Our Brilliant Ruin
Our Brilliant Ruin is a storytelling game set against a dying earth backdrop with an Edwardian/Victorian aesthetic and elements of horror, written by Justin Achilli, Rachel J. Wilkinson, and Pam Punzalan and published by Studio Hermitage.
By Aaron T. Huss
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Our Brilliant Ruin is a multimedia setting, that includes a storytelling TTRPG, with an interesting collection of aesthetics. It’s not set on Earth even though the setting feels like it could be. The look is Edwardian / early Victorian but without the technology advancements that started happening in the late 19th century. The lands are victim to a never-ending blight called the Ruin that advances ever so slowly, corrupting everything it touches. Those affected become corrupted and changed into monstrosities that become the horror focal point of the setting. This is then set against a stark caste system with no governing body but the castes really need each other to survive. They may not act like it, which creates a main source of the game’s drama, but in the end they need to work together to survive. But the game is not about survival; it’s about living in a dying world and how you and your compatriots get by day to day with no shortage of challenges being faced. Survival is not sufficient; you have to grow and overcome to ensure you will live to see another day.
Our Brilliant Ruin is tricky to digest until you’ve digested everything. I say this because the game seem disjointed at first due to not feeling like a storytelling game and not feeling like horror was a key element. At first it seemed like a game about how people live in a caste society and the focus is on social drama. But it’s not, and that’s why you have to get past that part to fully understand the game as a whole. With that in mind, this is not a game for casual players nor is it a game for those seeking action and adventure. This is a game that appeals to players who like intrigue, social drama, humanistic situations, a lack of heroism, and psychological conflicts. I happen to be one of those people, but approach cautiously as you may find a gaming group that wants everything to be monster hunting and colorful magic. This is definitely neither of those things.
After awhile, it all starts to click. Mechanically the game focuses on two major aspects – your character and his or her very humanistic skills and the estate/lands/home you are protecting from the Ruin and the monsters corrupted by it. Conflict is created naturally by the caste system and the factions that exist within it along with the monsters who you might call your neighbor.
The book… is quite large, almost 300 pages of content. But it’s really three books in one – a player’s guide that presents the rules, setting, and character creation. A GM’s guide that provides a ton of game hooks and options plus NPCs, adversaries, locales, and a starting adventure. And finally a Companion that delves deeper into what it means to be a character, such as the different factions, and an expansion on the setting. You may think that’s a huge investment for even players but fear not, the PDF is free! Wow. Seriously just wow. That is a lot of confidence in a setting and honestly I think it will play out very well. It’s an amazing unique setting with tons of beautiful artwork to support it. I also love how it lacks overpowering technology and magic. But then, that’s the type of games I like to play.
Our Brilliant Ruin is one of those games where I cannot wait to see what else they release. Games like that are rare for me; there’s just nothing out there like it that I’ve seen… not that I’ve seen everything. For me it’s refreshing to see something just completely different, even though I can see what games and settings influence it. Nowadays there is an abundance of “I can do that too” that I love seeing a new approach, a completely different aesthetic, or a purpose that hasn’t been explored before or at least not in this fashion. Edwardian, horror, dying earth, storytelling, and no magic or high tech to be found! All perfectly blended with a set of character attributes that focuses on human qualities (i.e., not fantastical).
Should probably mention that Our Brilliant Ruin uses a dice pool system combining an innate ability with a skill to create different responses to overcoming conflicts. The skills list is kept to a minimum by allowing different abilities to be combined with the skill, creating different ways of approaching the conflict without needing a plethora of skills. This is one of my favorite style of mechanics because it allows characters to feel different from one another without the need of adding mechanics. You simply combine those attributes in different ways to create a unique approach to overcoming a conflict. This is also a great way of focusing on the storytelling aspect as flexibility feels more realistic than rigid skill usage. I am also not a fan of how rigid skill usage creates the need for additional mechanics to use those skills in different ways. Our Brilliant Ruin keeps it pretty slim on attribute mechanics to provide time to focus on storytelling mechanics.
It’s a big book, there’s a lot of empty space, but they sure didn’t skimp on quality content to keep you interested!
