Not wishing to offend

[Maccabe]

A question for gamers out there about problems with a setting.
Regarding use of certain settings ; like the Chronicles of Narnia,
or Rome 100 AD, or anywhere in the BC era.
I don't want my players and/or others thinking I'm stepping
on their religious beliefs. So if I want to run a fantasy game
in a setting like those mentioned above, how can it be done
tastefully??
Rome 100 AD; Homosexuality, Persecuted Christians
BC era; Judasim
Narnia; Christian symbolism

These look like setting that would be open to alot of
interesting situations.

HELP!!!

[Ndreare]

A question for gamers out there about problems with a setting.
Regarding use of certain settings ; like the Chronicles of Narnia,
or Rome 100 AD, or anywhere in the BC era.
I don't want my players and/or others thinking I'm stepping
on their religious beliefs. So if I want to run a fantasy game
in a setting like those mentioned above, how can it be done
tastefully??
Rome 100 AD; Homosexuality, Persecuted Christians
BC era; Judasim
Narnia; Christian symbolism

These look like setting that would be open to alot of
interesting situations.

HELP!!!



A question like this is hard to answere as there are so many differnt types of people. I am a "Christian" but do not hold any (or many) very strong "Rite WIng" beliefs however I know others that do.

A game bassed on Christian sybolagy would likly not offend me parsonaly as a player if it was done in good taste, were as I know people that believe any gamming at all is offensive. What you will have to do is propose the idea to your players as individuals and see what they think.

I once had the dishoner of sitting around a game table with a bunch of people who spent as much time bashing Jews and Hypocrite Christians as they did gamming and did not understand why I found it offesive. (They wern't talking about me just most jews and christians... yeh riiiite Ok.)

I think as long as you do not turn it into a bashing contest your players should be fine or at least not offended.


PS: I did not find the narnia books offensive and although I do not think I would enjoy the authers world as a play base I would not be offended by a GM trying it out. Who knows I may be wrong and it could be fun.

[UltraRob]

A question for gamers out there about problems with a setting.
Regarding use of certain settings ; like the Chronicles of Narnia,
or Rome 100 AD, or anywhere in the BC era.
I don't want my players and/or others thinking I'm stepping
on their religious beliefs. So if I want to run a fantasy game
in a setting like those mentioned above, how can it be done
tastefully??
Rome 100 AD; Homosexuality, Persecuted Christians
BC era; Judasim
Narnia; Christian symbolism

These look like setting that would be open to alot of
interesting situations.

HELP!!!

Well, as a general rule, most gamers are fairly open minded about such things, at least in my experience. You are more likely to get racism in jokes and general conversation than you are in the game, and I think most gamers won't care much about the racism in the setting because they understand it's a setting, not reality. Especially with historical gaming, it just goes with the territory, and as long as the GM doesn't seem to be focussing on it (say, persecuting the female PCs especially hard in a sexist setting) I don't think it's going to be a play issue.

Even in the case of a made-up fantasy world, there can be social injustice, but it's accepted to be part of that game world unless specifically the GM is hammering one particular group all the time.

I think a Christian GM could quite capably run a WWII campaign set in occupied France (PCs as freedom fighters, for example) for a predominantly jewish group and they wouldn't bat an eye, unless he went overboard with the Nazi rhettoric, and made sure what anti-semitism there was was kept in-context and coming from the villians.

Rob

[KA.]

Maccabe,
I have a suggestion. You could do what science fiction shows like Star Trek have been doing for years.
Make your own, alternate "Rome", "Jerusalem", "Narnia", etc. and have the action take place there.
This is quite easy in a Fantasy setting.

ex. Rome: A band of Romans has grown weary of the empire, they make a desperate plea to their gods to take them away to a better place.
Rather then ending up on Olympus, they are set down in an Earth-like world that is sparsely inhabited.
At first they create a utopia, but soon, all the problems of the old "Rome" begin to creep in . . .

So, you can have a world that is "like" Rome, without being "Rome".
That will also help you avoid having some history buff constantly tell you that "That isn't exactly right, it should be like this!"
Since your Rome is an alternate world, it wouldn't be exactly the same.

ex. Narnia: Easy as pie. A group of Narnians, a quick trip to the "Wood between the Worlds", see above.

The main thing is, as they often did on Star Trek, if you make your world an offshoot of the "real" world, people tend to take less offense at things that happen.

That is how Star Trek and The Twilight Zone could handle topics like racism, war, etc. without stirring up huge controversies, when you remove it from the "real" world, you can get a better look at the concepts.

Just a suggestion,
KA.

[i3ullseye]

I thrive on using religions and occult themes in my games, but I have gamers in my groups who are not offended by this at all. You have to really judge the individuals, and go from there. a good friend ran a fantasy campaign where everything was either oriental or pagan in design, and our lands were being overun and we were being brutalized by a Christian crusade. It was a blast.

But you have to base it on the individuals involved.

To me, sitting at a game table, you are suspending your reality. No matter what happens, deal with it as your character would. People who get upset and rank, or ask you not to make certain hand symbols while showing how you cast your spell, or not to use certain names while you chant for the necromancer you are playing, etc... etc... well, they can not be 'in the game' and not 'in the world' and need not sit at our table normally.

it is escapism. If you can't escape, then why show up?

[Greatwyrm]

The best way to avoid problems with this is to just go to the players with your basic ideas to begin with. Explain the kind of game you want to run, the time period, and the kind of issues you plan to deal with. If they don't have any problems, go for it. If they do, work around them.

Nothing will cause more serious problems for you or your players than if you start gaming with a "taboo" topic for one of them. I can tell you from experience, even if you have something touchy happen off-stage to a character and not go into detail, you can still end up with plenty of misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Games should be fun. If they players tell you up front it won't be, then it won't.