Defy the Gods Is Queering Sword and Sorcery on Kickstarter

The jealous gods hate you. The city's rulers want to crush you. But—if you dare to share your heart and seize immortal glory—you just might defeat them all.

Defy the Gods is a tabletop role-playing game of daring adventure, passionate romance and cursed power, set in fantasy ancient Mesopotamia, for two to five players plus a GM. And it’s already funded on Kickstarter.

Inspired by Clash of the Titans, Conan and Princess Mononoke, it brings queer love and resistance to sword & sorcery role-play, inviting you to spin a story of wild invention and heart-rending drama.

Build your own world of blood and bronze—its Pantheon of gods and demons, its bustling, pitiless Cities, its trackless Wilds where gigantic creatures roam. Create its dream of lost Atlantis and its patient, hungry Underworld.

Play a fierce Sword, chaos-loving Sorcerer, fugitive Revenant, cunning Sailor, immortal-sworn Vessel, or wild-raised Wolfling. Define what’s important to you with your Epithets, then watch each one slowly erode under the weight of your glorious destiny.

Win hearts and give your own. Your romantic entanglements leave you vulnerable, but in the end, only they can save you from yourself.

Unseat the world's powers and dare to usurp their thrones. Leap into danger, surrender your heart, and ascend to monstrous, godlike power.

Defy the Gods is a really smart, purposeful take on sword & sorcery roleplaying, backed by mechanics that drive you toward interesting and loaded narrative. It's a really cool game.
—Avery Alder, creator of Monsterhearts, The Quiet Year and Going For Broke

Queer Romance Is Resistance

Your emotional connections offer protection from a hostile world, but they also leave you vulnerable. Spend Hearts to aid another’s rolls or tempt them to do what you want. Undermine the hostile forces arrayed against you by winning its followers to your side. In Defy the Gods, a kiss cuts deeper than a blade.

The biggest threat to your heart’s connections is your own beckoning glory. Unlike most PbtA games, you can roll too high—and when you do, your Fire stat often blazes higher.

As your spirit burns hotter, you slowly remake yourself as a World Force in your own right, spurning friends and loved ones. This is your biggest threat—you may claw your way back from death, but your own ascent to terrible power will end your adventurer’s story forever.

The Game

Each playbook focuses on an archetype from sword & sorcery and its resonances with queer life. Every adventurer has their own possible arc of glorious doom.

• The Revenant: a mortal recently escaped from the Underworld, pursued by demons. Call on the power of death while exploring the limitless potential of your new life. Inspired by Inanna, Eurydice and Persephone.
• The Sailor: a wide-traveled, mischievous trickster with a network of exes and an escape plan. Draw the map of the world, one destination or obstacle at a time. Inspired by Sindbad and Odysseus.
• The Sorcerer: a scholar of the forbidden art, with unpredictable spells and an ever-warping body. Roll a bunch of dice and look for patterns in them—if you match a pattern to a spell you have, you can cast it. Otherwise, chaos burns you. Inspired by Thoth-Amon and everyone who's usually a villain in other sword & sorcery stories.
• The Sword: a big-hearted, deadly person who refuses to bow to anyone. If combat hasn't started, kill a mortal within arm's reach without rolling. Inspired by Conan and Jirel of Joiry.
• The Vessel: the devoted, submissive servant of an exiled god, suffering willingly in exchange for transcendent power. Perform miracles through your wounds. Inspired by Elric of Melniboné.
• The Wolfling: a human raised by animals, curious about civilization, and belonging to neither world. Hunt your prey and destroy ugly human contraptions. Inspired by San in Princess Mononoke.

Every roll in this game has three possible results:

• A miss. You roll too low and don't get what you want. The story gets more complicated.
• A glowing success. You roll just right and get what you want. The story gets closer to your goals.
• A burning success. You roll too high and get more than you bargained for. The story gets wild.

“Defy the Gods immediately feels both innovative and familiar. The glowing and burning success system is going to make every roll exciting. An incredibly elegant twist on PbtA that fits the world perfectly. Exactly what you want in a core mechanic and a new setting.”
—Brian Liberge, Games on Demand

Epithets and Dooms

Your stats are your Epithets—phrases that describe who you are. You start with three of them, worth 0 to 2 points. To make most moves, you invoke an Epithet, roll two six-sided dice, and add the Epithet's worth.

When you take harm, physically or socially, it hurts your reputation: Signify your Wound by demoting an Epithet's worth.

Gain more Epithets by giving your heart. However, your immortal pride may earn you Dooms that overwrite your Epithets—erasing your personality—and granting you dramatic, story-shaking moves. When all your Epithets become Dooms, your adventurer has given themself over wholly to power. Their arc is over, for they have become a World Force in their own right—an NPC enemy.

The World Forces

Build your own antagonists at the start of the game:

• The Pantheon: The gods, goddesses and demons who rule the cosmos and hate you. Give them domains like "Law," "War" and "Sex," but also "Abyss," "Hate" and "Searing Knowledge."
• The City: Your home. Choose its location, its rulers, and its one unique thing. Sketch in its oppressive laws and informal communities. Inspired by the cities of ancient Sumer and Babylon, but with plenty of room for creativity.
• The Wilds: The trackless regions beyond the City, full of gigantic creatures. Pick the landscapes you want to explore and the creatures you want to encounter.
• The Legacy of Atlantis: Before humans were the Atlanteans. They lived without fear of gods or fate. Then they discovered sorcery, and the Pantheon destroyed them for it. Find their blasted ruins in wild places. Unlock their secrets.
• The Underworld: The destination of all mortals. Populate it with shades and demons, and discover how to reach it—and possibly return.

These are the forces arrayed against you.

The World Scene

In between adventures, you flip the script: Play out a single scene as members of one of the World Forces, devising future trouble for your own adventurers. Fire up the Game Master's imagination and indicate where you want the story to go.

“When even the gods conspire to oppress and control, the only act that is just is defiance. Defy the Gods puts the power and responsibility in the hands of your adventurers to fight the gods themselves or succumb to your own doom.”
—Sean Nittner, Evil Hat Games

Epic Team

The game features editorial work and consulting by game-design legends Rae Nedjadi, Avery Alder and Lyla McBeath Fujiwara.

Industry pro Cris Viana is doing the graphic design, Rue Dickey is copyediting, and Pelgrane Press publisher Cat Tobin is providing mentorship through the GAMA Horizons Fellowship.

The book features stellar art by Shan Bennion, Kanesha Bryant, Katrin Dirim, Jaqueline Florencio, Ezra Rose, Thalie Shelen, and Mary Verhoeven.

Seize Your Fire and Doom

The Kickstarter reached its goal in the third day. It's cleared its first stretch goal and is on track to hit the next one this week—an adventure seed by award-winning game designer Kevin Kulp, co-author of Swords of the Serpentine. After that, a new playbook by Rae Nedjadi beckons: the Demigod.

Kickstarter-exclusive add-ons include hard enamel pins, dice with cuneiform numbers, giclée art prints, and an embroidered patch.

Back it now!