Running the game #

So you’re the one they call the Facilitator? Very nice to make your acquaintance. Very nice indeed. You and I are going to get along just fine, I can tell. Two birds of a feather. Best of friends, even. Let’s get started.

Facilitator basics #

As a facilitator, your role is to create a robust world filled with obstacles for the player characters to overcome, mysteries for them to solve, and facilitator characters for them to befriend and to hate.

You’ll leverage themes of dread, forbidden knowledge, and fear of the unknown. You’ll slowly give the player characters opportunities to pull at story threads, drawing them ever deeper into the dark, mysterious, and foreboding world that you’ve prepared for them.

Information #

No matter where they are or what they are doing, the player characters are always on screen and always in control of their own actions. As the facilitator, though, you are responsible for determining what happens off screen.

This creates an asymmetry of information that, when leveraged well, can enhance mysteries and create surprises. However, when leveraged poorly, it can stymie forward progress and kill narrative momentum.

• You are the players’ only source of information about what is happening in the world their characters occupy, so provide information readily and freely.
• Don’t keep important information behind rolls if a bad roll can stop progress.
• Encourage players to ask questions and then give them direct answers.

Danger + difficulty #

By involving themselves in matters of the Negaverse, the player characters are playing a dangerous game, so the obstacles you place in their path should reflect this danger. The stakes are high and characters may die, but the players should always feel that they’re being treated fairly.

• Present the potential for danger clearly and give the players the opportunity to react.
• Clarify player intent before the dice are rolled to make sure players have all of the information that would be obvious to their character.
• Saves allow characters to avoid uncertainty and risk. If neither is present, then there is no need to roll.

Failure #

Failure can be frustrating, but it can also be an opportunity to be creative. How players interpret failure depends largely on how you and your world react to their efforts, so foster an environment where failure is just as exciting as success.

• Allow situations to have multiple outcomes based on the actions of the characters.
• Players should never get stuck, narratively, because they failed at a task. Instead, failure should push the story forward.
• When possible, elicit complications or twists from the players themselves; empower them to define their own misfortune.

Success #

The consequences associated with failure when facing high-stakes constraints create dramatic tension, but that doesn’t mean that success is uninteresting when the stakes are low. The actions of characters who face no active threats are often critical to shaping the narrative.

Assuming that a character has a fixed level of skill and a well-defined sense of what it will take to complete their goal, they have three pools of resources they can spend to shape how they succeed: time, money, and quality.

Preparation #

Being a facilitator requires an investment of time before and after game sessions. Invest your time wisely to maximize everyone’s fun.

• Be flexible when preparing for a game. Create situations and encounters for the characters to actively engage with instead of plot and story for them to passively observe.
• Allow the world to change and grow because of your players’ actions. Play to find out what happens.
• Give facilitator characters motivations, flaws and drives. Have them react according to their principles. No matter what, they should always have a drive to survive.

Die of Fate #

When the unanticipated occurs and the outcome isn’t immediately clear, you can introduce an element of randomness. Roll 1d6 to consult the die of fate.

Facilitator characters #

All rules that apply to player characters apply to facilitator characters as well. The following are a set of rules specific to facilitator characters to aid you in running the game.

Disposition #

When the player characters encounter a facilitator character whose reaction would not be obvious from the story, roll 2d6 and consult the following table. The result is the facilitator character’s starting disposition.

Mobs #

Large groups of similar combatants fighting together are treated as a single mob with a single set of abilities, HP, and damage die. When the mob reaches 0 STR, it disperses.

Except for blast damage, attacks against mobs by individuals are impaired, while attacks against individuals by mobs are enhanced.

Morale #

Morale is useful mechanism for simulating a facilitator character’s desire to survive. Morale is not an appropriate mechanism for influencing the behavior of player characters, whose actions should always remain in control of the players.

Individual foes must save when they’re reduced to 0 HP. Enemy groups must pass a CTRL save to avoid fleeing when they take their first casualty, when they suffer critical damage or stress, and again when they lose half their number. Groups with particularly notable leaders may use the leader’s CTRL in place of their own.

Some facilitator characters simply aren’t susceptible to the fear of death. Their proximity to the Negaverse means that their behavior is determined solely by you.

Stress #

The degree and frequency with which the player characters encounter stress establishes the tone and pacing of the game. Here are some examples of stressful encounters suitable for a story of necromancers in space:

Gameplay loops #

All games contain gameplay loops. These are the activities that the player characters repeat that are central to their growth. In old-school fantasy RPGs, the main loop that drives the game is defined by raiding the dungeon, killing the monsters, and taking their loot. By repeating this loop, characters grow stronger and can tackle new and different challenges, often in the form of raiding bigger dungeons that have bigger monsters who have bigger loot.

In many games, groups, and play styles, the main game loop is subservient to a larger loop, which is often based on a narrative goal: save the world, build a kingdom, avenge a family, etc… Just as often, games also feature smaller loops: explore a room, fight a monster, pick a lock, negotiate with a dragon.

This Mortal Coil is built on loops large and small. In addition to whatever narrative goals you may develop as a group, every character is on a quest for immortality. Within that overarching loop are three main loops that are likely to form the meat of your adventures: learning new spells, collecting souls, and gathering items for your anchor. There are also optional loops in the form of the crew improving their ship’s cargo capacity and jump drive, or a character improving their thralls through fleshcrafting.

Within the major loops are minor loops that provide additional opportunities for creativity and problem solving: casting spells, negotiating contracts, and traveling through hyperspace.

The loops built into This Mortal Coil exist to help you and your players tell your story. Use them in whatever way makes the most sense for your group — lean into them when they make sense and ignore them when they get in the way.

Learning spells #

To learn a spell, a character needs to discover its location and form, and then also needs to spend the time to analyze the arcane information that encodes it. Roll d10 or create your own sources for spells:

1. Tattooed on the skin of a colicky newborn. Only becomes visible when the baby is sleeping peacefully.
2. Incoherently whispered by a hypnogogic hallucination that only appears after prolonged sleep deprivation.
3. Inscribed in an alien language on the dark pillars of the asteroid belt. They glow based on the alignment of the planets.
4. Overheard in fragments of conversation at a cannibalistic dinner party where the main course will be chosen from the diners at random.
5. Carved into the bones of a character’s right forearm. They don’t know why they know it’s there, but they do.
6. In the screams of murdered spirits trapped in the physical world. They want justice, but each possesses only a fragment of the killer’s identity.
7. Delivered in the form of a sutra delivered by a wraith while traveling through hyperspace fully conscious. The wraith will only take on students it deems worthy.
8. Painted on the walls at the very bottom of a flooded limestone cave that has been uninhabited for a millennium.
9. Embedded in the run-time code of a murderous AI who knows the characters are coming.
10. Emitted via pheromones by a colony of hellwasps when played a concerto by a composer whose work has long been forgotten. Must be played live.

Collecting souls #

If your spirit is destined to be consumed by the Great Gaping Maw at the Center of the Negaverse, selling, trading, or bartering it away is far less consequential than you might think. Choose or roll d66 three times to determine the personality, occupation, and desire of someone willing to sell their soul.

Personality #

1. adventurous
2. daring
3. affable
4. confident
5. determined
6. diplomatic
7. sociable
8. compassionate
9. enthusiastic
10. motivated
11. optimistic
12. inventive
13. honorable
14. argumentative
15. immature
16. contemptuous
17. disruptive
18. inconsiderate
19. careless
20. temperamental
21. patronizing
22. resentful
23. fickle
24. egotistical
25. analytical
26. ambitious
27. nervous
28. sophisticated
29. fastidious
30. cautious
31. distraught
32. vengeful
33. desperate
34. impatient
35. dishonest
36. insecure

Occupation #

1. entrepreneur
2. doctor
3. enforcer
4. explorer
5. lawyer
6. engineer
7. miner
8. sculptor
9. jeweler
10. architect
11. dancer
12. idol
13. illusionist
14. poet
15. detective
16. soldier
17. bodyguard
18. constable
19. pilot
20. teamster
21. banker
22. biologist
23. accountant
24. nurse
25. teacher
26. smuggler
27. chef
28. psychologist
29. pilgrim
30. priest
31. cartographer
32. smuggler
33. astronomer
34. warlord
35. gang boss
36. junker

Desire #

1. Fame
2. Sex
3. Money
4. Power
5. Skill
6. Knowledge
7. Justice
8. Revenge
9. Security
10. Peace
11. Belonging
12. Acceptance

Gathering ingredients #

Each character requires a set of esoteric ingredients to create their anchor. Tracking down a source for each ingredient can be as elaborate or complicated as you need it to be. Here are six well-connected sources for you to use in your game:

1. Velouria, a mysterious data broker who only communicates via an animated holographic avatar. She will send delivery drones to make physical contact on her behalf.
2. Ivan Ivanovich, an android drug runner who operates out of the mining colony, Almasi, seems to have connections with just about everyone, everywhere.
3. Kwasi, a shady antiques dealer, specializes in old tech and artwork. His shop in Maono attracts a very diverse and discerning audience.
4. Halisi Anyango, the greedy abbot of the Kilima Kijani chapter of the SFB lives far beyond her means. She’s rumored to be involved in the shady politics of Nyumbani’s third-largest city.
5. MAMBO99, an arbitrage AI, coordinates the exchange of secondhand goods on a massive scale throughout the Alfajiri system – all for a modest service fee.
6. Evangeline Hurston, an ambitious parabiologist from Jangwa, is a storehouse of knowledge about all things related to the Negaverse.