The forest’s thickness is lessening, with room for paths of turned earth, rectangular pits, a whiteness as of mushrooms peeping from the ground. With horror we see from the thirteenth tarot that the underbrush is fertilized with half-withered corpses and fleshless bones.
“Why, where have you brought me, Fool? This is a cemetery!”
And the Fool says, pointing to the invertebrate fauna feeding in the graves:
“Here a monarchy reigns, mightier than you...
His Majesty the Worm is a new-school game with old-school sensibilities: the classic megadungeon experience given fresh life through a focus on the mundanities and small moments of daily life inside the dungeon.
The game has robust procedures. Characters adventure in the Underworld, rest in role-playing driven camping scenes, and plot long-term schemes in the City at the center of the Wide World.
Often-ignored subsystems, like food, hunger, light, and inventory management, are central to play and actually fun. The relationships between companions, called Bonds, powers the rest and recovery mechanic of the game. Role-playing drives the game forward.
Tarot cards are used as a randomizing element. Combat encounters are handled with an action-packed subsystem that ensures that all players have interesting choices every minute of combat: no downtime!
(Just add a single tarot deck!)
Fully customizable “classes”
Souls-esque combat system
A grimoire of spells and components
Alchemy subsystem to turn monsters into powers
Foldable character booklet & party character sheet
Reference sheets and robust examples
Create metropolitan and megadungeon complexes through tarot spreads
Make your own megadungeon guide
Creature creation rules & bestiary
Example dungeon: The Tomb of the Golden Ghosts
Conversion guide for OSR games
“Very cool and creative stuff here” - John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats
The Castle Automatic is a 100+ room, 5-level Metroidvania-style dungeon designed for use with His Majesty the Worm. In the module, players will repair magi-mechanical engines that control the castle's sun, moon, weather, and seasons to overcome its deadly challenges.
Use it as an entire campaign! If you're new to His Majesty the Worm, you can get started with just this dungeon, the core book, and a single tarot deck! Or, slot it into your personal Underworld, expanding the core game with all new talents, monsters, dungeon lords, and magical treasures.
Importantly, The Castle Automatic is easy to run. Puzzles, traps, and combat sites are illustrated and included as handouts to be shown during play. The GM has a dungeon tracking sheet to monitor the castle's current state: mechanisms broken and repaired, time of day and year, and current factions in play. With maps for the GM, for the players, and included on every dungeon spread, it's easy to understand the sprawling space.
