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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8145543" data-attributes="member: 42582">PCs of faithI've just come back home from a run. As I was running past a glass building and admiring my middle-aged physique I was moved to reflect on differences and the connections between me and Thurgon, Last Knight of the Iron Tower (my Burning Wheel PC).Thurgon has the Faithful trait. As a result he has a Faith attribute that has a rating, just the same as his ability scores. Consistent with the rules of the game, he also has a Belief that expresses his Faith: The Lord of Battle will lead me to glory.There are different ways to think about knights of holy orders. My main influences are actual history, where (eg) some Crusaders clearly had strong beliefs about the possibility and reality of providential revelations and happenings; and the film Excalibur, which is my favourite version of the Arthur stories.Thurgon believes in providence. The Lord of Battle will lead him to glory is one expression of that overarching understanding of the world. It would be hugely disruptive to the immersion in the play of this character for all the events that happen in the fiction - like finding tooked-for towers, or meeting looked-for brothers - to be dictated by an external force (eg mere random rolls; dispassionate GM worldbuilding) that has no connection to the inner life, struggles and convictions of the faithful.This is one way in which I think classic D&D, though it is replete with religious tropes, is very poor at actually capturing some important interpretations and understandings of what those tropes really mean.</blockquote>

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