How much info on the 'religions'?

jaguar451 · Post by **jaguar451** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 7:16 am

How much info does it have on the 'Religions' themselves? Garb, holy symbols, etc -- background fodder / RP stuff vs stat block and such?

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:38 am

Pretty basic, no where near the info of say the AWESOME "Book of the Righteous" from Green Ronin, or the old 2E Faith and Avatars books.

Still, plenty to make me find it evocative of many adventure ideas, and the most I have ever been excited by a write up of the American Indian mythos.
_________________
The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

Next Con I am attending: http://www.neoncon.com/

My House Rules: http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

Pat Payne · Post by **Pat Payne** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 10:00 pm

Treebore wrote:
Pretty basic, no where near the info of say the AWESOME "Book of the Righteous" from Green Ronin, or the old 2E Faith and Avatars books.

Still, plenty to make me find it evocative of many adventure ideas, and the most I have ever been excited by a write up of the American Indian mythos.

The problem I have with the book is that some of the info is incomplete or inaccurate. Particularly the Roman and Japanese pantheons. Vesta is perhaps the worst of it, as very little of the actual cult (sacred flame of Vesta, Vestal Virgins [and the dire penalty exacted for losing their virginity], holy day of March 1) is actually enumerated. Also, it would have been nice to have seen more of the sweep of Roman religion, including the more general religious laws (I could see a particularly sadistic DM actually enforce the Roman rule that any religious ceremony had to go flawlessly or it wasn't valid -- Octavian himself had to sacrifice a cow three times during his very first ceremony because the winds kept knocking his toga off -- "So, the Pontifex Maximus is about to cast True Resurrection... [rolls dice]... hmmm... well, he used the subjunctive instead of the vocative case in the prayer by accident... you're going to have to start all over and pay another 50,000 gold...")

As for the Japanese pantheon, I am still surprised that Jim Ward left out Amaterasu O-Mi-Kami, the chief of the Shinto pantheon (That's a bit like doing a book on Catholic saints and not including Saint Peter), particularly when he did have her included when he wrote TSR's Deities and Demigods. And again, more information on traditional Japanese religious mores and figures (such as the Shinto focus on purification, as well as the complex web of priesthoods, perhaps even the Imperial cult itself) would have been welcome. And the lack of genuinely Japanese monsters like the Tengu, Oni, Bakemono or Gaki was disappointing too.

Also, I'm still a little disappointed that there still is precious little on interaction between god and worshipper in any concrete sense -- it still is really a enumeration of the god's mythology and a statted avatar for the deity. The only nod is really the header info which includes worshipper taboos, rituals and a cool bonus the worshipper gets for being of the faith. But nothing more substantial than that.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:18 am

Yeah, I agree it could have added a lot more meat. With the power of Google we could build up a link library here for further info for those interested.
_________________
The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

Next Con I am attending: http://www.neoncon.com/

My House Rules: http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 3:09 pm

Well, as the description of the forum states, additional fan material can be added to the existing information and posted here for all to use.

~O
_________________
> Omote's Advanced C&C stuff <
Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society