Skerpies had another mind blowing post on Coins and Scrolls called OSR 1d8 Gonzo Cults in which he lists out 8 cults. The cults are interesting, shocking, and definitely gonzo but it was one cult in particular that got my attention. The Cult of True Healing. And it wasn't the cult so much as a couple of throw away bits about their healing that got me.
Healing Touch. If target is healed over their maximum HP, they must Save or gain a random mutation.I love this so much. Every healing potion should have this as a blowback, make players really consider if its worth topping off. I'd also like some kind of extra points total so if you go over the top by 2 points here and 3 points there the numbers can act as as a penalty against a save why? Fail the save and the Flesh Reborn special ability from the same cult applies, that's why.
Flesh Reborn. On death, becomes a ravening Chaotic Psychoplasm or something equally hideous.Critically fail that save and the Mutation Burst effect occurs.
Mutation Burst. On death, a True Healing Cultist's flesh unknits. 10' radius, 1d4 acid damage, +1d4 acid damage per round until washed. Save to dodge.You don't even need the Cults he lists, these abilities are gold for anyone addicted to healing potions.
Rethinking Clerics and Religion
Swords of Mass Destruction has an interesting post called Rethinking clerics and religion part 1, and Rethinking clerics and religions part 2.
I've always thought D&D blew it on religion when they made Gods, Demigods and Heroes a book of deity stats and not information about how Clerics organized and worshiped. I've written a bit about Cults and Religion under my Cults heading. I mean even polytheism is complicated, Druids, Hindu's and Romans had one set of priests for all gods in the Pantheon with the Hindu's and Romans sub-contracting out Priests to different temples (I assume Greeks were similar to Romans since the Romans copied their Gods); Japanese and Chinese seem to have had different priests for each temple, at least until Buddhism moved in; Babylonian and Aztecs appeared to be polytheistic but they had groups of Gods added on as part of imperial conquest more than a natural growth. Lots of fun potential that nobody has written about game-wise.
Then mix in alignment and you probably see Lawful trending towards monotheism, neutral towards the polytheism with shared priesthoods as mentioned above, and Chaos as a bunch of stand-alone cults with the occasional one growing large and out of control before being put down by everyone else. There is a lot going on with religions without worrying about statblocks for the Gods and D&D missed it. I blame the early rapid growth combined with the satanic panic but still, they've had time and nobody has done much to fix the situation which is sad.
While reading part 2 I had a thought. Gary used to start players off at 3rd level as he found the 1-2 a bit dull. Goodman Games slaughters everyone with the funnel at 0 level to make them earn 1st level status. What if every human started out as multi-class. That is you get 1 free level of any class you like before you begin play. Religious upbringing you get 1st level cleric training. Grew up in the gutters before entering Wizarding schools you can take a level of thief training. If you grew up in your fathers footsteps as a mercenary maybe you start as a 2nd level fighter instead. Just a thought but it gives the character a tad of worthwhile background to start with.
Blog Roll
I've been reading The Alexandrian for awhile and just realized I hadn't included it on my blog roll. It is now added: The Alexandrian. I particularly liked his stuff on open tables, I'll probably directly link a few of those at some point.
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