Justin Achilli is one of those developers who always makes role-players sit up and take notice. He first became known in the 1990s through his work with White Wolf. He wrote over a hundred Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Requiem sourcebooks for the studio, as well as co-designing the Exalted role-playing game, with Steve Wieck and Robert Hatch.
Following his temporary return as the creative lead of the World of Darkness in the early 2020s, Achilli formed Studio Hermitage with Paxton Galvanek and Andy Foltz, to create an entirely new system and setting for their debut steampunk/horror role-playing game Our Brilliant Ruin.
Set in the fictional lands of Dramark, Our Brilliant Ruin combines navigating a class-based society with apocalyptic horror. In principle these two elements seem unlikely to work as a setting – it is like taking the historical family drama of Downton Abbey and placing it in the alien nightmare of Annihilation – but in this case the setting works incredibly well.
Dramark is inspired by Edwardian England, with a structured hierarchy comprising aristocrats, truefolk (skilled workers) and unbonded (mercenaries, criminals and masterless), as they seek to counter the encroaching apocalypse of the Ruin. The Ruin is an inexorably force of supernature that permeates the fabric of existence by breaking down the natural order of things as we know it.
The various families of Dramark seek to counter The Ruin in various different ways. Some confront it directly, burning out any manifestations that they find, whilst others seek to study the Ruin and channel its effects for beneficial purposes.
Underpinning the families of Dramark are syllokinetics; advanced steam-powered automations that perform incredible tasks, but the knowledge how they were created has been lost through the ravages of the Ruin. These colossal machines have therefore become priceless artifacts amongst the families, as they seek to preserve them throughout the chaos.
All of the characters in a game will live in an estate. This is their bastion against the Ruin. Much of the game is focused in or around a specific estate; whether it is navigating the family politics within the estate, or protecting holdings against the remorseless decay of the Ruin.
Our Brilliant Ruin is an incredibly rules-light roleplaying game, with much of the material in the rulebook focused on the setting of the game. The background is highly detailed and very much the strength of the game, as the nature of the Ruin and its various manifestations enable a broad variety of stories to be told within the game.
The amount of background information could be overwhelming for new players or an inexperienced game master, but with sufficient preparation to gradually open up the world of Our Brilliant Ruin, this is not an unsurmountable issue.
There could be a social-based scenario as players investigate rumours of an estate that is under the sway of a vampire (one of the many manifestations of the Ruin) or a high-octane survival-horror game as the characters attempt to reclaim an abandoned syllokinetics factory from the ravages of the Ruin.
Throughout the game it is reinforced that the Ruin is akin to a force of nature: it is not intelligent and it cannot be stopped or reasoned with. The Ruin is there and will inevitably corrupt everything and destroy or change the world completely.
Given the detailed background and setting, there is already a comic book and audio drama, as well as a video game being developed. It could also be relatively easy to run as an immersive live role-play experience – assuming a suitable venue could be found.
There have been many role-playing games that offer a detailed background for the players to explore, but what makes Our Brilliant Ruin such a bargain is that it is free as a PDF. This is not a quick start guide or a sample of the rule, but a complete game. A hardcopy of the game is available to purchase and there are plans to further expand the world and develop new games within the setting.
“We always knew we wanted to release the PDF for free to make it as accessible as possible. The role-playing game is a great jumping in point for folks who may want to learn more about the world for the other media avenues like the audio drama, comic book, and future videogame. Making the PDF free means there is no barrier for people to explore the world and tell their own stories in it.”
(Danny Ryba, marketing manager for Studio Hermitage)
Anyone who enjoys playing a game about uncovering secrets in a unique setting will find a lot to enjoy. The background is intricate and makes for a compelling read, as well as presenting a compelling platform for roleplaying characters exploring the world of Dramark.
