Defy the Gods: A messy and queer romance of swords and sorcery heads to Kickstarter

Chris Sellers, the designer of Racoon Sky Pirates, will bring Defy the Gods to Kickstarter later this month.

Published by Hectic Electron Games, Defy the Gods is a queer sword and sorcery story-game RPG for 2-5 players and a GM. Played over 4-20 sessions, it features daring adventurers in a hostile world filled with messy romance, jealous gods, and treacherous power. Players aim to win support, risk love, and either overthrow or become the world’s rulers. The game will be released as a 250-page, full-color, U.S. Trade-size hardback.

Geek Native has eased all the generous and glorious art from the press pack to put together a gallery post, and if you like what you see, then you can already sign up for launch alerts.

I also got the chance to ask Chris some questions.

How does the game differ from other disaster romance TTRPGs?

Defy the Gods focuses on disastrous, queer romance in sword & sorcery stories. In these stories, passion exists for its own purposes, but it’s also a counterweight to power. Romantic entanglements keep you human, even when they go off the rails. If you’re vulnerable enough to give someone your heart, that person may protect you from the powers that try to crush you, or pull you back from the brink when your own power goes too far.

If they choose to. They may just spend your heart for their own ends.

How does the doom spiral mechanic work?

In Defy the Gods, your stats are Epithets – phrases that describe who you are. When you roll, you add an Epithet’s worth. You can roll a miss, a perfect success, or a burning success – where you roll too high and get more than you bargained for.

And often, when you roll too high, you increase your Fire, meaning your immortal pride blazes higher. If you max out your Fire Track, you trigger a climactic move called “Defy the Gods.” It means you’ve humiliated a world force. One of three things can happen: they smite you for your hubris, you face them down with your friends, or you reject your friends and briefly rise to the world force’s level.

When that last outcome happens, you get a new, very powerful move, but one you have to mark more Fire to use. You also replace one of your Epithets with a Doom, a phrase that changes who you are. Once your Dooms eclipse all your Epithets, it’s the end of your character as a PC. They haven’t died, but they’ve lost their humanity. From then on, they’re an antagonist NPC…another arrow in the GM’s quiver.

By the way, I got this whole mechanic from Apocalypse Keys by Rae Nedjadi. It’s a great game. Everyone should play it at least once.

Why pick now to do launch Defy the Gods?

When I started writing this four years ago, I didn’t realize I’d be launching now, when trans rights and immigrant rights are under such attack and resisting tyranny has become so urgent. But I’m glad I am. Defy the Gods takes you on a wild ride, but it’s also about standing up to power and drawing on your connections with your friends to help you do it. I would love to see more of that in the real world.

Writing this game helped me figure out I was trans. Now, when the government is busy interposing itself between me and the life I want, it feels like a good time to wield sorcery and swords against gods and tyrants.

What’s next on your list?

I’m planning to make a deluxe, all-in-the-box edition of Raccoon Sky Pirates! It’ll create even more chaos than before, with streamlined rules, tokens, cardboard play mats, and more character moments for your little trash goblins. I have this idea that you’ll build your flying ship by assembling cardboard puzzle pieces. I want you to track your careening path toward disaster by playing cards on a boiler-room dial, watching the cards take your dial from green to yellow to red. Even now, when I’m laser focused on Defy the Gods, I can feel those raccoons scratching at the door to my brain, working out how to get inside.