Wiki Showcase: Communion

Center by the Babman

I created Communion all the way back in Iteration 4 as my replacement for "the Force."  If Psi-Wars is, in any way, going to invoke Star Wars, it must have mystical space magic.  Not much about Communion has changed since then, but I've added a few more concepts and clarified a few things, especially about Broken Communion (which may well need yet more revision, but we'll see).  You can find it at its new, permanent home here: Communion.

My patrons votes on this as the Psi-Wars topic for October, but the Space Knight ended up taking all our time.  But here it is at last, just a month late.

The Nature of Communion

Ever since I created Communion, it's been one of the things I see people talk a great deal, thus I tend to think of it as one of the "big draws" of Psi-Wars.  What I wanted to do, when creating it, was do more than just scratch the serial numbers off of the Force, but to create a more rigorous system.  The Force has numerous problems with it as a game mechanic that stem from its origins as a cinematic convention, and if you don't believe me, go over the various incarnations of Star Wars as an RPG and see how wildly different each ruleset is.

Ultimately, the Force is "just" space magic.  It does whatever the script needs it to, and it tends to do it in a visually dramatic way, so the audience (of a primarily visual medium) can appreciate what's going on.  For example, if someone is "strong" with the force, like Rey in the Last Jedi, we have to depict this by literally shaking the ground beneath her feet, or we see Kylo Ren perform impressive feats such as stopping a blaster bolt midair.  But it also doesn't do what the plot needs it to not do.  Why doesn't Rey just "use the force" to solve all her problems? Because "that's not how the Force works!" But how exactly does the force work?  The particulars are mumbled about in mystical terms, and changed as needed.  We also see that it gets used in any cultural context that the writer wants.  Need space witches?  They use the Force.  Need space priests for your giant space cathedrals who run a space religion?  It's not God, it's the Force.  Got some mad science-experiment with a bulging brain and blinking chest-lights that blasts people with epic amounts of psychokinetic power? It turns out you can empower the Force with weird experiments!

All of that is fine for a cinematic context, but for an RPG, we need to know limitations.  How much can someone move with their mind, and does it tire them out or can they do it all the time?  What are the player's chances of success, and how can he improve them or diminish them?  Just like RPGs give us "hard" rules for magic (which also tends to be a loose narrative conceit), I needed to give hard rules for our Space Magic that both resembled the Force, but was also distinct enough that it gave Psi-Wars its own "feel."  Thus, Communion.

I chose Divine Favor as the hook to hang my space-wizard hat on because it best fit the origins of the Force as Narrative Conceit.  What can Communion do? Anything It wants!  Why didn't Communion help us do that thing again? Because Communion moves in mysterious ways.  Divine Favor gives us the ability to make Communion be as loose and narratively useful as we want, while also giving us predictable rules by which to invoke a specific effect we might want.

I also needed to integrate the ideas of magic and psychic powers into Communion, to fit the psi of psi-wars and to invoke the mystical trappings we want.  Since I knew we'd have psychic powers in Psi-Wars, I went ahead and made a lot of the effects of Communion offer boosts to psychic powers, making it a lens through which you could really empower your effects.  I also added Paths to create an option for specialization and a framework for symbolism to give everything an "occult" feel.

To further differentiate it from the Force, I based my divisions of Communion not on morality, but on psychology.  Rather than it being a mysterious force of good and evil, Communion became a universal psychic gestalt that resonated with human(-ish) psychology.  I borrowed from Freud for the divisions of Communion: rather than Light and Dark, we have Super-Ego (sense of community, culture and self-judgment), Id (base needs, primal, animalistic desires) and the Thanatos Drive, reworked into "psychosis" (the self-destructive urge, and concepts that lurk on the edge of human understanding and perception, and things we tend to loathe).

To add further symbolism, I based the paths on Carl Jung's idea of universal archetypes and borrowed a lot of fairy tale imagery and tried to generalize it to a sci-fi setting, while also trying to broaden them enough that there were multiple "right" ways to follow them, so a player didn't become too trapped by their path, while still giving them some interesting choices they'd have to make.

What's New?

All of the above you should know if you've followed Communion.  The wiki update mostly centralizes elements that have been brewing for quite awhile.  These include:

More Paths: I originally set out to have three paths per form of Communion, because I like to start with three as my "many."  After watching people play with them, I noticed that people didn't see them as examples so much as hard, specific setting elements.  That is, each form of Communion has exactly three paths.  That's not what I wanted or how I intended it, though I think there are times when I've fallen into that trap myself.  So, I tried to expand on some niches I hadn't yet exploited and push people to see the setting as open to more paths.  The problem with three paths per form of communion is that three by three is pretty easy to remember.  Three by four begins to tend towards "lots" though, and I have a few more paths that I can add back in, paths unique mostly to the Cult of the Mystical Tyrant.

I haven't had a chance to look at them again, but you can also see the Ancestral Paths of the Houses of Maradon as "new" paths, and there's a concept I'd very much like to explore (touched on in the Grist Patreon release) of "World Paths" where characters attune themselves to the archetypes inherent in a world.  These will have to wait.

Part of this required removing the counter-path anti-symbolism.  The concept of anti-symbols wasn't one that I saw a lot of people using, it's not clear how they apply, and they take a lot of work to balance out.  I liked the idea of people invoking symbols to prevent someone from cursing them or something, but there may be better ways to handle that, and this tended to cement the idea of a limited number of paths.  With it gone, people are more free to create their own paths without worrying about what counters it, or that all counter-paths are balanced.

I've also more clearly integrated "associated miracles."  Originally, I saw paths as a sort of specialization and, in that sense, getting access to a few cool new miracles was enough. After some of the other updates, though, answering what miracles one could access while on a path, and what specifically gained the symbolism bonus became a rather pressing question.

Unconscious Communion: The original intent behind the Paths was to offer guidelines for specialization.  In Star Wars, you can pick one of two sides of the Force, and once you have it, you can do whatever everyone else can; sometimes someone has a "unique" talent, or a focus in a particular direction, but this is akin to a wizard being especially known for a particular spell.  I wanted to encourage different broad approaches and paths represented those specializations.

But I also wanted Paths to represent some sort of "gateway" to Communion.  Someone who uses Communion generally does so knowingly and willingly, but what about cargo cults that invoke the symbols of a path and hope for something to happen?  How does that work?  I've been noodling around for ideas, but I eventually settled upon Unconscious Communion, based on the "Secret" Patron limitation and Aspect, which means the GM can invoke Communion on your behalf if you manage to invoke the symbols of one specific path right, but that's it.  This lets us have cults that invoke Communion without realizing it (as is the case for Maradonian ancestor worship).

Oath Magic: This came up with the Divine Masks and has since been more thoroughly codified.  The idea here is that characters can "make an oath" to Communion itself and bind its power to them in some specific way.  This tends to be represented as a divine oath because the Divine Masks sees itself that way, but the Cult of Ren Valorian exploit a variation of this called Genetic Communion, and the Ranathim aristocracy also use it.

I needed some new form of power, but I didn't want to clutter up the setting with lots of specific rules.  This takes advantage of the fact that we have abilities already listed in each form of Communion.  Rather than take them as one-off miracles or reliable "Learned prayers" the character just buys the ability directly.  This fits in with the original GURPS implementation of Blessed.  The only real change from that is that you get additional penalties for violating your oath, above and beyond losing your powers.

Ghosts!: In Iteration 5, I began to explore the possibility of adding ghosts into Psi-Wars.  We often associate ghosts with psychic phenomenon, and Broken Communion was already profoundly ghost-like, and thinking of Broken Communion as something caused by ghosts is an easy way to understand Broken Communion and its actions.  As Iteration 6 dove deeper into weirdness like the Skairos and Time Ghosts as well as the "Dark Gods" of haunted worlds like Stygia, I decided that ghosts needed to be a thing, but that meant we needed ways to deal with them. Several such miracles have been folded into True and Broken Communion.

Using Communion in your Game

So, if you've read this far, you're probably really interested in using Communion in your game.  I sometimes get questions as to what Communion "really" is, or how best to use it, or on its morality, and I wanted to give you a few lenses through which you can see Communion and how to use it.

Communion as The Force: Probably the default approach for most campaigns: if you've seen Star Wars, and you think of Psi-Wars as Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off, this makes a pretty simple approach.  True Communion becomes "the Light Side" and Dark Communion becomes the "Dark Side," and Broken Communion either gets folded into the "Bad" side of Communion, ignored, or treated as an "even worse than Dark side" weirdness.  Characters tend to meditate, stretch their arms out at something, and create effects similar to what you see in Star Wars.  The Paths don't fit that nicely here, so you can ignore them.

This approach tends to bump up against some of the deliberate design choices that pushed Communion away from "the Force" such as Broken Communion, the Paths, the Path Symbolism and the focus on psychology rather than morality.  You can choose to either ignore these, or use this approach as a gateway to exploring what makes Psi-Wars different (that is, let players treat their Templars as "basically Jedi," and then slowly introduce the other elements as they get more comfortable with the setting).

Communion as Space Magic: Communion's use of archetypal imagery, symbolism, long "ceremonies" and explicit religious trappings can all evoke the idea of "magic." I explicitly drew inspiration from GURPS Thaumatology, a pyramid article on fairy tale magic, and GURPS Cabal.  I've further cemented this with the idea of "Zathare" sorcery, one of the philosophies/power-sets of the setting.  In this version, True Communion becomes "White" magic, Dark Communion becomes "Black" magic, and Broken Communion becomes "Eldritch" magic that you really shouldn't be playing with, the sort that calls down Cthulhu rather than some mundane demons. Oath magic and unconscious communion really help this approach.

This works best in games set in the more deliberately occultish parts of the setting, such as the Umbral Rim, or when invoking the Ahnenerbe/Nazi Occult connections to the Empire.  "Sanctity" already works a lot like Mana levels. It might be useful to introduce "secret" paths or "secret" miracles that require people to go on quests before mastering.  Be sure to sprinkle lots of relics in your game, too!

Communion as Super-Psi: Communion explicitly offers benefits to psychic characters and has several miracles that are really just upscaled psychic powers (especially in Broken Communion).  In this version, Communion should really be activated, rather than spontaneously occurring, and you should downplay the idea of sanctity or oath magic and play up the idea of learned prayers.  Perhaps only psychics can access any Communion powers (and people who seem to lack psychic powers are either getting their abilities from other psychics, or are unknowingly psychic themselves).  Technology might assist people's connections to Communion (sensory deprivation chambers already do this, in practice).

What flavor of Communion you tend to focus on will flavor the depiction of psychic powers in your game.  True Communion resembles "New Age" depictions of psychic powers as a source of healing energy and creating a bond between members of a community.  Broken Communion becomes psychic-abilities-as-high-weirdness or other horror themes. Here, psychic characters manifest dangerous side-effects and reality-warping abilities.  A game focusing on Broken Communion might see the government or witch hunters cracking down on psychics.  Finally, in a game that focuses on Dark Communion, it turns psychic powers into a manifestation of subconscious urges.  This also has horror themes, but where the psychic uses his powers to fulfill his base wants, and then suffers the consequences of an unrestrained and psychically empowered id.  These psychics tend to resemble the super-villains of comic books.

Communion as God: Communion uses Divine Power rules, so why not treat it as a divine power?  The religions of True Communion and the Divine Masks certainly do!  The benedictions and blessings of Star Wars make more sense in this context, as do urgings to "trust in the Force." From this perspective, Communion is a "living thing" with its own desires and wants, or a collection of divine beings with their own agendas.  True Communion may give people visions that act as subtle, mysterious commandments that It expects them to undertake, and if they do, they might be rewarded in equally mysterious ways.  Dark Communion might literally tempt people to use it, with whispers of empowerment or lusts satiated.  Broken Communion might lash out in hatred, inflicting ghostly miracles in places where it is strong, and need the mystic's quiet comforts before it can be tamed and directed in some way.

Communion and the Player Character

Some final observations on the nature of Communion and how it can impact the game.  Communion effectively grants a player a Godlike patron.  As GM, you have total control over the "NPC-like" nature of Communion.  You can make it as active or as passive as you like.  Active visions from Communion can serve as useful drivers for the plot, and active, impromptu miracles can pull PC bacon out of the fire if strictly necessary, while a more passive form of Communion can force the players to act for themselves and can tamp down the power-level of the game.

A relatively modest investment in Communion can have outsized effects.  Some people seem bewildered when blindsided by a player rolling a critical success on their invocation roll, and then rolling an 18 on their reaction modifier.  That can happen, and it's partially the intent of Communion.  If you buy Communion 4, you can luck into a Primordial Avatar or an army of locusts swarming your enemies.  Personally, I say "Embrace it!"  The point of Communion is to allow crazy, awe-inspiring moments that happen, at most, once per session.  Divine Powers tend to frown on spending impulse buy points to force a "successful" frequency of appearance roll and reaction roll, but as GM, I say you're free to accept or turn down any impulse buy points you want. I personally would allow someone to pay impulse buy points to allow them to succeed at an invocation; part of the reason I suggest Destiny for such characters is to give them some impulse buy points to invoke powerful effects on the cheap.

Realize that you have control over the full extent of how Communion works.  When a player makes a general prayer, you, as GM, decide what Communion does, and you use the reaction roll as a guide to the maximum effect possible.  Learned Prayers are limited by the character's level of Communion.  Specific prayers are more of a problem because reaction modifier is divorced from level of Communion: a particularly devout character with low True Communion who manages to succeed might still get a really great reaction roll and succeed at invoking a Primordial Avatar or something else really big.  But you, again, ultimately decide how Communion reacts to things and what the reaction modifiers will be.  Communion level acts as a brake on how often Communion can reasonably be invoked, but once it's invoked, the sky's the limit, and you have to be willing to embrace that, on some level, before bringing Communion into your game.