As some of you already know I am currently working on a Christian role playing scenario called Ska'Lah'Seh. If any of you have played DnD or other systems a big part of role playing in a number of scenarios is picking what deity your character worships. As Ska'Lah'Seh has only one God that means deity selection is a little scarce, (I wouldn't have it any other way) so I looked for a Christian concept to replace it. The concept of saints and patron saints among Catholics seemed to make a nice fit. (That isn't offensive I hope not.) So I was thinking I could let players pick their patron saint.

So basically what I'm asking is how far should I take this and what all does a patron saint do for someone?

I'm also asking for some ideas for saints preferably inspired by real life saints.

I'd really like it if I could get some posts from actual Catholics as-well. (Do we have any Catholics on this forum?)

(How big this is depends on the DM one is playing under; in my experience it's mainly been just another spot to fill in on the character sheet and nothing more.)

(As a matter of game design, personally I would have just been thankful for the chance to remove it entirely; modern RPGs are very complicated, and in developing a new one it's best to make it as complicated for players as necessary and no more.)

From what I've read in (relatively) early Church history, part of the reason for the reversal of the ban on reverencing of/prayer to/adoration of the saints and images of them was to give newly "converted" pagans (when the chief of a tribe declared that his tribe was now Christian, for example) the "Christian equivalent" of a pantheon. (And in the last half-century or less the Roman Catholic Church finally made some reforms that declared that some "saints," that were probably pagan gods "baptized" in this way, probably never existed and so shouldn't be prayed to.)

If you really want something like this, given that history and my theological objections to the Catholic practice, I'd suggest something like monastic Rules (Benedictine vs. Franciscan, etc.) or even denominations (charismatic vs. liturgical, or even Roman Catholic vs. Eastern Orthodo vs. Lutheran vs. Anglican vs. Calvinist, etc.).


See above for my ideas for alternatives filling almost the same game-design niche. Since I'm not Roman Catholic, if you're set on this idea, I'll simply recommend finding a list of Roman Catholic saints and their ... areas of concern, and choosing those that fit best.

I'm (Roman) Catholic and I have a few favorite saints. St. Joseph of Cupertino, for instance, is the patron saint of struggling students, so before a test I often ask him to pray for me. When I received the sacrament of Confirmation, I chose St. Therese of Lisieux as my patron saint, and so my Confirmation name is Therese. I think there should be plenty of lists of saints online somewhere - I could try to track some down for you. Does that help?

Sure that would be much appreciated. I'll look for some myself.

Here are a couple of lists, sorted by subject and including short biographies of the saints:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Feature ... trons.aspx
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/patron00.htm
(There's even a patron saint for authors, Francis de Sales!)

I also searched for people's favorite saints, which was interesting, since the same names came up a lot (Mary and Joseph, my Therese, and Francis of Assissi (the patron saint of animals)).

Those four make a lot of sense Mary and Joseph, Christ's mother and foster father, along with Theresa, a very modern and relevant saint you could say, and the saint of animals (People love animals). I'll make sure to make room for at least four saints with similar natures.

Furthermore I have a list of five saints already lined up I'm hoping none are too offensive that's why I'm posting them.

St. Sol- The Aldmon and saint associated with the sun, faith, the Kahtan, and often considered the messenger of God.
St. Lun- The Aldmon and saint associated with the moon, the Monan (Elves), the Wolvan, and the passage from life to death.
St. Tar- The Aldmon and saint associated with rocks and stones, Humans and Bro’An (Giants), the Rahtan, and the protection of those who cannot protect themselves.
St. Fugra- The first to offer himself to Yah (God) wholly and completely, Father of the Mon’An and husband to Lun.
St. Lyrous- Patron saint of warriors, and the Difiran (“Dark Elves”), also a patron of talented peoples, and a atron of those who cannot protect themselves.

Note: Aldmon means good spirit or Angel.

Kingjon:

Adoration of saints and images is forbidden.

I'm not aware that there's ever been a ban on veneration of them, but that may be too close to debate territory.

It's been four and a half years since I read whatever it was that gave me that impression (a page at most in passing in a textbook for my History of Christian Theology class), so what I read might have just been talking about the Iconoclast Controversy---I specifically the passage about the reversal of policy mentioning relics. But I'm not sure.

OK. Yes, among the Iconoclasts there was such a ban. That was later, though, and really didn't affect the West at all. Pretty much all Christians subsequent to that considered the Iconoclasts heretics until some time after the Reformation.