The Torah. The Bible. The Qu’Ran. And many other religious texts besides. However, they fundamentally come from 2 great religious texts: The Genesis (or Brei’sheet) and the Exodus (Shemot). These are two of the most fundamental stories in the tale of approximately half of the world’s population. Based on these two religious and cultural touchstones, we wanted to create a role playing game that honors our shared past and yet is published as to preserve the uniquely Jewish roots of the writings. We are game designers, not theologians, and we are certainly not holy people. We are here to provide two things: a fun time, and some reasonably historically accurate Jewish-themed role playing in the D&D 5e setting.
There are many events in the Jewish timeline that might well be converted into a good role-playing game. Here, we concentrate on roughly four periods of religious, cultural and historical impact. The first time frame is the early Abraham based time period, from the date where Abram left Mesopotamia to where he procured land in what is now Israel and then following is descendants down to Joseph, when Joseph departs for Egypt during the drought. The second time period is the Egyptian period for the Hebrews, who would be lumped into one of many West Asiatic nations living in Northern Israel. This would include the events of the Exodus, which serves as the crucible from which the Jewish people were born. The Exodus may also be used as the beginning for our third period: the time of Judges and the Kingdom of United Israel. The fourth part of the timeline deals with the split into two kingdoms and the eventual fall of the Northern Kingdom.
While we do not cover pre-Abrahamic events here, feel free to adapt these rules to the stories of Noah, or Cain, or Archarosh, or any other figure you wish. We are not here to tell you what to play or do, just to provide a system of rules for agreement to play a game. This game is not just a source of Jewish positivity. As there are positive and negative stories about Jews and others in the Torah, so too are there ways to play characters across the spectrum of peoples that inhabited the Eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia at the time. You may be a good Egyptian, or a Neutral Jebusite, or whatever have you.
That said, the time period and events which surround you may impact your style of play. It will be very difficult for an Egyptian Supervisor to get along with a Hebrew Brickmaker during the end of the Egyptian 18th and early 19th dynasties. On the other hand, a Jewish priest might get along famously with an Egyptian one at the onset of Joseph’s Vizier position for Pharaoh. The world is morally complex, so saying one person would or would not do a given thing is as much as dependent on their cultural situation as to their moral inclinations. As a note to both players and Dungeon Masters (DMs), while some intra-party conflict is perfectly fine and disagreements do happen, too much can detract from a game. This is why we firmly suggest a Session Zero, especially for this setting, so that relationships can be established and party roles can be developed. A religiously-derived setting can be a source of conflict, and we want to stress, this is a game, not a source of real world theological conflict.
To develop this game, we at the Jewish RPG Workshop have worked to create a “re-skinned” version of the Dungeons and Dragons classes and sub-classes to fit biblical times and stories. That is why the four settings above matter. Simply speaking, the technology available is very different. The Early Dynastic Egypt into which Joseph emigrated lacked for iron. The Jewish United Kingdom was able to procure iron from the Hittite and successor kingdoms in Turkey, usually in trade for olive oil and other foodstuffs. Iron creates not just a stronger material, but also allows for stronger soldiers: an iron-clad and wielding warrior will have a distinct technological advantage over one wearing bronze. Additionally, Bronze is heavier per cubic foot, leading to extreme advantages for the bearer of iron.
It is important to understand that each era had its own difficulties and relations. Relationships could change on the whims of kings and marriages. So, a DM would be well advised to do some research, both historical and religious, and make sure the setting is agreed upon with the players. We don’t pretend to be historians or theological experts, but we’ve done some research to make a good blend of history and fantasy that we hope you’ll enjoy.
Thoughts and Musings from One Geographer 