One of the core concepts of VIGIL's setting are the soulfalls and the fragmented mindscapes that appear in the Midnight Vale. 

A Soul is Falling

Within this quasi-purgatorial setting, souls burdened with heavy personal turmoil fall from the sky into the valley-between-lives. The force of their intense internal tension ripples out from their person and causes the very reality of the Midnight Vale to twist and transform—as if pieces of their memory, interior life, and emotions were leaking out to influence the world. 

Inside a soulfall, a fragment of the soul’s psyche is formed as a mindscape—an interior world that mimics reality, but is never bound by the rules of physics as we commonly understand them. These bespoke dream-worlds are entered and explored by the player characters, toward the goal of making a connection with the soul and helping it out of its subconsciously constructed bubble. 

Touchstones for this idea exist all over media and human history, but a few that personally inspired or influenced me include Inception (film, 2010), Paprika (film, 2006), the Dreaming from The Sandman (comic, 1989), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (film, 2009), the Spiritual Realm of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere (various book series), Nightmare on Elm Street (film series), The Wheel of Time (book series), A Christmas Carol (book, 1843),  and Psychonauts (video games series).

Souls might find existing within their internal worlds pleasing and consoling (at first), though others discover nightmarish hellscapes that convict and condemn their actions in life. Some of these twisting and amorphous mental environments might have the soul (and the players) asking “what is real?”

As vigil keepers, you know that any soul left long enough will become calcified or consumed by its own imaginations. That is, if the other competing factions of the Midnight Vale leave it be; they have their own designs for souls and the resources they can exploit from them. To prevent these disasters, keepers want to get in, make a connection, and get out with the soul before anything tragic occurs.

Inside a Fragment

Entering a soul’s inner mindscape is a hazardous endeavor. Your keepers are opposed from the moment they attempt to cross the threshold— by the soul’s subconscious defenses, the imagined constructs, characters, and creatures within, or by the soul itself. 

While navigating a malleable realm that responds to willpower instead of physical strength, keepers have the opportunity to transform and shift anything they encounter (except the soul itself). You seek a connection with the soul, who may be hidden away, or appear in the open, or be a prisoner of its own criticisms. Even in cases where they are approachable, souls might not trust or believe anything the keepers say—what makes your keepers more real than anything else in this place of manifest dreams? 

When talk is cheap, keepers must take action to gain attention. They must find ways to build credibility in order to be taken seriously in their bid to lead a soul beyond their internal preoccupations, so that they can eventually connect to the reality of the Midnight Vale, and ultimately move beyond it. 

• Do something that advocates for and testifies to your trustworthiness.
• Reveal or perform something to lift the soul's attention toward beauty.
• Protect against personified condemnations that prevent the soul from acting freely.
• Seek and uncover the soul’s comforts or joys that may have been suppressed.

Amid all of these efforts, keepers face threats, both internal and external. The soul’s subconscious defenses will increasingly attempt to monitor and isolate the PCs. Rival factions will attempt to intrude, to either corrupt, infect, or capture the soul. Even after the keepers make their presence felt and the soul acknowledges that there is truth beyond their fragment, they might still resist. What do the players do when, even faced with an afterlife realm of twilight and danger, the soul refuses help? 

Crafting a Fragment

So what does a fragment look like? Virtually anything. You can lift environments from your favorite films or novels, grab adventure from other RPGs or video games, or pay homage to the fictional (or real-life) characters that inspire you. Each table will have their own boundaries on the acceptable genre influences, but the core concept of VIGIL permits anything from classic fantasy to cyberpunk to everything, everywhere, all at once.

The idea of an internal psychic construct means that GMs and players can take inspiration from anywhere and create it in the mindscape. The fluidity of this dream environment means that it relies more on improv and imagination rather than preparing a perfect mental-dungeon. The adage “no plan survives contact with your players” holds especially true when each player can transform the very nature of a scene by spending a few resources and rolling well.  

Instead of hand-crafting a specific location, prepare a soul and their core struggle. The struggle might be an emotion, a relationship, an event from their life before—anything that can anchor the soul with desire and texture. These souls will become important NPCs for your story—after this initial encounter within a hyper-personalized mindscape, they will (hopefully) accompany the keepers back to sanctuary, where they will make deeper connections. The soul may even decide that their own trip to the afterlife can wait, because they want to join your keepers and help their goals in the Vale. The soul-characters can be original concepts or echoes of characters from real-world media (one of the first souls I playtested with was an Indiana Jones knockoff).

With character context for the soul, there are several major points-of-contact where I develop a short list of threat ideas that could challenge the characters. Each of these scenes draws from the soul, its core struggle, and any associated set dressing that contributes to that theme.

• The borderlands: the area around the fragment; what kinds of things leak out that would threaten or challenge the group’s approach?
• The threshold: the edge of the mental-space; what characteristics does it have that might foreshadow the kind of soul they will meet?
• Fragment interior: environmental or oppositional challenges within the dream world; what bespoke problems or opportunities exist to interact with?
• Incursions: who else wants this soul? Are they able to compete for it directly—inside the mindscape—or are they waiting outside waiting to strike?
• Collapse: when the fragment cannot sustain itself, it collapses; what dangers and debris might hinder or harm your keepers?

It may end up that I don’t use every idea I prepped. Players might choose to send the fragment down an unexpected series of scenes; I can pull in my prep when it applies, but it might not fit the tone depending how things have shifted. They also might decide to nova through some of the challenges or speedrun to a soul connection (risking a poor reception if they didn’t build much credibility first) and have the whole thing tumbling down before I have a chance to use some of the prep. 

Sample Fragments

The current published release (0.1.2) is accompanied by two fragments (Silver Medal Summit and Imposter Syndrome), both of which include bespoke threats, features, and scenes to pick up and run or modify to fit your game. 

With the upcoming revisions (0.2.1), many of the fragment procedures have been revised. The sample fragments will be updated and the GM section of the main text will include a fragment template. 

So What’s Changing?

What’s changing? Nearly everything. This is a major revision, and if it had happened at a later point in the development cycle, it would probably warrant a second edition. Engagement rolls to cross the borderlands (and elsewhere) are different (though the concept of the borderlands has not changed). Crossing the threshold into the fragment has a completely rewritten procedure. The process for making a connection with the interned soul has a new spin.

This winter has been a productive time! The character options and rule sections are mostly complete, though the Midnight Vale section (features, factions, creatures, etc) hasn't been revised or moved into layout yet. I might put out a release that just includes the character and rule sections, and only a few examples of the setting details, but saves most the setting chapter for later. I'll have to see what time permits in the coming months. At the moment, I'm about as pleased with my progress as I've been since last spring.