Brian Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subplotkudzu) wrote2008-05-06 08:31 pm
subplotkudzu) wrote2008-05-06 08:31 pm
Entry tags:
Christian Role Playing Games
I was reading a review of the new book Rapture Ready by Daniel Radosh that suggested the Christian/Evangelical subculture had its own "Christian" versions of everything in popular entertainment (including, intriguingly enough, Christian Techno, which is somehow more Christian than regular old Techno despite neither having words...). Given the generally understood animus that the Christian subcluture has shown towards RPGs I wondered what the current state of Christian RPGs was - had it expanded beyond the Dragonraid game that was so widely panned in the 80's?
Apparently so - a quick Google search turned up several extant Christian RPGs, including one, Holy Lands, that I'm considering downloading to see what the mechanics are like. There's nothing inherently wrong with the premise - defending the medieval church from the demons, devils and sorcerers that want to destroy it, a nicely meaty time period and premise for a sword &sorcery game - though it scores some negative points by billing itself as THE Christian Roleplaying Game. I'm still miffed at Champions being THE Superhero RPG, so don't get me started. But the mechanics could stink and the message might be delivered with a sledgehammer, and I really don't have the time right now to read through it in any event.
More interesting was this essay from a long term GM and Evangelical Christian. I find it sad that in order to discuss gaming with his target audience (other Evangelicals) he has to start with three paragraphs laying out his religious bona fides, and a fourth discussing his education, lest anyone think he's not walking the Walk. Much of the rest of the essay is the standard counter argument against the aforementioned Christian animus towards RPGs, written from someone inside the tent. He then discusses the real "problems" with RPGs:
1) that they take up time and effort that might be better used to advance Christ's mission in other ways (though this is true of any hobby, and the author thinks he has done significant good through his gaming);
2) that the Church has ceded the ground to the enemy (the knee jerk anti-gaming attitude of Chrisitan means that most Gamers have never really encountered Christian, which limits their paths to salvation. Cambias, I'm sure, will have some comment on this.);
3) and, the oddest of all to me, so I have to quote it directly. "like most games--all those which use dice or cards--Dungeons & Dragons(tm) assumes that dice and cards fall in a random pattern along statistically predictable probabilities. It is extremely difficult for us to deal with this assumption. The question of whether dice and cards fall at random or are divinely controlled is far beyond the scope of this article, but the answer goes directly to the nature of the sovereignty of God. Christians who play such games should grapple with the issue and form an opinion about it."
HUH? I can accept that the first two concerns are about how someone who is totally committed to Christ's mission on earth has to balance their time and efforts, and has to be willing to reach out to everyone. I might not agree with you, but you are clearly thinking deeply about your faith and I can respect that. But for grappling with questions of dice mechanics, Dude, it's math. It's lines like this that make me question everything else in your article, and fear that accepting your religious worldview will mean that I too will struggle with statistics because it might muddy my view of God.
Apparently so - a quick Google search turned up several extant Christian RPGs, including one, Holy Lands, that I'm considering downloading to see what the mechanics are like. There's nothing inherently wrong with the premise - defending the medieval church from the demons, devils and sorcerers that want to destroy it, a nicely meaty time period and premise for a sword &sorcery game - though it scores some negative points by billing itself as THE Christian Roleplaying Game. I'm still miffed at Champions being THE Superhero RPG, so don't get me started. But the mechanics could stink and the message might be delivered with a sledgehammer, and I really don't have the time right now to read through it in any event.
More interesting was this essay from a long term GM and Evangelical Christian. I find it sad that in order to discuss gaming with his target audience (other Evangelicals) he has to start with three paragraphs laying out his religious bona fides, and a fourth discussing his education, lest anyone think he's not walking the Walk. Much of the rest of the essay is the standard counter argument against the aforementioned Christian animus towards RPGs, written from someone inside the tent. He then discusses the real "problems" with RPGs:
1) that they take up time and effort that might be better used to advance Christ's mission in other ways (though this is true of any hobby, and the author thinks he has done significant good through his gaming);
2) that the Church has ceded the ground to the enemy (the knee jerk anti-gaming attitude of Chrisitan means that most Gamers have never really encountered Christian, which limits their paths to salvation. Cambias, I'm sure, will have some comment on this.);
3) and, the oddest of all to me, so I have to quote it directly. "like most games--all those which use dice or cards--Dungeons & Dragons(tm) assumes that dice and cards fall in a random pattern along statistically predictable probabilities. It is extremely difficult for us to deal with this assumption. The question of whether dice and cards fall at random or are divinely controlled is far beyond the scope of this article, but the answer goes directly to the nature of the sovereignty of God. Christians who play such games should grapple with the issue and form an opinion about it."
HUH? I can accept that the first two concerns are about how someone who is totally committed to Christ's mission on earth has to balance their time and efforts, and has to be willing to reach out to everyone. I might not agree with you, but you are clearly thinking deeply about your faith and I can respect that. But for grappling with questions of dice mechanics, Dude, it's math. It's lines like this that make me question everything else in your article, and fear that accepting your religious worldview will mean that I too will struggle with statistics because it might muddy my view of God.
no subject
The thing that I'm having problems processing is not that for a sufficiently strongly theistic worldview everything is an aspect of the will of God. That's an easy enough concept. What I don't get is the idea that people with that worldview would then not be comfortable with rolling dice in a game. For the non-theistic worldview it's probability; for the theistic one it's divining Gods will. Either way the games don't know before the roll if their action is going to succeed, and after the roll they do. So the dice serve the same purpose in the game. So where's the big moral quandry? Is it just that it's irksome that the people who wrote the game don't lay out the theistic worldview in the rulebook when discussing dice?
Admittedly, this is just the game design issue - I admit to not being able to wrap my brain around this worldview, but since it overlaps almost completely with the probability one (sure, it might appear random, but God has a plan for everything and, to quote Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China, "you weren't put on this Earth to 'Get It'") it had never occured to me that it produced such concern. I understand why in the "why do people suffer", "why does Cancer exist" and other major issues, but not to the "why do people roll dice?" The author talks about Christians shying away from any competition that is not entirely skill based because of the theological implications of the "random" aspect of the dice and that it might make them doubt their faith or show hubris by prying into the will of God or something. That just enters the "Note to self: religion freaky" stage.