From: oakes@jupiter.nmt.edu (David Oakes)
Subject: Re: A SPI Question
X-Gated-By: The Black Marble Wombat@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
X-Gated-From: torg mailing list
Organization: University of North Texas
X-Gatemail-Version: 1.0b
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 21:08:35 GMT

ok, my take on faith/focus and miracles
(before we are forced to brand colin a heretic,
 and make him come to socorro to be cleansed of his sins -
 nobody deserves that, even colin...)

colin feels that focus is not required, since any one can talk to god,
and god, if listening, can do anything they want, to whomever
he would also seem to feel that focus is "ritual", not availible to anyone

KS Jim is going by the book, EOL.

well, i certainly have no reason to believe the book, 
but i can provide a rationale for the rules:

faith is how much you believe, and should be directly proportional 
to the amount of aid (read: miracle) that will be granted by god

focus has nothing to do with god, or even religion -
it is purely the persons ability to tap and shape spirtual energies
(or more precisely, to shape and FOCUS these energies)
(it is possible to have focus without faith! -
 the same person need not have both to perform miracles)

so, what happens when someone with enough faith that god wants to help them
asks for it, but lacks the focus needed to channel the energies? depends:
if the spirit axiom is below 13, the Eo1 says the god can do nothing.
btween 13 and 19(?) i would assume the god can act more directly,
and above 19, the god can manifest physically if they so choose.

more than likely, in all cases, god will direct one of the faithful
with focus to the petitioner, and help through that medium
(and maybe even teach the putz focus at the same time)

so why does a DI require only focus, but not faith?
the focus roll is only to gather enough energies to allow the god
to more directly manifest regardless of the axiom -
if successful, the god can come, but they are not forced to!

we now turn to our rediculous example:

Focus Boy (super skill: focus, kid sidekick to the NEs "God Squad")
goes into the LL, and says "yo, Lanala, kill that tree"
and makes the DI by a significant amount
does the tree explode? no, its not something lanala wants,
and if lanala doesnt want, lanala doesnt get!
(god, i am quoting old show tunes!)
more than likely lanala ignores Focus Boy, 
but she mind send him something for getting her out of the shower...

example two:

having learned his lesson in the LL, Focus Boy is recuperating in Haiti,
when Orrorsh tries to invade (shame, shame on the Gaunt Man...)
Focus Boy then calls out to mauna loa "hey, the GM is a prick, help Haiti!"
(obviously spending a poss to use the word "prick")
this, the god wants, and using Focus Boy as a conduit for the power
(what is gods faith total? whatever they want!)
proceeds to turn the obnoxious GM in to a snake,
and all of his invading minions to beetles
(yes, i know, how can you tell the difference?)
this time, focus boy more than likely ha witnessed a spectacular miracle,
and wonders if the Nile pantheon is really the way to go...
(quick Focus Boy, get Faith(aperios) and ignore those spiritual dilemmas!) 

so, to sum up -
faith is the energy availible, or granted by the god
(and gods faith is always n+1!)
focus is the ability to channel these energies to the desired effect,
or to set the stage (etherially speaking) for the energies to be 
effected by god, as they see fit

dave "Focus Boy - doormat of the Nile pantheon" oakes
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg