Creating a Catholic priest, Just thinking. |
Creating a Catholic priest, Just thinking. |
Nov 10 2006, 08:44 PM
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#1
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,978 Joined: 26-February 02 From: New Jersey, USA Member No.: 500 |
OK.
In my quest to continually do things that make people scratch their heads, I decided to chargen a Catholic priest for SR4. Not a New Templar type, just your average mundane priest. Questions this raises: 1. How to represent their vows? Do any qualities work? 2. What skills would work to represent undergrad and seminary training? Things I've decided: 1. It would be the rare priest, I think, who did not know at least one modern language besides their native tongue; 2. The priest must take their bishop (At least C 4) as a contact; If a religious, they must also take their provincial (again, at least C 4). Those whose bishop is in fact a Cardinal, their bishop is C 6 (There are no more than 120 active (under-80) cardinals at any one time, and the Church has a mandatory retirement age of 75 for everybody except the Pope, so it's not as insane as it sounds). In case you're wondering, in the US, the sees traditionally held by Cardinals are: New York Boston Washington (DC) Baltimore Los Angeles Chicago Detroit Philadelphia Going by Runner Havens, apparently Seattle also got itself a red hat...I'm wondering now where else in the former US and Canada would win itself a cardinal. |
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Nov 10 2006, 08:52 PM
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#2
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,748 Joined: 5-July 02 Member No.: 2,935 |
Greek and Latin for favorites, Aramaic for the erudite.
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Nov 10 2006, 08:55 PM
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#3
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,026 Joined: 23-November 05 From: Seattle (Really!) Member No.: 7,996 |
Priests are typically fairly well educated, though what order they are from has an effect on that. Knowledge skills should be in abundance. Social skills would be a reasonable choice as well. Combat skills, if known at all, should be limited. Many orders practice one or more Artisan Skills (brewing, chant, cheese making, etc).
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Nov 10 2006, 08:59 PM
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#4
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 340 Joined: 18-September 06 From: Chicago (CZ) Member No.: 9,422 |
Check out Hudlum Preist in Prime Runners
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Nov 10 2006, 09:05 PM
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#5
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,089 Joined: 4-October 05 Member No.: 7,813 |
i don't think you'd have to take your bishop, cardinal, or whatever as a contact. it's not the same thing at all.
for example, you can go to your fixer and ask him to find you an ares citymaster, an ares alpha, or a suit of full combat armor. you can go to your mechanic and get a new drone, upgrade your vehicle, fix your old drones, etc. you can go to a fence and sell all the stuff you swiped on your last run. in comparison, try asking your bishop for an assault rifle. or to fix your drones which were damaged while performing illegal acts. or selling them the commlink you picked up off an unconcious guard on your last run. sure, they've got lots of influence... but the problem is, that influence is not generally useful to you. unless of course they are extremely corrupt, don't care about their own or the church's image, and only care about making money for their own personal gratification. now, while i am certainly going to agree that no priest, bishop, or cardinal is perfect, i find it hard to believe that this translates to "sure, i'd love to help you perform numerous illegal attacks and risk the church's reputation." essentially, the only time the bishop or cardinal is going to be really of any use to you is when they are effectively acting as Mr. Johnson... so long as you are doing a job for them, they will help you out. but if you are not advancing the interests of the church, i just don't see them stepping in with their influence to give you a hand. |
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Nov 10 2006, 09:06 PM
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#6
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,748 Joined: 5-July 02 Member No.: 2,935 |
You might consider reading Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Seville Communion.
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Nov 10 2006, 09:09 PM
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#7
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,978 Joined: 26-February 02 From: New Jersey, USA Member No.: 500 |
Prime Runners is *how* old? (Ne'mind I don't have it...)
And...It's SR1, too, if I recall. I dun want to think what converting it to SR4 would take. AH: Actually, you'd be surprised how few priests know Latin, these days. Remember, it's been 22+ years IRL since the vernacular (English) was authorized for the Mass in the US (I forget when they first allowed the Mass in English...?), and there are already many priests who never learned Latin in seminary. Similar, but even moreso, with Greek. However, those with advanced degrees in Theology might well know all 3 of those languages, plus Biblical Hebrew. But most priests don't have those. Hence why I said *Modern* languages. |
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Nov 10 2006, 09:10 PM
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#8
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,978 Joined: 26-February 02 From: New Jersey, USA Member No.: 500 |
Jaid: I'm not intending this char as anything shadowy. Just trying to build an average priest, say, for NPC usage.
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Nov 10 2006, 09:24 PM
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#9
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The Dragon Never Sleeps Group: Admin Posts: 6,924 Joined: 1-September 05 Member No.: 7,667 |
It all starts with when a man loves a woman...
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Nov 10 2006, 09:45 PM
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#10
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,150 Joined: 19-December 05 From: Rhein-Ruhr Megaplex Member No.: 8,081 |
When I was in school, you had to choose a foreign language in 7th grade, either french or latin. My whole class choose latin.
In germany, latin is required or at least highly recommended for a lot of fields of study at the university, like germanistic, history, medicine, law, theology, even anglistic or american studies, to name a few. My point: there are probably more people out there that know latin than you think :D. |
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Nov 11 2006, 02:18 AM
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#11
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,116 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,449 |
An "average" priest would probably have physical Attributes of 2-3, mental Attributes of 3-4, active skills would include etiquette, negotiation, and possibly an artisan skill at 3; leadership and/or data search at 1-2; knowledge skills would include theology and dogma at 5, one more at 4, and several more at 3 - possibilities would be church politics, Latin, etc.
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Nov 11 2006, 05:58 AM
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#12
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Target Group: Members Posts: 93 Joined: 9-December 03 From: Greenville, SC Member No.: 5,889 |
How about something like this: Priest Uses: Information, private meeting space, additional contacts, sanctuary Places to meet: The neighborhood church or soup kitchen. Similar Contacts: Social Worker Even in this day and age the local priest knows what's going on in his neighborhood. He won't reveal anything told to him in confidence, but he has his finger on the pulse of the local street. Priests are the arbiters of local squabbles, and many churches serve as sanctuaries from the chaos on the streets outside. Some particularly hallowed churches carry a background count formed from long years of worship, making them places of sanctuary from hostile spirits.
Active Skills: Influence Group 3, Instruction 2, Perception 2, First Aid 2 Knowledge Skills: Religious Doctrine 5, Local Gangs 3, Local History 5, Street Rumors 4, Psychology 4 |
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