So I've recently discovered the board game Spirit Island (and I appreciate I'm quite late to that particular party) and haven't been able to shake the thought of what a great idea for an RPG that it is.

For those who aren't familiar with the premise the protagonists are a variety of nature spirits (from the classic 'big rock man' and 'thunderbird' to the less obvious 'cute wind kitty' to the more random 'eyes in trees') who are roused to protect their island and its native inhabitants from a bunch of invading colonialist settlers.

What I would have in mind for a game certainly wouldn't be a direct translation of the board game but something of an homage. The characters would all be spirits, or probably humans recently bonded with spirits, awakened after centuries to try and push back against the invaders. Though to make it more interesting and more sandboxy it would likely be a little less black and white than 'all invaders bad' and 'all islanders good' and there would be a few different things going on for players to put their boots through.

I've ummed and aahed over the best system for it for a week or two but have settled on Godbound. I think it captures the 'kick ass powerful' nature of the spirits, has a nice enough 'worship' system as characters develop and also has rules baked in about characters changing the environment around them. Also I've played Godbound but never run it as a system so it ticks that off the bucket list as well! I did worry a little that the Words might limit options for characters a bit but actually, and especially with Lexicon of the Throne, there's plenty there and combinations of three could thematically hit the notes of pretty much any of the standard spirits from the game.

I would divorce the game pretty much entirely from the setting. The premise pretty much makes the island the location with little opportunity to travel elsewhere and I wouldn't want to get too bogged down in the cosmology either. I might rope in some of the Arcem nations to be the invaders but I'll merrily deviate from any of the published materials to fit my purposes.

So does that pique anyone's interest? Who wouldn't want to use the awesome power of nature to devastate cruel colonial overlords?!?

Sounds interesting

Or, the characters could be Dahan...?

I'm fond of Godbound. Like the premise. I'd give it a go

Well that's a bit of interest - would only need three or four for a decent game. I'll set up a board over the next few days and take it from there!



My current thinking for premise is that the characters would all be Dahan who volunteered to be possessed/ridden/melded with spirits so they can try to force out the invaders; the game would commence with them waking up having just undergone the ritual. In my head they would start as humans who display some traits of and their behavior is influenced by the resident spirit and as they increase in power (level) the spirits own personality gradually asserts dominance and the physical form increasingly shifts to that of the spirit.

Very much up for discussing it in game though. Not too wedded to any ideas at this point.

Colour me interested as well.

For those interested I've set up a board here link to another game

It's still a bit of a work in progress but the main information is there.