Character Creation

In the next few days, I plan to add a thread summarizing the demon-specific systems in the game, including faith harvesting, thralls, the apocalyptic form, etc. Just haven’t had time to get around to it. Additionally, I still need to finish the section in the rules thread for Health and Recovery.

My goal is to consolidate as much of the mechanics in the threads as possible, so you can conveniently reference rules on the site rather than having to search through various PDFs.

What's the difference between Follower and Pact? If I get it right, a Follower just works for you, a Pact got something for you and you get Faith out of it, if you want to have a Thrall (someone providing you with Faith and Work) it's one point in each for one NPC...

So, I will potentially (if points allow) have a personal assistant that I would also have a pact with - that's Pact 1 and Follower 1, right?

Damn, I just realise that my background would demand for like Resources 3 or 4 - him being a university professor. But I actually didn't think to have access to vast amount of money (and spending the points on it) - any ideas how to reconcile mechanics and background for this?

I guess a reliable drain of wealth could do, but the only thing that comes to mind is something like child support - but that would be a drastic change to the background as well...?

I believe that thrall is just the word for a person you have a pact with, at least as far as I’ve seen.

As for the university professor, perhaps you might have some project the university won’t fully finance you for, requiring you to use your own money? Or perhaps you’re just underpaid :P

I think what I tried to say is that if you have access to your thrall and send them do something for you, you need to give them a point of Follower. With Pact alone, the thrall will not provide anything but a daily dose of Faith.

Live outside your means. Bigger house, nicer cars.

Yes, you’re correct. The Thrall provides a steady source of Faith, while the Follower is a servant and does things for you.

If you want the same NPC to be both a Thrall and a Follower, then yes you’d need a dot in each Background. However if something happens to that individual, then you’re losing both a servant and a source of Faith.

Well, as long as you gain no real benefit from having your wealth, you can say you’re as wealthy as you’d like. But the moment you try to leverage that into any sort of mechanical or narrative benefit, you’d need the matching Resources. So if it’s just for fluff and role playing, it’s not really important to have the necessary dots in the Resources Background. Still, having the dots would probably make the most sense.

Trying to buy expensive items, bribe others with large sums of money, or use your wealth to gain access to an exclusive club - those would all be situations in which you’d require the Background.

I do like this as a possible explanation

My sheet is up! I just need to think of the people I have pacts with.

On the flip side, if that individual is imbued with power it can take care of itself. Just don't bring it to a fight with an Earthbound. :)

Realized I had more pacts than I did followers, so I had to fiddle around with things, and Major didn't make the cut. The five horsemen are reduced to four. Oh well.

Another thought, how bad an idea would it be to start without even a single source of Faith? It's less about the Background points, I could keep one or two reserved, but more about playing out the Pact rather then me now just making something up on my own.

I wouldn’t say that it’s necessarily a bad idea. It just means you’ll have to hustle more to get that Faith pool restored. You’ll also need to be a bit more judicious than the others about how you expend it, as you can’t rely on a steady supply of Big F energy to refill the tank.

At least "four horsemen" has some Biblical congruity to it. But you can always gain additional thralls in the future.

Still playing with concepts

How are everyone’s characters coming? Anyone have any remaining questions?

Just a sort of random question I figured I'd ask...

The Pacts background alots you people who provide a daily dose of Faith.

Maybe I missed it, but are there special rules for collecting Faith? Like do you have to see the person? Is it automatic? Is there a distance limit?