@Lithium said in Sensitive cultural/political/religious aspects of game themes.:
Theme is theme.
If you don't like the theme, don't play on a game.
To add to that, not all people will ever like a game's theme. That's okay, it's why different games exist instead of just one game that fits all players! So it's a huge fallacy trying to 'fix' a MU* by attempting to change what it's supposed to be unless staff is in explicit agreement with such a shift.
Note that's not to say say MU* always have the theme their staff intends for them to do; it's not terribly uncommon for the playerbase, especially under the guidance of popular, active players to take things in a different direction than intended over time. Sometimes that's okay (Vampire@HM turned out a whole lot better than its rotating cast of staff could have ever managed) and sometimes it becomes Mage@TR until nuking from orbit seems to be the only real option left.
I still feel that playing a character that breaks theme is a cardinal sin, theme should be enforced, it's part of why I as a whole dislike open chargen unless the theme can absorb all sorts of ideas.
I don't know it's a sin but there should be consequences. We see it outside games, too, with very satisfying results; consider Eddard Stark for instance, an honorable straight arrow of a man who entered a cutthroat political environment and stood out like a sore thumb - in a different 'theme' he'd have been the hero of the tale, but in that one he lost his head.
Problems begin either when players refuse to acknowledge let alone accept their own IC consequences or when everyone else, staff included, fail to ensure there are some.