LRP: Imperial Principles

[misterdaniel]

So, if we get three-score-years-and-ten, then I am probably about due a mid-life crisis. I think I may get introspective in my next LJ entry but, for now, a bit more about Empire, and developing religion concepts for a LRP game.

As part of providing a stream of updates about the game's development, I wrote a blog article on design principles. It

Comments

[favouredenemy]

This is probably the worst question to ask, so I have to ask as a devil's advocate (sorry). Aside from 'roleplay', what do players get out of playing the 'religion game'?

'Revelation', 'Moral Authority' and 'Power' are the three keystones around which you'd designed religion. What does that mean to the uninterested player? 'Revelation' sounds like 'personally written backstory .: irrelevant'. 'Moral Authority' sounds like 'reason to get in the way of my ruthless pragmatism .: irrelevant'. Power, on the other hand, asks the question 'what power?'. The examples you've offered are historical only, and we all know that the uninterested player isn't going to pay much more attention to plot-based backstory compared to player-written backstory... so the question remains. What do players get out of the 'religion game'?

[misterdaniel]

I have deliberately kept the first blog on the topic about principles rather than any Empire-specific elements. Basically, I have sought to outline some of the lessons that I - and other designers - have learned from our experiences of religion in LRP and what we perceive has worked or not worked. I am extremely interested to hear from people who dispute any of the assumptions and conclusions in the above.

So this particular blog is not intended to answer your questions, but I will see what I can do without giving too much unfinished material away. I'll sidestep "What do players get out of playing the religion game?" partly on the grounds of stuff in development but also on the basis that we are design religion for people who want to actively make religion part of their game experience. We do not require everyone to make it part of their game and by leaving out any mechanical element, we do not disadvantage anyone who does not want to make it part of their game'Revelation', 'Moral Authority' and 'Power' are the three keystones

[favouredenemy]

I'll take each point individually, as I don't feel up to writing a cohesive narrative over LJ (due to current inability and the poor choice of medium

[misterdaniel]

Revelation - At the last Maelstrom, a dragon utilised a secret process to obtain a vision that provided information that seems credible about the origins of dragons and their relationship to the Illini, but that's by-the-by. We have a revelation mechanism in mind for Empire. You may like it; you may not. Either way, it got overhauled at the last meeting at Maelstrom and may be overhauled again at the next one, so until its a little more settled, I am afraid thats as much as I can say on the topic

[knightclubber]

From my perspective, I'm quite looking forward to seeing how this works out. With serendipitous timing, I'm currently enjoying one of David Cornwell's novels set in Anglo Saxon Britain. A common theme of those novels (and also his Excalibur series) is having religion as a force which people place great store in, but which he very carefully writes such that priests could either be miracle workers or charlatans (his own bias appears to be the latter, with an emphasis on the reasons why people reach for faith in dark times

[misterdaniel]

Aye, the challenge of "buy-in" is not just in terms of religion, but with the whole Empire set-up

[slappersire]

From listening to the chatter from a lot of people, there is enough buy in that anyone who pushes will get pushed back, and hard.

To be honest I like the idea of a character or small group who try and push against the system, as long as from the get go they know how likely they are to succeed and what the penalties might be. It encourages those who are with the system to really play that system, and also to be able to judge people who don't agree with them.

Or it should, anyway.

[misterdaniel]

I think there can be good pushing and bad pushing.

Looking to change the nature of the Empire through use of the Senate and Synod = Good

Killing the Senate and Synod and then complaining about mob rule = Bad

I suspect I could come up with examples from Mael, Ody and Insurrection with more brane