House rules thoughts: I like the cancelled penalty/bonus option as well,
but thinking about how to deal with the implications of the rules led me to
some other thoughts:
- Use the piety of the worshipper (Worship [God]) to generate the blessing
augment, rather than the abilities of the liturgist (Use [Scripture]). I
suggest this because then those of little faith don't get the rewards of
deeper faith. This suits the idea of worshippers with a high relationship
(Member of [Congregation]) but not the faith--maybe because they follow the
local little saints (spirits, daimones). I also like the thought of
faithless knights paying lip service to the church (and gaining no benefit
for doing so) while using their pagan magic/magical arms (seems Arthurian
to me). The liturgist must still succeed against the normal resistance in
order for the blessings to work at all, but the magnitude of the effect
depends on the faith of the blessed worshipper. (This also gives the
communal worshipper a reason to care about his piety.)
- When not important to the story, allow the multiple target penalty and
the total support bonus to cancel for liturgical blessings only. (I suggest
changing the multiple target penalty for liturgical blessings to match the
negative of the total support bonus, which doesn't matter for point two,
but matters for point three.)
- When important to the story, calculate (or handwave) a penalty to the
liturgist that is based on the less-than-total support of the congregation.
For example, if a congregation of 1000 is only half-devoted, calculate
(half give total support = +20, quarter give ordinary support = +1, quarter
[secret cabal of pagans] give condemnation = -16, multiple person penalty =
negative total support = -25, total = -12) or handwave a penalty (negative
extraordinary support = -13), or assume NPC liturgist fails because of
story. When the liturgist fails, he knows it and knows that the faith of
his flock is wavering/poisoned, and the inquisitions start.
- This would have been easier if the multiple target penalty was related
to (the negative of) the total community support, or a multiple thereof.
Thanks,
Andy
At 05:53 PM 9/19/2003 +0100, Nick Brooke wrote:
>Peter Larsen writes well about Western worship services. But I thought
>HeroQuest was meant to avoid all this number-crunching and hand-waving?
>
>It seems simplest to me for the "big congregation" bonus and penalty to
>cancel each other out, whenever liturgists bless their flocks.