04-23-2015, 08:38 AM | #31 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
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04-24-2015, 06:53 PM | #32 | ||
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
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GURPS Fantasy 1E was about the best of that school... and it managed to offend almost everyone I gamed with. I much prefer the veneer fictionalizations. In part, because they axiomatically cannot be wrong, and in part because, even if I as a GM get it wrong, it isn't a direct assault on the real religion. |
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04-24-2015, 11:20 PM | #33 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
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04-25-2015, 01:11 AM | #34 | |
Join Date: May 2008
Location: CA
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
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04-25-2015, 07:53 AM | #35 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
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04-27-2015, 08:05 AM | #36 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Houston
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
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These people believe this because this is what these people believe. Buttoned up nicely in circular logic. DOne. How does one get that wrong? Now Ill grant you that RPG manufactured polytheistic religions may not come close to mirroring the polytheistic religions of Earths history (or present), but wrong? As much as that description wobbles my logic in regards to anything in an RPG, its does so doubly for a religion in an RPG. Nymdok |
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04-27-2015, 11:20 AM | #37 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
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Especially in a fantasy setting where divine intervention tends to be blatant. Monotheism will simply not run in a setting with multiple demonstrable deities. Monolatry and henotheism are entirely likely, but would then demand that the deities in question address all aspects of life rather than claiming a narrow portfolio like they would in a polytheistic religion. |
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04-27-2015, 02:52 PM | #38 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vermont
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
I tend to agree, but I'd appreciate if you would share some of the common mistakes you've noticed.
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My ongoing thread of GURPS versions of DC Comics characters. |
04-28-2015, 01:34 PM | #39 | |
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
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The typical RPG treatment has polytheists simply being dedicated to one particular god. Most real polytheistic religions had people who worshipped multiple gods. All too often, the fantasy presentation is comparable to modern protestant christianity... 20+ different sects of the same faith differing in detail, which members of one don't belong to nor worship with the other 19+ sects, but all of whom will reject a different core faith (sometimes violently). The alternate approach is the "great big shoppy store" approach. No cults require devotions except when some service is needed, no priests for specific cults. Find a temple and find the whole pantheon represented. The gaming presentation is often even less nuanced than the general fantasy approach. The reality is that many places had a dominant cult, which almost everyone was participatory in the rites of to some level, and then 2-3 additional cults which covered specific chunks of the year cycle, which most people participated in the large feasts of... and then a bunch of smaller ones, which only some were into. and some of these cults had multiple gods, while others were singular gods. |
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04-29-2015, 09:18 AM | #40 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Things to Avoid In Set Construction
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The collection of gods with not much overlapping special portfolios we have for the Greco-Roman or Norse polytheisms which inspires a lot of frp religions is more a product of the imagination of late syncratizers who didn't much believe in any of the gods, trying to make something coherent out of conflicting stories from a bunch of regional variations than of anything real. Quote:
If you have a complete list the gods, it's wrong. If you have a list of which temples are dedicated to which gods, it's probably wrong too. If you know which god is in charge of the weather, you're reading one of those late syncretizers. If you stick to the huge temples in the city centers and the gods that have major public festivals in one or more of them, maybe there's a chance it's right, though there are likely some gods on that list some of the other cities will insist have an entirely different name or aren't even real. But if you are going to build a history for setting in which the gods are active, or even a set of templates for their empowered clerics, you really need those lists and spheres of power, no matter how unrealistic they are historically. In a lot of ways it's a close analog of why isn't RPG magic as "magical" as the stuff in stories. It's because when you write and RPG magic system it has to have *clearly written rules*.
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-- MA Lloyd Last edited by malloyd; 04-29-2015 at 09:31 AM. |
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world building, world design |
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