We are Building a Religion

You have experienced something Phenomenal, so awesome and steeped in meaning and virtue, that The World must be made to understand. And so 

We are Building a Religion.

What is The Religion?

1. Nope
2. There is no roll table
3. You're just going to have to build The Religion for yourself
4. You can try ChatGPT
5. Or
6. Consult the I Ching

You may each perform a kind of Miracle, but it is never something that can be observed directly or proven (it must be taken on faith). Prophetic visions full of vague symbolism, an indomitable will, improbable successes, a presence or charm, and things of this nature.

As The Religion spreads, it amasses The Power necessary to defend itself against The World.

At first The World will respond with apathy, and The Religion will use this in its favor.

The Religion will attract the disenfranchised.

Then The World will respond with mockery, and The Religion will use this too.

The Religion will attract the scorned.

Then The World will use brute force. But by this point, The Religion can defend itself.

The Religion will attract the violent.

Finally, The World will attempt to assimilate the Religion. But by this point, The Religion will have already begun to consume The World in kind.

The Religion will attract the mindless.

This is a game about building The Religion, which you define for yourselves.

The Miracles granted by The Religion provide little benefit in themselves.

The Phenomenon alienates you from The World, at least at first.

You are opposed by The World.

And, potentially, each other.

The odds are not in your favor.

The Power comes from the acquisition of human biomass, social networks, money, hegemony, and ???????? »Â£ »Â£╔, in that order, or the reverse. 

The Power is not sourced from individuals, but from systems. The Miracles are like spears and shields torn off a nuclear-armed jet. The Power is drawn from the collective faith of its adherents.

It is your only hope of survival against The World.

As you attain The Power, The World will conform to The Religion. But, The Power is itself of The World. The more of The Power that The Religion obtains, the more like The World it becomes.

The game is as Weird, Psychedelic, Horrific, and Magical as The Religion has the ambition to be and as The World allows.

This game is not a power fantasy about individuals obtaining magical swords and accomplishing superhuman feats. It is (a power fantasy) about ideas, awe, communication, community; about building systems and defending them from predators, disease, mundanity.

This game is not for those who seek only linear things, who take pride in their ignorance, who desire the mundane or populous at the exclusion of all else, who do not consider what they want nor why, who neither understand nor have any interest in understanding. This game is ill-defined by design.