Quote:
Originally Posted by demonsbane
However, when you put "pacifist" things like Buddhism or Christianity into an action and fantastic "frame" as Dungeon Fantasy for creating characters ready to kick butts, you're forced to distort them. That leads to the assimilation of misinformation, and to spreading it. (Some nuances regarding chivalric orders would be suitable here, but I don't want to expand about that now)
My personal stance here is to make fictional religions and worlds for Dungeon Fantasy, so you avoid to denaturalize things and imagination flees with more freedom.
In your case, I would do a template borrowing cool ideas from Buddhism and other sources, for instance (it happens every day), but I would never call that a Buddhist character. Or instead maybe you could try to play in the Yrth/Banestorm setting . . . This is my personal view. And no, I don't agree with DF 7: Clerics concerning the use of real world gods' names for Dungeon Fantasy characters; in fact, Shiva is mentioned and is one of the worst examples because that god is too many things. I see the point in the ideas of that box but the drawbacks too.
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But what is cooler? Using real world religious names and then fitting them to DF or to make something else up to sort of be like them? I think that names have a sort of power and interest to them. I mean would you rather have a cleric of Zeus or Zorse? Plus there are many names used in DF now, so should it be changed?
Medusa = Snake headed woman whose gaze turns you to stone?
Chimera = Mix of lion goat and serpent?
I think names are sort of interesting, demon lords and devil in AD&D had names like Orcus, Demogorgon, Asmodeus, Beelezbub, Geryon, ect. I think these names added something and I think that having a DF monk of Buddhism who uses his enlightenment to kick butt and take treasure is fine with me.