Hi Midaea,
I will do my best to answer your questions.
- Quote :
- In the conflict example, a god has some 'particularly devout' priests with D6+2 Spirit. That's all fine and dandy, but... umm... how?
Usually this is done with miracles. Here is the book.
An Alteration is any Miracle that enhances or degrades an existing resource (befuddling the mind of a group of hunters, golden armor magically appearing on a band of warriors), while an Innovation is any Miracle that creates or destroys a resource (a castle rises from the ground, a lightning bolt striking the enemy king). The distinction is easy to make during conflict resolution—Alterations increase or decrease dice sizes, while Innovations grant dice or destroy/cancel dice. Outside conflict resolution the same metrics are used to determine which is which, the final decision being up to the GM.
So with this you can give your priest bonuses. You can go up to 1/2 of your base die value in bonuses. These die bonuses can also come in the form of skills or special attributes.
We plan to work on a book for followers of the gods describing the bonuses and skills. In fact if you look through the forum you will find some rules on technology hidden there made up for the campaign. Look in the campaign forum.
The second question looks like a misread. I had to reread it again myself to figure it out. But from what I see there are two miracles places. One alters the shadows aroun him to form a cloak around the hero for a d8 effect. There was no prior die on this. The other one is significant due to the upgrade of the size of the unit, not the die type. Marcus starts off wth a d8 which does not change. What does change is how many units he can fight. His scale is now of a household which is ten.
Here is the section from the book:
Barok would like to make the Miracle legendary, but doubts he can spare the Belief, so he instead makes it significant. A significant alteration has a base cost of 4. (Looking at the “Miracle’s and Conflicts” sidebar, Barok’s player notes that a significant Miracle has a base die size of d8 in conflicts. So, when someone else is trying to see Marcus, Marcus will roll a d8 against the observer’s Mind roll to sneak by him—not great, but hopefully good enough.)
Barok then looks at the elements that go into this Miracle’s cost factor. He lists these as follows:
Duration: Permanent (hero); +3.
Domain: The Miracle falls within Barok’s domain as God of the Night; –2.
Inclinations: The Miracle is a creation Miracle, with which Barok is in balance; +0.
Location: Barok empowers Marcus in his own city; +0.
Scale: Individual (the Miracle affects only Marcus); +0.
Total: +1.
So, the total cost for this Miracle is 4 (the base cost) x 1 (the multiplier for a cost factor of 1) = 4. Barok congratulates himself on thinking of such an inexpensive Miracle.
Barok then moves on to the Miracle that grants Marcus superhuman fighting skill. He doesn’t have much Belief to spare, so he’d like Marcus to be the equivalent of 10 veteran soldiers. Though that’s not enough to make him a real threat on a battlefield, it should allow him to deal with any squads of guards he encounters during his assassination missions.
Veteran fighters roll d8s in conflicts, so consulting the “Miracles and Conflicts” sidebar, Barok’s player sees that the Miracle will again be significant, so another significant alteration, which has a base cost of 4. Barok’s player then determines the Miracle’s cost factor.
Duration: Permanent (hero); +3.
Domain: The Miracle does not fall within Barok’s domain as God of the Night; +0.
Inclinations: The Miracle is a transformation Miracle, with which Barok is in harmony; –1.
Location: Barok empowers Marcus in his own city; +0.
Scale: Household (Marcus is the equivalent of 10 soldiers); +1.
Total: +3.
Barok’s player then consults Table #–6: Cost Factor Multiplier and sees that a cost factor of 3 means he has to multiply the base cost by 4. So, the total cost for this Miracle is 4 (the base cost) x 4 (the multiplier for a cost factor of 3) = 16.
Barok combines the cost of these two Miracles (4 + 16) and determines that Marcus’s total cost in Belief is 20—a bit expensive for a new god, but certainly affordable. Of course, Barok will have to pay additional Belief every year to keep Marcus around, but he hopes that he’ll be getting more Belief as Marcus slays his rivals’ priests and Barok converts their followers.
Hope this helps