6 Thoughts on “Defining Faiths in Fantasy Campaigns”

1. Jez on June 5, 2012 at 9:36 am said:

   The only issue I can see is the Attributes – is a 1-20 scale necessary, does it perform some in-game mechanic, such as “find an church of this faith in this strange new city, roll under Organisation or Popularity to succeed”. If not, would a smaller scale suffice?

   Also at first glance at the sheet I thought those Attributes were those of the deity, not of their followers. Maybe add Follower’s or Faith’s before there for clarity.

   Otherwise it’s really well done.
2. Daniel on June 5, 2012 at 10:15 am said:

   Are you planning to hang anything off the attributes? It looks like you’ve set them to be used like character stats.

   Also, I think wealth would be better as an abstract rather than a definite number. I have trouble really appreciating how much 50zillion silver is in relation to the world, whereas if they had a wealth of 18 we know they are hand-wavey super wealthy.

   But yea, cool sheet. Going to hand these to the clerics in my groups and see what they do to them.
3. Chris on June 5, 2012 at 10:40 am said:

   Thanks both of you. I do plan on hanging something off of those stats. One of the challenges for me in working in a system-neutral setting is deciding what sort of checks make sense. The popularity check is a trial balloon to see if it makes sense for people.
   @Jez, I chose a d20 scale because it’s wide and might be convertible to DC checks. Also, each +1 is +5%, which is simple.
   @Daniel, the wealth in the examples reflects what I myself would put in my own game. I looked at the costs of strongholds in Aventurer Conqueror King and thought about how many of those the church should have or be able to build and then converted gold to silver, since I use a silver standard.
   But your point is well taken–it should probably be a stat and details such as the wealth might be something to keep from the player.
4. zak s on June 6, 2012 at 4:50 am said:

   I think strictness jealousy and revelations are things I wouldn’t wanna nail down too hard at day one because:
   -it’s fun to find out in play, and
   -different factions (and priests) have, no doubt, different ideas about these things. I wouldn’t wanna limit roleplaying.
   I think a more simple “notes” section might be what you want if you have a good idea about one of those things but if you have no idea, don’t pick something out of the hat just to fill it in.
5. Spiralbound on June 6, 2012 at 2:12 pm said:

   Is “physical Description” referring to the Deity, Priesthood, Churches, or the style of iconography used by the church?

   I suggest two other Attributes:
   1) How zealous they are in spreading the faith.
   2) How politically active they are.
   Both of these would aid greatly in determining the behaviour of the church in a region, the attitudes of the clergy, other groups and individuals attitudes towards them. It could even help inspire potential campaign plot threads.
6. Daniel on July 25, 2012 at 10:49 pm said:

   I’ve been handing these out to any players that want a custom religion and it’s been rather popular so far. They’ve appreciated having a framework to slot their thoughts into and to prompt deeper thinking, helping to create a nicely fleshed out idea.

   Here’s a recent example of what they’ve been doing: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4741111/faith_template_Doctrine.rtf

   This is from a first time pen&paper RPG player and the form got them inventing places and people quite naturally.