If you're a fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children Of series, then you'll be excited to know that the Children of Time: Roleplaying Game is coming to crowdfunding this June:
Adrian Tchaikovsky is teaming up with Rowan, Rook and Decard to bring his smash-hit sci-fi Children Of series to your gaming table with Children of Time: The Roleplaying Game.
Follow the project here for updates and to be notified when it goes live on 16 June: https://rowanrookanddecard.com/cot-rpg-press
Children of Time: The Roleplaying Game is a tabletop roleplaying game based on Adrian Tchaikovsky's award-winning science fiction novels where societies embark on epic, era-spanning journeys of growth, endurance, and self-discovery.
In the wake of global annihilation, the desperate remnants of humanity abandon a dying Earth on colossal ark ships in a desperate bid to find a new home among the stars. Their journey will last thousands of years: they follow ancient star charts that promise terraformed paradise worlds, just waiting for humanity to claim.
But paradise is already occupied. Unknown to humanity, the terraforming process deployed millennia ago had unforeseen consequences – an animal species imported from a pre-collapse Earth has gained sentience and seeks to master their home planet.
In Children of Time: The Roleplaying Game, you become the authors of this grand tale. Construct an ark ship of your own and embark on an uncharted exodus towards a planet of your own making, where you uplift and nurture species of your own choosing. Or retell the epic saga of the ark ship Gilgamesh and the evolution of the Portid spiders on Kern’s world. The choice is yours.
Build the legacy of twinned societies across millenia, switching focus from your ailing ark ship to your evolving planet and back again as you face existential crises that forever alter the course of history. All to answer the greatest question imaginable: when your beaten ark ship limps into orbit around your history-rich planet, what will these two civilisations do when they finally meet?
Time and fate are in your hands.
The Children of Time RPG focuses on:
- Fluid movement between large-scale societal shifts and flashpoints of intimate character drama.
- Evocative characters that can be created in a few moments specifically for a brief arc or an entire era.
- Slick action resolution where acting with authority, brute force, or subtlety have their own risks and long-term consequences.
- Adopt different roles in a scene to steer the narrative, such as: the Viewpoint who acts as a main character, the Crowd who acts as an entire group of people, the Ship who speaks for the creaking ancient vessel itself, or even Doom who decides exactly how things go wrong.
The game is an evolution of various systems from previous Rowan, Rook, and Decard titles. The sci-fi worldbuilding and multi-generational storytelling of Legacy: Life Among The Ruins are combined with the beloved fallouts and beats systems from Heart: The City Beneath, which centre player agency and turn failure into a dramatic storytelling moment.
Children of Time: The Roleplaying Game is designed by Minærva McJanda (Legacy: Life Among The Ruins, Rhapsody of Blood, Voidheart Symphony), with additional writing and design from Grant Howitt (Spire: The City Must Fall and Heart: The City Beneath, Eat The Reich, Paranoia and Honey Heist) and Elaine Lithgow (Broken Weave, Warhammer: Imperium Maledictum and Age of Sigmar: Soulbound.)
The game is illustrated by Sam Lamont (Hollows, Dr Who, Monstrous Arcanum, Forbidden Psalm, Prison of Husks, Three of Ghosts), using his unique combination of detailed 3D models and gorgeous digital painting to depict decaying ark ships, vibrant planets, and the staggering expanse that separates them.
