In the main rulebook, it says that PCs have d10 for all their primary statistics. In the Celestial Gardens, it claims that deities have NO stats unless they manifest them as a miracle.

I'm cool with either way, but which is the 'official' interpretation?

When gods incarnate on the known world they have d10's for their stats but in the celestial realm I believe they have no stats unless they manifest them as a miracle. At least that's what I remember but I'm just the art director. I'll let Richard know of your post and he'll know for sure.

Joe is correct here. D10 stats on the Known World as you spend 1 belief to manifest in a mortal form. In the Celestial Gardens everything is spirit stuff, very metaphysical so there is no need for a body.

From what I've read, every change to the spirit realm is a struggle to maintain as desired, and does nothing to benefit you, though some of those changes may be needed for followers you have dragged there for some purpose. But along the lines I can understand needing a stat to use in the celestial realm (combat, contests of will), the New God's Handbook points out conflicts in the spirit realms are costly and usually unsatisfying for either side. So why, except as a role playing moment, would you have need of any traits (like body, mind, or spirit) in the Celestial Gardens? Does anything in the spirit realm have stats that you, a god, would be in contention with and could not just blast to vapor with as much or less belief than pumping a stat into existence?

I guess what I'm asking is, while having the rules about giving yourself stats in the Celestial Garden are nice, why do we need them?

Varchild

You are absolutely correct. You do not need the stats. You have stated eloquently what I meant to say earlier.

But the main thing about this game is choice. I want to make sure if you play this game, we are not putting you into a corner with no choice. This is not a rules heavy game. But the rules that exists are there for you to use or throw away at your lesiure. Heck we give you optional rules so you can style the game to your type of play.

Some people like to use stats no matter where they are. Some people do not.

Some people like New York Strip Steak. Some like Sailsbury Steak.

Overall I am happy you picked up a copy and read the game!

I'm a big proponent of reading the game materials. I know several people who no matter what game it is, they don't bother to read anythign about it, either as players or as GMs, and then they try and run it. Not exactly a fun situation when that happens.

I see the point of some folks likeing the rules and some folks not needing them. I do like that the rules are available. Although I think if I run a game of it before anyone else, I may only charge 1 Belief in the spirit realm, like I would in the known world, to manifest with d10 for all stats no matter where the god is, and pump it from there.
Or is that how it is already? Don't know myself; I haven't gotten to that material yet.

Out of curiosity, if you didn't want to appear in the known world at d10 stats, but rather say... d6 stats for some reason, it would still cost you 1 Belief right? No discount for sacrifice?

Out of curiosity, if you didn't want to appear in the known world at d10 stats, but rather say... d6 stats for some reason, it would still cost you 1 Belief right? No discount for sacrifice?

Unfortunatly no, there is nothing less than 1 Belief for this action. All miracles cost a min of 1 Belief.

There are some free actions (such as coming down to the Known World in Spirit Form, looking at your followers and seeing what they are up to, listening to prayers), but when you interact down there (such as casting a miracle or manifesting) it will cost you.

I don't particularly need stats in the Celestial Realm. My concern is roleplaying interactions such as:
I'm walking the plains of Strife near the Fortress of Ralmos to pick up the fallen souls of warriors from my recent conflict with some salamanders. Oops. There are some salamander souls there from the same battle, and they don't like me very much. If I understand the rules correctly, unless I spend Belief they pin me down, skin me, and torture me for a year until the new Belief rolls in.

In this situation, may I manifest for 1 point, or is it an Alteration miracle?

Yes you can,

And if you want to just simply "go away" you can. Gods can move instantaenously from their celestial home to their followers in the Known World and the celestial gardens in the blink of an eye. And this costs nothing. So if they are coming you can blink out if you can see them beforehand.

Now if you are distracted, or being assulted by a miracle you might get ambushed. Then sure you might want to mainfest into a more solid spirit.

The main reason I see for having stats in the CG or elsewhere in the spirit realm would be roleplaying. What if I want to challenge another god to a friendly wrestling match, a miracle duel, or a contest of wit and riddles? Need stats to resolve those right?

That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. So really clashes and contests in the celestial realms come down to raw power and creativity, and roleplaying. I actually love the fact that this game focuses on roleplaying over ruleslawyering.