The MISSIVE

1
 The Babel Wager my hat and the storm-wind hit my face.

A woman stood before me in the rain,

The radio crackled.
“I think we’re about done here. Let’s open
the chamber and bring everything back.”
“Not so fast, Smith,” I said, “Make sure we’ve
done our job right before we set this loose.
Every detail has to be right, and there’s
nothing to be lost by making sure we’re
ready.”
One universal in human history: always
enough time, never enough caution.
When you deal with the sort of things we
deal with here, you learn on your feet.
Rewriting reality itself is a great idea, if you do
it right.
But nobody ever does it right.
looking up at the sky. She wore the most
beautiful dress I had ever seen, and I watched
her for a moment. I knew that she was the
one I loved.
Then, she was gone again.
“Did you do something, Matthews?”
“We’re almost done. Keep going until it all
steadies down.”
I wrote her name down on the notepad.
We weren’t supposed to try to bring people
back; there was no way for the system to
know who an individual was and recreate
them in the new world.
But that didn’t stop me.

I stepped out into the rain, but my hat

kept it out of my eyes as I walked down the
street. Nobody else was outside; the streets
were empty.

As they should be, for now.

Here in the chamber, it was just the few of

us who’d gone in. The radio on my belt
crackled once in a while with a message from
the others, but I hadn’t seen them since the
experiment began.

Overnight we’d brought this whole thing

into being.

Something about it made me shudder.

There was a coldness to it, a chill that I
couldn’t shake.

We couldn’t leave until the work was done.

Circles inside squares inside circles.

Pyramids rising through the sky. As I went
further from the city center, the world lost its
definition. White, gray, and black played
together, hard edges and zoetrope motions
of half-formed trees swaying in a wind that I
couldn’t feel.

I took out my notepad and pencil. The

simulacrum was not complete.

I wrote a while, telling the universe what

should be there, until I felt the wind reach for

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 Credits
All text written by Kyle Willey of Loreshaper
Games. Created for the QuarantineJam.
Feel free to drop me a line at
kyle@loreshapers.net or join us on Discord!
All rights reserved.
All photographic elements come from
Pixabay:
• cover photo by Free-Photos
• page 1 and 2 photo by LUM3N
• page 3 and 4 photo by Tama66
• page 5 and 6 photo by crispy-fotographie
• page 7 and 8 photo by qimono
• page 9 and 10 photo by Pexels
The cover image has been edited to
remove a person, and each image has
received a brightness curve adjustment in
addition to being converted to grayscale. The
cover font is from the Montebello font family;
the interior fonts are Raleway for titles,
Montserrat for all other text.
About This Game
This is a tabletop roleplaying game with
storytelling elements. Each player will take on
the role of a character, with an additional
person setting the scene for the other
players’ characters.
The Missive requires least three people to
play: the Game Master and at least two
players who will make characters.
To play, you will need at least one ten-
sided die, or something to simulate a ten-
sided die. Only the Game Master will roll the
die. You also need some way to pass secret
messages between the Game Master
(henceforth abbreviated to GM) and players;
we suggest using internet-based messages
to avoid any chance of interception.
Although you do not need a character
sheet, you will need somewhere to write or
type up details about your character.
If you’re entirely new to the concept of
tabletop roleplaying games, here’s a quick
crash course:
Tabletop roleplaying games are
predominantly an effort in storytelling.
Because multiple people might not agree
on what would happen next, we create
distinct roles: the Game Master who helps
flesh out the setting, and several players who
control individual characters.
When something occurs that has an
uncertain outcome, the ten-sided die can
be rolled to determine the result. It’s
unnecessary to roll for most actions, just ones
where there is some danger or a character
only has one shot.
In The Missive, the GM sets the difficulty
for players, considers the strengths and
weaknesses of the characters, and then rolls
in secret and may either narrate the result to
the whole group of players or reply to the
player attempting an action with a secret
message.
As a player, your goal will be to write the
story of the world inside the Chamber,
putting things into it that make it better–and
pursuing your own personal agendas. You
will compete against time more than your
fellow players, however. The very act of
creating the world threatens to destabilize it.
You will keep secrets from your fellow players,
but not the GM. This will let you craft an
interesting story. The goal of this game is not
antagonistic; everyone wants to see the best
world come out of their actions.
Whether your character completes your
secret goals or sacrifices them for the greater
good is up to you.
First read “The Cataclysm,” “The World,”
“The Missive,” and “Characters” before moving
to “Rules of Play.”
Only the GM needs to read the “Game
Master” section, which covers guidelines for
running the game.
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 The Cataclysm
Accounts of what happened in the lead-up
to the death of the world vary.
Some people say that there was a war,
others a plague. All agree that there was an
easier life in the days before the cataclysm.
Ever since, the world has been different,
warped.
In some places, generations have passed.
In others, the nightmare is fresh in living
memory.
The cataclysm took something from
everyone and shattered civilization.
But there is hope.
The worst of is over, and humanity has
started to rebuild. At the dawn of the
recovery, people emerged to find that the air
was safe and the water brought life instead of
death, but the world was still barren.
They knew the world would never recover
on its own.
The World
The greatest loss was the connection
between humanity. That was restored first
with couriers and smoke signals, and later
with wires and radios.
The sickness that dwelt in the ruins passed
with the years; places that glowed deathly
pale against the night sky or choked
passersby with clouds of gas lost their danger
as people figured out how to survive.
But there remains a stillness.
The old texts talk of a different world, a
place full of life. The new world has only
vultures and serpents. It has lost its shine.
Three groups have risen to prominence
and promised humanity a future outside the
barren wastes. Combined, they form the Unit,
but each has their own agenda.
The Sayerites trace their lineage back to
the first courier to map the wastes between
the great waters. They share a joint
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commitment to the promise of a resurgent
civilization, incorporating the will of many
smaller societies into a larger bloc that
promises security and safety within the
status quo. They are the glue that holds the
Unit together, but are often more interested
in the Unit itself rather than using its power
to better the world.
The New Tradition promises a better future
through their blend of religion and
technological advancement. They seek the
limits of their minds in meditation and
studies and seek to live with a balance
between virtue and cunning. Their
experiments have drawn the ire of their
neighbors: the New Tradition considers no
study taboo, and they often leave their
neighbors to deal with the aftermath of their
decisions, leading to heated discussions
within the Unit’s leadership.
The Iron Meld value hard work and seek to
recover the relics of the past. They are
devoted to their work, but they do not have
the same interest as the New Tradition in
study and scholarship. Instead, they
share their resources to build communities
centered on people. They are reaching the
limits of this barren world’s capacity, however.
The soil does not easily yield itself to farmers,
and their livestock are too slender to yield
enough meat or milk for hungry mouths.
Combined in the Unit, these three factions
have done their best to rebuild. The Unit’s
towns boast stable and well-organized
governance.
However, humanity cannot prosper in this
world. There are too many people, and not
enough resources.
The Acolytes are a radical political faction
that has splintered from the Unit, turning
their eyes beyond the Unit’s borders. The Unit
slanders them, saying that they sabotage
supply chains and desecrate the temples of
the New Tradition.
They live among the Unit in secret, their
goals known only to themselves. Scapegoats
and malcontents, the Acolytes are feared and
loathed, and the dreadful hunt to try and
eradicate them has wearied the Unit and
called its values into question.
 The Missive
The Unit has found a technology in the
deepest ruins that promises to save
humanity or destroy it.
The Chamber of Dreams has the potential
to rebuild reality itself, taking what is put into
it and building a simulacrum of the universe.
Once the system runs and gets enough
information, the chamber will then use an
unknown force to bring the simulated world
into being.
The chamber’s very nature is disputed.
Some say that it’s a gateway to other
dimensions and infinite parallel worlds.
Others say it’s connected to an infinitely
complex computer, breaking those who
enter down to nothing, letting them
experience virtual reality, and then
reconstructing them when they leave.
Nobody knows for sure.
The chamber is a source of conflict within
the Unit. The Sayerites are hesitant to use it,
fearing that its mysterious power could
create a new cataclysm. The New Tradition
sees it as a promised salvation from the
broken world. Among the Iron Meld,
philosophy gives way to practicality: there will
not be enough for everyone if something
radical is not done immediately.
There is a secret that only a chosen few
know.
This chamber is actually the second.
In the days shortly after the cataclysm, the
early Sayerites stumbled upon a very similar
device. They used it to create a world that
could give them everything they dreamed of.
They recreated the old world in its entirety,
bringing back their loved ones and forming a
new world for them to experience together.
But something went wrong. Only those
who entered the chamber could leave it. The
systems failed to replicate the consciousness
of those who had gone before the Sayerites,
and the once-dead turned against the living.
The survivors who made it out warned
against the folly of their predecessors.
Only one thing promises that the second
world can turn out better.
The Missive.
The chamber draws from what people put
into it, and the more that people write
down the more detailed the simulation
grows. However, nothing written can be
unwritten. Once a change is made, it is
permanent.
This is how the first simulacrum died.
The Unit has a plan: sending in just a
handful of people to write the world into
existence. They will create a world that has
everything they need to survive, a new home
for humanity.
Experts have observed three restrictions
on what the Missive can create:
1. Electronic devices created in the chamber
do not function properly unless they are
assembled from raw materials.
2. Nothing can alter the fundamental laws of
physics permanently.
3. Any deliberate attempt to have the
simulacrum replicate a human being creates
a doppelganger who becomes hostile to
outsiders.
The Unit calls these “Forbidden Elements.”
Anyone found to have added a Forbidden
Element to the chamber will be punished,
though the Unit has not announced specific
penalties for offenders.
In addition, any change to the Missive
based on expedience (e.g. “There is no lion
trying to eat me!”) will be considered a
Forbidden Element.
It is possible to lock the chamber’s systems
down. Once locked, no amount of writing can
modify the chamber; the world inside unfolds
as reality would.
The Missive is the route to paradise. It is
the salvation of humanity.
And you will be one of the ones to write it.
Explore the simulacrum until the Missive has
grown to a point where the world can
support human settlement.
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 Characters
When you want to do something in the
chamber, you will rely on your character’s
abilities. These are Strength, Spirit, Savvy, and
Splendor. Each ability starts at a basic rating
of 1, and may increase as you go through the
steps of character creation. Higher is better!
Characters also have a value called
Integrity. This represents how well they are
handling their adventures in the chamber.
Integrity starts at 3 and decreases when
characters fail in dangerous situations.
However, characters aren’t just about
numbers and stats. You will give your
character a motive and tie them into the
world outside the chamber.
Who is Your Character?
Your character is a part of a world very
different from our own. In game terms, they
have attributes, but each of the attributes is
determined by narrative elements in their
backstory.
The Attributes
Strength measures a character’s physical
abilities, including their toughness and
agility, but not their fine motor skills (which
fall under Savvy).
Spirit measures a character’s willpower,
perceptiveness, and their ability to ensure
that they write the Missive correctly.
Savvy measures a character’s intellect, fine
motor skills, and their reaction speed.
Splendor measures a character’s
interpersonal skills, their ability to interact
with animals, and their luck.
Step 1: Generation
Time passes differently after the
cataclysm. Some places have experienced
hundreds of years of changes while others
are still burning.
A character’s Generation marks them as
belonging to one of three eras:
1. Cataclysmic: The character gains +1
Strength and +1 Savvy.
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2. Post-Cataclysmic: The character gains +1
Spirit and +1 Splendor.
3. Rebuilding: The character gains +1 Savvy, +1
Splendor.
Step 2: Faction
To be invited to the chamber, the
character had to reach a position of influence
in one of the three factions of the Unit.
Choose which faction invited them, or if
they’re secretly an Acolyte. If they are an
Acolyte, write which faction they infiltrated;
this is what you’ll tell other players if they ask.
1. Sayerite: +1 to all except Splendor.
2. New Tradition: +1 to all except Strength
3. Iron Meld: +1 to all except Savvy
4. Acolyte: +1 to all except Spirit
Step 3: Background
What did the character do before they
entered the chamber?
1. Villager: Worked the earth. +2 Spirit
2. Scholar: Studied the world. +2 Savvy
3. Fighter: Fought the Battles. +2 Strength
4. Leader: Guided the flock. +2 Splendor
5. Outlander: Wandered the wastes. +1
Strength, +1 Savvy
6. Guardian: Protected the weak. +1 Strength,
+1 Spirit
7. Captain: Led the fighters. +1 Strength, +1
Splendor
8. Scavenger: Looted the ruins. +1 Spirit, +1
Savvy
9. Trader: Provided the necessities: +1 Spirit,
+1 Splendor
10. Tinkerer: Built the machines. +1 Savvy, +1
Splendor
Step 4: Aspirations
Pick two things that your character wants
most:
1. Fortune: +1 Strength
2. Faith: +1 Spirit
3. Future: +1 Savvy
4. Family: +1 Splendor
When writing in the Missive, you can
double the bonus from your Aspiration. If you
can include a Forbidden Element, increase
the bonus to +4.
Step 5: Flaw
What is your character’s sin?
1. Decadence: -1 Strength
2. Sloth: -1 Spirit
3. Pride: -1 Savvy
4. Wrath: -1 Splendor
When writing in the Missive, you can
temporarily turn the penalty from your Flaw
into a bonus. A Forbidden Element upgrades
this bonus to +4.
Voluntarily invoking a flaw when taking an
action (giving a further -1) returns a point of
Integrity if the action is successful. Integrity
cannot exceed the maximum of 3.
Note: Aspirations and Flaws
A character can only boost rolls by writing
in the Missive if they have an appropriate
Aspiration or Flaw for the attribute (Strength,
Spirit, Savvy, or Splendor) they are rolling.
It is recommended that a character
choose Aspirations and Flaws that belong to
different attributes.
Getting the bonus from an Aspiration or
Flaw (beyond the initial attribute change)
requires writing in the Missive. The GM may
ask for clarifications about what links what
you wrote to a relevant Aspiration or Flaw.
Step 6: Final Points
Increase any three attributes by 1, to a limit
of 5. You may boost the same attribute more
than once.
Rules of Play
When you want to attempt an action in
the game, you can announce your intentions
and the GM will resolve the events through a
roll.
You want the GM to roll below your
Attribute rating after they apply a modifier for
difficulty. Low difficulties give a positive
modifier, temporarily increasing your
Attribute, while higher difficulties give a
negative modifier, temporarily decreasing
your attribute. See the Difficulty Modifier
Table on Page 8 for examples.
The GM will tell you whether what you
attempted succeeded or failed and narrate
the outcome.
Consequences of Failure
When a player attempts an action, and the
result is greater than the sum of their
attribute and the situational modifier, the
attempt goes awry. This does not mean that
it fails: the character may succeed but
accidentally cause trouble, creating a Hazard
(more on Hazards in a moment).
Besides the potential to fail or create a
Hazard, a failure on a roll of 9 or 10 requires a
second roll at the same difficulty.
If this second roll is also a failure, the
character loses Integrity.
Writing in the Missive
When your character writes in the Missive,
describe what you want to add to the
environment in a brief sentence, like the
following:
The city was full of buildings with glowing
lights in their windows.
You can announce what you have written,
or send it in a note to the GM. They will
narrate the changes to the simulacrum at a
later point.
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 Difficulty Modifier Table
Mod. Level Examples
+6 Trivial Driving along mountain roads, operating simple machinery.
+4 Easy Building a makeshift shelter, carrying a pack for long distances.
+2 Average Starting a fire with tools in the rain. Applying first aid properly.
+1 Difficult Shooting a charging bear. Writing a distinctly advantageous situation
in the Missive without adding a Forbidden Element or phenomena.
0 Hard Free-climbing a sheer cliff. Doing complex mathematics.
-2 Challenging Convincing an enemy to do a favor for you.
-4 Expert Creating a complex machine with the Missive.
-5 Unbelievable Bringing someone back to life through the Missive.
-6 Impossible Warping reality. Throwing something to the moon.

Each piece of scenery in the Missive gives a
+1 or -1 bonus/penalty to actions; for instance,
being in a city with bright lights may give a
bonus to a Savvy test to see things while
giving a penalty on Strength checks to avoid
being spotted by others.
If your writing involves a Forbidden
Element, you gain a +2 on your next roll (or +4
if it ties to a Flaw or Aspiration).
Note that phenomena resembling
Forbidden Elements (like complex machinery
or embodied personalities) may
spontaneously manifest in the chamber.
This is desirable; if the simulacrum is
complex enough to simulate reality, it will be
complex enough to live in. However, the
deliberate creation of Forbidden Elements
comes back to haunt those foolish enough to
play God.
If your character is secretly an Acolyte,
mention this in the message to your GM.
Then introduce your character to the rest
of the players; make sure you introduce an
Acolyte as belonging to the faction they’re
impersonating; don’t give away their secret
identity. Do not reveal your character’s
Aspirations and Flaws.
The GM will send the players of an Acolyte
character special instructions via secret
message when they see fit.
Secret Actions
When something happens that requires a
player to communicate their intent with the
GM–whether or not they are writing in the
Missive–they may use a secret message to
communicate this to the GM instead of
announcing it to the group.

Depending on what you write in the
Missive, the GM may make a Spirit roll to
determine if something unexpected
happens.
Distinctly negative events, called Hazards,
impose a -1 penalty to all actions that they
would logically impede, and never provide a
bonus.
Starting the Game
This can be helpful when resolving the
consequence of a Forbidden Element before
the character’s actions are exposed, or if
characters split from each other and the GM
wants to provide narrative distance by
limiting the spread of information.
Integrity
If a character fails on both an initial action
and a second roll, they lose Integrity.

At the start of the game, you will send a
message to the GM with your character
creation choices laid out and your four
attributes (e.g. “Tomas is a Post-cataclysm
Sayerite Villager seeking Fortune and Family,
held back by Sloth; Strength 4, Spirit 4, Savvy
3, Splendor 4”).
If they have no Integrity remaining, they
have two choices:
1. They may write in the Missive and add a
Forbidden Element to save themselves
2. Their character leaves play.
Writing in the Missive to prevent death or
departure only works once.

7
Example of Play
Let’s look at an example of play following
K, Sarah, and Rick. K is the GM, Sarah is
playing Tomas, the Sayerite Villager, and Rick
is playing Rel, an Iron Meld Captain who is
secretly an Acolyte.
K: “You leave the chamber and step out
into the formless void. Both of you should
write in the Missive.”
Sarah (Note): The wind blows softly
through the trees.
Rick (Note): A waterfall rumbles over cliffs
in the distance.
K: “The void around you takes shape. You
are standing in a grove full of cherry trees
with brilliant pink blossoms. You hear a dull
roar of crashing water coming from a white
cascade that pours over nearby cliffs.
Indeterminate birds float lazily in the sky
above you.”
Sarah: “Do I see anything of interest?”
K (Roll): Tomas’ Savvy is 3, and the task is
Easy (+4). He rolls a d10 against 7. The result is
6.
K: “You see a dove watching you from one
of the cherry trees. “
Rick: “I’m going to approach it.”
K: “As you approach, it startles and flies
toward the waterfall. It passes through the
water into a cave that you weren’t able to
see.”
Sarah: “I’m going to try to enter the cave.”
K: “You pass through the water without
issue. The cavern is well-lit by glowing
mushrooms, and a spiraling staircase leads
down into a seemingly endless expanse.”
K (Note to Sarah): You see the red sigil of
the Acolytes glint off of one of the rocks to
your right as you enter, but the mark
vanishes in a split second.
Rick: “I’m going to head down into the
darkness.”
Sarah: “Here; take a rope, and I’ll stay at the
entrance to pull you back if anything goes
wrong.”
Sarah (Note): I touch the sigil.
K (Note to Sarah): A man’s soft voice
echoes in your head: “The chamber is an
offense to what we seek.” If you choose, you
can create a Hazard in exchange for
Integrity later on.
K: “Rel hears something growling in the
darkness. How do you want to handle this,
Rick?”
Rick: “Can I see what it is?”
K: “Not in this situation.”
Rick (Note): Can I make light with the
Missive?
K: It would require a Spirit check.
Rick (Note): Let’s do it.
K (Roll): Rel’s Spirit is 4, and the task is
Difficult (+1). The result is 9. Because this is an
Integrity or Hazard risk, he rolls again: 6.
K: “You manage to light up the caverns,
but the whirling lights turn out to come from
a swarm of insects that leave a resounding
ringing in your ears, disorienting you. Then
the wolf in the shadows lunges at you.”
Rick: “Can I calm it with Splendor?”
K (Roll): Rel’s Splendor is 5, and the task is
Average (+2). There is a -1 penalty from the
Hazard. The roll is a 4.
K: “You calm the wolf. It flickers in the cave,
which is not yet fully defined, and disappears
into nothingness.”
Sarah: “Perhaps it’s time we go deeper?”
Rick: “Or we could just go outside.”
K: “What’ll it be?”
Sarah: “We’ll go outside.”
K: “You exit the cave into a thunderstorm.
Passing through the water, you see the
chamber entrance glistening in the rain and
flashing with reflections of lightning.
“What do you do next?”
8
 Game Master
Running a game of The Missive is intended
to be low-prep; players contribute the lion’s
share of the setting and story, though you
can add your own elements.
However, you need organization when
playing to keep track of everyone’s characters
and contributions to the world, and it helps to
think about how to play before jumping in.
Rule 0: Play for Fun
Secret messages bog down play if handled
poorly. I suggest doing as much play as
possible digitally, using both a form of instant
messaging and something like Trello, a
virtual tabletop, or other note-keeping app to
record all the elements of the Missive and
relevant information about each character
being played.
In addition, because you roll all the dice,
you can be as picky with
difficulty calculations as you want to be. Any
action that threatens a player’s character
with loss of Integrity or creates a Hazard
should be fairly rolled, but if you want to
move the story forward you can skip a roll or
two. 9s and 10s are almost always failures on
anything worth rolling; if there is no chance
of failure, skip the roll.
Being precise with difficulty is also not
worth spending a lot of time on rolls and
slowing the game down for the players or
missing notes. Failure doesn’t exhaust
options. The resource economy is an excuse
to let things fail and be tried again, since
repeated failures are likely to generate
Hazards or cost Integrity.
If a rule is giving you problems, then
change it or ignore it. Just make sure you’re
consistent when you do so.
Social Mediation
The Missive is predominantly a storytelling
game, and as a result one should think about
how the world unfolds around the players as
the central driver of dramatic tension.
Because players keep secrets from each
other during play, you have leeway to
mediate and narrate. Add your own elements
9
to the story as the chamber tries to
extrapolate from the elements already in the
Missive.
The most recent things are the most
important for this. You can draw a diagram of
the world the players have created if it helps
you remember, but remember that
retreading old ground is a path to stagnation.
You want to avoid having a game where
the players are at each other’s throats. There
are a few things you can do to create this
environment:
1. Make clear what expectations are, and
remind everyone that things are going to be
happening beyond the players’ control. Not
every bad thing is deliberate sabotage from a
player; it may be a consequence of failure or
the GM’s invention to move things forward.
2. Set barriers for appropriate content and
policies for confrontations between player
characters. You will probably see some in-
universe conflict between characters, but it
should not turn into out-of-game disputes
between players.
3. Be fair to people. Don’t twist their words.
Err on asking for clarification and details if
you’re not 100% certain you’re interpreting a
secret message properly.
Players can do as much communication as
they desire in-character or out-of-character
regarding their goals and intentions, but
when writing in the Missive only a secret
message bears fruit. Have players send you a
secret message even if they state their intent
openly.
Phenomena and Fragments
The goal of the players is to flesh out the
world inside the chamber to create a living
space for their people.
As they do this, they will find that it is not
necessarily as simple a task as they would
hope.
You define the boundaries of the world.
As characters leave the Missive’s contents
behind, the world becomes a nebulous void;
solid ground beneath their feet holds no
color or distinct shapes, strange shadows
move in the sky.
 They can write to add things to the world,
bringing definition.
Where written statements contradict,
phenomena erupt. This may be something
relatively innocuous–like a transition from
night to day as one steps through a doorway–
to something outlandish and potentially
hazardous like floating islands.
Phenomena are more fun if they’re things
that can be explored. A zone where gravity
works differently offers lots of room for
exploration, and you can have players push
their boundaries.
Fragments occur when players write
enough in the Missive. This is where the
world of the chamber is well-defined enough
to create things that have their own agency.
This potentially includes people who will have
their own motivations and goals.
The Acolytes’ Goals
The Acolytes have little overarching
structure, but they share one goal: they do
not believe that the Unit should settle the
world of the chamber.
How this works is up to you; you can send
your Acolyte players (if there are any) a
message about this, giving them more
details.
The motives behind the Acolytes’ agenda
are not immediately obvious, even to their
agents. You can choose any of the following,
blend more than one of them together, or
make up your own reasons.
• The Acolytes want the second Chamber of
Dreams to themselves.
• The Acolytes fear (rightly or not) the power
of the chamber.
• The Acolytes are escaped fragments from
the first chamber who blame the Unit for
the problems in their world.
• The Acolytes want to redirect the Unit’s
attention to reality and pursue the lands
beyond the great waters.
• The Acolytes will destroy humanity to spite
the Unit.
Handling Death
Let players know when they lose Integrity
via secret note.
When a character’s Integrity runs out,
three things can happen. Losing Integrity
and having a character removed from play
doesn’t always mean a physical death; the
chamber can erase people from existence if
they lose Integrity in other ways, or they may
exit the chamber in a spat with the other
character.
1. The player makes a new character who
enters the chamber and play continues.
2. The player controls a fragment (of their
character, or a new character) from within
the world, no longer able to write the Missive
but able to help or hinder other players’
characters.
3. The game ends on a dramatic note.
Use your discretion to determine the best
course of action. Fragments can have
whatever attributes you determine; they are
typically stronger than normal people.
Give the players a chance to have a say in
what happens but don’t let them dictate it.
Ending the Game
Ultimately, there is no hard and fast rule
for when the game ends.
The goal of the players is to explore the
chamber and use the Missive to create a
second home for human life inside the
simulacrum.
When someone returns to the chamber
entrance and finalizes the Missive, the game
ends.
An exception to this would be if there were
a catastrophe in the chamber and other
characters needed to escape back to reality,
though you could leave off on a cliffhanger.
You can then narrate an epilogue
describing what happens to the chamber
after the events of the game if you so desire.
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