Mythic Britain - Christian religious magic

[Thot]

In Mythic Britain, you have a 1/10 chance (at most) of succeeding at calling either the help of God or the help of saint as a Christian priest. The latter is limited and boils down to working a theistic miracle from the list of those of the saint in question, the former is basically unlimited.

Now, why would I ever, as a Christian priest, ask for a miracle from a saint, when I can have the same chance of success for a much more open and much more powerful help from Himself?

Sure, the saints can be called upon by any Christian, not just priests. But all in all, it seems I am missing something here?

Edited June 14, 2019 by Thot

[lawrence.whitaker]

Quote

Now, why would I ever, as a Christian priest, ask for a miracle from a saint, when I can have the same chance of success for a much more open and much more powerful help from Himself?

Because you're a pious and superstitious priest who feels more comfortable invoking the name of a saint rather than the name of God. You may feel you have a more direct and intimate relationship with a saint than with the Almighty. You might be terrified of incurring God's wrath for daring to invoke his glory - whereas saints are more approachable.

Basically, the reasons are individual, personal, and founded on belief than on game mechanics.

[Thot]

Thanks!

Hm, I see. Personally, I prefer a bit more mechanical support for that, so I'll probably just drop the rate of direct godly intervention to basically "roll 01 on D100, and you succeed".

[lawrence.whitaker]

1 hour ago, Thot said:

Thanks!

Hm, I see. Personally, I prefer a bit more mechanical support for that, so I'll probably just drop the rate of direct godly intervention to basically "roll 01 on D100, and you succeed".

You can certainly do that - it won't break anything - but it might be more effective to perhaps use the Christian Passion %, and rule that unless the priest has Christian Passion of at least 80%, only saints can be called upon.

Personally though, I prefer to use roleplaying and character to regulate these sorts of circumstances, rather than game mechanics.

[Thot]

1 hour ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

You can certainly do that - it won't break anything - but it might be more effective to perhaps use the Christian Passion %, and rule that unless the priest has Christian Passion of at least 80%, only saints can be called upon.

 

Hm, you'd prefer an accessibility limitation over a general downtuning of the Mythic Britain Christian God's direct involvement? I'll have to think about that...

1 hour ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

Personally though, I prefer to use roleplaying and character to regulate these sorts of circumstances, rather than game mechanics.

Hm, well, I'll probably drop the "watching a miracle" rules entirely for a similar reason. In my games, the player should rule what the character believes, not the dice.

[lawrence.whitaker]

Quote

Hm, you'd prefer an accessibility limitation over a general downtuning of the Mythic Britain Christian God's direct involvement? I'll have to think about that..

Yes, because miracles worked through invoking a saint and invoking God are more or less the same: it's all God's power; it merely flows differently. 

[g33k]

Perhaps just say your prayer is answered by a Saint (no matter whether you call upon the saint, upon Jesus, or upon the Father in Heaven), UNLESS you roll a Crit... In which case the limitless power of the Almighty gives you a Big Reply (again, without regard to whether you ASKED for the Almighty to step in).

As Loz says, it's all God's power... Isn't it really up to God (the roll of the dice, unless the GM steps in) whether He answers directly, or has one of His saints do it?

This gives the RP'ing "I feel more comfy chatting with my local saint" effect, as relevant to a PC concept.  It eliminates the mechanical incentive for Praying Big, when the PC is too shy/humble, but the PLAYER sees no reason to go for the Little Prayer.

Edited June 17, 2019 by g33k
Supplementary Role-v-Roll comment