Coldforged: Piety

Each Thursday this year, I focus on a different aspect of the world I’ve created and played D&D in for over 20 years, in the hopes of honing the ideas and cementing enough in place to settle the world in my own mind. This week I’ve built the basic framework of my Piety system. It is a separate document, so let’s get right to it.

When I started creating the world, I really wanted to make sure that the gods stuck out, that they felt like part of the world, even though they rarely involved themselves. It was difficult, and I came up with more than a few systems through the years, trying to get the feel right. None of them hit the mark.

In 5th edition, there is this concept called Renown, and it demonstrates your notoriety within a specific organization. It allows you to climb the ranks and achieve non-class based ranks that demonstrate your dedication to the faction. The DMG also references that Renown could be used, in a world where the gods play an important role, as a system of Piety.

That tickled my pickle, so I thought I’d take a shot at it. I combined the boons from the gods that I’d handed the characters in my last campaign with the renown system and felt that I had the start of something solid. I finished it up last night, and though it looks pretty fleshed out, I now have to do this for all 20ish of the gods in my setting, so we’re just getting started here.

Take a look, let me know what you think and,

until next time!