11 thoughts on “Looking at the Cleric closely.”

  4. It just means that I want to subscribe to this post to get email notifications when people reply. I don’t have anything meaningful to add to the post so I signal my intent with “/sub”.

  5. Both Christopher Stone-Bush. Lets say the diety domain is Healing & Restoration and the petition Personal Victory. I gave some examples but the wife thinks I have it all wrong. So we need a third party to settle it =P

  6. Well, what examples did you give, and why did your wife say they were wrong? I’m asking because, like most things in Dungeon World, I feel there is no “officially” right or wrong answer. It’s up to how you/the player interpret things.

  8. My advise to her was to get creative with using Divine Guidance. She asked how. I explained that my take was that she needed to obtain a personal victory to please her deity, in turn being granted special knowledge or a boon. My examples focused on getting a boon.

    Example 1: You enter the battlefield. Your party of three is facing off against 8 combatants. You swear to Robot Joseph Smith that you will undertake a trial in this fight. Your goal is to heal with a single spell three times without losing it, essentially three 10+ results. You will put yourself at great risk to heal whoever needs it on the field of battle. I said if you can do this then you may petition your deity to fully heal an ally of your choice or fix a narrative injury (i.e. broken arm, dislocated shoulder, etc…).

    She said this sounds like your giving your deity an if/else scenario. I’ll do this if you give me this. I argue you aren’t saying if before hand. You’re doing greatness in their name. By setting cool goals for yourself this part of your character will see lots of usage and add to the fun.

    Example 2: I said your two companions are lying at death’s door, though they haven’t addressed Last Breath yet, after being defeated by your nemesis Mr. Non-believer. You shout to the heavens that you will erase this blight from the world of the living. Should I succeed and not perish myself, please take pity on my companions by restoring their life. I described a short but epic battle (worthy of song) and the foe fell. A mighty laughter erupted from the heavens, a huge wispy hand lowered from the clouds above and you jumped to meet it, connecting in a righteous and well earned high five. Thunder erupts from the connection and zaps your lifeless friends, restoring life to their not-so-epic existence.

    Again, she made the same argument. What do you guys think? I like to think of this as a great way to push yourself to do things worthy of song and story. Should you complete it, surely your God will reward you for being the essence of Awesome.

    Thoughts?

  9. It’s definitely not an if/else scenario. Betting on the dice? That’s not a thing that happens. 

    Either you point to a fulfillment of your religion’s precepts that’s already extant and your deity response, or you ask your deity for a boon in their domain and they make demands of you, according to the precept of your religion. I can see it going either way.

    But I’d stop short of setting both the stakes and the odds. One of those is in the GM’s camp.

  10. Huh. That does sound like an “If I do X, my deity will do Y.” Interesting.

    I always thought it was a bit more spontaneous. For example, if their Petition is Personal Victory, the Cleric could perform a ceremony to their god after a particularly hard fight where they bested a very powerful opponent. If their Petition was Suffering, they could do the same thing if they suffered some particularly grievous wounds during the fight.

    There’s nothing wrong with the “if/then” way you suggested, I just never assumed the Cleric had to specifically state what they were trying to do before hand. I always figured the Cleric could simply do something in line with their precepts, then claim that as the action needed for Divine Guidance (with the GM’s approval).

    EDIT: Paul Arezina is right though. You shouldn’t do anything mechanical, such as requiring specific dice rolls or moves. Everything should be in fiction.

  11. In Example 2 I guess the reason I was looking at it through that particular lens was because I wanted the player to have the chance to introduce ways that 1) made their faith important and immediately tangible in the fiction, 2) something they could be excited about, and 3) it seems like a golden opportunity for them to inadvertantly show me what kinds of faith based things are exciting or cool to them, regarding their deity/faith. As long as they aren’t abusing it by being a munchkin and it adds to the fiction in a beneficial way, whats the harm? At least that is my mindset going in.

    Paul Arezina and Christopher Stone-Bush I understand the no mechanics, only fiction argument. I will definitely try to view any Example 1 thoughts I have in the future through the fiction lens.

Comments are closed.