Religions in RPM system

Servanous · 07-17-2015, 12:54 PM

In my campaign world clerics and priests draw their spell power from concepts rather than gods. Even those priests that focus on a Paragon are turning to the Paragon for instruction in the ideal the Paragon embodies rather than for magical power. Many orders have sprung up over the millennia, those that endured codified their doctrines and practices to become world spanning religions. After a lot of tweaking I’ve finally come up with a few that would be interesting for a campaign.

I’m thinking that clerics would have access to spells similar to wizards but with limits on their Ritual Adept advantage to reduce the cost with the pact limitation. Clerics would also have power investiture instead of magery and would not need magery zero, but power investiture would act in other ways like magery. Clerics could study the path skills normally but would be limited to effects that were in line with their faith (usually any spell that does not work against their pact). Clerics would have access to Higher Purpose, True faith (my variant for this campaign) and any other powers their higher power could normally grant. The cleric’s core magical skill is Ritual Magic (IQ VH) because the cleric is praying for power through the beliefs of his order rather than gathering it from the world. Clerics are normally part of a church which has a separate set of social advantages/drawbacks.

Each priest should take theology skill for their own religion. Any character with theology (comparative) can know a few facts about each faith detailed below.

True faith: In my campaign True Faith always requires a contest of will (-5%) limit but has the turning enhancement from Gurps powers (+65%) for a net cost of 24 points.

Some examples are here and follow this format:
Religion name
Brief overview
Pact/Higher Purpose
Cost of Ritual adept/Core magic skill
Supernatural advantages/drawbacks
Social/other advantages/drawbacks
True faith: Type of creatures affected

Why would anyone want to be a cleric in a setting with ritual path magic? Not everyone is born a mage or has the Ritual Adept advantage. These can’t generally be gained after character creation but anyone can join a religion any time in life. Many people find comfort in a structured religion and many churches have social benefits for joining.

07-17-2015, 12:54 PM	#1
Servanous Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Boston	Religions in RPM system In my campaign world clerics and priests draw their spell power from concepts rather than gods. Even those priests that focus on a Paragon are turning to the Paragon for instruction in the ideal the Paragon embodies rather than for magical power. Many orders have sprung up over the millennia, those that endured codified their doctrines and practices to become world spanning religions. After a lot of tweaking I’ve finally come up with a few that would be interesting for a campaign. I’m thinking that clerics would have access to spells similar to wizards but with limits on their Ritual Adept advantage to reduce the cost with the pact limitation. Clerics would also have power investiture instead of magery and would not need magery zero, but power investiture would act in other ways like magery. Clerics could study the path skills normally but would be limited to effects that were in line with their faith (usually any spell that does not work against their pact). Clerics would have access to Higher Purpose, True faith (my variant for this campaign) and any other powers their higher power could normally grant. The cleric’s core magical skill is Ritual Magic (IQ VH) because the cleric is praying for power through the beliefs of his order rather than gathering it from the world. Clerics are normally part of a church which has a separate set of social advantages/drawbacks. Each priest should take theology skill for their own religion. Any character with theology (comparative) can know a few facts about each faith detailed below. True faith: In my campaign True Faith always requires a contest of will (-5%) limit but has the turning enhancement from Gurps powers (+65%) for a net cost of 24 points. Some examples are here and follow this format: Religion name Brief overview Pact/Higher Purpose Cost of Ritual adept/Core magic skill Supernatural advantages/drawbacks Social/other advantages/drawbacks True faith: Type of creatures affected Why would anyone want to be a cleric in a setting with ritual path magic? Not everyone is born a mage or has the Ritual Adept advantage. These can’t generally be gained after character creation but anyone can join a religion any time in life. Many people find comfort in a structured religion and many churches have social benefits for joining.