself that causes the issues four per se.
00:14:03
Speaker
It's more humans. Because anything structured in a human manner is going to have a little bit of brokenness and dark times in it, no matter where it is. In the same way that say
Star Wars Campaign Highlights
00:14:14
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that the you could have someone with so with some politics that you disagree with but it's mostly someone who's using politics for the worst parts.
00:14:25
Speaker
Now, years and years and years ago, um back when dinosaurs walked the earth, in the first Star Wars RPG campaign that I was in, we had rotating GMs.
00:14:39
Speaker
And... that This was, i had some experience GMing, but not a lot. And I was one of the rotating GMs. Now, I had the the whole thought going on in my head that, okay, our characters are not Luke, Han, Leia.
00:15:02
Speaker
They're not the main characters of the movies. Yeah. So they're not going they're not going to be the ones who blow up the Death Star and defeat the Empire.
00:15:14
Speaker
But I want some ways for them to have major victories. And so in addition to coming up with my own large Imperial siege platform that was kind of a recurring threat through my parts of the campaign,
00:15:36
Speaker
I also decided, okay, I want to bring another large faction into the galaxy so that yeah if the players choose to kind of focus on that for a little bit and take it down, they have the ability to quote-unquote defeat the Empire.
00:16:03
Speaker
but not derail the continuity of the movies, right? of course. So I wanted to give it a different flavor than just you copy pasting the Empire.
00:16:17
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And I started picking up some visuals and even wholesale swiped the name from Jim Starlin's 1980s comic Dread Star.
00:16:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think I know what you're talking about. introduced what Starlin called the Holy Church of the Instrumentality.
00:16:46
Speaker
and its leader, the Lord High Papal. I swiped those directly from Dreadstar. I remember those, yeah. But I had to figure out, okay, how does this fit into Star Wars? How can I fit this into Star Wars? like Okay, well, they have their own sorts of dogma.
00:17:11
Speaker
um The Lord High Papal is a Force user. And their dogma is just keying off of the name, the instrumentality is what they called, is how they referred to the interconnected nature of the force and life.
00:17:35
Speaker
And because they had this high, high, high level view of the instrumentality of life, they found artificial intelligence like droids and things like that to be sacrilegious.
00:17:54
Speaker
Interesting. and this is This is before the Yuzhan Vong. This is long before the Yuzhan Vong. So they stole it from you. Yes, they were already listening to me.
00:18:05
Speaker
ah Honestly, though, it does also sound like like the Prophets of the Dark Side on Drobankaz from the from the search of the dark sides.
00:18:16
Speaker
There was always like before even the canon creation of like, like the final order and the Sif eternal, there was always the idea that the end game would be like a Sif theocracy.
00:18:33
Speaker
Right. And, and making the, and the, The Holy Church of the Instrumentality had their own large section of the galaxy that they controlled. They were autonomous from the Empire.
00:18:48
Speaker
And the Lord High Papal, being the Lord High Papal, was sitting back and watching the Galactic Civil War play out with the plan and idea of once this is over, yeah know, one side's going to win.
00:19:09
Speaker
I don't care which side wins. But the side that wins is going to be stretched thin, is going to be weak. And that's when we... Oh, hello there.
00:19:22
Speaker
Yes, that that's when we spread the word of the instrumentality by force, if need be. Again, that does feel very much like a Palpatine-level plot.
00:19:36
Speaker
That is his plot, multiple times. And so... That was the entire plot the Clone Wars. like I'm going to let them break each other down and then build something out of it. Yeah. And even when he lost, he's like, okay, I'll let the let the major facts that happen. But it's like, I'm controlling it from the behind the scenes. And when I need to, I'll pop back up.
00:19:56
Speaker
Yeah. And so... That was there. it was kind of a simmering secondary antagonist. It goes back to Vissiat and and the Eternal Empire too. like Yeah, and so they could... Okay, so they stole all those ideas from you. I'd say you'd sue, but the the mouse owns things, so I don't think you can beat them.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, I don't have resources to fight the mouse in court. Honestly, I think it might... i might even go all the way back to Sun Tzu's like, two people are fighting, let them fight each other out, and you just take the weaker one when they're done.
00:20:31
Speaker
but I think Sun Tzu's in the public domain. He probably has a horror movie based on him now. But I had, you know, I had the instrumentality sitting there, you know, and I could bring them in to play with them as I wanted to. When I started my Raggedy Edge campaign in the FFG system, I used the instrumentality a couple of times. you Same reason.
00:20:57
Speaker
But you know by that time, I had more years of experience telling stories and running games under my belt. So I was able to fine tune the concepts more. And like the one time that I know that I ran the Raggedy Edge group,
00:21:16
Speaker
through an instrumentality session is there was a a farming world on the edge of instrumentality space that they they were on the verge of famine because the crops weren't weren't couldn't be harvested properly. they They were growing, but they couldn't be harvested properly. And so there were...
00:21:44
Speaker
there were some farmers there on that world who were like, yes, this is against what we believe in but, and they purchased some third, fourth hand decommissioned separatist battle droids that were supposedly being reprogrammed as harvest droids to use.
00:22:09
Speaker
And so the, the danger of that session came from two different directions on the one direction. How frequently does it work out when we, when you hear that separatist battle droids have been reprogrammed?
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah. That's usually a recipe. that's I think the only time it worked was on IEGO. And even that, he was doing he knew what he was doing. Justin General was like, Separatist Battle Royals is usually just a code for like, well, this is not going to you're taking a machine designed for war, designed to kill, and trying to make it do something else. Inevitably, it's going to try and do its regular programming.
00:22:54
Speaker
And if you're especially going with B1s, they are no not the best thinkers. I also think droids are just they inherently drawn to violence. If an astronaut like R2 and Chopper are any examples. Yes.
00:23:08
Speaker
And so there's there's the one piece of danger that came in. The other piece of danger, and I can't remember what I renamed them to, because way back in the olden days, in the old campaign, they were called Inquisitors, but I didn't want to muddy the waters with Imperial Inquisitors.
00:23:29
Speaker
Arborage, maybe? the I don't remember what I called them. The instrumentality had basically their their own Jedi, for want of a better term.
00:23:43
Speaker
But, you again, the structured with with a religious hierarchy. And they they report directly to...
00:23:57
Speaker
to the papal and... But again, arguably, the you of the Jedi are a religion. And... They certainly are, and thee yeah the Yeah.
00:24:09
Speaker
The way I kind of differentiated them as well, obviously no lightsabers, because that's you kind of a Jedi-Sith thing. er But because of the different philosophies surrounding the Force that the instrumentality had, ah these...
00:24:27
Speaker
quote-unquote Jedi, whatever I called them. They all had... it and Partly this is because in looking for artwork to show my players, I was finding more fantasy-based artwork that was like this. and so you saying but But each of them had a prayer book chained to their wrist. oh and And they had prayers. of like yeah like ah like a classical cleric. That or like...
00:24:57
Speaker
Like what what you see in Warhammer, like the battle clerics always have something like rested. Yeah. And so they had prayers to use the force. I think it fits in with like certain things. like Yeah, I like that.
00:25:12
Speaker
With like the, ah in in modern canon, the Nightsisters, they have their magic. Their incantations. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, it's one of those things that I used it once, maybe twice in that campaign, but I always still have it in my back pocket if I want to use it in a Star Wars campaign to the point that I have a doctored up map of the galaxy.
00:25:43
Speaker
that I had downloaded and that I was able to edit already, that I went in and I you know drew a border around the instrumentality space. I put some instrumentality words in there, worlds in there, and I put a couple of hyper lanes in there, um one of which was named Blatantly Stealing a Line from Les Miserables song, but their main hyperspace lane going through instrumentality space was called The Path of the Righteous.
00:26:19
Speaker
Very neat. Imitation, not the theory. flattery No, it's thievery. It's thievery. And at this point, I will refer to the Me and Steve Talk RPGs episode that our friend Brev guest starred on that was about stealing from movies for RPGs. Hey, he can accuse you when he pops out of his grave. Hey, that's one of the beauties of Star Wars because on their map, one side's completely, literally called the Unknown Regions. Yeah. Yes, and that's where it was. And guess what? It's like, all right, we can put what some things there, but like most of that is like free real estate.
00:27:02
Speaker
Yep, and um this will probably have already happened by the time... it Well, it will have already happened, but those of you watching on the YouTube version of the podcast, I will toss the graphic for that map up on the screen for a few seconds.
00:27:23
Speaker
But I have yammered on about my example of what I have used. Yes, but it brings a good example because it's a you can always make an antagonist or an enemy out of religion.
00:27:39
Speaker
Pretty much, like we said, the Sith are pretty much a religion based on evil and being selfish and doing whatever you want, basically dominating life. The antithesis of...
00:27:50
Speaker
the Jedi, which they spawned off of. They are a splinter. They are a, they came off of a ideal order, which themselves are not perfect.
00:28:03
Speaker
So yeah, if you always think it, you could use a religious, your own imagined religious institution as your main, as your big bad, your main bad guy.
00:28:14
Speaker
Not only just fighting the leaders of that religion, but the institution itself. Because it's, Because if like you're really like your campaign is centered around a theocracy, that's ah that's a very big thing to fight. That's almost like a revolution. Or you could go to the similar things that many people can do and have done in both D&D and beyond.
00:28:36
Speaker
It's just you can make a cult. Cults are always the go-to thing. Like, I need a but ah group of bad guys. Let's make a cult. it's It's the default for most Call Cthulhu and Eldritch horror-based games.
00:28:52
Speaker
You have a cult. It could be as small as like five guys who found a deep one. It was like, this guy is cool.
00:29:02
Speaker
I don't know what he's saying, but he teaches us some weird magic stuff. Yeah, and I may be morphing and going cringe, but hey, I got this awesome powers. Yeah.
00:29:13
Speaker
To like a full on like pseudo Scientology cult that has hundreds of thousands of members, tons of influence and actual power.
00:29:28
Speaker
I mean, it's it's not a surprise that one of the archetypes for a villain is the fanatic. Basically the person that has a cause or ideal or belief that they just are so so taken with so strongly that that that anything antithesis to it, they just fight against. And again like and i can be and that can be a scary opponent for your players. Someone so deep in their own ideal that they will do anything and everything because they believe so strongly. Including such extreme mode motives. Like i've I've had characters that were religiously motivated that have done some really tough things.
00:30:10
Speaker
yes and through that to to exemplify that they are extreme and dangerous because they they believe so fully in what they believe in yes and they can also be intriguing in that way because maybe they're so believed in an ideal that they kind of have no regard for themselves like you trap them under a rock trying and then trying to stop the ritual well they believe so much they want that ritual done that they'll literally like cut off their arm to try and stop you. That's how strongly they believe.
00:30:44
Speaker
And it's a great role-playing situation, especially for characters that put in a lot of like social points into their character. Yes. And also they might want to talk them down from like a situation, but they can't because, well, they are in a, in they're coming from a space that cannot be talked down from.
00:31:05
Speaker
Yes. Or even, Maybe not the religious institution itself is the bad thing. Maybe it actually has good tenants, but like Daryl Nick and I have said, there are just people inside the institution that are going to try and twist it for their own ends. Heck, maybe one of your characters is part of that religion and knows there're this there's this higher up trying to twist it and use it towards his own ends. So it's kind of like, I want to try and stay true to these ideals.
00:31:34
Speaker
while having to almost fight against the people leading it. That creates an interesting conflict of like, especially if said religion has like a hierarchy, like a quote-unquote higher priest or order is not living up to the ideals, but you as a player knows that I must respect those ideals, but I must also then go against the orders, precepts of someone above me.
00:32:04
Speaker
Yeah, good a good example actually is, using a Star Wars example, is in the beginning, Count Dooku was kind of that type of person. He was a Jedi. He believed in the Jedi principles, so much so that when he saw the corruption of the Senate and that the Jedi were basically just Senate lackeys, he was such an idealist and a believer that he he couldn't accept that, and he broke off.
00:32:30
Speaker
So been in later down the line, got corrupted and turned to the dark side But in the beginning, he was like, I believe in this too strongly to just let the status quo stay the status quo.
00:32:41
Speaker
You can see where the where characters can grow and develop. Like, maybe your character does see the corruption, but does become corrupt themselves in a different way. There's the story potential of having such' a thing as so many different ways.
00:33:01
Speaker
different avenues both as antagonist as ally as a test for your character's personal moral beliefs like everyone makes fun of like the cleric that's weight or the paladin is way too pious way too dogmatic but hey maybe that lawful goodness or that dogmacy can lead to good conversations to where you're like you're that dogmatic character believes in these ideals so strongly, maybe, he maybe they spent their entire life growing up in this. And this is literally like, this is all they know. If, if even one of these things is wrong, then was my entire life for nothing was everything I believed in for nothing. That can be a good like confrontation point, especially with themselves or with someone else, especially with characters who are not of the faith.
00:33:53
Speaker
Exactly. a character can literally call out a palette is like, you're being too harsh or being too dogmatic. was like, this is what I know. and what I believe is absolute, but like they can have a perspective and be like to temper that.
00:34:09
Speaker
Yes. And it's also a good point that we're bringing up is that, well, it's, it's easy to use a religious institution as an antagonistic force. It can also be an assisting force. It can be a mentoring force. It can be,
00:34:25
Speaker
just something good because there's good as well as bad. It's always about how it's interacted, how it changes, how it grows. It's about the narrative of the story. is Again, like ultimately, every aspect of a RPG is part of the story.
00:34:44
Speaker
Yes. And how your characters interact with that is the most important factor. yeah i I don't remember what game it was.
00:34:58
Speaker
But around the same time as that original Star Wars campaign, we were experimenting with different systems to see which one would stick.
00:35:10
Speaker
And ultimately Star Wars ended sticking. I don't remember which system it was, but my roommate at the time made a character I want to say that I was proposing running a DC heroes campaign and he made this character for that.
00:35:31
Speaker
And, but what, ah what he came up with was it's actually kind of similar to your Delta green character, Robert is that he was a Oh yeah. We do have to talk about that at least. Oh, I will definitely talk about,
00:35:49
Speaker
I'll definitely talk about him. But he he was a Catholic priest who was part of a super, super secret sub order. um I don't remember what he called it. I know what I now call it because I have ideas to to transform the concept into a series of books and a Genesis setting yeah for that matter.
00:36:16
Speaker
it was even It went even further than yours, Robert. It wasn't just, yes, we know the supernatural exists and we're going to do some things to push back on it.
00:36:29
Speaker
They had an arsenal of mystical weapons and tools and things like that that they used to combat the supernatural. It was a great character. That's part of why the character has stuck with me, even though I don't think we ever played that game.
00:36:48
Speaker
No. The character stuck with It's shame. The character stuck with me and why I have ideas for stories for this character, and that he was a world-weary character,
00:37:02
Speaker
because of all of the things that he'd seen. And it also had an interesting twist. The reason I think it was DC heroes is because I remember thinking that there was an interesting twist there to be had an interesting angle of if you're this kind of character from this kind of organization in a world that has the supernatural and the superhuman,
00:37:32
Speaker
Where do you draw the line? How do you differentiate what is supernatural and what is superhuman and what is under your purview and needs to be eliminated based upon your belief system?
00:37:51
Speaker
That is interesting. That's an interesting concept. Yeah, that is a good question. And spoiler alert. What is technically a blessing? What is also then like, oh, you just fell into the wrong type of toxic sluts. Guess you're a superhero. Yeah. What's what's blessing and what's basically mutation? Honestly, like you could argue like.
00:38:11
Speaker
Or are mutations blessings? there's like That's again like, if you're if like the classic example is like the Hulk. is the Hulk a, the Hulk could be a mutant, but all could be mutated by the gamma bomb. But it was also like, well, anyone else would have died.
00:38:29
Speaker
yeah It's also that. Yeah. And he also would have died. So maybe there is a hand in that. And spoiler alert, as you, as we all know, as a GM, you, you,
00:38:44
Speaker
take and you you get player buy-in, but you you take liberties to build out a little bit, some usually with that player's assistance, that organization that they're part of.
00:39:01
Speaker
And so what I had rolling around in the back of my head that was going to be a penny drop later on Is that... Oh, wait, is this a spoiler alert?
00:39:16
Speaker
Yes. His immediate superior, having had been, you know, out in the trenches like he was years before, but and because of everything that he'd seen and looking for a shortcut to get rid of all of this supernatural evil, had aligned himself with the supernatural big bad.
00:39:41
Speaker
Ooh. The road to hell, as they say. Save good in Dungeons. So that petty drop was going to be in there, but again, we never played that campaign.
00:39:57
Speaker
I don't know. I didn't hear it. I didn't hear it. I didn't hear no bell.
00:40:04
Speaker
ah There might be two missing of listeners to this episode so in case you might be interested. Wink, wink, nods, nods. but Yes, and then I'll jump on that since we're talking about not just using religious institutions or people, but also just maybe making character steeped in a religious belief.
Character Development in Delta Green
00:40:27
Speaker
Like in our Delta Green campaign, my character is Father Castillo, who is actually part of the Vatican, like the actual Catholic Church, but he works in the exorcism department, because I was like, okay, Delta Green's all about secret organizations that know about the supernatural. Well, the Vatican does have an entire department full of exorcists, so they're the ones that know about the supernatural, that work with Delta Green and other organizations that know this, so Castillo is a liaison, basically, in our group between them and the Vatican, and he is
00:41:04
Speaker
deeply religious, deeply believes in God, and he has to struggle with that full set on belief versus what he's experiencing in every case.
00:41:15
Speaker
Like, we're going through impossible landscapes, dealing with the king in yellow, and guess Theo is just get dead set on on his faith in God. Even when he's seeing all this, he's he's trying not to waver. actually really helps because there's a whole lot of like, like the King in Yellow has a whole lot to do with a whole lot of different religiosities. And it's it's a very fascinating, there's some great videos out there on on YouTube.
00:41:45
Speaker
Yes. and One by Windigo, really good. Yes. am my play And my character my player character actually has a lot of willpower, a lot of power itself to reflect that religious belief.
00:41:58
Speaker
And it's going to be fun going through it to have him confront these things versus his deep belief. And even you, Nick, pointed out in delta green in the Delta Green universe that a belief in something can even turn into into something real in that.
00:42:17
Speaker
And it's showing between how he's steadfast. He'll take a sanity hit, but he'll still rely. He won't try and break. We'll see in the future how once he eventually reaches a breakpoint it's Delta Green, how that'll actually work. But it's basically the nature of like, there's nothing that disproves rus the Christian God in Delta Green.
00:42:39
Speaker
Everything else is an Eldritch being of incredible power that can grant power and manipulates the very fabric of reality like a God. Yes. and So honestly, the closest thing is like, without further spoiling, but like the King of Yellow is the closest thing to like being like belief makes it real.
00:43:00
Speaker
Yes. And it's going to be fun exploring that. And it's also fun that I so that I've established that the priest also got hands. Oh, like, you're currently regarding in the quote-unquote off-season of Impossible Landscapes.
00:43:18
Speaker
Impossible Locations. it like And we just sort of, whenever we ask, like, where is the father? He's just, he's doing hands or some demons. Pretty much. He's just, we've got death metal in the background as I'm just fighting against a demon in the mountains or something.
00:43:39
Speaker
And so when he did come in your first off session, off one shot where we were dealing with Slenderman and he, the priest actually, and his beliefs had to make a choice and did something, which did something else, which may be fun to establish later.
00:44:02
Speaker
Well, and you know, it, Spoiler alert for for future you downtime stuff in Delta Green, since the group's characters are starting to bond, when Rook gets married a few sessions from now, he's going to ask Padre to officiate.
00:44:28
Speaker
He'll be like, oh, usually I'm not that type of priest, but hey, why not? It's a joyous occasion for change. He's like, oh, I'm not trying to drive a demon out of someone. I'm joining someone in a little bit of a patrimony. He comes in with crucifix and a shotgun and is like, oh. Oh, this is just in case.
00:44:51
Speaker
I'll set this right is Is this not what is meant by shotgun wedding? I thought we were going to Vegas.
00:45:02
Speaker
Yes, that's So yeah, we've talked about... That's a way that makes sense story-wise, you know since the group is becoming Rook's friends, if for him to invite the father to the wedding and explain why he knows a priest from the Vatican.
00:45:23
Speaker
ah like you know my travels i made people so i do is I like to imagine that that Rook would explain it to to his bride. to abuse like Don't worry.
00:45:37
Speaker
I know a guy.
00:45:40
Speaker
You know a guy. Impadret. He was just in the middle of like yeah they face and like think facing down was like, wait, wait.
00:45:54
Speaker
i got a call Or it's like, I'm a little busy at the moment.
00:46:02
Speaker
A wedding. I may have done one or two of those. Like when I was really, really young. Like, really young. Just hear a couple like, shotgun blasts going on. I was like, I'm on the phone. Hold them down.
00:46:21
Speaker
I just figured I'd give you that little preview there. I can pencil you in for like...
00:46:28
Speaker
Well, luckily I've got to be back in the States for a little bit, so why not? But, you know, naturally that would be a session that both of us have to be player characters in, so Nick's going to have to figure out how to how to work a wedding into the larger... Oh, is he going to crash your wedding?
00:46:48
Speaker
Who knows? Maybe. Maybe.
00:46:53
Speaker
nick' I got some ideas. Nick's gonna kill Rook's Bride. Ooh. ah there's... And Nick, let me say... Daryl, Delta Green killing is is merciful.
00:47:09
Speaker
Nick, let me just say right here and now... Let me just say right here and now, don't you dare, because his currently...
00:47:22
Speaker
in the timeline, girlfriend is very heavily inspired by Winona Ryder. So don't you dare. so In Delta Green, there are fates far worse than that. Nick?
00:47:39
Speaker
Nick?
00:47:43
Speaker
You do that.
00:47:47
Speaker
I bring a calculator. Ah!
00:47:50
Speaker
Ah! Put back that Raven symbol. That's one way I could drive Nick mad in one of my Delta Green sessions is that I'm going to have the entity or the monster related around math.
00:48:04
Speaker
yeah This is true. We've killed Nick. yeah he'll He'll come back.
00:48:16
Speaker
But yes, we've talked about that. But I guess the big question is How do you make a religion?
Crafting Religions for Games
00:48:24
Speaker
And we're not going to say, no you do not have to go full deep dive. You got to go every single tenant, every single made up sacrament you think of just kind of in the broad structures thing.
00:48:37
Speaker
What do they believe in? is this one of those religions that is more about a set of tenants? Do they actually have a God goddess entity thing they actually worship?
00:48:49
Speaker
Are they more of moral, philosophical philosophical type of religion? Usually the quickest way is to go from the top down. Exactly. Is there a deity?
00:49:00
Speaker
Is there a deity? That starts with like, it can't be an actual, like, this is a deity. It has powers and it has access on the world. It could be just incredibly powerful and people believe it to be a deity.
00:49:17
Speaker
Yes, to speech basically the D&D method. Like, is it one of the deities? Or is it just a big, powerful beast or entity that people are just treating as a deity?
00:49:29
Speaker
is it just a something that they that collectively they believe exists, but they have no proof of it being, but they believe that there is a deity there? Which can then filter down.
00:49:40
Speaker
Power. Does it have power on the on the world? Yes. Now, when i get when I did the Holy Church of the Instrumentality, I was fortunate in that since I was lifting it from the Dreadstar comic, dropping it into Star Wars and making tweaks for it to fit into Star Wars, Jim Starlin did a lot of that heavy lifting for me already.
00:50:07
Speaker
So already had the fact that there were the 12 gods of the instrumentality. And ah all of that was already there.
00:50:19
Speaker
But that's a great place to start first. And like you like you were saying at the intro to this portion of the topic, you don't need to come up with every word of everything that the church believes in, that the religion believes in. You don't need to go full R.R. Tolkien on it. You don't need to yeah do that.
00:50:46
Speaker
Yeah, there there are. you you just Honestly, you'd be surprised, and this is sort of a GM sort of sort of like behind the screen sort of thing. like, just a little bit goes a long way.
00:51:03
Speaker
You don't have to put a whole bunch into it. just in just a You'd be surprised how little it takes to get them to buy in And what I found was very useful. ah Useful is a better word than helpful for me was that I had their overarching philosophy, that whole, you know, instrumentality of the force and AI like droids and things like that are sacrilege because they are an imitation of life.
00:51:39
Speaker
Bad thing, bad thing. That allowed me the freedom to, in sessions where I was using the instrumentality, to introduce smaller details here and there.
00:51:54
Speaker
Again, that's that's the way you you start with the broad stroke. Yeah. And then in the scenes with like characters, like is someone praying? Is someone practicing?
00:52:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's basically... Fill in the detail then. Yeah, you get the entity or whatever they believe in, and then you just think, okay, how would a believer look like in practice? Do they pray? Do they meditate?
00:52:23
Speaker
Are they wearing specific clothing? Do they have a specific ah iconography? A symbol, of weapon? What do they view as sins, and what do they view as virtues?
00:52:35
Speaker
That can go a long way to establish how they act. How do they interact with an average person? That it goes a long way before you interact with like the player character.
00:52:46
Speaker
And then once you so once you have that, you can now think, okay, now the the organization of the actual entity. Is there a hierarchy? Is it more freestyle?
00:52:59
Speaker
Just like everyone does what they believe is the right way? Or is there a hierarchy of power in the entity? Can it change? Are they voted in? Is it more like a dynastic, like once they die, their child becomes a new one?
00:53:13
Speaker
they gather in a specific location, or is it just a they know each other and they just sort of practice in private? Is their temperament more pacifistic, or are they or do they have a hint of martial in them, like they're not afraid to spread their religion by force?
00:53:31
Speaker
Or are they more letting people come to them or going to them telling them what they believe and just waiting to see how they respond, not trying to force them into it. Like you will join us or you will be cured.
00:53:47
Speaker
Are they actively just looking at citizens for recruitment or are they trying to get themselves into like, uh, the local government or businesses?
00:53:58
Speaker
And I'll another thing to consider too, have they been multiple of these things through time, through history?
00:54:10
Speaker
ah Again, age as well. For example, did they start off as, you know, more... I don't know what the word I'm looking for here is. Did did they start off as more, or actually probably less engaged with others directly regarding their belief system?
00:54:38
Speaker
And over time, did they become more militant and militarized? Again, we the best way is, again, like we do always go back to Star Wars. like the The founding of the Jedi Order.
00:54:56
Speaker
Yeah, isn't it? it was initially... And religious monks across just brought to Tython. Yeah, who initially just stayed there, let the galaxy do its thing until the Republic came to them.
00:55:10
Speaker
And learned about the power. I'll join you. And they eventually became part of the wider galaxy, but they also had their own infighting, which caused the first great schism. Yes, and that's also the thing you got ask.
00:55:23
Speaker
Do you want there to be two different religions out of the same thing? That was because of a schism. Well, and like going to what I was talking about there, it kind of a using the instrumentality as an example again.
00:55:39
Speaker
the The way I kind of saw it, I don't think I ever actually expressed this to the players because it wasn't anything that came up so they wouldn't necessarily know.
00:55:51
Speaker
But originally, the instrument the Holy Church of the Instrumentality was more insular and more focused inward.
00:56:05
Speaker
And at some point... Like a change in leadership. A change in leadership that was sparked by you kind of the the forces of the galaxy as droids became more commonplace and things like that.
00:56:27
Speaker
That change in leadership and pushback from the galaxy's lifestyle as a whole caused them to become more not extroverted, but more forceful in trying to spread the word. What what began as protecting their beliefs verged on becoming a crusade.
Evolution of Religious Beliefs in RPGs
00:56:54
Speaker
Yeah, like kind of that belief of, if we believe this to be a sacrament, why aren't we stopping this? Yes. Or like, oh I'm actually thinking, this isn't religious-wise, but as kind of like the movie The Black Panther,
00:57:08
Speaker
where Honda is very isolated. They literally have like a shield hiding their advanced civilization. And then the outsider comes in like, why are we doing this? We've got to be sharing this with the rest of the world. Come on. Let's bring our brothers out of poverty. Bring them out of the muck.
00:57:23
Speaker
Instead of just hoarding it. And when you factor in a charismatic leader who knows how to push dogma, does does that also mean that the everyday rank and file adherence to, to the, with people being like, well, the the ways that we had before can can still work. And others are like, no, you agree with the new, yeah it creates, it creates an interesting conflict.
00:57:56
Speaker
Also, does that almost force the rank and to become more dogmatic? Because you have that charismatic leader who has this push that they're appealing to your to what you believe are your better angels because we're trying to spread this good thing to more people.
00:58:25
Speaker
And they don't want to hear it, so here's how we're going to do it. and then so These all c create... yeah like but but most people do ah The key fundamental of all storytelling is a conflict.
00:58:42
Speaker
It could be small. It could be large. It could be within a group, such as an interior leader, religious group that has a conflict within its own leadership and growing, or externally, a religious group acting on another group.
00:59:00
Speaker
Yes, and I think a good thing to remember is with any group, political, business, religious, no matter what you do. They're not a model. There is never going to be a 100% united front barring like hive mind situations where they're literally all just one thing.
00:59:16
Speaker
There's always going to be conflict. Things of like, I think this is the better way to do it, or this is the better practice to adhere to these ideals. Or like, I can do business better this way by doing this. or Some may feel it's like, society works so much better if I do X. No, we should do Y instead, etc. I can see the benefits of what this charismatic individual is doing, but maybe they're going too far in one area, but I don't have the power to stop them.
00:59:42
Speaker
Yeah. We're saying yeah you can make your your religious institution complex, or if you just want to go with a full, no, this is just a cults who wants to bring their god in here to enslave the entire world yeah you can have the just the straight on bad guys but again the the the main factor is like there were always it's what makes sense for the story and often it is though a thorny issue to bring about it is a conflict generator yeah that's what a lot of narratives pivot around yeah and there's
01:00:22
Speaker
And it's never a bad thing that if what you're doing and the player characters respond in a certain way or it evokes a conflict even within the group, because maybe, like we've talked about, some people may be part of this religious group or be leaning towards it or find their beliefs to be good.
01:00:41
Speaker
Or like in our D&D campaign, the Church of the Silver Flame is against shifters and one of our characters is a shifter. she is very, very...
01:00:53
Speaker
on the other side, like, I want nothing to do with these people, they'll just kill me. but the shift But, the Silver Flame has no general problem with most of the other players, and honestly are having someone to be doing little bit heavy-handed.
01:01:09
Speaker
You've all seen the same thing. They are doing their best. Yes, and correct me if I'm wrong, Nick, but they're not really expansive. They're more just in one place, right?
01:01:21
Speaker
Currently, the They were expansive during the war. Now that the war is on pause, they are just consolidating where they are. Yes.
01:01:33
Speaker
And that's also a thing to think about with your religious institution. like Basically, kind of like anything at the end, what is their goal? Do they want to spread it over the and in the entire setting to where everyone is a believer? Do they just want to be left to their own devices?
01:01:51
Speaker
Do they, i don't know, even want to like leave the setting, like we don't want to deal with any of you, we want to go somewhere else. I'd say without spoilers. The pilgrims went to America to be like, so we can practice over here instead.
01:02:04
Speaker
I'll say without spoilers for the campaign and most interpretations of the Silver Flame in Everon games, they are, or let's say, do think that they should be the religion overall, but they aren't going to reignite the war on their own.
01:02:22
Speaker
true If war restarts, then they will expand to end the war. Yeah. We were saying, like, bad or good, complex or simple.
01:02:36
Speaker
Again, like, Everon's a very complex system with a lot of different orders. There's there's an entire... There's two sets, the the the Dark Six and the Sovereign Host, but both are not considered bad or evil. They're just, like, two sides of the same coin.
01:02:51
Speaker
Yes, and it's just However you do it, complex simple, good or bad, free thinking or organized, militant or pacifist.
01:03:02
Speaker
Cult. Cult or more established. You can do lot of things. They add a lot of flavor to your world and a lot of easy, good world building. It's just with having a bit of religion in there because people always believe in things.
01:03:23
Speaker
Yes, and and it's also a good idea to think on your setting, like, would a religion like this actually fit in this world? For example, like, an established, like, fantasy-like religion like the Silver Flame or the Church of the... Sovereign Hosts.
01:03:43
Speaker
Yeah. yeah That wouldn't really fit in a cyberpunk campaign. yeah It's all about dystopian. There is no religion. and The religion is money.
01:03:53
Speaker
The religion is money. The actual religion is money. But there are those that are are monks that do believe in like sort of. There are monks. There are still like churches. Yeah, there's still monks. There are still churches. but They're the outliers. They're not the main focus. Your main focus in the cyberpunk campaign is getting enough money to make rent next month so you don't sleep on the street.
01:04:14
Speaker
But that gives and unique flavor in the areas. It's like, yeah, you see these places of people clinging to the old time religions. Yeah. So you you also got to think, okay, would this fit here? Would this fit there? You always got to play to your setting, of course.
01:04:31
Speaker
Like but when most people wouldn't think of like a a pastor as being like a good choice for Delta Green when it makes a lot of sense when especially when you came to me with the concept of your character.
01:04:44
Speaker
It's like, yeah, theyre theyre the Catholic Church is old enough to be to be knowledgeable of certain things and also secretive enough with the church, the exorcism side of things.
01:04:58
Speaker
Yes. Even in a world where arguably there is no traditional Judeo-Christian God in that cosmology, it's the belief and power That exists throughout that.
01:05:16
Speaker
Yeah, and still in this in this universe, it's still the modern world. And when there are still the modern religions in it. Yeah. Even if in that setting, they might not be entirely real as they are in our world. Yeah.
01:05:33
Speaker
It takes... It is part of the fun of the imagination and world building. Honestly, it gives you all that stuff. you just go crazy with Yeah. Yeah, go crazy with it. Like, if you see... like Always a good example is like D&D, how they just took it and ran with it.
01:05:48
Speaker
There are so many gods, goddesses, dark gods, good gods, devil kings. There's everything in there. every like Depending on the setting, every single race has their own set of gods who may or may not be the same gods for everybody or just entirely separate for everybody. Exactly. Exactly.
01:06:09
Speaker
It could be like, oh, the human god is named this, and the elf god is named this, and the dwarf god is named this. Or it's like, no, no. There's the elf gods, the dwarf gods, and the human gods, and the other human gods.
01:06:22
Speaker
Yeah. And the drow, and the dwegar, and the orc, and the goblins. But this actually brings me to another point. It's like, you've got your religion, you've got their tenets, you've got how they're organized, how they act.
01:06:35
Speaker
Do they actually maybe give... players or NPCs of that religion any type of powers? And if so, how are those powers used to act out? Like Daryl says, they use the force by basically using prayer chants. yeah well Or like the Nightsisters do incantations.
01:06:54
Speaker
Well, if your religion gives the people in it some type powers, how is that shown? like Do they have to do like interate intricate tattoos on their bodies and when they use the power of their religion or their God, do they light up and that's how they can use magic?
01:07:11
Speaker
Do they expect a symbol or like item that's like been blessed in a certain way build their power? Are they known for like scepters? Are they known for like talismans? Are they known for spell books or religious books? Can they actually communicate with the deity? is like is it a Can they just be like, hop on...
01:07:35
Speaker
on on a call and be like, hey, give me some guidance or something. Or they need to go to someplace special or sacred to like meditate and commune with the being.
01:07:47
Speaker
yeah Do they have holy sites? Do they actually have sites like this is a holy site, people go to pilgrimage here? Do they use Do they use temples? Do they have just simple houses?
01:07:58
Speaker
it is that they have like... Supples? Holy ground. like a To go back to ah to a fun reference, ah ah Highlander. Highlander has some really fun rules about religious science. definitely.
01:08:13
Speaker
and is like and You can't find it on holy ground. And those rules evolved as it went from what was ostensibly a standalone movie in the mid-80s... to a multi-season TV series in the 90s.
01:08:31
Speaker
But it expanded on what was holy ground. where could you it's like You can't fight on holy ground. and it like like is that It's all from like ah churches, from churches to graveyards to other religious sites. It's like, we can't fight holy ground. We commune here.
01:08:49
Speaker
And originally, it that was just a rule that they all followed. in the movie. And then as the TV series went on, they expanded on that lore and said, no, no, there's a power to that holy ground that affects them. the last yeah You literally cannot fight on holy ground.
01:09:13
Speaker
The last time two immortals fought on holy ground was in Pompeii. Ooh, that's nice. or like like Or like, can they...
01:09:24
Speaker
actually invoke like an avatar of their God to actually calm down. Like, can they summon down the power of the the Lord to us smite their enemy?
01:09:37
Speaker
Or is it like something that has to be done through them that they can only do? Or if they if they break their tenets, can they actually be abandoned by their religion, by their deity? Kind of like how a paladin does if they break their oath.
01:09:51
Speaker
They become a kind ah come a dark paladin. They lose their honor. They lose their connection. But they do gain dark powers from a different source.
01:10:02
Speaker
Exactly. Or heck, they even choose to be in this religion. Because we've seen sometimes that a deity or an entity will latch onto someone and be like, you're mine now.
01:10:15
Speaker
Are you chosen become to become a part of this. Are you chosen to be th their messenger, their prophet? Like, people say like, oh, the angels come and they say, be not afraid. is like, you should be afraid if they're coming in the true form. That means you're a prophet.
01:10:36
Speaker
you're you're you're They're coming with responsibility now. And you can't say no to that. that And that kind of concept was explored not a stepping out of RPGs for a moment, and but in comics, the superhero, the Spectre, who dates back to the Golden Age. Yeah. As time went on, you know originally, the Spectre was just the ghost of a policeman who was killed by mobsters.
01:11:10
Speaker
And and you he- Pretty simple. Pretty pretty basic. Yeah. But as time went on, they added to his lore that um they they established that the the Judeo-Christian God exists in the DC universe, but doesn't take an active role in any stories. And to to avoid stepping on any one any anyone's toes or beliefs, they refer to this entity as the Presence.
01:11:43
Speaker
But... the Spectre, they added to the lore that the Spectre was identified as God's angel of vengeance, given human form.
01:11:58
Speaker
And when Jim Corrigan, the cop, died, the Spectre took over Corrigan's body. And acted through him as a superhero spirit of vengeance.
01:12:13
Speaker
Yeah, and... yeah once it Once they added that element, some of the stories went super cosmic in scale and scope, or at least in the way he dealt with enemies.
01:12:31
Speaker
Did he turn a guy into like a constantly burning burning mats? That sounds about right. Yeah, it's a good point. Is you is your NPC or player character like the Spectre?
01:12:45
Speaker
Are they a spawn? Are they a ghost writer? yeah Yeah, those are those are great examples as well. Yeah. Like sort of entities that have been. They are that they are embodying a great deal of power, but also contained by their own limitations, obviously by in terms of RPGs and also stories, their role in the story.
01:13:08
Speaker
Yeah. and also. Does your religion have an enemy? like an opposing force, like Jedi and Sith, something like that. Does your deity have a dark deity that they're always fighting against? Like how D&D have gods, kind of like Bahamut and Tiamat, kind of like opposing dragon gods.
01:13:32
Speaker
like there's There's so many ways to look at the situation of releasing it. Honestly, we probably just barely scratched the... ah We barely scratched the surface. If we actually went into like details of like what we what you could pull from other religions, like the Earth's entire history of religions, we could be here. We could think about like how to craft a full religion. If we did, we'd probably be ah we'd probably make our own Scientology and we wouldn't be having the podcast.
01:14:07
Speaker
Creating a fantasy religion. Future episode. I think that sounds like a possibility. Just throwing that out. Oh, and i actually, they they've kind of hinted on this, in some of especially in some of the ancillary media, and Nick touched on it, and Free League has touched on it.
01:14:31
Speaker
A religion that springs up worshipping the xenomorphs.
01:14:38
Speaker
I could see that happening. It's in a lot of the media of like... The old Dark Horse Con, the Deterrence of Immaculate Incense, the Two Divines. There's a whole lot in there.
01:14:52
Speaker
like But that's also based around the Xenomorph's psychic presence. and it's It's always true. It's like an innate human response when you are faced with something you don't understand or that's just so much powerful for you. You can treat it as a deity. Yeah.
01:15:17
Speaker
Well, and...
01:15:25
Speaker
Ooh, don't say pestilence, Nick. going to get my skaven rising. but panestilence And if you're going to bring say replied if you're going to bring, say, the Greek gods into it, there's also the question of...
01:15:45
Speaker
So are we going with the idea that the Greek and Roman gods are the same entities known by different names? Are they two pantheons that have the same abilities and functions and either have a truce or a conflict with one another?
01:16:07
Speaker
Yes. Or is there a cataclysmic event with that pantheon or with that religion in your campaign like did that entire pantheon have a Kratos moment where he killed everybody? And now they the entire humanity is left to pick up the pieces.
01:16:24
Speaker
Because ah and part of that whole, are they the same or are they different? Comes from how a lot of mass media conflates the two. Because you'll have stories that refer to Zeus and Hercules, the Greek and Roman names.
01:16:46
Speaker
Instead of Zeus and Heracles. Yeah.
01:16:54
Speaker
Also, I'm going to say a controversial thing. Pluto's a planet. Where's the controversial thing?
01:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, where is that, Nick? You know we're old enough that that was still a thing in our time. was just saying, someone's going to be in the comments being like, oh, actually, it's a dwarf planet. Like, nope.
01:17:15
Speaker
get Get out of here. Dwarf planet is still planet. Still planet. What's the second word of that phrase? Planet. There you go. Like, I think a dwarf sun is still a sun. I don't think anyone's going to argue that. so i plan right If I throw you into the sun or the dwarf sun, I'm pretty sure the same thing is going to happen.
01:17:37
Speaker
Yep. Indeed. Yay!
01:17:44
Speaker
But yes, don't know. Is there anything else we want to touch on? That's exactly what I was going to say. i think we're pretty good on the concept of like, it again, like many people have talked about these topics and probably, i mean, possibly there are more knowledgeable people about us on these topics, but I'm going to be air that we're pretty knowledgeable.
01:18:10
Speaker
Wait, Robert. we If we reached the end of everything that we wanted to talk about, we totally should have bagged on Nick for Pluto's a planet.
01:18:22
Speaker
Well, I'm saying it is we all agree on that. That's fact. Well, yeah we yeah, we do. But we need to pick on you about something if we're reaching of the show. You know, Nick, he really just wants it to be a planet because he wants it to be bigger. We all know how he likes big jokes.
01:18:45
Speaker
And totally got that for his birthday. He likes big planets and he cannot lie. You other astronomers can't deny. ah had that orbit on him.
01:19:01
Speaker
It's all about the mass. Well, let's calculate the mass, shall we?
Podcast Anniversary Reflections
01:19:07
Speaker
yes Yes. Do you remember the force of gravity, Nick?
01:19:19
Speaker
I think we've got our quota. We've ordered it all around back to it. Yep. So at this point, I will, as always, remind everyone to check out our website at howwerollgaming.com. And there you'll find information about our current campaigns, podcast archive, and links to our merch store and all of our social media.
01:19:42
Speaker
yeah You can also directly support the show through Patreon. Just go to patreon.com slash howweralgaming and you'll see our different membership tiers starting at just $2 a month with special recognition on our Discord server and higher tiers giving you on-air credit and discounts on said merch store.
01:19:58
Speaker
And while, real quick, Nick, before before you do that last part, just a reminder, as we are recording this through the end of 2025, we are still offering
01:20:13
Speaker
special discount on our Patreon membership that if you sign up by December 31st, 2025, you will get 50% off of your first month's support of our wonderful podcast.
01:20:26
Speaker
Yes. And our designer team works very well on the merch store. So definitely take a look. finally if you have any questions you'd like us to answer topics you'd like us to cover or even submit your own rpg glory story shoot us an email at podcast at how we roll gaming and also uh how how you feel about like religion in games some people it again it is a topic that many people would like to talk about yes and Just want to say now, this episode marks the end of the first year of the podcast.
01:21:01
Speaker
Yay! wo So we want to give a year-end thanks to our families, friends, and players for helping us find time and material for the show. We also want to thank the D20 Radio Network for bringing us into the fold, as well as the guests we've had this year, GM Chris and Nate from Tabletop Empire.
01:21:21
Speaker
You helped us make this a first great year, along with all of you viewers at home. you. Yep. And finally, we want to thank all of you for listening or watching if you choose YouTube. We started the podcast by diving into the deep end. And we thank you for letting us mix metaphors and being along for the ride as we figured all of this stuff out.
01:21:48
Speaker
We wish you an incredible and successful new year and humbly invite you to join us in 2026 as we continue having fun sharing our love of games. Oh, can we save it all together?
01:22:02
Speaker
Indeed. Because that is Halloween World.
01:22:11
Speaker
This episode of the How We Roll Gaming podcast is copyright 2025, How We Roll Gaming, LLC. All games and associated intellectual properties are copyrighted their respective owners, and How We Roll Gaming makes no claim of ownership by discussing them here.