Dark Ages

Something terrible is coming.

The Empire of Eagles left us. The eldest among us still remember the shape of imperial rule. Their children, only the garrisons’ backs as they marched away. We knew not where they were headed, and no news ever came. Empty forts fell into decay. Kin serving in distant legions did not return. Imperial faces faded from silver coins. Bridges crumbled, and no engineers arrived to make them whole. Did the Empire burn? Withdraw? Simply crumble? Whatever the cause, we were abandoned to our fate.

In its absence, a rupture. Long years of chaos and upheaval, but amongst the ruins, possibility. 

Now we stand at the precipice of the ungiven future. A resurgence of old ways vies against the advent of new crowns. War hangs in the air like a bloody knife. Dragons stir in the earth, and dream of the world’s breaking. In distant lands, converts kneel to a bloodless corpse-god. This age is a broken thing, ours to make anew—time now for the plunge.

Dark Ages is a post-apocalyptic, historical fantasy game of personal ambition, community strife, rights claimed and rights denied.

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This is a playtest document. It is the third draft of Dark Ages, formerly Apocalypse World: Dark Ages, which Meg and Vincent Baker developed and abandoned back in 2014. 

After a fruitful and compelling experiment in archaeological playtesting, we (Andrew Gillis and Luke Jordan) have adopted it with the Bakers’ blessing. It is our intention to bring the game to publication, incorporating recent developments in the PBTA design scene while honouring the unique, original DNA of the game that captivated us in the first place.