RPGs I want to play: Mortal Coil

While I was in Japan, a lot of really cool games came out. I read a lot of actual play reports on RPGnet and Story Games, and tried to figure out which of those were worth buying for someone who only really had one regular player (Susie, my wife). Sometimes, though, even if a game didn't seem particularly suited to one-on-one play, there was something about it that was so awesome I just had to see what it was about.

Mortal Coil was one of those games. It's an RPG about magic and fantasy (mostly in modern times) that uses resource management and blind bidding in place of dice, a really effective and fun resolution system, but that's not really the thing that drew me to it. I read a post describing a game in which one of the player characters was Yahweh. And apparently, the game was put together in such a way that this actually worked, even with far less powerful (e.g. humans) running around as PCs. This, I thought, is something that I have to see.

There are a number of really great innovations in Mortal Coil, and a number of more familiar mechanics used in new ways. The primary innovation, the thing that makes this game stand out more than anything else, is the way magic works.

Let me preface what comes next by explaining that I'm a big fan of modern fantasy. One of my first RPGs was Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and to this day I'm still interested in the World of Darkness. I enjoy the Dresden Files books that I've been able to read, and moreso Last Call (by Tim Powers) and The Devil You Know (by Mike Carey), all of which feature protagonists, antagonists and side characters who exist in the modern day, but have access to magic and powers that come from the occult. Of the genres I would prefer to read or play, modern day fantasy is near the top ofthe list.

Coming back to Mortal Coil, as a game that featured that genre as a primary influence on its design, I figured that the magic system was going to be interesting, and I was not wrong. The effects of magic, which includes spells, supernatural powers, godlike abilities, and all manner of inhuman features, is made up as the game is played. When you want to define one of the spells of powers of a character, you permanently spend one of your magic tokens, and the spell or power can have whatever effect you describe. However, the opponent (GMs for players and players for GMs) determine the Price, the fictional and/or mechanical effect that must be paid in order for the power to take effect.

So, if you want your wizard to have a spell that can unlock doors, the GM can say that you must destroy a key. If the GM wants his werewolves that are attacking to have massive claws that rend spirit armor, you can say that doing so causes them mental agony or terror. It sounds like it could devolve into "Yes, but this price makes the power worthless," but that's where the theme document comes in.

See, before the game begins, before characters are made or any action in the story happens, the players and GM work together to create a setting/genre document that defines the sorts of stories you will play, the sorts of magic that exists, and the general feel for how everything will work. Everything is negotiated and agreed upon, so that everyone is on the same page about the game. And thus, people have a unified vision, and something they can point to when they feel like that vision is being pushed upon.

Altogether, this makes the magic system extremely flexible, covering a wide range of effects and power levels, without being overpowering for one side. It's a whole load of fun in play; we used it for a superhero game where one of the players was a speedster, and he said that he had never played a game before that actually allowed a speedster to actually behave like a true comic book character could.

The last thing I'll ay about it is that it has a really great system for Passions, the things people care about, how they can effect the actions of those around you, and how those around you can affect them with their actions. It's a really solid social conflict system with some really cool effects.

So, this is something I want to play. You get fantastic buy-in from the players due to the theme document, which also sets up the big overarching conflict of the game, complete with badguys. You get a system that can fit PCs with vastly disparate power levels, and not fall apart from it. You get a magic system that is molded as play happens, and spurs player creativity and competitiveness. You get a cool conflict resolution mechanic that uses no dice, but is still quite unpredictable, and incorporates a fantastic way to deal with social conflicts as easily as physical ones.