Set & Setting - X - Polytheism & Religion Revisited

Introduction – How Fare The Gods?

Ever so often, the rpg gestalt will shift in its astral slumber, lips a’twitch into a grimace as the thought coalesces: “atheists make no sense in a fantasy rpg setting”.

Religion is a thorny subject for contemporaries, one that resists translation into rpg mechanics. Most – if not all – renditions of the game are perfectly content to reduce the divine’s parcel to so much background radiation, a trope that would feel amiss if left out, but whose presence is treated with detachment, certainly not expecting of the player to indulge in reverence in a way that would incense our modern sensibilities. Polytheism, if given lip service, is mostly treated as some form of chained monotheism, with each god as distant and unapproachable as the capitalized entity.

It is understood that monotheistic mores of complete submission (strangely sooner enforced indirectly through constructs such as “alignment” than religious piety) clash frontally with the basic appeal of rpgs: the whole “do what thou wilt” premise that has us seated at running after running of this collective exercise of ingenuity, gambling and one-upmanship that we call game.

Taking after the classics comes a desire to translate the ancients’ take on polytheistic worship to the game setting. This presents a few salient challenges, namely:

How to make religion important to player and character alike without it being burdensome and all-consuming? How to get characters to attend religious ceremonies as a natural course inherent to the game setting without being crass or heavy-handed about it?

How to balance knowable mechanics with the unknowable misteries of religion and godly whim?

How to make distinct deities relevant in a polytheistic fashion?

How to represent the tangled web of relationships between gods and mortals without overloading on complexity?

How can a single system cover both mundane character classes (i.e. the majority of them) as well as classes with a religious raîson-d’être?

This isn’t my first approach at the subject, as I aim to simplify the system as much as reassert the previous reasoning on this topic: Imperfect deities patterned after human behaviour, somewhat distant but yet able to affect reality, lumped into fractious pantheons are integral to emergent sandbox play.

Deities… and aspirants to demigodhood

Unlike, say, an overhaul of the combat system or rules for tackling an adventuring situation, blanket rules for religion can be kept at arms length for the average character, with no forceful need for interaction with sacral worship unless the player so desires (or unless one’s character class revolves around it). After all, it is eminently acceptable to enforce rules that state that a character cannot live without food and drink, but such is not extendable to a life void of prayer and devotion.

In response to the challenges listed above, there are certain conceptual boxes that beget checking, no matter how incipient the effort turns out being:

- Optional involvement, requiring active interest from the player (make it a resource, not a tax)

- Diminishing returns (don’t want to overemphasize a secondary facet of play)

- Transparent mechanics but incomplete knowledge of outcome (minimize arbitrary calls while emulating the unknowable nature of the divine)

- Reduced overhead (both mechanically and conceptually, as the number of gods to a pantheon should be kept manageable)

The watchword here is utilitarianism, however indicting the term may sound, something that I don’t deem possible (or even desirable) to transcend, for it is the only way for religion to have an honest say in a game that’s ostensibly about free will: The keeping of faith with a deity is a relationship based on giving and taking. Believers make tangible offerings and sacrifices through rites of worship and priests receive spells and divine guidance, while mundane characters settle for minor divine aid, all of them tools for thriving in the setting.

Note that, in aknowledgement of different strokes for different settings, the purposes of this post dispense with the need to touch upon any deity’s concrete identity – grounded or fictional – or character. The musings here expounded won’t require anything beyond fired clay placeholders.

Soliloquy over, time to serve up some stilted rulemongering.

1.     Standing with the Gods

A player-character is held in varying degrees of esteem by each deity in a pantheon combining to produce a character’s stead with the Gods, these values are only determined strictly when needed and are kept under wraps by the referee.

·         The roll at the heart of the system is a typical reaction roll, made on 2d6, adjusted for Charisma

·         A materialistic exchange guides all interactions with the divine:

o   Whenever a deity is worshipped or honoured with offerings or a promise, the character’s standing potentially improves

o   Whenever a deity is petitioned and beseeched for boons (spells) or direct aid, the character’s standing potentially lessens 

·         At the outset of play each player-character is counted as being outside the gods’ notice, not having offended nor called upon any among them to any significant extent

·         Once a character takes a stance on the gods, be it through worship, calling upon a deity for aid or acting in a way markedly pleasing or displeasing to one, the referee will make an appropriate reaction roll to discover what is the character’s stead with that particular deity, noting down the result.

2.     Worshipping Deities

Worshipping the Gods through ceremony

Followers renew their bond with a deity by attending a religious ceremony on a duly consecrated structure (the size of which caps the results, as per the table)

·         A new reaction roll is made by the referee every time worship rites are partaken, keeping the highest result

·         Clerics, on account of their close link to the gods, get extra dice when attending temple ceremonies, rolling 3d6 for non-patron deities and 4d6, dropping lowest, for their patron

* all results granting divine favour ignore Charisma adjustments (unless filtered through a Ceremony modifier, as below);

Ceremony modifier (+ 1/2/3/4)

A grandiose ceremony will please the deity and benefit all those in attendance, relying on four pillars to unlock a modifier that applies to all participants:

·         Size of the house of worship: Shrine, Fane, Temple, Grand Temple

·         Number of worshippers in attendance: 10, 100, 1000, 10 000+

·         Value of offerings (money invested in the ceremony, in silver pieces): 100, 1000, 10 000, 100 000+

·         Charisma score of the officiating priest: 13-15, 16, 17, 18+

All four pillars must be present and only the lesser among them is counted to determine a ceremony’s modifier

Pleasing or Displeasing the Gods through action

Each divine entity has a domain governing one or several facets of existence. That domain will logically produce a list of acts pleasing and displeasing to each deity; these cannot be properly enumerated but must instead be discretionarily determined, each time the player being duly informed that what he’s about to do could potentially please or displease a deity. Given that deities also maintain rivalries inside their own pantheon, offending one might mean garnering esteem with another.

Only significant actions are to be counted, this is not an exhibit for “religion as infallible tool for social control”, but rather aims to represent the myopic concerns of fractious polytheistic entities, with occasional nods at a greater sense of cosmic justice only when dealing with things on the scope of parricide, fratricide or outright atrocity, not something bound to turn up on your average running.

The most basic and direct way to displease a deity is to attack its luminaries and places of worship or to lay devotion at the feet of a rival from another pantheon (example: looting an old tomb for values would not alter a character’s standing with a god of the underworld, whereas desecrating a hallowed and ostensibly dedicated resting place could)

·      Whenever a character indulges in acts pleasing or displeasing to a deity, the referee makes a new reaction roll, appropriately replacing the current rating if it is higher (pleasing) or lower (displeasing).

·      If the nature of the act is noted as being particularly offensive or pious, the roll can be made at Advantage or Disadvantage (rolling an additional d6 and dropping highest/lowest)

Important exception:

·      If the roll comes up an unadjusted “12” on a displeasing act or an unadjusted “2” on a pleasing act, these results are counted as “high esteem” and “low esteem” respectively, superceding the action’s superficial logic, as it might happen that the deity wishes to test its erstwhile champion, that it is amused by the character’s defiant transgression of its mores or that an apparently pleasing act has actually interfered with the deity’s underlying schemes and plans

Devotional Promises

Outside of temple attendance, a character can exceptionally attempt to improve his lot with a deity by promising to further its name in deeds or material offerings, this counting as an act pleasing to the deity (prompting a roll to increase the character’s esteem)

·         A promise is verbally communicated to the deity (meaning the character needs at least a full round to effect its delivery)

·         The rarer the promised element, the greater worth will the promise carry:

o   Examples of promises include donating riches, making sacrifices, sponsoring ceremonies, converting unbelievers, slaying heathens, making a pilgrimage to a holy site, embarking on a crusade, toppling a rival temple, finding and donating a prized artifact to a temple or slaying an infamous enemy of the deity

o   Deities crave variety: a character will gain nothing from promising that which a deity has already been offered during the course of a running (meaning any promises jotted down by each player must be retained, even once they’re crossed over upon fulfilment)

·         Characters can have only one outstanding promise to each deity at a time, though that promise can be further elaborated (increasing the amount, value or rarity of what is promised) on separate occasions

·         A character who, given the opportunity for even partial fulfillment, reneges on his promise to a deity will be penalized with permanent disadvantage on further interactions with that deity until ammends are made, either by fulfilling the promise belatedly or making good on another promise of similar or greater worth

Godly Favour

Mere mortals can occasionally pique the fleeting interest of a deity, achieving a temporary exaltation known as favour

·         Whenever a character favoured by a deity would lose esteem the player rolls the favour die instead, retaining the deity’s favour on any result other than “1”

o   If a “1” result comes up, the favour die is reduced by one size

o   Once the character ceases being favoured (a 1 in d4 is rolled), his stead with the deity is rolled anew on 2d6 as normal

·      Unlike esteem, being touched by divine favour becomes open knowledge to the player once the character gets the first use out of the blessing (who should then be noted down on the character sheet), though the character’s outwardly appearance belies nothing about this fact

·      A character cannot be favoured simultaneously by opposed deities

Godly Wrath

If the mortal oversteps his boundaries, interfering with the divine or demanding too much in return for too little, he may be struck down where he stands

·         Godly wrath is triggered:

o   When a character with a current esteem of “2” actively beseeches the offended deity (the rating by itself being inert until the god is called upon)

o   Immediately upon a natural “2” being rolled when a character takes an action displeasing towards a deity

·         The shape and violence of godly disapproval will vary widely with the individual deity, be it withered limbs, blindness, spontaneous combustion or lightning strike, the system for representing this is simply a roll on the dismemberment table – interpret any middling results as a warning shot or chalk them to intervention by a rival entity (a roll on less dice/applying a modifier may be justified, if the wrath was brought on by something truly heinous)

3.     Beseeching a Deity for Aid

In exchange for all of the above, the Powers can occasionally be called upon to intervene and tip the scales for their faithful

·         A deity can only be beseeched for aid relating to a domain over which it holds sway

·         The beseeched deity must be verbally adressed (minor action) as the referee verifies the character’s current standing with the deity, if the character is held in high esteem, aid is provided, otherwise none is forthcoming; In any event, the deity’s stance is immediately rolled anew by the referee, keeping the lowest result

o   The form of divine aid is not preestablished, but will generally consist of rerolls or Advantage on rolls associated with the domain, from guidance to the sword arm on an attack to a plea to placate inclement weather or a prayer to avert danger on a journey

·         If a group would collectively benefit from divine aid, it is only forthcoming if the majority of the group is held in good standing, with the consequent reduction in esteem applying to all of the characters; Those who are favoured count as a number of characters equal to the die size

·         The Gods like best those who help themselves: the esteem of a character who calls upon the same deity more than once in a single day is rolled down at Disadvantage (including any favour die rolls)

 

Closing Thoughts – finding further uses for the system

As it stands this is a pretty minimalist system but one with a fair margin for expansion, here are a few examples:

·         Certain items may require favour or that the faithful be held in high esteem to be usable

·         Some obstacles (barriers, traps, alarms) may interact differently according to the faith rating of those who trigger them

·         Conversely, certain supernatural creatures may react differently to characters held in high or low regard by a certain deity

o   E.g. certain undead targetting first those that the god of the underworld dislikes or beasts reacting positively to those favoured by a sylvan deity

·         Spells borne of divine magic may gain extra effects or target only certain characters in accordance to their standing with the divine