The Name of God
The Name of God is a 2013 dark little game inspired by such works as Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere¸ American Gods¸ Anansi Boys and The Prodigy's song Narayan¸ which more or less means "The Name of God". And also to my undying love for the traditional rpg Unknown Armies.
The game is a trip into a bizarre metropolitan hole¸ filled with homeless people¸ weird omens¸ dangerous situations¸ and ritual chanting. No¸ seriously¸ you will have to intone the words¸ or you will never find your true self again!
The PDF presents a printable deck of about 30 full colour cards in both poker and tarot sizes for the following languages: English¸ Italian¸ Spanish¸ French¸ German and Polish. A few cards explain the rules of play. The other 24 each represent a unique Fetish¸ a character archetype inspired to some grim urban item¸ location¸ stereotype or concept.
Every card has been illustrated by artist Julia Roth.
Every fetish has been developed by an amazing team of 15 indie designers¸ whom I heartfully thank for helping bring this game to life and growing it into so much more than it's original scope. They are¸ in alphabetical order...
- Becky Annison is swimming in The Lake
- Meguey Baker is weaving The Thread¸ and rolling The Stone
- Caitlyn Belle is causing The Glitch¸ and tending The Garden
- Stephanie Bryant is pitching The Song
- Emily Care Boss is soaring as The Leaf¸ and rattling The Bones
- Dana Fried is forging The Anvil¸ and erecting The Wall
- Wendy Gorman is giving us The Shiver
- Elsa S. Henry is conjuring The Corvid
- Renee Knipe is picking up The Broken Bottle¸ and lighting The Candle
- Kira Magrann is hatching The Serpent¸ and piercing The Veil
- Megan Pedersen is burning up The Match
- Ariana Ramos is spinning The Spider
- Brianna Sheldon is weeping The Tears¸ and awakening The Kraken
- Heather Silsbee is aiming The Arrow
- Manuela Soriani is dreaming up The Butterfly
- ...and my own original four Fetishes: The Worm¸ The Stars¸ The Winter¸ The Shadow
The Name of God was born in 2013 out of the 200 Words RPG Challange. It was successfully Kickstarted¸ becoming the gorgeous and much expanded game you see here. In 2019 the rules were completely rewritten to benefit from seven years of actual play and experience¸ all collected into a 13 pages PDF. Freed from the card-only constrain¸ the rules are now explained in comfort and clarity¸ fixing a few minor problems¸ answering frequent questions¸ presenting variant game options and offering some practical examples. This itch.io package includes both the KS cards and the Deeper rulebook.