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A gothic doomed town and those responsible

Guide your people through the darkest night in this tragic game about loss and what it means to be entrusted with governance.

Cybernetic Coven

Cybernetic Coven

— 4 min read
A gothic doomed town and those responsible
This is a community submitted press release.

Ruin Has Come, as if Darkest Dungeon had met Microscope. In this GMless TTRPG; you take the role of a besieged community, deciding who must survive through the night and who you are willing to sacrifice — so that at least some of you may survive.  

Ruin Has Come Tonight

What if you cannot save everyone? What if there is no “greater good” or “lesser evil”? What if you have to make the call, without the comfort of excuses and platitudes? What if all you have is what you carry through the night? Ruin Has Come puts you in the shoes of the leaders of a doomed town, deciding what they value and what they are willing to sacrifice, so maybe some of them survive to see the next sunrise.

During the night, beings of darkness seek to destroy your town. You need to suffer losses and sacrifice what you seek to protect, seeking to learn more each time you face the things that hunt you. There is no other way — you either survive at any cost or you are doomed. 

Over and over you are confronted with the choices. Do I risk my personal wealth and influence? Do I seek to use this opportunity to weaken my rivals? Do I put adventurers or townsfolk at risk? Do we confront evil in its lair or do we risk losing one of the few havens within the town? No victory will be ever clean — and you are the one who can decide who lives and who dies. 

Face the Darkness Players take turns facing a Threat of their choice. You start by selecting what may be lost facing the Threat. This will be your Loss. You must pick one or more from the following options, picking each option no more than once per roll, for a total of up to +5. You always pick at least one. The sum of your picks gives you your Loss modifier.
Confronting the darkness always has a cost, but so does idleness.

Dawn Offers No Mercy

Should you survive until daybreak, you get no relief. Instead, you must confront the losses you decided were acceptable and answer for your compromise. And yet, night will once again bring ruin, and the leaders of the town — such as they are — must use this opportunity to prepare. 

Each leader gets dice dependent on their individual power and influence; they pool dice into actions, trying to rebuild during daytime. They can retake the ruins, venture into the dungeons, govern the townsfolk, seek outside help, delve into dark knowledge or even take the time to know their town and people better. 

Dawn Confront the changes as daylight pours in and you emerge from the Havens: • Remember every Loss. • Honor Pledges. • Check for Debts. • Confront your Ruin. • Into the Light. Remember every Loss Record the highest Loss total suffered since the previous Dawn, and every single Loss suffered by the town since the previous Dawn. Record how many Threats the town fought against since the previous Dawn. Honor Pledges Check if players have fulfilled the Pledges they made as part of a Dominion action, if any. If they did not fulfill one or more Pledges, apply the penalty as described in Dominion. Check for Debts Check if any Haven has a higher value of Debt than the number of townsfolk associated with it. Lose any such Haven as described in the Invest action. Confront your Ruin If any player has accumulated Ruin as part of the Illuminate action. For each point of Ruin you have, go down the Ruination list of Illuminate and suffer each consequence. Into the Light Each player selects Skills, Status or Ledger. This represents your highest priorities, what you want to accomplish in these rare calmer times and which of the three categories you lean on. Gain a number of Sun die equal to your choice.
The day after the battle can be just as much of a struggle.

Never-Ending Twilight

Dawn into night, dawn into night. Will you keep playing the cycle? Feeding people to it over and over again to protect what you claim to be a greater good. Or maybe you will try to vanquish the darkness? Hunt them in their dens during the day, leaving no place to hide and force the final apocalyptic confrontation — gambling it all in that you can win this. Will you develop a relationship with the dark, accepting its influence within you? Realize that the eternal state of crises keeps you in power and you quite enjoy the status quo. Step away from this conflict? Abandon the town, seek solace in exile or attempt anew in another place and time. 

How will ruin come for you? 

Ruin has come is now available at itch.co.

A ruined castle keep as the cover of Ruin Has Come

About the Cybernetic Coven

The Cybernetic Coven, or CyCo, is a participatory cooperative and artist collective. CyCo focuses on sustainable and healthy work practices, protecting individual members from the risks of the attention economy, supporting the creation of meaningful art that would not be profitable, and rewarding labor according to effort or solidarity. You can learn more on the CyCo website and get early access and beta version to our many ongoing projects in our Patreon. 

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