Religion is an important, intrinsic part of life in the Empire, the pre-eminent human realm of the Old World. Prayers, faith, and belief are woven through the fabric of the Warhammer Fantasy setting. It is such a vital element, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay includes the Tome of Blessings , a book dedicated to exploring religion in the setting.

This diary provides a small excerpt from Chapter One: Faith in the Old World from Tome of Blessings , as well as an overview of how devoted characters invoke blessings. At the end of this diary, be sure to download the invocation example PDF.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=833

very cool!! this is a great way to use religion in a world filled with it!! cant wait to get my hands on this game, frankly im sold on it

Great preview!

I like the magic system you propose for two reasons:

1. Every time you cast a spell you run a risk, as in WFRP2 (although here I'll probably end using the Tzeentch's Curse tables from WFRP2 when the caster rolls Banes).

2. You solve the problem WFRP2 had with "machine gun" spellcasters. I find the mechanic you propose circumvents this problem in a very elegant and imaginative way. From time to time, the caster needs to "recharge" his magical energies praying to his god (I'm guessing the mechanics for arcane magic will be similar) which seems a "realistic" non-gamey mechanic and gives more options for roleplaying situations without artificially limiting the number of spells a caster may cast.

So far, I must say this game is keeping me and my friends very excited... lots of great stuff! The more previews I see, the more I think the game will rock!

I agre with Cogollo, this mechanics is more realistic and better. I also had a maschine spellcaster on my sesions (after 7 sesions he had 21 Curses).

The game looks fantastic and I can't wait to get my hand on it.

Its great that you have to build up favor from the deity. It gives more flavor of the Warrior Priest praying to Sigmar to guide his strike and smite Chaos down ;-).

I like the look of these mechanics, pure and simple.

I hope not all spells/blessings are of the variety used in combat or directly affect stats, with a few more general utility type spells with the results a bit more open to GM interpretation.

As a general principle though, i think this is a good addition to a rule set that so far looks promising; the stance effect on spells/blessings as well as other skills etc is a neat move

Something that always bothered me about 1e and 2e was that Arcane and Divine magic are essentially identical, so I really like this move towards making them distinct from one another. I can already think of some great possibilities with applying a faiths strictures to the Curry Favour mechanic to show that Priests are not just Wizards with different trappings. I like the idea that Priests may need to spend time in prayer or proselytizing in order to perform their "miracles".

One thing that 2e had that I hope makes its way into 3e were the Rituals, though.

For me the centre of a Wizards character is his magic, whatever else he maybe magic is the most important part of his life. With Priests I feel that their Religion is the centre of their lives and the ability to perform magic is just a bonus. So i would rather have seen some more information on how religion is handled than a mechanical breakdown of how to cast a blessing.

But to comment on what was given: I can't see much wrong, I like the idea of Priests being struckdown for being to full of themselves. I like that the blessings do seem to come from the Gods because I have never liked that Elven idea that Human Priests are just Wizards (I was really glad when the Tome of Salvation confimed that Human Priests weren't just Wizards). I think the Curry Favour Action should of had a different name, Communion or Meditation perhaps, because I can already see endless Curry Flavour comments coming about Priests.

yeah the Curry Favor is an odd name but meh its not to bad of an idea

I think this looks excellent for representing the use of power in casting spells, whether it's purely for divine or both divine and arcane.

I just wish there had been more information about how Curry Favor (or the replenishment of Favor) worked.

Redcrow said:

Thats likely because atleast in 2nd edition (Ive not played or know enough about 1st to comment) they are the same to all but humans, neither Dwarves nor Halflings have the capability to cast either forms of magic, while to Elves it realy is just a different look at the same process much like the different orders of wizards or priests look at each other.

The other races worship is rather different to humans in that aspect also so that may have alot to do with it. I will be intrested in seeing how religion effects the Non-human races though.

MMM, this DD is more interesting than the others.

There are other system out there that try to compell players to "worship" gods to gain favour and, in return, have their prayer answered (spells).
Indeed this is interesting factor.

Well see the implementation.
I'd like to check to the type of blessings that are proposed.

About the "fluff", I must admit that isn't nothing we already have.
To replay to someone about the grittiness, I think that the world feel is more dependant on how the game will flow, rather than finding words like "dark, violent, obscure", written in the text.
While this can help, a player will feel more a gritty world if the system doesn't allow Mass Heal, for example. But this is another story...

By the way, so far, this is the most intersting DD I've look upon.