The Vatican Rag

And so, I wade into that most dangerous of territory, playing with real-world religions in a game setting. In a world where you risk the death penalty for naming a teddy bear "Mohammed", one must tread with caution...

IAE, this all started because someone wanted to play a Jesuit. Easy answer -- a cleric is a cleric is a cleric, pick some domains and be done with it. Lizard answer -- work out what the Catholic Church has been up to since a)2008, and b)the Crush.

This job is only made the harder because 99% of what I know about Catholicism can be boiled down to:
a)They are ruled by some guy in a funny hat.
b)Jack Chick claims they invented Communism, Nazism, and Islam.

So I did extensive (read a few pages of Wikipedia) research, and came up with this. This isn't any kind of commentary on Catholicism per se; I consider all religions equally silly, with the exception of Scientology, which is especially silly. It's not Dantesque wish fulfillment in which I get to inflict on the Church whatever punishment I think it deserves. What it is, is an attempt to create a quasi-plausible "future history" and lay the seeds for potentially interesting stories, and do so in about 20 minutes of total work time.

Catholicism

Pre-Crush
Catholicism, steeped in ritual and clinging to a belief in literal demons, has survived the transition to the new world better than most other major religions, though the very hierarchies which once gave it strength have, in their absence, turned the faith into an ever-fragmenting set of splinter cults. No one ever anticipated the instaneous loss of so much of the higher leadership or the near-total breakdown of communication among those officials who remained.

The Pope in 2020 was Pope Paul VII, who was elected in 2018 and was, previously, Cardinal Ernesto Juan Gomez, a native of Brazil. He was chosen due to the still-rapid growth of Catholicism in South and Central America, and as a symbol of the Vatican trying to distance itself from corruption and nepotism, by choosing someone who was far outside the inner circles of power. In his two years in office, he earned a reputation as the most liberal and socially active Pope in history, and this probably contributed to the explosion of separatist factions which occurred after the Crush.


The Four Popes
Paul VII
Vatican City was shaken to rubble during the events of the Crush, and also found itself surrounded by armed legions of the Kolarian Imperiate, which was based in the same region on Arith. The resulting chaos killed many, though legend has it the Swiss Guard managed to get Paul VII to safety, and that he still lives and is the true Pope. Most dismiss this, as there has been no word from him other than easily-forged letters; those who claim he is still alive, in turn, dismiss the controversy as the creation of those looking for a split.

The Jesuits, for the most part, follow Paul VII, supporting the claim he is alive, but remains in deep hiding, as there are powerful forces who seek to kill him -- and if he dies, it will be a triumph for the forces of darkness.

However, he would know be a man of 72, making his continued survival difficult. According to rumors, the Cardinals surrounding Paul VII are preparing to elect a new Pope from among their number. According to other rumours, this is their excuse for 'revealing' a new Pope to the world.


Benedict XVII
Of those who do not accept the survival of Paul VII, the largest group, mostly in Europe where the United Church Of Christ has little old and ecumenicism is something Americans do, follow Pope Benedict XVII, who has been a prolific writer of letters and recorder (where the technology exists) of video messages. Benedict was the highest-ranking Cardinal to survive the fall of the Vatican, and assume the Popehood by decree, claiming elections could be held once the church has stabilized. He has an apprentice, Giuseppe Maritono, who will take over should Benedict fall. The 'new Vatican' has been established in a sheltered part of the alps, where armed guards keep yeti, winter wolves, and frost giants at bay. Benedict XVII is a staunch traditionalist, and while he has not explicitly said so, he has hinted the Crush was a sign from God that the Church had veered from the truth. He is sometimes referred to as the 'Pope Of Europe'.


Pope Patrick
In the former United States, while many surviving Catholic bishops and cardinals were sending the messages that would soon help form the United Church, others were contacting each other to reconstruct the Catholic Church in America until contact could be established with Rome (or what was left of it) and a final determination of the true Pope be made. This led to what has since been called the American Vatican Council, a loose alliance of priests which has formed a Constitution defining the 'temporary Church'. They have declared no Pope and have backed none of the other candidates, and are lead by Cardinal Patrick Brian Malloy, formerly of New York City (he was visiting family upstate when the Crush hit, saving his life). They are based in a large holdfast relatively close to Albany. The AVC is active in sending out missionaries, supporting charities in various Holdfasts, and issuing polite but firm encyclicals on the theological fallacies of the UCC. Despite his refusal to claim the title, Cardinal Malloy is often called 'Pope Patrick' or 'the American Pope'.

Novus I
Lastly, the Southwest is home to a movement, mostly imported from the remains of Mexico and parts south, of the 'New Catholic Church', one which claims to be the rightful heir to old while not being a direct continuance of it. Heavily influenced by the Central/South American style of Catholicism, and revering 'Saint Ernesto' (whom they believe died in the Crush), it is the most vigorously evangelical, reaching out to Arithian humans and non-humans alike. NCC priests often travel in small caravans, acting, in many ways, like old-style Revival preachers of the early 1900s in America. The head of this branch of Catholicism is Pope Novus I, or "The First New Pope". (Lizard is almost certainly mangling the Latin)


Game Mechanics
Followers of the Catholic faith may, if they choose, accept the following rule modifications:

Demomic Lore: The Catholic church has always believed in demons as real entities and has studied them more than any modern faith. While the exact details of their beliefs were inaccurate, much of what they had written about evil outsiders had a useful ring of truth. As a consequence, Catholic clerics gain a +4 Competence bonus to Knowledge(The Planes) checks, and a +2 bonus on all Charisma based skills when dealing with Outsiders. In addition, Dimensional Anchor, Banishment, and similair spells which either hold or dismiss outsiders are cast at +2 caster levels for all purposes.

Prayer: Because prayer and litany is such an important part of Catholic ceremony, the Silent Spell feat cannot be used.

This is my Boom Stick!

Ah, guns. Where would games be without them? It's not possible (well, not easy...) to do any kind of post-apocalyptic game without the smell of gunpowder in the imaginary air, and if having a squad of orcs with machineguns is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Of course, guns need rules. Fortunately, D20 already has good rules in D20 Modern, so they can be moved over fairly easily. Only a few minor tweaks are necessary. Still, the game designer in me is itching for more complexity. We're talking about guns which have been in active use for 20 years now, without any industrial complex behind them. Well made, well maintained guns can be kept in a fireable state for centuries, but cheap guns left in the rain and mud (or even well made guns left in the rain and mud) can be much less...safe. This is one of those things where the rules lawyer, the world builder, and the actual DM in me all get into a fight. Writing this, now, the Rules Lawyer wants to write "The Complete Guide To Post-Apocalyptic Guns", with all sorts of cool tables for misfires, gun condition, ammo rarity, reloaders, and all that other gun porn. The World Builder is thinking about the social/economic issues and wants to write another essay. And the DM is thinking "Hey, we're actually going to be playing this in under two weeks, and your 'opening scenario' consists of one NPC, a paragraph of plot, and a link to Google Earth showing the rough area of the game. And did I mention you have a cleric character and no deities statted out for him? Or any 'townsfolk' NPCs? Or...."

Probably, the DM is going to win and I'll be fudging the details of guns for now, not going much beyond this little bit of rule mods:

Knowing how to use guns requires "Firearm Proficiency". Classes which gain proficiency in all martial weapons gain this automatically as a bonus feat; other classes must select it. Heavy military weapons, artillery, etc, all require an Exotic Weapon Proficiency; "Firearm Proficiency" covers single-shot or semi-auto pistols, shotguns, and rifles. Full-auto weapons and black powder weapons each require a seperate proficiency. (Black Powder weapons are starting to come into vogue as they can be manufactured more easily than modern firearms, but they are less common than 'legacy' weapons from pre-Crush Earth.)

Double-Tap is replaced by Rapid Shot and Manyshot. All D20 feats applicable to bows have 'twin' feats which apply to guns. These feats must be learned separately for each class of ranged weapons -- that is, you can have Point Blank Shot (Bows) and Point blank Shot (Guns). Each applies to all weapons in the category that you are proficient with -- you do not need PBS (Pistols) and PBS (Rifles), for example.

If there are similar or overlapping feats between D&D and D20M, the D&D feat is the one which will be used.

Profession (Gunsmith) covers the maintenance of weapons and reloading cartridges, as well as evaluating the worth of a gun and its condition. Craft (Guns) allows the manufacture of guns from scratch. Five ranks in one grants a +2 Synergy bonus to the other.

At this point in the campaign world, it is not possible to enchant guns or bullets; there are no +3 Flaming rifles around. There are a few exceptionally well-made weapons which have the equivalent of an Enhancement bonus, but this is not magical and does not detect as such. However, bullets do tend to overcome magical DR; pistols can overcome DR x/+1, while rifles can penetrate DR x/+2. Heavy weapons (LAWs, etc) can penetrate DR x/+3. DR against specific damage types is not ignored by bullets, unless, of course, they do the specific type of damage to which the creature is vulnerable. Likewise, abilities such as Deflect Arrows or spells such as Protection from Arrows do not affect bullets.

All gun-related feats from D20 modern can be taken as fighter bonus feats.

Sharp-eyed readers might note weasel phrases like "At this point in the campaign world...". Lizard can't think small or local. It's my weakness, one which keeps me from ever really completing anything. When I started thinking about Shattered World, my first real decision was '20 or 200?' -- that is, set the game 20 years after the disaster, or 200. Both had promise and problems. I decided on 20 (reasons for that in an upcoming post), but in the back of my mind, I'd already decided that 200 would be the setting for any 4e games I needed to run -- the massive changes in the world (as reflected by massive changes in the rules) would be the result of the final merging of two worlds. At the same time, as Arith comes together, the urge to define it at some point in its past -- probably about 1,000 years pre-Crush -- and use that as a future campaign world is also strong. So one world spins into three, albeit with two no more than 'placeholders'. Point being, I figure that, in 200 years, there will be magic guns. But for now, I really, really, want to keep away from 'magitech', except for very steampunky things that are artifacts of Skallidane. Partially, this is because I'm coming out of a D20 Modern game which was hip-deep in magical cell phones, guns, binoculars, and 8-balls, and I want this game to have a very different feel, despite some overlap in the sense of "21st century, and there's orcs running about".