I hope so too! I enjoy it's dark psychedelia.
Rory
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A member registered Oct 04, 2021 · View creator page →
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I played this game on my stream (link below for those interested) and it was generally well-received. I think it's a game that really exemplifies why the indie TTRPG explosion is a beautiful thing. It's so niche and deliberately bleak that it's hard to imagine any publisher every letting it exist on their dime. Yet, it has such substance and creativity to its premise and its mechanics, that the world would have been poorer without it. It is one of those rare games that is committed to a parity between the feel of its mechanics and the experience of its world.
That world is one in the late stages of entropy and so its mechanics are brilliant constructed reflect that decay. I genuinely gasped when I realized that health is tracked by tearing pieces off your actual character sheet--losing whatever memories or features were written on that lost part. It's a game with no healing. It's a game that measures your progress in deaths. It's game that assumes you will play through many characters demises before reaching its conclusion. Put simply, it's a game that tells you to destroy something for real if its analogue was destroyed in the fiction of the game. I think that's a delightful ludonarrative symmetry between mechanics and story that persists into the game's many systems.
The one criticism I can offer is that the game was quite difficult for me to parse/learn/remember at times. I accept this may have just been me either overthinking things or resisting a certain reading of the rules because they were so unusual. However, I did find myself struggling to keep all the potential causalities of any action in mind. For example, when you use an EXPLORE action, that action will have three possible outcomes based on the value you roll. Those value ranges you roll in are listed once early in the book but then euphemistically referred to by words like "Gloom" & "Hope" from then on. So, Hope means you rolled 10 or above on the 2d6. Then when you open up a new hex on the hex crawl with this action you have to roll 2d6 three more times, then--based on those roles or where this hex was placed--double check if it triggers a doom sign. A doom sign requires three more 2d6 rolls (well, doesn't require, but it's likely you will need it). Then, with the doom sign, you can take a DELVE action--which has three more outcomes, one of which is another action with three more outcomes. None of this is to say anything here is unreasonably complex or unnecessary--especially in the indie TTRPG space. It's just that getting your head around the game can be a bit frustrating at times. If you are a person opposed to this style of spiderwebbing, "if, then" mechanics, then this game is probably not going to vibe with you. You'll likely be more frustrated than immersed.
For me, however, it was well worth the learning curve because as much as I enjoy a rules-lite prompt-based games, I can find two dozen of those for every indie TTRPG with crunchy, creative, and meaningful mechanics tied to the game's immersion. Where this game sometimes abrades with its complexity, it more than makes up for with how impactful those complex rules become as they coalesce into an overall experience. In other words, it's a game that works in the gestalt despite its sometimes fiddly details. I recommend it if this sounds like your niche. After all, strange & complex is where indie TTRPG's really set themselves apart.
I played this game on my stream (link below if you are curious) and we enjoyed the game. It's a riff on the "Annihilation" theme and it is not the first solo TTRPG to do so. However, unlike a game such as "Exclusion Zone Botanist", "Chiron's Doom" is much more flexible in how it applies the narrative concept of a doomed team marching towards a mysterious but ruinous phenomenon. The game includes three of what might be called "Adventure Modules" in the back that demonstrate this genre-flexibility. They range from a D&D/Dark Souls setting to a Retro Sci-Fi Aliens type setting. The game has the foresight to grasp that "team of curious people vs. massive weird monument" is a strong enough premise to be tied to any genre's window-dressing the player prefers.
The mechanics are where it really shines, though. I should say, up front, this is a story-telling game, full stop. There are no resources to manage, no levels to gain, no stats to grow, and--well, no stats at all, actually. This isn't a good or bad thing, it just depends on your expectations. Rather, you should be aware the only mechanic is card drawing to get prompts and then decide if that interests you. However, within the confines of that simple prompt system, the mechanics are a shifting probability system that creates the effect of a calm growing into disastrous chaos.
The game has you build a small deck of prompts that are mostly populated by cards that help unravel the mystery of the monument. However, within that starting deck, you also place a few trigger cards that--when pulled--require you shuffle into that main deck a new deck of cards associated to prompts for problems or disasters. This means, as the game goes, your deck starts with mostly just peaceful exploration but eventually devolves into mostly in-fighting and death. This is exactly how "Annihilation" style stories unfold and I find this system to be very clever for using shifting probabilities to preserve that narrative momentum.
Overall, the game has great art, effective prompts that are not too restraining or abstract, a clever take on the card prompt concept, and is one of the only genre-flexible takes on the "Annihilation" TTRPG. It also tutorializes you as you play--rather than expecting mastery from merely reading rules ahead of play. It's clearly written by someone who is an effective communicator with a clear grasp of their own game, in other words. (It's also clearly been through an editor.) The drawbacks are just that it's only a narrative system--which is only going to be a drawback if you expected a more crunchy mechanical survival-style game. I look forward to returning to the game at some point and think it earns its price-point in entertainment and quality.
I played this game on my stream (link below for those interested) and it was well received. The world building is the right mix of inspiring without being too prescriptive or detailed. It gives you a few simple poetic paragraphs that largely leave you to interpret their meaning (e.g., what even is a void sorcerer? etc.)
The mechanics took me a bit to wrap my head around. However, to the creator's credit, they have a detailed demonstration each round of play that is quite helpful. There were some areas I might have wanted confirmation on--such as whether your hand persists from round to round until it breaks or hits 21--but when I thought about it, I could reason out the proper interpretation.
It has shades of "Balatro" in that it is a traditional card game fused with later card game ideas--like special abilities tied to suits. The game cycle gives meaningful prompts that are results of both random chance and deliberate strategy. These events tie well to the journalling aspects of the game.
It's not so challenging a game I would say it works perfectly fine without the RP elements, but it is a meatier set of mechanics than I expected and I appreciated that.
I recommend it! It's a good price, for good art, made by actual people, and straddles its genre lines well.
(P.S. Stream linked below for those that want to see a rough rundown of play)
Ah I didn't want to be tacky and make it about me, but if you would like to share the stream, it's here:
https://youtube.com/live/RGdB_8ZbyTk
As a side point--in my personal game not on stream--I did find some of the combat was pretty easy for me, so I added the +2 hp buff for a "Hard mode". I'm only mentioning this because you might want to note it as an option in the game docs. It doesn't seem to break anything. Just less likely to be over in a round.
I did a playthrough stream on my solo TTRPG show. Myself and everyone in the chat was really enchanted by the art and the mechanics. This is probably my fave solo D&D-like thus far (just edging hex crawl).
A quick note, there is no #14 on the "Maze of the Wyrm" location table.
Also, I think the game would benefit from an update where there's more flexibility in the character builder--though I realize that might be difficult to balance.
Otherwise, I hard recommend this lovely game.
This is my favourite expressive/lyric game I've ever played and I play a lot (for a livestream I do on writing). It's "No Man's Sky" in a few simple rules.
It's an extraordinarily simple game but has incredible depth in how it immerses your imagination all the same. If I had any wish it would be that there were more prompt tables to roll/draw cards with.