Played with a couple of friends, exploring Le Palais Imparfait, an ever-expanding house of delirious design slowly swallowing up neighborhoods. After days of in-fighting and disagreement, we finally started making progress once we began to understand one another, as if the Palace would only let us proceed if we worked together... only to have all of our explorers die in fairly swift succession.
But the Palace was an in-between place, a sort of necropolis, and we continued exploring until a fairy queen, yet owed a favor by one of our dead explorers--with death being a foreign concept to fairies--intruded and struck up a bargain with the Palace itself... and exploited a loophole in that deal to lay claim to the Palace and make it part of her domain, thus changing its nature entirely. The problem the Palace presented was thereby solved... though surely there will be new problems associated with its new nature.
That's for other explorers to solve. Ours are haunting this changed place, pursuing new mysteries.
This was the best GMless experience I've ever had with an RPG. Each player taking ownership of the card draws gave us permission to be decisive, make changes, and that made it easy for our three voices to come together in a strange, exciting exploration of an ever-changing space. Already planning on playing again. Really wonderful game!
This sounds absolutely amazing! I'm delighted that you didn't let the deaths of your explorers stop you, and love that the monument nevertheless lives on, transformed into something new and perhaps stranger still...
I'm glad that you and your friends had a great time. Thank you for sharing - I'd love to hear about your next expedition too
Hello! I'm reaching out because your work looks incredible. I was just wondering if by chance any community copies are still available?
I deeply appreciate that you offer them; it’s a huge help for people in a tight spot and makes the TTRPG community so much stronger. Thank you for your generosity, regardless of the answer!
There is a physical version! It's currently only available directly from me -- if you'd like to drop me an email at nick@ickbatgames.com, I can get you sorted out!
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.
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Played with a couple of friends, exploring Le Palais Imparfait, an ever-expanding house of delirious design slowly swallowing up neighborhoods. After days of in-fighting and disagreement, we finally started making progress once we began to understand one another, as if the Palace would only let us proceed if we worked together... only to have all of our explorers die in fairly swift succession.
But the Palace was an in-between place, a sort of necropolis, and we continued exploring until a fairy queen, yet owed a favor by one of our dead explorers--with death being a foreign concept to fairies--intruded and struck up a bargain with the Palace itself... and exploited a loophole in that deal to lay claim to the Palace and make it part of her domain, thus changing its nature entirely. The problem the Palace presented was thereby solved... though surely there will be new problems associated with its new nature.
That's for other explorers to solve. Ours are haunting this changed place, pursuing new mysteries.
This was the best GMless experience I've ever had with an RPG. Each player taking ownership of the card draws gave us permission to be decisive, make changes, and that made it easy for our three voices to come together in a strange, exciting exploration of an ever-changing space. Already planning on playing again. Really wonderful game!
This sounds absolutely amazing! I'm delighted that you didn't let the deaths of your explorers stop you, and love that the monument nevertheless lives on, transformed into something new and perhaps stranger still...
I'm glad that you and your friends had a great time. Thank you for sharing - I'd love to hear about your next expedition too
Hello! I'm reaching out because your work looks incredible. I was just wondering if by chance any community copies are still available?
I deeply appreciate that you offer them; it’s a huge help for people in a tight spot and makes the TTRPG community so much stronger. Thank you for your generosity, regardless of the answer!
Is there a physical version? Where can I buy it?
There is a physical version! It's currently only available directly from me -- if you'd like to drop me an email at nick@ickbatgames.com, I can get you sorted out!
I'm interested as well! I just sent you an email.
This game is really cool.
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.