Increasing devotion

From: Benedict Adamson <badamson_at_...>
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2001 12:18:58 +0100

Increasing an ability (with HPs) that was relevant to the past episode is cheaper than arbitrarily increasing abilities. Some rules in HW suggest that a hero's Devotee of X ability should become quite high as the hero develops (IIRC, you need a good score to learn the Secret), which suggests that heroes should often increase it.

It what circumstances is a hero's 'Devotee of X' ability relevant to a past episode?

In our games we tend to agree that an ability is relevant if the hero used the ability in any contest (that is, dice were rolled against a target number computed from the ability rating). This works OK for most abilities, but our heroes rarely have contests in which Devotee of X is applicable, and we are loath to pay double costs for abilities, so none of our heroes have high Devotee of X ratings. Have we made a mistake?

Is Devotee of X relevant to an episode in which the devotee used an affinity? Or one of the god's virtues? Or should players just pay the double cost? In what circumstances might a hero use their Devotee of X ability?