In The Time Of Monsters
A downloadable game
It was the final age — the old world was dying, and the new world was struggling to be born. Every day Ragnarok drew closer, the end of the world heralded by churning seas and raging skies. The gods grew rotten and weak, their greedy eyes sunken into rotting skulls. The great heroes were reduced to grist in the mill of war. It was the final age before all things ended, and as the world-tree rotted, everyone knew … Now is the time of monsters.
The protagonists of our story (if you could even call them that) are the greatest warriors this world has ever seen. Assassins from the underworld, god-thieves and immortal knights, elfin berserkers and the troll king beneath the mountain. In a time when violence is constant and at such a massive scale, the only way to survive is to cheat death herself
In The Time Of Monsters is a tactical combat TTRPG about bloodsoaked heroes vying for power at the end of the world. It's inspired by Norse Mythology, Lancer, and Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. If you're looking to tell dramatic fables about tragic warriors on a grid while rolling dice and getting big numbers, this is the game for you.
Cover art by Nicolas Gendron.
This version of In The Time Of Monsters is an exploratory draft. This means that it has no layout, and is designed to gauge people's interest levels and provide proof of concept. Any further developments or PDF releases of this game will be available to those who buy now.
In The Time Of Monsters is 60+ pages and more than 15,000 words. It features 8 classes and two dozen statblocks for everything from a common warrior to the serpent itself. The classes available are:
- The God's Usurper, who stole Thor's hammer and fled.
- The Troll Beneath The Mountain, who holds up the world.
- The Ice Witch, child of Loki herself.
- The Traitor Valkyrie, who left her gods in anguish.
- The Apocalypse Seer, who can see the fate of the world to come.
- The Helkin Assassin, agent of death's will.
- The Elfin Outcast, banished from Alfheim and cursed to never die.
- The Knight Of Nimue, a faraway warrior who serves a destiny greater than their own.
FASCISTS ARE NOT WELCOME HERE
This is a critical and nuanced reflection on Norse Mythology by a trans disabled writer. This game is anti-fascism and explicitly rejects Nazism in everything it does. Nazis are not welcome here.
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Comments
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hey, is this still in development? I just read through the rules and would LOVE to see a full physical release someday!
Hi, I'm Finnish and I have question about the game. I would play the game in Finnish and our language has only gender-neutral pronouns and completely lacks grammatical gender so can I skip the whole pronouns choosing part without effect on the rest of the game? In Finnish everyone stating same pronouns would just be redundant, but I wouldn't want to force anyone to state gender related information, if they don't want to even if it would be in context of game character.
Umm, yeah, that's fine! It's a convention for English speakers but localize it however you need to.
Thank you, I take game rules maybe perhaps too zealously and worry about modifying them.
Don't worry, but don't forget that game rules exist to be modified. Even in this game, you're going to have to make a decision about how diagonals work! I hope you and your Finnish friends enjoy.
This is one the more interesting games in development, I hope to see the final version.
Neat ideas in here. Love the unique ways that everything has to avoid death. Feels like it turns managing your survival into an active thing rather than just boiling it down to statistics.
The Game of Reading In The Time of Monsters:
Read a part of the framing story. Say "awwww!" a lot.
Read a stat block. Say "What? WHAT?!?" a lot.
Repeat.
Hey, scandinavian here, firstly big fan of your work generally also thank u for making it clear that nazi's aint welcome. They worm their way into everything old norse and its the fcking worst.
edit; Im curious, is it out of streamlining-reasons you have merged Frigg, odins wife, and Freya?
Hi, that's a great question. Yes I have! Some scholars have argued that's a viable merger (or that Freya & Od are a historical version of Frigga & Odin that got substituted into the pantheon twice / translated oddly) and like ... I had to make certain calls about my interpretation of Norse Myth and occasionally that meant collapsing gods together or slightly shifting interpretations of gods. It ... should all be supported by the O.G texts, or you could perhaps imagine how two 15 year olds playing pretend on the beach would have conflated them this way? I hope that helps!
Oh yearh it absolutely makes sense! I always find it to be a bit of a shame when Frigg is left out cause she's the other side to Odin, just as knowledgable but also knows the value of uh,,, restraint. Which aint all that good necessarily for games, absolutely, but i find her rlly interesting. And it also let ppl see that Odin is a huuuuge creep abt women, specifically to Freya. But anyway, thank u for the reply it was super interesting to read!
Hell yea! I tried to keep that element of Frigg to Freya, but also it wouldn't be hard to develop an independent version of Frigg as a statblock for your own play.
Oooh good idea, even if i have no idea how to do game design at all. Ill figure it out.. for the milf Frigg we all deserve.
I love this. I love the over the top power the rules of this game give you. I wish this had been the way 4e Dnd worked. Lots of great combat rules in here. And Norse mythology is awesome.
Jay's the sort of designer that will release a new standard for tactical TRPGs as a casual proof of concept. There's a lot of truly fascinating stuff in here; high math mechanics made accessible, abilities that get your heart pumping as you read them, an eerie and magical reinterpretation of Norse mythology, a lesbian frame narrative (!??). I'm excited to see how this project evolves, and how other projects might become inspired by it.
LFG, also ; )
Jay's the kind of designer where I don't feel the need to preview what's written or anything. I just see Possum Creek Games and buy it.