Biblical D&D: Genesis 1-11
This is a little bit of an experiment. If you don't know me very well, I am a Christian. I have always wanted to read my Bible more and yet I often find myself distracted by other things like blogging about elf games. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I am going to read through the Bible to mine it for gameable material.
As I said, I am a believer, but I am not a creationist and I do not take a literal approach to much of scripture. My endeavor is to read the Bible honestly as literature and spiritual guidance with an eye to the more imaginative aspects such that might be useable for D&D. If this offends you, I apologize, please understand this is not my intent. I would ask that comments below these posts remain respectful, more for the sake of others than myself. I would prefer it if arguments did not break out and that comments be focused on games and the ideas for them.
Now with that out of the way, on to Genesis!
The world of Genesis is pretty bleak. People are evil and the punishment for it is brutal. In many ways, this reminds me of a lot of swords and sorcery settings where it seems there is no relenting from the evil of the world and of people.
What if Adam and Eve never fell? or Antediluvian Swords and Sorcery
A few things seem to be clear about Adam and Eve: they are supremely innocent, desire to be like God, and naked, like all the time. If they were allowed to stay in Eden, having foiled the endeavors of the serpent, would they remain there and have children? What if some of these children decided to leave the Garden City of Eden? There would be one world, locked within Eden, a world without suffering, pure as in the dawn of creation and there would be the outer world, the world of suffering and death.
The ageless, naked, nature-loving inhabitants of Eden would likely look down on those outside in pity. They would be a lot like elves.
The people outside would be like normal human beings. If we were to follow the story in some ways, Abel and Cain would leave the Garden and Cain would kill Abel. Cain would be cursed and he would build the city of Enoch, named after his son: a city of murderers and wickedness if Lamech is anything to go by:
Chapter 4, Verses 23-24: "Lamech said to his wives, 'Adah and Zilla, listen to me, wives of Lamech hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.'"
Thus we have two cities: Eden, the city of perfection where God visits, ruled over by the First Man Adam. We would also have Enoch, the city of wickedness, where the First Murderer Cain rules with his tyrannical sons.
But Cain is to be pitied in a lot of ways. He seems to be a sort of tragic, not someone to see as evil in a simplistic fashion. He wanted to be holy. He wanted the Lord's favor and when Abel was favored more than him because Abel gave more than him, Cain was envious. Cain wanted the Lord's favor but rather than accept that the fault was his, he takes it out on his brother.
Such would the city of Enoch: a den of petty tyrants like Lamech, projecting their own inadequacies onto the world around them, proving their worth through forcing others to be worthless, trying to reach heaven through violence.
The Nephilim
The Nephilim, supposedly the offspring of the "children of God" and human beings, were said to be "The heroes of old, men of renown." (Ch 6: 4) They fit pretty easily into our Antediluvian setting as player characters! The children of God might have been angels, as some traditions assume or they could be Adams descendants as opposed to other humans/humanoids who apparently seemed to live outside the garden. So these children between the people of Eden and the people of Enoch would produce the player characters, creatures not wholly taken over by evil, heroes, people who could enact great change for good or ill. It is often said that such the Nephilim were giants so Godbound might be a good system for people trying to play as these creatures.
What if the Tower of Babel never fell? or a Babylonian Steam Punk Megadungeon
Noah would have a hard time to fit into the setting thus far, except perhaps as a scenario where the pcs must build an ark to escape destruction. So we can say that in our alternate timeline, God never sent the flood so Noah just became a patriarch over a fairly good breed of people who grew in number and became a little arrogant.
They create their city of Babel and at its center begin to build a tower that will breach the heavenly vault and make it all the way to heaven. As a side note regarding cosmology: the writers of Genesis appear to think of the world as flat and covered by a semisphere vault of the sky that keeps the water beyond the sky out. Space appears to be full of water. I don't really know if they took this understanding of the world very seriously or just accepted the general view of the world as most people around them. Who can say? However, for our purposes, we will take this cosmology very seriously.
The tower of Babel was likely originally thought of as a ziggurat. The story is likely a way of mocking the Babylonian's practice of building such structures to get closer to heaven. However, I think our tower will be more of a tower in the way we typically think of them. God, not wanting to confuse the language of all people due to his Eden remaining on earth, lets them build this tower, rather than scattering them as their punishment, the tower builders will learn just how far is heaven.
The Tower would be an excellent megadungeon, each level built by generations of builders who spent their entire lives building and had children in the tower so they could build to, because, depending on how tall the tower had become, it could take a very long time to reach the surface, perhaps an entire lifetime.
Rebellions would ensue, entire levels would be forgotten or lost to rebel builders, strange breeds of animals would adapt to the tower and the people would have strange customs. At some point, the tower would indeed breach the sky vault and have to start working through the liquidy void of space. Near the top of the tower, the builders would struggle with angels guarding the way to heaven and the gigantic creatures that lurk in the fathomless depths beyond the sky.
Elevators would have to be constructed, superior builders would be crafted: golems and automatons would become necessities. Elevators would have to be guarded against rebellious tower natives. Engines of fire to combat angels and space leviathans.
Babylonian Steam Punk would ensue.
Who built the nations?
On a note that doesn't involve the Antediluvian Swords and Sorcery Setting, there is a pretty common concept in many of the list of children and genealogies. Singular men are often credited with starting whole nations and birthing whole peoples. It is not such an incomprehensible idea that in a time with polygamy and few people that this might be the case. The many descendants of a potent individual would create a little community, find wives, birth new children to add to the community, take slaves, and do battle with other tribes and thus cities and nations would grow.
It would be a pretty cool thing for fantasy setting for people to be able to point back to the founder of their nation and be able to list of the genealogy that created their way of life, tracing their line back to Adam to give their nation a sense of legitimacy and pride for coming from the first man. Not only that but brothers who both created nations could be credited as the source of modern conflicts. If Abulaseth son of Borat stole Egrimmor son of Borat's sweet roll, wars could be fought for thousands of years!
Player characters would be wrapped up in these struggles, founding nations and then, future characters could return to those same civilizations to see the mythology that built up around the player character who founded the nation.
Conclusion
So in a world where immortal Edenites and wicked Enochites and Steam Punk Babylonians with a tower live side by side, who will be the heroes of this story? Will you serve the Lord God or follow in the way of Cain? Will you mount the tower to heaven or serve as God's wrath for the arrogance of its builders?
Theater aside, tell me what you think of this as a series. I will likely return to some of these ideas as the text produces new ideas for the Antideluvian setting and go on to discuss completely different Biblical material.
As I said, I am a believer, but I am not a creationist and I do not take a literal approach to much of scripture. My endeavor is to read the Bible honestly as literature and spiritual guidance with an eye to the more imaginative aspects such that might be useable for D&D. If this offends you, I apologize, please understand this is not my intent. I would ask that comments below these posts remain respectful, more for the sake of others than myself. I would prefer it if arguments did not break out and that comments be focused on games and the ideas for them.
Now with that out of the way, on to Genesis!
The world of Genesis is pretty bleak. People are evil and the punishment for it is brutal. In many ways, this reminds me of a lot of swords and sorcery settings where it seems there is no relenting from the evil of the world and of people.
What if Adam and Eve never fell? or Antediluvian Swords and Sorcery
A few things seem to be clear about Adam and Eve: they are supremely innocent, desire to be like God, and naked, like all the time. If they were allowed to stay in Eden, having foiled the endeavors of the serpent, would they remain there and have children? What if some of these children decided to leave the Garden City of Eden? There would be one world, locked within Eden, a world without suffering, pure as in the dawn of creation and there would be the outer world, the world of suffering and death.
The ageless, naked, nature-loving inhabitants of Eden would likely look down on those outside in pity. They would be a lot like elves.
The people outside would be like normal human beings. If we were to follow the story in some ways, Abel and Cain would leave the Garden and Cain would kill Abel. Cain would be cursed and he would build the city of Enoch, named after his son: a city of murderers and wickedness if Lamech is anything to go by:
Chapter 4, Verses 23-24: "Lamech said to his wives, 'Adah and Zilla, listen to me, wives of Lamech hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.'"
Thus we have two cities: Eden, the city of perfection where God visits, ruled over by the First Man Adam. We would also have Enoch, the city of wickedness, where the First Murderer Cain rules with his tyrannical sons.
But Cain is to be pitied in a lot of ways. He seems to be a sort of tragic, not someone to see as evil in a simplistic fashion. He wanted to be holy. He wanted the Lord's favor and when Abel was favored more than him because Abel gave more than him, Cain was envious. Cain wanted the Lord's favor but rather than accept that the fault was his, he takes it out on his brother.
Such would the city of Enoch: a den of petty tyrants like Lamech, projecting their own inadequacies onto the world around them, proving their worth through forcing others to be worthless, trying to reach heaven through violence.
The Nephilim
The Nephilim, supposedly the offspring of the "children of God" and human beings, were said to be "The heroes of old, men of renown." (Ch 6: 4) They fit pretty easily into our Antediluvian setting as player characters! The children of God might have been angels, as some traditions assume or they could be Adams descendants as opposed to other humans/humanoids who apparently seemed to live outside the garden. So these children between the people of Eden and the people of Enoch would produce the player characters, creatures not wholly taken over by evil, heroes, people who could enact great change for good or ill. It is often said that such the Nephilim were giants so Godbound might be a good system for people trying to play as these creatures.
What if the Tower of Babel never fell? or a Babylonian Steam Punk Megadungeon
Noah would have a hard time to fit into the setting thus far, except perhaps as a scenario where the pcs must build an ark to escape destruction. So we can say that in our alternate timeline, God never sent the flood so Noah just became a patriarch over a fairly good breed of people who grew in number and became a little arrogant.
They create their city of Babel and at its center begin to build a tower that will breach the heavenly vault and make it all the way to heaven. As a side note regarding cosmology: the writers of Genesis appear to think of the world as flat and covered by a semisphere vault of the sky that keeps the water beyond the sky out. Space appears to be full of water. I don't really know if they took this understanding of the world very seriously or just accepted the general view of the world as most people around them. Who can say? However, for our purposes, we will take this cosmology very seriously.
The tower of Babel was likely originally thought of as a ziggurat. The story is likely a way of mocking the Babylonian's practice of building such structures to get closer to heaven. However, I think our tower will be more of a tower in the way we typically think of them. God, not wanting to confuse the language of all people due to his Eden remaining on earth, lets them build this tower, rather than scattering them as their punishment, the tower builders will learn just how far is heaven.
The Tower would be an excellent megadungeon, each level built by generations of builders who spent their entire lives building and had children in the tower so they could build to, because, depending on how tall the tower had become, it could take a very long time to reach the surface, perhaps an entire lifetime.
Rebellions would ensue, entire levels would be forgotten or lost to rebel builders, strange breeds of animals would adapt to the tower and the people would have strange customs. At some point, the tower would indeed breach the sky vault and have to start working through the liquidy void of space. Near the top of the tower, the builders would struggle with angels guarding the way to heaven and the gigantic creatures that lurk in the fathomless depths beyond the sky.
Elevators would have to be constructed, superior builders would be crafted: golems and automatons would become necessities. Elevators would have to be guarded against rebellious tower natives. Engines of fire to combat angels and space leviathans.
Babylonian Steam Punk would ensue.
Who built the nations?
On a note that doesn't involve the Antediluvian Swords and Sorcery Setting, there is a pretty common concept in many of the list of children and genealogies. Singular men are often credited with starting whole nations and birthing whole peoples. It is not such an incomprehensible idea that in a time with polygamy and few people that this might be the case. The many descendants of a potent individual would create a little community, find wives, birth new children to add to the community, take slaves, and do battle with other tribes and thus cities and nations would grow.
It would be a pretty cool thing for fantasy setting for people to be able to point back to the founder of their nation and be able to list of the genealogy that created their way of life, tracing their line back to Adam to give their nation a sense of legitimacy and pride for coming from the first man. Not only that but brothers who both created nations could be credited as the source of modern conflicts. If Abulaseth son of Borat stole Egrimmor son of Borat's sweet roll, wars could be fought for thousands of years!
Player characters would be wrapped up in these struggles, founding nations and then, future characters could return to those same civilizations to see the mythology that built up around the player character who founded the nation.
Conclusion
So in a world where immortal Edenites and wicked Enochites and Steam Punk Babylonians with a tower live side by side, who will be the heroes of this story? Will you serve the Lord God or follow in the way of Cain? Will you mount the tower to heaven or serve as God's wrath for the arrogance of its builders?
Theater aside, tell me what you think of this as a series. I will likely return to some of these ideas as the text produces new ideas for the Antideluvian setting and go on to discuss completely different Biblical material.
I've seen similar approaches but I don't recall any using the sky firmament and ocean beyond -it's a nice touch.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you can properly avoid the Flood, though. It's the defining feature of the age you're presenting so it feels like a loss to avoid it.
Doesn't necessarily have to be a flood in the proper water water everywhere sense, either. Could go flame deluge or horrific space flesh monstrosities or something else.
I agree. I ave some ideas for next post on the matter.
DeleteApproved, brøthër
ReplyDeleteThis is great! Are you familiar with the author Ted Chiang? He's one of my favorite authors and a brilliant short story SF writer. He's actually written a couple short stories very similar to what you're suggesting here, both of which are in his first short story collection. One is his take on the physics (so to speak) of the Tower of Babel. The other is basically a kabbalah-punk, where some of the concepts behind Jewish Mysticism are mechanicalized and there are golems and stuff. I'm not doing it justice with that explanation but it's excellent.
ReplyDeleteKabbalah-punk sounds awesome
DeleteVery cool - I'm doing something very similar, but likely slower: building out a campaign world using old testament myths (not exclusively).
ReplyDeleteYeah it is hard to do OT exclusively since even Genesis speeds through eras pretty quickly.
DeleteI can't wait to see what you do with the other chapter of the bible. What will an dungeon-Ark of Noah look like? What about the Witch of Endor? The escaping of the Jews from Egypt?
ReplyDeleteHaha Noah's dungeon Ark. That's a good idea. It can explain why some animals aren't around anymore. An Endorian Witch class that mainly summons the ghosts of the dead. There is a lot to do with the escape from Egypt, I think mainly a lot of cleric spells to make.
DeleteThere is also Jonah and the Whale, David V. Goliath, Sodom and Gomorrah, and.... there is a lot of The Bible to use.
Delete