[crossfire] [Rebootworld] Priests and prayers and cults

[Mark Wedel]

Lalo Martins wrote:
> Some thoughts on Rebootworld religion.  This is mostly to set
> priestly types further away from magic-users.

  Quick question - how does this affect non priests?  Does it make sense for a 
fighter to decide to worship a good just for the cool bonuses but otherwise 
never do anything for that good?  One thought may be the bonuses adjust based on 
priest level (so a level 1 follower gets very little resistance bonus or other 
benefits, while that level 100 follower gets really good bonuses?)


> - No prayerbooks.  Prayers will be learned in the temple and
>   different for each cult.  (Sometimes it will be the exact same
>   spell but with different name; same internal spell code but
>   different archetype.)  The only spell off the top of my head I
>   see pretty much every cult having is Cult Monsters (which will
>   probably have a better name though).  Maybe Word of Recall.

  What about the healing spells?  One things that make priests somewhat 
specialized is they get healing, and wizards don't.

  I'd be a bit reluctant to make priests into another damage dealing class 
without healing type spells.

  Certainly, some cults may have better/faster access to certain spells than 
others.  And the idea of each cult basically having its own spell list makes 
sense (the number of priest spells has greatly proliferated).


> - The Imperial Cult would be the social norm, and at least in
>   Scorn, there should be minor social drawbacks to being openly a
>   follower of anything else.  Minor villages may be even more
>   conservative, or then again they may follow a different cult.

  This may depend on the class I think - priests are likely to be very open 
about who they worship.  But someone like a wizard probably wouldn't have much 
reason to advertise it, and as such, shouldn't have much of a reaction.

  In the past, there has been discussions about some form of reputation.  It may 
make sense to revisit it.  A starting character would have a reputation of 0 in 
their home city, and perhaps a negative reputation in foreign cities (foreign in 
this context could be elf or dwarf).  So the character would actually have many 
reputations - one for each well defined region.

  doing quests should help ones reputation.  That said, there may be some quests 
that hurt a reputation (one could envision quests that actually help smugglers, 
etc - the character still gets some reward, but the town won't like it).  Being 
of high priest level of the religion in the area should also help ones 
reputation.  And in foreign lands, perhaps reduce it.


>   Apart from that particular bizarre case, branches would focus
>   on light, summoning, enchanting, cold, and healing, off the top
>   of my head.  (Not sure I want to keep the cold association
>   though.  It strikes me as a solar cult.  Angel = cold was
>   originally because demon = fire, I think, but maybe there's a
>   better way to do that.)

  Way back in crossfire history, there was only a single religion, and that 
might be where fire=devil, cold=angel came from.

  When multiple gods were put in, godpower was added IIRC, which was special in 
that it would only damage those of opposing religion.  So that could be used for 
some of those match ups.

> 
> - I don't really think orcs, goblins, etc should have an
>   organized religion.  I'd like at least one species to scoff at
>   gods in general.  Others should be more shamanic or animistic.

  Most all intelligent societies tend to have some religion.  That said, 
reasonable that in some cases it may not be organized, or even none at all.


> 
> - No meta-fiction.  No Builders, no legends that reflect the
>   history of the game itself.  If you want to introduce homages,
>   like making Skud an ancient hero or, say, Peter M. a god, do so
>   in a way that fits the setting, the "believability" rule.
> 
> - Make the cult more present on character life.  One thing could
>   be a reaction modifier depending on how "far" apart your cult
>   is to that of an NPC.  This modifier could be made stronger by
>   an attribute (on the NPC's praying skill?), so that for
>   example, a stout Valrielist may decide to deny service to a
>   Mostrai follower.
> 
>   But that requires not simply being in the cult, but showing
>   it.  Maybe by wearing some kind of holy symbol/emblem.  (So
>   that people can be Devourer cultists or Gorokhists in secret.)
> 
>   It would be cool if there was some kind of reputation/gossip
>   system so that if your allegiances got out, soon everyone would
>   know it.  But that's coding, and not top priority, so let's
>   shelve it for now.

  Hmm. See my note above.

  Note that for many things, actions may speak louder than an item.  Not a lot 
of weight should be given to someone wearing a holy symbol if anyone can pick 
them up for a few silver.  Things like skill level may be recognized - that 
tends to suggest you've done enough that folks may recognize you as a hero of 
Gaea or something.

  Likewise, one has to be careful about just being able to hide ones 
affiliation.  If someone is a level 50 priest of Gorokh, they've probably done 
enough that there are at least rumors floating about town about that 
affiliation, etc.

  One could perhaps have some value on each cult which sort of denotes level of 
fame on level.  The major gods may see the biggest benefit, as everyone would 
recognize it.  While the hidden cults may have a lower negative impact.  In 
absolute terms, a level 10 gorokh has same (in)famy as a level 50 Gaea, simply 
on the fact that the later is more open.

  At some level, just not getting any bonus could be a disadvantage - one could 
see high level characters getting fairly decent bonuses for that, which makes 
life easier - the fact an evil religion doesn't is a problem in itself.

  That said, I think there still has to be some balance in the religions here - 
there isn't a lot of point spending time detailing a god and his spells if no 
one ever uses it because it sucks badly.

> 
> best,
>                                                Lalo Martins