What do you do when someone literally never respects the Gods in your games...

sounds like he has a bright future in the athar

>because he is an atheist

More likely because he's an autist. It's an easy mistake to make.

Another nice greek thing - ironic punishments.

Next time he disrespects a god, especially in their own temple, don't be afraid to smite him. But not just 'rocks fall' you have to get creative.

Most questions asked on Veeky Forums can be adequately answered by one of the following:
1. Depends on the setting.
2. Talk to them like an adult.
3. Read the goddamn rules.
4. Play a different game if you don't like that one.
Additional clarification can be given if the OP is willing to have a two-way discussion, but usually he isn't.

So he's a proactive Atheist. Sounds like a good chap.

is that way bud

Hope his character enjoys THE WALL OF TRAPPED SHITHEAD SOULS in the afterlife.

Weird. Most of the atheists I've played with usually go clerics and paladins.

Seems you never read Harry kipling.

As the good irreverand Pterry would say...

Is he lightning proof?

>actively works against gods

Have paladins constantly harassing him till his pc dies or his party betrays him cuz there sick of the stream of enemies. Or alternatively if he survived that and he is still an insufferable cunt kick him for meta gameing

What are you asking? What to do to their character? Or how to deal with the player?

The former obviously suggests divine wrath, but the more immediate problem is that basically everyone they meet will want nothing to do with them at best, and may well try to kill them. Blasphemy could well be illegal, and is at least likely to be taboo.

The latter requires talking to him like a human being about why you don't think it's appropriate for the setting.

The problem isn't that he's an atheist, it's that he's a stupid git.

Really. Op won't answer any question because the whole thing is made up.

Conflation. The problem is that either of you aren't compromising. You force religion on him or her. So they react by sabotaging religious subplots.

Call him aside and ask for a truce. You stop trying to push religion on them in the game. They stop screwing with all the religious subplots of the game.

That said I find it quite funny that you're throwing a fit about shenanigans in an RPG. Find a way to embrace the disruptive player. Turn him into a driving force of the plot.

For example, if you are playing AD&D3.5 goad him into playing an Ur Priest (i.e. a prestige class that allows someone to cast divine spells without worshiping a deity - typically they access divine or steal divine power on their own).

As an atheist, I try to make sure my fedora is off my head while playing a game with actual gods in it. My Christian friends (at least one of them is) don't invoke God in their game, so why should I be a faggot?

I did play a character that was Epicurean/alatrist, meaning she believed in the gods like she believed in day and night, but she didn't really care about them. She wasn't looking for worship, but was still curious as to what the party cleric was doing. She wasn't a spiritual character, and occasionally she wonders if there is something wrong with her.

Another character I played was a paladin played straight. The only thing remotely particular was that even though he helped out those outside of his faith, he supposedly selfish motivations were challenged by a cynical adversary. He responds that he will do good even if it's motivated by pride, and that his humble beginnings didn't stop him from assisting justice before.

No no. The character just seems to be cursed by ill luck. Just little things once per session, probably only if he has been directly profane near a shrine or something. It always rains when he goes out, a forest path is swarming with bugs and he finds it somehow easy to lose his way or be inexplicably separated from the group.

Because the gods don't believe in him. The sun doesn't believe in him. Mielikki does not see him travel the roads.

what question
is cuz i went to jerk off and forgot about this, but i am back

another problem i have is low INT characters acting like full retards, literally just throwing away magic items and money, doing stupid things with the NPC's and just acting like they're full blown autistic

WHY do people do this? you have like 8 int, its not like your character is an animal, and even then animals have a sense of self preservation.

wow, this actually makes sense

I built something of an anti-theist once
The gods are undeniable but like corrupt lords, the character found most of them despicable.
They never acted on his ineffective dissent (they're busy being gods) but it was fun to literally curse the gods, save for the god of civilization or whoever they were.

That's so odd. I'm agnostic and I almost exclusively play clerics and paladins. I wonder why that is. Maybe just a fascination with religion in a game where it's set-in-stone fact?

>What is wrong with these people?
They are likely autists who have trouble separating reality from fiction. I'm an atheist myself, but I enjoy using gods and pantheons in my games. In a setting where the existence of gods is indisputable, legitimate atheism is rare, if not impossible for all except those that were raised far away from civilization and have actual reason not to know any better. Otherwise, anyone against gods in general would just be an anti-theist.

>You stop trying to push religion on them in the game. They stop screwing with all the religious subplots of the game.
not him, but he should stop representing any and all FICTIONAL religions in a game of PRETEND, and gut half of the built up culture of a setting, along with any potential quests, intrigue, and conflict that comes from it? Going that far, you could only keep things consistent and making sense by getting rid 90% of the divine caster classes as well, like Clerics and Paladins. All to cater to an autist who doesn't know how to draw the line between reality and make believe?

Not even OP, but his answer to you should be "That's stupid. You're stupid. GTFO and stay out."

>What do you do when someone literally never respects the Gods in your games? I have an atheist player who will actively work against any gods that the party tries to align with, simply because he is an atheist in real life.
Fucking hell user. That's my life.

My one atheist player will always start laughing at religious folk in-setting, regardless of alignment, proof of existence, or motive. I've just taken to having his character killed after enough such offenses if the deities in question are wrathful enough. It'd be easier if he wasn't such an astonishingly lucky dice roller. It's ironic, but I think his dice were blessed.

But that doesn't even make any sense!

Like what happens when approached by a miracle worker?

"If gods are real then fly up in the air!"

"Done"

"Well god won't make you wealthy!"

"Well I prayed for it and got wealth. What else ya got? Also my immortal soul is a literal thing that exists and will be safeguarded from actual demons"

Atheism would be rare for social reasons, not because the gods happened to be real. Evidence isn't actually very compelling.

If anything some people would reject any god that actually turned up because it didn't quite fit what they believed.

>I have an atheist player who will actively work against any gods that the party tries to align with, simply because he is an atheist in real life.
>What do you do
Easy: I don't play with assholes. Tell him to cut that shit out or get lost, boot him if he doesn't cut that shit out. Next question?

People can always find a way to ignore evidence or attribute it to something else. Even if the gods show up in person you wouldn't have to accept that they're actually divine, just incredibly powerful. And given that most fantasy worlds have an abundance of incredibly powerful creatures anyway that's not much of a stretch.

I have no idea. He's kind of insane. Like, fully committed to the "We Wuz Kangz" shit kind of insane.

Lighting blot + GTFO of my house faggot = problem solved

>Evidence isn't actually very compelling.
Clerics performing literal miracles whenever they please would be pretty compelling to me. I'd start to have faith if I saw such a thing IRL.

Make a God of Atheism.

Antitheist could be justified.
>Gods literally proven to exist
>Gods intervene regularly
>Gods still let (insert tragic thing) happen
Helps if the event is a bigger scale than your family being killed but more personal than a hurricane or fantasy 9/11. Perhaps something like an evil warlord nearly drove your race to extinction or your god fucked you over for stupid reasons (priestess of Athena gets raped in Athena's temple and Athena turns her into a monster).

>be christfag
>be playing in party as pally
>have zero issues with the god my pally worships not being my christfag god
>sometimes play rogue
>have zero second though about stealing shit or murder if it helps my characters lot in life

Its a ROLE PLAYING game. No im not going to go on a murder hobo rampage to rid the city of its gang problem in real life. No im not going to worship an odin like god in real life because i identify as a transgender pansexual barbarian warrior.

Agnostic atheist here. I don't believe in gods but in games, I love to play clerics because god's in games are tons of fun and nothing like RL gods.

Your player is a massive cuntlord of prime order

If it's D&D there are plenty of monsters that can more or less destroy souls, and if you die like that you can't be rezzed save for through a wish or miracle spell and even then they don't work sometimes.
Get the hint?

He is simply being that guy, and your games will be better for having ejected him.

>What is wrong with these people?
The same thing that's wrong with faggots that complain that a show/vidya doesn't meet their made up fag quota.
The same thing that's wrong with /pol/lacks that see an advert with people of different color and screech "KEKED" at the top of their lungs.
The same thing that's wrong with the looney bastards that declared D&D to be satanic, despite being made by a christian.

They are a bunch of bitches with a despicable amount of self-righteousness, unable to put their own agenda behind them for even a minute.

Have him experience THE TOUCH OF GOD.
Have a god physically give him a vision of proof that they exist and they are not happy about his mucking about and they're on their shitlist

I personally have the gods just humiliate him, seems very Greek. While turning him into an outright monster probably isn't acceptable they can make him ugly or change his race.
>Character is a half elf that prides himself on his appearance
>Gets magical leprosy

>Character is a half orc who prides himself on his strength
>Turned into a puny goblin

>Character is a powerful wizard
>Gets painful headaches whenever he uses magic

Although honestly the best solution is to either avoid a campaign that requires working alongside gods an religion or telling him to leave. At the end of the day people want different things from games, and fucking over a player won't make the situation better it will just make sure one person has less fun. I'm not saying either option is more valid than the other, but the game cannot function unless the entire party is working towards the same goals.

Kek.

>Have him experience THE TOUCH OF GOD

this but in real life

show him that maradona handball goal

Tell him to stop being a fag because that shit's annoying.

The problem is definition of 'God' - are we an atheist in the sense of rejecting an all-power creator being, or are we an atheist in the rejection of all entities that deem themselves to be gods - because in this case one could make the argument that such entities aren't truly gods by certain definition

Needless to say, I'm sure there's a lot of soft crypto-Christian upset over anyone who disputes the existence of the all-mighty in their games

That's more of an apostate than an atheist though. Atheism is the disbelief or lack of belief that there are actually gods.

As an agnostic antitheist. I believe in some kind of spiritual entities and psychic phenomena, but I'm against worship. Worship leads people to not think for themselves, and inevitably leads to mob mentality, and the committing of horrific atrocities.

And yet in dnd I often play clerics (but still dislike paladins). I tend to play clerics of very live and let live type gods, only getting involved when it's for the greater good, or good of fate/destiny/free will/selfishness, that aren't about trying to force people to live a certain way or manipulate them into becoming my personal peasant mob (no Orthodox zealotry from the "good guys"). I also a lot of druids.

But playing religious characters can be fun, though I'd avoid doing so with characters I couldn't stand to play as.

I could never get into 40k, for that reason. The Imperium doesn't seem any better than chaos. I find myself rooting for the end of the 40k universe. I mean, Tau, maybe? But I don't actually like Tau, I just don't find them super obnoxious, unlike 90% of the other factions. (Maybe daemons and tyranids)

There is no magic IRL.

>Accept their Divinity.
Is that necessary?

To not be an atheist they just have to accept their existence, not actually worship them.

This is what I would do, OP. Tell your arsehole that you understand that he doesn't believe in gods in real life. Tell him that's fine, that each individual is welcome to their own opinions. But tell them that your setting has Gods in it. That's it. They are real, in your game. Fuck, monsters aren't real, but that doesn't mean they won't fuck his shit up mid game.

He can be an antitheist, or an atheist, in a very specific, Chaos-Undivided sense. Or he can leave.

I'm sorry, you have a Fedora.
He must be Trillbied.

I played an obnoxious wizard like that once.

He would relentlessly tease the cleric for begging a mythic/epic mage to cast spells on his behalf rather than just learning to cast spells for himself.

He ostensibly worshipped the god of magic, but it was more admiration than worship.

In the setting in question, when you died you picked up a sort of petitioner template and became native to your gods plane as an outsider.

Almost a total party wipe. I managed to barricade myself in a room and cast planar binding to bind the cleric. When he arrived I demanded he resurrect the rest of the party, and then himself.

That was a fun campaign.

Who doesn't respect the gods? The player or the character? If your player's OOC bitching annoys you, tell him to cut it out.

As for the character, that's a legit trait to play with. Ask what they make of all those obvious divine manifestations, there are all sorts of possible entertaining explanations depending on the specifics of the setting.

I was annoyngly atheist like that once.

Until he grows up and figure out that religion is just a scapegoat for the true source of good and bad, humans, just buy him a book.

strangenotions.com/gods-philosophers/
>The Dark Age Myth: An Atheist Reviews “God’s Philosophers”

And seeing he's a fa/tg/uy, remind him that the most awesome barbarian ever, and textbook murderhobo, is shown in the Bible.

Atheist here, it is as you say.

That aside, OP's problem child mostly just seems like an autist. If anything, I would imagine irl theists would be less likely to enjoy the idea of a fantasy god. Back in highschool I had a friend whose parents would not let her play d&d for a bunch of religious reasons, one of them being that it supposedly led to worshipping the game gods or something like that.

Funnily I'm kind of the opposite of that. Intensely religious IRL but tend to play militant atheists or antitheists of some description. It's a fun role to play, the whole rage against the heavens bit (or rage against the stupid mob if you don't believe in the heavens).

>be an atheist kind of, more of an agnostic desu
>oppose religion irl because there are no real signs of the world being anything more than sad material construct and because most real world religions are bound to obsolete ethic codes that use the unexisting divine as the sole justification
>would actually like some guiding divine force to exist, but it doesn't
>often play extremely religious characters in settings where gods are proven true and active

Same here. Most likely you are dealing with an autismal fuck without imagination, OP. Personally I'd just drop him.

This. Explain to him what roleplaying means.

>What do you do when someone literally never respects the Gods in your games?
Read Terry Pratchett.

I'm not a religious man, but I do enjoy playing clerics and paladins of healing-based faiths and deities. A lot of time I see religion in game as a means to help others and be a neutral moral-ground for the party. I don't force it on them and they don't force a fireball in my face.

It's fun though. Coming from the standpoints I live by, one of my GMs still can't believe I'm not actually religious due to how well I play Life domain clerics and paladins.

If the gods acquired sustenance through the faith in them, then fighting gods by not giving them your faith would be a valid tactic.

>Call him aside and ask for a truce.
Or you can just kick him out if he's unwilling to separate his IRL religion from that of the setting long enough to not be a disruptive twat about the whole thing.

Rule of Thumb: If you're the only one in the room who thinks that you're right, either you're in the wrong group or you're actually wrong.

So rather than tipping your fedora at the mere mention of a fantasy religion where deities are going to be a central focus within the campaign, how about you either learn to accept that other people have different religious views than you or pack up your shit and run your own campaign where religious folk are corraled into a gulag and flogged to death for having different religious views or something?

This. He insults the gods and claims they don't exist? The gods show up and slap his shit.

Nothing.

Just have the gods smite them.

Their character exists in a world where god's are real and powerful to some degree.

If they refuse to be influenced by patantly god-caused events. Like seeing, meeting, and talking to gods. Then the gods can choose to not assist the unbeliever, or even punish the unbeliever.

But for the sake of the game start off with the gods bestowing some sort of gift on this Cretan. Be it ability or material goods is neither here nor there.
But sure is a test of faith.

And then have them get smote. Repeatedly. In the dickhole.

Gods in most fantasy settings are just extremely powerful magical beings that want to be worshiped for whatever reason.

It's completely fine for a character not to be down with that. Either because they don't believe in the claim that gods are "divine" in nature any more than an extremely powerful wizard is, or because they question the intent of gods, or because they consider gods to be tyrannical.

It's only unreasonable (and only actually atheistic) if the character straight up disbelieves in their actual existence.

The easiest, easiest way to do it, is just have healing magic not work on the guy.

Fastest way to kill someone off.

>atheist can't be healed by healing magic
>goes on a quest to become undead in order to get around this
>it doesn't work because negative energy is also divine

And there I was thinking a huge rock falling from the sky, or a lightning bolt, or the earth opening up and swallowing them would be pretty instantaneous.
>and are all acts of god
Especially if the huge rock is autographed.

>One person denying their faith against a god is a valid tactic for defeating them.
Yeah and taking a small portion from someone's meal every time they eat is a valid way to starve them.

Ok, fastest way to act that makes sense and isn't "lol, rocks fall".

If you're going to fight the heavens, bring an umbrella.

Samson was a paladin, no way was he a barbarian.
He fell to temptation with Delilah and lost his powers as he lost his hair. He asked forgiveness and to be redeemed, and God allowed it but at the cost of his life, to take down the Philistines and the building with him.

>But if it's not a god, just a super OP thing that can do everything a god does, but might not actually be a god because semantics?
Seriously, this is the most hairsplitting bullshit i've ever heard.
If it can smite your ass and do supernatural shit that would land him cozily in the greek legends, it doesnt matter, practically.

It's like the whole "what if our universe is a super high-def simulation indistinguishable from reality?"
Nigga, if it's indistinguishable from reality, IT IS reality.

Why are you playing with atheists? Remove them from the game, and start shunning them. Let the atheists huddle in their own tiny groupings if they want to game.

Sounds more like one of the versions of Satanism more than an Atheist.

Basically, they sound like Divine Nihilists, people who accept the existence of Gods, and maybe even that the world was created by these gods, but they refuse to accept that the Gods' power or authorship of the world grants them authority.

That being said, on the question of what you do:
>Wait until guy pisses into a god's plan again.
>Lightning strikes in front of his feet. Even if they're in a dungeon, a hole is in the ceiling through which lightning struck
>If he bitches as to why the God(s) would do this, make it clear that the gods respect the rest of the party enough due to their work to not outright kill him for his impudence, but if he keeps fucking with their plans he shouldn't expect any better outcome than if he drenched the King's daughter with a bucket of mud at a grand feast

Tempt him into working against gods in a devoted populace, then lynch him.
Oh, and I guess you could lynch his character as well

Why not just root for the Guard? Honestly they just want to live instead of being murdered/raped/murderraped by the countless horrors of the galaxy and somehow have enough courage to fight and even win against them.

See, a player like that has legitimately given up on imagination and suspension of disbelief on a single facet of fantasy because they're that dead-set on their fashion statement. That's all being an atheist is to them; a god damned fashion statement.

Clerics pull their powers from the same place wizards do, paladins pull their powers from their own arse, demons and devils are just bad guys and have no diametric opposites, there's always some sort of explanation for any kind of benefit from praying which ISN'T "god gave it to them" (even if it is convoluted and non-sensical), and if they ever find a smite landing on their heads, it's because the DM is bad and hates them for being so fucking enlightened.

The best way to deal with them is to have everyone in universe tell them "if you don't believe in Gods when all this shit exists, you are literally retarded." Everyone. Even the peasants. A fashion atheist's greatest fear is to be told and demonstrably shown to be a fucking idiot.

Perfect way to piss them off, though.

>party aligns with a god
>complete tasks for the god
>god rewards them accordingly with permanent magical effects
>except for atheist mcdoucheface who earned forgiveness of his heathen ways
>wait for him to sperg out and then write a green text about it

Alternatively, try talking to him like an adult.

>What do you do

Stop being a little bitch, grow some balls, etc.

Or keep being a bitch about easily solved problems on an anonymous Ethiopian basket-weaving board because it's easier for a pussy like you to do than actually confront something that makes you slightly uncomfortable. Maybe you could try roleplaying one of those heroes you like to pretend you are, so you can experience what having some balls feels like in real life.

The US government can smite your ass on a whim and do things that would historically be regarded as supernatural shit.

That doesn't mean that it is a deity or that people should worship it.

Having power does not make something god.

>tyrannical dictators = gods

Oddly enough, the exact description also applies to the devout Christian in my group.

Smite him.

No, seriously. I generally figure Gods don't actively intervene in the world because they have a sort of divine Cold War going where if you meddle in another God's domain they're going to meddle in yours. Hence why they work through mortal actors - the divine equivalents of proxy wars. Same if you meddle with their worshippers - you can get away with it if there's some plausible deniability because it's just how your Domain rolls, but if you're plaguing one of the Sun God's followers because he's not sufficiently respectful, then expect your favorite follower to get skin cancer or fall down a well after a sudden and unpredictable eclipse.

Atheists, on the other hand, have no protectors. So any time they're disrespectful, any God who feels like it can teach them some respect. Or if the God gets into a bad mood and wants to take it out on someone.

What governments do you know that smite people and perform supernatural shit?

Oh, you haven't met someone who believes the US is using sex magic to control the human mind yet. Consider it something to look forward to.

Literally any with a modern military.

>smite people
You've never been on the receiving end of a drone-strike, obviously.

>supernatural shit?
Many engineering feats we take for granted (re-directing rivers, reclaiming land from the sea, building flying machines, etc.) were talked of only in fairy-tales less than a few of hundred years ago.

>re-directing rivers, reclaiming land from the sea, building flying machines, etc.
Pff, we've been doing that shit literally since the founding of China.