Clerics and deities

[AllenOwen]

Originally Posted by Kromm

It looks like this is a blended GURPS Dungeon Fantasy / Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game discussion. While the games are compatible, they aren't the same. The latter game cuts out some troublesome spells, and tweaks the cleric's template and abilities slightly.

As has been pointed out, if you want to match clerics to gods and don't mind following the full-on GURPS path, Phil Masters's excellent GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics is the place to look.

But if, as is more appropriate for this forum, you want to stick to the DFRPG, then I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Kevin Smyth's Hand of Asgard. That can easily be made generic to do for the DFRPG what Clerics does for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. It works specifically within the DFRPG framework, and is as "official" as it gets, since Kevin (and Doug Cole) ran everything by me for approval.

I can see where the edges betwixt GURPS DF and DFRPG are getting blurred here. Easy to do, as the rules are more or less the same...
I got my answer though; in fact DF 7 is what I'll be needing, and I'll be getting Hands of Asgard and DF 7 as soon as finances allow. I was just wondering about using DFRPG in a specific setting,since "old school" AD&D was also setting agnostic, like DFRPG is setting agnostic. But to do that would mean taking DFRPG out of it's framework a little, which I don't mind doing at all.

[Jarl Wilm]

Originally Posted by AllenOwen

I can see where the edges betwixt GURPS DF and DFRPG are getting blurred here. Easy to do, as the rules are more or less the same...
I got my answer though; in fact DF 7 is what I'll be needing, and I'll be getting Hands of Asgard and DF 7 as soon as finances allow. I was just wondering about using DFRPG in a specific setting,since "old school" AD&D was also setting agnostic, like DFRPG is setting agnostic. But to do that would mean taking DFRPG out of it's framework a little, which I don't mind doing at all.

I've been musing on this a lot since philosophy of religion is my major. AD&D and the earlier systems weren't really "setting agnostic." The original materials assumed a vaguely medieval (Catholic) sort of cleric---that is, a monotheistic or dualist world. All clerics were identical, and calling yourself a "cleric of Thor" or "a cleric of Athena" or "a cleric of Teddy the Bear God" was what we in philosophy call "a difference without a distinction:" ---that is, an illusory difference only. All good clerics had identical spells and identical requirements (no edged weapons etc.) and got identical perks at higher levels (followers, tithes etc.) so the only real difference was whether you were a "good" cleric or an "evil" one--and evil clerics were always NPCs/monsters. There were no "neutral clerics;" Eldritch Wizardry introduced druids as the "clerics" of True Neutral, defending balance in everything. DFRPG seeks to emulate the "old-school dungeon crawler" experience, and thus took over that sort of cleric. If all "good" clerics respect everyone's excommunications, have access to the same spells, share the same advantages, disadvantages and skills, they really are the same religion. Unless you move beyond DFRPG and bring in different spell lists for different gods, they're all basically the same faith. After all, Muslims, Jews and Christians all worship the God of Abraham, but even they don't recognize each other's excommunications.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

That was definitely the idea with that, and hopefully losing a few spells that aren't in the DFRPG won't cripple it. Sample/preview here, the book's Web page here.

And here's a mini-review of the fine Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics book; there are likely more to be found through a search.

To the OP: I wouldn't overthink a purchase of this book; even if not a DFRPG supplement, the book offers a lot of great stuff for just a few coppers. There's plenty you can nab as-is, or use as inspiration and guides for creating your own cleric variants.

[Anders]

Where's the mini-review?

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Anders

Where's the mini-review?

D'oh. I just invented a new computer action: "Copy and forget to paste".

Get Religion with Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics