This is Faith in Play #24: The Christian Veneer, for November 2019. My attention was called to a crowdfunding effort for a Christian-themed game. This was long enough ago that I expect, or at least hope, that nothing I say will impact the success of that funding effort, because it really looks like it might … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #23: Kralc’s Law, for October 2019. I don’t want to say that Arthur C. Clarke is famous for this; he is, after all, author of the book behind one of the most iconic of near-term science fiction space travel movies (have I limited that enough?), 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, he … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #22: Individualism, for September 2019. Quite a few years ago now I was playing a character in an experimental Attorney class in a game largely based on original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons™. I had just successfully defended a player character (an Antipaladin) on a murder and robbery charge, and the … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #21: Villainy, for August 2019. It was a year ago, but I had a stack of articles in the queue when it happened, and decided not to disrupt the plan by answering what appeared to be a question from a Troll posted to our Facebook page (I managed to lose the … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #20: The Problem with Protests, for July 2019. It was brought to my attention that twenty thousand well-meaning wrong-headed religious conservatives have signed a petition asking Netflix not to run a show produced by Amazon exclusively for Amazon Prime subscribers. The show is a scripting by Neil Gaiman of a … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #19: Simulationism, for June 2019. One of the complications of discussing whether what’s called “simulationism” in Ron Edwards’ Big Model is that even Ron Edwards has had trouble figuring out what it is. We have looked at gamism and narrativism, and decided that there are Christian values in those approaches … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #18: Order, for May 2019. A lot of people think that lawful (and specifically lawful good) is The Christian alignment in Dungeons & Dragons™. They think this because they associate it with keeping the rules, and they think that Christianity is about keeping the rules. I would disagree on two … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #17: Narrativism, for April 2019. Two months back we started seeking what might be a Christian approach to what is called Creative Agenda, by discussing gamism. Our conclusion was that gamism was not inimical to Christian faith, insofar as it encourages us to be our best and meet the challenges … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #16: Mourning, for March 2019. Dearly beloved, we gather today to mourn the passing of our companion Ralph, a bold adventurer who met his fate defending his friends and companions. Although we are greatly saddened at this loss, we can take some comfort in the knowledge that Ralph was a … [Read more…]
This is Faith in Play #15: Gamism, for February 2019. Glancing back over previous articles, I am often reminded that although I did an article on DFK—Drama, Fortune, and Karma, Faith and Gaming: Mechanics—I never addressed the more controversial three-letter set found in Ron Edwards’ Big Model, GNS. After all, what we get out of … [Read more…]