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<blockquote data-quote="Crimson Terrain" data-source="post: 8546905" data-attributes="member: 7034985"><p>This is something I'm covering in my next project actually. While the nature of this supplement somewhat insists upon the greater focus being on cults and religions that actively worship a specific deity. I do have a section on designing and incorporating religions and the cultures that surround them in general, which covers many of the concepts mentioned here as I wanted to help GMs create a rich world for their players. </p><p></p><p>Do you have any thoughts on how GMs can incorporate various religions into their games without being unintentionally disrespectful of other cultures? It is not necessarily reasonable to expect every GM to spend the time necessary to fully understand all of the varied religions and cultural practices that surround them but at the same time; assuming your goal is to create a rich and diverse world (if you're interested in this topic then you probably are) it is almost unavoidable that we draw from many different cultures of which we are aware but possibly not possessed of an expert level of knowledge. On one hand, the easy answer and one that may be ultimately correct is "just don't include it if you don't have a full understanding of it" but if we follow that logic we commonly end up with a bland and typically eurocentric world. I'm not sure there is a 100% correct answer for everyone. I'd be curious what your answer is. </p><p></p><p>Of course, I won't ask you this question without providing my own answer. The answer I propose is that when drawing inspiration from an existing culture/religion that the GM should try to only use one or two aspects of it. If we stick to using say a material inspiration and an institutional representation from say Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and develop the rest from either our own imaginations and knowledge we can create something new that is truly just inspired by it. So how might that example look?</p><p></p><p>So the Ancient Egyptians Religious Material would provide people whose clothing incorporated a lot of gold, white and turquoise, various iconography similar to the ankh, temples, pyramids, burial chambers, etc... The Institutional and social aspects would have pharaohs (living god rulers), priests, and presumably a slew of lesser members of the religious class, etc... From here you design unique gods, one god, or even no actual gods at all. decide their doctrines, morality(try to stay away from pure "evil" concepts), laws, etc... In the end, hopefully, you end up with something uniquely yours and far more interesting because of it.</p><p></p><p>If we put what I have listed here together and not fully develop this, for the sake of not writing a book in this reply, we could end up with this. A religion that has an ultimate representation of their gods acting as sole ruler of the people (Pharoah, god-king, etc...) They are adorned in great wealth golds, and whites, fine jewelry, etc... The lesser members of the religious class spend some of their younger years in the direct service of the god-king and their family. They are housed in or around grand temples. The high priest acts as their advisor and performs religious ceremonies for major state events and religious days of great significance. Lesser priests run the day-to-day religious duties for the people. They worship no named gods beyond their god-king as they are seen as the physical embodiment of their god. When the body dies their spirit moves into their heir. They explain political assassinations and the like as the god being tired of their current body and desiring a new body. The people are largely unfettered by law beyond the "natural order." The right to anything, including life, is dictated by your ability to maintain it. Intelligence is just as valued as physical strength. Might does not always equal right in this case. So on and so forth until fully developed.</p><p></p><p>This got very long but I think I got where I wanted to go with this, which was to expand on the concepts in your article and hopefully help people to think about how to incorporate the real world into their game's religions and culture without spending hundreds of hours on research but without being insensitive or having to fully invent absolutely new systems of religion when so many amazing examples exist all around us. If some of what I had to say here or this topic in general interests you, I have links in my signature.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crimson Terrain, post: 8546905, member: 7034985"] This is something I'm covering in my next project actually. While the nature of this supplement somewhat insists upon the greater focus being on cults and religions that actively worship a specific deity. I do have a section on designing and incorporating religions and the cultures that surround them in general, which covers many of the concepts mentioned here as I wanted to help GMs create a rich world for their players. Do you have any thoughts on how GMs can incorporate various religions into their games without being unintentionally disrespectful of other cultures? It is not necessarily reasonable to expect every GM to spend the time necessary to fully understand all of the varied religions and cultural practices that surround them but at the same time; assuming your goal is to create a rich and diverse world (if you're interested in this topic then you probably are) it is almost unavoidable that we draw from many different cultures of which we are aware but possibly not possessed of an expert level of knowledge. On one hand, the easy answer and one that may be ultimately correct is "just don't include it if you don't have a full understanding of it" but if we follow that logic we commonly end up with a bland and typically eurocentric world. I'm not sure there is a 100% correct answer for everyone. I'd be curious what your answer is. Of course, I won't ask you this question without providing my own answer. The answer I propose is that when drawing inspiration from an existing culture/religion that the GM should try to only use one or two aspects of it. If we stick to using say a material inspiration and an institutional representation from say Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and develop the rest from either our own imaginations and knowledge we can create something new that is truly just inspired by it. So how might that example look? So the Ancient Egyptians Religious Material would provide people whose clothing incorporated a lot of gold, white and turquoise, various iconography similar to the ankh, temples, pyramids, burial chambers, etc... The Institutional and social aspects would have pharaohs (living god rulers), priests, and presumably a slew of lesser members of the religious class, etc... From here you design unique gods, one god, or even no actual gods at all. decide their doctrines, morality(try to stay away from pure "evil" concepts), laws, etc... In the end, hopefully, you end up with something uniquely yours and far more interesting because of it. If we put what I have listed here together and not fully develop this, for the sake of not writing a book in this reply, we could end up with this. A religion that has an ultimate representation of their gods acting as sole ruler of the people (Pharoah, god-king, etc...) They are adorned in great wealth golds, and whites, fine jewelry, etc... The lesser members of the religious class spend some of their younger years in the direct service of the god-king and their family. They are housed in or around grand temples. The high priest acts as their advisor and performs religious ceremonies for major state events and religious days of great significance. Lesser priests run the day-to-day religious duties for the people. They worship no named gods beyond their god-king as they are seen as the physical embodiment of their god. When the body dies their spirit moves into their heir. They explain political assassinations and the like as the god being tired of their current body and desiring a new body. The people are largely unfettered by law beyond the "natural order." The right to anything, including life, is dictated by your ability to maintain it. Intelligence is just as valued as physical strength. Might does not always equal right in this case. So on and so forth until fully developed. This got very long but I think I got where I wanted to go with this, which was to expand on the concepts in your article and hopefully help people to think about how to incorporate the real world into their game's religions and culture without spending hundreds of hours on research but without being insensitive or having to fully invent absolutely new systems of religion when so many amazing examples exist all around us. If some of what I had to say here or this topic in general interests you, I have links in my signature. [/QUOTE]
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