Derek Hiemforth Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Originally posted by Hermit Oddly, I once made a villainous group of rabid anti-theists. This group venerated science, and saw mystisicm (and they included all religions/spirtuality in that) as the root of all evil that must be destroyed. Any hero claiming to be a 'god' or empowered by one was their very first target. Hmm... I may have to steal this idea for my game as well. It would really mess with some of the PCs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneDaddy Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 I think it depends on how you handle it. A group of deranged skinhead christian racists is OK. A secret cabal of jews who run the world's banking systems and drink the blood of virgin christians is not. Satanists are always OK villains. Voodoo is still fare game, IMHO. If the villain is crazy, he can have any faith he wants - from anabaptist to zaroasterian. It all comes down to acceptable stereotyping, which is kind of a shameful thing to say. Its OK to make fun of Dyaneticists. Its OK to have Voodoo priests running around with zombies. Its OK to have splinter cells of religious terrorists (just about any theology would have some basis in truth). But note, in almost all these cases, the religion has been a symptom of a different disease, and not the disease itself. When you cross that line, you better have an evil god (Cthulhu, Baal, etc.) or a charismatic evil leader (Jim Jones, David Koresh, Kim Jong Il). Otherwise something ugly happens, and ANYONE who embraces that otherwise harmless ideology is suddenly suspect (take any current event for example). You can create balance by joining with a good member of that faith. If Hiram helps you defeqat the evil cult of Amish criminals, thereby restoring his community to faithfulness, its an OK storyline. If the final moral in your world is "wipe out the Amish" you've probably created a bad storyline (If any Amish folks read this, I mean no offense. And what are YOU doing using a computer?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 A related problem is: how do you portray people who are from "enemy" countries, or who believe in a "hostile" ideology? The problem is that some real world people just go nuts when they run into ideas they don't agree with. Of course, such people probably aren't the kind of people you want to play with anyway, but you don't always have the choice. I guess it's the general case of: know your players, and don't step on their toes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakboy6117 Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 I have to say my favorite example of the evils of religious extremism in comics has to be the brilliant X-men "God loves man kills" they those themes where repeated a couple of years ago and resurrected the protagonist in Extreme x men earlier this year but neither occasion had same finesse as the original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaphysician Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 "Dyaneticists"?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakboy6117 Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 i think thats scientologists dianetics being the theory L Ron Hubbard had or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaphysician Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Who needs fiction to make *them* into villains. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneDaddy Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 I've had very little sleep this week. I got a flat tire There was a flood. It wasn't my fault! Totally out of excuses. Yes, Scientologists. That's exactly what I meant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 I havent read the whole thread yet but the one thing I will point out is that there have been plenty of wars started throughout history in the name of religion. Though I would stick to maybe radical zealots rather than the mainstream if you go this route. Could insult some. Though my mother is worried for my soul just because I play rpgs:rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 OK, here's one for the "So, You Think You've Heard Everything, Eh?" Department: Once, a long long time ago, on the SJGames' Pyramid boards, I saw a man talk about his past. (I wish I could remember who, but I don't have that post archived in my newsreader anymore... that was two HD crashes ago.) His parents were both militantly atheist. They forbade him to role-play because the supplements talked about concepts such as 'faith' and 'gods' and etc. far too much, and they were afraid it would lead him to thinking in religious terms and eventually maybe start going to church. So there has been at least one documented case of a man whose parents forbade him to touch RPGs because they were afraid it would turn him Christian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth Hmm... I may have to steal this idea for my game as well. It would really mess with some of the PCs. Knock yourself out, in fairness, I think I stole, or was at least inspired by an idea from a really old Thor comic that I don't even half remember. Couldn't tell you which one or any details though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Originally posted by BoneDaddy You can create balance by joining with a good member of that faith. If Hiram helps you defeqat the evil cult of Amish criminals, thereby restoring his community to faithfulness, its an OK storyline. If the final moral in your world is "wipe out the Amish" you've probably created a bad storyline (If any Amish folks read this, I mean no offense. And what are YOU doing using a computer?) Ach, English, haven't you ever heard of the Reformed Amish -- better known as the Mennonites? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Celebrin Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 IMC, I've renamed Genocide Genesis and made them into an extremist group lead by religious zealots who abhor mutants as abominations of God's creations. (nobody ever said they were entirely sane zealots). I haven't introduced them quite yet, and I want to make sure I don't run into a common problem I have with gamers in the past - assuming that just because someone is religious makes them a complete idiot and utterly evil. I want to try to introduce them slowly and not have people automatically thinking preconceieved thoughts of religious NPCs. Fortunately, at least one of the characters has religion in his background in a reasonably strong way - which will hopefully help with the stereotyping problem I'm worried about. There is also a second character with strong religious backgrounds as well, so hopefully between the two the introduction of Genesis will be a success. Darren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powerhouse Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 I never used that in a game of mine but it would be an interesting idea. The closest I came to that was outline a short story of the group I am always working on, the Silver Knights. Basically, an alternate timeline occured ala X-men's Days of Future Past. The world had been almost destroyed and in the devestation, Lady Silver (the team leader) had been catapulted to leadership of North America. She's effectively President for Life by popular decree but because she's a wizard, some rightwing Christain groups think that she's the Anti-Christ and she's been the target of several assassination attempts. It's not solely religiously motivated since there are a number of people who don't like a superhuman being a dictator but there are more people who are really scared and see her as a stable figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 As long as we're exchanging ideas for religious-based supervillainy: Back on the old discussion boards, Mister Vimes asked for help developing a world-threatening master villain with a religious motivation. A little brainstorming resulted in a mastermind based on the infamous Chief Inquisitor of Spain, Tomas de Torquemada: http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/Champions/002165.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.