PALLAS - a Surreal TTRPG of Manners and Gossip
A new social TTRPG inspired by literature from Jane Austen to Jorge Luis Borges.
PALLAS is a surrealist fantasy TTRPG for 2-5 players, coauthored by Vivien Holmes and Alice Vitral, inspired by literature from Jane Austen to Jorge Luis Borges. Here you may dance the night away with a horse and your dead mother, before running away with your lover to become a dress.
PALLAS sees Artist PCs fend for themselves, running from Party to Party to win Connections, discover Secrets, and entertain the Whims of their Patron. Each Artist is burdened by the expectations of their Family but yearns for something more, and it is very unlikely they'll get it (but it is very entertaining to watch them try).
PALLAS is the domain of the Patrons, gods walking amongst mortals who crave nothing more than the creation of art, which they are incapable of themselves. What they do have is a monopoly on violence, and any mortal attempting it is banished from polite society. They are immortal beings, some as old as PALLAS itself, and, with such long lives, they are constantly looking to be entertained. For an artist like yourself to succeed in PALLAS, or really to end up anywhere other than the dreg heap, the favour of a Patron is essential. However, gossip and well-timed marriage proposals are as likely to get you there as the creation of your magnum opus.
PALLAS is an unending palace of delights and a limitless, horrific dreamscape. Generations upon generations have come and gone inside its uncountable rooms and impossibly long corridors. Its halls are always filled to bursting with dance, music, performance, and great paintings that dwarf the ballrooms they hang in. Most people think it is all there is to the world; some think this the eternal dream of an ever slumbering god. Theologians have theorised the PALLAS to be the heavens to a world that no longer exists. Artists have depicted it as the collective unconscious of our waking selves; as the connective tissue between worlds with clashing laws of physics; as a physical castle encompassing an entire world. No one quite knows the truth, and most time isn’t spent philosophising over this question, but dancing, drinking and gossiping about more pressing issues.
PALLAS is based on the Sparked by the Resistance Engine, largely inspired by HEART by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor, bringing in elements of Good Society by Storybrewers Roleplaying.
PALLAS is available now in itch.io!
