From: Alex Ferguson (alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Sun 15 May 1994 - 19:12:05 EEST
> I'm trying to explain to Alex and those who agree with him why it is
> that I and a number of other people cringe at the "one cult, one god"
> concept.
Cringe if you must, but please, not at that particular sound-bite, which seems to have arisen purely from Joerg "summarising" what I said. If you really want me to utter an anti-pantheon slogan, what about "one cult, fewer than 250 gods"?
> The plowman who also acts as the keeper of the grainary must join
> Barntar and Asrelia in addition to Orlanth in order to fulfil his cult
> and social duties.
I really don't see that that's true. If the community is so small (or uninterested) that only 1/2 a person bothers worshipping Asrelia in any specific, at all committed way, I think it's a bit optimistic to expect vast quantities of effective Asrelia rune magic to flood in, whatever the RQ:AiG (RIP) rules have to say about temple sizes. That this hypothetical person would attend worship of both, say prayers to both, etc., I don't doubt.
> The wandering killing machine only needs to join
> Humakt, or Urox, or Orlanth Adventurous.
Powergaming players isn't really my first worry, I was expressing the concern that the "built-in safeguards" Joerg mentions to prevent it, were of the "referee as local priest saying no" variety, there being nothing _apparent_ in the mechanics of what's been proposed to prevent someone joining, to use your example, all three of the above, at no real extra cost, for benefits which shouldn't be scoffed at.
> Additionally, the tendency that RQ GMs and
> players have to design new, more interesting cults for adventurers as
> frameworks for newer and more bloodthirsty characters has aggravated
> this tendency, and made for a game where wandering killers have an
> easier time staying pious than stable farmers.
Well, this is really a problem of campaign focus (and publication focus, if it fails to match up). I don't think there's an inherent bias in the rules as such, though it might look that way if you compare farmers with six separate jobs with the stereotypically monomaniac killer.
> Is that enough of a reason to change the "one cult, one god" paradigm?
Not until the cure is less fatal than the disease.
Alex.
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