Veilsworn

(NOTE: all of the following is still a Work In Progress. As of now, it was not actually playtested yet - but it builds on a preexisting and tested "cursed die" mechanic.)

Veilsworn is primarily intended as a "cosmic horror" hack/mod for Ironsworn (and Ironsworn: Starforged). The mod can be used with any variant of Ironsworn - or, in fact, any at all solo (or not) RPG where oracles are used. Veilsworn is intended to be able to simulate gradually "piercing a veil" between two "alternate dimensions" - in a lovecraftian setting one of them would be the "rational world", and the other one the "eldritch reality". It's however hoped that it can also work for any other setting where there's a dynamically changing "supernatural rift" between two (or more) "realities" (see the "Extra Notes" section below for more ideas). Veilsworn is inspired mechanically by the idea of a "cursed die", introduced by Shawn Tomkin in Sundered Isles.

Rules

Veilsworn introduces a "Veil", represented by two core mechanics: an extra Veiled die (used with all oracles), and the Veil's Lift level (tracked throughout the game).

1. The Veil's Lift level is a (global) counter (or, a "clock"), starting (usually) at level 1, and later escalating over only five, odd-numbered values: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.

1

3

5

7

9

2. A Veiled die is an extra 10-sided die (if playing Ironsworn, you should use a die of a different color or size than your regular challenge dice) that you roll whenever rolling on any oracle. Whenever the Veiled die rolls a result equal or lower than the Veil Lift level, the result of the oracle should be interpreted with an extra understanding that the veil between the reality and an "alternate dimension" was pierced. Usually, the magnitude of the result(*) will also hint as to the degree to which the piercing of the veil manifested: a result of 1 might mean just a slight, barely perceptible, easily dismissed piercing of the veil; maybe a weird feeling that soon passes; or some kind of a flash. A result of 5 would be something half-way between the "real world" and "the other world". A result of 9 is lovecraftian monsters walking the surface of the world in broad daylight (I mean, the day-light of the Seven Cursed Suns, obviously), feeling more tangible and "real" than your friendly neighbour humans or their dogs - it might well mean that the Player Character(s) are traveling in some kind of a weirldy angled, incomprehensible, eldritch astral plane. Notably, even at the highest Lift level, a Veiled die result of 10 (often marked as "0" on the die) should still mean a completely plain, "real" result. This is left to keep the unnerving tinge of uncertainty even when walking otherworldly planes: is the insanity real, or am I just lost in a delusion? (Note, that a Lift level of 9 can be seen as a Lift level of 1 "in reverse" - the "other dimension" is now the "normalcy", and the old "regular world" only breaks in a little bit sometimes into that alternate state of things.)

(*) ALTERNATIVE: or, maybe the magnitude of the result of the roll should not influence the meaning, but just the Lift level itself should be taken into account to grade the outcome?

Extra Notes

The "veil" can mean different things in different games/scenarios. It can represent some "Illuminati knowledge", it can mean "another dimension", "eldritch hyperreality", "warp space", "eidolon spacetime" (e.g. in Starforged), "chaos realm", "the underworld", "umbra", "astral plane", "mirror universe", etc.

Truth said, I'm not yet super sure how to move (escalate & de-escalate) between different Lift levels during gameplay. My current best idea is to maybe consider increasing the Lift level as one possible effect of the "Pay the Price" Move in Ironsworn, i.e. to consider raising the Lift level as an option on missed rolls, instead of some other effects. (It doesn't mean increasing the Lift level on every missed roll, just having it as one of the options.) As for de-escalating, for a "lovecraftian" kind of a "sliding ramp" approach to insanity, I'm thinking to make reducing the Lift level to be harder than increasing it, and only allow Lift decreases on a Strong Hit with a Match. Or could it be allowed on a regular Strong Hit when there was an explicit attempt at it? All in all, I don't feel very confident in any part of this whole paragraph at the moment. (Hm, maybe to use similar mechanics as with regular Clocks in Starforged?)

You can have multiple distinct Veils in your game (with separate Lift levels and Velied dice, rolled together) - notably, I'm thinking to try an experiment with simulating the "cyberspace" in a cyberpunk game using the Veil mechanic, and adding an "eldritch dimension" as another simultaneous Veil in the same game. In a "battle between Hell and Heaven" setting, there could be a separate Veil between Earth and Heaven, and a separate one between Earth and Hell. Similarly, there could be multiple Veils for any other "plane walking" or "multiverse" theme. Even in a "classical" lovecraftian setting, there could be a separate Veil for the "eldritch reality", and a separate one for "the dreamlands".

The name "Lift" is intended to hopefully convey unclarity as to whether it's some objective, real Veil that is "globally" lifted/ripped in the "actual" game world, or it's just the Player Character(s) who is/are lifted through a Veil, either "objectively" (as in "ascended") or "subjectively" (i.e. effectively gone insane).

My current idea is to have one Lift level counter throughout the game, regardless of the number of Player Characters in the game. However, it does sound interesting to consider it also as a possible "per-Character" counter, akin to "insanity". However, I don't have a good idea yet how this could be reflected in actual game or mechanics, given that the current idea is to have it influence the oracle results (which tend to be inherently "global"), not some per-Character mechanics/outcomes.

As for the maximum Lift level of 9, if you like you can actually allow it to be crossed - that is, you can "take it to level 10". The point is, Veilsworn (and its mechanics) then just stops being necessary. "Going to Lift level 10" simply means the game is now "just" a game played 100% in the "other reality". Maybe the Player Characters are gone insane; maybe they've now disappeared from the "real world" and are forever walking in "the dreamlands"; maybe "the world has ended and Cthulhu won". It's fully your choice if you intend to continue playing your RPG in that "new reality"; but there's just no longer any Veil, and it's just the only reality that is left for the Player Characters. Any earlier "reality" is now a dubious, dreamlike memory for them, if at all; a fleeting tinge of nostalgia for something that might have never actually existed.

Proposed names for the Lift levels (and corresponding Veil die results - rolls falling inbetween should be interpreted as such):

1	3	5	7	9
a glint	a touch	a tear	lifted	ascended

CC-BY-4.0 Mateusz Czapliński 2024: you are free to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format (including commercially), so long as attribution is given to the creator (including properly crediting, linking the license, and indicating if changes were made).