The Black Campbell

As with politics, religion is — for many people — a constant influence in their lives.  They might not ponder the nature of the universe, nor wonder if what they’re doing is right with their particular deity, but most people’s behavior is governed by moral structures derived from religious tradition (yes, even most of you Western atheists get most of your concepts of right/wrong and behavior from the Abrahamic tradition.)  However, religion is a subject that gets short shrift in most games I’ve played in — regardless of whether the game design or setting accounted for it.

There’s a few obvious reasons for this:  GM and players are uncomfortable with religious elements in their games because it can smack of proselytizing, even if that’s not the intent, and because many people have strong opinions regard their faith (or lack of it.)  Another reason is that many GMs simply don’t have a strong grounding in religious studies, and stick to subjects they know something about.

However, the addition of religious themes to plot lines can enhance the flavor of the stories being told, and it definitely aids in defining a character for the player.  Let’s start with the latter.  As mentioned above, religion provides — for many — the basis of their belief structure, which governs their actions.  It helps give the players, as well as the GM, a hook for the actions their characters would take under circumstances.

Some examples of how religious themes and motivations can drive a character are quickly found in other media.  In Babylon 5, many of the characters are religious — although their religion does not always effect their actions.  Delenn and the other members of the religious caste are drawn to the Rangers, and are motivated by the belief that they are the heirs to Valen’s fight against the Shadows, creatures of evil.  they are raised to see the Vorlons as the “good guys” and this clouds their relationship with that race.  Internecine politics drives them, as well, but no so much as their faith in their religious doctrines.  Command Sinclair’s Jesuit upbringing makes him more open to other ideas and traditions, and makes him more likely to try and talk his way out of a situation than shoot.

Recently, Battlestar Galactica made religion a central issue of the plot — the Colonial remnants appear to be playing out a cosmic cycle, and their “mission”, to find Earth and the lost Thirteenth Tribe parallels Jewish and Mormon tales.  As the show goes on, the evidence that there are supernatural forces directing their actions, and watching over them, becomes more and more evident.  Starbuck is an angel, for Gods’ sake!  The tug and pull of monotheists vs. the polytheists creates drama and danger for Baltar, and if you include Caprica in your game canon, this is an old debate in the Colonies.

Religious influence can be subtle.  Shepard Book in Firefly is a priest, yes, but he wasn’t always.  He has a constant internal struggle between his religious beliefs and his past.  His religiosity brings him into conflict with Mal Reynolds, who was once a man of faith and is now tweaked by the very mention of faith.  He respects Book, and deep down sees him as a father figure, but his disappointment at God’s having abandoned them as surely as the Independent command has put the almighty on the outs with him.

You don’t have to hit people over the head with religion to make it fill out your game world.  Understanding the motivations of your bad guys — beyond “they’re goblins, man, they’re evil!” — will make the adventures much more interesting for the players.  Are these particular goblins motivated by a local pagan god which may or may not be a power-mad wizard (the best kind, really)?  Is your Roman centurion an adherent of Minerva or Ares, and does that choice of God dictate his style of tactics and strategy (smart and clever over brutal and laudatory)?  Is your Victorian-period steampunk character religious?  Being a Jew in the period could make for interesting problems in some parts of the world, where just being a member of that faith could create distrust, abuse, or be a real threat to your life.  A missionary is going to have certain ideas about why he’s tromping around the African highlands, and it’s probably not to find King Solomon’s Mines.  Maybe the character is an atheist, driven by a hatred of the Church to cause trouble, or at the very least write screeds against the establishment, which could bring the wrong attention to him.

Science fiction settings traditionally give religion a glossing over.  Babylon 5 took it serious, never talked down to people of faith (unlike Star Trek: The Next Generation Picard, who once railed that the Federation had grown past the superstitions of religion), and never came down on one side or the other on the true nature of the universe.  Sometimes, the unknown is only interesting when it remains unknown.  (A valid argument against the finale of Battlestar Galactica.)  Even when you can “prove” that the local gods are simply more advanced creatures and not supreme beings (the Prophets of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, for example) doesn’t mean that people aren’t still going to believe what they want.

I have been infusing my current BSG campaign with the same monotheism v. polytheism elements from the show.  There’s visions, and “head” characters (angels), and there is a plan for the Colonials and Cylons that is separate, but related, to the main story.  But I try not to knock them over the head all the time; it’s usually a deus ex machina to keep the story on track.  Like it was in the show.

In a Star Trek campaign I posited that not all Vulcans were adherents of Surak.  There were Vulcans that thought logic was necessary, but that purging emotions was a serious mistake and dangerous to free will.  There was another sect that was connected to the Romulan ideas of embracing destiny and glory.  While not religious, per se, it acted much the same way — Vulcans were not homogenous, and many of the lesser sects were discriminated against.  Even my android race that was coming to the forefront toward the end had religious (they’d call them scientific) views on the nature of the universe, seeing it as a massive information substrate.  They found the concept of death — of losing an irreplaceable set of data — horrific, and something to be opposed through uploading of personalities.

The trick, I’ve found, is to gauge your audience: some players will be more receptive than others to having a religious theme to the campaign in general.  It’s best to get a feel for what makes your players uncomfortable.  Some groups, however, will see the use of religion as a boon for their characters and for the flavor of the campaigns.

It’s worth a go, at least.

It’s pretty much always in the background in modern life, and a lot of people might turn to games to avoid it, but politics is a setting element that can greatly enhance your game’s flavor.

There are a few obvious genres and settings where politics is almost a necessity: Star Wars campaigns set during the Clone Wars is one that leaps immediately to mind, or any modern-day espionage or law enforcement game.  But political intrigue and machinations show up in Stargate, in Star Trek (and if you don’t look at the Federation as a monocultural bloc, can make for a very interesting story arc), as well as in historical settings.

Politics doesn’t just provide plots for the GM, but can give characters motivation.  An anarchist in a Victorian-period setting would have certain beliefs and goals, and this would lead to actions that could spawn adventures…is he honked off at the Austrian aristocracy?  the British empire?  Capitalists?  What would he do to make the world a better place:  is he a still on his ass and write manifesto type like Mazzini?  Or is he a throw the Austrians out of Italy type like Garibaldi?  Or is he the crazed lone gunman looking for a few minutes of fame by knifing a defenseless Empress Elizabeth of Austria?

Even those motives and actions could change over time — an anarchist from the late 19th Century is a lot different than one from the 18th Century, who is less likely to be a violent ideologue, and more of a Thoreau-esque man of letters, looking to avoid the entanglements of “modern” life or a woodman, exploring the wilderness of the Americas and trying to stay ahead of civilization.

As bad as the Star Wars prequels were, they did show that people can have a multiplicity of viewpoints on politics — how a government should be run, what it should do, and what the role of the individual is.  Westerns often had cowboys pitted against the robber baron or the grasping politician…but is that politician really just out for himself?  Perhaps, he honestly wants to create an oasis of civilization in the midst of the wild, and to do that, he needs to control adventurous, individualistic young men like your characters.  Or needs to hire guns like your players to help him in his quest to bring order to the chaos of the West.

Modern espionage campaigns should see politics as intrinsic to the missions they are on.  The characters are most likely working for a specific agency (or corporation, if it’s a cyberpunk-inspired campaign) and there is an institutional character to their agency, there are allegiances and antagonists in other agencies that you are friendly with.  Sometimes, for expediency, those friendlies might see it as advantageous to work against your group, and could provide a foil that is as simple as not getting your intel you need in time, to sending out a burn notice, to sending out another team to stop you forcedly.  (How many times has Jack Bauer’s own people tried to do him in?) There’s the motivations of the people that you are spying on, recruiting, or running as assets — these are tied up in their beliefs, and they are pressure points for the characters to influence their allies and enemies.

For medieval or fantasy settings, politics and the machinations of nations provides a more nuanced and interesting campaign for the players than an endless series of dungeon crawls.  The players can be real movers and shakers in these universes.  It gives the players something to shoot for beyond getting the next cool magic item or weapon.

Characters, like players or people in general, could find that their friendships and allegiances change as their politics beliefs collide.  An autocratic-leaning character like Anakin Skywalker is bound to run into trouble with a democrat like Obi-Wan Kenobi not just because it’s being pushed down your throat by a bad screenwriter who has written a couple of punks, but because their visions of society are radically different.  they work together, but their animosity grows as they find themselves diverging on what they believe, and how much they can trust each other.

Nothing says you have to go Star Trek on your players and hit them with a thinly-veiled allegory for [insert social issue here] each game session.  But adding a fleshed out political system, series of entities, and politically-driven conflicts can certainly help your campaigns, no matter the setting.

It’s been terribly busy this month, between getting the new house ready and moving, and getting things set for my next hurdle in the dissertation nonsense, but things are starting to calm down and I can finally punch out a few posts on ideas that have been churning about for the last few weeks.

There should be a couple of Setting the Scene posts on the use of religion, politics, and other hot topics in your campaigns.  I’m hoping to have a few ideas to post on the Serenity / Firefly and Battlestar Galactica settings ready to go soon, as well.