A Road to Ruin
A Road to Ruin is a standalone pamphlet adventure designed for the Carapace RPG. Players embody adventuring warrior insects and, in this adventure, explore Tharaal’s Hollow, a doomed subterranean fortress town facing imminent destruction, and are challenged to pull off a high-stakes infiltration while grappling with strategic and moral consequences.
GAME DESIGNILLUSTRATION
2 min read
a road to ruin
A Road to Ruin is a standalone pamphlet adventure designed for the Carapace RPG. Players embody adventuring warrior insects and, in this adventure, explore Tharaal’s Hollow, a doomed subterranean fortress town facing imminent destruction, and are challenged to pull off a high-stakes infiltration while grappling with strategic and moral consequences.
Game System: Carapace RPG
Role: Game Designer
Team Size: Solo
design within constraints
A core challenge of working within the Carapace system was to honor its unique mechanics while staying true to the core ruleset. During the concept phase, I asked myself: How do I make this adventure feel like it could only happen in the world of Carapace?
I chose to incorporate a dice-based Titan Arrival mechanic, which determines how long players have before a passing Titan squashes the entire area, at the beginning of the adventure. This ticking-clock pressure heightens urgency without railroading the players, allowing for reactive strategy and promoting replayability.
The game map design features multiple infiltration paths to further incentivize player strategy. Establishing these paths also enables players to choose between a methodical, stealthy approach, a strategic combat approach, or a chaotic mad-dash approach to complete the heist. These differing paths, combined with the threat of being flattened, create unique outcomes for each table and each playthrough.
designing for player agency
A Road to Ruin centers on difficult choices: save the townspeople, escape with the treasure, or prioritize your own survival. This pairs with the different infiltration paths to add another layer of player agency, creating one-of-a-kind experiences each time it’s run.
These moments in the adventure design aren’t just decorative; they have systemic rewards. Choosing to save the townsfolk injects diplomacy and alliance-building into the role-playing. As the players must earn the trust of the Hollow’s residents, who have no reason to believe an imminent threat is real, this turns a moral choice into a strategic advantage.
outcomes & reflections
This project taught me how to deconstruct systems built by others and find new ways to approach pre-determined mechanics. My experience as a GM running many adventures for many people has given me the tolerance to design for the unknown. I deliberately created reactive encounters around open-ended situations because, as a designer, I find freedom in constraints.
