Quote from: dragoner;902578More importantly, who is Satan (...)

It is the silent voice certain people hear. It whispers "write another D&D-clone, world needs it, people want it".

And people think I'm silly...
Go forth and roll 10d20s and sin no more, my child. Thou art forgiven.

The gradual development of RPGs through actual play - Jesus' teachings.
OD&D - Coptic Christianity.
Basic / Classic / etc. - Various flavours of early Christianity after it's already been consolidated into a discrete religion. Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Monothelema, etc..
1st ed. AD&D - Catholicism. The massive, rather codified thing with Organised Play and whatnot.
2nd ed. AD&D - The Antipopes. It's the same thing as the other one with minor differences, created because of some political power struggle.
"3rd / 3.5th edition" - Protestantism. For some, it's a backlash against the (real or imagined) faults of Catholicism; for most it's an intellectually lazy licence to feel and act intolerably smug. "Oh, you've accepted our version of the Saviour / use Challenge Ratings and Wealth by Level guidelines? Congratulations, that means you're predestined to be saved / have a superior game!"
4th edition - Mormonism. They say they're Christians, but come on...
OSR - Quakers. (Well, the more liberal sorts of Quakers, who don't really make a big deal out of whether or not it's a subset of Protestantism.)

Of course the Holy Trinity would be the original, insuperable 3-volume set.

But the original Traveller is still about 10000% better in every possible way, so I assume it is atheism.

D&D before 3.0 is Old Testament.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;902598It is the silent voice certain people hear. It whispers "write another D&D-clone, world needs it, people want it".

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjtQu-EW0AAthfe.jpg

Am I supposed to recognize that picture? D&D clones are the path of least resistance, though with the way they are spawned, comparatively, they resemble evangelical Christianity more so. Like the Herbalife finding Christ and real estate seminar, if a storefront won't do, build a warehouse.

Quote from: dragoner;902611Am I supposed to recognize that picture?

Naaaah. I asked Google about "the devil in the flesh" and here is what it gave me.

QuoteD&D clones are the path of least resistance, though with the way they are spawned, comparatively, they resemble evangelical Christianity more so. Like the Herbalife finding Christ and real estate seminar, if a storefront won't do, build a warehouse.

This comparison deserves an upvote... Were they not taken away by Powers That Be.

What represents orthodoxy?
Was 0e the "Catholic Church?"

• I see the line of D&D from 0e to 5 as Catholicism. 5e is a polished up summary to bring the Church back to a more modern-day busy crowd.
• All the basics of D&D are orthodoxy, but there are several sects. Under the right circumstances they even attend each-others special events from time-to-time.
• It's strange in our western culture to deify people recently passed, so most of the founders including recent designers would all be saints in the Church if D&D.
• John Wick, Ron Edwards, Clint Black, Steve Perrin, anyone who decided they could either a) do D&D better or b) D&D is a terrible model and broke out in new directions... ALL Apostates. we have a LOT of Apostates.

Who's the Martin Luther?

Steve Jackson (SJGames) - One could also nominate Kevin Sembieda, or Steve Perrin. RuneQuest, Palladium and GURPS all were answers to "how would you do D&D better?".

Is there a Holy Trinity, and, if so, what is it's nature?
David Johansen's spot on here.

What are the "10 commandments"?

1. Thou shalt have no other games before D&D.
2. Thou shalt not make unto us any graven image unless it has Boobies.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of D&D in vain.
4. Remember the Game Day and keep it Fun.
5. Honor thy DM and thy fellow player.
6. Thou shall not ruin the game or the Game Day.
7. Thou shall not over commit to games.
8. Thou may steal the game to make unto new games that follow the commandments and are like unto D&D.
9. Thou shall not bear false witness to the game, the DM, the players or the mechanics.
10. Thou shall not covet the DM's world, nor his campaign notes, nor his books, nor his works, nor his devices.

Where is Mt. Sinai?
Once again David Johansen's answers are spot on here. I would want to co-author the History of the Church of D&D with him.

On other religions...

• Pathfinder as Anglican makes perfect sense so (once again) I agree with the enlightened David Johansen.
• World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness are the new age Goth cult. Some of the most recent members are more horror purists and find all the black make-up to be pretentious.
• The OSR is currently broken into two faiths. The Taliban as identified by the Pundit and The Reformers as witnessed by The Pundit and the list of OSR/Clone/Old School designers just making stuff they like and proselyting play.
• Miniatures Wargaming is the Judaism of RPGs. Model Railroading would likely be Zoroastrianism (perhaps with sects around modeling in general).
• Estar somehow self-identified as the Scientologist when he showed up to the thread drunk and angry and went on some nonsensical marble-mouthed tirade about how the aliens gave us Open and we can publish anywhere now. (I still love you Estar!)

I can't read this thread sober.

D&D is not a religion, and many of the woes in the fan community come from the fact that people try to make it an idol.

(Ph.D. in theology here, so I have Credentials. )

Quote from: trechriron;902615The Taliban as identified by the Pundit and The Reformers as witnessed by The Pundit and the list of OSR/Clone/Old School designers just making stuff they like and proselyting play.

I assure you, sir that your last moments on the material plane will resemble this scene:



...and the last thing you're gonna hear will be:

BROTHER APOTHECARY FISTO, HARVEST THIS GUY'S GENESEED, THEN DUMP HIS CORPSE INTO DREADNOUGHT'S CARAPACE - HE DESERVES TO SERVE THE EMPRAH FOR THE ETERNITY, AND HIS LEGACY TO SURVIVE HIS MORTAL SHELL.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;902614This comparison deserves an upvote... Were they not taken away by Powers That Be.

The admins giveth, and the admins taketh away.

That being said, Shinto, Confucianism? Where do they lay, what games are they?

Quote from: dragoner;902631The admins giveth, and the admins taketh away.

I cracked a smile. It doesn't happen... No wait, I happen to smile pretty often these days. WTF is wrong with this site, it's supposed to be no-jokin' allowed zone & shit...

QuoteThat being said, Shinto, Confucianism? Where do they lay, what games are they?

Let's think...

Shinto - hmmmm, considering that kami are/is omnipresent, it might reside in pretty much everything, then it'd be... FATE with its "everything's an Aspect" approach. If you prefer "the ritual of old in modern world", then, hmmmm... Damn, another score for OSR, I guess.

Confucianism - I'm not sure. The strongest element of this system are relationships between groups of people - families, society... So -cons seem like the place where too look, but here's a catch: Confucianism perceives man as good. Perhaps a bit crude, raw, untaught and underdeveloped, but good. I see no resemblance in any aspect of RPG of that fact.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;902625D&D is not a religion, and many of the woes in the fan community come from the fact that people try to make it an idol.

(Ph.D. in theology here, so I have Credentials. )

Also, OD&D isn't Coptic Christianity, it's the unedited letters of Paul.

Quote from: cranebump;902576Oh, come on. This is right up your alley.:-)

Oh ok.

AD&D is definitely Catholicism.

• Sold in numbers dwarfing anything that came after it.
• Its books are derided by people who have never actually read them, and its rules are mocked by people who never actually followed them.
• Almost everything that came after is influenced by it, either as a modification, extension, reaction or outright antithesis.
• Has a bunch of young ignorant punks who make fun of it so they can be cool and relevant.
• Its priests/DMs have apparently touched a lot of people in the bad place as children.
• Good DMs encourage you to think, bad ones railroad you into Orthodoxy.

WotC D&D is the Episcopal Church - a compromise generally taking the weakest parts of everything.

4th Edition, which as has been said, is Mormonism, the only thing D&D is the name on the cover.

White Wolf games are a New Age/Wiccan stew.  Even the followers who think they're edgy satanic magicians are probably harmless, as long as you don't get close enough for skin afflictions and STDs.

Palladium is a Cult of Personality, Tent Revivalist Show headed by a brilliant, creative maniac and his followers never stop sending him money when asked.

Most Forge games are Protestant.

• A continued, eternal reaction against imagined or no longer existing offenses.  
• The tenets of faith are completely made up arcane terminology none of them ever agreed on.
• For some reason, they consider themselves arrogantly superior.
• Anyone who doesn't like their games needs to be saved.
• Those who have been saved are reborn into the way of New Mechanics.

Some of the latest crop of New School Narrative Shitshows are Unitarian Universalism - No definition means anything, make up whatever you want and call it whatever you want, it's all good.  The rest are Identitarian, ie.  The Cult of Identity Politics.

and because you gotta put them in somewhere...
BRP is Judaism, 99% of people pick and choose what they want from the various sects.

GURPS is Islam, it's better than anything that came before it, doesn't even acknowledge anything that came after it, and while the various sects may war amongst themselves, they will join to fight the infidel.