The corrupt elite in a society wrecked by ruin and corruption party on while the world succumbs to a seemingly inevitable doom.
To be clear, Studio Hermitage’s RPG Our Brilliant Ruin includes the supernatural and is therefore a work of fiction and not a snippet from the daily news brought to Kicsktarter.
Our Brilliant Ruin is written by Justin Achilli (World of Darkness series, Assassin’s Creed series), Rachel J. Wilkinson (Vampire the Masquerade: Port Saga, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium), and Pam Punzalan (Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, 2022 Nebula Award Finalist).
There is a very brief rule sheet that is both a preview and a reference guide.
I was tempted by (and will probably back) Our Brilliant Ruin first by the pitch video, then the story and lastly by noting that Studio Hermitage describes itself as a transmedia company. Re-reading the Kickstarter story, it is there in black and white; the studio says;
… this tabletop roleplaying game is the first of many steps into the world of Our Brilliant Ruin.
Transmedia is a term I see more often in anime and when the animation comes with a manga, computer game, mobile game, live action or even theatre show. It means that the world will be brought to life in multimedia. That’s appealing.
I’m fascinated at the possibility of the Studio Hermitage founders having already lined up some big backers or interesting contacts.
Our Brilliant Ruin blends Edwardian elegance and Belle Époque decadence in Dramark exploring a collapsing society. The setting promises human drama, personal intrigue, and a world where Art Nouveau and Art Deco aesthetics mask a crumbling elite.
Law? A relic. National identity? A ghost. Fragmented communities, guided by the bitter echoes of betrayal, forge their own paths. Three factions emerge: the clinging aristocrats, the practical truefolk, and the defiant unbonded.
The Ruin, an ominous and unstoppable blight, threatens to consume the Dramark. Some fight desperately with fire and strong drink, while others embrace passions and relationships amidst the impending darkness. This is a world where fleeting joys and desperate acts of defiance flicker against encroaching doom.
Our Brilliant Ruin uses an original system of dice pools driven by a character’s emotions and motivations. The gamemaster guides the narrative as in most roleplaying games, but only the players roll dice. When making a test, a player chooses a personality attribute and a skill attribute to create a ‘pool’ of d6 equal to the combined value. On a dice-roll test, each 6 is a “brill” and each 1 is a “gloom.”
If the test has more brills than glooms, the attempt succeeds. If a test has no brills or glooms, the attempt is unsuccessful. If glooms exceed the brills, a catastrophe occurs.
Backers at $15 unlock digital wallpapers, stretch goals and the early access PDF. There are also add-ons at this level for dice and the standard hardcover.
$50, the next tier, includes the standard hardcover and the previous tier and also adds in physical stretch goals.
As you’d expect from the ‘standard’ in the mention of the hardcover edition, there’s also a Kickstarter exclusive. The Brilliant Edition swaps in, joining the digital rewards but knocking out the standard edition at $80.
The next tier up that’s not for retailers, $120, has the Brilliant Edition signed by all of the Studio Hermitage founders.
There are more elite tiers, though, and at $250, you can name an Aristocrat Family or an Unbonded Group, and at $1,500, which people are going for, you can design a character and get custom artwork for them.
$2,000 gets you an online game with the designers, plus the signed book, and that tops out the rewards.
The digital editions are slated for May, the hardback for August and Our Brilliant Ruin is due to run on Kickstarter until March 28th.
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