The Dresden Files > DFRPG

Help with faith

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whitelaughter:
In the books, the original 3 knights of the Cross are descended from the original wielders of the blades, and this is supposed to be important. (real world, everybody is descended from everybody; go back 10 generations and you have 1024 ancestors in that generation, you only have to go back a few millennia to get people from whom *everybody* is descended).

Both books and rule books reference the power of the belief of large numbers of people - the Swords are referred to in the rule book as being a focus for the belief of the 2 billion+ Christians on the planet, Butters gets an upgraded blade thanks to the number of Star Wars fans on the planet. (which would imply that it isn't 'belief' per se, so much as mental interest; perhaps from a rules perspective, the number of Fate points spent on the obsession).
I suspect that who can use the Swords and what actions they will tolerate are dependent on the current beliefs of the people powering them; so that a millennia ago, none of the current wielders would have been acceptable, but the blade would have been quite happy to cut down Nicodemus (as he had just ordered a murder). That would allow for a long term plot of Nicodemus trying to change the Christian worldview sufficiently for him to wield the sword.

g33k:

--- Quote from: Ghostfreak on July 02, 2018, 04:29:38 AM --- ... The reason I asked this question is because the rule book is not exactly clear and concise on the whole belief is its own power. Only that it has to be pure, true, sincere faith.

... How far does this belief stuff go?

--- End quote ---
I believe that both JB and EH intend this to remain ambiguous.

If readers/players want to consider The Almighty as being more-or-less Biblically accurate, and all this "White God" stuff as no more than folks being too frightened to face the Truth... they can do so; and the books (both EH rpg and JB stories) will never absolutely contradict the Good Book.

If readers/players want to consider the White God as a REALLY potent entity mostly by virtue of all those True Believers, the books will never absolutely confirm any "truth" to the "Almighty-ness" of Yahweh/Jehovah.

Either will work as a conceptual framework for reading, or for RP'ing.  The only real problem comes when 2 people in the same game "need" for opposite "truths" to be True in the game...

:)
 

Ghostfreak:
You bring a valuable point. Thank you guys so much, you've made it much easier to consider what sort of thing a character can have faith in. In order to make it a near physical force on the world because I wasn't to sure if I liked how the rule book had it. As it made it extremely iffy. But your wisdom just continues to shine on through. I am glad to get a second opinion on the matter. An unlike others I am not sensitive when it comes to the topic of religion or one's faith. I'd just found it weird that someone can believe in a concept like communism and that gives them justification to get faith powers. Not that there is anything wrong with it; just sounds weird to me.

g33k:

--- Quote from: Ghostfreak on July 05, 2018, 03:35:07 PM ---You bring a valuable point. Thank you guys so much, you've made it much easier to consider what sort of thing a character can have faith in. In order to make it a near physical force on the world because I wasn't to sure if I liked how the rule book had it. As it made it extremely iffy. But your wisdom just continues to shine on through. I am glad to get a second opinion on the matter. An unlike others I am not sensitive when it comes to the topic of religion or one's faith. I'd just found it weird that someone can believe in a concept like communism and that gives them justification to get faith powers. Not that there is anything wrong with it; just sounds weird to me.
--- End quote ---
So long as everyone at the same table has a  same-enough  understanding of the mechanics and the setting, and having fun... everyone at that table is "playing it right."

Even if none of it would have Jim Butcher or Evil Hat say, "yeah, that's right."

vultur:

--- Quote from: Sanctaphrax on July 02, 2018, 11:04:06 PM ---It's not totally clear how True Faith works, but it's definitely not just internal to the believers. The White God, whatever it is, clearly exists and exerts real power through its angels.

--- End quote ---

Well, things like Knights of the Cross are clearly affiliated with actual angelic powers, yeah. So True Faith (the Supernatural Powers category), I'd probably agree. But what counts for faith/holy Catches seems to be broader.

Harry is able to repel Red and Black Court vampires with his faith in magic and its proper use, even though he explicitly doesn't view it as a religion such as Wicca, etc., and he certainly (in game terms) doesn't have any True Faith powers on his character sheet.

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