Whisper Volumes 1-3
Whisper Volumes 1-3 are magazine-style supplements for the Edwardian Horror storytelling game Our Brilliant Ruin, written by Justin Achilli and Rachel J. Wilkinson and published by Studio Hermitage.
By Aaron T. Huss
Learn more about Our Brilliant Ruin here
Purchase Whisper Volumes 1-3 here (paid link)
Find other Our Brilliant Ruin posts here
Whisper is a mini-supplement for Our Brilliant Ruin, presented in the style of an excerpt from an in-game magazine that presents snippets of information for all three castes. According to its DriveThruRPG description, they were developed to fulfill stretch goals from the Kickstarter campaign. It does present in-game lore which can be useful alongside serial fiction and a bunch of recipes. Not really sure of the value of the recipes from a storytelling standpoint, but I’m sure there’s a reason they were included.
To me the more valuable supplemental material is the short delves into individual people’s lives and individual organizations. This is not a full write-up like what you would get from a companion type of release, but it is enough to make us in-game. The people write-ups are useful if using them as NPCs or characters in a player’s story and the organizations are definitely useful should one of them gain the spotlight during a game. This could easily be converted into story hooks.
Rounding off these mini-supplements are illustrations of what appears to be the look of an aristocrat within the game. I believe the fashion trends are what’s being highlighted, but I think they’d carry more value if each one included a paragraph or two about what’s being depicted.
I fully understand the value being provided by these simple supplements as they don’t get so involved and wrapped up in details that they get tossed aside. After all, for a storytelling game, you want to grab little bits of information to include in your narrative or to set the scene, but you don’t want it to dictate so much that your imagination is grounded in the lore. It’s a nice balance. However, I don’t know if everyone will approach it the same way and end up with the same understanding. This type of confusion could be remedied by including small sidebars with tips for using the content in your games. I would prefer that type of presentation, but it might be easier to just read the supplements from front to back and then weave what you find into your narrative. Regardless, you still get a fair amount of in-game content / setting lore to be used as you please in a nice clean packaging!