The Endtimes Trilogy

Now available at shop.adambell.games!

The Endtimes Trilogy is here! Each standalone game deals with the end of the world in a different way. They're designed for single-session play, but can be played together as a short campaign.

They funded on Backerkit this past February during Zine Month. If you missed the campaign, you can order the trilogy on my webstore now!​

Quy Serra Serra

Quy Serra Serra is the first game. In it, you play characters going about their lives, ignoring the apocalypse that is tearing apart the world around them. It's about burying your head in the sand, closing your eyes to the horrors and just plodding along through your petty life until it's far too late to do anything about anything.

Into A Warm Sun

Into A Warm Sun is the second game. It's a horror game that takes place after the apocalypse, and players find themselves stuck in a bunker with the Warden, an all-powerful character played by the game's GM. You roleplay the story inside the bunker where the Warden has absolute authority both in and out of character, and the tenants are just fighting for some any scrap of freedom. Fans of 10 Cloverfield Lane will love the tension and power dynamics at play in this one.

The Way Out

The Way Out is the third game. You play a coterie of characters that appear in different times and places throughout history, all right before the world ends in some way. It combines BOB-style moves with a tarot based timing mechanic, where each move inches the world closer to its end. Each chapter feels like a compact slice of life that builds toward a tragic end, then you move right along to the next world to do it all over again.

As A Trilogy

I had been sitting on early versions of both Quy Serra Serra and Into A Warm Sun for a few years now, unsure of how best to publish them. It wasn't until I finished reading War & War by László Krasznahorkai and got inspired to design The Way Out that I finally figured out that these games would be best experienced together. Due to the subject matter, the first two games on their own can feel bleak, lacking the backbone of hope that I try to hold close when thinking about the end of our world.

You can see a version of this hope in my first published game No Stone Unturned, but it's not until you take the Endtimes Trilogy as a whole that it can be felt. The stories that come out of Quy Serra Serra tend to mingle bleak allegory with absurd humor. Then you take the characters that survived that tale, shove them into a bunker, swap the humor for horror, and experience the inevitable nightmare that comes when we treat disaster preparedness as an individualistic pursuit.

Then comes The Way Out, which gives the characters a second chance. Then a third, fourth, and fifth chance. Truth be told, they're rotten chances because the world will end in every case, but it's still a chance to briefly explore how those reprehensible characters from Quy Serra Serra change under different circumstances. I haven't quite figured out exactly why it all works together as a trilogy, or what vision of hope lurks beneath its surface, but I hope you'll give the games a try and let me know how it works for you!