Gods and Champions

[Enforcer84]

hmm...I've played a couple gods, demigods, even metagods, and have had players who had angelic, demonic, or divine PCs. The full religious implications never got too heavy in terms of public relations, but there were a few clashes here and there...we had an angel and a half-demon and a pagan demigod on one team at the same time

Team meetings must have been an experience in frustration for everyone.

[megaplayboy]

Team meetings must have been an experience in frustration for everyone.

well, generally it was bad form to try to convert anyone at the team meetings

In a more recent game, there was a PC priest of Imhotep and a very devout Christian on the same team...that got a little heated...

[Just A Guy Name]

Does anyone know where I can get more information on this team?

I wish I could help you out more, Worldm, but my comics collection was purged a long time ago. That particular storyline of The Elementals (featuring The Rapture) was not one that I liked and I cannot recall any details about it, or them, now. I got their individual names from the international hero site. They were: Exodus 10:21, Genesis 6:4, Isaiah 6:2, Judges 15:14, Leviticus 26:22, and Matthew 27:51.

[Doctor Agenda]

I have a thing for playing myth-based characters, I even ran a campaign with a team premise that everyone's character would have a origin related to myth or at least a myth-based theme. I used the standard cop-out that the general public thought characters like Marduk and Magni picked their names 'cause they thought they sound kewl. Marduk was always meaning to get his religion restarted, though...he was just too busy to give it enough attention.

[megaplayboy]

A friend and I were joking around about a mild mannered virtuous guy stuck in a barn who tries to escape by striking the barn door with a simple pitchfork...Boom!
"Whosover holds this pitchfork, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of..."

For some reason The Mighty Satan had a very hard time getting into any superhero team..."our publicist threatened to quit if we let you in"...

[BNakagawa]

Christianity, Judaism and Islam are loaded guns. Using one of them as an origin for a character is not necessarily guaranteed to set one off, but it is a risk.

There are plenty of people in the world who have suffered at the hands of Catholics, protestants, zionists or muslims acting with the blessings of their churches. There aren't a lot of people alive right now who have suffered at the hands of priests or zealots of Zeus, Isis or Frey.

You're much less likely to set someone off with a character whose backdrop is drawn from the history books. Unless of course you intend to use that as an excuse to act in a manner that is guaranteed to draw a reaction. Like eating the brains of your vanquished foes or sacrificing the hearts of captured enemies on top of a pyramid to keep the sun fed.

Religious freedom grants many rights, but breaking laws isn't one of them. Santeria practitioners are allowed to sacrifice animals as part of their rituals, they aren't however allowed to keep them in squalid conditions while they await their date with destiny. Go figure.

Still, there are plenty of compelling storylines involving the religions of the book, and if you think your group is mature enough to enjoy and handle that sort of thing, then go for it.

[Sociotard]

It's happened in our group a couple of times. I've posted my writeup of Porter Rockwell on the Other Genres boards (Real Guy. According to all the stories surrounding him, he was blessed with being bulletproof), so there's recieved powers from God. I once played the Greek god Helios, so there's being inherently divine.

As for in the Comics . . . I don't remember exactly, but I thought there was a marvel character who had the God-given ability to see visions, future, past, and whatever. He was in that wonderful trade "Marvels". The guy who narrated most of the book, while that gargoyle guy wrote it all down.

[Nightfire]

I run an extremely complex campaign that exists on many layers, and one of the layers is that of the interaction between gods and mortals. All the pantheonic religions exist, and it made for some facinating story lines. I had to examine how different religions would have had to evolve through the ages and how they might intereact. I even had the opporuntiy to explore the implications for a goddess who had lost all her worshippers over time, and was being sustained by the devotion of one solitary player charcater.

Amongst the religious interactions, there was a priestess of Apollo who was the chief medical Examiner for NYC because she could talk to the dead. One player played the Arch-Angel Michael who had to answer directly to the Pope when on Earth. There is an Islamic character called the Desert Lion who gained his powers centuries ago when he touched the holy ka'Ba meteor at Mecca. He had to reconcile the possibility that his powers might have been owed more to ancient gods than Allah, but descided that the even if the source of the powers were possibily pagan dieties, his own God had deigned that he should use that power in his service.

As long as players and GM are willing to keep an open mind religion can be a fulfilling and enlightening part of the game.

[Worldmaker]

I wish I could help you out more, Worldm, but my comics collection was purged a long time ago. That particular storyline of The Elementals (featuring The Rapture) was not one that I liked and I cannot recall any details about it, or them, now. I got their individual names from the international hero site. They were: Exodus 10:21, Genesis 6:4, Isaiah 6:2, Judges 15:14, Leviticus 26:22, and Matthew 27:51.

That's really all I needed, thanks.

[Metaphysician]

It's happened in our group a couple of times. I've posted my writeup of Porter Rockwell on the Other Genres boards (Real Guy. According to all the stories surrounding him, he was blessed with being bulletproof), so there's recieved powers from God. I once played the Greek god Helios, so there's being inherently divine.

As for in the Comics . . . I don't remember exactly, but I thought there was a marvel character who had the God-given ability to see visions, future, past, and whatever. He was in that wonderful trade "Marvels". The guy who narrated most of the book, while that gargoyle guy wrote it all down.

Your thinking of Kyle Richmond, and he appeared in Universe X, not Marvels.

Oh, and the eyes weren't actually from God, but I won't spoil beyond that. . .

[Chuckg]

For some reason The Mighty Satan had a very hard time getting into any superhero team..."our publicist threatened to quit if we let you in"...

Heh. Reminds me of the short story somebody published(*) about how a ghost in the Old West kept trying, and failing, and trying over and over again, to offer people a chance to become infused with the mystic powers of an ancient Indian symbol of good fortune. Along with it came the magic costume (which couldn't be changed), which had that symbol prominently displayed as the chest emblem.

For some reason, nobody wanted to be Captain Swastika.


(*) It was in that 'Superheroes' anthology of short stories edited by John Varley, but I can't recall who the author was.

[fbdaury]

The Kevin Smith arcs of both Daredevil and Green Arrow dealt with the christian mythos in a fairly even-handed way: Smith, himself a catholic, seems to be able to handle investigation of religious matters without getting ovely preachy or offensive either.

[zornwil]

I don't think pagan-based characters, so long as they're doing ancient gods, will get flak because those ancient gods aren't seen as real and the heroes are seen as iconic representations. I think they'd get PR trouble, though,if they acted out.

As in Thor talking to the media, "You should all bow down to Odin, he does not appreciate you and your Christian 'god' and that pretender 'Jesus'!" Now that would make for interesting social lims and controversy.

[nexus]

I don't think pagan-based characters, so long as they're doing ancient gods, will get flak because those ancient gods aren't seen as real and the heroes are seen as iconic representations. I think they'd get PR trouble, though,if they acted out.

As in Thor talking to the media, "You should all bow down to Odin, he does not appreciate you and your Christian 'god' and that pretender 'Jesus'!" Now that would make for interesting social lims and controversy.

True, but I'd think there'd be some flak on a certain level. I mean there are some really obessive fundamentalist types that would take offense at any reference to other deites besides the Christian one being legitimate.

[JeffreyWKramer]

True, but I'd think there'd be some flak on a certain level. I mean there are some really obessive fundamentalist types that would take offense at any reference to other deites besides the Christian one being legitimate.

Maybe in the CU, there are fewer of that particular brand of lunatic, which is balanced by the presence of super-powered lunatics in tights.

Seriously, it would obviously be much harder to maintain some fairly extremist world-views in a world where they were demonstrably false - or at very least where there was open evidence for questioning such views.

In my own campaign, Horus-Re - a demi-god, the son of a divine entity - is not a favorite of many fundamentalist Christians and Muslims or higher-ups in the various Judeo/Christian/Islamic heirarchies, but relatively few speak out against him openly because he is a very popular figure who has done a lot of very public, very heroic deeds. He does have some who worship him, and he accepts them and offers them advice and support, but he does not particularly seek out worshippers, try to convert people, etc.