This Mortal Coil

In This Mortal Coil, you play a space traveler-turned-necromancer on a quest to achieve eternal life by constructing a magical device known as an anchor. You'll create undead thralls to do your bidding, gather energy to power your quest by harvesting living creatures, and master the forces of the Negaverse.

Along the way, you’ll explore fantastic worlds, battle terrifying creatures, and negotiate with cosmic horrors to unlock the secrets of immortality.

This Mortal Coil is both a standalone science-horror setting/rulebook for Liminal Horror and a toolkit for incorporating necromancy and space travel into your own Liminal Horror, Cairn, and other Into the Odd inspired games.

Public beta

This Mortal Coil is 50% off for the next 45-60 days while I conduct a public beta test. By purchasing now, you'll immediately get the work-in-progress PDF, which contains the full text of the game but not the final layout or full set of art. The proceeds collected during the beta period will go toward funding additional creepy artwork for the final version.

During the beta period, I will be writing Glorious, the introductory adventure that will be included in the final version. I expect this to be between 24 and 36 pages, bringing the final count to somewhere between 160 and 172 pages.

At the end of the beta period, you'll get the revised, completed PDF right here. I'll also provide a discount code for a printed version of the book to all those who support the project during this crowdfunding period.

Please provide beta feedback using the following Google Forms survey:

https://forms.gle/4Y4y9XyfjtZ7aGja9

What you get

The 136-page, A5-formatted game book already contains:

• The complete rules needed to play
• A map of the Alfajiri stellar system
• New character creation options
• Ten spacefaring backgrounds
• Ten horrifying fallout
• New equipment suitable for a space horror game
• Rules and spells for all your necromantic, undead-creating needs
• Rules for ships and space travel
• Guidance for the facilitator about creating adventures
• Spark tables and sample facilitator characters
• Twelve nightmarish creatures
• Three dark and malevolent magic items

Product support

The full text of This Mortal Coil is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, which means that it is perpetually and irrevocably available for others to reuse, remix, and republish in their own games and support materials. Additionally, I will be releasing a 3rd Party License that will enable others to use a fancy-pantsy This Mortal Coil compatibility logo.

I've got a few ideas kicking around for material that will expand the This Mortal Coil multiverse: adventures, horrible creatures, creepy magic items, and lots more.

Disclaimers + legal stuff

This Mortal Coil deals with themes of death, undeath, and body horror, and is therefore suitable for ages 13 and up.

Copyright © 2023 by David Garrett. Text licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

This Mortal Coil is an independent production by Amalara Game Studio and is not affiliated with Goblin Archives LLC. It is published under the Liminal Horror Third Party License. Liminal Horror is copyright by Goblin Archives LLC.

This work is based on Cairn, written by Yochai Gal and licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution -ShareAlike 4.0 International license.