d100 – Vaunted Votives & Religious Relics

Another Magic Item table, but this one is focused a bit more on those objects of a more Sacred Significance. Some of these are said to grant powerful boons when venerated or carried by the faithful and each one is likely to be associated with extraordinary. Many of these consist of portions of the physical remains of Saints or other personages important to a given faith. It’s possible that a few of these might have made the pilgrimage to a position on this table from Characters that were present in campaigns and games ages ago.

Since I’m always a bit pressed for real estate in these tables (because I like to keep them on a single page when I can), these entries are a little terse. Some elaborations might need to remain up to the Referee or tied more closely to a given Setting’s Cosmological implications. I have at least endeavored to provide some potentially useful Names for Saints and such to save a bit of time, and where I could manage I did sneak in a skosh of descriptive text.

d100 – Sacred Ceremonies & Religious Rituals

Part of my ongoing attempts to dive deeper into the Deity Disfavor Class feature of the Cleric, here are a hundred relatively minor rites and observances that might help decorate those daily liturgies of that Class in interesting ways. I wouldn’t necessarily approach these from an angle that purposefully penalizes the Player, but more as just a way to add a little more optional detail to their religious activities. These are much less dire than my recent Priesthood Penances & Cleric Contrition table, and not nearly as pervasive or restrictive as the Holy Taboos I’ve shared before. Perhaps these are just part of the steps they take to Prepare those daily Prayers. This might make it a good addition to my Deity Generator

I could see these also working in conjunction with my post on Strange Shrines as well, potentially providing some inspiration for the specific ways to activate or consecrate them. This Table might also be useful as a sampling of provincial Superstitions or even unconventional Personal Habits.

Deity Generator

Been having a bit of fun combining some of the d100 Tables I’ve put together over the years to repurpose them in interesting ways. I find that by looking at them sideways sometimes, they have much more utility beyond their original intended purpose. One that continues to produce pleasing results for me is this Deity Generator I whipped up a little while back.

As I’ve previously mentioned in my Holy Taboo post, I like to handle Deity Disfavor a bit more tangibly in my games, and I tend to avoid more monotheistic approaches to Religion in these games. Instead of just “one God/Goddess/Source” of Spells, Clerics depend on a Pantheon of distinctive Beings, each granting a particular Prayer:

The results that this Generator spits out sometimes have that lovely tendency of establishing unforeseen connections, and even do a little bit more heavy lifting sometimes to flesh out a particular faith or motivation. Sometimes the incongruencies do require a little bit of fiddling to fit together of course, but such contradictions often make for something much more interesting in the long run.

The Generator is embedded below, for somewhat serviceable faiths on demand with a quick click:

It might be interesting to adapt this to generate full-fledged Pantheons, with their own names, internal relationships (who doesn’t love a bit of divine internecine squabbling and conflict), and maybe even some “closest Shrine” details as a bit of an Adventure Hook. Then, when a Cleric Player starts looking in askance about their Religion, a simple button push can spit out their first eight Spells and their respective Sources.