Greetings all,

I doubt I am the first to realise this, but after just reading the Intro to the first adventure in Purge the Unclean, I am confronted with the rather blatant rehash of the Scientologists in the form of the Joyous Choir.

This leads me to two questions:

a) How acceptable do you guys feel about such blatant remaskings? (I.e. are you alright with real world issues being rehashed for games?)

and b) Do you do this? And if so, how often, and in what capacity?

I used to do this regularly with WFRP. Any topic of interest I would give an Old World bent to (for instance, the players once assisted in the Popular Revolution in Kislev lead by Learin Manx (a mix between Lennin and Marx) towards a more communist state. My players LOVED the Warhammer version of the Russian Revolution and urged me to do further historical rehashings, although the campaign had to be cut short due to unforeseen problems before I got the chance).

So please! If you have a "yes" answer to either of the above two, please give me your ideas for such 40k versions of real world events!

I do not think that the Joy-Boys are specifically "Scientologist". The resemblence to them is that vague, I think one could find a lot of similiarties with many a "positive life gurus & sects"...if you one would be more familiar with those. The -S- are just those most prominently known.

Back2Topic:
The oil spill from the "Deep Water Horizon" enspired me to use environmental damage due to unsafe techniques as a backdrop for another adventure of mine (which I never finished). The overall damage done to the Ecco-System was just a backdrop, so. The world was formerly declared for agri-use (Fish-farming), but after a later survey discovered rich sources of substances that could be used for fuel, the Administratum changed the designation of the world. Due to the damage to the enviroment, the "first wave settlers" lost a lot and where now reduced to simple works in depth to the oil rig guilds. Later disappearances of Oil Rig Crews are believed to be revolution.

My first mission involved Acolytes investigating a Bernie Madoff-style Ponzi scheme (that was secretly being used to fund a Chaos cult...).

The Joyous Choir are TOTALLY Scientologists, right down to the blatant smiling lies and the DERPy e-meters! My group had so much fun unearthing their BS and eventually (after a sequel adventure) having the entire cult declared heretics and excommunicated.

I would say the 40k universe is not the place to be touchy about... well, anything, really. They 9the fiction writers) have created what amounts to a horrible existence for most of humanity, mostly spurred on by a religion, which only exists because of an atheist crusade and purging of all religion leading up to the Horus Heresy. And the more interesting part is pretty much everybody was/is at least somewhat justified in their belief. These kinds of philosophical issues are just part of the setting. I personally love 'grey areas' in my fiction - which is why I can't f#*&ing stand Avatar.

Having said that, there is a kind of 'general philosophy' to the previous material - no specific philosophies mentioned, no groups maligned. The 'Joyous Choir' seems to do precisely that. I could easily see some room for getting offended if I were a Scientologist. I'm not, but I could see it.

cobrausn said:

Fortunately for all our sensibilities, Scientologists are encouraged to cut ties with all non-cult members, so you are unlikely to have a problem like this crop up at your table. Likewise, there is a long standing tradition amongst sci-fi writers to more or less openly mock Scientology in their works, in no small part due to the cult's origin of a BET between L. Ron Hubbard and Isaac Asimov that Hubbard could not invent a religion...

Please note that I am NOT mocking religion! Quite the opposite, actually. Money-grabbers and pedophiles should be mocked and ridiculed openly when they hide behind faith and make everyone else look bad. Baruch atah Adonai!

ZillaPrime said:

You are quite right, but some people don't particularly care for open mockery of any group. I feel particularly bad about Scientology because... well... I feel bad for those who buy into it, probably because it fulfills some deep seated need to belong. But I guess the cult of the 'Joyous Choir' are presented as they are, and it is up to the players to determine how they interact with it. One of the many reasons I still prefer pen and paper RPGs - I'm not restricted to the 'I'm a saint' choice and the 'I'm a complete dickhead' choice. I get all that nice grey area to maneuver in.

Please let it be known that my mentioning it is a blatant Scientology jab was not intended to say "I am hurt that they offended me" (because I am neither a Scientologist, nor someone who even thinks such a religion (or any organised religion, really, should exist) but I am also not saying "Hahaha! Lets be mean to theists in our gaming!" as I play along side a Christian, and some of our best games have come from him using his real world faith as a sort of stand point for his roleplaying, as well as allowing me to explore the concept of lost faith in the game world with him (luckily he is very open about this sort of stuff, so he doesn't mind going into these areas, for he is very much of the conviction that what happens IN A GAME is JUST A GAME. The way it bloody well should be.)

Anyway, CONTINUE WITH YOUR HISTORICAL GAMING MOMENTS!