Full Disclosure: One of the senior writers for Our Brilliant Ruin is a friend of mine. You can read my previous interview with the Studio Hermitage crew and an upcoming Not DND TTRPG Interview on EN World’s YouTube channel on September 30.
The Setting
Our Brilliant Ruin is a standalone tabletop role-playing game core book that runs just short of 300 full colour pages. It is a stylish mixture of a lot of genres and eras, so I can only describe it as a “Victorian 1920s game of horror, intrigue and mystery set in the Edwardian era.”
The game takes place in a loose collection of counties known as ‘The Dramark’ which might be the last bastion of civilisation on a planet ravaged by a force known as ‘The Ruin’. The Dramark is ruled by a collection of aristocratic families who run their estates and domains more like a crime family than the nobility. They are served by the Truefolk; craftsmen, servants and mercenaries who have found a place that suits them in this new social order. While they serve the aristocracy, they are organised into a collection of Guilds that offer them some protection and security from their employers. Outside this social order are the Unbonded who do as they please, with no masters but no security. They provide the services that might once have been called criminal. However, the rule of law only really applies as far as each noble family decides it does, so there is a lot of variety in what you might get away with. The power of the aristocracy is held in check by the threat of Shivaree.
This is essentially the potential for the Truefolk to grab pitchforks and deliver some old school justice. I’m not entirely sure how well this would work, but essentially it means that society works as long as everyone is both reasonably happy but also ‘knows their place’. Basically, if you need justice, you are going to have to get it for yourself.
The reason things have devolved from a peaceful (if draconian) countrywide government into various baronies fighting for power is a force called ‘The Ruin’. It is the light from a corrupt star that begun to bathe the entire planet with ruinous energy about a hundred years ago. This strange form of radiation causes metal to rust much quicker and turns people and animals into monstrous things like chimera, ghosts, flesh eaters and vampires. In an analogy for climate change, this ruin has been gradually rotting the world for over a century and few people see much point in doing anything about it as long as they are doing ok. But the point of this game is not to save the world. Most people have decided to go out in style, partying and enjoying themselves for as long as they can while something of the world remains. There may be awful corruption and horror, but what people are really scared of is that the gin might run out.
The System
The system for the game is simple and while it is new you will recognise many of its features. It’s essentially a smoothly merged collection of great design you’ve seen before. You only need D6s and roll them in a dice pool built from adding one of your Personality attributes to one of your Skills (there are nine of each). Both are interestingly nebulous, so you don’t make a Strength + Athletics roll, instead it might be a Defiance + Physicality roll. If you are new to the game this may take a little getting used to as it isn’t always clear which attributes you should use. But the key here is that actually several might apply, and it is up to the player to make it clearer by describing their approach.
The Gamemaster tells you what the problem is; it’s up to the player to decide how they are going to deal with it. For instance, are you going to move the obstacle by picking it up, getting someone else to move it or making a device to move it? Once you know your approach in terms of Skill, you add the Personality attribute that describes why you are taking action. So rolls are more ‘Why and How’ than the usual ‘what and which of aptitude and skill. I should also add that only the players ever roll dice. So they are either rolling to defeat an obstacle or to defend themselves from some sort of attack. Instead of making a test for their antagonists, the Gamemaster just assigns a difficulty for the player.
Having gathered your pool of D6s, you only need to look at two or three results. Every 6 you roll is a “Brill” and rolling just one is a successful roll. Each 1 you roll is a “Gloom” and while they don’t cancel out Brills, if you get more Glooms than Brills you have suffered a “Catastrophe” fumble. If you roll 3 Brills you succeed with a “Triumph” critical success.
There is a beanie point system in the form of Passion. If you spend a point of Passion then you get a bonus of 2 extra dice to your pool and 5s also count as Brills. While this gives you a much better chance of success, twice in the (only 2 hour!) games I played I still managed to roll a catastrophe when using passion, with 1 Brill and 2 Glooms. But I feel that’s a feature not a bug as there should always be a chance it goes wrong, and with my dice rolling that is not unusual!
Each character also has a “Portfolio” of nine potential assets, such as Mentor, Tools or Wardrobe. Instead of adding to the dice pool these are points that can be spent. They either grant a chance to make a roll when you’d otherwise be unable to do so, or grant an automatic success to a roll you could make. So if you are about to pick a lock you might spend a point of Tools to automatically succeed by using advanced lockpicks. If you are trying to lift a heavy object, when the GM says it’s too big for one person, spending a point of Entourage allows you a roll once you’ve got some of your team around it.
From there, the only remaining parts of the character sheet are essentially the hit points: Vitality for physical damage and Distress for mental damage. When a player needs to roll a certain amount of Brills to defend themselves, if they fail, the shortfall becomes the damage they take. If that’s fighting a monster they lose Vitality. If they get roasted in a social battle they suffer Distress. While the results of reaching zero in either are slightly different, they both potentially put your character out of action, making social combat as dangerous as physical combat.
Technology, Denizens, and Locations
The rest of the book details the technology, denizens and locations in the Dramark. The technology level is roughly that of the Victorian/Edwardian era, but there are also a few Syllokinetics remaining. These (usually huge) autonomous steampunk style devices were once ubiquitous but have now mostly failed due to the influence of the ruin. But a few continue to work, even when their original purpose is lost. Most are too big to stop, and each is unique with several intriguing examples detailed in the book.
Monsters and denizens are detailed in the chapter on the Ruin itself. All the traditional classic monsters are here, and many (like flesh eaters and vampires) still look human enough to continue to run their estates. There are also details on how the Ruin affects everyone and how even players might become corrupt. I would like a bit more on this but while player characters are not immune to the Ruin the focus is on them fighting it rather than falling to it.
The locations of the Dramark are detailed in four example areas: Grandhurst, Ripper’s Fork, The Gloaming, and Crow’s Croft. They are great microcosm settings and each has their own style, from social politics to gothic horror. However I would have liked a map of the Dramark itself to make it clearer how everything related. Having said that the focus is on creating your own location within the Dramark. Each player character group is considered to be part of an “Estate” either as its rulers, servants or itinerant employees. Players create the estate together, describing its size, influence and any special places and features. It’s a short but perfectly adequate system, so while it is not lacking I hope we see more expansion it later supplements.
Finally, among the various NPCs are a wealth of adventure hooks, many of which can be directed at the players from a variety of different angles. Any one of the NPCs involved in the hook might be the patron of the PCs, offering several different twists. There is also a full adventure “Fortunes Turn at Crowscroft Manor” which sets the PCs up in their estate, fixing its problems and getting involved in the politics of the local community.
Should You Buy It?
Our Brilliant Ruin is a neat and concise game presented with a wealth of gorgeous artwork. The setting is evocative and intriguing and offers an array of potential adventures in many different styles. I had a lot of fun playing it, and it was easy to get to grips with both the system and the setting.
If you are at all tempted to take a deeper look at the game it’s very easy to do so. Studio Hermitage has made the PDF of the full corebook available for free. I thoroughly suggest getting hold of a copy.
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