Religious Characters, Anyone ever run one? Options

[LivingOxymoron]

Has anyone ever run a religious Character, or even one who just integrated certain religious traditions into their personality? Not a stereotype, or an over the top cinematic one, or what you 'thought' they would be like, but something that you actually did some research and/or thinking to round out your game experience?

I'm just curious as to what other people have done.

I'm thinking (next time I actually get a chance to play), of playing an observant Jew or Muslim and trying to reconcile a runner's lifestyle and obligations with an honest attempt at observing the traditions of his religion.

[zeborazor]

I'm currently running a Eastern Orthodox Priest. Though I have not gone over the top in following his rules, otherwise making the game near unplayable. He turns a blind eye to his friends when they insist on things getting dirty, but usually attempt to coerice them into doing what he considers the correct and moral path. Control Actions was once used to hold a vicious Street Sam at bay while the unarmed gangers ran for their life. But he tries not to influence things so directly, taking away free will and all that.

[Godwyn]

A guy in our group is running a minister/priest/something like that. It is also the basis for his magical tradition. The Church is also a reliable source of work for us through him, and unlikely to do the standard Johnson double-cross. Although the downside is our pay often borders on charity work. . . which is why my character has run up a debt of about 70,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) to the Russian mob.

[Glyph]

Most of my characters have some kind of religious leanings, even if it is "muddled agnosticism," but while it influences them, I have never been fond of people who wear their religion on their sleeves, so I don't make characters where their religion is their big, defining characteristic. And honestly, a strongly religious character would have a hard time functioning in a lot of campaigns. It depends - Shadowrun is a mix of noir fatalism and "fight the system" idealism, so a strongly religious character could function as a part of a group leaning towards the latter. In other words, groups that would shut down a polluting factory in the barrens, rather than groups that would burn down a BTL treatment center because the Yaks think it's cutting into their profits too much.

[Karoline]

I have to agree with Glyph (I do that alot it seems like) that in general it is going to be hard to pair a religion with working in the shadows. Now some of the... I guess less religious and more spiritual things could work quite well (Like maybe Buddhism. Don't really know much, but it might work). But a truly devout Christian would have alot of trouble justifying a run because if nothing else there is that whole 'thou shall not kill' thing, and lots of runs have a tendency to turn violent.

Perhaps some sort of crusader type could work, but the problem is that most runs aren't going to be of any particular interest religion wise. I could maybe see someone who runs on a sort of 'well, I'm damned, but I'm going to drag as much evil into hell with me as I can'. Along the lines of Scar from FMA. Basically in their minds the corps are evil and so doing damage to them in any way is a good thing. Perhaps good enough to absolve a person of all the killing they did, or maybe they figure they've already done something that they can't be redeemed for, so they'll take advantage of that to bring evil down outside the 'laws' of their religion.

For anyone who has read the Trilogy "His Dark Materials" (Starts with the Golden Compass) there is an interesting idea presented (No idea if it is based in fact at all) of a clergyman who has spent his entire life atoning for a murder he hasn't committed yet, so that when he commits it, he'll still be allowed to go to heaven (Or maybe just stay out of hell, don't remember exactly). Another sort of possibility.

Still, I'm sure there are plenty of other ways you could go about it, because even though basically every religion includes stuff about peace and non-violence and not killing and such, basically all have justified plenty of killings. (Crusades, Inquisition, Jihad, Witch Burnings, blah blah blah)

[Godwyn]

Then again, there are plenty of proper Shadowrun organizations/religions/beliefs that run the shadows quite well. Shamans and Terra First anyone?

[pbangarth]

I have a Qabbalistic Tradition mage who is very in tune with the mythology and mysticism of his tradition. The spirits who possess him are continually reminding him of the path off of which he has stepped in order to enter the shadows.

[LivingOxymoron]

I guess I'm not really talking about a Minister/Rabbi/Imam/Monk/Priest, etc... I'm talking about a regular (or not so regular) lay adherent to a particular religion who's "job" happens to be running.

Like a Jew who does as much as possible to not run on Friday nights and Saturdays.

Or a Muslim who contributes 2.5% of all his run income to charity and prefers to work at nights (so he doesn't have to miss a prayer time).

Or a Catholic who searched and searched for a priest he could trust with his confessions.

Or a Hindu that treats running as a religious lesson since this is his dharma.

Stuff like that.

[pbangarth]

I guess I'm not really talking about a Minister/Rabbi/Imam/Monk/Priest, etc... I'm talking about a regular (or not so regular) lay adherent to a particular religion who's "job" happens to be running.

Well, that's what I'm trying to do with my guy. His religious beliefs are filtering all his experiences and he is continually having to compromise and justify his behaviour within himself. I see him risking a slippery slope in order to feed a need for ... adventure ... excitement ... one-upmanship on a relative ... prestige ... escape from nerdiness....

[Cardul]

Or a Hindu that treats running as a religious lesson since this is his dharma.

Stuff like that.

LONG time since I played that character....
Shivist Kshatriya Physical Adept...complete with Tulwar weapon focus.
I think I freaked the rest o the team of a few times, but..it has been so
long, I cannot remember much about how I played the character..

['Sconnie]

Like a Jew who does as much as possible to not run on Friday nights and Saturdays.

I worked up a Qabbalistic adept based on Walter Sobchak from The Big Lebowski who took Shomer Shabbos as a Geas.

[Neraph]

But a truly devout Christian would have alot of trouble justifying a run because if nothing else there is that whole 'thou shall not kill' thing, and lots of runs have a tendency to turn violent.

To be perfectly fair:
1) It's "Thou Shalt Not Murder." The word used in Hewbrew is raw-tsahk', which means

properly, to dash to pieces, that is, kill (a human being), especially to murder: - put to death, kill, (man-) slay (-er), murder (-er).

2) The Israelites are still under this Commandment themselves. It's in the Torah. The Old Testament is just the Torah, the Chronicles, the books of the Judges, the books of the Kings, the books of the Prophets, and a couple of other texts the Israelites still use (and technically it's Israelites - the Jews are Israelites specifically from the tribe of Judah. There are 11 other tribes too).

You could easily play a fundamentalist/extremist (depending if you're correct/politically correct) Muslim, any number of naturalistic faiths warring against the 'corps (not neccessarily associated with Terra! First or other super-Green movements), or a Crusader-styled guy following the Zoroastrian (spelling?) faith. Or, conversely, one of the darker paths like a Black Mage, an "evil" practitioner of the Zoroastrian tradition, a maho-tsukai, or something along those lines.

Also, if you were to play a Free Spirit character from Christian Theurgy/Zoroastrian, you could play him as an avenging angel who isn't exactly breaking the 6th Commandment, as it was A) given to humans, B) you're acting under God's orders, or C) you're actually distributing punishment, as no-one is without sin and the punishment for sin is death (you'd be "justified" by "executing" them for their sins, not actually murdering them).

*braces for flame-bath*

[zeborazor]

Yeah, you could be a Christian who has "visions" from God telling him to judge humanity etc.

[pbangarth]

Or you could just define a group as not human, and then killing them is not murder. Lots of precedent for that one.

[Glyph]

Not a stereotype, or an over the top cinematic one, or what you 'thought' they would be like, but something that you actually did some research and/or thinking to round out your game experience?

Bringing it back to the original topic - I think once you get to the "My faith tells me to kill these people" point, you are getting to the stereotype/over the top type of character. To be honest, that type of religious character (the unhinged crusader type) is pretty trite and played out by now. Someone who actually has some moral qualms about some of the things they do as a runner is a much more interesting type of character to play. The noir atmosphere that is part of cyberpunk is pointless if the character doesn't have any ideals that he is tempted to compromise.

[AKWeaponsSpecial...]

Actually, I'm getting ready to play an ork theurgist next game (swapping with the other GM). He's primarily defensive, and he obeys "Thou Shalt Not Murder" (which when you recognize it as 'murder' instead of 'kill' it makes Deuteronomy make FAR more sense), he just stunbolts his enemies, except feral HMHVV. Multicast powerbolts to the face for ferals. He is a moral runner, trying to guide the amoral assassin away from her ways with subtlety. In case you're interested, he's a mystic adept with unarmed 3, clubs 1(staff), Combat Sense II, Motion Sense, Magic Sense, Heal, Deflection, Ignite (for church candles, but can be put to other uses), Stunbolt, and Powerbolt. He's primarily defensive, and serves ad majorem Dei gloriam, inque hominum salutem (For the greater glory of God, and the salvation of humanity). This should be interesting. Anyway, if this isn't the kind of thing you were looking for, mea culpa.

[Whipstitch]

Most of my characters have some kind of religious leanings, even if it is "muddled agnosticism," but while it influences them, I have never been fond of people who wear their religion on their sleeves, so I don't make characters where their religion is their big, defining characteristic. And honestly, a strongly religious character would have a hard time functioning in a lot of campaigns.

Yeah, I think that shadow runners, when taken as a group, would tend to be the sort of people that keep religion on the periphery of their lives-- the easiest way to reconcile their actions with their beliefs is to simply not actively think about the conflict very often to begin with. After all, many criminals believe in an Abrahamic god, but unless they're pretty masochistic, they're going to spend more time doing what they do and less time praying for forgiveness afterwards-- the cognitive dissonance that would result simply makes a bit of hypocrisy the path of least resistance. Remember, people generally don't go out of their way to seek internal conflict when it's so easily avoided with a dollop of denial and some instant gratification. Basically, just keep in mind that religion can be a fundamental part of someone's world view without necessarily being a central part of how they live their every day lives. Faith dies hard, but pushing it out of the foreground is pretty easy.

[pbangarth]

Someone who actually has some moral qualms about some of the things they do as a runner is a much more interesting type of character to play. The noir atmosphere that is part of cyberpunk is pointless if the character doesn't have any ideals that he is tempted to compromise.

This is exactly the situation for the one religious character I do play. Dancing on the edge of a slippery slope is a delicious exercise.

[tete]

In the long time SR2 group I was in we had a character who was catholic. He was the demolitionist and former construction worker. He went to confession on occasion and he wasn't a runner by choice he had been forced to keep a low profile by pissing off the mafia. He always insisted no one get killed in the explosions, he later became a medic and started his own doc wagon competitor. Last I heard he was still running his company. He also refused cybernetics or bioware (god gave him what he needed) for the most part (he did reluctantly get a datajack and some other small things) and he was mundane. In that group less than 1/2 of us we superhuman in anyway (street sam, shaman, phys adept). The rest of us (demolitionist, decker, face, sneak) had 5 or more essence and were mundane.

[Celt IMC]

I played a muslim character. He was a troll and as part of his background he had tried to go on hajj. Due to racism, he only got as far as the area formerly know as Libya and signed up in the Desert Wars, which is where he learned the skill set to apply as a shadowrunner character. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I lifted the street name Half Hajj from Effinger's When Gravity Fails.

In play I gradually increased his charisma through Charisma stat, Ettiquette skill and bioware. Eventually in a downtime gap in play, I had him complete his hajj, though the street name stuck.

[Sixgun_Sage]

I played a muslim character. He was a troll and as part of his background he had tried to go on hajj. Due to racism, he only got as far as the area formerly know as Libya and signed up in the Desert Wars, which is where he learned the skill set to apply as a shadowrunner character. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I lifted the street name Half Hajj from Effinger's When Gravity Fails.

In play I gradually increased his charisma through Charisma stat, Ettiquette skill and bioware. Eventually in a downtime gap in play, I had him complete his hajj, though the street name stuck.

Very nice, honestly I have... less than healthy respect for Islam thanks to my own experiences (Hey, I soldiered in that particular region, I try to be open minded but there are only so many times a particular group can send you a bullet "express mail" before you start forming an opinion), I did play a pagan that was very carefull about observing the correct holy days according to his specific tradition. Funny thing was he was a sammy. No one ever suspects the guy spouting off about Freya to be packing a cyber shotgun!

[AKWeaponsSpecial...]

Very nice, honestly I have... less than healthy respect for Islam thanks to my own experiences (Hey, I soldiered in that particular region, I try to be open minded but there are only so many times a particular group can send you a bullet "express mail" before you start forming an opinion), I did play a pagan that was very carefull about observing the correct holy days according to his specific tradition. Funny thing was he was a sammy. No one ever suspects the guy spouting off about Freya to be packing a cyber shotgun!

Unless they've played Too Human (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Tyro]

Zoroastrianism works very well for a strongly religious type without getting trite. It teaches that everyone in the world is engaged in a sort of shadow war of order vs. chaos, and that everyone takes part in some way - some people are just more aware of the war than others. I built a Zoroastrian character once, the Behdin Adel - Behdin is a title meaning someone who has been formally inducted into the religion; it translates to "follower of Daena", one translation of which is "good religion". Adel (it means "Righteous" in ancient Persian) is part of a radical Zoroastrian sect which engages in acts of terrorism for the greater good. It isn't about smiting the infidels - it's about punishing evil people for their acts. Much more room for character development.

[Cardul]

Funny thing was he was a sammy. No one ever suspects the guy spouting off about Freya to be packing a cyber shotgun!

I would...Just because she gets half the Honoured Dead for bed partners does not mean that she is not still a warrior goddess like
all the Aesir.

[Sixgun_Sage]

I would...Just because she gets half the Honoured Dead for bed partners does not mean that she is not still a warrior goddess like
all the Aesir.

Why do you think he liked her so much?