Shameless reblogging

Those of you who are my longtime readers (what few of you may be left...) know that one of my perpetual bugbears (as opposed to actual bugbears, of which I am quite fond) has been the archetype and role of the cleric in a setting. And while I'm not alone in this, it's always nice to get a little reminder that others think about it a lot too, as Anders has over at Mythlands-Erce. Go give his post some love.

I'm still not quite up to blogging regularly, but I do have some things that, I hope, will be ready for primetime that I can share soon. Maybe that will be the start I need for further work in the near future.

In Defense of Crystal Dragon Jesus

I decided to consult with some external perspectives on the matter that's been eating at me this week. And so far I've gotten a good amount of response, both at RPGnet and TheRPGSite (Reddit has been more lukewarm). Over on RPGnet, Aaron Peori said this:

If you're going to have a European fantasy pastiche that looks like Europe you need a centralized, hierarchical, institutionalized religious authority that exists in a constant state of detente with secular Kings and feudal lords. Whether this Church is going to have monks and nuns and rosaries and convents and cathedrals is really just set dressing; though having those things is a damn sight easier than creating whole new set dressing out of nowhere.

 And by gum, I think he's right.

With this in mind I may yet learn to love Crystal Dragon Jesus-- and Its clerics-- after all.

Rethinking my energy drain house rules

I dunno, I feel like they were a bit too fiddly and specific, maybe? I'm thinking it might be simpler to just do like my good pal Randall Stukey does in Microlite74. (Except for vampires draining CON because I maintain that makes the most sense and is also fucking cool).

Energy Drain: An attack that would ordinarily drain a character's level instead deals 1d6 damage and imposes a cumulative -1 penalty on all attack, saving, and proficiency/ability throws. If the penalty exceeds the character's level, she dies. 1 point of energy drained is recovered every L days where L is equal to the hit dice of the monster that drained the energy level.