Chiron's Doom
A downloadable game
There is a monument at the edge of civilisation, an enigmatic object known as Chiron’s Doom. Nobody knows what it does, or who made it, or why. It has defied all previous attempts at understanding. Countless expeditions have torn themselves apart trying to learn its secrets.
There’s no reason to think your expedition will be any different, but here you are. Three more explorers standing before the monument, driven to try where all others have failed. How much are you willing to sacrifice to solve the mystery of Chiron’s Doom?
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Chiron's Doom is a storytelling game inspired by gothic sci-fi and dark fantasy tales of unknowable monuments, doomed expeditions, and explorers too driven (or foolish) to know when to turn back. Each flip of a card brings the hope of new discoveries, but dangers multiply as the expedition wears on. Play to find out if any of your explorers can defy fate and finally learn the truth.
All you need is a deck of ordinary playing cards, a journal to record each day's setbacks and breakthroughs, and (optionally) one or two other players.
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This game is currently unavailable
Development log
- Kickstarter final hours!Feb 28, 2023
Comments
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where can I buy it now? im to late for the kickstarter
Hey NetzyRC! Thanks for your interest! You can currently pre-order a copy of the new second edition (in print and/or PDF) at this link: https://chirons-doom.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
The pre-order store will be open for roughly another week!
Will this release be updated with the post-kickstarter updates (art, layout, rules review) once they are done and ready?
Thanks for the question, and the interest! The honest answer is that's still to be determined. The new version of the game will definitely appear on itch (after it has gone to Kickstarter backers!), but I'm not sure if it will be on this page, or a new one.
I’m really enjoying this game! I started a solo play through earlier this year and had a really fun time, and a really exciting concept based in a volcano with a dwarven golem-maker, a half-dwarf apprentice, and a clay golem 😁
I actually recorded a let’s play podcast if you are interested 😊 I haven’t continued yet but I’m thinking I would like to continue my adventure and see where it leads…
You should be able to find it anywhere you get your podcasts, my channel is called “GM Jam’s Random Jamboree”, or you can check it out via the Anchor link here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/gm-jams-random-jamboree/id1541990126?i=1000511846880
Thanks again for a great game! 👍
Thanks for creating a very enjoyable and rich role-playing experience. I really like the potential and flexibility of the story prompts and how just drawing three cards can allow the mind to create very varied setting (a metallic, floating sphere and a labyrinth of carnivorous plants, for starters). I do feel that using a second deck of cards can ease the setup stage, but otherwise you have created a great game. I have written a review in Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3867325907
This is a narrative exploration game driven by a deck of cards. You play a group of explorers traipsing through a forbidden place, and each draw from the deck presents you with obstacles or questions.
The gameplay is tense and atmospheric, and the book's layout does a great job of echoing that mood. Unusually for a narrative game like this, you *can* lose characters, and it's fully possible for you to lose the game. Whether or not this happens is up to chance.
For me personally, reading Chiron's was a little weird, since it's mechanically and thematically almost identical to a thing I published a month ago, and Chiron's has been out for almost a year. I honestly didn't know about Chiron's until right this hour, and I was designing in reaction to Bleak Spirit and Sleepaway and Annihilation, but I wish I'd read Chiron's earlier---both because it's a great game, and so I could have steered harder in a different direction.
Overall, if you like stories about the unknown, about horror and struggle, about discovery, and about the deep weird of places that should not be, definitely check Chiron's out.
It's tense and fun and easy to read, and worth adding to your library both as a one-shot and as a solo/writing prompt.
I'm curious to know which of your games you are referring to here @kumada1.
Answering my own question:
https://kumada1.itch.io/when-we-made-war-upon-the-slumbering-wood
Played with some good friends and had a fun time crafting a scifi horror with a side of archeology. Delightful game!!!!
It's rare I comment, so when I say this is worth your time and money, I mean it. For me, this was essentially a dark space/fantasy focused version of what I really wanted the game "Fiasco" to be.
Super short summary: Played with 2x others via zoom and shared google doc. Used tarot cards and played spooky jupiter sounds via youtube. Broke time and space in under 2 hours of AP. 11/10. Will horribly maim and discororate explorers again.
Why so good?
Other thoughts...
Not sure how much replay value solo. At least a few plays.
You gotta want to see bad things happen to get the most out of this.
Our session reminded me of the movie "Prometheus" but with less stupid and more oppressive pseudo-science space religion.
Hello, I write to you from Spain. I write these words to tell you that I am translating your Game Chiron's Doom into Spanish. It's not for any lucrative purpose. I'm just a fan that, because the bundle, I've discovered your game. I translate it so I can play games on my youtube channel with friends in spanish. If there's a problem with it, just tell me. Without more, congratulations because the game it's just fine and thank you.
I'm so glad to hear you like the game! And yes, of course, feel free to translate it -- if you do record a video I'd love it if you sent me the link! (I don't speak Spanish myself, but I have a friend who can help me out!)
This is a very neat little game: with simple prompt mechanics, it helps you tell the story of an expedition to a monument like no other, and the perils encountered on the way.
The game references 2001 and Cube among other things, and the prompts it proposes very efficiently evoke this sort of atmosphere in a few sentences.
Bonus points for providing rules for group play!
Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you liked it, and especially glad to hear that it successfully evoked 2001 and Cube for you. If you ever get a chance to play it, I'd love to hear about your monument!
I had a great time playing Chiron's Doom as part of the Sandy Pug Game Awards exchange. If anyone is interested in a preview of how the game works, I live tweeted it over here: https://twitter.com/LuciellaES/status/1218031316228169733
Plenty of interesting prompts which still leave room to play the game in various genres. My play through was fantasy/fairy tale inspired, but I know others have played in a modern day or sci-fi setting. That also gives you some extra replayability that I find some other solo TTRPGs don't have. Only criticism would be that due to the way the prompts work you can get some big events rather suddenly, such as the King cards which represent character deaths. Still, it's easy enough to modify the rules to your own taste, so that's not a big issue. Plus the random death of John of House Smith (who died before I had the chance to give him a proper name) ended up being pretty funny. All in all, very much worth the purchase price for the entertainment you get out of it.
A journaling game with a smart use of the card deck (events, PNJs...) for a deadly game in which you begin with 3 explorers... who are very unlikely to leave the monument.!
There is an enigmatic monument, and no explorer has ever come back. There's no reason to think your expedition will be any different.
My characters were Elena (she) the veteran of many battles, Ektus (they) the practitiner of a forbidden science, and Edouard (he) the scion of a noble family.
Edouard betrayed them from the very beginning: he joined another exploration team for money.
Ektus and Elena have recruited Tiki an outsider, then this outsider got too scared and ran away.
It turned out that Ektus had either been here before and knew the place, or he was "possessed" or belonged to the monument.
Elena were the one who almost survived and find the secret of the monument... unfortunately, I only had one diamond left for that but I got all the disaster's decks! So she became part of the monument.
Finally, my game was kind of reminiscent of the movie Cube, but without so much blood
Thank you for this game!
Thank you so much for this review, Angela! I'm glad to hear that your game was reminiscent of Cube -- that's exactly the sort of feel I was aiming for. And you produced such a lovely journal!
"I'm the building, the walls, the monument."