Polytheism in Fantasy RPGs

[Hümmelgümpf]

Guys, deities in RPGs are almost always fine. Their followers and churches, on the other hand, are almost always not. First, we don't see much of them. No matter how wide-spread and powerful a church is supposed to be, all we usually get is a preacher who gives some exposition or a single temple where you can buy some supplies. Second, churches are almost never treated as major political players. Third, all followers of a church are flawless exemplars of their faith; that is, they are either charitable pussies or a bunch of madmen trying to enslave the world in the name of their god. Occassionally there is a token hipster priest who doesn't play by the rules, but is tolerated by his higher-ups (who never appear on-screen) because he is really good at whatever it is he does.

My point is, religious doctrines IRL tend to be pretty simple and morally unambigious. It's what people see in them, how they choose to interpret them, that varies greatly. Silver Flame is one of the reasons I love Eberron so much. It's a Lawful Good religious organization dedicated to protecting people from demons. Sounds boring, right? Things aren't quite as simple as they seem. You see, not all of the adherents of the Church are LG. Followers may vary from genuine believers who fight evil and protect the innocent to those who decided to become priests because it's not as strenuous as mowing, to careerists who are into it for prestige, to pedo cardinals.

That's what I'd like to see in games. A believable church that consists of all kinds of people, not a hive mind of loonies.

 

[Shannow]

What I'm still waiting for is a fantasy setting with theology. Yeah, there are gods. But nobody seems to think about them. Everyone just knows "Well that god is good, that god is evil, that one likes steak for a meal and that one likes trees."
There aren't any different belief groups, everyone just believes the same and there is just one organized church for each god.

Well, I'm reading the Godless World Trilogy at the moment. While the Gods have left the world (duh) there are still religious groups at war with each other. The Black Road believes the world has to be destroyed in order to be reborn in a better one. Their opponents think that the Fisherwife who spouted that prophesy was simply crazy. TBR has a very peculiars relationship with fate and a priesthood that does nothing but think about that. (I don't recomend the trilogy, btw. The first book was good in a KoDP way but the others are simply boring.)
As mentioned before, Steven Erikson's priesthoods are more often than not at odds with their gods. Constantly tricking and backstabbing each other or trying to find out what the will of the god is or forcing the god to do the will of his folloers, etc.
George R. R. Martin's ASOIAF also has priests with theology. It's just not much in focus. In Greg Keyes' The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone the whole story revolves around theology. Just to give a few examples.

Maybe even a mix of polytheistic and monotheistic religions. This would have quite some potential.

Well, DSA has that.

As for places being gods and spirits (animism?) Greg Keyes has that in The Waterborn and The Blackgod. With a trickster god and all

 

[AzraelCC]

Silver Flame is one of the reasons I love Eberron so much. It's a Lawful Good religious organization dedicated to protecting people from demons. Sounds boring, right? Things aren't quite as simple as they seem. You see, not all of the adherents of the Church are LG. Followers may vary from genuine believers who fight evil and protect the innocent to those who decided to become priests because it's not as strenuous as mowing, to careerists who are into it for prestige, to pedo cardinals.

Yeah, I like religion in Eberron, too. Notice that the Silver Flame has room for that ambiguity because 1) The Silver Flame is a mysterious entity (IIRC, the rulebooks tell us that its origins are surrounded by legend), 2) It's patterned after the Middle Ages to Renaissance Church, which has the paradoxical situation of a good but mysterious God with decadent followers, and most importantly 3) Eberron loosens the Alignment system of D&D.

I guess I have to say that pen and paper of course has room for the great implementation of interesting religious systems, but besides Darklands, I have yet to see a CRPG with such religious complexity. If anyone can point me to such games, I'd appreciate it.

 

[kris]

I wanted to make a designer blogpost the other day about a more "humanoid" conception of gods - actual eternal beings who have a kind of human sensibility (they eat, drink, screw, etc) but whose immortality have either made them wise and grave or gleeful don't-give-a-fucks. The latter I do find really interesting - read Native American myths of Coyote and African myths about Ananzi. They're both horndogs, incorrigible, both clever and totally dumb, at times benevolent and at others entirely willing to fuck someone over for a good laugh. How do you even worship a god like that? What if they actually showed up - and then got to thinking you owed them?

This is pretty close a concept to what I have in my setting.