System Pitch Legacy: Life Among the Ruins is a PbtA game about the survivors of a reality-twisting apocalypse, and how they adapt to and rebuild their new world. Unique is the shift between the zoomed-out overview of your setting over multiple generations and the zoomed-in play of individual scenes. Every player gets two different playbooks, one for their family and one for their character. When your own character isn't in a scene, you can grab one of the quick characters and guest-star in someone else's family! As you play, you’ll move between the family and character levels, zooming in to play through a short adventure with a group of characters and then zooming out to show the broad strokes of your families pursuing their agenda. Your family (i.e. faction) is a collection of survivors brought together by blood, loyalty, or ideology, with their own strange powers hard-earned as they survived the apocalypse. They have their own needs, strengths, and doctrine, and you will use their forces to conduct diplomacy, claim resources, and use subterfuge on other factions. Families act slowly, taking days or weeks to take action. You’ll also have an individual character - a particular member of your family who is your story’s focus. They’re in a position to change the course of the family’s history, whether the family intended to give them that power or not. They’ll have their own skills and powers, as well as the ability to command the family’s forces and resources. They’re more flexible than a family, able to act in a matter of moments and call on their friends from other factions for aid. If you play beyond a oneshot, your character's choices can even impact their family for many generations to come!
A CENTURY OF DARKNESS I sometimes wonder what sunlight was like. My grandfather told me stories his mother had told him – how you could stand on a tall building and see the city stretching away from you and bustling with life. How you could stand in a field – a field! – and close your eyes and bask in its warmth. How every day it painted the entire sky, reds and blues and purples. But that was then, and this is now. Now the only light we have is the light we make, burning oil for each moment a fizzing bulb or burning lamp is shining. And every hour of every day they burn, because outside the light they might be lurking. The wraiths came when the sun went out – though maybe they were always waiting. Their bodies are smoke, and their eyes are flames that cast no light, but their claws? Those are most certainly real. Even now I can hear their whispers and songs outside, but in a way I’m grateful – it’s a welcome distraction from the splutters of our dying generator. Something must change. We must make a change. I will head out into the darkness tomorrow, friends at my side, and find a way to bring the sun back.
New players welcome.
Players should have played some RPGs before.
The game runner will provide pre-generated characters to pick from, with room for customization.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬ Serious
This game will be hosted in room #4 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. Spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: wraiths, apocalyptic keystones like resource scarcity and environmental threats, chances of minor PvP