Table Report

[Mr Darke]

I'm not big on logging campaign sessions as they never seem to work out for me. That said, the setting has been being used in my current campaign. It was well known that much of what was in it was experimental and that player input would be taken into account. Accordingly I am posting what the players had to say about the last couple of sessions and what their thoughts were.

To put this into perspective the group is a mix of new and veteran players and run a broad range of ages and beliefs. Having gamed with a few of them before I value what they have to say as I know they will not be coming from a strange angle on things. So in no real order here has been some reactions:


Using A Fantasy Earth and Post Arthurian

  The reception has been lukewarm at best. While the idea of Earth was not a big deal the Post-Arthur storyline and real world comparisons began to be an issue. Debates formed over whether D&D or real-world lore would be used, issues came up about tech levels and the players seem more interested in the Non-Earth/Arthurian ideas than the ones tied to that world.

The Church

This has been the biggest experiment and one that will see the plug pulled. The initial response was with interest but, as the game went on the group feels that we may have strayed into uncomfortable territory. After one session that had to include much of the real world ideas Christian and Non-Christian players were both nervous about the direction things could play out in. As well some overused cliches and tropes were coming out that were not part of the idea and the decision to back off and retool was made.

Raven's Keep

RK was received very well and the idea of the city being a mixture of crime, corruption and supernatural elements were a hit. Those that never before played in an urban setting are excited about staying close to the city. They are also looking at what schemes they can get into and have been gathering information on what plays they want to make later.

Other

During the session breaks there was discussion on where certain ideas came from. The interest seemed to be more geared to the origin of the ideas and the proto-world they developed in than the setting we are using. Seeing this gives me a way to tool things to a world we will all be interested in and one that will address the concerns and wants of all of us.

As for what this means for the future I have an idea or two and one that will form in time.

[tetramorph]

Mr Darke, I'm sad to read that the whole church as fantastical medieval but obviously Christian didn't work.

What was the "uncomfortable territory" of which you speak?

Here is what I do in my Dun Kells campaign (I hope it might help so you don't have to chuck this element yet):

The church and the gospel are background, Law and Chaos are foreground.

Not all clerics are adventuring clerics. Regular clerics (NPCs) are all church and gospel and grace and sacrament.

But adventuring clerics have powerful patrons (saints or angels) who grant them "boons" (the spells).

This generates a mediating distance between the Christian church, gospel and god (God, if you believe they are the same) and the crazy shenanigans we game when we play D&D.

it has worked so far. For example, even when clerics turn undead or exorcise a demon they say "Out in the name of the Law," or "By all that is Good/Just/True," etc., avoiding feeling like they are doing anything either blasphemous on the one hand, or preachy weird on the other.

Works for us. What do you think?

[Mr Darke]

It's hard to say what really was bothering us other than we felt that we were straying into territory that we shouldn't. As I said before even the non-Christians felt that we were approaching a taboo point we did not want to go past.

However, there has been discussion on what to do. The idea of keeping a medieval style church in play is there with it moving to the background and us not going beyond the fact that it is there. Another option has been what we have called the Tolkien Approach where we copy the idea of Iluvatar and the Valar into the game. And now, you have given a good third option. So, for now, it goes into the background and we go from there.

That all said, I now feel I know some of the reason that pantheons were made up and real world elements were given new window dressing as there are things that can be bothersome. I used to think that was a cop-out but I see a new side of it.


p.s. A fourth option comes to mind that gives it the best of both worlds. If the world is one prior to the flood (See Gap Theory or Gap Creationism) then you can have the basic elements but not have to go into the uncomfortable areas. Since we would not know how this world would approach faith there can be a basic structure there that can have both fantasy and RW elements.