Author Topic: Religion is missing something?  (Read 82092 times)

Indirik

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Re: Religion is missing something?
« Reply #180: November 02, 2011, 07:08:08 PM »
2) Clean up of the religions - religions based on other games being prohibited.
I don't really see a reason to do this. So long as the religion is period-appropriate, what's the problem?

Also, who gets to make the determination as to how much a religion has to be based on something else before it is not allowed? Does a single name count? Or how about no common names, but a common theme? What happens if no one notices, and the religion becomes big and powerful, then someone finds the obscure 1957 sci-fi book on which it was based, do we instantly delete the religion?

This kind of a restriction is impossible to completely enforce, and will almost certainly cause much anger and resentment among the players as they argue over whether or not some triviality constitutes "based on".

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3) Enforced the politics to have religions based on BM and SM things;
See above.

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4) Limitation at the fantasy of religions: an amorfic god wich lives on the space is acceptable; unknown gods dressed to kill in plate armors, wielding explosive javelins is something over the limit;
Mrh? This doesn't make any sense. A war god that throws explosive javelins is completely within the setting of BattleMaster. It's a simple variation of Zeus and his lightning bolts. OK, if the players try to claim that the javelins are made of C4, that would probably be outside the scope, but what's wrong with a god who wields magic exploding javelins? Heck, the god could very well have created the world. What's wrong with a few magical explosions?

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5) Put priest as a subclass of the game: much of the historical preachers was warriors and members of the govern;
I do like the idea of some form of warrior/priest thing. I think it would be rather appropriate for the Priest/Hero combination. It would also reinforce the "no turning back" aspect of becoming a hero.

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7) Adaptation of the benefits of being a priest;
Please explain. I'm not sure what you mean.

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8) Change of the rules of the religions: the option to turn it really "evil", "good" ou dicotomized (as the most politheistics religions);
Would any religion really consider itself as "evil"? That does not sound very realistic to me. Maybe if you're some extreme devil worshiping cult, maybe. But I don't think that really would work for anything else. I think just about any religion in the game would classify itself as "good".

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9) Religiousity benefits: random things that could improve the memebership of religions, as the miracles to revive while declared dead (as  the thing with newbies), a vision that improve your skill for an action, heavenly help to kill rogue, etc, etc. People worship gods because they do believe they will have some benefit, some help, a thousand virgins to !@#$ in heaven, etc. While characters do not know about their destiny and the gods, players are discouraged to adopt religions, because they see it as a place to put their golds without a benefit, no one.
This kind of thing is not really appropriate for the low-fantasy world of BattleMaster.

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9) Non limitation for the religions: Despite the limitations we have on BM about emigration, religiousity should be an exception. With a religion to spread at the globe you can start to enforce yours, not search for a new one when you change of continent. The limitation for priests to emigrate should be taken as well.
This is a game mechanics limitation. Individual islands are segregated into separate DBs. Trying to enable mechanics support for cross-island religions would be a massive undertaking, prone to all kinds of bugs, probably. I'm fairly certain this has been flat-out rejected.

You are, however, welcome to found the same religion across multiple islands. Or a variant of it. It's been done before.

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10) Peasants claimming to their lord become a follower of their religion start to be a thing to matter. Today, it is just a phrase at the notifications, but, when production stops as the people is celebrating a religious hollyday, things should go bad as the lord will ask for workers.
Some kind of religious holiday that affects regions that follow that faith would be an interesting idea. Allowing religions to designate a certain number of holy days. When they occur, the effects (both good and bad) could be based on the percentage of followers of that faith in each region. It's probably completely impractical, though.

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11) Characters be able to become atheistic
No. This has been categorically rejected. There are no atheist characters in BattleMaster.

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12) Possibility to merge and tear a religion
Schisms are something the devs have planned, and have worked out some ideas about. It's just a big project, with a lot of details. It's "o the drawing board", so to speak. But don't expect it any time soon.

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13) A common class to religious characters - to me, this is something tha could be added: a common preacher.
As an extension to the advy game? I doubt this would ever happen. BattleMaster is about nobles, not commoners.

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14) Implement of stupid cool things: a noble could have his funeral made at the temple of his former land or were his family lives.
I'm no really sure how this would work, or what it would add. Unless it was some kind of list of people buried at a temple that would persist for as long as the temple was still there.

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15) Possibility to hire a crew - a preacher could have the option to hire some men, to his protection, but, as the hero, from the peasants of a place.
Meh, could be interesting to allow priests to hire non-combat guards for personal protection. Keep them from being infiltrator training dummies. There would have to be some disadvantage for it, beyond just some small gold cost. Perhaps longer travel times, or some chance to get detected by any militia or combat troops in a region when traveling in enemy lands, etc.

However, you can RP your character as having any retinue you want them to have. You want your priest to travel with 12 slaved to carry his trunks full of dress robes? Go for it.
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