The Pilgrim's Progress as RPG

[amethyst73]

I've been listening on and off to Joy Chan's Librivox recording of The Pilgrim's Progress.  It's one of those classics that I never had to read in high school or college, and I'd heard lots of comments about how good her reading is.  I am largely enjoying it, though I have to take breaks every now and then; Bunyan apparently never heard of subtlety, and his lack thereof eventually becomes tiresome.

I listened to Part 1 Eighth Stage on Sunday on my drive home from church.  Every so often, Christian (the main character) does something sort of stupid, but this particular episode took the cake.  He and his companion Hopeful got captured by the Giant Despair and were cast into the dungeon of Castle Doubtful.  This happened because Christian saw a nice, easy-looking path parallel to the currently-rocky Way to the Celestial City, and after failing a Wisdom check and winning a Contest of Skill (Fast-Talk versus Hopeful's Intelligence), convinced his buddy that it would be just fine if they walked on the nice easy-looking path instead.  It turned out to be not such a hot idea.  You also see what I mean about a certain lack of subtlety in Bunyan's writing.

Anyway.  They get stuck in the dungeon on Wednesday, and are left there without food, water, or light till Saturday, at which point the giant starts beating them and exhorting them to commit suicide rather than live on.  Oh, and of course not giving them any food or water.  It's a little unclear how many days this treatment goes on, but eventually Hopeful and Christian spend a long time in prayer.... immediately afterwards, Christian realizes that, d'oh! he's got a key (called Promise) in his breast (pocket? shirt?) that should open up all the doors in the castle.  Using this handy tool, the two make their escape, after some four or five days of imprisonment.

Dude, when you're lost or puzzled, check your inventory! 

Comments

[meepodeekin.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha ha! Never read it and don't really plan to, but it sounds like a great campaign!

[haamel.livejournal.com]

Call me jaded, or cynical, or Post-modern, or metrosexual, or what have you - but indications are that the expiration date on Bunyan's piece of great(?) literature has passed. Where Christian apologetics is concerned, I tend to favor starting points more like Pascal's Wager (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager). And yes, inventory is key to any successful campaign. ^_^

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Interesting link - thanks! I now know much more about Pascal's Wager than I ever did before. :)

Certainly compared to the brief summary you linked to, Pilgrim's Progress doesn't offer much substance in terms of why one should believe in a (Christian) God; his "similitude of a dream" appears much more concerned with his idea as to how one should be a good Christian - mostly by avoiding the multidude of sins that Pilgrim's Progress catalogs. I think he kind of assumes that the reader believes in the first place, and wrote a training manual.

That's a primary aspect of why I get tired of listening to it and put it down after a while. I agree with you that it would be hard to consider it to be a true classic of literature now. I still consider it a moderately interesting and (sometimes unintentionally) amusing listen.

Pilgrim's Progress

[(Anonymous)]

I learned three things from this blog:
- You're inventive! Who else could have seen a game in that old book?!
- I don't want to read the book.
- I realize again why I'm not good at RPGs - I would still be trying to use my +1 Breath of Holy Halitosis against the giant, and completely miss the Promise Schlussel. I check my inventory, but I'm not too bright about WHAT gets used HOW. (I'm MUCH better at RTSs!)

- Kaffen

good advice

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Catharine - I only came to your blog since you made a comment about a "teachable moment" and it made me want to figure out what you do for a living. It was time well-spent - this post had me laughing so hard that tears were rolling down my face.
Sarah (smijen on the LV forums)