Quote from: BalbinusI think it can be useful to pick up a few things and use them lightly.

In my 2020 campaign, the player I mentioned in this thread plays a recovering drug addict fixer type character. He partly based his character on Gator, Sam Jackson's character in Jungle Fever. I say partly because he was the unhinged/pathetic Gator during his druggie period. Before that the character was a fundamentalist Muslim.

Now in his recovery period he struggles with the belief that his drug use was akin to his previous addiction to a dogmatic form of Islam. He's creating an interesting character. A character study of addiction...

Regards,
David R

I once played a kind of Muslim knight in an Amber campaign.  He was heroic, noble, courteous and a shining example of what an Amberite could be... except he had a tendency to cut people's hands off and organising the stoning of adulterers.

What?  I got bored playing a good guy!

Quote from: BalbinusA small thing, but one of my favourite moments in gaming was when I was running Gurps Arabian Nights.  The characters were put up by their host in very dingy and cheap rooms in his palatial apartments, and one player on surveying their disappointing accommodation had his character run out apparently distressed into the courtyard towards the host crying "aiiieee!  An evil djinn has taken the sumptuous rooms you appointed for our pleasure and replaced them with hovels one would not give to an itinerant beggar!" or words roughly to that effect.

Like most things in gaming, you had to be there, but it was funny as hell at the time and we all thought it a good way of saving face within the culture while embarassing the host and getting decent rooms.

That's exactly the kind of situation where I get my best fun gaming.

Quote from: KoltarThe TRAVELLER universe?

"Very good, that's twenty kilocredits for the communicators...what is your friend doing?"

"Kneeling to pray.  Old Solomani religion."

"...huh.  Why the compass and the star charts?"

"It's...complicated."

"His rug is nice.  Would he consider selling the --"

"NO."

One of the sample settlements in Havens (City Hall Station) is a basically three-way stand-off between some New York City Transit Authority workers, a group of hobos and a former Republican Guard Captain and his extended family.  It was a lot of fun getting Haakim Hussain's character right

I run a True20 campaign in a home-brew Mythic Crusades setting and a few PCs have played Muslims as memorable heroes. A lot of that has to do with the tone of the campaign though and I generally try to set the real villain as the various factions fighting over the "bone" of the Holy Land with the folks just trying to get on with their lives caught in the middle.  One of the more memorable NPC interactions was an Islamic NPC trying to get the peasants to revolt and replace a Norman leader with an Islamic one but their reply was "You ask me to care whose foot it is in the boot standing on my neck?  I think not."

Quote from: KoltarIn film and TV, we have a few Muslim characters that may be considered or could have conceivably been a character in a roleplaying game.

In the movie The 13th Warrior, Antonio Banderas plays the character of Ahmed Ibn Al Abbas Ibn Rashid Ibn Hamad. (In some ways that move reminds me of both the Dirty Dozen and the Magnificent Seven. )

 On the TV series "Lost" , the character of Sayid Jarrah  (played by Naveen Andrews) is portrayed as both a "hero" and a reverent muslim.

With examples like that in mind, could a scenario or even a whole campaign be bulit around a group of Muslim  "heroes" ?

 In the BANESTORM setting ?

  SHADOWRUN?

The TRAVELLER universe?

 A STAR TREK setting?

 D20 MODERN?
 or even  the URBAN ARCANA setting ?

- E.W.C.

You know, Koltar, it doesn't take a Brain Surgeon to see that you've started this thread mainly to annoy a certain someone.   This could be a bannable offense over on other sites.

Here, I think its very well done, except a bit too "passive aggressive" for my likings. I much prefer that people be actively aggressive.

Anyways, it's also a little sad that such a thread needs to take place. I mean, I ran my Traveller campaign (homebrew setting) in what was basically a Muslim galaxy (albeit one that had gone through a kind of reformation, but the basic principles were the same). My players had no problem playing as muslims, they figured out it was pretty much the same as playing as any other type of human being; just the funny little rituals, and some of the chosen moral/philosophical emphasis, is a little different from those dominant in this society.

I mean shit, you don't ask "Can you play Greco-Roman pagans as heroic"; do you? And those dudes are WAY further away from us in terms of basic paradigms than the Muslims.

I mean, a much better question would be not "Can you play muslim heroes"?, but rather: "What do you need to know to accurately roleplay a muslim"?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditI mean, a much better question would be not "Can you play muslim heroes"?, but rather: "What do you need to know to accurately roleplay a muslim"?

RPGPundit

Having limited exposure and knowledge of Islam, I would be much more interested in this discussion than the "Is religion relevant to characters" one that seems to be occurring.

Bill

Quote from: RPGPunditYou know, Koltar, it doesn't take a Brain Surgeon to see that you've started this thread mainly to annoy a certain someone.   This could be a bannable offense over on other sites.


RPGPundit

 Honestly , Pundit -  I thought this thread up after watching one of my "LOST" DVDs ....then right after I posted the original post - I remembered that "certain someone" and thought  "Oh Shit! Was that subsconscious on my part or not?"

- E.W.C.

Religion in games is one of my favorite subjects. I wrote Blood Games after all, plus what may be the only religion supplement for a SF game. Only thing is, if you are going to play a religious PC, make it real. Learn about the religion. Understand it. Understand what it means for your character. If you are going to play a socially religious person, it may never come up as important, but if the religion is real to the character, put in a little effort.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceOnly thing is, if you are going to play a religious PC, make it real. Learn about the religion.

I would generally agree with this sentiment but I think it's also not always that simple.  The Crusades game I mentioned above, playing any of the religions (Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Pagan) what is "real"?  You can't just apply modern versions of a religion to the past and call that "real".  Likewise in the traveler games mentioned above who is to say what is real for a religion several centuries from now?  

Rather I would say (and maybe you meant it this way) learn enough about it to not be a paperdoll and interpret it as best you can to the individual setting.  Most games are looking for flavor or a realistic theme rather than trying to set itself up as an academic review of a religion.

Quote from: KoltarHonestly , Pundit -  I thought this thread up after watching one of my "LOST" DVDs ....then right after I posted the original post - I remembered that "certain someone" and thought  "Oh Shit! Was that subsconscious on my part or not?"

- E.W.C.

I know you're still tetoxing from the other sites you're on but here its safe to show your real feelings, you know, and admit you hate the fucker. You'd certainly have good cause to.

RPGPundit

Quote from: StreamweaverI would generally agree with this sentiment but I think it's also not always that simple.  The Crusades game I mentioned above, playing any of the religions (Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Pagan) what is "real"?  You can't just apply modern versions of a religion to the past and call that "real".  Likewise in the traveler games mentioned above who is to say what is real for a religion several centuries from now?  

Rather I would say (and maybe you meant it this way) learn enough about it to not be a paperdoll and interpret it as best you can to the individual setting.  Most games are looking for flavor or a realistic theme rather than trying to set itself up as an academic review of a religion.

That's exactly what I meant, and you expressed it very well.

-clash

Quote from: HinterWeltHaving limited exposure and knowledge of Islam, I would be much more interested in this discussion than the "Is religion relevant to characters" one that seems to be occurring.

Bill

I like both questions: "What do you need to know?" and "does it matter?"

Most of the time it doesn't matter, so the first question is, effetively, invalid.  In some cases, however, it might be interesting to play a character of a certain faith or tradition (Muslim, Shinto, Priesthood of Helm, Nyarlathotep cultie, whatever), and then the research becomes handy -- if your goal is to work the details in as character color, or just learn somethin'.

Otherwise...:shrug:

Quote from: flyingmiceReligion in games is one of my favorite subjects. I wrote Blood Games after all, plus what may be the only religion supplement for a SF game. Only thing is, if you are going to play a religious PC, make it real. Learn about the religion. Understand it. Understand what it means for your character. If you are going to play a socially religious person, it may never come up as important, but if the religion is real to the character, put in a little effort.

-clash

This is close to what I was trying to say but said better by Clash. Essentially, it does not matter unless it matters. Part of the character but not the focus unless it is the focus.

Captain Conundrum (AKA Bill)