Religion how to show with all it complexities

The question to my more skilled writers out there. That’s gonna be part of the game how do you show its complexities and nuances without being preachy but same time without demonize. It is highly organized should I showing the different people that practice it and how they express it. Or since it’s an organization even with spiritual goals man’s touch can still damn things regardless of what the goals are of any organization. So the difference between a good and bad Bishop, actually a saintly person looks like etc. I would or can portray the more esoteric mystic aspects of the faith?

I would suggest a complex menu system that allows the player to research all the details of whatever religion(s) you’re writing about in as much or in as little detail as they want.

You could totally have a library to accommodate this, and maybe even award research points to the player.

If you’re worried about being “preachy” or ‘demonizing’ then one way you can get around that is to let the player know that the information they are reading is from the point of view of that particular organization.

So for example, let’s say you have Ants, Insects, and Spiders.
In the Ant Bible, insects and spiders are talked about a certain way, and the Ant Library has a bunch of Ant doctrine and Ant philosophy and Ant law to research, but the player knows that this is the Ant library.

Does this help?

2 Likes

If it’s a major aspect of the game and requires the PC to have a working knowledge of that at least the foundation and some of the basic the Theology. How would I portray that good fellow.

You could accomplish this in a few different ways.
If the player is required to have some base knowledge, then make that one of the options at the library.

Example:

*temp antfaction 50
*temp antlibrary 0

*label antmenu
[b]The Ant Library[/b]
*line_break
Curator: Adam Antilles

What would you like to research?

*choice
 #Basic information
  *goto library1
 *selectable_if (antlibrary > 0) #Uncommon information
  *goto library2
 *selectable_if (antlibrary > 0) #Rare information
  *goto library3
 *selectable_if ((antfaction >= 75) and (antlibrary > 0)) #Secret information ([i]You need to be [b]Revered[/b] with the Ants.[/i])
  *goto library4
 *selectable_if (antfaction = 50) #Donate a bunch of money to the Ant Library.
  *set antfaction +25
  *goto antmenu


*label library1

*set antlibrary 1
Ants are basically awesome!

*goto antmenu


*label library2

*set antlibrary 2
Ants are uncommonly awesome!

*goto antmenu


*label library3

*set antlibrary 3
Rare Ants are even more awesome!

*goto antmenu


*label library4

*set antlibrary 4
Secret Information!
*line_break
(The following is taken from:) http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/ant/

Ants are common insects, but they have some unique capabilities. More than 10,000 known ant species occur around the world. They are especially prevalent in tropical forests, where they may be up to half of all the insects living in some 

locations.

Ants look much like termites, and the two are often confused—especially by nervous homeowners. However, ants have a narrow "waist" between the abdomen and thorax, which termites do not. Ants also have large heads, elbowed antennae, and 

powerful jaws. These insects belong to the order Hymenoptera, which includes wasps and bees.

Enthusiastically social insects, ants typically live in structured nest communities that may be located underground, in ground-level mounds, or in trees. Carpenter ants nest in wood and can be destructive to buildings. Some species, such 

as army ants, defy the norm and do not have permanent homes, instead seeking out food for their enormous colonies during periods of migration.

Ant communities are headed by a queen or queens, whose function in life is to lay thousands of eggs that will ensure the survival of the colony. Workers (the ants typically seen by humans) are wingless females that never reproduce, but 

instead forage for food, care for the queen's offspring, work on the nest, protect the community, and perform many other duties.

Male ants often have only one role—mating with the queen. After they have performed this function, they may die.

Ants communicate and cooperate by using chemicals that can alert others to danger or lead them to a promising food source. They typically eat nectar, seeds, fungus, or insects. However, some species have diets that are more unusual. Army 

ants may prey on reptiles, birds, or even small mammals.

One Amazon species (Allomerus decemarticulatus) cooperatively builds extensive traps from plant fiber. These traps have many holes and, when an insect steps on one, hundreds of ants inside use the openings to seize it with their jaws.

Another species, the yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes), is capable of forming so-called supercolonies that house multiple queens. On Australia’s Christmas Island, the accidental introduction of yellow crazy ants in the early 20th 

century has led to a destructive infestation. The ants are a significant threat to the island’s endemic population of red crabs, which are displaced by the ants from their burrows or killed as they pass through ant nest sites during the 

crabs' large-scale annual migration from the forest to the coast.

*goto antmenu
1 Like

Psst…

And for good measure:
https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/what-do-you-believe/21895

5 Likes

Thanks my good fellows!!