Amitan

I’ve been toying with this for a little while — a fictional religion which feels whole and complex, with its own worldview distinct from what you get in most pseudo-medieval fantasy settings. I’ve excluded any discussion of the religion’s history or any inter-denominational conflict. That doesn’t mean those aren’t there, but I wanted to get the basics down first. Consider this an introduction.

Traditional religion in Osolam is known as Amitan (lit. “approaching” or “approaching truth”). Foreign scholars sometimes call its practitioners Amitanists, although adherents rarely use that term themselves. Its teachings focus on the cultivation of divine truth through ethical behavior and ritual practice.

The Dual World

Amitanists believe in impermanence. They believe that human lives — along with farms and buildings, plant and animal life, even the weather — are but fleeting patterns atop a perfect, immortal world. They see mountains, rivers, forests (but not individual trees), the sky and stars, gods and spirits, as fundamentally more “real” than their own temporary selves. These things are far more grounded in eternal truth than the perishable, mortal lives of humans, and they exist free from pain, suffering, age, and death.

Because humans inhabit mortal bodies with mortal senses, they are only imperfectly capable of perceiving and understanding the world as it actually exists. In this conception, there is no heaven or hell. There is only one world, of which there is a “real” part — all things viewed as immortal, impermeable, and unchanging — and a “false” part — things which can die or change.

In this understanding, life’s fundamental problem is illusion — the suffering caused by humanity’s separation from undying reality. Sickness, injury, war, and poverty are all products of this separation. The solution to this problem is enlightenment — freedom from human fallibility required to experience the true universe.

Approaching Truth

Human beings live in an untrustworthy, inconstant layer of reality, but through their actions, they have the ability to better understand the world as it is. By living in harmony with the supernatural, by cleansing themselves of falsehood, and by following correct moral and ritual practice, human beings can shed some of their ordinary delusions.

That said, some truths are fundamentally unknowable, as perfect awareness is functionally equivalent to godhood. Even the wisest scholars lack the ability to fully shed their imperfect senses. Humans, being mortal, are imperfect by nature. They are relegated to approach, but never fully meet, the unencumbered truth of the world.

Amitan is the code of thoughts, behaviors, and practices through which individuals and communities shed their mortal delusions. These prescriptions are recorded in the Canon, a collection of scriptures considered to have authoritative guidance on the cultivation of sacred truth.

Afterlife and the Soul

What separates humanity from the rest of the perishable world is the existence of the soul — the impression of a person’s life which endures beyond bodily death. While the human body is understood to be shrouded in falsehood, the soul is considered to be perfect and immortal. The principal function of Amitan is to cultivate this inner spark of divinity. Those who adhere to the Amitan code leave behind a deeper imprint after death than those who live in ignorance and illusion.

Gods, Spirits, and Magic

Supernatural beings live beyond mortal perception, but reside in this world and exist rooted in fundamental truth. The boundaries between a god, a spirit, an ancestor ghost, or a nature manifestation are extremely blurry. What unites them all is that they are unseen, yet conscious and acting. They can produce results without directly affecting them, in ways beyond human understanding. This power is magic, and they can bestow that magic to humans who properly propitiate them.

However, it would be a mistake to think of divine beings as merely dispensers of magical power. As conscious actors in the world, they serve as windows into the realm of fundamental truth. Harmony with the supernatural is one of the principal concerns of the Amitan code, and divine revelation plays a key role in debates over the evolution of the Canon.

Supernatural beings have altars which serve as their worldly home. These altars are the center of ritual veneration, and are where humans may bargain for favors and services. Smaller divinities — godlings, spirits, ghosts and the like — might have just one or two altars, while the mightiest of gods may have hundreds.

The power of great mortals — those who lead lives of exceptional virtue — can shade into divinity. Every clan has a collection of innumerable ancestor-ghosts who protect and bless their descendants. Their power is collective, only strong enough to carry influence when totaled together. Some individuals, however, can achieve a degree of divinity on an individual basis.

Witchcraft and Annihilation

In Amitanist tradition, the concept of witchcraft encompasses two phenomena: the use of magic for malevolent or selfish purposes, and the use of magic to draw people astray from Amitan.

While harmony with the divine is a key element of Amitan practice, it lies somewhat outside the process of self-cultivation. Supernatural beings are rooted in unyielding reality, but they have their own motivations and concerns. Bargaining for magical assistance does nothing to bring humans closer to gnosis. It may be necessary, because divine beings exist and have real power, but it is a morally neutral act. Magic can be used for positive or negative purposes.

In fact, some supernatural beings jealously guard their place in the real world, and actively seek to deter humans from achieving their level of awareness. These beings are referred to as demons, and they’re said to lure people further into untruth with deceptive promises of power, riches, and earthly delights. They also curse communities with disease, famine, violence, and general ill fortune. Their power is great, but they are endlessly selfish and perfectly willing to betray their followers.

While engaging in witchcraft is dangerous on its own, there’s a broader cost to it that lasts well beyond a person’s natural life. Those who go astray from Amitan will have more of themselves die out than those who continue working toward enlightenment. At worst, witches and demon-followers might find that nothing is left of them beyond their temporary corporeal existence. They have chosen to snuff out that small spark of divinity which exists inside every person. This is annihilation — the complete death of the soul.

Those who go astray can be brought back into the fold, however. This is a category of ritual practice designed to return people to the practice of Amitan and even reignite that inner spark of divinity.

The Canon

The Canon is an ever-evolving collection of works in a wide variety of genres, including poems, histories, songs, ritual procedures, and astrological instructions. The Canon spells out how to treat one another, how to organize family and society, how to negotiate with supernatural beings, and how to draw closer to fundamental awareness. Broadly, it forms the core of Amitan.

However, there is no broadly-accepted composition of the Canon. Schools of thought include or omit different texts as they see fit, emphasizing some practices over others and borrowing from a number of competing teachers. The exact composition of the Canon is the basis of disagreement between different schools of Amitan, as it is the Canon which prescribes the methods by which humans can approach sacred truth.

Generally speaking, there are three main categories of knowledge in the Canon:

Emanations: Oral tradition passed through the ages, now solidified in written form.
Revelations: Direct communications from the divine, recorded as they are discovered.
Commentaries: Scholarly explanations and interpretations of the above.

Seers and Mages

The Amitan code has an uneasy relationship with magic. Divine beings have an unobstructed view of reality, yet they are capricious and unreliable. The power they provide is typically worldly, meant to address practical concerns — yet the knowledge they share has dramatically affected the development of Amitan practice. They can help or hinder the process of self-cultivation, or ignore it entirely.

Harmony with the divine is important, but it’s only one aspect of Amitan practice. It is difficult and time-consuming to perform the right rituals to appease supernatural beings. Their favor is hard to earn and easy to take away, as one person’s misdeeds might arouse anger toward an entire community. So who should be responsible for maintaining those relationships, and how does this fit with the rest of Amitan?

The answer is to bestow a unique role upon those who commune with the supernatural. The task is essentially this-worldly, and thus is undertaken by those who can speak on behalf of others. House heads, community leaders, aristocrats and monarchs — these people are seers, tasked with maintaining that all-important relationship with divinity. This is one of the key functions of political leadership in Osolam, and an important way in which these figures establish their legitimacy.

By contrast, mages are people tasked with mentoring their community in Amitan practice. They are typically trained at monastic schools, centers of learning which advance Canonical scholarship and study philosophical principles. Disciples reside in the monastery for the duration of their training, before going out to the world in order to serve the broader community. Mages are expected to adhere to a strict code of conduct and serve as exemplars of moral virtue.

Each monastery typically has its own interpretation of the Canon, and is connected to a network of temples where alumni oversee congregants’ journey toward sacred truth. These schools are often given patronage by local political leaders, who invite mages to come and mentor the populace in their particular understanding of Amitan practice. Rulers are expected to have a court mage on retainer to oversee the realm’s religious affairs, provide advice on matters of law and justice, and maintain temples in their jurisdiction.

The Five Techniques

A person’s self-cultivation is never complete, because fallibility is an essential part of being human. There is always more to learn, always a new experience to reframe everything that came before. With each new insight, it becomes impossible to imagine how one could live so long without seeing the obvious. Divine awareness is layered and infinite, just out of reach yet still worth pursuing.

In other words, the search is the thing.

But how does somebody approach truth? What does it mean to cultivate that inner spark of divinity? What does it mean to learn, when all knowledge is an approximation of something ineffable and elusive? For this, practitioners turn to the Canon, which explains how to peel back the layers of illusion which prevent them from seeing the world as it really is.

The different ways of learning in the Canon are collectively known as the Five Techniques. Each is a well-developed discipline, but they are meant to work together. Each one enhances the effect of the others, adds missing pieces, and opens up new ways of thinking and seeing.

The first technique is recitation — learning directly from the Canon. Recitation is the foundational ritual of Amitan and is expected of all practitioners. All other techniques are more or less optional — advanced methods for skilled mages and devotees — but recitation is obligatory.

The second is divination — learning from gods, spirits, and other supernatural beings. This doesn’t just involve divine revelation — it also involves maintaining harmony with the divine through regular appeasement and supplication. This is mostly the job of a seer negotiating on behalf of a community, but mages often attempt to communicate with the divine in order to receive novel truths.

The third is astrology — learning from the sky and stars. The movement of celestial objects is an ever-present reminder that the universe is much bigger and older than humankind. Peering into the stars can provide insight into the nature of both the universe and the human soul.

The fourth is introspection — learning from oneself. This encompasses a broad swath of practices meant to make practitioners more aware of their divine essence. This can be a quiet, meditative process, but it can also be loud, active, and deeply emotive.

The final technique is pilgrimage — learning from the world. Places of natural wonder are typical pilgrimage destinations, as their beauty is a reminder of the universe’s vitality and perfection. By contrast, even the grandest human constructions will never be more than ephemeral patterns.

These techniques all flow into one another — somebody might observe an auspicious calendrical date (astrology) by making the journey to a particularly significant mountain (pilgrimage). There, they might attend a weekly service (recitation), provide an offering to the ghost of that mountain (divination), and spend time in meditative dance (introspection) before returning home.

Recitation

According to all varieties of Amitan, a person’s journey of self-cultivation begins with fire. It is fire that burns incense for purification, fire that comingles with sky and stars, and fire that releases soul from body after death. Fire is the principle which joins mortal with immortal.

It is fitting that fire lies at the heart of recitation, the first precept of the Amitan code. A quest for knowledge begins with learning the material, and congregants gather each week to perform their studies. This is almost always a call and response — a teacher recites verses from the Canon, and the congregation recites back. This rhythmic back and forth is the foundation of a worship service, but recitation by itself is insufficient. Gnosis is experienced as much as it is understood, and the role of fire is to provide that experiential element.

An Amitanist temple is arranged in a circle around a large censer or brazier. Service begins shortly after nightfall at the end of each week. The brazier is filled with incense and sweet-smelling wood, the fire is lit, and attendees are welcomed. After washing their face and hands, the congregants proceed in circuits around that central fire, chanting and reciting as they go.

The fire acts as a ritual purificant, cleansing the congregants of falsehood and directing their eyes up toward the stars. Circumambulation imitates the regular movement of celestial objects — the night sky being a window into the unyielding existence that continues long before and after humanity. By immersing the congregation in the cyclical rhythms of the universe, recitation is meant to cultivate an experiential knowledge that is deeper and more meaningful than mere memorization.

The specifics of recitation vary dramatically from school to school, but the rite lies at the heart of most interpretations of the Amitan code.

Divination

A seer’s role is fundamentally diplomatic. The world is full of magical beings unencumbered by mortality, and they can do great good or harm depending on their disposition. Their appeasement is key to a good harvest, successful hunt, easy childbirth, profitable voyage, or victorious battle. Their anger can levy all sorts of disasters upon a household, community, or entire nation. Much of the work of political leadership goes into managing relationships with different beings so that the community remains healthy.

The basic dynamic of a ritual is a bargain. The seer offers, and the divine being gives in return. The tense here is negotiable; it might be a vow to give later if the god gives now, a promise to give now if the ghost gives later, or an offering now as thanks because the spirit gave earlier. So part of a seer’s job is to set the terms of the bargain — to pray. It is, of course, up to the supernatural being to accept or reject the offer. Nothing is guaranteed, which is why it is important for the seer to maintain an ongoing reciprocal relationship.

Of course, to make a bargain, a seer must have something to offer. Different beings want different things, delivered in different ways, in different forms, at different times. The rituals, however arbitrary they may seem, must be carried out with exactitude, or else the bargain will be denied. And whatever the seer offers becomes property of the recipient spirit. Sacred objects, temples, even people belong to the god in question, and that imposes special rules for their handling.

What about those who seek ineffable truth through communion with the supernatural? These people are not speaking on behalf of a community — merely for themselves, and perhaps a school of disciples. Divine revelation is often given as a reward for good service. Those who seek revelation are known to give themselves over as property to the ghost they are propitiating.

Some revelations are intentionally kept secret, passed down from teacher to student in a chain of tradition going back centuries. Other revelations are made public, subject to intense scrutiny as a result. Those suspected of spreading false information are often accused of witchcraft, and debates over the veracity of a given revelation have led to bitter, violent feuds. As a result, divination is the most divisive of the Five Techniques — a powerful way to receive novel truths, but with high risk of being led astray by demons or false prophets.

Astrology

Every night, people look up at the sky and are greeted with the same view their ancestors had hundreds of generations ago. The sun rises and sets, the moon cycles through its phases, and stars process across the heavens. This celestial tapestry has existed for longer than anyone can remember or articulate. It is a fixture of the universe, a window into something so vast and ancient that it defies human comprehension. And it is there for anybody to see.

The practice of astrology is how humans use the sky’s cyclical patterns to attain a glimpse of the universe unobstructed by their mortal senses. By tracking the phases of the moon and the relative positions of the sun and stars, people can learn how these cycles influence earthly affairs. There are auspicious and inauspicious days for practically any action a person could take, from holding weddings to waging war to making offerings and sacrifices. While outcomes are never guaranteed, astrology allows people to take more control over the inscrutable forces affecting their lives.

The basic tool for this task is a star chart — a diagram of the night sky plotting the positions of various celestial bodies. This includes the time of year, the phase of the moon, the location of each planet, and the sun’s position among the stars. Each of these items has a particular character, and together they reveal precise details about a person, place, or event.

Importantly, this practice can be used to look inward as well as outward. The astrological circumstances of a person’s birth can reveal details about their fundamental self. Most people are unaware of their soul — it lies beneath the surface, the invisible foundation of their personhood. Astrology is one way people might learn about their soul. It takes that which was hidden and makes it obvious, impossible not to see.

Introspection

Day by day, most people’s thoughts are preoccupied with ordinary things — work, family and friends, life circumstances, goings-on in their community. This is natural, but it leaves their mind overwhelmed with temporary phenomena. Their thoughts come and go like waves atop the ocean, ignorant of the knowledge which slumbers beneath the surface. They rarely stop and look beneath the surface layer of their everyday thoughts, that part of themselves which is permanent and unyielding.

Introspection — the practice of Amitanist meditation — is meant to bring the soul out from the subconscious and into active thought. The techniques involved in this process are varied. Some practitioners aim to create a tranquil environment where they can sit and cultivate boredom. By giving themselves time for inaction, they clear the mind of distractions and allow it to think.

Other practitioners, however, eschew quiet contemplation for a louder and more emotive form of introspection. Through meditative dance and wailing chants, participants shed their inhibitions and give themselves over to their core selves. Free of ordinary doubts, they lay their soul bare to the world, a mystical experience which brings them closer to their true selves.

There are other methods of introspection as well. Some groups practice self-flagellation in order to discipline the body and strip away the flesh which conceals their inner being. Other groups accentuate their practices with sensory deprivation, cutting off external stimuli to better focus on the soul. Introspection is a diverse technique in Amitan, and practitioners have wide room to pursue the method best suited for their journey of self-discovery.

Pilgrimage

At times, eternal truth can feel impossibly distant. Despite generations of effort, the human perspective remains stubbornly distorted. What understanding that exists is hard-won, inscribed in the Canon and derived from various ritual techniques. Even then, this corpus of knowledge is merely a drop in the sea of human ignorance. The entire effort can, at times, feel hopeless.

And yet, all around there exist reminders that the immortal world of non-suffering is right here, accessible to all who care to look. In every region there lies a site of natural beauty whose grandeur humbles even the mightiest mortals. The wonder of nature is incomparable, a glimmer of something profound beyond words. To experience it is to open the mind to that which cannot be fully perceived — the ageless perfection of the earth.

While the other four techniques are complex disciplines, pilgrimage is powerfully simple. It is well-known that awe is a form of gnosis, an experiential knowledge that can only imperfectly be described. Neither taught nor studied, it is an innate feature of the soul. Natural beauty brings awe to the surface of conscious thought, a reminder that while human awareness is flawed, the world around them is perfect all the same.

Sites of Amitan pilgrimage are where the barrier between reality and irreality is thin. They are particularly beautiful mountains, rivers, forests, and coastlines — places that inspire wonder in their visitors. Virtuous rulers are expected to protect these sites from human encroachment, and to support the maintenance of pilgrimage roads. Desperate or greedy rulers, however, are known to levy extra tolls on incoming pilgrims, and to allow the routes to fall into disrepair. Regardless, Osolam is crisscrossed with roads and hostels, which are used not only for pilgrimage but also for trade and transit.

Ethical Behavior

Amitan is understood to be an ongoing practice of replacing mortal delusion with immortal truth. This is a two-part process — in order to close the gap between perception and reality, one must first release that which keeps them shrouded in illusion. Amitanist ethics are how practitioners rid themselves of falsehood, creating space inside them for truth.

It is essential for those practicing Amitan to reject a worldly lifestyle, which prizes temporary gratification over accordance with imperishable truth. Right conduct cleans the soul of delusion, and opens the senses to that which is and always will be. Ethical conduct begins with the Six Morals, habits which nourish the soul and make it fertile ground for the cultivation of knowledge. Each moral has two aspects as well as a corresponding corruption.

The first moral is honesty. Those who are honest display consistency between their thoughts, words, and actions. They can be trusted to say what they believe and to align their behavior with that belief. They treat others in a fair and equitable manner, and display a commitment to factual truth. The two aspects of honesty are sincerity — action in accordance with one’s beliefs — and integrity — consistency in belief and action. The corruption of honesty is deceit, the state of discordance between one’s thoughts, words, and actions.

The second moral is humility, the recognition of one’s own insignificance, and the adjustment of behavior to consider those around them. A humble person acknowledges their strengths and weaknesses without dwelling on them, and works to do good without regard for the praise of others. The two aspects of humility are modesty and confidence, freedom respectively from self-aggrandizement and self-loathing. The corruption of humility is self-obsession, the excessive focus on one’s own needs at the expense of others.

The third moral is temperance, the ability to control thought and behavior so as to refrain from excess. Those who are temperate have command over their emotions, desires, and impulses. They satisfy their cravings only in moderation, and do not allow their consumption to harm others. The two aspects of temperance are control over one’s emotions and control over one’s senses. The corruption of temperance is indulgence, the weakness of will which lets one’s impulses run free.

The fourth moral is flexibility. A mentally flexible person is willing to consider new ideas and differing perspectives. They are aware of their unconscious biases, and work to limit dogmatic thought. The two aspects of flexibility are curiosity and impartiality — the pursuit of knowledge necessary for gnosis, and the suspension of judgment needed to consider that knowledge fairly. The corruption of flexibility is obstinacy, the fear of ambiguity which closes the mind.

The fifth moral is patience. Those who are patient remain calm in the face of adversity. They are undisturbed by delay, annoyance, and provocation. When met with unexpected misfortune, they confront their fear and act with a clear mind. The two aspects of patience are endurance through difficulty, and deliberation in thought and action. The corruption of patience is agitation, the brittle mental discipline which cracks under pressure.

The sixth moral is contentment. Those who are content are at peace with themselves, comfortable with who they are and what they have. They find what is noble about themselves and others, and embrace it. They accept their flaws and work to be better, but they pursue improvement for its own sake and not merely to escape self-pity. The two aspects of contentment are acceptance of themselves and acceptance of others. The corruption of contentment is envy, the resentment caused by the sight of another’s good fortune.

November 8, 2024 Fantasy Worldbuilding Religion Magic

Godlings and Magic

I’m rethinking how magic and religion might work in a fantasy RPG. The long and short of it is this:

A godling is a formless being with magical power. It can be a divinity, a ghost, an ancestor spirit, the manifestation of some natural force, or any other supernatural construction.
Each godling has an altar, a specific location which serves as its earthly home. Although godlings are formless and unseen, they do reside in the physical world. Some godlings may have multiple altars.
Godlings are not omnipotent or omnipresent. A godling has access to power beyond the mundane, but its extent is limited and varies greatly from one godling to the next.
Mortals may bargain with a godling to form a pact, performing its rituals and carrying out its aims in exchange for magical power. This is distinct from ordinary veneration and appeasement, which are expected from all mortals.
Some godlings might have a cult of organized worship around them. Membership in one godling’s cult does not preclude the veneration of other godlings within their respective domains.
Gods are just bigger, better godlings. Their power is vast and global, making them unapproachable to ordinary mortals. While private veneration is customary, bargaining with the gods is the responsibility of an entire community.

On reflection, this seems startlingly similar to the conception of kami in Japanese Shintō. This is unintentional, but I’m not totally surprised. A major influence in my thinking is Dr. Bret Devereaux’s blog series on polytheistic religion. While his focus is on ancient Greek and Roman practice, the underlying logic seems to be decently common worldwide.

Why go to the trouble? I have three reasons.

For one, I’ve always been unsatisfied with the wizard archetype — an “arcane professor” who casts spells out of a book and is defined by their education. In D&D parlance, I’m more interested in the cleric and warlock — magic users who derive their power from supernatural beings.

The second reason is that I like conceptualizing gods and godlings as non-player characters. This makes them much more comprehensible at the gaming table. NPCs have wants, needs, likes, and dislikes. They have personalities, agendas, ideas, and schemes. The only difference is that you’re giving this particular NPC access to some magic they can offer as a reward for service.

Finally, the search for a godling’s altar can be a quest hook all on its own. Scatter a bunch of altars across a megadungeon or hexcrawl, put them in your rumor tables, and players will be motivated to go find them. This fits a low-magic setting where even having one spell is a big deal, which is generally my preference.

To demonstrate how this might work, I’ve written a handful of godlings.

The Wode Knight

The Wode Knight is watchkeeper of the old forest south of your home village. Not only the trees — all within the forest is her domain.

Altar
Deep in the thickest part of the wood, a ring of standing stones sits in a clearing. Her voice sounds like the song of dozens of birds. She is prideful and protetive, secretive and fearful of outsiders.

The Wode Knight appreciates libations of milk, honey, or wine. She especially appreciates animal sacrifice, and will grant you a single use of one of her spells.

Pact
You renounce the wearing of any metal when you make a pact with the Wode Knight. The Wode Knight is willing to lend you one spell, at first. She may grant you more with further acts of devotion.

Once per day, if you daub your forehead with dirt, you may cast a spell.

Spells
Plant Growth: The vegetation around you becomes thick and overgrown, an impossible tangle preventing movement.
Speak with Animals: For one hour, you are able to converse with animals.
Bird Song: Choose a nearby bird. Give it a message, specify a recipient, and it will immediately fly to deliver that message.

Wrath
Wrath lasts for 1d6 days — rolled with Disadvantage for minor slights, or Advantage for more grievous insults. Abandoning a pact results in punishment lasting 2d6 days.

For the duration of your punishment, you may not enter the old forest. If you do, nature itself will rise against you. You will be swarmed by insects, strangled by vines, drowned in water, and attacked by wild animals.

In addition, roll 1d6.
1-2: Each day, 1d6 wooden items are cracked, warped, and rendered unusable.
3-4: Vines, roots, and other low-lying plants attempt to strangle you in your sleep each night for the duration of your punishment.
5-6: An insect swarm is sent to devour you and your companions.

The Vulture

The Vulture is ravenous — he craves the flavor of rotting flesh, and cherishes its putrid stench. He will make do with any carrion, but the human cadaver is sweetest. His hunger will never be satiated.

Altar
A human corpse is impaled on a stake. It is always rotting, but somehow never fully decomposes. The Vulture speaks through the mouth of this corpse. He does not want you to know how desperate he is.

The Vulture appreciates offerings of carrion left at the altar’s base. If you leave him an offering of human flesh, he will grant you a single use of one of his spells.

Pact
To make a pact with the Vulture is to lend him your mouth and stomach. From now on, you hunger only for rotting flesh. The Vulture is willing to lend you one spell, at first. He may grant you more with further acts of devotion.

Once per day, if you devour a meal of carrion, you may cast a spell.

Spells
Cure Wounds: Restore 1d6 HP.
Resist Poison: You are rendered immune from any poisons or venoms for one hour.
Speak with Dead: You may ask 1d6 questions of a corpse or funerary urn. The answers you receive do not have to be truthful.

Wrath
Wrath lasts for 1d6 days — rolled with Disadvantage for minor slights, or Advantage for more grievous insults. Abandoning a pact results in punishment lasting 2d6 days.

If you had made a pact, you immediately lose your hunger for carrion. In addition, roll 1d6.
1-2: You become violently sick and must spend the duration of your punishment resting and recuperating.
3-4: Each day, 1d6 rations spoil and become inedible.
5-6: You are unable to heal your wounds for the duration of your punishment.

The Firekeeper

Ordinarily, death releases soul from body, allowing it to transition into the afterlife. But sometimes, the corpse becomes a prison. The Firekeeper is but one of many psychopomp godlings tasked with assisting the unhappy dead.

Altar
The Firekeeper’s mountaintop columbarium is maintained by a small group of village priests. Her sacred pyre has been lit for generations.

The Firekeeper appreciates the destruction of the undead. She especially appreciates the bringing of undead corpses to her altar so they might be given proper funerary rites. If you leave her such an offering, she will grant you a single use of one of her spells.

Pact
When you make a pact with the Firekeeper, you renounce all necromancy or defilement of the dead. The Firekeeper is willing to lend you one spell, at first. She may grant you more with further acts of devotion.

Once per day, if you carry a lit torch dedicated to the Firekeeper, you may cast a spell.

Spells
Banish: 1d6 undead become ordinary corpses for one hour.
Protection: Attack rolls have Disadvantage against 1d6 creatures of your choice for one hour.
Pyrokinesis: A fire forms in your hands, lasting for one hour or until dispelled. It deals 1d6 damage when flung at an enemy.

Wrath
Wrath lasts for 1d6 days — rolled with Disadvantage for minor slights, or Advantage for more grevious insults. Abandoning a pact results in punishment lasting 2d6 days.

For the duration of your punishment, you are forbidden from columbariums, tombs, graves, and other places where the dead have come to rest. If you violate this prohibition, the Firekeeper will set you alight.

In addition, roll 1d6.
1-2: Even the smallest, safest fires — like candles — will sear you for 1d6 damage for the duration of your punishment.
3-4: Your attributes are reduced by 1d6 for the duration of your punishment.
5-6: You are forcibly put to sleep for the duration of your punishment.

Thank you to my friend Vidcom for the idea of the Firekeeper!

You Don’t Have to Speak in Character

I’ve been slow to update this blog recently because I’ve spent more time at the table. I’m a player in one campaign, a referee in another, and I’m preparing to restart that open table I wrote about in 2022. This means introducing more people to RPGs — friends, coworkers, acquaintances, etc. — and that means overcoming barriers that make roleplaying seem harder than it is.

One thing I’ve stopped doing (for the most part) is speaking in character. I don’t enjoy it, I’m not good at it, and it wastes everyone’s time if I’m fumbling around looking for the exact right way to phrase my argument. I’m not an actor, I don’t like roleplaying-as-improv-performance.

Instead, I just describe how my character approaches a social situation — “yeah, he wants to appeal to the king’s sense of duty to his people. He’s being extremely polite and formal with his language, and he’s using plenty of flattery.”

There we go. That communicates everything I wanted to get across, without getting bogged down in word choice or tone or what-have-you. It also highlights the decisions inherent to a negotiation. I need to find the right way to approach this conversation, using the information I have available to me, or else I won’t get what I want from this person.

I’m far from the first person to come up with this idea, but it’s completely changed how I approach roleplaying games. Personally, it’s a lot less stressful for me both as a player and as a referee.

A corollary is that I’m increasingly in favor of ditching social stats. I tried this in the short campaign I ran last year, and I thought it worked really well. In this conception, being persuasive isn’t about being generally charismatic or getting lucky with the dice — it’s more about finding the right angle for an argument using the available information. If I know this non-player character is greedy, I should make it profitable for them to do what I want. If this other NPC cares about their deity, I should appeal to their faith somehow when making my case.

The way I see it, a conversation is a puzzle, and that’s something better left to players than their characters. They don’t need to put on a performance, they just need to solve the puzzle.

April 10, 2024 GM Advice Player Advice

My Personal Style of Play

I recently watched Questing Beast’s video on “six cultures of play” in tabletop RPGs, as described in a blog post by The Retired Adventurer. It got me thinking: how would I describe my own style of play?

The six cultures described aren’t mutually exclusive buckets — they’re trends which inform the values of individual groups and tables. In that spirit, here are a few notes on how I’d describe my own preferences.

I prefer game systems to be short, simple, and elegant. All else equal, I’d rather engage with the world than with the rules. This is a core feature of the Old-School Renaissance.
That said, I think there’s a place for mechanics that provide structure for things too fiddly to roleplay. A good example might be The Hotline’s rules for debt in Mothership.
Tactics games can be fun, but generally I’m not too interested in mechanically optimizing my character. Leveling up, picking new abilities, etc. — it’s not for me. This is part of why I soured on D&D 5e, and it’s why I’ve never played Pathfinder.
My favorite games are driven by the actions of the player characters. The referee establishes the situation, but doesn’t plan a specific outcome or story arc. The story emerges from what happens at the table, and the players’ choices should have real in-world consequences. This is another core tenet of the OSR.
Borrowing from the trad style, I appreciate a sense of referee “authorship” over the setting, if not the events of the game itself. I don’t like the very collaborative worldbuilding process common in the story-game scene. If I’m a player at your table, I want to inhabit your setting and leave a mark on the world you’ve built.
Tonally, I prefer games where the characters aren’t too powerful, where the challenges are mostly human-scaled, and where magic is infrequent or poorly understood. In sci-fi, I prefer games that are more scientifically grounded. This tends to be more common in OSR circles, but it’s not universal.

March 17, 2024 D&D Rules GM Advice

Hacking Violence

Credit to Luke Gearing for creating Violence, a fast and nasty system for resolving violent encounters which I used to much success in a recent campaign. Here, I’ve adjusted the rules based on personal preference, aligning the dice logic with my rules for spaceship combat, and my players’ desire for more structure in situations outside of combat.

Characters have the following four Stats. Roll 3d6 for them, in order.

Wits: Your cleverness, quick-thinking, and motor discipline.
Smarts: Your capacity for abstract reasoning and problem-solving.
Tough: Your physique, stamina, and pain tolerance.
Fight: Your combat training and stomach for blood.

When the outcome of an action is uncertain and the stakes are high, roll 1d20 equal to or under your most relevant Stat.

Advantage and Disadvantage

Whenever circumstances make a check particularly easy or difficult, roll twice and take the better or worse result.

Aspects

Characters start with four points to spend on Aspects. Aspects represent the occupations, careers, experiences, and accomplishments that define a character’s history and grant them expertise.

A character can have any number of Aspects, chosen by them and agreed upon by the Referee, so long as their bonuses total up to four.

If when making a check, the player and Referee agree that a character’s Aspect provides them relevant expertise, the Aspect’s bonus is added to the Stat threshold. Only one Aspect can apply to a check, but Aspects are not tied to any specific Stat.

Some possible Aspects include: asteroid miner, atmospheric technician, bodyguard, bureaucrat, chemist, diplomat, engineer, lawyer, medical doctor, naval officer, psychologist, retail employee, space marine, union organizer, virologist, etc.

Initiative

Every player character involved in a combat makes a Wits check.

Everyone who succeeds acts before their opponents, and everyone who fails acts after.

Do this at the beginning of each round.

Shooting

To shoot someone, make a Fight check. If they are not in cover or moving, roll with Advantage.

If someone is shot, they make a Tough check.

Subtract -2 from the threshold for each Injury they have.
Rifle-calibers subtract -2.
Automatic weapons subtract an additional -2.
Shotguns subtract -4 at close ranges and -2 at medium.

If they fail this check, they go Down. Otherwise, they are Injured.

Melee

Both combatants make Fight checks.

If both combatants succeed, the low-scorer is Injured. The high-scorer is Injured and goes Down.
If one combatant succeeds and the other fails, the loser is Injured and goes Down.
If both combatants fail the check, both are Injured and go Down.

Maneuvers

In a combat, characters can perform maneuvers — fire to suppress, restrain an opponent, use them as a zero-G springboard, etc.

To do this, make a Fight check. On a success, the opponent may choose to either let the maneuver happen, or resolve the attack as per usual (in melee, the opponent also makes a Fight check).

Down

When a character goes Down, they make a Tough check. Subtract -2 from the threshold for each Injury. If they fail, they are dead. Otherwise, they are critically injured and will die without swift medical attention.

Commentary

I added Aspects and Maneuvers for the same reason — to avoid making lists.

For Aspects, I wanted a way to reward a character’s specific training and expertise. At first, I thought I’d write a formal list of skills or careers, but gave up about 30 entries into a d100 table of backgrounds. I wanted to foreground the fiction and let my players’ creativity guide the mechanics, not the other way around. Traverse Fantasy, taking a page from 13th Age, had a much better take on how to do backgrounds in her game, FIVEY.

As for Maneuvers, I borrowed from Odd Skull’s classic blog post on the subject, taking an “I cut, you choose” route and giving your opponent the decision whether to pay in blood to stop you. And since this is Violence, that’s a steep price to pay.

I got rid of tracking individual bullets because it felt too granular for me. And since my setting presumes the widespread use of automatic firearms, there are a lot more bullets flying around in general. I’d rather keep the focus on “did you hit or miss?”

For initiative and (dis)advantage I just swapped in some clean, elegant rules I like.

Labor Unions in the Solar System

I failed Dungeon23 pretty early last year, unfortunately. I like the idea of a daily, low-stakes RPG writing ritual, but I ran into a creative block pretty early on. So this year, I’m trying Lore24, which gives me more leeway to follow my creativity wherever it leads, rather than forcing myself to just write dungeon rooms. I’m using the opportunity to add details to my sci-fi world.

I’m giving myself permission to allow a daily entry to be just a name and a brief, one-sentence description. But a few weeks back, I put in the work to detail the Solar System’s most prominent labor unions, and I wanted to share that here.

Mineworkers Industrial Union (MIU)

An old and once-powerful labor union, founded in 2219, with a heavy presence on Luna and in the Asteroid Belt. The MIU not only represents blue-collar industrial workers, but also skilled roboticists, engineers, cargo technicians, and various white-collar workers who support the heavily-automated mining industry.

The 2308 Lunar Rising devastated the Mineworkers, who were at the forefront of anti-Restitutionary resistance in the wake of Operation Hawkeye. The External Bureau of Intelligence arrested thousands of members and executed hundreds of organizers. Any informal arrangements that had existed between union and company were severed, and the remnants of the union’s leadership fled into exile.

Today, the MIU is the most heavily suppressed of all the Spacer labor unions. It’s recovered somewhat from its post-Rising nadir, but still doesn’t have the membership or bargaining position it once had. The MIU is affiliated with the All-System Alliance of Labor Unions. The current president is Gabriel Shala (they/them).

United Gas & Refinery Workers (UGRW)

A relatively small but rapidly-growing labor union, concentrated in the Outer Planets. Founded in 2282 from a collection of local refiners’ unions, the UGRW is organized in key industrial centers around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The union is generally understood to be militant, strike-prone, radically left-wing, and hostile to spacer nomads who bear a reputation as dishonorable scabs. The UGRW is a founding affiliate of the Industrial Democratic Congress. The current president is Maysoun Sasaki (she/her).

Interplanetary Shipbuilders Association (ISA)

One of the oldest and largest labor unions in the Solar System, founded on Luna in 2207. Despite an early history of combative strike activity, the founding of the External Service and the system-wide repression of labor activity drove the ISA underground. Today, the Shipbuilders act as off-the-books negotiating partners, promising not to lead strikes or slowdowns in exchange for modest concessions. The Shipbuilders are generally seen as conciliatory toward the External Service. The ISA is affiliated with the All-System Alliance of Labor Unions. The current president is Pau Prem Khin (he/him).

Spacefarers and Teamsters Interplanetary Union (STIU)

Another of the largest labor unions in the Solar System, covering crews on all commercial passenger and cargo spacecraft. Due to their unique bargaining position out in space for potentially weeks at a time, STIU crews are noted for their frequent conflict with both corporate flight commanders and independent owner-operators. The STIU is also associated with organized crime, corruption, and religious heterodoxy. Corrupt locals are known for bribery, embezzlement, extortion, and violence in order to protect their interests and muscle out non-union crew. The STIU is affiliated with the All-System Alliance of Labor Unions. The current president is Rahman Chen Chieh (he/him).

Space Station Operations Union (SSOU)

Originally a firefighters’ union, now a broad umbrella of workers who maintain critical infrastructure aboard space stations. Founded in 2235 as the Interplanetary Union of Station Firefighters (IUSF), the union renamed itself in 2290 to recognize its increasingly diversified membership. The SSOU has been affiliated with the Industrial Democratic Congress since 2314, and is the IDC’s largest union. The current president is Nahia-Maria Sante (she/her).

All-System Alliance of Labor Unions (ASALU)

The largest trade union confederation in the Solar System, founded in 2256 to present a united front to the newly-created External Service. While labor organizing has always been illegal under Restitutionary law, ASALU and its unions maintain an unofficial relationship with corporate authorities and the External Service. This relationship has been variously combative or conciliatory, depending on circumstance, but tends toward cooperation in exchange for limited, begrudging acceptance.

This détente suffered a grievous wound following the election of Cyril Brook as president of the Executive Council. From the left, ASALU’s decision not to publicly oppose Operation Hawkeye incited a membership revolt, which in 2301 led several unions to split and form the Industrial Democratic Congress. From the right, the EBI led a system-wide repression of labor activity, and companies were pressured not to make the sort of informal deals that were once common.

ASALU eventually followed the IDC into a more militant stance against the External Service, but this did little to improve its fortunes. The Lunar Rising nearly destroyed the Mineworkers, and the ensuing crackdown implicated ASALU leaders in all sorts of anti-Restitutionary activity. ASALU reversed course again to try and repair its situation, but its bargaining position was severely weakened, and the unions were unable to extract the concessions they once could. In 2314, the SSOU ditched ASALU to affiliate with the IDC, instantly becoming the latter federations’ largest member union.

Today, ASALU is still the larger of the two big labor confederations in the Solar System, but its power has been severely weakened after decades of rudderless leadership and an inability to adapt to an increasingly polarized political situation. The leadership of ASALU is traditionally supportive of planetary restitution in abstract, but advocates for the accountability and democratization of the External Service.

Unions affiliated with ASALU include:

Mineworkers Industrial Union (MIU)
Interplanetary Shipbuilders Association (ISA)
Spacefarers and Teamsters Interplanetary Union (STIU)

Industrial Democratic Congress (IDC)

A trade union confederation founded in 2301 after the All-System Alliance of Labor Unions split in a dispute over Operation Hawkeye. The IDC is generally considered to be more militant than ASALU, and unlike ASALU officially endorses a program of Spacer independence and socialist reorganization of the interplanetary economy.

The IDC initially consisted of the UGRW and a handful of smaller unions, united by a willingness to directly challenge the External Service even if it risked losing the short-term gains of conciliation. This stance grew exponentially more popular as Operation Hawkeye wore on, so much so that even ASALU was pressured to adopt a more combative posture.

Capitalizing on this newfound labor radicalism, the IDC spent the postwar recession years pressing for strikes and protests throughout the Solar System. In particular, the IDC and allied unions actively recruited unemployed war veterans, taking advantage of their expertise to fight the External Service. The Lunar Rising further emboldened the militant unionists of the IDC, as did ASALU’s decision to reverse course and renew its attempts at conciliation. With the admission of the SSOU, the IDC now represents a significant fraction of the Solar System’s unionized workers.

Unions affiliated with the IDC include:

United Gas & Refinery Workers (UGRW)
Space Station Operations Union (SSOU)
Agri-Food and Commercial Services Union (AFCSU)
Independent Electrical Workers (IEW)

February 4, 2024 Rockhoppers Sci-Fi Space Worldbuilding

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