First Post an Introduction to the Plan

So I'm a geek.

With that out of the way if you found your way here you probably are too so lets dive in. I am trying to run a Dungeons and Dragons game for some kids at my local synagogue and I plan on using this blog to document both the research and preparation that goes into this as well as the game itself. The goal here is to combine the rules and world of (or one similar to) that of D & D with Jewish learning.

To begin I contacted a few people on twitter who had come up when I googled this subject. Matthue Roth was the number one hit and he helped get me started with a few suggestions. From there I went to Wizards of the Coast and found no forum postings on the subject, thus I started one of my own which I will link here.

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/29441227/Combining_D__D_with_religious_learning

So far I've had some really great comments and ideas and I hope more are forth coming. I currently have the Players Handbook and other books for 3.5 but may be picking up 4.0 depending on how things go.

Ultimately I would like to find a way to seamlessly incorporate iconic stories, characters and moral lessons from the Old Testament with the fictional world my game will take place in.

One of the first issues that occurs to me is figuring out what to do with the Pantheon. This is an issue I brought up directly with the head of the Hebrew school and the Rebitzen as I could imagine them taking an interest in how this is dealt with.

Some options on how to deal with this have occurred to me but I'm definitely looking to explore this more. One scenario would be to take the D&D pantheon and add the Jewish G-d to it. Another would be to make the world monotheistic in fact but have the pantheon exist as a series of incorrect beliefs held by the vast majority of the world. I think that removing the pantheon all together would not be ideal as the way in which we deal with other religions (as a vessel to provide contrast to our own), and the way in which we deal with those who believe in them on a daily basis, can provide some very important lessons.

There is work to be done, please feel free to comment on any of this on the Wizards of the Coast thread or you can hit me up on twitter, I'll be using @AristaqisDM for this project.