Input/Ideas needed for Multiplayer Browser Based Game

[Tiberius]

Nice one. Keep them coming, lots of great ideas!

[Angrboda]

"It's a big world, but I wouldn't want to paint it."

[Ben Davis]

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For those who can't remember back to April last year, I'm currently writing this: https://atheistforums.org/thread-32868.html

The basic idea is you create a religion, and use various techniques / strategies to gain followers, generate money, and of course, destroy as many rival religions as you possibly can.

I've been working on and off since that thread, and I'm nearing a point where I want to start alpha testing. Most of the game mechanics are in place, however the "content" of the game is currently pretty sparse, especially in one of the core mechanics: Doctrines.

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As your religion grows, you will be required to make decisions on certain doctrinal issues, which range from the very basic "How many Gods exist?" to the more complex "Does your religion support the marriage between humans and dogs?" (for example).

How you decide these issues will very much shape how your religion grows, and will also unlock other issues for you to decide. What I really need at the moment are a bunch of creative ideas for doctrine issues, along with possible positions, which is why I created this thread.

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So please have a think, and post as many multiple choice issues as you can think of. You can be as sensible or as bizarre as you like, and remember that issues might only apply to certain types of religion (for instance, if you make an "atheistic" religion, no doctrines about "God" or "Gods" will ever show up, but rather there should be plenty of philosophical and ethical questions.

The positions available don't have to be simple either (although "Yes" / "No" is fine in some circumstances), so if you want to be creative with the positions as well as the issues themselves, feel free.

Anyone who contributes doctrines which make it into the game will be compensated with in-game credit when it is released, and are also welcome to join the alpha testing when that happens (hopefully soon).

Thanks!

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Are you asking us to design an objective morality?!

[Jackalope]

If I can't have a religion that has completely contradictory tenets, I'm not playing.

[Tiberius]

If I can't have a religion that has completely contradictory tenets, I'm not playing.

I'm sure I'll be able to involve that aspect somehow.

[downbeatplumb]

Does your religion:
Embrace technology and science incorporating it into its faith (think the Foundation series take on this)
Reject technology and science
is neutral to either or both.

[FebruaryOfReason]

I think the content of your doctrines is less important than how they are defended. The history of the Catholic church shows us that you can make up any old rubbish as long as you have enough power.

For example, the Catholic Church was nurturing ideas of Papal infallibility comparatively soon after there were three Popes, a Pope who was a woman and they had to unelect her sharpish when they found out, and a Pope who held orgies where he rode prostitutes around like donkeys.

I would say that being able to protect flawed doctrines from criticism is a measure of the success of your player's religion. On a more basic level, this goes for faith in general too.

Sorry, I don't have any practical ideas about how you could implement this. A career in the Church beckons me!

[ApeNotKillApe]

Have you considered the possibility of religious schisms? Say, for example, a splinter faction breaks off from the central doctrine, composed of similar strengths and differing attributes, basically mixing up the player's created religion in interesting ways and pitting it against them.

[Jackalope]

Can haz inquisitions?

[Tiberius]

Have you considered the possibility of religious schisms? Say, for example, a splinter faction breaks off from the central doctrine, composed of similar strengths and differing attributes, basically mixing up the player's created religion in interesting ways and pitting it against them.

Perhaps in a later update. It might be a good idea for a "random" event.

Most of the "fighting" takes place between the players, rather than in-fighting.