Lately I've been fascinated by BECMI's Immortals rules. Not necessarily all the number-crunchy and crazy dimensional stuff that's in the Immortals set, but even what's in the Master set (and made it into the Rules Cyclopedia). It seems to be intended to serve as a capstone to progression, which makes it kind of fitting that it's so absurdly high level that I can find very little evidence anyone actually played it.
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| Immortals as depicted in the Rules Cyclopedia. |
It's almost like an official release of game mechanics for the cosmic-level world building that many of us Game Masters do in our spare time, but which never actually hits the table for the players. While reading, I found myself thinking about the fundamental forces of my own world and the beings that embody them. I like to do this kind of world building simply for its own sake (it's fun!), and in doing so it feels like I'm giving my world a sense of consistency. If I know how it all works, in theory I'll make more consistent rulings and improvise better.
"Avoid an overly structured approach to the planes. Further, to the extent that there is structure, avoid giving the characters (and players) too much knowledge of that structure." - DCC RPG, p. 309
Oops. Perhaps I have foregone the first part already, because I just can't stop myself from thinking about how the world fits together and what keeps it turning. The second part, however, about player knowledge, is relevant here. Playing as Immortals in BECMI necessitates that the players come to know a whole bunch of stuff about how the higher powers of the cosmos work on a fundamental level.
I could just use those ideas and not fully explain it at the table, right? Play it out in the background as part of my prep, but keep it a mystery for the players. Maybe Patrons or Deities are something like an Immortal. Maybe they aren't - Immortals could just be one piece of the puzzle while leaving Gods unexplained. Perhaps Immortals are just a subset of godlike beings that a mortal can become, and when the players have a run-in with one it's as alien and incomprehensible as everything else I throw at them.
The players only learn the parts their characters learn, which is to say, not much.
All of this is more related to the setting than to anything mechanical. I don't think mechanics for this are particularly necessary. As mentioned before, few people seem to have ever played through to Immortality as intended. Furthermore, the way Paths are prescribed clashes a little with DCC's open-ended "Quest For It" philosophy. I think the Path to Immortality is better served by figuring out what to do next if and when my players ever reach 10th level. If I ever run it, it'll be personal to the character(s).
After achieving immortality and gaining crazy dimensional powers, they'll either have to retire from play like in Master/RC, or we'll basically be playing a whole new cosmic superheroes game that isn't DCC any more. Instead, their reward can be becoming a Patron/Deity for future PCs.
What I can do now, however, is look at how such a concept fits into my world. How the Spheres of Power (essentially the factions/classes of Immortals) tie in with the established fundamental forces of the universe - Law, Chaos, and Neutrality - and which domains are associated with them. I can tie groups of concepts together underneath these umbrellas to create a set of loosely related trichotomies analogous to Alignments. Then, I can create beings who serve these Spheres which used to be mortals and resemble Gods. Interaction between these domains and groups of concepts is another inspiration I can use to generate characters, events, and themes in my world.
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Spheres of Power
Those of you familiar with the Immortals rules (all two of you) might have raised an eyebrow when I said "trichotomies". There are five Spheres, not three, so why would things be in sets of three? The Spheres are are Matter, Time, Energy, Thought and Entropy.
I'm going to cut the last two. Matter, Time, and Energy are all cosmic concepts that inarguably physically exist, and the trio encompasses everything in the cosmos. Thought and Entropy are more complex phenomena that arise from the other three. They have a place in this model, but not as their own Sphere of Power. Furthermore, Entropy being the odd one out which players couldn't enter sort of made it feel like it exists to be the "bad guy" for the playable Spheres to fight rather than naturally fitting into the model. I guess from a gameplay perspective that made sense - a disparate party of Immortal PCs would always be able to unite against Entropy - but it's a bit too Good vs Evil for my liking.
So our Spheres of Power are Matter, Time, and Energy. They each fight for dominance, but no one Sphere can be destroyed without bringing the whole system down. This fits neatly with my views on Alignment.
Matter |
Time |
Energy |
|---|---|---|
Purpose |
||
| The Sphere of Matter brings form to the multiverse. Without matter, there is nothing. | The Sphere of Time brings change to the multiverse. Without time, nothing moves. | The Sphere of Energy brings action to the multiverse. Without energy, nothing happens. |
Conflict |
||
| Matter opposes Time by resisting change and motion. | Time opposes Energy by causing it to spread and decay. | Energy opposes Matter by destroying it or altering its form. |
Alignment & Tendency* |
||
| Matter is aligned with Law, working toward order and structure. It has a tendency toward syntropy as it organizes the multiverse. | Time is aligned with Neutrality, creating cycles and prolonging existence. It has a tendency toward negentropy, bringing order through controlled disorder. |
Energy is aligned with Chaos, bringing greater activity and conflict. It has a tendency toward entropy, bringing the world toward a disorganized state. |
Eventual Doom |
||
| If left unchecked, the forces of Matter would bring the multiverse to a perfectly ordered and structured stasis with no variance. While Energy exists, this stasis can be disrupted. | If left unchecked, the forces of Time would leave the multiverse caught in an eternal cycle of repeating conflict. One could argue that, by the continued existence of the other Spheres, Time is winning and this Doom is the eternal state of the multiverse. | If left unchecked, the forces of Energy would bend all that exists to its will before destroying it. Ironically, its entropic nature would eventually empower Matter by creating uniformity. |
Elemental Affinity** |
||
| Matter has an affinity for the low-energy element of ice and is associated with solid form, rigid and unbreaking. | Time has an affinity for the differential energy of lightning and is associated with liquid form, both of which flow along a determined path. | Energy has an affinity for the high-energy element of fire and is associated with gaseous form, diffusing and moving quickly and unrestrained. |
Constituents of Life |
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| Matter provides form so that life may have a body. | Time allows for the mind to organise information and give thought. | Energy is the pure material that comprises the soul. |
Favored Class* |
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| The Sphere of Matter favors the Warrior class and views Fortitude as a virtue. | The Sphere of Time favors the Thief class and respects those with the Reflex to act immediately. | The Sphere of Energy favors the Wizard class and wants to bend the world to its Will. |
Civilization |
||
| Matter prefers a fair and just society. | All empires fall. Time favors nature over civilization. | Energy not only prefers but empowers tyranny. |
** the three elements of fire, ice and lightning are a separate category than the four elements of air, water, earth and fire
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Any one of the emboldened words above can be represented as a faction within the world, or the domain of a Deity or Patron of the relevant Alignment. Any column functions as a list of associated symbology, and any three horizontally grouped words could make for an interesting three-point conflict or cycle. You can also take one word randomly from any two columns and have a reason for why those two things might be in conflict (tensions between the Patron-Saint of Differential Energies and the Lord of Gas? That's a starting point for the Neon Wars).
Below are abbreviated lists for reference.
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Trichotomies abbreviated:
- Matter/Time/Energy
- Form/Change/Action
- Resistance/Decay/Alteration
- Law/Neutrality/Chaos
- Syntropy/Negentropy/Entropy
- Stasis/Repetition/Destruction
- Low-energy/Differential energy/High-energy
- Ice/Lightning/Fire
- Solid/Liquid/Gaseous
- Rigid/Flow/Diffusing
- Unbreaking/Determined path/Unrestrained
- Body/Mind/Soul
- Warrior/Thief/Mage
- Fortitude/Reflex/Willpower
- Justice/Nature/Tyranny
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