Adventuring in Heaven

[pruttm]

Anyone attempt to run an adventure in Heaven? Any good links or rpg books that may help me provide details to the players?

 

I think the Fantastic Four went to Heaven so I am going to look up those issues and see what they all ran into.

 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a number of Kingdoms of Heaven. I may try to build something around that.

 

Mainly they are there to talk to someone that is in Heaven but I'd like to make the journey as interesting as possbile.

 

Pete

[Hermit]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

The Mystic Worlds book has a collection of heaven like realms that Superheroes (particularly mystic ones) might end up visiting. While it is debatable if there is a 'real heaven' in there, or just a collection of universal consciousness made manifest, it should provide some good ideas for it in the section on Elysium. It's only a few pages IIRC though.

 

It also has hell, the land of Faerie, and Babylon (The world of man), and many many others.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

Of course Dante's Divine Comedy is the closest thing extant to a guided tour of Christian Heaven.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

The Mystic Worlds book has a collection of heaven like realms that Superheroes (particularly mystic ones) might end up visiting. While it is debatable if there is a 'real heaven' in there, or just a collection of universal consciousness made manifest, it should provide some good ideas for it in the section on Elysium. It's only a few pages IIRC though.

 

It also has hell, the land of Faerie, and Babylon (The world of man), and many many others.

 

That would have been my first recommendation, as well. For game scenarios in "heaven" it's one of the better (and least controversial) setups.

 

On the RPG front, I don't have a lot of experience with either In Nomine or Nobilis, which deal with divine/infernal characters and conflicts. Anybody know if those game lines provide details of the Celestial Realm?

[BoneDaddy]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

Adventuring in Heaven? Frankly, the place has always struck me as rather dull. What is there to adventure over? Isn't that sort of the point of paradise?

[Captain Liberty]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

I came up with a campaign idea in which essentially Purgatory is a supers world. People who are right in the cusp of becoming angels or demons go there as supers, and what they do determines whether they move on or go back to try again. Sort of a supers version of Albert Brooks' Fighting for Your Life.

[Roter Baron]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

And don't forget that bearded guy that lives up there. Should not forget him in your adventure ... Has a pretty impressive Variable Power Pool and used to get pretty angry if you like extramatrimonial activities, sodomy, swearing et al ...

 

Whazzis name again???

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

I came up with a campaign idea in which essentially Purgatory is a supers world. People who are right in the cusp of becoming angels or demons go there as supers' date=' and what they do determines whether they move on or go back to try again. Sort of a supers version of Albert Brooks' [i']Fighting for Your Life[/i].

 

 

Wouldn't that be a fantastic Big Secret behind a supers campaign on Earth? Why do so many superhumans fall into the roles of "hero" or "villain?" Because they're on the verge of migrating on to Angelic or Diabolic status!

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

And don't forget that bearded guy that lives up there. Should not forget him in your adventure ... Has a pretty impressive Variable Power Pool and used to get pretty angry if you like extramatrimonial activities, sodomy, swearing et al ...

 

Whazzis name again???

 

That's one of the things I like about the approach taken by The Mystic World. "God" in the realm of Elysium isn't the benign, merciful and loving entity posited in so much of modern Judeo/Christian/Muslim philosophy. He's the stern, harsh, wrathful God of the Old Testament and "Sinners Repent" populist preaching. That kind of god (small "g") can have all sorts of interesting conflicts with supers of a more liberal ethical persuasion.

[Flames]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

Podcaster Mur Lafferty did a serial novel called "Heaven" in which a young woman and her boyfriend are killed in a car wreck unexpectedly and both end up in Heaven, although not together at first. From there, the adventure begins for them, as they try to find each other and then discover they have a mission to complete in the afterlife.

 

The installments begin on her podcast "Geek Fu Action Grip" during episode #62, and continue for several more episodes.

 

It's free to download and listen to on a computer or MP3 player.

 

http://www.geekfuactiongrip.com/2006/03/28/geek-fu-62-heaven-pt-1/

 

If you like the story's opening couple of chapters, it might be worthwhile for you to dig through her site and find all the rest of the episodes and listen. She has an interesting take on how Heaven might appear to people.

[Beetle]

Re: Adventuring in Heaven

 

I've always been very wary of "Adventuring in Heaven" (and other overly spiritual plot lines), both when I was an evangelical and now that I'm not. It just seemed to risky.

 

To run such a scenario, you have to decide absolutely what God/the afterlife/Hell is in your campaign, and it's probably not going to line up with what at least some of your players believe. It's easier to get away with that in a fantasy world (which bears little resemblance to the actual world) than in Champions, which is usually "real world with super powers"