This is Faith in Play #87: Crosses, for February 2025. Jesus famously called potential followers to take up their own crosses and follow Him. This has led to the expression my cross to bear, which people apply to everything from illnesses to inlaws. I would suggest, however, that none of those things are your cross. … [Read more…]
Those of us overseeing the web site have been otherwise pressured in 2024, with the result that there is a backlog of articles submitted by members of the Christian Gamers Guild, but the only things that actually got published were entries in the two main series, Faith in Play and RPG-ology. It is a tradition … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #85: Codes, for December 2024. In any village, any city, any region, any world, characters are constrained. They are, of course, constrained by the local law. I have written extensively about that elsewhere, particularly in The Source of Law, The Course of Law, and The Force of Law. That, though, … [Read more…]
This is RPG-ology #79: Faith, for June 2024. Our thanks to Regis Pannier and the team at the Places to Go, People to Be French edition for locating a copy of this and a number of other lost Game Ideas Unlimited articles. This was originally Game Ideas Unlimited: Faith, and is reposted here with minor … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #71: Good Witch, for October 2023. The word “witch”, according to the dictionary, has connotations of evil magic, ugly appearance, and a nasty disposition. Yet in our usage we have lost this aspect of witches being evil and ugly. Indeed, if you attend enough game conventions you will meet girls … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #69: Steeple, for August 2023. There is something in Jewish history we call the Diaspora. It refers to the fact that having been driven from their homeland many Jews settled in nations throughout the world. It may have begun with the Assyrian Empire and perhaps is technically still happening today. … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #60: Afterlife, for November 2022. What happens when we die? The western religious view (I call it “western” because it is the view of most but not all Christians and Muslims) is that the soul or spirit goes to a place of either punishment or reward, depending on what it … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #44: An Alignment Grid, for July 2021. I thought I had finished discussing alignment, as it appears in Original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons™. I had explained why it was the True Religion of characters in the game world, and described Goodness as beneficence, Wickedness or Evil as selfishness, Law as … [Read more…]
Monotheism seems to be fairly uncommon in most campaign settings, but it is far more playable than one might think. I once thought that such a system would equate to boredom because it seemed to eliminate a few fantasy staples, such as friction between the gods, religious wars, and even non-violent religious rivalry—all of which … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #38: Places of Worship, for January 2021. As a boy I several times went to summer camp at Camp Lebanon (in Lebanon, New Jersey). One of its more memorable aspects was a chapel in the woods known as The Green Cathedral (pictured). To me there always seemed something providential about … [Read more…]