Should you let atheists players play religious characters?
I've read here the opinion that you shouldn't because someone without faith is just going to play a caricature out of ignorance but on the other hand isn't forcing them to play irreligious characters in settings where the existence of god(s) is evident could be seen as forcing them as playing strawmen of themselves.
Should you let atheists players play religious characters?
Half the fucking point of roleplay is being something youre not for a while. Of course you should let a player who is X ppay a character who is Y. That goes for all of these questions.
It's not a matter whether a person practices faith IRL or not, it's a matter of whether they can depict a character who does. *Some* atheists would make hash of it, sure, but a Christian playing a character who worships a setting-specific deity isn't going to have a much better frame of reference and might botch it almost as easily. Real life beliefs don't have much bearing on one's ability to play a character's beliefs.
In short: IRL faith/lack thereof is irrelevant to role-play skills.
An atheist might oppose the idea of an omnipotent, omnipresent god that controls reality and determines what's good and what's evil, but most polytheistic settings are not like that at all.
Following a god in a standard D&D-like setting is like working for a corporation with a very nice retirement and benefits package. You'd be stupid not to!
The gods aren't infallible, they get into stupid fights and get their ass kicked time to time, they're just humans on a big scale and with a big autistic focus on their domain.
>Should you let atheists players play religious characters?
Yes, don't be a retard, now fuck off.
>Should you let atheists players play religious characters?
How's that even a question. Are you actually, unironically, literally autistic?
What, are you gonna ask for their Jesus card at the door if they want to be a Cleric? Even people who are religious in real life aren't qualified to play the kind of religion-based characters that appear in RPGs, unless they spend their free time shooting faith lasers from their magic sword at heretics and undead creatures.
Atheists are more apt to look at religion objectively and therefore better able to play a religious character. If you're playing with people that can't help but make everything a strawman for their personal beliefs then stop doing that.
Should women allowed to play male characters, sound like inviting sexist stereotypes into your game.
How about academic people playing commoners? Surely there will be thinly veiled elitism in the presentation.
And humans certainly should allowed to play elves as they'd never do justice to the experience of ageless race.
>no evidence of god even existing
vs
>literal god given powers
>aspects and avatars being a real thing
?
Most people are atheists because they don't want to be involved in cultish rituals or sectarianism. This is a common reason in Scotland.