> > "I think you have to:
> > 1. be a member of that religion
> > 2. have a relationship with the Church.
> >
> > Without #2 you are not int he Chain..."
> >
>
> I think that might answer my question as to whether "Member of
> Congregation" is meant in a broad (The church as a religion) or narrow
> (the church as a specific building) sense.
Church as in "Have the proper Worship [God] ability", not as in "Worship in the little church just down the street where everyone knows me and they serve tea and cakes after service and isn't Father Fred so dashing?".
> Obviously (?*), if he wanders into an Aeolian Church by mistake, he
> will gain no benefit from the blessings as he fails the "member of
> that religion" test.
Correct (even if it's not all that obvious)
> If he enters the local Ship of Life Church, though, does he gain any
> benefit, or must he first join the local congregation to gain a
> relationship to this (physical) church?
I'd say that as a member of the religion, he gains the benefits of the blessings cast in that day's service. The "Member of [local congregation]" would be used if he had a special need or request of the liturgist - Without a good "Member of Congregation" ability, you'd get bumped to the back of the Special Blessing Line: "The Widow Hughes needs a blessing for her cats, and Gaffer Tom needs a blessing for his bum leg, and ...I'm all backed up until next Windsday, come back then"
> I can see either being true. If he is a member of the correct
> religion and takes part in the service correctly (he also has
> Navigationalist Doctrine) as a keyword skill) then it seems reasonable
> that he should receive the blessings of his God. (I can attend any
> Christian church service without having to first introduce myself to
> the local clergy, after all...).
Yep. And an Orlanthi can attend most Orlanthi services, and a Praxian tradition worshipper can attend any Praxain Tradition service (within reason, of course. We wouldn't let a Rhino Rider <spit> to one of *our* drum circles!)
> It would mean a well travelled Monotheist would end up with lots of
> "member of <congregation>" skills, or would need to find a way to take
You don't really need them - they are purely mundane interactions on a person-person (or person to group) basis - you don't need to "join" a congregation if you're just passing through and won't be back for years.
> their church with them (which is, I suspect what happens with Military
> Orders and Sailors in any case, where there is a chaplain assigned to
> the group, with whom the church members have a relationship. A
> soldier might therefore be a "Member of <home> congregation" and a
> "member of <regiment> congregation" - and condeivably get blessings
> from both (although still only one blessing per test as they are from
> the same scripture...)
The Ship or Regiment is *probably* an Order (or Order-like group), and the blessings given by the Order Liturgist are not the same skill as the ones from the local church Liturgist. Frex, your Ship of Lifer would get blessings from the local Liturgist reading from the _Infinite Sea Wisdom_ Scriptures, but the ship's crew also gets readings from the Rule of St. Eliavar the Great Navigator, who is the Patron of their ship. These two sets of blessings could stack or overlap, and you could use one of each set in a contest.
> Maybe that is why the "Member of <congregation> is listed in the main
> text, but not in the keywords - although a starting character might
> include their membership as part of the initial keyword, you wouldn't
> necessarily want to add any new relationships in at the keyword level
> (especially if you had allowed the keyword to increase as part of a
> saga-like experience.
Member of [Congregation] is included in the "level of worship" keyword - look at Lay member abilities HQ 157 for an example. So any "Lay member of XX Church" has "Member of [Congregation] included by deafult (and Doctrine of [Church] and Worship [God], but those are normally included in the [Church] keyword).
> * I say obviously, but can a liturgical blessing affect people outside
> of the religion at all? A Curse can, but is resisted, probably by the
> recipients on religious/magic ability. The Common blessings, I think
> only affect the congregation, but the special blessing, or a blessing
> invoked at a special service is (or can be) more targeted. Could the
> Liturgist use his staunch wound blessing (as per P159)to heal someone
> outside the congregation? I'd tend to allow this, but at an increased
> resistance, and probably with a lower level of community support.
If the wounded guy is a member of the religion - just not in the liturgist's congregation - then it's a mundane contest to see if he *will* help, but if he does, the blessing works with no special resistances or problems.
If it's someone outside the religion, then we interpolate Greg's answer to
the "Casting feats on others" question
(http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HeroQuest-rules/message/21550). I'd say
that increased resistance would apply to casting a beneficial blessing on a
non-religionist, but it's not impossible. How much this resistance would be,
and what categories of "outsider" there are is something for someone
(narrator) to come up with. You could have a simple binary (In/Out of my
religion), or a grading (my religion, another religion like mine, Another
religion that's a heresy of mine, a barbarian), or base it on Otherworlds,
etc. But there are no *rules* around this question.
RR
C'est par mon ordre et pour le bien de l'Etat que le porteur du pr�sent a
fait ce qu'il a fait.
- Richelieu
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