The Mormon in Me

FYI, I'm a Mormon. And not a lapsed Mormon, neither; I go to the services and follow the rules. I only mention this in the interests of full disclosure and to discuss the ways Mormonism has (and hasn't) influenced my game design.

The Basics
Everyone should know at least this much about Mormonism, especially if the rest of this post is going to make sense:

• Mormonism is a restorationist Christian denomination founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. in Palmyra, New York. The Church today is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah and has over 14 million members, most of them outside the USA.
• Smith translated The Book of Mormon, a volume of scripture similar to The Bible which details the history of a small group of Israelites who escaped the Babylonian captivity and were guided by God to the Americas where they practiced Christianity long before the Columbian Exchange. The Book of Mormon is also the source of our charming nickname.
• The official name of the Church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The main office is very insistent about people using the correct form, but most members self-identify as 'Mormons' and don't mind being labeled as such, as long as they aren't conflated with polygamist splinter sects.
• Smith was assassinated in 1844 and Brigham Young led the remaining Church members across the plains to settle in the Salt Lake Valley.
• Other Mormon beliefs are easily summed up in the Articles of Faith (relax, there are only 13). Particularly germane to this discussion are #7 (Mormons believe in spiritual gifts, manifestations, and miracles in modern times, not just in the Bible) and #11 (Mormons are big fans of religious freedom and believe all religions have some spiritual truth to them).

Mormons and Gaming
Like many other conservative Christians, many Mormons were concerned about the supposed spiritual and psychological dangers of role-playing games reported in the 1970's and 80's. Some Mormon parents bought into the hysteria and forbade their children from playing RPGs, but to the best of my knowledge there was never any Church-wide policy or statement about them.

I was introduced to RPGs by guys from my church, and perhaps 80% of the people I've gamed with were other Mormons. While I was attending Brigham Young University I learned that just under half of the men (all LDS) in my apartment complex participated in RPGs of some kind, which, a, made for a pretty awesome neighborhood, but, b, must have been some kind of anomaly because while role-playing had a significant presence in the (almost entirely Mormon) student body, it wasn't as ubiquitous as all that.

The only other Mormon RPG designer (that I know of) is Jacob Norwood (at least I think he's Mormon; I met him at BYU), author of The Riddle of Steel. Like Stone, Steel, and Steam, TRoS isn't overtly Mormon, but if you're listening for it, you can pick up a couple of Mormonesque turns of phrase and philosophical principles.

Mormon Influences in Stone, Steel, and Steam
I didn't set out to write a Mormon game; it's not like I wrote Neppites & Nephilim (though, now that I'm thinking about it...). A person is more likely to convert to Mormonism reading Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People than playing Stone, Steel, and Steam. Nevertheless, there are several significant Mormon threads in the tapestry of my life and storytelling style, and they'll show up in my game design.

Setting

Most Mormons think of the events in The Book of Mormon as happening in an ancient Mesoamerican setting, and early Church history takes place in 19th Century frontier America. Most Christians' religious history looks like The Ten Commandments and The Greatest Story Ever Told. What Mormons get in Sunday School is like The Ten Commandments and The Greatest Story Ever Told, plus The Emperor's New Groove and How the West Was Won. What this means is that the 19th Century has a kind of familiar, mythic quality for me and may have influenced my decision to make 1860's tech the high mark for my adventure fantasy setting. Super Trivia: Arnold Friberg, the painter who did a lot of concept art and set design for The Ten Commandments, is a Mormon and also did a series of paintings of scenes from The Book of Mormon.

Place Names and Civilizations

Nahom and Zarahemla are place names in The Book of Mormon. Mangle the vowels a little bit, spell some things backward, and you've got Nehoms, Elmes, and 'Harazi. The Elme/'Haraz civilization in particular is strongly modeled after Book of Mormon civilizations: Israelites in Mesoamerica >> jungle-dwelling quasi-Zoroastrian pseudo-Mesopotamian-styled fantasy analogue culture (granted, there aren't a lot of well-developed, well-documented sedentary stone tech cultures - almost anything I drew on for inspiration had either Toltec or Sumerian written all over it).

Exodus

While Exodus is not an exclusively Mormon theme, it is echoed repeatedly in Mormon lore and history. Moses led the Israelites out of hostile and corrupt Egypt to found a spiritual society in the wilderness; similarly Lehi in The Book of Mormon and Brigham Young in the 1840's led their people out of known civilization to a 'promised land.' This trope is also behind Puritan and Amish migrations, and is the inspiration behind the Nehom exodus from Marym.

Oaths and Second Generation Warriors

About halfway through The Book of Mormon, a major war breaks out between two nations. Even if you're not religious or have a particular dislike for Mormons, it's a pretty good read. Among the most impressive events:

• In one of the early battles, the commander of the defeated Lamanites is offered terms of surrender contingent on his vowing to never again war against the Nephites. Even though outnumbered and surrounded, he refuses to take an oath he knows he intends to break.
• A group of barbaric Lamanites convert to Christianity and, in penance for their lives of slaughter, vow never to take up arms again, even at the expense of their own lives.
• Later on, the children of the converted Lamanites take up arms on the side of the Nephite coalition, and can get away with this because they were too young to take the oath when their parents converted.

Though obsession with honor is a common trait in all Proud Warrior Race Guys and I wasn't explicitly thinking about Lamanites when I created the Araleans, I needed a reason for a complex and tense relationship between the Taksans and the Araleans. I wanted there to be a sharp contrast between Araleans under colonial rule and those still free, but if the Taksans were too strong and aggressive, it would put them into the 'obviously evil' category. Cooking up a complex honor code and system of oaths was a convenient fix, which I only now realize makes the Araleans a dark reflection of the Sons of Helaman.

Technology

Even though primarily a religious text, The Book of Mormon narrative offers occasional glimpses into the technological advances of the Nephites and Lamanites over the course of their civilization. At first, Nephite agriculture and written language allows them to develop technological superiority, and they win some battles primarily because they have better armor and fortifications, but the less civilized Lamanites soon copy these technologies. Improvements in construction materials, shipbuilding, and navigation are also mentioned. A lot of young people (like my students) seem to be under the impression that people didn't start 'inventing' things until the 20th Century and aren't really exposed to the history of technology until high school, but I was learning about how technology shapes a civilization's values as well as their capabilities from a very young age (this could also be attributed to having awesome parents, not just my religious background).

Spiritual Magic

I discussed this before in A Question of Magic: I believe that the supernatural is active and present in real life. Miracles in The Bible, The Book of Mormon, modern LDS history, and my own spiritual experiences are only rarely of the 'parting the Red Sea/raising of the dead' variety. They're mostly visions and prophecies, healing of the sick, unusual insight into human behavior, religious conversion, and guidance to food an water in the wilderness - stuff that could be supernatural, or could be just luck. Of course, I stripped it down and made it a secular magic/psionic system, both for refuge in theological neutrality and to avoid being blasphemous. But the "aesthetic", if I can call it that, of magic that's nearly invisible, that people can dismiss and disbelieve in even after watching it happen, is strongly influenced by my Mormon upbringing.

Stone, Steel, and Steam Immunities to Mormonism
Even though the game discusses in-world religion quite a bit, [I think] I left it very carefully neutral. Each civilization has a distinct religion, but it is up to the players and gamemasters to decide if none, one, some, or all of them are 'true' and what implications that would have for their campaign. There is no mechanic for divine, angelic, demonic or ghostly intervention or manifestation.

None of the game religions is analogous to Mormonism; the design of fantasy religions owes more to my world religions class and my years in Italy and Japan than it does to my Mormon theology. Likewise, none of the fictional religions is intended as a representation of any real-world religion. There are similarities, of course; most religions are variations on just a few base themes and models. All of my fictional cultures are loosely based on hybridizations of real-world civilizations, so why not their religions?

Conclusion/Consequences
Stone, Steel, and Steam was a very personal work. I poured a lot of who I am into it. Not my interest in computers and filmmaking, obviously, but my interest in history, geography, sociology, culture, and what-ifs. My religious background and worldview aren't things I can just switch off or filter out. It's a package deal.

I realize that this confession could poison some people against SSS: people who really hate Mormons, people who really hate religion, and uber-Mormons who think it's wrong of me to crib off elements of the faith.

I would be very interested to learn how other gamers' and designers' experience with RPGs has been affected by their religious background; in fact, I'm trying to think of a good way to survey that as I go back to researching the sociology of RPGs.