Why do Priests exist?

[hcobb]

Writing up Bind Ghost to cover both holy swords and heathen artifacts.

[platimus]

Here's another question:
Have you ever seen a church full of nothing but Priests and Theologians? Who are their understudies? Who do they minister to?

[Shadekeep]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Writing up Bind Ghost to cover both holy swords and heathen artifacts.

Already in my book as well, as shown in the table of contents I shared a while back, but carry on. I'm getting used to it.

[hcobb]

Can you use a bound ghost to generate 3 mana per day?

[Shadekeep]

Does it matter?

I've posted a lot of material about Priests, Rites, Bindings, and all the other stuff I've worked on. I've had great discussions about that material, thankfully, which I feel makes it better material. If other people want to start their own house rules about Priests, that's fine. If people want to make their own house rules about Rites, that's fine too. And Bindings, whatever. It's the clique-ishness and attitudes of these latter discussions than sometimes sadden me. The TFT community is already small enough without such things.

But like I say, carry on. People will do what they do. If I have something useful to contribute, I will, and otherwise I'll stick to the threads I personally find to be productive.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Anybody who went around Cidri with the bold claim that there is no continuation after death and that ghosts don't exist would be at the very least regarded as a madman with a dangerous delusion.

Why?

We played decades of adventures on Cidri and I don't recall anyone ever encountering a ghost.

Originally Posted by hcobb

Cidri needs priests for the same reason that New York needs sanitation workers.

Either priests are doing something with their rituals to keep down the undead problem or the public will find somebody else who does and pay them instead.

What undead problem? And how do priests help against whatever that problem is?

Originally Posted by platimus

I agree with TippetsTX thoughts on the Priest talent (as written). It's simply to conduct "the business" of a religion. That said (and as written) I can't see why your average player would take that talent but maybe that was the point.

Yes, and it covers any religion, of which there are many, whose details are up to the GM, if/when anyone cares.

Originally Posted by platimus

As written, the only motivation I can see for taking the Priest talent would be as the PCs "job" - a way to earn some money between adventures. Role-playing-wise, there would be other perks like good reactions from members of the same faith -- which might lead to various forms of aid from those NPCs.

Tacking on the ability to perform rituals and rites from "holy texts" (special form of using scrolls and spell-books) is a nice addition to the talent.

Well that's one thing that can be tacked on, or not. Depends on the GM, their world, the religion in question, etc. Religions can be really interesting without needing to have spells or magic-like abilities.

Mainly I think the absence of specified religious details is cool because of the space it leaves for GMs to do whatever. And, I like the absence of the D&D-spawned convention of priests as healers and/or undead-banishers with spells.

[platimus]

Originally Posted by Skarg

Why?

We played decades of adventures on Cidri and I don't recall anyone ever encountering a ghost.



What undead problem? And how do priests help against whatever that problem is?



Yes, and it covers any religion, of which there are many, whose details are up to the GM, if/when anyone cares.



Well that's one thing that can be tacked on, or not. Depends on the GM, their world, the religion in question, etc. Religions can be really interesting without needing to have spells or magic-like abilities.

Mainly I think the absence of specified religious details is cool because of the space it leaves for GMs to do whatever. And, I like the absence of the D&D-spawned convention of priests as healers and/or undead-banishers with spells.

This may shock you but I agree with all of that -- even the part in bold. That's why I'm not hanging my approach on the Priest and Theologian talents. I'm creating one or two new talents and hanging most of it on that.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by Skarg

Why?

Strongly agree. Anyone who thinks an afterlife exists in Cidri should be asked to provide a source.

I like the absence of the D&D-spawned convention of priests as healers and/or undead-banishers with spells.

If we generalise the D&D idea a bit, it's that priests of god X tend to have weaker forms of the powers demonstrated by god X, or by his/her mythic avatars, etc., in the famous stories about them.

• Most of what Jesus did in the gospels was healing afflictions, raising the dead, driving out demons, making food for the hungry, etc., so if his priests are getting their powers from the same source then it makes sense they can do more or less the same abilities or at least more restricted forms of those abilities.
• A follower of Zeus might have the ability to make lightning, change form into a bull, make storms, perform feats of great strength like picking up mountains, etc.
• A follower of Hanuman might have the ability to make himself larger or smaller, lighter or heavier, create useful objects, etc.

The flip side of this is what the god doesn't do, or his weaknesses, if any. Jesus may be powerful but you can't expect him to stab someone for you, he just doesn't do that. Those same restrictions might apply to his priests, or at least some of them, or at least to their magic.

The most superficial version of the D&D cleric has been done to death but a more general version of the idea may still have value. It could probably be implemented by having a god pick several powers from a menu.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

...
If we generalise the D&D idea a bit, it's that priests of god X tend to have weaker forms of the powers demonstrated by god X, or by his/her mythic avatars, etc., in the famous stories about them.

• Most of what Jesus did in the gospels was healing afflictions, raising the dead, driving out demons, making food for the hungry, etc., so if his priests are getting their powers from the same source then it makes sense they can do more or less the same abilities or at least more restricted forms of those abilities.
• A follower of Zeus might have the ability to make lightning, change form into a bull, make storms, perform feats of great strength like picking up mountains, etc.
• A follower of Hanuman might have the ability to make himself larger or smaller, lighter or heavier, create useful objects, etc.

The flip side of this is what the god doesn't do, or his weaknesses, if any. Jesus may be powerful but you can't expect him to stab someone for you, he just doesn't do that. Those same restrictions might apply to his priests, or at least some of them, or at least to their magic.

The most superficial version of the D&D cleric has been done to death but a more general version of the idea may still have value. It could probably be implemented by having a god pick several powers from a menu.

Yes, I quite agree, and have enjoyed playing or even GM'ing game settings with that sort of model, sometimes.

Also, there are/were Christian miracle healers, though they tend to be a few specific saints or shrines or faith healers or charlatans, rather than relatively common priests or mace-wielding fighters.

But I also quite like game settings like TFT where although many have faith and so religion may have great social, economic, and power-political effects, whether there are any actual god-related magic powers that aren't like spells/potions/enchantments or faith effects is a GM secret that PCs need to discover or have or get the right background to discover.

And I also like it when a GM homebrews a setting and invents original interesting magic cosmologies, especially when they do something that isn't just a remix of the D&D-based model where they're just another list of class-based powers balanced against other PC classes' powers.