[934] in Daily_Rumour
Comments on purely theological matters
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jmaessen@MIT.EDU)
Sat May 27 19:10:45 1995
From: jmaessen@MIT.EDU
Date: Sat, 27 May 1995 19:10:25 -0400
To: rumor@MIT.EDU
Cc: stage-gms@MIT.EDU
This should only very rarely be important to game, but we have been
asked about it, and you should know what to do when it does come up.
The question has been raised: "What happens when a theological debate
occurs in the context of game? Can I use what I know from being, say,
raised Catholic, or taking the Bible, as True?"
Answer: Briefly, not neccessarily.
Note that Shakespeare was an Anglican, and much of Shakespearean
Christianity, even when it's "Catholic", is actually based on Anglican
practice. The in-game religion is a similar hybrid of Anglicanism and
pseudo-Catholicism, with most of the heavy references excised from the
services.
If it's specifically written in the greensheets or in the breviary, it
Is True. These are the irrefutable aspects of faith. A monk is
perfectly free to rattle off citations from a religious greensheet if
he so desires...
There are a few other things which are Bad--e.g., don't break the ten
commandments. These happen to also be either illegal or heretical, so
they shouldn't pose a problem.
Every other theological fact is open to interpretation. Monks may
attempt to make "theological" arguments on either side of a debate, but
they will be no more conclusive than any argument the 20th-century
players can make based on arbitrary evidence. However, you should
assume that monks have arbitrarily large stores of theological knowledge
compared to Everyone Else, regardless of what the particular players may
happen to know about religion. That is, monks win theological debates.
-Jan
