I had an idea about an RPG based on the end times. it starts out right after the abomination of desolation. The object would be to get past all the plagues that occur, defeat demons and false prophetss and eventually defeat the Antichrist at the Battle of Armageddon. Here''s how it goes: You (and your party) would be a few (say 4 or 5) of the sealed 144,000. The game starts out at the abomination of desolation (when the Antichrist defiles the temple), and you receive God''s seal on your forehead. You are traveling to jerusalem to fight the battle of Armageddon against the Antichrist and his little stooges. It will take you 3.5 years to get there (what a coincidence). The game will take place over a period of 3.5 years. Of course, most will be on horseback or foot, as the entire world will be in utter ruins and modern luxuries such as gasoline and electricity will be unavailable. Along the way, you encounter false prophets (and perhamps demons)and will have to defeat them. The idea of spells (from the enemies) would actually be realistic in this context (false prophets will perform miraculous signs). You may be called to fight other miscellaneous wars and battles along the way. Also, you will have to dodge the plagues that will occur during this period of time, meant for the unbeleivers. Although you are sealed from them, watch your seal meter! If it runs out, you will be no longer sealed and the plagues can affect you (and perhaps kill you) until you refill your seal meter (not sure how this will work yet, but probably something to due with faith, or lack thereof.) The plagues to watch out for are as follows (probably out of order, I''ll need to study up a little bit): fire, sea contamination, meteors, locusts, hail, death, war, intense scroching from the sun, more hail, among other things. Aside from your weapon arsenal, you will be able to use spells yourself by calling on the two witnesses to help you. They will be your informal guides, helping you get to Jerusalem, for after their time is up, you will be the most powerful group in opposition to antichrist, and you will need to be present at the battle of Armageddon. They will talk to you telepathically and give you power to perform spells along the way. They will not hurt you if your seel runs out, but can''t help you then either. The final battle of the game will be your party against the antichrist. You cannot defeat him yourself, but after, say, you take out a certain amount of his HP, then Jesus will come back and throw him into the abyss. Then you win the game. Sound good? (for those who are religiously knowledgeable enough to even reply?)

Not sure exactly what you looking for, but...

Any time you mention religion, you''re gonna be open for controversy. You''re gonna get complaints from a couple of people. One''s gonna say that he ain''t religious, you shouldn''t use your game to push your message on him and it pisses him off. Well, it''s your game, they ain''t gotta play.

The other''s gonna say that they''re religious and the game''s too dark, all kinds of killing and demons and dark imagery, or they gonna say that it trivializes the religion by turning it into a game. Again, it''s your game, they ain''t gotta play.

Games need a story from someplace. Religion seems as valid a place to draw a story as any. If you''d like to play a game like this, go ahead and make it and don''t worry about pissin'' people off. You ain''t going to be the only one that''ll want to play it, there''ll be others. Just sos you realize you won''t be winning any popularity contests

All that said, I''m not a religious feller and prolly wouldn''t play the game myself

I don''t see why non-religious people (like myself) wouldn''t play and enjoy it. When I read the description I was thinking some kind of Baldur''s Gate meets Fallout.

I think it could work as long as it sticks to traditional RPG (or whatever genre it is..) gameplay methods.
Keep the unique elements like the seal and setting but don''t try to reinvent stuff. For example, that two witnesses thing looks a little shifty. Not sure how that would work out...

Actually, that sounds like a cool game. That is actually a popular subject. Have you heard about the Left Behind series? I haven''t read any of them, but they don''t seem to want for readers.

Anyway, about two subjects, the seal meter and the witnesses. I was thinking, maybe build the seal meter as the game progresses. The game would be more interesting if you didn''t start out a saint; it would be more like most biblical stories too. As far as the witnesses, you could probably have more divine intervention than that. If not, than don''t involve the witnesses in the gameplay. Not that I''m suggesting you remove them, but they''d only be important as plot devices. A better idea from a gameplay point of view is either have a normal magic system (just using a religious explination as to where it came from), or an "esper" system ala FF6 or Golden Sun (hence the need for more than just the two witnesses).

Of course, this is just a thought. If you don''t like it, ignore it

I think you guys left out a response to a game like this:
"hey, why cant i play the anti-christ?!"

Anyway, as others mentioned earlier, dont worry about pissing people off, unless you want to make money on the game
I dont think a game with such a story would ever really become a big seller(because it would piss people off).

Personally, i dont think i would play it, because i think most of the myths in christianity are quite boring compared to other religions. Secondly i dont really know anything about armageddon in christianity, all i know is what ive learned from movies

quote: Original post by e4


Aside from your weapon arsenal, you will be able to use spells yourself by calling on the two witnesses to help you. They will be your informal guides, helping you get to Jerusalem, for after their time is up, you will be the most powerful group in opposition to antichrist, and you will need to be present at the battle of Armageddon. They will talk to you telepathically and give you power to perform spells along the way. They will not hurt you if your seel runs out, but can''t help you then either.

A lot of people religious enough to play this game will have problems with this. ''Magic'' is _not_ performed by anyone who''s folowing Christian tenets, and even Miracles are dogmatically reserved for saints under Catholic rules. If you want to keep a consistent (and accurate) theme, you''ll have to reserve this kind of stuff strictly for the enemies.

I agree with the AP. In the Christian faith, (real)magic is ONLY performed by Satanists and devil-worshippers. Instead, I think that instead of having spells the characters cast, you should have the characters offer up some prayer to God, and when the prayer reaches him, he will bestow on them te effect desired(or smite their enemies ).

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If someone asks you "A penny for your thoughts" and you put your two cents in, do you get change?

Personally, I think that if you do decide to add all these elements, you should make it non-specific. Make it more fantasy. Instead of saying they''re the ''End times like it says in the bible'' make it like "the Ancient prophecy decrees that the great war is coming." And don''t make any references to biblical stuff directly. Name Jesus something like "The Martyr" or "The ancient messenger." Basically make it not look like Christian. If you don''t think it can be done, read CS Lewis'' books. Myself, I''m not a christian, I''m not even religious, but I enjoyed his books. I think I would be annoyed with the christian overtones, as a lot of the time this religion is being pushed at me. I think I would stop playing it after 5 minutes. If you made it more fantasy like, and not so biblical, then it''d work.

That''s just my opinion! =D

-=Lohrno

I think there is difinitly a HUGE market out there for religious games, in fact me and a friend were talking about this exact same thing yesterday (Christian Games) and your rpg idea has alot of really innovative ideas when it comes to adapting the tenets of christianity to the genre (rpg in this case). But I think there are two types of potential christian gamers out there; 1. totally nonviolent parent types who what to shelter there kids from the world (HomeSchoolers) 2. Somewhat more dodgy as-it-suits-me christians who don''t really care about violence and what not and play mainstream games anyway. For the second group I don''t think the fact that your party uses magic would offend them. As long as you use a logical workaround; like it IS the end times and they are the ANNOINTED so yeah, god gives them that privilege. The first group probably wouldn''t touch your game anyway.

COMING SOON:

PAC-MANNA!

Trapped in the desert for 40 years Pac Manna must gobble up all the mana he can find before the the evil userers repos'' his car!

no offesne but forget about it.
check the numbers, only a select handful of religous people play these games, and virtually no non-religous people... although there was this one i played, just because i could play as the evil side... i''ll find you the name if you like