Mechanical Gods

Cosmology to game mechanics

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Fantasy games, horror games - all sorts of ttrpgs feature cosmic entities.

So why is it that mechanical interaction with them is so rare? Not visions, not GM handwaving, actual mechanics. Let’s put aside classes and characters that are ‘technically’ powered by a link to them, I’m talking about in-world interaction that doesn’t care about character sheets or lore dressing.

It’s fun if you can speak a demon’s name and have the opportunity to make a deal with them. That’s what I mean by interaction - in-world stuff that is very open to all players at the table. This idea is rooted in Coriolis: The Third Horizon, where worship leads to re-rolls of dice etc.

We’re going to sketch out a framework that you can use to mechanise PC interactions with cosmic entities in your games. It works for existing settings too. If you’re running a module, game, or setting with some deities, you can easily add this stuff in.

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Offerings, Tithes, and Deals

Each entity in your world has an associated mechanism that players can leverage. Start with the principle.

Acratos, God of Wealth, grants good fortune to those who make offerings of wealth.

Great. Now let’s make this an actual thing players can leverage in concrete terms.

An offering of 100 gold pieces or equivalent value grants Acratos’ boon when laid at an appropriate shrine. Acratos will intervene when the one who made the offering is at risk of missing an opportunity to gain wealth. They turn a failed roll into a success.

You could make this a player choice to invoke the boon, or have the GM choose when (for some extra mystery).

In short, this is a cost-based/risk-reward choice that players can mess around with. It makes cosmology mechanically meaningful in your game! Do this for your ‘pantheon’ or ‘collection of eldritch entities’.

Consider the following:

• Some entities ask for what they want upfront and reward accordingly but others are shady. They give you what you want then come to collect later, not having said exactly what they’ll take. What they offer should be more enticing.

• Some entities won’t deal with a PC if they’ve been in touch with another entity they dislike. The Harbinger of Law cares not for a PC that has an active bargain with the High Lady of Anarchy.

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More options

You can have multiple mechanisms (e.g. offering/bargain types) but make sure they are all concrete things that the players can engage with! They should be a cost-based/risk-reward choice that players can leverage.

You can keep some offerings/bargains secret. They need to learn them from sages, ancient texts, and so on within the world.

You can have a tier system. Certain options are only available to those who have already fulfilled other types of offerings/bargains.

For detailing deities and their mechanics, I write all my nonsense down in Muji notebooks (absolutely, 100% THE BEST notebooks) with a Lamy pen. Highly recommended.

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Recommendation

I’m a sucker for a crash survival scenario (I built our first rpg Restruct entirely around them). I came across this FREE scenario for Mothership called Memory that details a compact but juicy crash survival adventure. Well worth a look.

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