Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7508446" data-attributes="member: 29398">I think they precisely say the GM has that power, should she choose to use it.Let's unpack the bit of the Basic PDF I left in the above quote, that you claim allows the player to determine the relationship.Did you enter this service willingly?  If yes, your PC has cast its fate to the whims and desires of its deity, a.k.a. the DM.  If no, then you're saying the character is already acting under external duress, which could be anything; and if the player doesn't provide something then the DM will have to.Did the god choose you, impelling you into service with no regard for your wishes?" This one's a sub-set question of a 'no' answer* to the previous question.  If yes, then you're on a divine railroad of your own choice (remember, it's the player who is choosing the answer(s) to this(these) question(s)).  If no, this question is kinda meaningless.* - unwilling service can come from a bunch of reasons, usually involving fleeing or avoiding a worse situation elsewhere.  The deity itself hauling you in is just one possibility of many.How do the temple priests of your faith regard you: as a champion or a troublemaker? This one's excellent, and the answer will help shape the character's alignment/ethos/whatever.  There needs to be a corollary question, however: Do you believe your deity regards you the same way?.  In any case, this question has little to no bearing on whether obligations wil arise or not.What are your ultimate goals?  Every character probably needs to answer this one at some point, Clerics are no different, though I suspect if one of the answers comes back as "To never do anything my deity tells me to" might not work out very well. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Does your deity have a special task in mind for you? Or are you striving to prove yourself worthy of a great quest?  These two go together.  Yes to either gives the DM free rein to at some point have such special task or great quest arise in the game, the only difference being timing: in the first 'yes' the player's saying the task is already in place (and thus can come up soon if desired) while in the second 'yes' the player's saying she wants a lead-up story first - the striving bit - and then the quest later.  In either case the ball's in the DM's court; as while a player can answer 'yes' to either of these questions she cannot then go on to specify what said task or quest might be. (if she could the question What would it be? would immediately follow; but it's not there, and its absence is telling)  'No' to both doesn't tell anyone very much.</blockquote>

Verification