Rise Up Comus: His Majesty the Worm Bursts Forth from the Underworld!

For the last nine years, I've been writing and playtesting a game called His Majesty the Worm. It is now available in both physical and digital forms. I would love for you to check it out.

Click here to get the game!

What is His Majesty the Worm about?

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.

Food, hunger, light, and inventory management are central to play and actually fun.
Tarot cards are used to create an action-packed combat system that ensures that all players have interesting choices every minute of combat: no downtime!
The game has robust procedures. Adventure in the Underworld, rest in roleplaying-driven camping scenes, and plot long-term schemes in the City at the center of the Wide World.
The relationships between companions, called Bonds, powers the rest and recovery mechanic of the game.

The game is intended for a traditional setup between a single GM and 3-6 players. It emphasizes long-term, Metroidvania-like play. The book is 404 pages long, split up over 10 chapters and 5 appendices. The print edition is silver foil stamped and has a ribbon bookmark. The digital edition is thoroughly cross-linked, with a robust index. It is a complete game with everything you need in one tome (just add a tarot deck).

Interested in a preview?

His Majesty the Worm was Itchfunded! That means that people generously contributed to the development of the game, donating to view early drafts of the chapters. As thanks, these sample chapters are now free.

Appendix A: Sorcery - This chapter provides a magic system with versatile, level-less spells designed specifically for the dungeon crawling milieu.
Appendix B: Alchemy - This chapter details the alchemical subsystem that lets adventurers steal the powers of monsters.
Appendix D: City Creation - This chapter details the procedural generation of the ur-city at the center of the game's anticanon.
Appendix E: Underworld Creation - This chapter provides procedures and examples that simplify the daunting task of creating a mythic megadungeon. It also includes a tutorial dungeon, The Tomb of Golden Ghosts, with designer commentary!