I am doing a stone age setting, where characters are the descendents of Seth, pre flood, fighting off the fucked up children of Cain, using Risus as the rules set to keep it ultra simple.
Any suggestions for running a biblical mythology based setting and game? Any examples of published games? Not particularly religious, just like the idea as a setting for a dark fantasy game with novice player characters, with living elders hundred of years old, fighting to survive in a world overrun with degenerates and psychopaths who are their kin, and fallen angels in the mix as well producing abominations like nephilim.
Carson Lewis
two factions: Faith and Satanism Following satanism has the player fighting a lot of bosses and defending their lairs while following the righteous path leads them to fight waves of sinners and devils and attacking places of heresy
Evan Rogers
Is this what you're looking for, OP?
Adrian Morgan
Abrahamic religions settings is basically a generic fantasy setting, only that one community has an explicit "Yes, I am not going to destroy your polities to get my dick wet"-agreement with their god.
The actual in-universe histography of the setting is postmodern as fuck and basically made up of lies and missinterpretations that the gods don't bother to correct because they serve their ends.
Charles Cooper
Testament for 3.x is an option, you have options of being from countries/faiths local to the time period of the old testament and Moses is one badass cleric of Yaweh
Ryder Barnes
The Testament supplement for 3e D&D does make some notes on Antediluvian roleplaying, but not many.
I'd recommend going a bit further, including the Sumerian King's List (whose figures have been linked to the Antediluvian Patriarchs)
Put the central civilization in ancient Sumeria, with cyclopean earthworks, chalcolithic equipment, etc. With the gibborim giants (and descendants of the nephilim) to the north (the Zagros mountains and similar, roughly the area of Kurdistan) You could place the location of Eden in modern Bahrain, linking it to the Dilman culture which has been associated with it. And Cain's descendants, in the Land of Nod. Which can be placed pretty much anywhere. Biblically it's meant to be east of Eden, so you could always place it in modern Iran. But Equally you could move it to the Levant or the Empty Quarter.
Nolan Cox
Races: humans, lilim, nephilim, the dogheaded.
Andrew Campbell
Honestly I feel like a co-operative boardgame would work best for an Abrahamic religion setting. Co-operate to convince the people to convert, expand your influence, send missionaries to deal with random things like plagues and cults, and you win when you are able to form an ethnostate and hold it against aggressors for a certain number of turns.
Isaiah Cook
Does anyone know what system this was in? Sounds interesting.
Henry Mitchell
This shit sounds amazing
I want it
Ayden Nguyen
>not making YHW the bad guy >not being a servant of a DC-Lucifer like entity
Parker Clark
I've run a game that was basically Garo, but refluffed for Christian myth.
It was also the sexiest game I ever run, but that was another story.
Juan Parker
> It was also the sexiest game I ever run, but that was another story.
HOW
Aiden Barnes
Because the PCs couldn't have sex, but there was a lot of temptation to. Given that they looked like muscular angels about to do some righteous smiting, it was fun to play from the angle of *female* lust.
It's the whole Arthurian thing. For instance, one Priestess really, really wanted to fuck one of the PCs. Their every scene had an immense amount of sexual tension. But it would mean the loss of her power (which stems from her virginity) and more importantly it would go against their beliefs.
You know, the whole "If I started touching you, I won't be able to stop" thing.
Robert Reyes
Cain went East of Eden to the land of Nod and dwelt among the people there. What race would the Nods be?
Juan Clark
where does it say cain had fucked up children?
also cain did nothing wrong, unlike Eve, who did everything wrong
Aiden Martin
By all indications, human.
Also Lilim are a type of demon and Nephilim are (depending on who you ask, rabbis like to argue about this) either giants or monsters and are either semidivine or demonic. Not the best PC races in any case.
Jordan Price
Lilim are children of Lilith who was equal to Adam.
She left Eden of her own free will based on reasons of principle and refused to turn back despite the orders and threats of God.
Unlike Adam and Eve who's sin of disobedience was built of being weak willed her disobedience was because she was strong willed.
If her children take after her you could stat them as Tieflings with an inclination and aptitude for taking the Paladin class.
Brayden Thomas
You tend to nod when you are sleepy.
Being Sleepy makes you slow.
Slowpoke Rodriguez is the slowest mouse in all of Mexico (and presumably anywhere else).
The people of the land of Nod are pistol packing, anthropomorphic mice.
Ryan Roberts
Checks out
Jayden Russell
that is not entirely true. So first of all the stories about Lilith are apocryphal, most of them being developed only around 13th century, though some scholars dispute that it may have older roots. Second of all: Lilith's sin was insane pride and arrogance: not only she refused to listen to Adam, but she also allegedly uttered the True Name of God, which is a highest form of heresy in the Talmud. She did not leave: she turned into a demon and fell through the ground - it's unclear whenever she went to hell or just to earth. She is supposedly an egg-laying monster now.
Ethan Edwards
If you don't mind the somewhat "edgy" aspect of it, you could find a lot of interesting stuff in gnostic texts to work with. All contents of the Library of Nag Hammadi and The Dead Sea scrolls are freely available on to read on-line. Gnostic Genesis myths tend to be particularly fascinating.
Matthew Lewis
>If you don't mind the somewhat "edgy" aspect of it Oh fucking hell, for some reason this reminds me of that Noah movie that came out a few years ago. They decided God flooding the entire planet wasn't good enough, so they introduced stone giants and LotR style/scale battles. Because LotR did it so it's bound to work for every movie, even if it doesn't fit. Hell, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland did the same shit.
If you want your Biblical epic battles, you can just go to the Book of Judges and make a movie out of that. That would actually be sort of neat rather than a fucking abomination on film.
Carter Nguyen
I never had much of an issue with the Noah movie, I actually think it was a bit smarter than people gave it credit, and based around fairly good understanding of the original text, despite deviating from them.
Alice, on the other hand, was un-fucking-forgivable. God those movies were shit, the first one moreso than the second. It wasn't so much the pointless LOTR-like themes, but the general cynical handling of the character of Alice, and refusal to acknowledge the surreal nature of the settings on any level but the most superficial. Even American McGee's Alice was more tasteful adaptation of the source material.
Oliver Watson
I think Ars Magicka covers this.
Benjamin Sanders
And let's not forget the lead actress. I can't even imagine what directions she must've been given. >"Great performance darling, great performance. But there's just a teensy weensy little thing that could use some improvement. You remember that part where you pretended like you gave a fuck about what's happening around you? Yeah, don't do that anymore. Alright, next take! Lights, camera, action!"
Jayden Price
I honestly CANNOT comprehend how that movie was directed by the same person who directed Corpse Bride. Yes, let's turn Alice into an emotionless embodiment of female emancipation, fighting generic fantasy war including a fucking prophecy, against a god-damn dragon. That sounds like a protocol. And that is not a political complaint: it's just me being fucking annoyed with utter disregard for what made the original material good.
Angel Wilson
SO would Lilith be allowed back into the Garden?
Aiden Brown
OP here, I'd say no, as the post murder of Abel period before the flood, and right around the birth of Enoch, the Garden of Eden would be gone. By some interpretations, The Garden was a 'state' of creation, more so than a specific place. So with original sin that state of nature was lost, and corrupted, eventually breaking down. Not even sure I'd allow Lilith with how recent a mythological creation she is compared to the 200 BC to 300 AD of the other Sethian elements.
Christopher Foster
>against a god-damn dragon The jabberwock looks pretty similar to its actual Wonderlands self so its only the whole prophecy bit that ruins it all. Alice's own curiosity should have driven the plot.
Bentley Ross
Allowed? Sure. She left of her own will, never tasted the fruit, and so would be no real threat.
But she wouldn't want to, as it would mean submission.
Lincoln Martin
>pre-Deuteronomic setting >minolatry would be common because the powers of Israel haven't centralized yet >"it's faith or satanism for ya buddy!" fuck outta here
Ayden Adams
It's set in early Genesis. Before Babel, before Abraham, before anything. This is the Antediluvian Age, so I can see going for a strict reading of the Bible and having it be monotheistic.
Personally I find that boring though, so I'd recommend a pantheon fitting for Abrahamic and Mesopotamian. >Sky Father (El, Anu) >Sea Dragon (Leviathan, Tiamat, Namu, Etc) >Air Mother (Lilith, Ninlil) >Storm Lord (Yahweh, Enlil) >Original Man (Adam, Adapa) >All Mother (Eve, Hepat)
Isaiah Morales
Thats a tired reversal, I prefer every entity essentially being manifested through the eyes of their enemy.
Jace Barnes
> Running this exact idea and stealing some shit holesale friday. Hehehe
Jacob White
I get the feeling this didn't happen.
Isaac Martinez
You could also go with "Didn't say it was aliens, but it was aliens" for a setting like this if you want to spice up things.
Nathan Mitchell
Cept Lucifer in all accounts is extremely beautiful and powerful while being full of himself (ya know the whole thing being banished from heaven cause he thought he was better than his very creator). Also of note, is his lack of direct involvement with humankind. I say direct but he IS known as the great tempter for a reason. For a really good reference you could use, I would suggest reading the The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.
Easton Cox
"in all accounts"... Hahaha, but fucking NO. I don't think you have the faintest idea about the actual history behind the term "Lucifer". Pro-tip: it does not really mean what you think it means, historically.