Chaplain Sect Thoughts

[enginseer-42]

So, this isn't another thread about themes for sects, we have a fair number of those. But my thought is more inspired both by playing a fair bit of chaplain and reading recent threads on the subject. Specifically this one.

I like sects, they're a cool addition to the game and a neat way to do themed Chaplains. But I feel like most of them do detract from what the Chaplain is supposed to do. The chaplain has a few jobs that they're meant to perform.

1.) Dispose of bodies.
2.) Defend the crew from supernatural threats.
3.) Entertain the crew with their religiosity and rebuild/redecorate the chapel in line with their religion.

Some sects do some of these things well, and most sects at least have the bare bones of number 2. But aside from the generic powers every chaplain gets, no sect really covers all these bases. Most don't even cover two. Mechanical sect? As much as I love it, you print batteries and feed them to the altar. It's tedious, it's boring, and the reward at the end is you maybe get one or two people who agree to become robots you can kit out with cool cybernetics. Bodies? Well you do the same thing every other chaplain does with them. You shoot them out the mass driver. Supernatural threats? Holy water and your null rod, just like every other chaplain. The only difference is you can feed batteries to the altar and become a cool robot. If you're going above and beyond you might overhaul the chapel into a second robotics bay of sorts.

Pyre sect has disposing of bodies, but doesn't really encourage crew involvement in any way, and in fact the fires can cause hazards if you're not careful. Neither does it add to defense against the supernatural.

Those are the two I have the most experience with, and sects relying on the 'generic' way of doing things isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it seems like a lot of the sects are just 'Do this repetitive thing get stuff'

Anyway, beyond my rambling, I suppose what I'm trying to get down to is...

1.) Each sect should have a funerary rite. Some ritual performed over a corpse to bless it, and either destroy it outright, or 'prepare' it for being launched out the mass driver. For mechanical sects, maybe you make little skull drones, for pyre sect you incinerate the corpse, Sing their final dirge, or prepare a funeral blade and armor for them. Whatever it is, doing the funeral rites should net you some favor and encourage you to get rid of bodies.

2.) Each sect should have a sermon rite. You initiate the rite at the altar and go through a long series of speeches about your god, and anyone who stays through the whole thing gets some kind of minor buff based on the sect (IE maybe sitting through a mechanical sect sermon makes your words stand out as special to silicons, or a pyre sermon gives a mood boost around fires.). This should be the main, bread and butter source of favor and should scale with the number of people who sit through the whole thing.

3.) Each sect should have some special thing to do with defending the crew against supernatural threats. Above and beyond holy water and null rod. Sometimes perhaps replacing holy water, (It'd be kind of neat if Pyre sect could bless welding fuel and make holy napalm that only burned cultists/heretics. Just imagine a cult vs crew rush where the crew are all doused in holy napalm and on fire.)

4.) Item offerings should probably either be removed, or maybe be something the crew can do for some minor bonus in the event the chaplain is dead and the station is being overrun by cultists.

5.) Perhaps include remodeling as part of the Chaplain loop. Blessed materials, components gotten through rites, special machines that do chaplain-y things. That sort of thing.

Also the altar should be moveable somehow.

[Xkallubar]

Yes please, although just talking in front of people for favor isn't going to work that often given how antisocial your average tider in the halls is going to be. What if you're a known antagonist and nobody wants to show up, then how will you get favor? Basic item fetch questing for favor is lame, but sacrificing burning bodies, or conversion backed up by your sect's mechanics makes much more sense and is more fun. Your god doesn't want to eat a ton of power cells, they want to spread their divine doctrine across the universe, and feeding them power cells isn't gonna do that.

More sects need proper conversion mechanics. There's the honorbound oath, the android conversion, and turning people into holy maintenance hobos (I don't even know if you CAN give others maints adaptation.) But what about the other sects? Punished sect says in it's description "*followers* are expected to cut off limbs, get bad mutations, etc., but only the chaplain gets anything from it. You can't proselytize a religion when no body else can participate EVER, not to mention you probably can barely even walk, can barely see shit, have a big blob of pulsating psycho meat for a head, and watch the world go by in nausea inducing 0.5 purple pulses of reality per second.

The greed sect is just borderline useless, the pyre sect is just one tiny thing xenobio can do but easier and that's it, the maintenance sect has you praying for dead mice because there's none left, then walking around blind with your wobbly vision, the honorbound sect isn't AS bad anymore but it is still waiting on some additions, the dueling sect is in a good enough spot, the music sect is in a good spot, letting psykers see normally would completely fix the punished sect apart from it being completely solo, and the mech sect just needs more rites and easier and funner favor generation.

Simple as.