Hey everyone!

So I'm currently GMing my first Campaign (First time doing D&D at all honestly). One of my players decided to make a religion, he is converting people left and right.

Its been enjoyable so far so I've allowed it. We've converted politicians, police chiefs, and even a Jedi Padawan. At first I didn't understand how to set the difficulty for this scenario, but after the second session I started making the system more balanced in terms of difficulty.

The group got captured and imprisoned on a Sith battle cruiser. When an imperial officer came to question the group the PC attempted to convert the officer, unfortunately for the PC the imperial officer was already a follower of "Muk' Duk". The PC's response was great,

*nasally voice*

"Well I've done all I can do."

We're all new to D&D and its been fun, our group is about 9 players; I really want to know your thoughts, and help me on this journey.

Attached is a jpeg that the PC drew.

Thanks!!

Um, what are you actually wanting from us? If you are wanting advice on how to flesh out the religion, we need details on what it is.

There would need to be a bit more information to help you there. Also a more clear question would be helpful.

Anyway, great that you're having fun with tabletop role-playing. It's a pretty fun hobby, 9 players is quite a bit to tackle as your first group though. Trying to stick to the rules in the book is probably a good guideline to have early on. Takes a bit of experience and testing things before you can really start changing things.

On 11/5/2018 at 10:22 AM, KungFuFerret said:

Um, what are you actually wanting from us? If you are wanting advice on how to flesh out the religion, we need details on what it is.

Yes, how to flesh out the religion would be really helpful!

His religious teachings preach warnings
-Teachings of the ground Serpent
-One must live a simple life to avoid strife
-No fornication
-Convert as many as possible
-Death brings salvation to all

As of right now, this is the extent of what we have on the religion. I'm trying to help him, "Flesh it out" but we keep going toward Death brings salvation over and over. So some fresh advice to go beyond just killing off the people he converts to his cause, because so far he converts them then they off themselves at the earliest convenience..

The best idea for an encounter I came up with is he left a diplomat on Taris when escaping. Whenever they come back to Taris, the diplomat has converted everyone to the Religion. All the unbelievers are being forcibly turned into Rakghouls, the goal of the diplomat is to convert the galaxy by force. The diplomat is basically making a crusade against the unbelievers..

(Because the PC didn't really explain all the commandments to the 'Disciple' the diplomat twisted the teachings)

On 11/5/2018 at 10:38 AM, Darth Revenant said:

There would need to be a bit more information to help you there. Also a more clear question would be helpful.

Anyway, great that you're having fun with tabletop role-playing. It's a pretty fun hobby, 9 players is quite a bit to tackle as your first group though. Trying to stick to the rules in the book is probably a good guideline to have early on. Takes a bit of experience and testing things before you can really start changing things.

Hello!

basically all the info for this is above. Everyone is really enjoying it so far, I had 4 the first session. By the second session more people heard and wanted to play, I honestly didn't mean to have this many people! lol

The third session we had about 6 so it went alot smoother that time. We have another one planned for next weekend so I still have some time.

1 hour ago, TigerCadet said:

Yes, how to flesh out the religion would be really helpful!

His religious teachings preach warnings
-Teachings of the ground Serpent
-One must live a simple life to avoid strife
-No fornication
-Convert as many as possible
-Death brings salvation to all

Well, some of those teachings are contradictory in my eyes, but that's pretty standard for religious mandates, so I guess it's representative of a real religion

2 hours ago, TigerCadet said:

-Teachings of the ground Serpent
-One must live a simple life to avoid strife

Why is strife bad in the eyes of the Serpent? Serpents are predators, so the idea of avoiding strife seems a bit contrary to the symbolic animals nature.

2 hours ago, TigerCadet said:

-No fornication

Why? Very few real world religions promote no sex, because they generally want their followers to breed, and thus bring more people into the religion, and thus get more money from their minions. I'm not saying nobody does the abstinence faith, they do exist, but they are the rarer breed out there. By definition, it tends to limit their own members, and are always forced to look to the outside to replenish their ranks.

2 hours ago, TigerCadet said:

-Convert as many as possible

Pretty standard, but why does the Serpent want/need as many as possible? What is the Serpents goal/desire for these followers? Is he trying to save them from an uncaring galaxy, by promising a paradise in the afterlife? Some kind of resurrection/recycle kind of thing, like the shedding of the snake's skin (this mortal coil shall be shed, to allow for a new body, a greater body! kind of logic) ? There has to be a reason, other than just "we like big numbers"

2 hours ago, TigerCadet said:

-Death brings salvation to all

This might be a semantic detail, but when you say "to all", do you mean that salvation comes, even to those not in the religion? If so, then why would conversion even be a mandate? Why not just kill them all and let the Serpent God sort them out? I'm not trying to be flippant here, I'm genuinely wanting clarification on the reason for this statement. If salvation comes to all in Death, then it would be more likely that this would become some kind of Murder Cult, and membership wouldn't be a big drive, killing would be. If salvation only comes to those in the faith, then this line would make more sense (and would justify trying to get people in, by duping them into thinking that is the only way to salvation, a popular tactic with religions).

This sounds like some Dark side inspired religion, given the bullet points when taken together.