RPG Review: Downfall

Our home is breaking, and we have no one to blame but ourselves. We built a flawed society, and soon it will destroy itself. Though most of us can’t perceive the coming doom, a Hero arises to fight against the impending collapse.

Downfall is the story of how we try to save our society and ourselves, and fail.

In Downfall, a group of exactly three players will build up a society built on weakness and then watch it collapse.

The game centers around a weakness in the society’s system, decided on by the three players, called the Flaw. Will your society fall due to arrogance? Vanity, distrust? Perhaps it’s something we see as a virtue, like Selflessness or Utopianism? Players will write this down and move forward.

The players will then build the Haven, the location that will be destroyed. Each person will contribute an Element to the Haven, something vague but descriptive, such as Gravity, Mountain, or Swarm. Once these have been chosen, the players will define the setting, figuring out how these elements define the Haven.

Players design the Traditions of their Haven. Starting with a category like Relationships, Death, or Justice, then will define what these Traditions are.

Then each person will define the Symbol that represents that Tradition. Perhaps the Symbol of a relationship of death is a raven feather. After each player does this, each creates a brand new Tradition with Symbols. Following this, the players will name the Haven.

The players will then create the three Characters together. The three characters are the Hero, the Fallen, and the Pillar. The Hero will try to save the civilization but will fail. The Fallen helps spread the Flaw. The Pillar is content to live in the society as it is. Each person will play one of these characters.

The Pillar’s player will describe the Tradition being corrupted by the Flaw. The Hero frames a scene around this, the Fallen will frame a scene around this, the Hero will reflect on what’s happening, then the players will rotate who they play as, handing the character sheet to the player next to you. After repeating these steps, the players will then create a scene marking the collapse of the society.

The book contains a wide variety of pregenerated settings ready to play, as well as facilitation advice. The book contains pretty paintings of collapsed settings with the original buildings painted over the ruined structures.

I really like this game. You can watch an entire society collapse with your friends in an evening. If you’re a fan of Fiasco or other indie games like it, you will love Downfall.

You can buy Downfall here. I own the physical copy, and it’s nice. Downfall was released in 2015, and is a different game than Downfall, released in 2017, which also charts the collapse of a civilization that is available on DriveThruRPG and employs a very… similar font for its cover. Not linking to that here.