Print edition available from Space Penguin Ink!

Behold!

an episodic game of solo role-play, set in a weird west pocket of reality. Three 6-sided dice are your ticket to Tarnation, a vast, uncanny wilderness ruled by a strange and intractable Law. Roll to scope a situation, marshal your resources into a dice pool, then beat the bar to see how your plan shakes out. Scribble away in your journal about the bizarre creatures and unexpected phenomena you encounter. Use symbolic clocks and loose ends to craft compelling narrative through-lines.

What can you expect in Tarnation?

• A digital zine containing all of the core rules of the game, with illustrations assembled from period engravings.
• Built on SPAR, a flexible design pattern for generating and solving narrative situations using three 6-sided dice.
• Rules for creating compelling narrative through-lines using symbolic clocks and loose ends.
• Aflicker in the Borderlands, an introductory adventure designed to establish your protagonist and let you test out the rules.
• An extensive example of play, walking you through three rounds of play, along with advice for getting the most out of your game.
• Printable bookmarks to serve as a stat card for your character.
• A hex map to fill in with locations as you play through additional adventures.

Looking for adventures?

Tangle with Witch Marshals and snow lizards beneath the ceaseless aurora of Tarnation's outer reaches in A Hexbrand in the High Country.

Or explore Tarnation's first city while you track down two shooters before their bullets hit home in Showdown in Shutdoor.

Curious about SPAR?

If you'd like to try out SPAR before committing to Tarnation, check out the pay-what-you-want demonstration game, Brave Spartan.

Want to make your own adventure?

Go for it! Tarnation is licensed under CC-BY-SA precisely to encourage fans to make their own additions to the Hermetic Territories. Yes, you can charge for your work. For advice on how to design for the game, scroll down to the demo link below.