Faith, actual *faith* in RPGaming

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

Sure, lots of game settings have clerics and believers, but very often that is little more than just another dressing for the very concrete things which are fully supported by evidence. It doesn't take faith to rely on the favour of the Deity Of War when said god regularly casts pillars of flame at the request of its high priests.

Conversely, there are a few games which seem to make a point of ensuring that faith is supposed to be faith, and not something that is concrete/provable. They tend to have traits like "Faith. 10 points cost. Your character has a belief in a higher power. It's up to your GM to decide whether this ever makes any sort of difference in the game or not."

In a less mechanistic, more fluffy example, it has been recently pointed out to me that while Mage the Ascension is a game in which Ascension plays a major role, the books provide no (or very little) evidence that Ascension is in fact achievable. Which, IMHO, is totally compatible with the themes of MtA, since MtA is a game where belief/faith also plays a major role, and is in fact the source of immense power.

Finally, there's the case of characters who have faith in campaigns where the players have been clearly told that the setting does not include supernatural elements. In this case, it's purely a matter of roleplaying. I consider this case not as interesting as the previous two, because it doesn't require/encourage having faith, only roleplaying it.

What role does faith play in your games? What's your stance on these three, or perhaps on other related, cases of involving faith in the RPGaming process and why?

Thanks in advance to all who answer!