Looking for a third party Year Zero Engine (Tales from the Loop, ALIEN, Blade Runner, Mutant Year Zero Forbidden Lands, and more) fantasy tabletop roleplaying game? Kuba Polkowski of Cosy Coven has an original setting for you, Touched by the Gods Roleplaying Game. Kuba, who has an impressive YZE resume, agreed to talk about his world of the Wild, gods, and divine powers.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Thanks for talking with me. You’re kickstarting an RPG, Touched by the Gods Roleplaying Game, what’s the pitch for the game?
KUBA POLKOWSKI (KUBA): Hi! Thanks for having me here. Touched by the Gods is a roleplaying game set in Europe of the First Millennium That Could Have Been. In this Slavic mythology-inspired game you will take role of heroes who have been Touched by one of the eight gods of the Wild. Great evil is coming to end the life as we know it, and the deities decided it’s high time to intervene. You, the Touched, wield great powers, yet you are only humans, mere vessels, carrying the gods’ spark. If you let the divine part grow in you too much… Well, best no one you hold dear is around when it happens.
EGG: Let’s break this down, in this RPG, the world is covered in the Wild. What is the Wild?
KUBA: The Wild has not been named so for no good reason. Anyone who travels into the vast lands and leaves the safety of their own household behind them, must understand how dangerous endeavor they are facing. No matter if the Wild means forests and rivers, seashore, a desert, or even harsh, snowy mountains. There is always a plethora of things and beings that can end your journey in the most unexpected moment.
The Wild is then basically everything beyond a settlement or a hut you live in. It’s the ancient backwoods covering most of the world known to the Folk.
EGG: You play as a Touched. What can you share about the source of the character’s powers?
KUBA: You have been chosen by one of the eight gods and the deity decided to Touch you. It’s hard to imagine how it feels to be Touched, but you are now special, one of a kind. Regardless of which god or goddess has chosen you, you can do grand things, change the turns of history, to be honest. You will start the game armed with one god’s Gift, burden with a Curse, and guided by a Bidding. You will not choose your god, obviously. You are but a mere mortal, it’s Them who choose you.
Your Gifts are your superpowers. You can invoke your Gift anytime during play and immediately put their effect in use. Most of the Gifts can work several ways. Curses are the opposite of Gifts. They are emanations of the malignant face of a god. Your Bidding is the reason your god has Touched you. Treat it like a mission, a driving force of your PC’s existence. If you follow your Bidding, your god will be pleased with you and will not feel the need to push themselves into your fragile, mortal body and mind any further.
EGG: How do others react to the Touched? What in-game advantages do these powers grant the players?
KUBA: It depends on the place you are and the history of Touched-regular Folk relations there. In most places Touched would be welcomed as they are a visible emanation of divine care for the Folk. Sometimes, though, not the nicest people get Touched and they do abuse their powers (think of The Boys and Homelander). In such a settlement the Touched would be looked upon with hostility, at least. There is also a mechanism we’ve built into the game, called Mistrust. The further you are from home, the higher the chance is that people will not want you there. You can lower Mistrust by doing something for the community and getting them to learn about it, by for example having a song sung about your great deeds.
When it comes to in-game advantages, the Gifts are real, pardon the pun, game-changers. You can talk to animals, breathe fire, sense evil, etc. If you combine them with Talents, a mechanism well known to Year Zero Engine, they allow you to create various types of heroes, who are capable of literally saving the world. The Curses are usually something really nasty that will make you think twice before taking an action in certain situations. You wouldn’t want to be allergic to sun, right?
EGG: You’re offering a free quickstart. What does the book include?
KUBA: Apart from tens of amazing arts from our head illustrator Aleksander Zawada, it synthesizes the rules of the game without going into details. You will also find a small sandbox-like settlement description, with a lot of NPCs and encounter/threat ideas, as well as a short scenario, intended to introduce the setting (and the system) to new players.
EGG: This uses the OGL/SRD for Free League Publishing’s Year Zero Engine, the ruleset behind Tales from the Loop, ALIEN, Blade Runner, and more. What makes this the right engine for the Touched by the Gods setting?
KUBA: I fell in love with YZE the moment I laid my hands upon Mutant Year Zero sourcebook. I have run it, played it, and read it many times. That includes GenLab Alpha, Mechatron, and Elisium, of course. I love the dynamics and the PC-centrism of the game and the setting. You are special, yet you are doomed. This is basically the line that is laying at the core of Touched by the Gods. ALIEN with it’s Stress mechanism is not only my favourite-ever IP, but also a fabulous and deadly game. Tales from the Loop with its cinematic approach makes it so easy to play. Touched by the Gods has been written with YZE as its system from the very first sentence.
EGG: As a creator and third party publisher, what else have you created for the Year Zero Engine?
KUBA: I am the author of the Polish settings for both Tales from the Loop and Tales from the Flood. I have also helped localizing Our Friends, The Machines, an expansion for both the Tales settings. Apart of YZE books, I am also the author of the Polish sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu – Warsaw: the Doomed City.
EGG: Free League has a fantasy RPG that uses the Year Zero Engine, Forbidden Lands. For fans of Forbidden Lands, why should they check out Touched by the Gods?
KUBA: Oh, I love Forbidden Lands, too! So if you are looking for similarities, there will be a lot of exploring in Touched by the Gods as well. You will encounter many horrible opponents and you will be able to dig for interesting loot. On the other hand, Touched by the Gods is more of a heroic – yet dark and fatal – setting. Instead of playing a band of scavengers, you will have a chance to change the fate of the world as you know it.
EGG: Beyond Touched by the Gods Roleplaying Game, what else are you working on?
KUBA: As there are a couple of great people on the team, everybody gets to do something they really love. Our next TTRPG project is an Arthurian setting for 5E, as Błażej Kubacki, its author, has a degree in English Literature with his main focus being the story of King Arthur. I am super excited as it feels so authentic!
EGG: Thanks for talking with me. Where can fans find more about your work and campaign?
KUBA: On the campaign site, obviously as well as in our freshly created FB group for Touched by the Gods.
Thank you for having me again and hope to see you in the Wild!
Touched by the Gods Roleplaying Game from Cosy Coven
End Date: Thu, October 13 2022 5:59 PM EDT.
“Tabletop RPG Game set in mysterious Wild of the First Millenium That Could Have Been using Year Zero Engine mechanics.”
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