Inspiration

The other day, I found myself re-watching M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. I find it to be a fun little film as long as it's not taken too seriously. I started thinking about the potential RPG implications of the plot and wanted to share my thoughts with you. If you haven't seen the film — and don't want any spoilers — now would be a good time to stop reading.

As many of you probably know, the story opens during a funeral where, between the people's dress, manner of speech and the date on a tombstone, the audience is lead to believe that it is sometime in the late 1800's. We — the audience — go on to discover that the color red is universally thought of as "bad" and that something or someone known as "Those-we-don't-speak-of" live in the woods. An agreement of sorts between the villagers and these outsiders keeps the peace. The villagers don't go into the forest, don't use or allow red in their village and make a regular offerings of large amounts of meat. In return, these outsiders don't come into the village or harass the villagers.

It's an orderly system that the village elders have managed for years: young men wear yellow robes and maintain a line of oil lamps along the perimeter between the village and the wood. There is an organized night watch that stands guard upon wooden lookout towers. The villagers practice emergency drills in case these outsiders come into the village. The widespread taboo against the color red is not the only taboo: entering the forest is also prohibited. The young men — again in yellow robes — make the meat offering by placing it on a special rock — more like an altar — at the edge of the woods. Even discussions in school refer to the creatures.

It's all a lie. The village elders use the threat of "Those-we-don't-speak-of" to keep young people away from the forest. They remove the meat offering when no one is looking, they are the ones wearing red robes and moving about in the woods making noises at both night and day. The drills seem designed to torment the young rather than prepare anyone for the "inevitable" attack. The elders even go so far as to dress up as the creatures and "attack" the village — including animal mutilations — when one young man asks for permission to visit "the towns" beyond the woods for needed medicine. Ostensibly, they do all of this to protect the villagers from the threats of the outside world. I'll leave off exactly what those threats are as that relates to the "twist" ending — that somehow isn't all that much of a twist.

So, what does any of this have to do with religion in gaming? Well, I'm glad you asked. When viewed through the lens of fantasy, much of the daily life of the villagers could be argued as ritual: yellow robes, offerings, taboos, etc. Further, these rituals are part of a larger arrangement that could be called a cult. I'll let you determine if you prefer the original definition: a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object; or the more modern one: a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.

Application to Gaming

So, other than my taste in movies and my nearly compulsive need to explain plot elements, what have we learned? Well, ask yourself what happens when a religion is both taken seriously AND is false? Now, this may seem like an odd question — particularly for the atheist reader — but remember, we are speaking of the in-game religions. Religions where the deity has the habit of granting obvious answers to fervent prayer, gifting her servants with super-mortal abilities or even showing up on the mortal plane. Any faith in such an environment that can't routinely cough up a few minor miracles probably isn't converting the non-believers. Thus, our list of story hooks begins with asking what occurs when the faith doesn't have actual divine power behind it.

The first and perhaps most obvious — but not only — question is this: Why would anyone (in-game) follow a religion without miracles? It could be as simple as Tradition.

ï "I was born an X and I'll die an X." ï "My grandmother taught me about Y from the time I could sit on her knee. I can't imagine changing how I live my life." ï "Here, we follow the patterns set down by our forefathers. We are not blown about by the hustle and bustle of Ö outsiders." (I tend to read this one with a "proper" British accent but, that's probably from too many TV shows with British villains.)

However, the reasons could be even simpler: faith propels people to action. It can bring out the best (or worst) in people. Even if an adherent doesn't see a certifiable miracle in her own life, she knows someone who knows someone who it happened to.

The flip side of this coin: Why would the leaders perpetrate such a situation on the unsuspecting? Greed, Power and Fame are compelling answers; however, the film provides an alternate explanation. The elders from Mr. Shyamalan's film have as their core motivation the protection of the innocent from things they don't understand. For the elders, "Those-we-don't-speak-of" are the evils of theft, murder, and rape — among others.

A short but hardly exhaustive list of other motivations:

• A sincere belief in the original mythos — whatever it may have been — tempered with the feeling that societal wickedness and/or sin has prevented the deity from direct action. Thus, the priests act on his behalf.
• The original motivation was to protect people from and cover up a literal evil; however, the Faustian bargain has morphed into something more sinister and the chief priestess is merely trying to save her own skin.
• The strange cult that people see in the mining town merely masks another, secretive cult that is either legally prohibited or perhaps nefarious.
• A delusional individual claimed divine inspiration and those that follow in her footsteps keep the faith alive — by any means necessary.

In all honesty, the specific of the situation almost don't matter. (Obviously the GM will need to pick a reason or two but which reasons will vary from one game to the next.) What matters are the questions that your PC's have to deal with when faced with these situations. Once you — the GM — have chosen a motivation, ask yourself what would be gained or lost if the deception was disclosed. (e.g. The priests who are acting on behalf of an "absent" deity will have less to worry about from the faithful than the priest who has been abusing his power.)

Upon discovering the falsehoods and the reason behind them, what do the PC's do?

• Can they blow down the house of cards just because they want to?
• Is it right to pull the wool off someone's eyes if they are happy and not hurting someone else?
• If the PC is religious, does he have a duty to his god to "teach the true path" to those lost in ignorance?

As a GM you might should also ask yourself what happens if the PC's blow the whole thing up. Does that action make the PC's heroes or villains?

This type of setup will lead to very character driven story lines — which won't be appropriate for every game or setting. Nonetheless, my question to you is this: How can you use false religions in your gaming world?