The title is a lot more ominous than this post actually is. Just a thought, really, that may, given my style, turn into a few paragraphs. It’s a sort of response to several posts I’ve seen on various D&D blogs and accounts recently.
Premise: The church and the clergy are not villains.
In my games, be they RPGs or war games, I rarely make clergymen or religious characters “bad guys”. This is very different than what I see normally in the gaming community. The “church” here refers to whatever temple, church, or religious order is followed by the majority of people in the game world. Generally speaking, there is a pseudo-Catholic (or at least high/liturgical) church that exists in most fantasy gaming settings. In historical settings, it usually is the Roman Catholic Church. What I often see is one of the following:
1. The “church” (again, dominant or predominantly followed religious group) is secretly seeking solely to exert control over the masses, by way of offering afterlife, absolution, or another incentive.
2. Clergy are not to be trusted. A helpful priest now is a secret wizard/vampire/betrayer later. Even if he doesn’t want to be, that priest may be forced to attack or turn on the players because they disagree with something that the ominous “church” has ordained. They also want your money.
3. Even if there is no villainy in the “church”, clergy, or lay population, there is some dark secret or skeleton in the closet of the temple-goers (figuratively or literally in fantasy settings!).
Obviously, I am speaking in general, about what has become a trope of the role playing and gaming cultures. Not everyone’s game has this, I’m sure, but by and large this is what I’ve seen. And it’s unnecessary.
My alternative: I usually make my clergy all-around decent dudes (dudes is a term I apply to both male and female individuals). The church exists as a bastion of order and goodness in an otherwise bleak and monster-infested world. There’s plenty of bad, why not have something that exists solely to help people?
*Please note: there has been one time where I had a villain pose as a member of the clergy—which was obvious to all but the child-king of the city state who lived in his palace unaware of the rampant slavery in the city.
**Also note: I do not include members of evil cults or temples in this, like the head of a snake cult that captures virgins for sacrifice.
The logic of the trope is, obviously, that all medieval religions sought one thing: overbearing control over those who were not the chosen, Latin-fluent few. But what people like to forget that the Latin Vulgate was written to put the Greek Bible into the “vulgar” or common tongue of the people. Did the Roman Catholic Church hold onto tradition and persecute later Christians who sought to do the same? Yeah, and it’s heartbreaking.
Have some Popes made questionable decisions? Yes. Pope Urban II’s completely unscriptural declaration of forgiveness of sins for those who fought in the first Crusade still leaves me reeling as a theologian, when I think about it.
Does that mean that every single priest or monk in the medieval Church was a manipulative politician? By no means! Monks would teach agricultural techniques and reading to the common people who lived in villages by their monasteries; it’s why people built their villages near monasteries! They were also tasked with distributing alms to those in need from the monastery, coincidentally seen in the introduction of the previous mentioned Disney’s Robin Hood! Just look at this post regarding some interesting rules of the Benedictine order! Monks were supposed to be good guys!
Finally, it’s not just unfair to your players to make the church/temple of Pelor/religious order of good a secretly seedy and unscrupulous corporate affair (especially if you’ve got paladins and clerics playing your game); it’s lazy and boring. So many stories I hear and see involve it. Most people want to play heroes, so let them! Give them a good wholesome source of quests to go save the world.
Let your player who plays a rogue and (in real life) distrusts any organized religion interrogate and poke at Brother Tobit, only to eventually realize that her suspicion was completely unfounded, and what’s more, why not let her realize the distrust was unfounded with the whole darn thing!
Role playing games are often a place where we are encouraged to try new things and step out of our comfort zone. So why not go against the grain with some good religious folk, for once?
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading!
I think a mix of good and bad guys in the RPG religious community is right for me, but I like things to balance!
ReplyDeleteAnd that’s great! I’ve just been seeing a lot of imbalance in many games, and I’m tired of disdaining the term bishop as much as Necromancer when I go to roll dice and do math! Lol
DeleteI tend to run my religions as reflective of the interests of the gods they serve, and the clergy run the gamut of real people, some good, some selfish etc. It's worth remembering any organized religion is also an institution, and the institution will have it's own goals. This can lead to some interesting role playing for and interactions with clergy. Also, and as a rule if one needs help the church is where one turns for it, and it should be provided to the faithful to whatever extent possible in keeping with the tenants and resources available at that time and place. Religion and the church were a major part of life ( and still is for many) until very recently and games set in a quasi medieval or ancient setting should reflect that.
ReplyDeleteWell put!
ReplyDeleteBecause my DnD "campaign" is really more a series of one-off hasty scenarios in a City Of Adventure, I don't have much to say about religion in the world. There might be a demon loose in the cathedral, or perhaps the gargoyles have come to life and are methodically disassembling the building - the players are drafted to help. I did once start a campaign where humans and orcs worshipped a dragon - the dragon was mildly evil (intending to invade other lands) but was protective of its worshippers, who knew little of its intentions and treated travellers amicably.
ReplyDeleteI am also influenced by the Sister Fidelma and Brother Cadfael mysteries - particularly the former, as the Celtic Church of the 7th century was remarkably fair for its day and existed in parallel with the Irish law system - which meant women had significant rights, could hold what were later considered men's roles (including, according to some chroniclers, the priesthood - St. Brigid is said to have been a bishop). Religious could marry and raise their children in the church.
That’s how I tend to run my campaigns, as well. If you’re adventuring in my game, odds are, you’re adventuring. The most interaction with religious figures is going to be throwing your wounded fighter down on a slab in front of the local priest to see if he can mend him in any way.
DeleteI love the dragon worship anecdote, that’s a really neat idea! The Celtic church is such an interesting case study as well, because when the Roman Catholic Church finally re-established contact they found a healthy and orthodox (little o) Church thriving on the island.