Umbral Domains: Old World of Darkness - True Faith

True Faith

Faith can include belief and/or knowledge. However the focus of that belief or knowledge is generally either subtle, intangible, or not directly directly experienced at the moment. But just believing or knowning isn't enough for the experience to be True Faith. There has to be an element of purpose. And True Faith involves both trusting the validity of the belief/knowledge and attention to the purpose behind it.

However, this trust in and attention to the focus of faith doesn't directly give you the ability to exercise your will as you see fit (the way Arete would). But it does keep your eyes open to possible outcomes of events that would further the purpose associated with your faith.

Mechanics

This openness to the possabilities of their faith and dilligence in striving toward it's goals gives characters an extra die on any rolls that directly relate to the pursuit of their faith's focus. Any actions that aren't in directly used in these pursuits don't get the die.

Similarly any action that denies the validity of their beliefs (ie. going against tenants or spirit of their creed, etc.) hurts the character's faith. Hurt faith can be recovered, but generally after an act of abandoning faith the next two or three important rolls that relate to their faith focus do not get the extra die of benefit. In fact having lost their faith even temporarily may shake up a character enough that they might even take a 1 die penalty on any rolls they would have gained a bonus on before.

Contests may occasionally take place directly between a character's True Faith and external supernatural forces. These typically include activities such as driving away opposed spirits and beings such as vampires. Which entities are driven off depends largely on how the various beings fit into the faithful character's ethos.

To accomplish this the faithful character typically speaks a command including an invocation to the focus of their belief, brandishes a symbol of their faith, and/or makes appropriate symbolic gestures of some sort. The supernatural opponent of the faithful must then make a Willpower check with a difficulty equal to their enemy's True Faith traits +6. If the supernatural opponent gains three successes on this check they can remain unhindered. Fewer successes indicate they must spend a point of temporary Willpower each round they wish to remain, while zero successes forces them to route.

Characters weilding certain relics or particularly potent symbols of their faith may gain a bonus when brandishing these against such opponents. The benefits provided by such relics generally do not assist with other uses of True Faith however.

A Faith die may also be used in perception related checks in trying to "see the good in people" or to realize the subtle way in which Gaia might be at work even in the midst of a Pentex lab. In fact a Storyteller might even want to limit faith dice to such preceptional rolls. The idea being that faith gives you the insight into how a situation could take a more positive turn or how your abilities might help it do so, possibly through some incredibly unusual (ie. "miraculous") means, but it's up to you to see it through and actually do the work.

Additional Faith dice might possibly be obtained, but the cost increases as with attributes, etc. (ie. 1st die = 7 points, 2nd die = 14 points, etc.). Characters with more than 1 faith die are not very common and those with 3 or more are almost unheard of. Also those with greater numbers of faith dice incur proportionately longer and greater penalties when they abandon their faith.

--Peter K. 20:23, 2 June 2006 (PDT)