Rules Update: Altars, Fonts, Mass, and Holy Water

Mass

This skill allows a priest to give an organized sermon at an altar dedicated to their Pantheon, or specific god in the case of neutral deities.  The priest must dedicate half time of the mass delivering a sermon, and the remaining time performing religious ceremonies.  All characters participating in the Mass will receive a divine benefit, unless they are a follower of an opposing pantheon, or have received a benefit from participating in a mass for the opposing pantheon that event (Example, a follower of the Light Pantheon will benefit at a Brazen Mass, but not a Mass dedicated to the Dark Gods.  A follower of Chronicler can benefit from a Light or Dark pantheon mass, but not both in one event).  The power of the benefit is determined by the rank of the altar the Mass is performed at. The benefits are as follows:

Divine Benefit Granted	Min. Rank of Altar	Min. Length of Mass
Courage	Rank 1	5 Minutes
Prayer Shield	Rank 2	10 Minutes
Willpower	Rank 3	15 Minutes
Divine Resist	Rank 4	20 Minutes
+5 Minutes to the Serious & Critical stages of death count	Rank 5	25 Minutes

All benefits function as the skill normally does.  Benefits generated by a Mass do not expire at the end of the period, and may be carried over until used.  The skill, if used, does not refresh at period change.

If someone attends more than one Mass, they may not gain a benefit they had already received from any prior mass that weekend. They may choose to take a lesser effect instead (For example, if someone received a Divine Resist from a mass, and later attends attends Mass at a Rank 4 Altar, they may choose to take a Willpower, Prayer Shield, or Courage instead).  The time of the Mass and Deity's name should be written along with the effect when it is noted on the recipient's card. For example: "Divine Resist (Mass, Valos, 10:00 AM Saturday) - GJS #160".

Multiple priests of the same faith (Light or Dark), but of different deities, may participate in the Mass in a joint ceremony, provided they have the Mass skill as well. Each additional priest should speak for an additional 5 minutes, and may then deliver their own benefits.

(Edit: Took out some old text referring to the previous rules I missed.)

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Altars

Altars are focal points for the worship of a deity. Lesser altars are portable, while greater altars are fixed in place. Whatever their form, altars are the central component in performing masses to the deities. An altar must be dedicated to the Light or Dark Pantheon, or a specific neutral deity, and can only be used to celebrate mass and other rites for that specific pantheon or deity.  There are two ways that altars bring the glory of their god to the masses, one through awe inspiring opulence, and the other through the purity of faith itself.  The following table describes the ranks of altars that exist.

Rank 1 2 3 4 5

Base Cost 20g 140g 260g 380g 500g

Upgrade Cost --- 120g 120g 120g 120g

Notes Available one week after purchase. Available one month after purchase. Available two months after purchase. Available three months after purchase. Available four months after purchase.

Rank 1 2 3 4 5

Base Cost 20g 20g + 2 Faith Points 20g + 4 Faith Points 20g + 6 Faith Points 20g + 8 Faith Points

Upgrade Cost --- 2 Faith Points 2 Faith Points 2 Faith Points 2 Faith Points

Notes Available one week after purchase. Available one month after purchase. Available two months after purchase. Available three months after purchase. Available four months after purchase.

All Faith Points invested in this way are permanently lost as a sacrifice to give the Altar it's strength.

First rank Altars are crafted by clergy members and craftsmen dedicated to that deity, such as the Church of Valos in Koromyre, the local Artisan's Guild for Brazen, or underground cult members for the Dark Pantheon. To have your character purchase an Altar or upgrade it, you must contact the Director OOG and make arrangements. Altars are defined by Item Cards which must be signed by the Director. Altars of third rank or greater must be placed in an IG location at the start of an event and cannot be moved for the rest of that event; the item card for the altar should note this limitation when it is written.

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Desecrating Altars

Desecrating an Altar or renders it useless and can reduce the value of its materials to virtually nothing, depending on how much is looted.  To desecrate an Altar requires the presence of someone with the ability to cast that rank or higher prayers (5th Rank Altars would require someone with a higher list).  A Rules Marshal must be present for the entirety of the desecration.

The process of desecrating an altar takes 10 minutes per rank of the Altar and the expenditure of 10FP per rank of the Altar (10FP are to be expended every ten minutes, even if the desecration is interrupted; the 10FP cost can be broken up among multiple priests or clerics).  If the process is uninterrupted, after the time is spent, the structure is reduced in rank by one, and the looters may recover valuables equal to 1/2 the cost of obtaining that rank (i.e. - if it takes 120 gold to go from a Rank 4 to a Rank 5, 60 gold can be recovered when it is dropped from 5th back to 4th; in the case of a Spiritual Altar the head desecrating Priest will gain 1 Permanent Faith Point).  The remaining half of the Altar's value is still present, but does not count towards the rank of the Altar (See below for repairing a desecrated Altar).

The item card for the altar should be noted to indicate how badly it has been desecrated and how much value (in gold or Faith Points) was removed, if any. When the altar is repaired or rebuilt, a new card will be issued. Looted materials should be written up as item cards, split into as many increments of whole gold pieces as the looters desire; the cards should indicate that they are religious materials and to what deity they are devoted – though it should be noted that identifying the deity requires the skill Lore: Religious.

Altars that are desecrated can be rebuilt to their former ranks, at a cost of one half the normal cost of upgrading the altar to its former rank (i.e. - replacing the missing value that was looted). The waiting period for rebuilding is one quarter the normal time for a new altar of the same rank.

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Fonts

Fonts no longer have a rank.  A normal Font costs 25 gold, and may not be desecrated or destroyed, although it may be moved or stolen.  Fonts are dedicated to the Light Pantheon, Dark Pantheon, or to a specific Neutral Deity.  Existing Rank 1 Fonts may be exchanged for a new Font, higher ranks will be exchanged for a new Font, and the difference in cost refunded to the owning character.

All skills, rituals, and effects that currently require holy water no longer have this requirement.  Clerics and Priests are encouraged to use "Blessed Water" as a role-playing tool while using these skills.  All current Holy Water cards are invalid.

The Sacrament prayer Consecrate has been revised as follows:

Consecrate
1 FP; Traits: None
This prayer can be used to create a holy symbol, holy water, or to bless other objects used in mass rites. In addition, it can be used to baptize a character to the caster's deity.  Using this prayer on a Font of the appropriate pantheon or deity allows the priest to create one vial of Holy Water.  A character may only create one vial of Holy Water an event, regardless of the number of fonts they have access to.

Holy Water (Added in the Clergy Rules, under Altars & Fonts)
One Vial of Holy Water will do "25 Divine" damage to undead or extra-planar creatures of the opposing alignment of the water's deity; Holy Water of neutral gods can only harm undead.  Anyone (regardless of their own faith or the skills they possess) may throw a vial of any deity's holy water, represented as a spell packet.

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Update:
Alchemy delivered by a spell packet no longer requires the skill Thrown Weapon to use.

Something to note for veteran players, regarding Mass:

All of the benefits are now Skills, and not Prayers.

What this means, is that they can be stacked & called normally, without any exceptions to the rules, in the way the old Mass rules worked.  So it's no longer a Mass Resist, or a Mass Aid, or such - all of the benefits (other than the +5 Min bonus) are tag skills.

Hopefully this will make things easier to note, and call in combat, making things easier on everyone.

When creating holy water via consecration, what is the game mechanic?

Does one write on an item card "Light Pantheon holy water" along with the period, date, and priest's OOG initials and CC#?

I'll have Holy Water cards printed up for that purpose - it'll be one per card, similar to Alchemy.

Does holy water ever expire?

Has Holy Oil been officially removed from the game?

If I read this correctly, characters who are not baptized to any god are now able to gain the benefits of a Mass?

Also, the Thrown Weapon skill is only for actual weapons now since Alchemical substances delivered by spell packet (such as Fire Bombs) no longer require that skill to deliver the attack?

Matt - Holy Water does not expire.  Yes, you can stockpile it.

Daimen - Correct on both accounts.  Non-Baptized individuals receive the benefits now, and the Thrown Weapon skill is now only used for actual Thrown Weapons.

Tom - What is Holy Oil?  There's nothing in the rules about it anywhere.

Thanks, much appreciated  :)

There use to be Holy Oil item that functioned like oil of searing heat.

Long ago I had a Holy Oil of Valos vial, but it traded hands.

From your reaction, I'm guessing this is not the case anymore.

Those would have been special cases / one-shot items - they were never cannon, that I know of.  They would need to be validated by James.

I love the new altar system fyi. One question for right now.

Can you mix and match upgrade types?  Example:  Lets say i spend 120g to upgrade my altar to rank 2.  Can I then after the required period of time, spend 20g+2 perm FP to upgrade to rank 3?

Once you upgrade your altar past Rank 1, it must be one or the other, not a mix.

The holy oil was from a mod and one shot Tom.

And dam you guys were all right Shatlok is really dumb.

Update:

In the attempt to give the followers of neutral deities a bit of a boost, we accidentally allowed unbaptized charcaters to receive the benefits of a mass.  This was not intended.  I'll take blame for the mistake - one of my revisions in cleaning up the wording allowed this, and we didn't catch it until after the fact.

We still want to give that boost to the followers of neutral deities, while maintaining the requirement that you must be baptized to receive the effects of a mass.  The following updates will apply:

1) Characters attending a mass will only receive a benefit if the mass is of their own deity, or a member of their deity's pantheon, in the case of light and dark.  (There is no more crossing between Light and Dark, and the Neutral deities, in either direction).
2) Multiple preists of the same deity may now assist each other with a mass, and may deliver an additional sermon for 5 minutes to deliver an additional benefit.  This had been previously restricted to differing deities in the same pantheon - now, multiple priests of the same deity may do this (2 Valosians and an Andorran, 3 Brazenites, etc.).
3) Mass is periodic - this resolves a discrepancy where it was listed as periodic in one place, and per event in another.  (Before you get any ideas, remember that you can still only receive each benefit once per weekend. )
4) A loophole allowing a 5 minue mass to be followed by 5 minute add-on mass granting the same benefit as a 25 minute mass has been closed.

The new wording follows:

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Mass

This skill allows a priest, or multiple priests, to give an organized sermon at an altar dedicated to their pantheon, or specific god in the case of neutral deities.  The priest must dedicate half time of the mass delivering a sermon, and the remaining time performing religious ceremonies.  All characters participating in the mass will receive a divine benefit, provided they are baptized to the same deity that the priest giving the mass follows, or a member of the same pantheon (Light or Dark).  The power of the benefit is determined by the rank of the altar the mass is performed at, and the length of the mass. The benefits are as follows:

Divine Benefit Granted	Min. Rank of Altar	Min. Length of Mass
Courage	Rank 1	5 Minutes
Prayer Shield	Rank 2	10 Minutes
Willpower	Rank 3	15 Minutes
Divine Resist	Rank 4	20 Minutes
+5 Minutes to the Serious & Critical stages of death count	Rank 5	25 Minutes

All benefits function as the skill normally does.  Benefits generated by a mass do not expire at the end of the period, and may be carried over until used.  The skill, if used, does not refresh at period change.

If someone attends more than one mass, they may not gain a benefit they had already received from any prior mass that weekend. They may choose to take a lesser effect instead (For example, if someone received a Divine Resist from a mass, and later attends attends mass at a Rank 4 altar, they may choose to take a Willpower, Prayer Shield, or Courage instead).  The time of the mass should be written along with the effect when it is noted on the recipient's card. For example: "Divine Resist (Mass, 10:00 AM Saturday) - GJS #160".

Multiple priests of the same deity, or of the same pantheon (Light or Dark), may participate in the mass in a joint ceremony, provided they use the skill Mass as well. Each additional priest should speak for an additional 5 minutes, and may then deliver their own benefit, provided it is of a lesser time & altar requirement than the initial benefit granted (i.e. - you cannot deliver a 5 minute Mass and grant a Courage, and then deliver an additional 5 minute mass to deliver a Divine Resist).

So no baptized no benefit    stupid religion