Faith, actual *faith* in RPGaming

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I'm not sure what distinction you're making between 'having' faith and 'roleplaying' faith. In general, if 'faith' has a meaning, its effects can be either direct (if you have faith, you get plusses) or indirect (if you have faith, certain entities react differently towards you). Note that faith can have indirect effects even if there are no supernatural forces associated with it (entirely mundane entities might still care about your faith), it's just that supernatural entities often have supernatural means of detecting your faith.

However, if you're charging points for faith, it should have reasonably defined concrete effects. Even if the only concrete effect is "you detect as faithful".

Roleplaying faith as in "I have read the setting materials / paid points / etc. and so I know if I play my character like this, the supernatural entities of the setting will provide goodies". Having faith is more along the lines of "there's this story from NPC preachers, who say that doing such-and-such provides supernatural benefits; I don't have proof, and there aren't any OOC signs to confirm that there's a mechanical effect, but I have faith that the benefits are true and thus will behave accordingly". In both cases, roleplaying a PC with faith is a thing; in one case the player doesn't have faith (due to having proof one way or another), in another the player does.