An Ordinate List of Christian RPGs

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Christian sort of
Hence the philosophy-class angle. "How can we reach an empirical definition of the rigid areas of doubt and uncertainty implied by the linguistic hedge 'sort of'?"

As soon as we wander into the 'angels and demons having a bit of a pub carpark ruck' I think we're already in deeply ambiguous territory as to whether we're evangelising, subverting, or anywhere in between.
 
Hence the philosophy-class angle. "How can we reach an empirical definition of the rigid areas of doubt and uncertainty implied by the linguistic hedge 'sort of'?"

As soon as we wander into the 'angels and demons having a bit of a pub carpark ruck' I think we're already in deeply ambiguous territory as to whether we're evangelising, subverting, or anywhere in between.
I don't think so--it's pretty obvious to anyone when a game is evangelizing at them as opposed to simply using the mythos, much the same that Pratchett used Christian Mythos of a sort in the Death books (and Good Omens) but is obviously satire. By the same token, it's also obvious to most people when a game is aimed at people already of a set of beliefs and is merely using them for game stuff because of that.
 
I'm curious if World of Darkness like Vampire: the Masquerade should be on this list. The Cain/Abel myth was pretty explicitly true by 2e Revised V:tM. God, angels, demons, heaven, hell are also pretty explicit in Demon: the Fallen. "True Faith" was one of the most powerful innate abilities a character or NPC could have in any of the game lines. True Faith was expanded exponentially in Inquisitor. Ocassionally the books would touch on other religions, in a mostly ignorant way, but it always seemd that the "true" origins of the supernatural were tied directly to christian mythology. There are other mythologies which may be concurrent to the Christian one (Wyrm/Weaver for exampe) but it's pretty explicit that Judeo-Christian mythology is "true" in the settig.
 
When I was a teenager I was working on an RPG based on the classic Nelvana animated film Rock N' Rule
Furries in a semi-cyberpunk melodramatic urban fantasy? I'd play it!

Would the "Until the End of the Earth" setting for All Flesh Must Be Eaten count, since it takes place during the Biblical tribulation?
 
I'm curious if World of Darkness like Vampire: the Masquerade should be on this list. The Cain/Abel myth was pretty explicitly true by 2e Revised V:tM. God, angels, demons, heaven, hell are also pretty explicit in Demon: the Fallen. "True Faith" was one of the most powerful innate abilities a character or NPC could have in any of the game lines. True Faith was expanded exponentially in Inquisitor. Ocassionally the books would touch on other religions, in a mostly ignorant way, but it always seemd that the "true" origins of the supernatural were tied directly to christian mythology. There are other mythologies which may be concurrent to the Christian one (Wyrm/Weaver for exampe) but it's pretty explicit that Judeo-Christian mythology is "true" in the settig.
OWod was originally meant to be the same world, taken from the point of view of one of the gamelines, so the Truth depended on which game you were playing. So under that definition, the original VtM, and V:grin:A certainly had "The Book" be true, but I don't know about Christianity per se.
 
(as opposed to say, a game like Vampire: The Masquerade, that plays with Christian and pseudo-Christian myths, such as Caine as the vampiric progenitor, and adopting the medieval folklore of Lilith, Adam's first wife, and even includes Demons cast in a traditional Christian mold, but overall doesn't reflect actual Christian beliefs and the setting does not assume the existence of a single creator god, Christ as a redeemer, the nature of sin, and mixes in pagan and Lovecratian dieties, along with an afterlife completely contrary to Christian beliefs.
Deus Vult
  • reflect actual Christian beliefs - check
  • assume the existence of a single creator god - check
  • Christ as a redeemer - check
  • the nature of sin - check
  • pagan deities, no. Devil masquerading as pagan deities - check
  • afterlife - everyone believes what Christians believe, there is no gameplay concerning the afterlife, pretty much what Catholics generally believed at the time.
  • PCs being members of a Catholic Order personally authorized by the Pope. - check
Of course, the game also assumes Rule Zero and says the GM can decide for themselves everything, but that's true of any game listed so far, whether stated or not.
 
So, what about GURPS Banestorm where the dominant religion is Christianity, a close off shoot of the medieval church but Islam coexists with it and there are no priestly powers, though miracles may occur through the Blessed advantage in the 4th edition version? There are certainly demons but not angels. Though I did write up a neighbouring world where there are angelic cities in the clouds and demonic legions down on the volcanic surface. They were all quite shocked when Christianity was introduced from Yrth but the demons took to it more than the angels.
 
Do I know The Witch-King of Tsámra The Witch-King of Tsámra? I mean I believe I do as you pop up on my Steam friends list :grin: *LOL*

I've seen so many games use Christianity that I'm not sure where I'd draw the line, does Witchcraft count? Since arguably there is an entire faction tied to Abrahamic faith? (Sure it has others as well, but seems to default to there being a big overpower Creator who's over even the ancient mythic powers and implies heavily its 'the' god)
I think I do but I don't know which friend you'd be.
 
I thought a leviathan was an animal from the Old Testament.
 
Deus Vult
  • reflect actual Christian beliefs - check
  • assume the existence of a single creator god - check
  • Christ as a redeemer - check
  • the nature of sin - check
  • pagan deities, no. Devil masquerading as pagan deities - check
  • afterlife - everyone believes what Christians believe, there is no gameplay concerning the afterlife, pretty much what Catholics generally believed at the time.
  • PCs being members of a Catholic Order personally authorized by the Pope. - check
Of course, the game also assumes Rule Zero and says the GM can decide for themselves everything, but that's true of any game listed so far, whether stated or not.

But is it an RPG, or is it a campaign setting for RuneQuest II?
 
I thought a leviathan was an animal from the Old Testament.
It's that too. I think it's mainly in The Revelation of Saint John that it gets some demonic cred, but it might show up in Daniel or any of the other Old Testament apocalypses. Though, of course, then there's the whole translation issue. Did the translators use one word for two things? There's experts who could tell you and then get in a fist fight over spellings in different versions.
 
But is it an RPG, or is it a campaign setting for RuneQuest II?
Someone hitting *me* with the “Not a Real RPG” stick. Oh the bitter irony. :devil:

You’re right though, like MRQII Vikings, Deus Vult requires the MRQII Core book to play, and Deus Vult Legends requires the Legends Core rules to play. Without 99 cents your RPG ain’t one.
 
It's that too. I think it's mainly in The Revelation of Saint John that it gets some demonic cred, but it might show up in Daniel or any of the other Old Testament apocalypses. Though, of course, then there's the whole translation issue. Did the translators use one word for two things? There's experts who could tell you and then get in a fist fight over spellings in different versions.

Leviathan is discussed extensively in Job, and the Christian tradition has long seen it as a symbol for Satan in that work, going back at least to St. Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job.
 
Someone hitting *me* with the “Not a Real RPG” stick. Oh the bitter irony. :devil:

You’re right though, like MRQII Vikings, Deus Vult requires the MRQII Core book to play, and Deus Vult Legends requires the Legends Core rules to play. Without 99 cents your RPG ain’t one.

lol, you do realize this is a necro'd thread about a dead list from years ago that isn't getting updated though right? :tongue:
 
I was fooling around with the notions of a Satanic Space Adventures rpg based on the idea that the fundamentalist mothers of the eighties were right about roleplaying games, heavy metal music, and comic books. Now in the grim darkness of 2020 the Devil reigns on Earth, the faithful have fled in spacecraft except a few kept in preserves by the forces of darkness to prevent God from intervening due to the presence of a couple thousand righteous people. The birth rate on Earth has fallen to such a low level that the space fleets of hell are raiding the colonies of the faithful to carry children off to Earth for "proper schooling."

Anyhow, I think it was pretty much pure political flame war fuel so I never went anywhere with it.

I know I'm going back a bit, but this is HILARIOUS. You got to think that dropping a modest-sized book on one of the online RPG publishers would at least get some traction.

Also perhaps being doxxed by the crazies, but ...

A while back I heard a radio interview with a United Church minister who was an atheist and didn't use the Bible in her ministry because it has offensive stuff in it.
I may be one of the only non-Christians out there who's gone into a Unitarian Universalist pulpit and preached that UUs should read the Bible more.

The game actually has to specifically be about Christianity (not deconstructed, subverted, reinterpreted or sharing space with multiple other religions). Otherwise the list is meaningless and we can just add GURPs and AD&D to it
Easily. The GURPS Banestorm setting, after all, is low-tech Europe with the serial numbers still in place, just add magic. That much of setting involves the interplay between the giant Evil Empire (which, however, is sortakinda Catholic), the plucky Merrie Olde England analog (Christian, but considered heretical by the EE), a fundamentalist magic-hating Shi'ite nation, a relatively liberal magic-tolerant Sunni nation, and a tolerant non-sectarian one.
 
I think Testament and Creed fit this. They were my rapture-moment-games. Published around the millennium (I wrote them so you'd think I would know) when maybe my mind was taken up with end of the world thinking. Ahem.

After that though, I don't think I've played much in the Xtian milieu though we are currently playing SCION and it's interesting that they deliberately exclude the "real world" if not real modern mythologies. There's no Christian Scions or Islamic Scions...
 
There's no Christian Scions or Islamic Scions...

While there are some fan productions of these, the general consensus of the community is that Religions of The Book (Jewish, Christians, and Islam) are all "active" and by The One. Thus they play by different rules and have no scions.

Though we should have Nephlim (and those variations).
 
I would say, yes, but it's a form of Christianity that most forms would consider heretical. It's definitely not a game I'd recommend to a church youth group.
I've not played it nor read much of the game itself, but from what I've read about it it seems to take a deliberate anti-Christian stance. I could be wrong though, but I wouldn't consider it a Christian or Christian-themed RPG.
 
I don't think so--it's pretty obvious to anyone when a game is evangelizing at them as opposed to simply using the mythos, much the same that Pratchett used Christian Mythos of a sort in the Death books (and Good Omens) but is obviously satire. By the same token, it's also obvious to most people when a game is aimed at people already of a set of beliefs and is merely using them for game stuff because of that.
But that's not the categories I'm talking about, or indeed the categories the thread is -- or was, before it joined the ranks of the lesser undead -- based on. I don't think there's any danger of thinking that (let's say) In Nomine is "for indoctrination purposes", the question is how broadly to construe "explicitly based on Christian doctrine/mythology". I mean, publicly-funded education of much of the British Isles: the RPG would in one sense qualify. If we handwave the small detail of its actual existence -- always a mere detail in metaphysical discussions!
 
I would say, yes, but it's a form of Christianity that most forms would consider heretical.
Historically yes, but technically, in these more notionally pluralist times (it's political correctness gone mad!) the current instances of it would generally be considered a non-Christian religion. Though that gets us into strange territory when it comes to the status of non-trinitarian Christians (some Pentecostalists, the entire LDS movement, broad-sense Unitarianism) if you go with the "you're only in the club if you have recip baptism" definition.

It's definitely not a game I'd recommend to a church youth group.
Oh, Iunno! But admittedly not if my main motivation is for the bishop be to fire me (by a very large Canon) if they find out.
 
Historically yes, but technically, in these more notionally pluralist times (it's political correctness gone mad!) the current instances of it would generally be considered a non-Christian religion. Though that gets us into strange territory when it comes to the status of non-trinitarian Christians (some Pentecostalists, the entire LDS movement, broad-sense Unitarianism) if you go with the "you're only in the club if you have recip baptism" definition.
I guess to decide whether Kult is Christian or not, you need to clearly define what is proper Christianity, and that's a debate with a very high body count. As a moderator, it's not in my interest to get it started here.
 
I guess to decide whether Kult is Christian or not, you need to clearly define what is proper Christianity, and that's a debate with a very high body count. As a moderator, it's not in my interest to get it started here.
Yeah, at least since the Catars, quite literally...and actually long before, but that's the best-known example that includes gnostics. Gnostics were the only true Christians if you asked them. But the answer of mainstream Christianity back then was along the lines of "don'tchaknow God is on the side of the bigger legions":shade:!

So I'd say that Kult, surprisingly, counts:thumbsup:!
 
I guess to decide whether Kult is Christian or not, you need to clearly define what is proper Christianity, and that's a debate with a very high body count. As a moderator, it's not in my interest to get it started here.

Well ... I think the real question as to whether a game is "Christian" or not isn't based on doctrinal purity to the rules of any one sect or another, or to the degree that Christianity suffuses the milieu. (Were that the case, after all, any historical game based on medieval western Europe or pre-1204 Byzantium would qualify in spades.) Come to that, open it up to a broader definition of a "religious" game. What does that look like?

I'd put forth that a "religious" game -- as opposed to merely a setting with a dominant faith -- is one where there is an objective moral code supported by the omniscient POV of the writers; where PCs are righteous practitioners of that faith; where adventures are for the most part focused on defending the faith, opposing its enemies, rejecting heresies, and/or defeating Evil; where XP/rewards are heavily influenced by the PCs acting in accordance (or not) with that moral code.

Thoughts?
 
Well ... I think the real question as to whether a game is "Christian" or not isn't based on doctrinal purity to the rules of any one sect or another, or to the degree that Christianity suffuses the milieu. (Were that the case, after all, any historical game based on medieval western Europe or pre-1204 Byzantium would qualify in spades.) Come to that, open it up to a broader definition of a "religious" game. What does that look like?

I'd put forth that a "religious" game -- as opposed to merely a setting with a dominant faith -- is one where there is an objective moral code supported by the omniscient POV of the writers; where PCs are righteous practitioners of that faith; where adventures are for the most part focused on defending the faith, opposing its enemies, rejecting heresies, and/or defeating Evil; where XP/rewards are heavily influenced by the PCs acting in accordance (or not) with that moral code.

Thoughts?
...in this case, I'd like to suggest Tibet by Vajra games. AFAICT, the game* assumes the Tibetan Buddhism has got it right, since it gives you XP for actions that would befit a Buddhist, all the adventures are focused upon the same.

That said, maybe it's just assuming that your PC is a Buddhist, and is trying to make you behave accordingly. But the trouble is, you could be a follower of the folk religion instead, or even a foreigner, as it's even noted in the rules.

*This isn't true of other games by the same author, which do have other beliefs presented as objectively true.
 
ok, so you have six piles - one for d4s, one for d6s, one for d8s, one for d10s, one for d12s, and one pile for s20s.

And then somebody argues that the above pictured d12 should als be in the pile with the d8s, because the d8s are green.
I strongly suspect that you're either 1) seeing a different picture, or 2) engaging in sophistry...and I know what I'm betting on:shade:.
 
I strongly suspect that you're either 1) seeing a different picture, or 2) engaging in sophistry...and I know what I'm betting on:shade:.

3) I was making an analogy as to why Kult is placed in one category and not multiple. But the analogy was not the most apt, so let me instead offer this alternative:

You've divided dice into piles based on colour: a red pile, a blue pile, a yellow pile...green, purple, etc.

one would not say that a green die belongs not just in the green pile, but also the yellow and blue piles because yellow/blue are parts that combine to form green.
 
Yeah, I think this discussion of what qualifies as Christian has been taken too far for the fun of debate. It really should not be that hard of a qualifier.

Is the intent of the author(s) to directly in the game world/lore positively honor/reinforce Christian beliefs? Even if their understanding of those beliefs differs from others' understanding. As long as it keeps enough to qualify as "Christian" according to Jesus' recorded claims: Jesus being deity, the Son of God, and the only path to the one true God.

I think that straying from that just is a fun mental exercise, but does not really serve the list.(.. that I necro'd by sharing an update. Sorry for being behind on timing. I honestly don't spend much time on forums and social media because I am too busy with my primary career and writing/directing material for Allies of Majesty.)

I think, for example, the recent Kickstarter Apocalisse would not qualify as a Christian game. This would fall under "a setting inspired by the Bible". Some reviewers (who are under-educated in the religion) have lauded how accurately biblical it is. Not the case. The amount of biblical reference seems limited to what could be picked up through pop culture. It is like the end times started but indefinitely stalled into the new norm. The chief of the good side is Metatron, which is overemphasizing an obscure, non-biblical, character. You can play aligned with the Abyss faction which is led by Abaddon. Somehow Babylon is a neutral faction only looking out for human concerns. Without going on, it should be clear here that it would not fall under the OP categorization. If he has said "biblically themed", yes. "Christian", no.

I think Testament and Creed fit this. They were my rapture-moment-games. Published around the millennium (I wrote them so you'd think I would know) when maybe my mind was taken up with end of the world thinking. Ahem.

After that though, I don't think I've played much in the Xtian milieu though we are currently playing SCION and it's interesting that they deliberately exclude the "real world" if not real modern mythologies. There's no Christian Scions or Islamic Scions...
I don't know about Creed, but with Testament, if I am correct, doesn't it assume the other ancient near eastern cultures gods are correct also and in conflict? I am not saying this disqualifies it totally, but if you can play as a proponent of those religions and those religions are a valid path, that should disqualify it. If the game takes the OT view that any of those other gods are A. not real, or B. rebellious creations of YHWH/The Most High, then it could still qualify.

But the next question would be how does it positively reinforce the ideas of Christianity (in this case, pre-Christianity; I mean no offense to any Jewish practitioners in this labeling. I'm just tying the OP topic and acknowledging that at this point Christianity is not a thing, the beliefs overlap at this point in history)? Is it just a setting to build from as the example above and the gameplay only effectively nods toward the religion being part of the setting?

You wrote these? I did buy Testament recently thanks to this list. I have skimmed through it, but I apologize for not knowing the answers to my questions about it. I would love to chat with you sometime if you are interested, though. I am doing a lot of study and focusing a lot on the ancient near eastern mythology in my project. The setting can be anytime/anywhere on earth, but the game's concepts and imagery are pulled from biblical symbolism and imagery.
 
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