This past spring I recorded a podcast pilot episode that captured an interreligious dialogue between myself (a Lutheran Christian) and a reform Jew. We think it went pretty well, so we’ve released it to the world and have made plans to make it a monthly offering. You can now check out the Roll for Joycast on all the podcatcher apps like Spotify or over on YouTube!

We used the opportunity to chat about pluralism and interfaith relations in the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. We examined the problems with how fantasy religions are typically portrayed in our storytelling and gaming, specifically their penchant for dehumanization. Then we engaged in theopoetical creation by imagining different ways of designing faith traditions for our games and stories, guided by a post-colonialist approach and the shared concept of Imago Dei, understood as the dignity and holiness of all human life.

In starting a podcast, it was important to me to find a recording partner who grounds themselves in a faith tradition other than my own, and also to include in our conversation considerations of the writings of faith traditions from across the globe. I wanted to show that we can engage across religious difference in a humanizing rather than a dehumanizing way. The point of it all is to improve ourselves, both in our imaginative play worlds and in our very real lives.

For this episode, we looked at the ways in which the published worlds of Dungeons & Dragons present the concepts of faith. As an imaginative fantasy roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons has a variety of worlds in which the players’ characters might explore in search of adventure. Some of these worlds include Krynn, the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, or Greyhawk. In each of these worlds, supernatural reality is presented as a loose pantheon of gods, where “A multitude of deities rule the various aspects of existence, variously cooperating with and competing against one another to administer the affairs of the universe” (2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide). Worldbuilding for these imagined faith traditions begins with the delineation of the deities in these pantheons, along with their associated portfolios and domains such as life, war, storms, nature, or knowledge. Within these pantheons, subsets of the gods named are classified as “evil” or “monstrous” deities. Players can choose characters who specialize in one of these domains and thus be associated with the worship of a particular deity. Characters are generally expected to choose good or neutral gods, while the evil or monstrous gods are reserved for the enemies of the campaign.

But doing religion in this way creates problems. The first problem is that by defining reality according to a pantheon of gods, the driving conflict of the story often devolves into religious warfare against the monstrous other whom the non-monstrous heroes feel justified in killing and taking their possessions. Even when games are not set out to be games of religious warfare, they inevitably end up being stories about the conflict of gods as the conflicts grow in scope and power. By defining religion according to the deities worshipped, which are really representations of the Platonic ideals of the domains which these deities oversee, D&D adventure settings set up arguments for the right and duty of the conquest, subjugation, and even elimination of the “dark side” of the continuum by the “light side”. Just as the history of the use of religion as a justification for colonialism shows a pattern of dehumanization followed by subjugation or massacre, so too do the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons encourage the practice of dehumanization of other intelligent and rational beings through the justification of their status as killable enemies through their association with an evil or monstrous deity.

The second problem with this presentation of religious truth is that it grants the players few opportunities to practice dialogue across religious differences about competing truth claims. While in the real world there is a need for interreligious understanding among confessional traditions who make competing claims on ultimate truth, this is not so in the imagine worlds of Dungeons & Dragons where deities and their followers are defined by much more limited truths. This leads players to play religious characters in a world which is actually pretty alien to real-world religious practitioners.

In our discussion we then engaged in some game design theopoetics, where we sought to express our shared faith convictions around imago dei through the practice of imaginative worldbuilding. Imago dei served as a touchpoint between our Jewish and Christian traditions, coming from Genesis 1:27 where all of humankind is made in the image of God. Imago dei is a firm grounding of divine dignity for all people. With that grounding value of humanization, we then approached the task of imaginative worldbuilding through a post-colonial bottom-up look at experiential forms of religious tradition that better capture the organic, fluid and dynamic reality of religion at a personal and social level.

Traditions can be defined by a core motivation, a unifying theme, potential domains of influence, and some key practices. This is a move away from the traditional focus on religious truth through a firm delineation of the pantheon of deities and their respective portfolios. Worldbuilding this way leaves room for humility and doubt on the part of the players and the characters. One of the key ingredients in a productive and ethical engagement across religious differences is the presence of humility. Humility that I don’t know all there is to know. Humility that my way is not necessarily the only way. Humility that some existential or religious questions will never be answered on this side of the mortal coil.

By engaging in worldbuilding from a post-colonialist perspective, we also allow for the creation of an experience of play that better mirrors our real-world reality. This allows for the practice of engagement across religious differences. It also moves the action out of the supernatural realm and back into the mortal realm. Evil plots are hatched by misguided people and organizations, not supreme deities. There is still conflict and challenge, but not in a way that encourages vast generalizations and the dehumanization of entire communities of people.