Topic: Diary Entry Five:

[John @ ICE]

Religion, not an easy one...

So I describe how the Church hates sorcery and think wizardry to be different, but still a “cousin” to be disliked.  Now, this bit is tricky because yes, Christianity will be the dominant religion of the One God that many follow. But it’s a game…and we are a Christian household.  I don’t want to have my kids who know magic is not real, that somehow the miracles of yesterday seem “a lot like magic” which isn’t real, means that miracles must be make-believe.  People really did BELIEVE in relics then, just as many people do today, but clearly that belief was widespread, if not universal.  So I need to be careful here.  If this were a commercial game product, I would probably need to rethink very carefully how this was presented’ maybe changing it dramatically or eliminating it – which would probably ruin the authenticity of the setting.  But since it is for home consumption, I can walk my kids through it.  I’m confident I can handle it and even use it to spend time engaging in a Christian discussion and debate with my kids about what people believed then, versus now and the similarities and the differences.  But I’m not sure what would work for a commercial product.

And back then, the old Celtic religion still thrived in less civilised or advanced areas.  Mostly, it lived side by side Christianity, with people venerating old gods and following old practices, while being true Christian believers.  But it provides for variety and conflict, so makes a great introduction to the game.  Clearly there will be different spell sets and abilities for each type of holy man, and nothing that will surprise you.  Druids will have a healing and nature portfolio with powers of divination as described in the research.  Priests will have strong healing, protection, command and leadership powers.

The next chapter focuses on how people lived.  Surprisingly, there is very little on anglo saxon life on the internet in this regard.  You really need to dig and I had to buy some out of print books second hand, and pay to download some scholarly articles, and the default was the more voluminous info on the high Middle Ages.  I then dig a bit deeper on Arcadium and the faeries, going into detail on the types of faeiries and they behaviour, as well as details on the Seelie and Unseelie court and ending with the “daily life” of faeries.

With the Seelie court, there will be lots of role play opportunities within the court structure.  At the same time, there are numerous opportunities with regards to the Unseelie court, which can prove dangerous to PCs and provide lots of baddies and high level NPC foes.

[chippermonks]

The most important lesson I strive for when doing history rich games is the concept of "perspective". I've often run games which are either literally from our own timeline or are metaphorical for happenings in our world. One such story had two parties (I had 11 people asking for a spot in my game)  running parallel to each other in the same timeline/world, but they represented opposite factions. Neither was wrong, and neither was right, but each believed that their culture's views were the "correct" frame of thought, and they behaved in certain ways which would be expected of that culture.

The most valuable lesson I (and hopefully eventually, my kids) have learned from rolemaster is that there are many perspectives in the world, and in many cases are more similar then different. If I were you I would consider having a game rotate around the concept of "the Christmas tree" or "saint Nicholas"  as sort of a Christmas "special event". They can delve into what these symbols mean to different people. Learn about the culture's beliefs and how they are similar/different.

A very good quest may be to reconcile differences between two groups of people whom have more in common then they think.

[markc]

Faerie: The Seelie and UnSeelie are mirrors of each other, with good and evil (human terms) coming from each. IMHO this is also a good example for nature itself things of beauty can be just as deadly as normal or ugly things.


Also as long as you explain things to your kids I think they will keep the distinction's between the religions as you wish. It is also nice to keep mentioning it from time to time just so they remember this is not how religion is exactly but a very simplified and "game" version of religion.
MDC

[John @ ICE]

The most important lesson I strive for when doing history rich games is the concept of "perspective". I've often run games which are either literally from our own timeline or are metaphorical for happenings in our world. One such story had two parties (I had 11 people asking for a spot in my game)  running parallel to each other in the same timeline/world, but they represented opposite factions. Neither was wrong, and neither was right, but each believed that their culture's views were the "correct" frame of thought, and they behaved in certain ways which would be expected of that culture.

The most valuable lesson I (and hopefully eventually, my kids) have learned from rolemaster is that there are many perspectives in the world, and in many cases are more similar then different. If I were you I would consider having a game rotate around the concept of "the Christmas tree" or "saint Nicholas"  as sort of a Christmas "special event". They can delve into what these symbols mean to different people. Learn about the culture's beliefs and how they are similar/different.

A very good quest may be to reconcile differences between two groups of people whom have more in common then they think.

Thanks for this - thats a very helpful perspective I had not thought about.  I do want the game to be 100% fun but still be a teaching tool, but I have not necessarily honed in on what that means and this is a greeaat example of how it could be used.

On your last comment, that is very doable in this game.  You have the anglo-Saxons (I think by that time a homogeneous tribe), the welsh, scots, the danes, but also other scandinavians.  And actually where the game is based is in a relatively disputed territory of norther england (mercia) which the prince swears fealty to the dane law and the danish king, but who needs to be careful about the King in Wessex who arguably may be more powerful.  Now, the common anglo saxons will not like the "vikings" very much and vice versa, and yet they will have been living there now for a couple centuries.  So I certainly have the background for that.

And you are right, its a great teaching tool. It could be against a common foe, but that may be simplistic (its sorta easy to team up with other humans to fight a maurauding dragon). But some other obstacle, maybe like building a road that would bring more commerce to an anglo-saxon town, but needs to route through a danish town and help and permission is needed.

[jdale]

The most valuable lesson I (and hopefully eventually, my kids) have learned from rolemaster is that there are many perspectives in the world, and in many cases are more similar then different. If I were you I would consider having a game rotate around the concept of "the Christmas tree" or "saint Nicholas"  as sort of a Christmas "special event". They can delve into what these symbols mean to different people. Learn about the culture's beliefs and how they are similar/different.

The Chronicles of Narnia has some examples of that, but you could probably do it better. It was kind of hamfisted there.

Normally I would avoid this sort of thing. I prefer to stick with fictional religions, that way no one will be upset at how they get portrayed. (A little heresy always adds depth to a religion!) Even wrote my own religious books, had them printed on Lulu as props! But the needs are different with kids, you probably don't want or need to be as subtle with your themes as you might with adult players and I imagine there are advantages of making things more relateable.

[John @ ICE]

The Chronicles of Narnia has some examples of that, but you could probably do it better. It was kind of hamfisted there.

Normally I would avoid this sort of thing. I prefer to stick with fictional religions, that way no one will be upset at how they get portrayed. (A little heresy always adds depth to a religion!) Even wrote my own religious books, had them printed on Lulu as props! But the needs are different with kids, you probably don't want or need to be as subtle with your themes as you might with adult players and I imagine there are advantages of making things more relateable.

I agree - I think I can stick with it for the home game, and thats MAINLY what i am writing for.  If there is a way to release it to the public, then would probably need to make it a parallel universe very similar to our world circa that time, but different in key ways:  ie: magic works, there are gods of other religions, there is a "supreme god" with prophets and saints, etc.

[trollzwei]

The discussion use of an rpg as a talking point about religion is a favorite around my household.  You can present the "fiction" and then lead into "ok, what do you believe?"

[Rochndil]

The issue of religion in RPGs is always a little thorny, and I agree that the safest course is to work with a "made-up" system. Of course, this doesn't work in a historical setting.

The Church at the time was a very different beast than it is currently. The vast majority of the people couldn't read at all, and even fewer could read the Bible in Latin (or Greek). The Church itself was busily evolving and incorporating other aspects of local religions to pull as many people "into the fold" as quickly as it could (heck, it worked for the Romans!). While basically Catholic, it would be almost unrecognizable to the Catholics of today, and even less so to the CofE. This is good, in one sense, because being different helps make it distant. On the other hand, being SO different can compromise the sense of Christian heritage that many feel ties them back "to the beginning." The ground for religious discussion is very fertile, but also a potential minefield - especially since young folks LOVE to challenge belief sets with that inevitable: "why?"

Rochndil, who has studied this history, but not for some time...