Am I the only one who would love a Narnia RPG? Would love it to be as general as possible, of course.
I know Narnia only at the cultural level. I tried reading one. Apparently Iām allergic to purple.
I doubt you would be the only one. I believe that C.S. Lewis has an estate as litigious as J.R.R Tolkien. And to my mind for less reason. Most of his heavy religious stuff is heavy. Even Narnia does not escape the allegory anvil.
However it is popular. Pick a system you like. I found poster maps of Narina in five seconds. I also found a Narnia RPG, apparently in German, and a PS5 game. I said it was popular.
You are not the only one. I have been hoping for a Narnia RPG as well. One where even the other races and animals could be characters. I even thought of doing a set of VTT tokens based on the movie imagery, but I wasnāt sure of its reception, same as you.
Been on a bit of a Narnia kick for a couple days. To the point I had to dig out the movies and start watching them again. Even have a book that delves into the āreligiosityā of the books that I am rereading. Iāve always (at least since I was introduced to the world within the past 2 decades or so, whenever the first movie came out, and read the books afterward) been kind of surprised there hasnāt been a game. Granted, he pulled from a bunch of different mythos to create his own mythos and world, but a little surprised nothing has been created. Have just felt thereās enough there to create a game. And I would agree that it would be cool to see the other creatures as PCs.
The biggest problem that Narnia faced is that most gamers who are secular disregard that world because of its Christian undertones, and some Christians (unfortunately) view fantasy and science fiction in low esteem, to say the least. I would have thought that the Narnia world would have been perfect for the āHero Kidsā rpg to explore, but Iām pretty sure that rpgās creators are secular as well. It doesnāt stop one, however from using a system like Savage Worlds to do their own conversion and release an e-book.
Undertones, overtones, midtones. Lewis is pretty heavy handed. As to those Christians that disapprove of Fantasy, they donāt play RPGs either. So not a market.
The main thing stopping a Narnia homebrew is the frontloading for the Gamemaster. I donāt know how many unique creatures Narnia possesses. If Lewis grabbed from myth and ledgend to build his world the Gamemaster can do likewise. It make him no worse than TSR.
I would play in a Narnia game but I wouldnāt want to run one. Iād feel too confined by the setting. Iāve started running the new Dragonlance adventure and I was hesitant with that because I donāt know the world that well.
Which is why the game belongs to you. I understand wanting to be true to the source materiel. But the game is still yours.
Narnia would be a great setting, not only from the anthropomorphic animals angle, but also the āland of childish imaginationā point of view. It could easily be adapted from D&D 5E, or another system like GURPS or Savage Worlds. In fact, the latter might be a good fit for something like Narnia.
Iām going to go out on a limb and say that Christians that enjoy the Narnia books arenāt the same Christians that disapprove of fantasy. Or the ones that enjoy Tolkien, who infused his works with Christian themes.
I get that. Fantasy and science fiction games in particular, I would rather create my own setting than use a pre-made one.
Within reason. My Father is a old Fundie, he has read both. Does he ālikeā the genres in general? No, he once called Star Trek a religion, But Tolkien and Lewis are āsafeā. Iām quite sure I could safely trash Fundies here without contradiction, save that I was trashing someone. They will not be found playing RPGs and if they do, are they Fundies?
The cognitive dissonance is stunning.