WISH 75: Religion and Controversy (from Perverse Access Memory):
A lot of neogamers I play with are uncomfortable with taking real religions and putting them into play. With all the “Satanist” backlash against D&D that there’s been, do you feel comfortable having any religion in your games? Do you scrub it of anything controversial?
I’m not sure I count, since I don’t run games. But I don’t honestly see how you can have much of an RPG without some religion sneaking in. People tend to create or cling to religions. I cannot see interacting with believable characters of any sentient race very deeply without encountering some religious belief or practice.
I don’t see much worry about controversy in our gaming group, which has included atheists, agnostics, pagans of various sorts, LDS members, Seventh Day Adventists, Baptists, and (I think?) an Episcopalian. Religion happens. It’s in a fantasy world. People in the D&D game tend to have either no or very personal relationships with their deities. Those who don’t get very religious/spiritual don’t care about such things until they need healing for some reason.
