Sins of Our Mother Update
Sins of Our Mother goes well. The word count has climbed again in the course of editing, reaching over 50,000 words. These additions have filled...
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Catacolyte Games
3 months ago
Major Sins Progress Update, and an Introduction to Hospital of Quiet Minds
Sins Progress Update
It is with extreme pleasure that I announce as of today, Sins of Our Mother has entered the final phase of development. Every dungeon has been b...
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Catacolyte Games
5 months ago
Meet the Medusite - New Sins Explanation Series
New Sins Explanation Series
One of my presiding goals with Sins of Our Mother is to challenge how you, the player, think about and play Dungeons & Dragons. I designed the stori...
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Catacolyte Games
5 months ago
Sins Early Access Release!
Hooray! Early Access is OUT NOW!
Hey, Backers! Sins of Our Mother Early Access is out! Please scroll below to the Backer exclusive section for the link to the early access downl...
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Catacolyte Games
6 months ago
Sins of Our Mother EARLY ACCESS Coming on Sunday, the 15th!
Sins of Our Mother Early Access Announcement
Hey, @everyone! Sins of Our Mother early access is coming out this Saturday weekend! Early access will be available to all backers r...
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Catacolyte Games
11 months ago
Sins Update I - Progress, Changes, & More!
Hey Backers!
It’s been a minute, so I thought it high time to share some progress. Here’s what we’ll cover this update:
• Quest Hooks & Ritual Feats
• Hospital of Quiet Minds...
Sins of Our Mother goes well. The word count has climbed again in the course of editing, reaching over 50,000 words. These additions have filled plot holes, added nuance, and clarified information. Here’s the writing that’s been edited and finalized:
Vow of Beauty (class)
Medusite (class)
Flesh Singer (class)
Pantheon of Truths (the intro)
Crisis of Faith (living scripture)
Red Mass (ritual feats)
Traitor Duchess & the Estate of Undeath (narrative dungeon)
Sickle City (narrative dungeon)
Lich Star Race (narrative dungeon, renamed Race for the Silver Tower)
The narrative dungeons have seen a lot of work. These are the biggest, most complex chapters in the book. They sport NPCs, plot lines, quests, and more. Everything has to be measured with an exacting eye. This results in rewrites upon rewrites. For example, Hospital of Quiet Minds has gone through several drafts. Here’s a general look at their progress:
Hospital of Quiet Minds (narrative dungeon) - 50%
Everything gets better with each pass. Thank you for your patience as I put the polishing touches on Sins of Our Mother. I’m proud to announce that the PDF will be released in March, and the other rewards will come soon after. In the meantime, let’s take a look at one of my favorite classes.
Meet the Flesh Singer
Flesh Singer
The Flesh Singer has been really important to me ever since the beginning. I knew right away that I wanted something that both delivered on the fantasy of creating music and meddled with the meta aspects of Dungeons & Dragons. Nothing in vanilla D&D comes close to offering either.
I played an all Bard campaign a while back. We roleplayed a travelling band, wrote hit songs, and generally had a great time. But I never felt like I was making music. I was really just playing a utility spellcaster with a bit of flavor. Bardic Inspiration, while powerful, didn’t sell me the class fantasy. I wanted that feeling of piecing together notes to build towards something unique and interesting. Thanks to my good friend Tyler who kindly took time to explain musical theory, this’ll be possible with the Flesh Singer.
Music, Fantasy, and the Realities of Game Design
Composers string notes into various combinations that coalesce into a song. That’s what the Flesh Singer wants to do: combine notes into unique combinations that result in an effect. The problem is that the nigh-infinite combinations of notes that make music so rich are impossible for tabletop. That many permutations would not be fun (trust me, I tried). So, how can we streamline this design? Luckily, there’s a few rules in music we can use to reduce our choices. Let’s look at the Flesh Singer’s bread and butter ability: Blood Notes.
Blood Notes
1st Level - Blood Notes
You give your blood to shape into sound that cruel beauty which haunts your dreams. You may spend your bonus action to weave pain and emotion into a new art. Expend a Hit Dice. Roll it and add your Charisma modifier to the roll result. Distribute that many Blood Notes to any creature(s) within 200 ft of you.
These Notes last for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), and expire at the end of your turn. A creature may not have more than 3 Blood Notes at a time. Also, you cannot give yourself Blood Notes.
There are a total of seven notes, each associated with one of the seven deadly sins. This fits perfectly with the theme of the book, and it also mirrors the seven notes in a basic scale. Here they are:
Lust (1): +/- 1 attack rolls
Envy (2): +/- 1 to Insight checks and 25 ft of darkvision
Sloth (3): +/- 5 ft movement speed
Pride (4): +/- 1 AC AC (maximum 20, minimum 8)
Gluttony (5): +/- 1 hit point at the start of their turn
Wrath (6): +/- 1 damage (minimum 1)
Greed (7): +/-1 attribute score of their choice (maximum 20, minimum 1)
Low-level Flesh Singers will spend and roll their Hit Dice, and then parse out that number of Blood Notes to their allies and enemies. No creature can have more than three Notes at a time, so no doom stacking Sloth or Pride.
Instead, Flesh Singers will weave together Notes to affect the tempo of the battle. You might beef up a frontliner with Lust, Pride, and Wrath while giving a backline caster some extra oomph with Greed, Greed, and Sloth.
Spending Hit Dice like candy though can be rough. D&D combat is not just a question of tactical choices, but also logistics. Flesh Singers have a few class features to help the player keep up with their comrades. One of these is Will to Flesh.
1st Level - Will to Flesh
Your creativity sustains you. When you take a short rest, you recover a number of Hit Dice equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). You cannot gain more Hit Dice than you have Flesh Singer levels this way.
So we have Blood Notes and a way to keep chugging along. What’s next? The Flesh Singer’s marquee feature comes at level three: Flesh Chords.
Birth Blood Framed
3rd Level - Flesh Chords
Some combinations of Blood Notes produce harmonies that make the heart quiver. You may spend your action to orchestrate any of your Blood Notes. If you do, you may distribute Blood Notes among creatures within 200 ft of you.
When you arrange a set of 3 Blood Notes that harmonize (see below), you create a Flesh Chord. The creature loses the benefits of the Blood Notes, but gains the Flesh Chord’s effects. Chords last for 1 minute. A creature may have only 1 Flesh Chord at a time, and cannot benefit from Blood Notes while affected by a Chord.
The number of Chords a Flesh Singer can keep simultaneously active is limited by another ability (Instrument of Flesh), but they possess a unique Chord for each Blood Note. Let’s look at three for now:
Pain – Envy / Pride / Wrath
The creature attacks 1 extra time the first time they take the attack action on their turn.
Creation – Gluttony / Greed/ Envy
The creature may spend their bonus action to regenerate a spell slot of their choice. The level of spell slot must be equal to or less than the Flesh Singer’s proficiency bonus. Then, destroy this chord.
Asymmetry – Greed / Envy / Pride
The creature chooses and gains a feat for which they meet the prerequisites. They lose the chosen feat when this Chord expires.
With Flesh Chords, the class’s gameplay loop shifts from handing out minor buffs and debuffs to building powerful Chords. Some of these Chords make a creature more dangerous (like Pain), others offer utility (like Creation), while a few change the very nature of a creature (like Asymmetry).
At this point, the Flesh Singer comes into their own. They’re no longer dabbling in music, but full composers whose gameplay choices weave together to create original works. With luck (and a few other class features not shown here), player symphonies will become more than the sum of their parts and take on a life of their own.
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Sins of Our Mother. Stay tuned for next time, and thank you for your support!
It is with extreme pleasure that I announce as of today, Sins of Our Mother has entered the final phase of development. Every dungeon has been built, every class fully realized, and every last word written. There’s still hard work ahead. More than 46,000 words have to be reread, honestly evaluated, and then rewritten when found wanting.
Balance needs attention, too. I’ll be going over each class and running them through encounters to fine tune their abilities. Lastly, one last layout pass will bring Sins’ look and feel into harmony. Sins has gone through a lot of changes, but I promise Sins will be the best I can make it. Read on to find out more on the new narrative dungeon, Hospital of Quiet Minds. But first, a small message of gratitude for all Sins’ backers and supporters.
Thank you for your patience during this long process. I rushed into Sins of Our Mother on a high after finishing Cult of the Blood Queen. I thought I could finish Sins by October. I was wrong. Cult hit a respectable 14 thousand words, but Sins demanded over 40 thousand to fulfill all of its campaign promises (more than 3x the word count of Cult!) Add in that this past year included major life changes. I got married, moved, and more. This meant that my deadlines were unrealistic. It shouldn’t surprise me that I met only a few. So again, thank you for your patience and continued support. I earnestly hope Sins of Our Mother lives up to your expectations.
Sins Explanation Series
Welcome to another entry in the “Meet the X” series where I go into depth concerning some of Sins’ more unique facets. Today, we’re taking a look at Dr. James Wayward and the Hospital of Quiet Minds.
Meet Dr. James Wayward
The impetus for the Hospital of Quiet Minds comes from an old game theory thought experiment: the prisoner’s dilemma. To summarize, two people (Prisoner A and Prisoner B) are arrested. Each prisoner is given the opportunity to snitch. If they do, their sentence is reduced or even eliminated. However, both are told that if they don’t snitch and the other does, one will receive full punishment and the other goes free. Let’s map the outcomes to see the choices.
A 2x2 grid that outlines the outcomes of the Prisoner's Dilemma
Most people would go for staying silent. It’s the choice that can result in the least jail time after all. However, if both A and B are rational actors most interested in maximizing individual gain, testifying becomes the optimal choice. Why? Because testifying results in a better outcome more often. If A testifies, B also wants to testify. But, if A stays silent, B still wants to testify. Therefore, testifying is the best option for both parties to reduce their sentence. This feels kind of bleak, right? Thankfully, Dr. James Wayward wants to help.
The great doctor established the Hospital of Quiet Minds to promote moral discipline. The new practice will employ only the most modern innovations in medicine to care for its patients. Yet, the mind is a tricky thing. Rarely can surgery affect its functions without incurring major damage. Psychotherapy then, despite its lack of research, seems the only method. Join Dr. Wayward and pave our path to happiness.
Here’s a few snippets of my favorite pieces of the narrative dungeon.
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Dr. James Wayward
“James Wayward – an unparalleled intellect singularly devoted to understanding the mind’s clockwork. Born a humble tinker's son, James graduated magna cum laude. In a bold speech, Dr. Wayward insisted that modern maladies were not external wounds of the body, but afflictions of the mind. The fault lies not with bones or bruises, but the brain. Now, five years later, Dr. Wayward has finally opened his own hospital to explore this brave, new frontier of medicine. Please, join us on our journey to happiness here at the Hospital of Quiet Minds.” - An article celebrating the opening of the Hospital of Quiet Minds
We all strive towards happiness. Some find it at the bottom of a bottle, others in the depths of soft flesh. I, Dr. Wayward, know better. Yes, pleasure makes us happy. We greedily gulp it down, and revel in its warmth, its joy. We cannot resist its allure, but pain… it is pain that sustains us. Think back. What action, what worth, what justice has revelry wrought? None. We despicable creatures need augurs like righteous rage to divine our purpose. Yes, I know compassion well. It is a principle tool here at the hospital. It too begets action, but only in answer to pain. See how inseparable we are from pain? Fret not. I promise I will save us all, and lead us to an uncorrupted happiness. Afterall, we deserve it.
Come ye broken and hopeless masses, come to the Hospital of Quiets Minds and find here the gates to your salvation. ‘Tis not heaven I offer, but the keys to your own soul.
Hospital of Quiet Minds
A beacon of hope for a dark, oft forgotten neighborhood. The brick building spans a block in the midst of ill-lit and rat infested streets. It rises like a white tower above its destitute neighbors, every window shining bright white in the grey, foggy night. Only the misshapen shadows that cross those sills foretell the horrors that lie inside.
Science of the Mad Mind
The asylum’s foremost concern is the health of its patients, and to that end employs the most modern innovations in medicine. These practices often seem cruel to the uneducated, but don’t worry. It’s for a good cause.
Practice What They Preach
The hospital’s staff have undergone some variation on the treatment they inflict on their patients. As such, their bodies are often scared or disfigured. Every staff member wears a white uniform, and many wear mirror masks.
Jigsaw Flesh
The hospital’s surgeons stand ready to assist any patients injured in the course of therapy. Though skilled, the demands on their time are immense. Bones may be set at bad angles, faces reconstructed without reference, and limbs amputated simply for convenience.
Moral Discipline
The psychiatric staff work day and night to collect data and test the doctor’s theories. Each of these tests have the potential to revolutionize medical science. The ends justify the means.
Death Roulette
You and another patient are seated across from one another at a small table. “Fear is an obstacle to happiness” intones the doctor as they place a revolver on the table between you. “There’s one bullet. You are to take turns pulling the trigger with the barrel to your skull. The survivor gets a clean bill of health and can leave the hospital.”
The revolver is empty and the promise in fact a lie. If a patient refuses to play, they are beaten and returned to Intake. If a patient completes the game, they are rewarded with a warm meal and then returned to Intake.
Rats in a Maze
Orderlies drag you and 6 other patients into a room with a rat-sized maze on a table in the center. The nurse jabs each of you with a syringe, and you begin to shrink down to the size of a mouse. She places each of you at the gates to the maze. “Your goal is simple,” she explains. “Reach the end before the snake swallows you.” Then, she places a snake on the table. It flicks its tongue once before racing towards you and the other patients.
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Why Hospitals?
I simply find them terrifying. I recently watched The Exorcist with friends. “How could such an old movie scare me?” I thought beforehand. Not much, to be honest. The idea of a grand malevolence didn’t move me. Neither was I fazed by a possessed 12-year old girl stabbing herself in the groin.
What did scare me were the doctors. The endless march of white-haired men in white lab coats unnerved me. How could all these people with so much knowledge fail so miserably? My discomfort peaked when Regan underwent a Pneumoencephalograph. It’s a rare surgery now, but in the 70s they used it to make the brain more visible on x-rays. The doctor pushes a needle through Regan’s throat to bore a hole to the spine. Blood spurts out until the doctor pushes in another needle. This one drains her cerebral spinal fluid. It's a hard surgery to watch, but to endure? It seems impossible.
I despise hospitals. I hate the white hallways, the frigid air, and especially the tight smiles. Staff and family put on brave faces, but everyone knows the worst is coming near. No one’s there by choice. That’s what a hospital is: a prison. It’s not a place you go because you have a choice. You either risk it alone with Dr. WebMD, or you put yourself on display to be poked and prodded. That’s what Hospital of Quiet Minds aims to explore; that liminal space between deliverance and pain. That moment where you give yourself over entirely to helping hands, yet terrified by your own helplessness. You have to trust, but you don’t know how.
I hope you look forward to exploring the Hospital of Quiet Minds in greater detail. I really love designing these one-shot dungeons, and they allow me to explore themes in greater detail. Also, the playtests are just plain fun. That’s it for now. Thank you for reading! Check back soon for more insights into the project!
One of my presiding goals with Sins of Our Mother is to challenge how you, the player, think about and play Dungeons & Dragons. I designed the stories and game systems inside to upend expectations and to push the game in new directions. To showcase what I mean, I’m doing a “Meet the X” series leading up to the release that delves into some of Sin’s most unique facets. So, let’s Meet the Medusite.
Meet the Medusite
The Medusite’s power comes from accessing their ancestors’ memories. At first, they just inherited an ancient martial art honed over generations. That’s interesting… but how can a Monk with extra steps challenge players’ expectations? So, I took it one step further. Medusites remember EVERYTHING. I won’t say why (that’s for you to discover), but they inherit the sum of a species’ memory. They recall with equal acuity their progenitors’ first stumbling steps onto land, and their great grandfather’s last gasping breath.
Flavor and Level Table for Medusite
Why Snakes?
Serpents are complicated symbols. They’re often seen as evil tempters like Satan in the Garden of Eden. Yet they can also symbolize cycles and rebirth like with the ouroboros. Me, I find snakes terrifying. That fear fascinates me. I used to have nightmares of a great serpent that’d erupt from the earth’s crust and swallow me, my family, and my house whole. The same snake would appear again later in my nightmares following my first car wreck.
I’ve read that phobias of serpents, spiders, and other one-hit KO creepy crawlies could be an evolutionary advantage or learned fear. The first theory argues that humans who feared snakes were more likely to avoid them, and thus survive. The learned fear theory goes that we learn to despise snakes from our parents and the stories we consume.
I’m certainly in the later category. My dad hated snakes so much he’d stand on the porch with a pair of binoculars scanning for water moccasins. When he’d finally spot one, he would run out with his pistol and start shooting. He was no hunter, though. He hated killing, but happily made an exception for snakes.
All this learned fear turned into fascination when I started reading Ovid. Medusa, a victim, was blamed and punished for her own rape. Minerva cursed her, transforming her hair into serpents and made her gaze petrify. This entwining of serpent and human struck me as terrifying and equally enthralling. It was as if I were turned to stone, and couldn’t look away.
But what do all of these themes mean for Medusite in Sins of Our Mother? I wanted something that combined primordial memory, body horror, and inheritance. Thus, Reminiscence was born.
Reminiscence– 3rd level
Your connection to the eternal chain grows deeper. The Symbiote gains a number of Sequence slots equal to your proficiency bonus. You may fill these slots with traits you gain from Inheritance Memories (unlocked at 4th level) or other creatures.
When you Devour a creature via Voracious, you may absorb part of their essence. A creature’s essences include:
Senses
Damage Resistance
Damage Immunities
Condition Immunities
Special Traits
You cannot gain a creature’s Innate Spellcasting this way.
Damage resistances and immunities apply only to the Symbiote, but senses and condition immunities apply to the host. Special traits may apply to either the host or the Symbiote, whichever is most relevant.
You may choose which type of essence to plunder, but only the goddess may determine what you gain, if anything.
Essences persist until you complete a long rest. If you plunder an essence while you possess no empty Sequence slots, you must replace an Inheritance Memory trait or the oldest essence. When an essence that overwrote an Inheritance Memory trait expires, regain the Inheritance Memory trait.
1 of 3 Inheritance Memories
Conclusion
I love this class feature. It accomplishes everything Catacolyte strives to do in the tabletop space. Reminiscence extends the play area into the realm of imagination. The feature asks players to treat monsters as a potential resource. It encourages them to play while wondering what they might become. In essence, players can use Reminiscence (and its supporting class features) to build their own subclass.
So, what do you think? I’ve always wanted to play a snake themed character, but nothing’s ever scratched the itch. I’ve tried a Druid who exclusively wild shapes into snakes (that was fun), a serpentine Wizard in Deadfire using the unique Cobra Strike spell, and more. I hope you also find the Medusite fun and interesting. That’s it for now. Thank you for reading! Check back soon for more insights into the project!
Hooray! Early Access is OUT NOW! Hey, Backers! Sins of Our Mother Early Access is out! Please scroll below to the Backer exclusive section for the link to the early access download.
Hey, @everyone! Sins of Our Mother early access is coming out this Saturday weekend! Early access will be available to all backers regardless of their pledge tier. In my opinion, extra eyes and new perspectives will help improve the project, and ensure Sins becomes the best possible version of itself. So mark your calendars, and please don’t hesitate to share your feedback!
Sins early access will include the following:
4 Classes
Anathema Nurse class (previously Euphoria)
World Bearer class (previously Sloth Druid)
Vow of Beauty class (previously VoB Paladin)
Medusite class (previously Medusite Monk)
Red Mass
Crisis of Faith
2 Narrative Dungeons
Traitor Duchess & the Estate of Undeath
Star Lich Race
Church Armaments
Sinful Spells
Sins early access does NOT include (these are still coming):
Flesh Singer class (previously Flesh Singer Bard)
2 Narrative Dungeons
Hospital of Quiet Minds
Sickle City
Divine Creatures (monster stat blocks)
So, What Does Early Access Mean?
Games these days seem to treat early access as a kind of “pay to playtest” deal. I could definitely use the help playtesting, but that’s not the focus here. D&D is foremost a cooperative storytelling game. I’ve meticulously tweaked the game systems to ensure that the stories, quests, and classes inside Sins of Our Mother are fun, interesting, and evocative. But nothing’s perfect. Please, if you have the time, this is the perfect opportunity to share your thoughts , concerns, and impressions about the project.
Here are examples of the things that can change in early access:
Numbers (hit points, damage die, durations, etc.)
Specific Weapons, Items, Spells, or Abilities (too boring, weak, just don’t work, etc.)
Typos (self explanatory)
Here are examples of the things that CANNOT change in early access:
Major story beats in Narrative Dungeons (example, Resurrection from Traitor Duchess)
Class systems (example, Inheritance Memories from Medusite)
Class Redesigns
Originally, Sin’s new classes were supposed to rely on existing class design. However, D&D 2024’s impending class changes encouraged me to push Catacolyte’s own designs in a much more original and (hopefully) interesting direction. This shift meant going back to the drawing board for Flesh Singer, Medusite, and World Bearer (previously Sloth Druid). Although it cost time, I’m now confident this was the right decision. That said, there’s always room for improvement and polish. I’ll be looking for ways to better balance the classes until the full release.
Final Release When?
Sins of Our Mother is slated to release on PDF this winter and all other rewards to follow shortly after!
