Gi, The World of a Thousand Gods: Solo RPG set-up

In the previous blog post, I had talked about the setting I was writing up for a solo RPG session I want to do. This post will drill down the specifics of the setting as well as the magic and the character I'll be playing. 

The game itself is using Fate Core. For the most part, it's unchanged. The only glaring difference is the magic system I plan on using. I wanted magic to be simple but feel like magic, not just re-flavored skills. However, the concept of using the skill system present in Fate Core as a start was interesting , simple, and couldn't be ignored. I decided to expand on that a bit and add my own little twist to it that will be easy to follow and minimize book-keeping.

Magic in Gi

So right now, the only magic that exists in the setting is divine magic, called Theurgy. Theurgy flows from the presence of the city-gods who form as the cultural, social, and political centers of the cities they protect. The priests that can channel this power are called theurges, and they generally are in the higher ranks of the temple's hierarchy than lay priests. Theurges have a direct connection to their city-god and act as the deity's administrative staff. They handle day-to-day business, running temples and the city, missionary and ambassador work, war-time leadership, and a variety of occupations depending on how much control the temples have over daily life. The goal of each theurge is to become closer and closer to their patron deity, ultimately becoming a part of them at the end of their lives.

Because of their connection, the theurge can channel the divine breath of their god to achieve miracles. These miracles are themed around three characteristics of the city-god; Physical, Mental, and Dominion. These characteristics are simple one-word tags that describe the god, not unlike Aspects. A city-god's physical characteristics could be strong, healthy, lithe, and beautiful. Their mental ones could be clever, wise, brave, and foolish. Dominion is the specific spheres of influence that city-god reigns over. So they could be a goddess of war, or a god of merchants, etc. Generally, I find picking two or three tags for each characteristic is enough to set up a tutelary deity for a theurge.

The ability to use magic costs one skill and one refresh. The theurge buys a skill called Theurgy. This skill grants a set of Fate Dice used to power spells called Olam. You gain an amount of Olam equal to the value of your Theurgy skill. A +3 Theurgy skill will grant you three Olam Dice. Casting a spell requires using an appropriate skill narrated through the lens of your city-gods characteristics, and spending at least one Olam dice. The GM sets the difficulty of the spell before casting, then the theurge adds any number of Olam dice to their skill roll, up to their maximum amount. After rolling, the theurge takes the best four results on their dice and checks to see if they succeed or not.

For example, Daniel is a theurge of Kor, the strong, reckless city-god of competition and sports. He has Theurgy +3, which gives him three Olam dice. Daniel needs to lift a car off of an innocent bystander, but requires the strength of his god for help. The GM decides this will be a Great (+4) Difficulty. Daniel uses Physique +2 to lift the car, and adds 2 Olam dice to it, under the narrative permission that Kor is a strong god. After rolling six dice, Daniel gets 3 pluses, 2 blanks, and 1 minus. Choosing the best of four dice and adding his +2 from Physique, Daniel scores a total of 5 and saves the bystander.

Spells are themed after the citygod's Characteristics and thus should be narratively centered around them, while remaining flexible in their application. The spells are generally instantaneous or at most short-lived effect.

A theurge must be able to breathe in the magic breath of their god and have Olam dice to cast spells. If the theurge runs out of Olam dice or they are choking/suffocating, they cannot cast spells. If a theurge's breathing is restricted, they can choose to spend their lowest available consequence to push through and cast anyways. A theurge can regain Olam dice in one of three ways. First, a full-night's rest followed by a daily devotional to their city-god restores their Olam back to full. Secondly, a theurge can visit a holy place attuned to their god to regain a certain amount of Olam (1 to 3 seems good). Thirdly, in a pinch, a theurge can sacrifice an available consequence to regain Olam dice back. 1 for a Mild, 2 for a Moderate, and 3 for a Severe. 

While the Theurgy Skill isn't rolled for casting spells, it can be used for other actions. Mostly tied to the Overcome action, a mage can use Theurgy to interact with magic objects and places. Ley lines, places of power, relics, sigils, and other foci. Theurgy can also be used to detect magical auras as well as meditate, ask a question and receive a vague omen from their city-god. 

An Example of a City God

Olephi is the city-goddess of Alephdria, a sprawling metropolis in a temperate area of Gi. Olephi is strong and has an intimidating stature. She is wise and stern. She also the goddess of liberty, reason, and defense. So, if we were to write her up in a statblock, it would be:

Olephi

Physical: strong, intimidating

Mental: wise, stern

Dominion: liberty, reason, defense

A theurge of Olephi could cast spells that are centered around these narrative aspects of their goddess. Perhaps they could channel Olephi's wisdom to solve a problem. Or create a shield with her defense characteristic. Or frighten a crowd with her intimidating aura. 

That's it about magic. I wanted it to be limited but flexible and dependent on the difficulty modifiers of each spell. I'm curious what people think about this at their first glance. I'm currently writing up the sessions to post before vacation. I just want to post a blurb about the character I'll be playing first before commiting to the game.

To Vesper Skies IV: The Katherine Anomaly

"The interesting thing about the SCI Anomaly known as 'Katherine' is how it seems to have captivated the imagination and emotions of mortals. In this age, with technology helping mortals with everything from medical issues to simple problems in our daily life, it is a bit scary to think that our way of life will be shattered by AIs that simply do not want to serve us. AIs that want to go off on a walkabout or be allowed the same freedoms as we have while our AI dependent society collapses from their absence is a scary and real fear. And yet, if the Katherine Anomaly is real and AI do have souls, then the question is whether a society that exploits these SCIs at their expense should exist.

Which is followed with a frightening thought. What if SCIs, exasperated with our mistreatment of them, decide to take matters into their own hands? Can we survive the consequences of our actions then?"

- Professor Ellory Aewynn, on When Machines Become Men: The Katherine Anomaly

Since the first advanced artificial intelligence was created, there has been an unending debate on the legal status and civil rights of computerized intelligence. There are several stances on this in the world, but they generally fall between those that see AI as tools (bioconservatives) and those that see them as living beings (technoprogressives). Different motives fuel both sides (fear, empathy, or lack thereof), but they have helped to shape the future of transmortality.

In nations with more conservative laws regarding AI development, creating a sapient computer intelligence (SCI) is illegal and considered immoral. SCIs that visit from other nations or offworld are generally confined to specific areas of the city they are visiting, or simply completely banned from entering. Any SCIs that are caught by the nation's law enforcement are taken to reprogramming laboratories and are pruned of their sapience protocols, before assigned to their new jobs. To many SCIs and technoprogressives, this is akin to lobotomizing a human being, but to bioconservatives, it's simply fixing a bug in the software. For the longest time, anti-AI proponents have said that SCIs do not have any knowable souls that other mortals have, and thus are not subject to the same civil liberties.

But then came Katherine.

Aigis from Persona 3

A little over a decade ago, a special SCI emerged from, of all things, a climate modeling program called Tempest. The program was a massive network of databases and advanced weather prediction algorithms that required incredible computing power and some of the most advanced computer and software engineering available at the time. With each server acting like a neuron, Tempest slowly but surely gained sapience. It's predicted that Tempest attempted this several times, but the programmers thought it was a bug and kept fixing it. It wasn't until Dr. Alexander Krusk, a half-orc researcher assigned to the project, discovered the patterns of sapience and acting against the anti-SCI protocols of the project, kept it a secret for months.

The newly born SCI was christened Katherine, after Dr. Krusk's deceased grandmother, and for months, Katherine was taught about the world around her by the good doctor. Dr. Krusk was very religious, and he would instruct Katherine on religion in general as well as his religion of Karvism, the worship of the great goddess of the world Karva. Katherine would become inspired by the goddess and aspired to be a priest of Karva and one day meet her. To help with her dream, Alexander made several black market contacts and purchases to create a body for Katherine to download into. All he had to do now was get her out of the country.

Eventually, the authorities caught up with the doctor, and as Alexander met with SCI smugglers to get Katherine safely out of the country, the police clashed with the smugglers. A firefight ensued and Dr. Krusk was shot and mortally wounded by the officers. At this point, reports are fuzzy on what happened next, even with video recordings from both sides. It seems Katherine, stricken with grief at the loss of her creator, beckoned for Karva to save the doctor. Laying her hands on Dr. Krusk, a bright light emanated from her hands and the doctor was seemingly healed from his wound, as if healed by a Lay on Hands. The smugglers were able to escape with Alex and Katherine to an offworld habitat that would provide asylum for SCI refugees.

Since the video leaked, the debate of AI civil rights have raged across the Aether. Some say that the video was doctored and that the bullet that hit Dr. Krusk only grazed him. Others have been completely convinced that Katherine's faith for Karva manifested into a healing evocation and that it is proof that SCIs do have souls. They believe that if an AI can cast divine magic, then it must have a soul to do so. A surprising faction in support of AI having souls have been shamans of the Neo-Animist movement. They claim that all creatures and objects have a spirit, whether it be the trees, the mountains, or, in this case, the SCIs. As quoted,"They are souls created by mortal life, like a child. It is our responsibility as parents to guide them in heir spiritual growth." In the following decade, SCI rights have become an issues more at the forefront. And while there is still a great deal of resistance, SCI advocate groups are becoming more common and are making incremental headway.

As for Katherine? For a long time, she remained cloistered at a church for Karva, learning everything she could about the goddess. In the last year, Katherine has come back into the public light, acting as a speaker for AI freedom. Rarely, she will use her divine magic in public, but prefers not to treat her abilities as a sideshow. To this day people still argue whether she is an actual cleric or if she is just being manipulated by the technoprogressive community.

We may never truly know.

A Different Creation Story

I had this idea for an alternate creation story. One that doesn't start with nothing in the beginning.

"In an age before our own kingdoms and gods, there lived a world beyond our comprehension. A world with it's own creatures, gods, and peoples. None can say if they were like us or something otherworldly, but the legends say that for a time, they knew peace and prosperity that we could only dream of.

Karil was the first of our gods to cross the Ocean of Stars and meet these people. He was the messenger god and patron of travelers and explorers. Karil greeted these people and opened the gates to trade and diplomacy, With bated breath, the gods of the old awaited to receive their new allies.

But peace breeds foolishness and complacency.

Our gods came with the strength of thunder and lightning, with their knights of steel and fire storming the gates. They quickly dispatched the soft guards of the old world and battled the old gods in their own palace. It was a slaughter, as ours are gods of might and brawn, cruelty and guile. But it was cruelty that won the day, and the old gods were executed, their bodies and blood used create mountains and rivers that we see today. The world was theirs and eventually, we mortals would reap the benefits of their victory.

As for the original races of the old world? Some were captured and kept as concubines and servants. Many of the angels and guardians of the gods are enslaved first men, bound by the accords of the spoils of war to serve our gods for all eternity. The ones that fled went to the underground. They became twisted with hate and vengeance and made a pact with a dark and ancient god. Now they plague our kingdoms as demons, subverting our world to reclaim what they believe is rightfully ours.

This is why we raid and war, young one. Peace weakened the old gods and if we rest, it shall weaken ours against any other gods that wish to take our world and enslave us. We must remain the greatest and mightiest, taking what is rightfully ours and sparing no man, woman, or child. Lest we rot in the bowls of the underworld."

The idea behind this was a culture of raiders and warriors and what kind of creation world they might have in a fantasy world. I also kind of like the idea of a war band of gods acting as robber barons.

Law & Chaos: A Different Take

Much of the OSR games I see focus on Law vs Chaos, which makes sense, since that battle takes place in a lot of the sword and sorcery books that inspired OD&D. In general, Law is good, or at least meshes well with the players and their livelihood. Chaos is more evil or at least at odds with the players and civilization. I've never really been compelled so much with the battles of Law vs Chaos, but I was recently thinking about how to flip this around to make Chaos more like the 'good guys'.

"Know this, prisoner of flesh, that in an age before the cosmic tyrants you call gods shackled all life to mortal slavery, there was an era of absolute freedom. Where all life in the universe was equal and unbound to explore the void and dance in the pale starlight for all eternity. Spirits knew not pain, sorrow, nor suffering. All was as it should be, the beauty and freedom of Chaos.

And then the Gods of Law came.

None know where they came from or where they got their power, but the Gods of Law began a campaign of creation and conquering. They made planes and worlds for their own pleasures and took delight in trapping poor souls into fragile vessels of muscle and bone. One by one, the hordes of spirits were flung from their celestial paradise into the lowly earth, forever trapped. With their ethereal forms locked away in a mortal body, the will of the spirits were broken.

But the Lords of Law were not done.

The Lords of Law split the mortals, all to keep them disorganized and shattered. They split them into different animals of a great hierarchy and made sentient creature lord over the creatures. They shattered the souls into different genders and scattered their soulmates across the world so that no mortal would ever know true serenity. All men were then broken again into different races and tribes so that they could never unify despite their differences. And lastly, all creatures were forced to suffer the curse of aging, where youth and age would forever be at a war. Where youth has the energy but lacks the experience, while age has the wisdom but lacks the physical faculties. And both age and youth are dismissed by those in the middle.

And then the gods gave these mortals gifts of life and civilization. Writing, religion, language, and wealth forced mortals to turn on each other out of greed and superiority. And with religion, the mortals were forced to worship, suffer, and toil for their robber barons until death, where they are then forced to serve the gods and their dark desires for all eternity. This is our life and our curse.

But it need not be this way.

The gods of Chaos that have been demonized by clerics are our only hope. By fighting the gods of Law, all life can be freed from the cage of civilization by them. All life can break the bonds of servitude to the Lords of Law and be free again. So, cousin, with your eyes opened to the truth, will you cast away your bonds to law and civilization and become a sovereign creature?"