How to empower Deities? Worship points?

[fusangite]

In RuneQuest, "worship" was a voluntary act, which temporarily reduced the worshipper(s) Will POWer by one... This POW went directly to the deity, who could use it as they willed...

I thought it was creamed-off by the intermediary. Didn't priests get POW gain rolls through temple worship? I never got any sense that gods gained any direct benefit from worship beyond having people to work for them in the terrestrial sphere.

 

[Steverooo]

Of course, an alternate explanation is that "worship" is an hour's worth of quiet meditation upon, or following the strictures of, the deity and/or domain. Thus, an hour's obedience adds 1 POW to the deity of Obedience, while an hour's contemplation of the sea (or fishing, sailing, etc.) is also worth 1 POW to a Sea deity. Same effect.

The Sea deity will be hard to kill, as long as people go down to the sea to swim, fish, sail, or just watch the waves. If all of these stopped, he could also die!

 

[Steverooo]

I thought it was creamed-off by the intermediary. Didn't priests get POW gain rolls through temple worship? I never got any sense that gods gained any direct benefit from worship beyond having people to work for them in the terrestrial sphere.

In RQ2, there was no POW gain roll for Priests, that I'm aware of (but then I never played one). POW was sacrificed to the deity, according to the flavor text.

 

[thalmin]

FWIW, the book Joe told you about, Primal Order, was one of the first products published by a then-new third tier company: Wizards of the Coast, so there is hope it may be used in some future product for D&D. Also, I have seen it pop up in a few auctions. I will keep my eyes peeled for it.

 

[fusangite]

In RQ2, there was no POW gain roll for Priests, that I'm aware of (but then I never played one). POW was sacrificed to the deity, according to the flavor text.

Hmmm... I'm trying to remember -- I only have RQ3 texts left. Was the POW something you gave up or something the deity gained. Obviously, burnt meat wasn't something that empowered Jehovah in Leviticus; it was just something his worshippers gave up.

 

[JoeGKushner]

FWIW, the book Joe told you about, Primal Order, was one of the first products published by a then-new third tier company: Wizards of the Coast, so there is hope it may be used in some future product for D&D. Also, I have seen it pop up in a few auctions. I will keep my eyes peeled for it.

I could be wrong, but I thought after the Hasbro buy out, that the author bought Primal Order lock stock and barrel from them.

 

[devilish]

Now, build a "cost" for your deity to do things, and assume each convert yields 1D3 POW/week... If a first level spell costs 1 POW, then that's all the deity can give the Cleric, if he is the only worshipper. Further, since this isn't the deity's plane, the cost is increased by 1 POW per plane (or level of plane) between the deity and the Cleric (which explains why deities don't interfere on other planes as often).
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Sound usable?

Excellent! This is what I'm looking for (and was just hoping
it had been done before, like in Primal Order). I wasn't clear
in my first message and you read my mind!

The cleric has been cut off from his deity and (forgot to mention
in the 1st message) is paniced about not being able
to cast spells above 3rd level -- I was hoping for a numeric
system that could be used to allow him to reconnect to his
deity so that he can get higher level spells.

So if he could get (making up these numbers) 200 people to
worship, his god could give him 1 4th level spell, 300 then 2 4th or
1 5th, etc.

To fusangite's point, it wouldn't have to be for the entire pantheon
of this plane, just for this character to make contact.

The benefit of having it as a numerical system would be the
eventual conflict of the gods of the plane saying "Hey, who the
heck is this Odin-person that muscling in on our territory ..."
The numbers could also determe that Odin, while a Greater God in one plane,
could be statted as a demi-god on this plane......eventually
making an interesting Deites & Demigods/Epic kind of campaign later
that those 3rd edition books were shooting for. ("Now, if I can
just spread the word to this continent, Odin would be raised to
Lesser God status and can take on Foo, the god of Bar....")

 

[devilish]

Gods' existence is much more normally contingent upon the thing/principle to which they are attached. The god of Mount Fuji is contingent on the mountain; if you hurt it, you hurt the god. So, I could accept a god of obedience dying from lack of observance/worship but not the god of the sea.

Good point. I'm straddling the line between the 2 camps :
1st Edition "Deities have hit points, power points, etc.") and 2nd Edition ("Deities just ARE -- their avatars have hit points, etc. but you can never challenge the god themselves." ) Both theories are valid as long as
you pick one and stick with it.
My issue is that I'm looking for a game mechanic for play as per my prior msg.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Spacefarer's Handbook 2E Spelljammer

I think it was the Spacefarer's Handbook for 2E Spelljammer that had a "Shrine" you could take that could boost the power granted to clerics over the spheres. Perhaps something similar can help you for this.

 

[grodog]

I could be wrong, but I thought after the Hasbro buy out, that the author bought Primal Order lock stock and barrel from them.

Peter Adkison does in fact own TPO, though I'm not sure whether he owns the rights to all of the books. I've approached him about republishing TPO in d20, as have several other publishers, apparently: he's interested, but is working too hard on GenCon stuff to pursue actively a reprint at this time :/

I'll email him, perhaps things have changed since we chatted last....