The Fall of the King of Sota: Chapter Five

 

One of the things that is hard to communicate about Crescendo is not only how different each session feels, but how the game absolutely refuses to go according to your expectations. You absolutely cannot follow the rules as intended and not be surprised each session. There is nothing quite like the sheer level of tonal variety that Crescendo provides.

And this session showcases that reality really well.

The players and I thought this session would be an absolute bloodbath: the elf who keeps the evil within Cleft Mountain sealed away and the monstrous Abbadon, together in a session! That should not have worked out.

And yet.

This session brings out tech that I didn't even think may be necessary anymore: the direct challenging of Beliefs by the Weaver. Turns out, sometimes the players do manage to pull it together, and the Weaver has to be ready to make up situations that subvert and challenge their Beliefs/Debts.

ALSO: apparently I have a lot of homework. The players walked in with lore based off of what I had presented in the Setting Bible, in the first session, it turns out I may have more homework coming up. This was fantastic! People are understanding the bones of the setting well enough to riff of it and tell me what the setting does.

Chapter Five: Oikaya 19

The Fall of of the King of Sota: Chapter Four

 

This. This right here. Is the steel chair session. People started getting used to the system, and it just.. it sang. Crescendo's mechanics are reactive to player action. They intensify it and push it back into the fiction, making things wild and unpredictable.

And in this session, for the first time, I saw those mechanics sing. They weren't just good or even fantastic. Crescendo actually hit a Platonic ideal.

Oikaya 13-17

And, of course, it all began in the Discord. At the end of Chapter Three, we had a mob march on Lady Marie's compound. It all looked gone for Lady Marie. 

And then this happened.

Lady Marie’s forces, after three grueling days of fighting with the rioters, defeated them. The mob would have gotten Lady Marie, if not for the timely intervention of a young nobleman, named Eric. A rice farmer named Arriquard, along with  Father Laurentius, who were leading the mob, were injured and went into hiding… at least until Fr. Laurentius reappeared and began preaching about the evils of the nobility, particularly Lady Marie and Mother Elise, who were employing long-forgotten dark elf rituals to gain immortality through drinking children’s blood. He then began to give generously to the poor and homeless.

Ghosts have been spotted in the ruins of New Sota City, post-riots. People are beginning to wonder if the town isn’t legitimately cursed.


On Oikaya 17, a bunch of stones dropped from the sky, killing some, injuring others.

Dice were rolled and nothing went the way we expected. Lady Marie didn't go down, she got stronger. Not a damn thing that we thought was going to happen, did.

Chapter Four (Oikaya 17)

And then this utter apeshit craziness happened.

I don't have words. I genuinely don't. Cal and I talked on the phone afterwards, and were just... totally babbling about it. You have to see it to believe it. Every second is utter craziness. It really can't be summed up. It is a Platonic ideal.

Next week is the first Storystein. And that is when we make RPG history, because nothing else even remotely like this exists, anywhere. 

Demon City: Read Thru, Part Two

 

Welcome back! This week, we're continuing on with my read-thru of Demon City.

This game has found me in the middle of a really interesting transition, and it's relevant for this part of the read-through, so we're going to get into that first.

Yes, There is Objectively Good Design in TTRPGs

We have to get this out of the way, because apparently it's a controversial point. There's good game design, as an objective reality.

I will define what good design is for the purposes of this blog post:

Design that, when used properly, gives back more than it takes.

Random tables are objectively good design. They almost always give back more than they take. Obviously, it's possible for implementation to screw up a random table. Yes, it's possible to screw up implementation, but it's pretty hard to really screw up a random table. The point is, a random table takes a load off the GM that allows him to not spend so freaking much mental power during the game. It is objectively better to have a random table over not having one. Sorry not sorry.

There is also bad design:

Design that, even when used properly, takes more energy than what it gives back. 

The entirety of F.A.T.A.L. is an example of bad design. Overcomplicated, bloated, and needlessly detailed... oh and it's also one of the most hatefully stupid games of all time. Hilarious to read, though!

1:1 PVP Is Superior

So, for the last month and a half I've been running a 1:1 PVP  game, also known as a Braunstein. The players are all inherently against each other, and plotting against each other, Diplomacy-style. I don't plan situations, I just take their orders, make sure they make sense, and then adjudicate how everything collides together. Then, when the play sessions come up, I just focus on shaking things up as hard as I can, forcing the players to reconsider what they're doing.

And it is objectively the most fun I have ever had running a game. Just flat out. It's not close, it's not subtle. I don't plan. I don't push. I don't even think about the future. I manage. I just sit back, people fuck around, and they find out.

I have had a more meaningful time. You've got tape, right on this blog, of some campaigns I've run that are magical. Actual magic. 

But I have not had a more fun time running a game, ever. It's awesome.

Yeah, I spend "just about" as much time adjudicating actions between sessions as I did prepping, if not more so, but it's not prep: it's play. It's not work, it's fun! I'm having a blast! I get regular installments of this completely unhinged fantasy EVENT. All for the low price of setting up the scenario and telling everyone not to play nice.

So, to recap, 1:1 PVP gets me more enjoyment for far less work, if not less time, and has pretty much redefined what I want out of a game.

So This Game Found Me At An Interesting Juncture

Two months ago? I would have eaten this game up with a freaking spoon. Immediately. 

But Father Time is fleeting and cruel.

Now, I am absolutely not in the target audience of this book, not anymore. See, you have to convince me that leaving 1:1 PVP would be just as worthwhile as running it. And that is an ask. A real ask. Because I now got a system that automatically maintains moment, right through missed sessions and weird adult life schedules and other basic problems of "stop time" in RPGs, and I am absolutely happy with it. You have to really sell me on playing this game at this point.

The sections we're covering in the book today are the Host advice, worldbuilding help, actual pitches for campaigns, and some "sketches" to help the Host riff.

The Host Advice

Oh man, Father Time is so cruel. This should have stolen my heart. And two months ago, it would have. There's a distillation of all the different kinds of horror "plots", sorta like plot infrastructure for Hosts to use, without railroading players. And this section is brilliant. If you're not running 1:1 PVP.. you need to read this section. Like, you owe Zak S for this part of the book, alone. Zak breaks down different kinds of plot structures that players can move around in so thoroughly and well that it would be stupid to not get the book.

But, given that this wasn't two months ago? But was just read a few days ago?

Yeah.

I don't particularly need it. Which is incredibly weird. It's so well-written, and I could see adapting some of it, particularly the "dungeon style" plot, but this is fantastic advice for something I don't plan on doing that much anymore. It is, without a doubt, the best guide for "stop time" TTRPGs ever written.

Not close.

Worldbuilding Help

I loved literally every sentence in this section. The book breaks down how to access archives, how Uber drivers can be useful, and how the FBI actually works in a way that I find relevant. There's not a bad word in this section, other GMing guides should be legitimately ashamed that they don't think to put stuff like this in their games, and if they do, do it better. Kthx.

Seriously. Again, this is S+ tier stuff. Literally no notes.

Campaign Pitches

How the fuck is this section even better???

So, Zak breaks down how to make distinctive campaigns, with little modifications and hacks to the system to reward certain kinds of actions. If you're playing the game, just steal these ideas, outright. But if you're not, this section is a masterclass in manipulating the system lightly to provide a compelling campaign pitch to your players. Literally it's all perfect. This one section sells me on running Demon City by itself. I cannot praise it enough. There's about a half-dozen pitches in here, and they's even a Stranger Things kinda a pitch, and it's awesome.

Sketches

So, this one's a bit of a weird section, but it's essentially a bunch of just half-baked enough ideas that you can insert into a campaign. There's tons of ideas on how to weaponize crime in the interest of horror games. This section is worth revisiting, from time to time, to have it jog your imagination. Zak S literally rewrote how I think RPG books should be written, with this one section.

So Yeah. 

Demon City is an absolute masterclass in TTRPG design. Zak S cooked here. The Host advice is the best "how to actually run horror without railroading" material I've ever read. The worldbuilding section is criminally practical. The campaign pitches are pure rocket fuel, and the sketches section single-handedly raised my standards for what an RPG book should deliver.

If you're running traditional stop-time games—especially horror, mystery, or modern-day campaigns—you should buy this book yesterday. It will make you a better GM, full stop. Even if you never run Demon City itself, the ideas here will level up whatever you're doing.

But for me? Right now? It's bittersweet.

This game found me at the exact moment I fell in love with something else. 1:1 PVP has ruined me (in the best way). It delivers consistent chaos, player-driven drama, and zero prep guilt in a way that feels almost unfair to everything else. I still love what Demon City is doing. I respect the hell out of it. Parts of it will definitely leak into my Braunsteins. But the honest truth is I'm not rushing to switch back to traditional campaign play.

Father Time is cruel like that.

This was Part 2 of my read-through, focusing on the GM-facing material. There's still at least one more part to go. If I do not see you next week, I do not blame you.

It is no easy road.

The Fall of the King of Sota: Chapter Three

So, this was the first time we were able to have two Chapters in a week. It did not disappoint. We had a blast, as things in New Sota City and at Cleft Mountain completely fell apart. We're three chapters in, and almost all the initial plans have completely fallen apart, and everyone is scrambling.

Chapter Three (Oikaya 12)

This is definitely the session where the players discovered just how bad it was tanking Conditions. Since recovering from Conditions (which you have to do first) removes you from scheming between Chapters, the players from Chapter Two are almost entirely at the mercy of the events during Chapter Three!

But you need Conditions to advance your character.

Oops.

The Seraph Omega Rangers: Session 2

 

"RISE"

We decided that about two weeks had gone by. Jackson and Janet were part of a survivor group, who were raiding the nearby Whole Foods after dark, picking through the adjacent strip mall under cover of night to avoid the flying rock vultures. While there, they noticed that people with guns were hoarding the canned goods. When others confronted them, they brandished their weapons.

Jackson and Janet snuck off, morphed, and came out to talk to the people with the guns. They tried to talk with the gun-toters, who were terrified. But, when the green and pink Seraph Omega rangers chose to be gentle, they calmed down a bit and explained they were just trying move the cans into a nearby underground storm shelter. When the Seraph Omega Rangers asked if the others could share the cans, they were told that could be arranged. Everyone relaxed

Everyone minus two. Jackson and Janet realized that two people had just... vanished... while the talking had been going on.

They didn't show up again the next day.

Two more people vanished after the next foraging foray.

And the one after that.

This next time, Janet and Jackson noticed that George, an older man, had different colored eyes: they were supposed to be blue, and were brown instead. He also moved with an odd predatory grace, which was subtle but evident enough. Nobody else seemed to notice. George glided up to Janine, a 14 year old girl who had just lost her parents the other day, and seemed to be comforting her. But it wasn't actually George, and Jackson and Janet knew they couldn't leave Janine with George.

So Janet and Jackson followed, quietly. They took great care to not be spotted as George and Janine drifted farther and farther back. Suddenly George turned fuligin, the color darker than black, and began to wrap around Janine like a bedsheet. His body thinned, and his head grew and began something that resembled a pterodactyl's.

Jackson and Janet morphed immediately, and the surprised "Pterrordactyl" dropped Janine. Jackson and Janet knew that if they didn't hurry, the stone vultures that soared the skies would descend upon them in the dozens. Janet pulled out her pink ranger bow, and Jackson pulled out his green ranger lance. They stabbed and shot the Pterrordactyl, who died surprisingly fast, without a scratch to either ranger. They quickly demorphed, and Jackson picked up the unconscious Janine.. only to have the freaking stone vultures see them.

They barricaded themselves into the strip mall. And outlasted the stone vultures, who were trying to break in. When daylight came and the stone vultures left, they went back to their homes.

Hungry.

The Fall of the King of the Sota: Chapter Two

The single greatest gift of 1:1 is an inherent sense of momentum. The real world for adults can be really nasty- more than half the group wasn't able to really participate because of sudden schedule shifts and the usual exhaustion of being an adult. But, because we had someone, somewhere, plotting and driving things forward, the people who couldn't do as much didn't have to feel bad. They could just check in, see things were happening, smile, and promise to get back to it as soon as they could. This creates a strong sense of belonging to a community, as people are all contributing to this project that will go on without them, but greatly values who they are as individuals.

Ransu 28 - Oikaya 9

New Sota City was the only place anything that can be reported publicly happened, as most of the people at Cleft Mountain were either caught up in family emergencies or were MIA. The following was dropped 

The spice merchants are hiring thugs to kill each other (the same guys and the thugs are also city guards). The fruit seller’s sister is dead, her husband is on the run and her brother murdered the minstrel in the middle of a show. The money changer got taken away by the guards and hasn’t been seen or heard of since.

corruption, greed, violence and paranoia have overtaken the market. All the merchants are plotting against each other, ripping people off and other terrible mischief. People in the city are furious with the price gouging, accusations and all that. They end up rioting and doing some lynching. The guards show up and kill a bunch of people.

at the barracks shit winds up in the soup and the cook’s daughter is blamed. The cook gets beaten. Meanwhile the guards start getting more and more unhinged. Unit cohesion starts falling apart, they start getting rough with the citizens and paranoid. Some of the ones who took part in the market massacre are going mad out of guilt.

a woman who is super gossipy spreads rumours that Father Laurentius is behind the market riot and the guys who are talking shit about the old kings and stuff. The guards are getting paranoid and extremely angry about it

The farmers outside the city are now having to defend their children from those same merchants trying to kidnap them for dark rituals inside the city. 

The farmers and surrounding villagers are forming militias and some say they're planning to march on the city itself. 

In other words:

 

Chapter Two - Oikaya 10

To put it simply: Things are currently in disaster right now. New Sota City seems about to tear itself apart, and it's only Chapter Two!

...and then we played.

Holy shit.

 The girl is resurrected and restored! And Mother Elise and Lady Marie accidentally give a ton more fuel for the "eat the rich" fires going on!

This is our second full session with the proper 1:1 PVP going on, and it is absolutely. Instead of the game stalling due to traveling and everything else, we created this powerful and ridiculous series of events that were amazing.

Nobody saw it coming. It didn't take much work... well other than me designing the tools. But that's for another blog post.

Point is. This was awesome!

Demon City: Read Thru, Part One

 

Welcome back! This week, we're beginning of my impressions of Demon City.

Every once in a while I run into an RPG that's so coherent that it can only be called foundational. If you read the game, you will walk away with your tastes fundamentally altered. These are the kinds of games that need to be read and played, because they will actually change you, and that's the kind of game you want to play. Stuff like ADnD 1e, Burning Wheel, and Ironsworn, even if you wind up not liking them change the way you do things, and I am of the opinion that such things should be in your library of games.

Demon City is one such entry.

Also: if your favorite RPG (or something monumental like, say ACKSII) isn't on that list, understand I am trying to talk about things that fundamentally change how you interact with the hobby, once read and understood.

Also also: I'm not claiming to make a definitive list. If you need absolute certainty, go to Hell. You'll find plenty of certainty there.

So, why is Demon City so important?

1. The only actually gameable usage of Tarot, at least so far.

2. It utterly understands what it's trying to model.

3. Its mechanics are objectively correct.

Tarot Is Hard to Design Around

My brother-in-law, Kyle, the smartest most erudite person I know, tried to design a tarot RPG for years. He gave up on it. couldn't wrap his head around it. This is the dude who taught me almost everything I know, and whose methods of learning enabled me to go on and do my own things. And he couldn't figure it out.

I've looked at a few games that claim to use tarot cards, like His Majesty the Wyrm. I have not been impressed, at all. They're usuually used as limited number generator, as opposed to fully exploring using cards and images for randomness. There's nothing in these games that I couldn't do with a regular deck of cards.

And Demon City absolutely nails it. You have multiple decks, with cards traveling between them. The layered imagery of tarot is used to full effect, not to mention that Zak doesn't shy away from going full on esoteric when necessay. It's a fine line to walk, but I didn't miss a beat with what Zak was saying.

Well, except the Rider deck is demonic. Fucking burn that thing please.

Demon City Utterly Understands Horror

The thing people do not understand is that cities, as we have constructed them, are abominations. The instant nature stops being a sparring partner and becomes our play-toy, something has gone horribly wrong. And cities are this play-toy dynamic fully expressed. Modern cities are actually horrifying. And Demon City takes every effort to show that it understands this fact.

And it does it by quoting Isaiah 24:12... which becomes all the more poignant once you just look at the full chapter:

Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.

5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

7 The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.

8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.

9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

15 Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.

18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.

20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.

23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

It is important to understand that the description of this city assumes that the people within it are rotten to the core, and have been abandoned so that the harsh and cruel world may take its pound of flesh.

Like it or not, this is modern horror in a nutshell: humanity fucked around, and now it's finding out. Horror is not about personal transgression punished, but the societal consequences of the rape of the natural world turned on its people.

Demon City understands this. Sharply.

The Mechanics Are Objectively Correct 

Look, folks, I don't say this lightly, but there's literally nothing incorrect about these mechanics. I don't mean they're good. I don't mean they're bad. I don't even mean enjoyable. I mean, when I'm reading these, Zak presents solutions to problems that are so good that I immediately know how to fix other games.

On almost. Every. Single. Freaking. Page.

From the incredible initiative system to the downtime actions leading to advancement... all of this is simply correct. There's more than a few games I can think of that would benefit from having these systems be dropped in, with almost no modifications. It's a shame these ideas haven't spread that much. May have to fix that, with my.... miniscule reach. But it's not nothing.

In Conclusion, 

Demon City is not just another horror RPG — it is a foundational work that earns its place alongside the greats. It delivers the rarest achievement in game design: a system that feels inevitable once you’ve seen it. The Tarot implementation is the first one that actually matters. The horror vision is unflinching and thematically profound, rooting modern urban dread in something ancient and true rather than cheap jump scares. And the mechanics are so clean and purposeful that they expose weaknesses in other games while offering elegant fixes you’ll want to steal. 

You may not run Demon City forever. You may not even love every session. But after reading and playing it, you will design, referee, and think about roleplaying games differently. That is the mark of the truly important titles — the ones that don’t just entertain, but reshape the hobby inside you.

We'll go onto the GMing section next week! It is here I leave you. If I do not see you next week, I do not blame you. It is no easy road.