Belief based divine magic system

[Geryon]

Hey Herophiles.... Myself and a friend are about to run a fantasy hero campaign, and we want our divine magic system to be based on faith somehow. We thought about using BOECV for a lot of the spells, to capture the "success based on opponent's weak will" sort of thing, but after taking another look at it, it doesn't really work. Our second thought was to have some sort of opposed skill roll, like a "faith" power skill for divine spellcasters. However, we thought this should probably be an opposed skill roll against the target's faith, or something similar to that. The "requires a skill roll" disad in the book doesn't really mention opposed skill rolls. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any comments about these approaches, or if anyone had any suggestions for other ways to properly capture this sort of mechanic, or if anyone has had any experience trying to run a magic system like this in their campaigns. Thanks!

[Captain Obvious]

Define faith as a Power skill and as a defensive power. A priest would have X- die roll on in the Faith power skill, and Y PD/ Y ED/ Y Mental Defense/Y Power Defense/Y Flash Defense only vs. Faith based attacks. Tie the allowable level of Defenses to the level of the Faith skill (and vice versa), so that someone with faith to call down holy fire will also have the faith to withstand a succubus' seduction. A pious layman might have only the Defenses, and those at a lower level than a priest.

 

Just a quick idea off the top of my head.

[Jeff]

Check RSR in FREd again - it does include a -1/4 additional limitation if the power is subject to skill vs. skill contests. You could use EGO rolls for the target, unless you want your priests to be much more easily able to run over targets without a Faith skill.

 

I'm using the skill vs. skill modifer for countermagic in the magic system I'm developing, else it'd be running over other mages.

[Geryon]

Thanks for the ideas, I like the idea of using the opposed skill rolls for counter-magic as well. Have to include that in my arcane magic system. Now I just need to figure out what disad "only vs. faith based magic" should be for pd, ed, etc. Maybe -1/2? I figure priests will be about as common as in most fantasy campaigns, one in every 100 citizens or so, and about 1 in 5 adventurers. I don't know, I'll check with my compadre whom I am running the game with.

[BlackCobra]

One method I thought about using (and haven't tried yet) was to require characters using Divine abilities (magic) to have X points in psyche limits and/or social disads equal to the highest active point ability they could use.

 

I'm still not sure if that's the best way to do it, but it reflects the faith they need to summon the power. If you wanted to adversarial approach, you could reduce the active points in an ability used against someone by the amount of "faith" (points in disads) they have for that deity. So in this system aggressive divine magic simply wouldn't work on another of the faithful.

[badger3k]

Originally posted by BlackCobra

One method I thought about using (and haven't tried yet) was to require characters using Divine abilities (magic) to have X points in psyche limits and/or social disads equal to the highest active point ability they could use.

 

I'm still not sure if that's the best way to do it, but it reflects the faith they need to summon the power. If you wanted to adversarial approach, you could reduce the active points in an ability used against someone by the amount of "faith" (points in disads) they have for that deity. So in this system aggressive divine magic simply wouldn't work on another of the faithful.

 

If you do that, then you could also add points to healing or other helpful spells as well (together our faith is stronger) (a power advantage?). I don't know if I'd use disads as the control though, since in the long run the characters can only go so high, at least without buying more disads. I used EGO as faith before, limited spells to (EGO x 5) active points (and INT for wizards). Looking at the Faith skill in the examples in FH looks good, but I'm not sure what I'd go with for limits there. Maybe have Faith as a perk or talent of some kind, maybe?

[Black Rose]

Originally posted by BlackCobra

One method I thought about using (and haven't tried yet) was to require characters using Divine abilities (magic) to have X points in psyche limits and/or social disads equal to the highest active point ability they could use.

 

I had come up with something similar for a Superheroic setting - essentially, superpowers either resulted in mental disorders or were, in some cases, caused by them. Often the disorders in question were more along the lines of Psych Lims common to the Silver Age heroes and villians; NiftyGuy acts like a cardboard cutout of a Boy Scout in "real life" because he's got... well, he's got issues, son. Villians make deathtraps and make penny-ante heists because they simply can't help it. Soliloquies make more sense when your characters are a little bit loopy.

 

On the fantasy side, a guy I met at a Con* had a mechanic whereby his priests would develop mental and/or physical traits similar to their deity as they gained in power. I rather liked this idea, as it gave me a good copout for avatars; why go to all the trouble of creating a body on "Earth" and infusing it with some of your divine essence (now get 20 oz for the price of 16 oz!) when you can ake the economical route of filling one of your servants near to bursting with power, have them do your bidding of their own bidding! What could be cooler?

 

 

*Who then proceded to describe his entire game system to me; does this sort of thing happen to you Steve? I mean, at least with you, there's a chance in Hell it'll get published; I'm just a gamer geek.