Testament

[GestaltBennie]

In case you hadn't heard (and cared), my next game, a d20 game set in the Biblical lands of the Old Testament is going to be produced in April by Green Ronin. You can find information for it here (http://www.greenronin.com/press_releases/index.php?id=testament_pr)

Scott Bennie

[Jeff T.]

Ooh, the ultimate in controversy. An RPG based on the bible. The religious extremist will love that.

Will this be 'preachy' in any, Scott? I guess meaning, will there be an "overlying Christianity/Judaism is right and good" and anything is else bad? And what will a prophet of the God of Israel be able to do? Will they be just like your standard RPG cleric or something different? Perhaps performing miracles? Should you have a decent amount of biblical knowledge to play?

Just curious, not trying to start a Holy War or anything. :)

P.S. I like that Sam Wood's working on it. He's one of my favs.

[Edsel]

This could be good or bad. Of course most anything is either good or bad. It's an interesting idea.

I'm just not sure what to think? It has at least aroused my curiosity.:confused:

[Storn]

Congratulations Scott. That is very cool.

[GestaltBennie]

Originally posted by Starlord
Ooh, the ultimate in controversy. An RPG based on the bible. The religious extremist will love that.

Will this be 'preachy' in any, Scott? I guess meaning, will there be an "overlying Christianity/Judaism is right and good" and anything is else bad? And what will a prophet of the God of Israel be able to do? Will they be just like your standard RPG cleric or something different? Perhaps performing miracles? Should you have a decent amount of biblical knowledge to play?]

The preachiness will come from the DM. If you play from an Israelite perspective, then God *is* right and the ungodly are wrong. If you play from another perspective, then things are not quite so cut and dried.

Prophets are a prestige class that can attach onto any other class (who meet the skill and feat requirements), as Prophets can come from all walks of life. Their powers center around revelations and divinatipns they're also the only people in an Israelite centered campaign who can raise the dead. Levite Priests are similar to normal priests, but are freer in spell selection; also, instead of turning undead, they cast out demons from the demonically possessed.

Having Biblical knowledge would be an asset in an Israelite centered campaign.

Scott Bennie

[GestaltBennie]

Originally posted by Storn
Congratulations Scott. That is very cool.

Thanks Storn. Much appreciated.

Scott Bennie

[Delthrien]

I pre-ordered my copy from Amazon last week. I also ordered a couple of Neil Gaiman novels to tide me over 'til it ships... Should be an interesting gaming experience after I finish reading American Gods"... ;)

I look forward to reading it, Scott.

Very cool! :D

[Hermit]

This is very bold. Very cool. I think I like it.
I'm a bit traditional myself though, so I'll probably just have a long haired character grab a jawbone and start whaling on someone. ;)

[Jeff T.]

Originally posted by GestaltBennie
The preachiness will come from the DM. If you play from an Israelite perspective, then God *is* right and the ungodly are wrong. If you play from another perspective, then things are not quite so cut and dried.

Prophets are a prestige class that can attach onto any other class (who meet the skill and feat requirements), as Prophets can come from all walks of life. Their powers center around revelations and divinatipns they're also the only people in an Israelite centered campaign who can raise the dead. Levite Priests are similar to normal priests, but are freer in spell selection; also, instead of turning undead, they cast out demons from the demonically possessed.

Having Biblical knowledge would be an asset in an Israelite centered campaign.

Scott Bennie

Thanks, Scott. Congrats by the way.

Now get back to work on the new VIPER book! :)

[Herolover]

I had heard about that book and didn't have an interest in picking it up. Now that I know who wrote it I am going to have to look for it.

[GestaltBennie]

A preview for the book is now available at www.greenronin.com.

Scott Bennie

[JohnTaber]

Very cool Scott. Knowing your work it will rock! :D

[Blue]

Bible? Pfffah. They totally ripped off Highlander when they wrote that ;)

Actually this sounds kinda fun. I'll be an apostle with ninja capabilities and webshooters. Now *that's* old testament, baby.

[GestaltBennie]

As a final word of spam :-), it should be on store shelves this week.

Scott Bennie

[Polaris]

Scott,

I just read this thread, so please forgive how late my reply is.

Before I go further, let me say that I do NOT mean any offense to anyone's beliefs or sensibilities.

I have taught at two different (quite different) Christian universities, as well as public universities and colleges. The difference is as stark as one could imagine. When I am teaching at a private (religiously owned) university (I teach at a Catholic University, a Quaker University, and have recently been talked to about teaching some at a Mormon University), there is a belief in what one Dean told me is "one truth--God's truth". Any discussion in pursuit of truth necessarily is a pursuit of God's truth, and can therefore not contradict the principle of "integration" (and the pursuit of God's truth... ie, we could bring in Christianity, any other religion, science, philosophy, etc in the pursuit of truth without violating 'academic freedom').

My first term at a local public college (and this is not at all against public colleges... I graduated from a public university, and do believe the quality of education to be roughly equal, and mostly a determinent of the students and individual professors), our history teacher (tenured, by the way) was FIRED (or pushed into 'early retirement') for bringing his religious views into class. I have known other professors that have done so with impunity.

The point of this long post is that in the religious school (where many of the students are of similar faith), there was not much concern about offending people. In the public college (where the beliefs were as varied as one could find in this country), someone got fired for offending the relgious beliefs of some.

You, my friend, are a VERY brave person for taking this assignment! :) The Bible represents some of the best stories and "myth" (Myth here meaning a belief that affects many other people, and NOT that a myth as in a story that is untrue) out there... it is one heck of an idea for a role playing game.

Polaris

[Delthrien]

Bad News: For the first time, Amazon mucked up my order... got the Gaiman novels okay, but there was a glitch with the order for Testament and they cancelled it. :(

Good News: After a (very) brief e-mail exchange, Amazon is re-ordering the book for me, and sending it to me in two days. :)

Not So Good, But Not Really Bad News: The book won't arrive until Saturday, by which time I'll be in Florida for a vacation. I'll have to wait another week and a half before I can read more than what's in the preview... :p

We now return you to your regularly scheduled debauchery... Carry on.

Charlie

[GestaltBennie]

Originally posted by Polaris
You, my friend, are a VERY brave person for taking this assignment! :) The Bible represents some of the best stories and "myth" (Myth here meaning a belief that affects many other people, and NOT that a myth as in a story that is untrue) out there... it is one heck of an idea for a role playing game.

Polaris

Thanks. but I don't think of it as particularly brave. It's just too cool a milleu to run a game in to pass up. When Chris Pramas mentioned the idea of doing a game in it, I just couldn't pass it up. It'd have been insane *not* to have written the book.

And the initial feedback has been very gratifying.

Scott Bennie

[GestaltBennie]

Originally posted by Delthrien
Not So Good, But Not Really Bad News: The book won't arrive until Saturday, by which time I'll be in Florida for a vacation. I'll have to wait another week and a half before I can read more than what's in the preview... :p

We now return you to your regularly scheduled debauchery... Carry on.

Charlie

Well Charlie, my good news is now that VIPER's finished, I now have a little spare time between assignments to write my stories for the next Titans of Tomorrow turn.

Scott

[Delthrien]

Originally posted by GestaltBennie
Well Charlie, my good news is now that VIPER's finished, I now have a little spare time between assignments to write my stories for the next Titans of Tomorrow turn.

Scott

Yeah, I've been meaning to harass you about that, but my own predisposition for procrastination has hindered me... somewhat... I think I just sprained my fingers typing that... :D

Charlie

[Rook]

On a side note, I once played in a Champions game that had a "Second Coming" storyline. Was the person claiming to be Christ the real deal? Was it all part of some supervillain's evil scheme? The heroes had some choices to make. :)

[Gary Ciaramella]

I borrowed James Gillen's copy of Testament the other day out of curiosity, and I must say... wonderful job! I have not read enough of it yet to provide a review, but it truly has drawn me in so far and has me wanting to play a d20 game. That in itself is quite an acomplishment.

Thanks Scott for creating such gaming goodness... going to buy my own copy as soon as my budget permits! :)

[JohnTaber]

Hi Scott: Not sure it you caught this review...
Review Of Testament (http://www.gamingreport.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=703)
AWESOME!

[Agent X]

Originally posted by Delthrien
Yeah, I've been meaning to harass you about that, but my own predisposition for procrastination has hindered me... somewhat... I think I just sprained my fingers typing that... :D

Charlie How can I get in on this Titans of Tomorrow action?

[Delthrien]

E-mail me with a character idea (incl. powers, background and a write-up, if you've got one...) and we can take it from there. If you can fit it into existing events, so much the better (less tweaking necessary...).

A Caveat: owing in no small part to my own procrastination as well as an enormous amount of written material (Curse you, Scott, for your prolific tendencies...;) ), the game has slowed pretty much to a crawl.

However, if you're still game, Come on in... (http://members.cox.net/titansoftomorrow/all.html)

[Agent X]

Originally posted by Delthrien
E-mail me with a character idea (incl. powers, background and a write-up, if you've got one...) and we can take it from there. If you can fit it into existing events, so much the better (less tweaking necessary...).

A Caveat: owing in no small part to my own procrastination as well as an enormous amount of written material (Curse you, Scott, for your prolific tendencies...;) ), the game has slowed pretty much to a crawl.

However, if you're still game, Come on in... (http://members.cox.net/titansoftomorrow/all.html) Cool, I'm going to read the issues already out before I come up with an idea. You'll be hearing from me soon.:)

[Delthrien]

Then I hope you read quickly. Otherwise, it may be months before we hear from you... Hell, it may be months anyway. One of the more recent Issues came in at just under 200,000 words...

Charlie

[Edsel]

I snagged a copy of this today at my Friendly Local Game Shop. It looks pretty cool. I have no idea when our groups gaming schedule will permit us to give it a try, but it looks like good work.

[GestaltBennie]

Just to let you know, Testament has been no,minated for Best Supplement in the InQuest Gamer Fan Awards.

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazines/inquest/IQ20040107-FanAwards.cfm

If you feel like voting for it, or something like Arcana Unearthed, or writing in a cool Hero book like the UNTIL Super Powers Directory (or Shades of Black in the adventure category), click on the link and vote.

Scott Bennie

[Bartman]

Originally posted by GestaltBennie
Just to let you know, Testament has been no,minated for Best Supplement in the InQuest Gamer Fan Awards.

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazines/inquest/IQ20040107-FanAwards.cfm

If you feel like voting for it, or something like Arcana Unearthed, or writing in a cool Hero book like the UNTIL Super Powers Directory (or Shades of Black in the adventure category), click on the link and vote.

Good for you Scott. I've done my part for you.

[GestaltBennie]

Originally posted by Bartman
Good for you Scott. I've done my part for you.

Thanks Bartman! Much appreciated1

Scott Bennie

[Catacomb]

So you can finally get 'Old Testament' on somebody? Sweet.:D

Congrats!

[Michael Hopcroft]

This may pave the way for a project I'd been considering publishing (that has been pushed into the background by other commitments and lack of a truly knwoeldgable writer) -- an RPG supplement set in Book of Mormon-era Mesoamerica. I'm sure it would be even more controversial than Testament and would probably appeal to a more limited audience, but the idea continues to intrigue me.

[Lord Mhoram]

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft
an RPG supplement set in Book of Mormon-era Mesoamerica. I'm sure it would be even more controversial than Testament and would probably appeal to a more limited audience, but the idea continues to intrigue me.

Well you would have one sale here. :D

That was one of the things I loved about Diomon. The little references dropped here and there, that if you knew what they were, made you go "hey.. cool" but if you didn't then it didn't impact your enjoyment of the book either way.

[Spike Y Jones]

Originally posted by Lord Mhoram
That was one of the things I loved about Diomon. The little references dropped here and there, that if you knew what they were, made you go "hey.. cool" but if you didn't then it didn't impact your enjoyment of the book either way.

I *knew* that stuff looked familiar!

As for a commercial Book of Mormon d20 project in the vein of Green Ronin's Testament, while I've seen the question brought up on other boards, I'm sure the market would be exceedingly small.

Spike Y Jones, editor, Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era

[lemming]

And does it come with a pack of Testamints (http://www.testamints.com) :)

[Armitage]

What I find most amusing about Testament is that some of the art was done by my friend Toren.
A biblical RPG with art by the lead singer of a Cthulhu-inspired rock band. :D