
I'm rewriting my homebrew rules on alignment again. At each level, a character can take an alignment oath, which gets them a gift and makes them more fanatic. One of my players (Dallas) in his own campaign modified this to having specific gifts and oaths being available as "Mysteries" from specific temples. This makes alignment a bigger game world feature and makes it more meaningful. I did have a campaign end 20 minutes into a session with a neat TPK. Actually, two were unconscious (and then wound up in prison), others were dead, and one grabbed all the loot from the party bodies and a donkey and ran away to live happily ever. after. It was super fun and very enjoyable, but it has never happened since. As always, encourage people to not be jerks to each other, but ethical debates between characters in an adventure are fine.
Gods and the powers impose alignment on humans, but don't necessarily use it themselves, and different sects of the same god might have different alignments. Ishtar shrines can be a nice fertility love goddess cult or a bloody war goddess cult or a shitty brothel. If alignment seems natural and inhuman, it is. And players can ignore it and be beholden to no cosmic jerks. They just don't get free superpowers.
You need a priest to help with making oaths, but they don't have to be from your religion. You just need someone to authorise a contract with your personal cosmic power. The priest often accepts a sacrifice but might demand a fetch quest with difficulty dependent on how much they like you. The higher power might also want a specific sacrifice.
Here are some tables to help generate a quick shrine. The bigger the population, the more choices you get. Popular gods are more popular, but there may be secret folk shrines in a basement or workshop.
These might also be reasons to adventure or travel.
In a city, you can ask anyone for a d4 shrine location.
In a village, people are more shy and might suggest one to strangers.
In the wilderness, you might need a map to find or directions.
Wilderness and village shrines might exist in the outer areas of a city or in poor areas.
Big modern buildings are for popular (or once popular) big religions.
Ancient monuments are shunned by modern churches but used by druids who adopted previous monuments of the ancestors.
Humble small shrines for commoners, often for petty or lesser gods used by commoners in everyday life and might not be acknowledged by the main church or elites. Some might be secretive.
You could use this for generating religious sites in any location.
Common shrines have humble fetch quests like find a pig or help the harvest or provide a feast on a holy day.
Rich Temples take cash and jewellery and can give change. They love rich clients. They might accept bribes to bump you in their busy schedule.
Village shrine keepers might be reluctant to deal with the rich.
Wilderness shrines are often run by hermits who would rather be left alone.
d12 City Locations (most with dedicated busy staff, but welcome pilgrims)
1 Park - might be an official memorial or shrine, or perhaps a homeless assemblage
2 Alley Shrine - often in alleyways or small squares with a small sculpture
3 Shop Shrine - in backrooms of typical crafter's stores, usually for the industry
4 Sewer Shrine - out of the way and hidden
5 Street Shrine - for locals with a part-time clergy visiting often with a small shelter and idol
6 Small Shrine - a small ornate shrine with a dedicated acolyte and a decorated structure
7 Large Shrine - with several dedicated priests on a pilgrim trail and a possible saint relic
8 Small Temple - with a 5th Lv priest with a few assistants and some ornate artwork
8 Small Temple - with a 5th Lv priest with a few assistants and some ornate artwork
9 Large Temple - with a high-ranking priest and various staff serving hundreds or thousands
10 Cathedral - ornate, famous, huge church serving nobility and thousands of people, often one of the leading temples in a city
11 Hermatige - where an order of monks or nuns live in seclusion, often ornate walled complex
11 Hermatige - where an order of monks or nuns live in seclusion, often ornate walled complex
12 Seminary - a religious school or educational facility where clergy study
d12 Village Locations (Many part-time and mostly for locals)
d12 Village Locations (Many part-time and mostly for locals)
1 Field Shrine - used by locals among crops with a simple idol tended by a local
2 House Shrine - local commoner has a shrine in the house and looks after local needs
3 Cellar Shrine - under another building, under another building
4 Well Shrine - an idol built in a well or an underground chamber
5 Garden Shrine - an idol in someone's backyard garden
6 Tavern Shrine - for travellers, often in an outbuilding
7 Animal Pen - idol in an animal yard
8 Barn Shrine - a simple idol in a quiet corner
9 Shed Shrine - crude shrine in a small shed
10 Graveyard Shrine - sanctified ground with a simple idol
11 Village Shrine - official, deliberately built, small, humble shrine
12 Village Abbey - a small country church, some fortified with a tower
d12 Wilderness Locations (you might need to wait a while or choose holy days)
d12 Wilderness Locations (you might need to wait a while or choose holy days)
1 Sacred Tree - with carvings or a hollow, possibly decorated or huge ancient specimen
2 Cave Shrine - with relief rock art carved into walls and possibly a tomb or grotto
3 Cairn - a pile of rocks built as a landmark
4 Monolith - a large standing stone, possibly with rock carving, perhaps created in a mythic event
5 Dolmen - a stack of stones, used to commemorate the ancestors
6 barrow Mound - an ancient barrow with an idol or shrine for commemorating the dead
7 Stone Circle - vary in size from small to titanic, from prehistory
8 Island Shrine - in a lake, river, or at sea, with a humble idol
9 Hermit Shrine - a crude shelter where hermits may live with a simple idol
10 Pilgrim Shrine - often a pilgrim shelter on a road with an idol
11 Mountain Top Shrine - with a difficult, exhausting trail
12 Crossing Shrine - where roads meet or people cross a river or stream
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