In Nomine and real religious reactions?

[The Final Door]

I just had an interesting talk about a game world idea for another game in the making. It has serious religious tones. Like "God is a living entity punishing the globe" tones. It does not tread lightly.

It made me think, did In Nomine ever (unintentionally) provoke any reactions from the religious community? The representation of angels and demons, with players being able to play demons, or angels questioning God's Plan, would seem like a carrot dangled in front of religious commentators, and something that might even offend religiously inclined roleplayers. I know the old "dem games are eveeel" meme is not as thriving now as in the days when Jack Chick stood tall, but are there any real reactions to a roleplaying game using (un)holy texts and concepts so openly? Not to mention rewriting some things from scripture?

[tHEhERETIC]

Jack Chick. Strange and wonderful memories.

Yes I did. "darquay" is a friend of mine and wonderful roleplayer, and I tapped her to play The Corps for my PbP in a chat session. She did, but opted out of any long term RP in In Nomine. A devout Christian, she took exception to one thing in particular: Michael being convicted of Pride. An AA doesn't have such vices IRL. Unfortunately that's a major part of canon and highlighted in my game.

She also found PC angels much weaker and more flawed than real angels. Real biblical angels apparently strike people senseless by their mere presence (at least in some passages, though I remember others where they just kind of hang out with people until they reveal themselves). I was always specifying "game angels" there.

[Andygal]

I don't know about reactions from real religious people, but there's a livejournal ficlet out there describing the reaction of a Fundamentalist Christian ending up in IN's version of Heaven. :D. Quite amusing. And unfortunately very short. There is so much more that could be done on that theme of various religions colliding with the reality of the IN world.

[Attercap]

I've had a few friends of various faiths who were uncomfortable playing In Nomine and one or two who were OK with In Nomine--so long as they didn't have to play demons. It's not a game for everyone and I get that. ...It might also be part of what makes the game so special for me.

[Rocket Man]

To be honest, I had to do a little soul-searching when I first started playing because of my own Christian faith (especially with the initial "take" on Yves and Kronos in "Heaven & Hell"). I finally decided I could still play it comfortably, remembering:

1) The fundamental rule of any RPG: This is not the real world!

2) That in a game GM'd by me, the universe can be set up however I want.

Today, it's one of my favorite RPGs, period. To be honest, the way it portrayed angels, demons, Archangels and Demon Princes in general never bothered me all that much; it was some of the specific questions and "big picture" details that raised an occasional eyebrow. (As it happens, I love the "selfless/selfish" dichotomy, especially with how it's been elaborated under Beth's guidance.)

Like some of Attercap's friends, I still prefer not to play demons, though. The current "In Noir-mine" play-by-post is the first exception I've ever made, largely because the noir conventions obviate a lot of the usual conflicts.

[sjard]

I'd figured my mom would have had a worse reaction when I first mentioned IN to her. She's one of those who believes D&D teaches witchcraft, but after hearing the description of IN her response was "It is a fictional setting following its own rules. Nothing wrong with that as long as you can tell the difference between fiction and reality."

[Dalillama]

I've had the opposite problem: When I explained the premise to some of my gamer acquaintances, I was told "But I'm not a Christian, why would I want to play something like that?"

[Andygal]

heh, I myself am an avowed atheist, and I (obviously) have no problem RPing angels. I love fantasy worlds in general and IN is just another fantasy world to live in inside my head, and I frankly like IN's take on certain issues, for the exact same kinds of reasons that fundamentalists would be ****** off.

But yeah, if you want to enjoy IN (or really, most RPGs) you've got to be able to separate reality and fantasy and not get offended over fantasy stuff.

Incidentally, I was originally interested in RPGs through reading Jack Chick's "Dark Dungeons" comic, I figured anything that annoyed religious fundamentalists had to be worth a look.

Fundamentalism - a terrible fear that somebody, somewhere is having fun.

[Flyndaran]

People that can't separate reality from fiction should be under treatments for their obvious delusions.
I hate the very idea that anyone must defend a game. Their games, people. Get over it. Do they throw hissy fits over ball in a cup, or hula hoops?

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

People that can't separate reality from fiction should be under treatments for their obvious delusions.
I hate the very idea that anyone must defend a game. Their games, people. Get over it. Do they throw hissy fits over ball in a cup, or hula hoops?

To be fair, it's not always a question of separating reality from fiction -- it's a matter of deciding "Is this particular fiction something I want to pursue? Am I comfortable doing this, even in pretense?"

Real life comes first. And if a story or game gives you real-world qualms for some reason, it's probably best avoided. That doesn't make the story or the game necessarily evil ... but it does mean that it's probably not the right one for you.