Posts Tagged roleplaying games

By Katherine Cross • 9 years ago

Pathfinder roleplaying game adds another trans woman to canon

Paizo’s Pathfinder roleplaying game continues to harness the imaginations of its many writers to fantastic effect. Back in July, Paizo released a new, updated “Harrow” card deck accessory for the game. Harrow is basically tarot but transposed to the fictional fantasy setting of Golarion, with unique art, symbolism, lore, and rules. The divination deck is a thing of beauty and one of the most imaginative accessories appended to any roleplaying game that I’ve seen in a while. Kyle Hunter’s artwork is breathtaking and haunting, with touches of Kafka and Dali, a Gothic mixture of the morbid and the absurd.

But of special interest was the recent revelation about an interesting addition to the lore. Sonnorae, the ancient mystic who created the ...

Paizo’s Pathfinder roleplaying game continues to harness the imaginations of its many writers to fantastic effect. Back in July, Paizo released a new, updated “Harrow” card deck accessory for the game. Harrow is basically tarot but transposed ...
By Katherine Cross • 10 years ago

A song of faith and sexual fire: How roleplaying game religions work as moral tools

When one grows up in a traditionalist household, which only ever admitted spirituality of the most reactionary and narrow sort, it is easy to see faith as a rusted chain keeping your head forcibly turned to the leaping shadows of Plato’s cave. My resentment at my Roman Catholic upbringing boiled over into unchecked rage against any and all people of faith, who I blamed for various and sundry ills—like Richard Dawkins, I saw in religion the “root of all evil.” For 18-year-old me, newly flush with age-of-majority status, I celebrated my newfound freedom by ditching the faith of my upbringing and ruthlessly scorning any people of faith as “ignorant” and “backward” people barring the way to true freedom.

People ...

When one grows up in a traditionalist household, which only ever admitted spirituality of the most reactionary and narrow sort, it is easy to see faith as a rusted chain keeping your head forcibly turned to the ...