>>96160219
>and something players are excited to interact with
That's ultimately the important part.
Make it matter MECHANICALLY. Nobody cares about the lore of your gods unless there is an actual interaction with the game world happening, and the player characters gain something out of it. Having tenants that spiritual characters need to uphold is step one, step two is rewarding that with some kind of powers, benefits, abilities.

>>96160219
>How do I make players care about my failed novel?

You don't. Players don't care about shit that isn't part of their backstory. They are authentic table to fight monsters and conquer dungeons, not help you jerk off over your self-masturbatory "world-building".

>>96160219
>setting
there's your problem, settings are never interesting. systematize the religion within the game's mechanics

>>96160236
*They are at the table to

>>96160236
Bad news, anon, I run ERP so they're definitely here to help me jerk off.

>>96160219
>How do I make my players excited to interact with a lore-dump?

You hope one of them wants to play a Cleric or non-atheist Paladin, then let them help you write the lore and tenants of their character's religion/god(s).
If none of your players are playing a religious character, they probably don't care about this part of your setting and will probably be bored to tears as you try to force it on them.

>>96160219
What aspect of the religion are you trying to make interesting? The mechanical benefits of joining it? Or the effects its worshipers have upon the world and the player characters? Cause thhat's what makes stuff interestinng to the players, that some group in the game's backstory isn't just a name floating in the void but has actual representatives inside your campaign to interact with and learn more from, as well as see them put their money where their mouth is in terms of living by their creeds and beliefs.

>>96160219
Look at how Runequest and Glorantha do it.

>it feels lifeless
Ultimately it's up to the players if they want to roleplay their characters going to pilgrimages, undergoing spiritual developments, conversions, prayer, giving and receiving sermons and so on.
But most players aren't going to treat your game as a religion simulator or roleplay their characters' faiths as well as the average religious studies major.
Religion is as lively or lifeless as your players make it, just like any other aspect of the worldbuilding and story.

>>96160539
this isn't /tgg/, we don't have to put every single discussion in a general

>>96160219
>How do you make religion in a fantasy setting good, interesting, and something players are excited to interact with?
Run adventures or have NPCs that/who get the players interested in your lore. If you are a GM who makes the lore compelling, your players will be interested in asking more. Do not try to force it on them or they will find you annoying.

You simply cannot force player interest in your amateur writing. It won't work. Stop trying. It's tedious. You write the lore for you, because you find it interesting.

Drip-feed it through descriptions of places, people and things, and through the dialogue of your NPCs. If your players get interested and ask, then drip-feed them tidbits as well. Then if they want to read your lore, offer it.

I write massive lore documents. My most recent homebrew world is about 100 pages long. What I asked my players to read, before the game started, was under 250 words. One of them played a Warlock and eventually got super-interested in the demonic power he chose as his patron from a list I gave him. Another was a half-orc priestess and she decided she wanted her character to be super-pious after a couple of the adventures had touched on religion, and she read like 5 pages of my lore because she wanted to.

You cannot force your players to care about your lore. Trying will have the opposite effect. Write it for you. Drip feed it. Make it available if your stories and characters are compelling enough that your players wanna read more about it.

>>96160539
Talk about the things you're interested in and stop trying to police the conversations other people have, you fucking douche bag. If you didn't want a thread to die then you shoulda fucking posted in it.

>>96160219
I've thought about this a fair amount.
Most of the time players do not want to be heavily limited in what they can and cannot do for reasons that don't make immediate sense, and players want to be able to internalise the list of unusual things about the world fairly easily.

Making a fantasy religion or fantasy pantheon good for an RPG is like many other aspects of worldbuilding. You need to have things players can use as shorthand and comparisons for our world, and you shouldn't change everything just for the sake of it.
There is a sliding scale of immersion, and it is not the same for everyone.

I like to use measurements and calendars as an example.
>Calling your months august and october implies the existence of a man namd Augustus and the use of roman numbers (but the moving of those numbers around by the insertion of new months)
>having a solar calendar that matches our real one implies things about the planet and the culture
>having measurements match real ones, be it metric or imperial, also implies things

BUT if you demand your players memorise and use a fake calendar of fourteen spanduls each divided into three brepita, a brepit being nine glotha long... your players will be stonewalled by the sheer amount of digesting they need to do of your lore before they start playing.
When a novel presents its lore, it does so as part of a linear story that, ideally, has been calculated to not overwhelm the reader and to introduce things at a reasonable pace. It can also not explain things, let the reader assume or wonder, because the book does not answer questions. A player at your table can put his hand up and say "hey GM, why IS the fourth Spandul called Bogdabriet?"

If you reinvent everything and tell your players the price of entry to your games is digesting a massive loredump, they are gonna be scared off. Everything >>96160630
says is good, drip feed it. You can't pre-prepare it in an ideal order like a novel can, so react to your players instead.

>>96160739
and to loop this back around to religion, you need to have a one paragraph or otherwise very short description of each faith, because that is all most players will see.

MOST players don't care about the in depth lore of each god or faith. They pick one for their character, based on that simple description, and maybe remember to say "great Grob" rather than "jesus fuckin' christ"

If there are faiths that are highly restrictive, players will mostly not play them and players will hate playing alongside them. For a player to play a very restrictive religion, they need to either constantly be reminded by the GM what's forbidden (or required) and may accidentally snooker themselves by getting into a shit situation the character wouldn't have done if they'd remembered all the commandments - which is unrealisic for a character who has been living and breathing that religion all their life.

This is why most of the time your D&D religions can be boiled down to like
>Grobites worship Grob, obviously
>Grob is the God of the eastern not!mongolian steppe warriors, they venerate the horse as a powerful partner and what makes life possible
>Grob has the War and Travel domains
>It is forbidden to mistreat your horse, but it is permissible to kill the enemy's horse if you also kill him in battle at the same time
>Grobites culturally shun heavy armour, heavy burdens, and staying in one place, as a result of their nomadic lifestyle.
>They say "What a man and his horse may carry, Grob blesses, but nothing more"
even that is probably too long.

You can have more detail, but it needs to be optional.
You can also have gaps where the detail goes, and fill it in as players ask questions - or let players help fill it in - but there needs to be enough of a skeleton to hang world design off, and there needs to be enough of a skeleton to help indecisive players make up their minds. Limitations breed creativity, but they also force decisions.

>>96160557
If 40gay thread get told to stay in their general, then so should you guys.

>good
It has to function as a religion, portrayed with aspects of religions that have had success (or at least prominence), and has to have a considerable following as past religions have.
>interesting
It has to meet the interests of your target audience, because there's no way to make anything's objective state of being "interesting".
>exciting
It has to excite your target audience, because there's no way to make anything's objective state of being "exciting".

>feels
I'm sorry you feel that way.
Some people find that kind of lore interesting and exciting.
Personally, I could give two shits about lore in a game, but I at least have the understanding that different people want different things, and that you have to know your audience in order to play to their tastes.

Your thread sucks.

>>96161144
>>96161744
:0

>>96160219
Like what >>96160234 said. If it doesn't fit in mechanically with gameplay. (Via powers, hooks, etc.) It's just pointless fluff.

In the Broken Empires those that are "Clerics" or "Warlocks" and get their powers via others like gods/demons/fae/etc. casting spells/miracles cost favor. So you need to do things to keep your favor up from prayers and offerings. Though miracles that help your god and all might not cost as much as they would if it just for you and all. So I would recommand something like that for your "devote classes."

>>96164705
Is that RPG even out yet? I can't tell if it's actually doing something new or if it's just a kitchen sink of derivative mechanics.

>>96160219
I liked how Fading Suns handled religion. There's doctrine and very strong evidence that the spiritual realm exists, but most of the focus is placed on the institutions that spring up around all that. The exact nature of God, gods, and/or spirits is kept mysterious.

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>>96160219
Unironically - commandments.
Make a bunch of rules a god demands from their followers. The more of them they fulfill the higher the favor of the god, and in case of clerics the more powers they can access.

>>96160219

If it doesn't affect the day to day life of the setting in a way that makes sense, leave it out.

It's okay for a god to be evil, or crazy, as long as people act like they live under an evil or crazy god, and so forth.

i.e. in my setting CE is a massive, world ending threat if they ever get a foothold. If LG had enough resources to take on CE by themselves, they wouldn't have a word to say to anyone else but the risk is so dire and CE's potential power so great that they have no choice but to ally with LE, L, G, and CG, resulting in the powers that be celestial and terrestrial pretty much forcing policy that those factions *have* to get along as much as possible, awkward though that may be sometimes, with E and C being fair game but also in position to play kingmaker as it suits them.

Thus LE gets to have their temples even if everyone else thinks they're assholes, which sets off the other factions doing everything they can to get some cultural distance in case LE decides to try to sneak some legitimacy for themselves.

Once it's on the level of "you're not allowed to kill her, but you are allowed to call her names. He, you can kill" having some knowledge of the powers at play becomes a bona-fide job requirement.

*If* you hold them to it. If you chinch out and "fix it" in the name of keeping the game going, you've just wasted everyone's time.

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Does anyone else like the Eberron method of religions? The Eberron method is more "realistic," for lack of a better term: different competing models of the divine, some of which are compatible with one another, some of which boil down to faith in gods whose existence can never be truly verified.

A religion is more akin to a real-world religion in that it presents its own "rules of the divine," which may or may not be compatible with other religions. There is no one universal pantheon in Eberron that all gods get filed into.

Do you like it when a fantasy setting uses this method for distinguishing its religions?

>>96169598
Eberron is broadly the best I've seen religion done in D&D. Only real problem is that the individual components of the Sovereign Host aren't very interesting.

Have you considered trying to add the occasional shrine to your adventures, placed in odd locations and dedicated to the gods in question? Small altars and things, places to make offerings or conduct little rituals.

Hell, let the players develop their own rites. A couple of coppers placed in a bowl can be worth a few hours of blessing. A silver might keep the rain off of them and clean their clothes. A specific prayer, revealed by a Religion check, could do something strange or helpful.

Experimentation is key, my man.

>>96160219
Settings that get people interested in the religion require two things. The most important, give them a mystery. How do the gods work, what is their actual history, what are their actual identity. This shit will have people talking about them for years. The second, give them actual cults. Not just clerics with their powers. Religion is a practice, so your religion needs ceremonies, cult objects, priests, followers.

>>96169598
Wait, then how does Eberron have things like clerics? The divine magic has to come from SOMEWHERE.

>>96175335
Different, competing models of the divine does not imply that the divine doesn't exist. It merely implies that mortals lack perfect knowledge of it.

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>>96160219
Don't make it about the gods, make it about the people who worship the gods. Also don't make it too convoluted, that's not how religions work, and your players won't like loredumping, ttrpg's are "bite sized lifes" so to speak, make bite sized religions.
The best example I can think of are the hammerites in the original Thief game, if you don't know it or don't want to play it just watch all the cutscenes of the game and you'll understand. It's like a parody on christian inquisition which kinda makes sense because it explains the phenomena of creation and chaos with the master builder and the trickster. and even though they were fanatics they were actually right all along.
But the point is that is an explanation for how people explain things they don't understnad and how that shapes the world around them culturally, and it should be interesting because religion is interesing but it has to be interesting both for the non.religious and the religious.
If your players aren't interested in the religion your world has or don't really care but you still want your world to have one because you think it matters, make them understand the gods that exist and all the cool stories of the deities or saints should be told from environmental storytelling, remember, action is character, and character is action. Instead of a priest who takes half an hour to explain to them a god, make it so they find it, say, you go to a town school for information and find the teacher explaining how Odin tricks the giants with the cursed gold of Rhine to her younger students.
(1/2)

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>>96175437
If your players are interested in the religion that your world has then make those stories mean something, In Thief you can understand from the get go how builders are superior to thiefs(demons), how they strike down all the elements and build with them, how they build walls against eternal winds of chaos and rejoice in the eternal fire... But as you play you are able to find books and people talking about the gods, and you choose to stay and read/listen or just get your shit done.
The stories actually mean something, you should give the players the basic understanding and the effects the religions have in the world and when you feel that they are interested, make them play to understand the real meaning of the stories of that religion, if they want to understand more they will strive to understand more,
In my opinion even if they are too interested in the stories of the religion you create you shouldn't give them right away, use that in favor of the storytelling, they want someone to give them more information about a certain god? Well that characters doesn't want his time wasted... Unless you give him or do something in return. And there you go now you use that to your advantage so they actually play the game instead of get loredumped, both if they want and don't want to understand the religions your world has.

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All pantheons are ontological and teleological; that is they are metaphors for the human attempt to make sense of existence itself and to assign ultimate cause. To "read" a pantheon is to read a culture's sense of itself and of the nature of the cosmos.

>>96175719
Sometimes they're teleologies. Sometimes they're prescriptions for behavior and law. Some times they're just naked nationalism. Or geneologies both real and imagined. Straight up law books. Poems about how nice fruit tastes. The stories are a thousand different things. Egypt's got one that recipe for beer. Sometimes they're revenge fantasies or honest-to-god ancient fan-fics. Ancient people wrote stories about gods for all the same reasons that people write books today, from car repair manuals to comic books. They were just characters in stories.

>>96175719
four to six? I only have 2-3 at max. Sometimes I think if I am a masochist for being a DM to such fucking ingrates, but I love them regardless.

>>96160219
So, what are you actually looking for, because >>96161744 answered your shitty points and you weren't responsive.
What the fuck are you really asking?

>>96175437
>>96175460
I agree, don't loredump your worldbuilding. Sprinkle your lore in a little at a time, and when they want more let them be able to get more and add to it.

>>96175363
What model(s) do you prefer personally then?

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>>96160219
I want to make two religions, one revolving around the force of Law, the other Chaos. The problem is, when I try to come up with ideas, I keep thinking of Warhammer, even though I want both my religions to have good and evil gods and followers. I have narrowed down that Law temples are all largely based on the same basic template while Chaos temples are basically all unique sage for a few common traits, like symbols of the gods, but if there any non-Warhammer or DnD examples of this I would love to know please.

>>96160241
Alright, so how have religions come up in that then?

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>>96170881
>Settings that get people interested in the religion
And what settings are those?

>>96194618
>>96194863
>>96195100
>>96195202
>>96195273
kill yourself bumpfag

>>96160219
make the gods active participants in current events

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>>96160219
I could actually use some help on this front. I'm designing a setting where the four main gods are each the embodiments of one of the four elements of flame, stone, water, and air, each god having different domains associated with their element. Where can I look for ideas besides Avatar, especially for making the faiths of each god more distinct and filling out the domains for each god? Assuming that you don't have any ideas of course.

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>>96201330
When I see elemental factions, I think of the Lords of Magic videogame. It has distinct four elements factions, as well as Life/Death and Order/Chaos. Could check it out for inspiration.

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>>96201414
I hadn't heard of this before, I'll take a look, thanks. Almost forgot, I was considering that there be several factions and races that worship more than one of the gods at once, if that opens up more suggestion possibilities.

>>96160219
What effect does it have on the world aside from existing? Are there people of different faiths interacting with each other? Gangs who split their affiliations by their religious beliefs and beef with each other in the street?

The fact that you wear a certain kind of clothing that another faith wears and the merchant you're trying to buy from looks at you like your a walking piece of shit and charges double for all his goods?

>>96201330
Might genuinely get some use out of Bionicle lore. The six elemental tribes each have a principle they follow which derives from the three virtues they all share. Their culture and beliefs are all based on a combination of their element and how it relates to the overarching faith in the Great Spirit.
I might be a bit obsessed but it's what immediately came to mind as a source of inspiration

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>>96160219
It only feels lifeless when it's not meaningful mechanically and / or narratively. Same with any aspect of worldbuilding.
I'd say if you can't figure out how to do so than just write a novel, but Tolkien himself is an awesome example of just downplaying religion in his worldbuilding because it wasn't directly related to the story. He didn't find discussing the differences in worship between hobbits and elves very useful so he didn't include it.
A perfect contrast is Till We Have Faces by Lewis, where the presence of the gods and their priests is important and impressive.
>>96160236
>>96160238
I don't entirely disagree but who hurt you guys? Have you never played in a game with good worldbuilding or settings? I promise it doesn't always just get in the way.

>>96160219
Make it relevant to the game's story, not just its setting.

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>>96205157
Oh wow, that's a blast from the past, I was a big Bionicle fan when I was younger but I haven't thought about it in years, and I didn't remember the principles thing at all, thanks for reminding me. Always happy to meet another fan, it deserved better than Lego gave it! Have you ever used it as inspiration in your own stuff?

>>96209786
Unfortunately not, haven't mustered the courage to run a game myself yet. The 2 GMs in our group set such a high standard I'm scared of embarrasing myself lol.

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>>96212866
Well, I'm sure that you can manage it! Take your time. What did your previous GMs do BTW, especially in regards to religion?

>>96205543
Are there any examples that you would suggest looking at please?

>>96165887
I checked the website, it's still all pre-orders.

>>96222463
>>96225420
>>96232192
This thread was on the bottom of the catalog each time these were posted. It feels like a satanic ritual and this poster emanates evil child rapist energy

>>96160219
Religion mostly answers the question of what happens when we die, and their practices and rituals are what followers need to do in order to get their desired afterlife. Answer that question with your religion and then build a mythology expanding on it, a central holy text listing the rules people need to follow, and show how it impacts peoples' lives. When do they pray, what do they wear, what are they not allowed to eat, etc.

>>96232209
Any hints at when this will actually come out then?

>>96160236
>self-masturbatory

Redundant.

It basically isn't going to happen because none of your players actually know what it's like to live religiously. Everyone's an atheist and will somehow shoehorn being an atheist in settings where gods objectively exist, or shoehorn believing in evolution where canonically life didn't evolve into existence.

>>96239429
Don't play with low-IQ unempathetic retards.
I've run games as the only religious person in the group and had zero issue with this. You need to filter these people before session 1 if possible.

>>96160234
Dogs in the Vineyard is a good example of making religion mechanically relevant. Basically the main enemies are demons who are attracted to behaviors that go against the tenets of the church the players work for (or the church was created to spread and reinforce a way of life that would keep people safe from demons, po-tate-o, po-tot-o). So not only do you fight the demons directly, but also help people with personal issues that are causing them to drift away from the religious community and generally behave badly and confront people who are being bad influences, deliberately or not.

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>>96160219
I’ve noticed that in a lot of fantasy settings, the aesthetics of the holy men and the religions in general borrow heavily from Christianity, even when the connection is a bit of a stretch. Especially in Japanese media. What are some settings that do a good job of avoiding that, and how did the aesthetics that we associate with Christianity evolve over time?

>>96160219
Keep it vague until you need to. Leave it up to the players to show interest.

>>96160219
Aesthetics. There has to be something to draw the eye of new converts.

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>>96250576
Is that why Christianity built huge cathedrals like picture related?

>>96160219
Include it in the events of the campaign. It's easiest with the followers of the religion.
>a request from a wealthy believer to recover a venerated item
>one of the more presentable cultists is recruiting new members in town
>reports of a new demigod have reached the king, and he wants the players' famed mercenary company to serve as bodyguards to the prince assigned to search for the demigod
etc.

>>96212866
I'm sure you can do a good job! Just take your time making it!

>>96160219
Don't make it (or try to make it) based on any real religion. Nothing to make my eye roll hard than being told "Oh this is a real religion, you should already know all of this. Now go read up on wiki all about it. Also make sure you real all the boring ass real-life rituals and stuff, dont' worry about any off supernatural stuff, get the basics down first."

Holy fuck kill me.
Fantasy religions have been 100% better every time.

>>96160219
Tangible benefits for the worshippers. Like, maybe the church of the god of thieves has an information network that a rogue can use… for a few of course.

>>96272692
>for a few
A few what?

>>96275616
For a fee.

>>96254548
Yeah the ceilings being high are different of the low ceilings of dwellings.

>>96277361
Oh, it was a typo, Thanks for clearing that up.

>>96160219
Do it like in real life, a bunch of coping faggots with big defic cock down their throat.

>>96287128
Why are you insulting IRL religions?

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>>96160219
The big question is what does the religion actually do for the people who practice it?

For my sci-fi setting, there are numerous burgeoning religions and cults that sprang up around the emergence of psychic powers. One of them (still determining a name for them) became a non-profit that advocates for training and safety protocols outside of the government mandated stuff to allow for religious and personal expression even though the government schools don't force you to believe a certain way.

>>96291811
Issues with them

>>96294822
I would love to hear more about your setting and its religions please.

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>>96299677
The setting is designed for Stars Without Number and making use of the bare bones of how psychic powers came to be with my own modifications.

One of the important events in the settings history is the religious charlantanry that ran rampant and the catholic church's official stance on psychic powers saying they are not a sign of miracles and denounce those who claim otherwise.

Obviously this didn't sit well with a lot of people.

For the specific organization I have in mind it is both a cult and a political lobbying group/organization that wants to help other religious group develop their training processes but keeping with their own traditions and belief as they feel the government training regime does not allow for alternative interpretation of belief especially how they train and what they train in.

They are also designed to be an organization PCs can be part of because they would be one of the many groups pulled in for what is essentially psychic Section 8

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>>96299887
I would love to hear more on how people reacted to that stance by the Catholic Church. How do their training methods differ from the government's? Does it all run on the basic mechanics or is there homebrew involved, since you mentioned modifications?

>>96205501
>I don't entirely disagree but who hurt you guys?
>I think I'll check /tg/
>oh look the catalog is full of retarded faggot nogames threads asking about inane bullshit "in your setting"
This is what hurt everyone here. This shit is fucking stupid and it's been stupid and getting worse for 10 fucking years.

>>96301746
Let’s make a /wbg/ board or something similar then. What do we need to do to make it happen?

>>96212866
Everybody has to start somewhere, anon!
On the plus side, I'm sure the two GMs would love a chance to play some games

>>96232346
Religion fills gaps on people's knowledge and emotional landscape with whatever makes them more comfortable. That's why so much of it is about making people ok with death and forming a community.

>>96160219
Don't make up a bunch of theology, focus on ritual. Ritual is like 90% of the visible manifestation of religion in a person's actual life. Symbols, ritual, beliefs about the afterlife, ideas about how you should treat your neighbour. Don't worry about making a canonical description of what happened thousands of years ago.

>>96310621
this is pretty damn correct. Also being able to pull a ritual out of your ass is a good roleplaying skill in general.

>>96310780
I got a degree in anthropology just to be a better game master, it turns out.

>>96310787
Better than getting a degree in mathematics to write more detailed crunch that players will complain is unbalanced anyway!

>>96307474
I was going to say this, but you beat me to it.

>>96190855
Nun fetish.

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>>96319399
It's a shame they're sworn to celibacy. Where did that stupid rule come from, anyway?

>>96322919
IIRC, I believe that it was to try and keep the church from interfering with politics or something.

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Just ask what kind of god your players want to worship and work around that if you want to make religion a core aspect of your setting. Many of the best tabletop settings start off as simple homebrew for the DM's table.
If your party's cleric wants to be a god of redemption, build around that. Make their god a Catholic saintly type. If the cleric's paladin wants to champion the cause of the goddess of harvest, talk about how their cause investigates plagues and smites beings that personify illness.
Like everything else in a setting, start small. The rest will come naturally.

>>96322919
Nunneries also functioned as private schools for young noble-women where they could be set aside until suitable marriage was arranged. This required the girls to remain in... pristine condition, so to speak.

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>>96330211
So it was basically a boarding school ban on hanky-panky that got coded into religious law?

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>>96186758
Heroes of Might and Magic IV briefly touched on the philosophies of the different factions, but only through snippets of lore in building and spell descriptions. Sigh, the writing in that game was great, I really wish there had been more of it.

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>>96337612

>>96186758
I'm doing something similar in mine; you have to make the Law/Chaos cleavage substantial and mutually incompatible, but not obviously morally loaded.

I have:
Law - Hierarchy, order, reason, civilization
Chaos - Passion, creativity, transformation
Neutrality - Nature, mundanity, daily life

All Law descends from the Light of Reason (solar deity), while Chaos are the heirs to myriad primordial forces. Various other gods who have arisen since, either sign up on one end or the other, or try to remain neutral in the cosmic war.

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>>96160219
Ever read the Epic of Gilgamesh? Look at what the priestesses did with Enkidu.

>>96343716
Huh. Did a lot of ancient cultures have stuff like that?

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Cute uniforms for the female members of the faith.

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>>96337612
>>96337617
Thanks for the recommendation.

>>96340082
Thanks, I had pretty much given up hope of someone replying to me.

I would love to hear more about your setting and the deities (and religions that follow them) within it! Like this "Light of Reason" for starters. For one, if the Solar deity is Law, does that mean that the Moon god is Chaos?

>>96359696
>I would love to hear more about your setting and the deities (and religions that follow them) within it! Like this "Light of Reason" for starters. For one, if the Solar deity is Law, does that mean that the Moon god is Chaos?
I mostly use bullet points for religion, so not that much there to say.

The Light of Reason is sort of monotheistic/henotheistic god, though not Good like traditional gods. Order, reason, civilization, hierarchy. Dislikes undead. Has a right hand man (Archdevil-equivalent) who torture-punishes sinners for a time (in proportion to their sins) before sending them to be reincarnated. The primordial chaos was shaped by him into the world, so he basically set up the "laws of physics." The rest of the Law gods are subordinates/in love with him/otherwise aligned with his ideals. e.g. Rachnieth is a Spider Goddess who was spurned/cursed by him, like Lilith or Cain, but still loves him even so.

Chaos is a motley band of weirdos, in loose alliance against the Light of Reason; no central leader or plan like Law has. Major figures are Lovecraftian gods, the Moon as Chaos/dreams/art (mother of all lycanthropes, many demigod children), "barbarian" gods, gods that were cast out of LoR's gang and seethe about it, or gods that just love Freedom and Passion and Creativity too much.

Religious life doesn't fall into "religions" in modern sense; there are temples to gods, you pray to them, but the only ecclesiastical hierarchy is the Light of Reason's. Some civilizations are pure Law (e.g. not-Germany), some peoples are pure Chaos (e.g. orcs), but in other places you have both being worshiped/prayed to simultaneously, praying to whoever's most relevant.

Basically, it's like being in the Cold War, with countries being signed up to Law or Chaos or trying to manage neutrality (PC-land is ofc mixed faith).

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Evil nuns as enemies.

>>96160219
You can't. Religion is inherently boring. I can't think of a single instance where the religion in a fictional setting is interesting

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>>96362854
>Religion is inherently boring.
And what precisely makes religion so boring?

>>96364588
I paraphrase a quote from Nietzsche that claimed that theology killed Christianity.

>>96160219
give the players buffs if they pray and engage with the religion

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>>96364756
>a quote from Nietzsche that claimed that theology killed Christianity.
You mean "God is Dead" then?

You cannot turn vampires without a Cross. The hard part is fitting crosses into the setting without an historial jesus

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>>96369405
What about other holy symbols?

>>96160219
this might be of your interest
https://youtu.be/pjrrUZeJMSo

>>96371687
Crosses work because they represent jesus sacrificing himself for the great work, which is the opposite vampires do (eating people to overextend their life). Crosses expose themswlves to their shameful sin that they try to dissociate in lust and cruelty, and at this moment they see themswlves as the satan puppets they are, and the shame paralyzes them.
Holy symbols are not like a magical press pass you get from the subscriptión to your local sect

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>>96369405
I vaguely recall one sci-setting with vampires that had the cross thing be a result of how their brains handle right angles, but I can't remember the name ATM.

>>96378844
Blindsight/Echopraxia.

Blindsight is available free online (legally); it's a quite good SF novel.

>>96378844
Cringe atheist scifi

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>>96369405
Well, what are some other kinds of gods that might have crosses as a holy symbol? Maybe a god of the crossroads/travel for example?

>>96382181
Why would it require a specific kind of god? The cross didn't become a christian symbol until the christians decided to showcase jesus hung from one

>>96382181
If you are so brainrotted you must keep vampires vulnerable to crosses, specifically, there's always this symbol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_corners_of_the_world

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>>96186758
law and chaos always put me in mind of the Builder and the Trickster from thief. Civilization versus savagery and the wilds.

>>96382629
Bcause it's the power of Jesus what fucks the vampire, not the cross, baka

>>96383062
This means that, theoretically you could fuck up a Vampire with a Fish.

>>96383137
or wine

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>>96382742
Hey, the other anon was the one who brought it up first, I was just trying to figure out a way to make it make sense.

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>>96160219
Have a religion that allows you to climb the ladder into being a demi-god

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Elven priestesses.

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>>96160219
What kinds of deities are typically female versus typically male? I know most Moon gods are female and most Sun gods are male, for instance, along with male War gods and female Love gods, what patterns have you seen yourself, and how does this impact their faiths?

>>96382742
>If you are so brainrotted you must keep vampires vulnerable to crosses
Well, you're no fun.

>>96160346
-The- setting which is focused on religion and gods and it's only mentioned once in this thread.

>>96399580
What makes their approach so great then?

>>96399580
Maybe if it also focused on being good it might get mentioned.

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>>96160219
Well, maybe you could base the gods on the Major Arcana of the Tarot. Has anyone done that before?

>>96160234
FPBP.
/thread

Just make It relevant to the plot or optional if It isn't, that's It. J3:16

>>96411331
>J3:16
What does that mean?

>>96414555
The "J" stands for "just fucking google it you goddamn retard".

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Crazy bullshit.

>>96169598
I honestly think the default god list (The Sovereign Host+The Dark Six+The Silver Flame) is a good model for a standard 'what the players could be expected to keep in the back of their mind in a session' fantasy pantheon in general given how they're described to work and the conceptual ground it covers, in combination with the rest of the setting.

>>96414603
>"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life"

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Chances at immortality.

>>96429445
In this life or the next?

>>96392508
She’s an elf? Wish her hood was down. Why would elves specifically be the priestesses?

>>96441710
Why are you specifically asking that question?

>>96421378
What the heck is going on here?

>>96322919
They're hot because of the celibacy, idiot

>>96445535
Ah. So it’s a forbidden fruit thing. Makes sense to me.

>>96401130
The entire setting is built around culture and the myths/realities of the gods first and everything else flows from that. Surprising enough that makes culture, gods and the mortals/PC relationship with them some of the best parts of the game.

More often than not designers try to build a setting that they think has a cool aesthetic or will work well with the system and then fit the other realities of that world into it rather than setting first.

All the people who seem to hate the very idea of worldbuilding and setting in this thread are truly astounding to me. Why not just play an abstract wargame at that point? What are you even finding interesting to interact with?

>>96160219
I just don’t and give them the bare minimum detail. Most of my players lean towards the atheist side of things anyway.

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>>96160219
Halo imagery everywhere, especially magical halos.

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>>96160219
People use religion as an excuse to write boring myths and miss 90% of what real religion is all about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjrrUZeJMSo