IN: Are you Christian?

[bazzalisk]

My personal religious beliefs are complex, my parents are bhuddists, but raised me as an atheist (well ... actualy a nihilist might be more accurate, my father did his very best to impart absolutely no religious leanings whatsoever), I've been through a few different "religious" belief structures, though nothing which resembles any of the major ones.

All in all I tend to describe myself as a Gnostic Hyperevolutionist, or a Gnostic Stapledonian, depending upon mood :)

Some of the people I've played with have been christians, other atheists, and most apatheists. As long as you're comfortable treating the middle-eastern religions as just another mythology it works fine :)

[Dr T. Jackson]

I'm a believer in powers greater than myself, but am not willing to codify it to a religion. It is pure arrogance to believe that there is nothing out there more powerful than ourselves. And given the size of the universe, I'm willing to bet that there is an omnipotent being out there somewhere (calling all Q).

I love the religious stories and I really like the concepts behind Angels/Demons and whatnot. But to put it all on Faith.... that's something I cannae swallow laddy.

So no. I'm not. But have absolutely no problem with those that are. My best friend happens to be gay AND a christian. Man, did he get lumbered :)

[harlecerule]

Nope. Raised Methodist, eventually said "This don't feel right," went through the "Wicca stage," and now I'm just sort of pagan.

[milliken]

While nominally a Christian by upbringing, I tend to think of myself as somewhere between atheist and agnostic; mostly I'm of a scientific mindset, and don't find questions that are strictly outside of science as being particularly interesting, except as entertainment.


---Walter

[fadethecat]

Christian, yes. As for it and In Nomine... doesn't really seem to be much of an issue. I mean, it's a fictional setting that happens to draw on certain Western religious traditions. Most of the 'traditional' ideas about angels are cultural and have little to do with the texts I consider holy, so pulling from these bothers me about as much as pulling from, say, Greek legends. It's an interesting cultural source with some cool roleplaying uses. Yay! Nothing to complain about there.

Now, I'll grant I'm a little touchy about a few issues; I'm not interested in running games that involve, say, Jesus, for much the same reason as I wouldn't want to play in a game that involved a fictionalized representation of close friends or family of mine; a little too close to home, and I'm not really comfortable with fictionalized versions of people I know. And I usually prefer brighter, higher-contrast campaigns. But really, that's more of a personality issue than something based on my spiritual decisions.

I think the closest In Nomine ever got to intersecting in an interesting way with Christianity, for me, was when my mother had a serious (if brief) talk about this roleplaying game I was reading, and its relationship to Actual Life. Once she was reassured I wasn't taking it as 'real', that was about it. And...well, it's not real. It's a roleplaying game. Just not a lot of reasons for the two to have something to do with each other.

(Ask me how my religion affects the types of PCs I'm willing to play, or what sorts of themes I have in the campaigns I run, and you'll get a longer answer. But this is long enough already.)

[Cyst13]

How do your religious beliefs affect the type of PCs you run or the themes in your campaigns?

[fadethecat]

Originally Posted by Cyst13

How do your religious beliefs affect the type of PCs you run or the themes in your campaigns?

What, mine? Well. Hrm.

I tend to run PCs who are occasionally selfish, or even cruel, but there's always the possibility of change. People are ultimately the ones who choose their own destinies. Very much the free will thing, and, I'll admit, one reason why I occasionally find In Nomine a bit frustrating; if an Elohite doesn't want to be objective, wants to make decisions based on personal opinions, it's dissonant for him where it wouldn't be for, say, a Cherub. And he can't really become anything else. A Malakite is 'born' with two oaths and has no choice in the matter if he was made that way. I like a bit more...choice in one's means of being Good, as it were.

Similarly, in my campaigns, there's always Hope. Things can be awful and cruel and hateful and depressing and tragic, but there's always a place to find, or make, something good. Always a chance of salvation. People may be horrible and downright evil, but there's always a chance, no matter how small, that they can choose to change. Maybe they never will...but they can. (This is why I'm not fond of settings where some things are just 'inherently evil'. In my games, people choose to be evil, and they may do so because they're misguided or misinformed or confused or angry or think it's their only choice, or just because they want to, but it's a choice they've made.)

A lot of it comes to my views on Free Will and Grace, which are odd and fuzzy topics I feel strongly about, and thus try not to talk about much. And, well, they don't translate all that well to places where you can precisely define how strong someone's willpower is, you know? There are things I'd rather not define in mechanical terms, so I don't bring them up in my games. I don't want to run a religious character in a fictional setting, because in the scope of a fictional setting there are Definite Answers to religious questions (even if only the GM knows the answers), and because it's fictional, it's all confined and knowable. Even if the answer is "It's ineffable!" that's just GM-defined fuzziness.

I don't tend to run strong religious themes in my game. It just feels a bit odd to cross what's real with what's fictional in that way, and it seems a bit...well, not sacrilegious, but a little disrespectful, to take something that's important to me and fictionalize it. Like I mentioned earlier, it feels like sticking people I know into a fictional setting. (This is also perhaps why, when think of running a modern game, it's usually a highly warped setting. Urban fantasy, rah!)

I have probably rambled too long about this now. Back to your regularly scheduled poll-like thread about In Nomine players' personal lives!

[KDLadage]

I am a devout Christian. I am a practicing Lutheran (ELCA), although I have a few issus I disagree with the established faith that I love to discuss with my pastor. We have had some very fun debates.

I do not relate IN to my religion. One is an embodiment of my faith; the other is a game. Best not to mix the two too much. Especially when my gaming group is made up of an Agnostic, two Anglicans, and a Wiccan. ;)

[ScaredofScissors]

Originally Posted by fadethecat

People are ultimately the ones who choose their own destinies. Very much the free will thing, and, I'll admit, one reason why I occasionally find In Nomine a bit frustrating;

Indeed, I agree. With all of the demons running about using resonances that no average human can possibly resist, you have a lot of puppets getting shoved into their Fates. I've always thought the Free Will rules in the GMs Guide were a nice way to counteract this, though it weakens Demons quite a lot.

Also found it odd that Deals with the Devil aren't really a big part of the setting. Even with Lilim Geases you get a Will roll to break out of it.

As to my position on religion (yes, the ORIGINAL purpose of this thread), I'd say that while I'd LOVE to believe that there were cool mystical religious things happening all around me, I just don't see it. And I'm too skeptical to be very faithful, I guess.

[EDG]

Originally Posted by ScaredofScissors

Indeed, I agree. With all of the demons running about using resonances that no average human can possibly resist, you have a lot of puppets getting shoved into their Fates.

Not really. Remember that fate (lower-case) can be invalidated by celestial interference.

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