DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE
A downloadable game
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The TOWER is a POST_human MEGASTRUCTURE. It was constructed by the ARCHITECTS a billion years ago, and will last for a billion more. It stretches the entire length of a roaring galactic arm.
The TOWER is under siege by the ravenous FRACTALDEATHMACHINE, a malignant physi-digital force that is violently converting all remnants of POST_humanity into perfect and final MACHINE!!GODS.
DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE is hypersaturated, bright, and harsh. Yawning impossible spaces. Extreme dangerous verticality. Scale measured in light years. It is a digital-physical world. There is very little boundary between machine and flesh. It is a loud and whirling world. A violent but vibrant maelstrom of constant movement and strange evolution. Each new place is more bizarre than the last.
If you let it, the TOWER will GRIND YOU UP.
DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE is a post-human, science fiction role-playing game inspired by Tsutomu Nihei's BLAME! and built on the Together We Go system.
Play as different POST_human FORMATS as you delve the dangerous LAYERS of the TOWER megastructure and explore the factions of the CTY_enclave, the massive habitat on a crash course through the TOWER as it flees the ever-encroachingFRACTALDEATHMACHINE.
DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE features;
- 4 character backgrounds and 4 character classes tuned to the weird post-human scale of the TOWER.
- 4 example LAYERS to grind up characters
- 6 strange FACTIONS
- Rules for generating the ever-shifting CTY_enclave
- Dangerous HOSTILES, random encounters, gear, items, and more
SUBLIME DELETION IS IMMINENT.
This work is based on Down We Go (downwego.games), and licensed for our use under CC BY 4.0 International.
This product is not associated with Plus One Exp or Apes of Wrath.
DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE uses graphics from the Lone Archivist Graphic Packs 01 & 02 which can be found at lonearchivist.itch.io.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $8 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Minor UpdatesJun 24, 2022
- Print Preorders From Plus One Exp!May 01, 2022
Comments
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Heyo. Love Blame! and was looking for something like this. 2 Questions:
1) in a Decay area why would anyone spend a moment to commune with the FDM and get damaged for 2 Hits?!
2) any suggestions for what to do with FDM infection? Am I missing something or should I just make a rule up (“hey, you need to find a squeegar to clear it or you can’t use your Type ability!”)
Obvs I'm not the author but I do have thoughts on these.
1) Sometimes games tell more compelling stories when characters make bad decisions. Bet you can imagine plenty of reasons why someone might trade pain and health risk for information they can't get anywhere else! Arguably many college students do a kind of this in real life...
2) The way I see it at least, the FDM should be handled as Big Serious Danger even compared to regular hazards of the Tower. This is certainly a making-up-rules type of game framework, but there being a well-established, reliable way to clear it would diminish the threat and fear factor more than I'd like. Your table could well be different though!
Taking a level in FRGMNT is definitely applicable since that is explicitly about getting partially infected but surviving, if you want to take it in a "you live but are made monstrous" way. Otherwise, I genuinely might make severe contamination a countdown-to-character-death thing and see what players do with the "how will you spend what you know to be your final hours?" scenario.
IMO games like this work best when you read between the lines of the rules and get deeply into what your characters would be thinking and feeling. How does life in this bizarre world effect them? How does the Tower GRIND YOU UP psychologically even in moments of relative safety?
Pretty much hit the nail on the head! There are no explicit mechanics for what you get from communing with the FDM or getting infected by it.
The two could be linked (get infected, now try and commune with it to find a cure or something). I like to think of the FDM as rather, cosmic horror eldritch. What exactly is it? Why is it consuming everything in its path? Communing with it could lead you toward those answers (or something else entirely depending on how the setting is unfolding in your game).
And for the infection, I like the idea of taking a level in FRGMT. You could also create a new ability the infection grants you, but one that comes at a great cost (impending death, total takeover by the will of the FDM, spread the infection unwittingly, etc).
i'm kind of, using this game as a framework? for a narrative series on my new little blog site. find it here. i'm intent on exploring and fleshing out the game's evocative setting, and indulging the themes of biomechanical horror and bodies-as-machines. with a decent helping of lesbian intimacy, also, because that just gels in my mind.
i picked up DG!!MS in the recent dungeon crawler bundle, and was immediately fascinated by its delicious blend of flavor(text)s. plus the simple game mechanics help make it reasonable to adapt to a solo mode of play.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is so incredibly cool! Absolutely fantastic read, killer vibes, and I can't wait to see future installments!
I'm glad you like it! No pressure ofc but if you want to be kept up to date on future installments, I'll be announcing them here on bsky (though I post various other nonsense so make your own call on whether to follow), or the site itself has an Atom RSS feed (linked from the about page) if you use such technology.
Heyo, the blog site doesn’t seem to be working. Is this project still ongoing?
Sorry about that. Regrettably I don't have the resources to maintain a self-hosted webpage, like this was on, at the moment. I do still have the text and HTML so when I get to the point of paying for hosting I can put it up again, I just kind of have a fair bit of life stuff happening since those days.
My apologies.
How many Hits do you start with? I can't find anything but the image below, which I don't understand AT ALL.
Does it mean (for example) if I have a point in PRPHT I have 2 Hits but if I have a point in FRGMNT I have 5 Hits? If I have points in multiple things, do I just use the highest one? What about if (for example) I start with DLVR 2 but get FRGMNT 1 later? Do I jump to 5 Hits in addition to the 1 Hit every 3 LVLs? Or am I completely misunderstanding what's supposed to be communicated here?
I typically go with whatever is highest (unless you want things to be more difficult/fragile, and then go with the lowest value you have a level in).
But yes, you'd be correct! Taking a level in a different class can be a nice bump to hits if you want it (though again, this is also a lever you can adjust in your own games to vary difficulty, which I should have explained more fully in the text, just slipped through the cracks). Probably something I'd address more fully if there's ever a revised edition or something.
Awesome! Thank you for the quick response!
i actually ran this on my stream last night, Youtube version of the game will be up tomorrow and my own review in a few days! loved it!
Oh awesome! Feel free to link the video here for others to see, if you want!
If you've ever read Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clark, you'll know megastructures as a genre trope are rad as hell. DEATH GRIND!! MEGASTRUCTURE is like that story cranked up to 13, with sleek transhumanism and darkwave aesthetics. Same feels as Rowan Rook & Decard's Orc Borg, but a little less slapstick, and a little more cyberpunk dystopia. This game is absolutely worth your time and attention.
Any chance of a print-friendly version of the character sheet?
I'll get one up shortly!
Thanks.