BEFORE THE WORMS

This is a game for mature players who wish to engage with intense topics. 

A full list of content warnings for the game is included below, though other subjects may come up in the course of play. Safety tools are essential, as is a culture of trust and mutual support at the table.

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"Before the Worms pulls out the core of horror conspiracy roleplaying. It is the rawest, simplest, most clear-eyed portrayal I've seen of the fear and drama that we try to achieve when playing games like Delta Green, Night's Black Agents, Hunter, or any other game where mortals stand against monsters. It speaks to familiar suffering and gives the best answer a game can give. I want to tell everyone about this game."

             - Lyme         

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Before the Worms is a game about a group of regular people who have seen a horror they could not turn away from. It's a game about the choices and sacrifices they will make to fight against that vicious, relentless evil.

The Worms are semi-physical parasites that feed on human suffering. They don't possess us or control us, they simply encourage us, offering power to the worst of humanity. Those who give themselves over entirely are called the Hollowed. They are everywhere. Holding the levers of power. Infiltrating systems and institutions, turning them towards misery. Most people don't see them for what they are. Most of the time, they seem perfectly normal. Until they don't. 

Until you've seen the Worms. 

The game is designed to be played in short "seasons" of 5-10 sessions, focusing on a single infestation of Worms and the terrible choices the PCs make as they attempt to burn it out. The bleak setting of the game provides a stark backdrop meant to snap characters into stark focus. It is an engine meant to drive PCs to make difficult, painful decisions. Though you may achieve a victory over the Worms, it will cost you dearly. The story of those choices and that cost: of what you cling to, what you lose, and how it changes you, is the substance and spine of the game. 

Before the Worms is a 72-page book that provides: 

• A complete, concise horror system for both group and solo play that focuses on character, cost, and connection. The system is diceless, using a standard deck of playing cards. 

• Card-draw inspiration tables for character creation and relationships, as well as prompts for creating infestations and framing downtime vignettes. 

• A procedure for uncovering and resisting the infestations of the Worms and their networks of power and exploitation.

• Guidance for creating your own infestations.

• A ready-to-use example infestation. 

• An extended example of play. 

• Over a dozen pieces of full-color art. 

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Before the Worms is also an "anti-Cosmic Horror" game. Unlike Cosmic Horror, which focuses on the insignificance of humanity before the vastness of uncaring alien gods, Before the Worms is squarely focused on the human. The Worms are intimately entangled with us. Their horrors are our own, heightened and reflected back at us through a twisted mirror.  Although the game's setting is very bleak, it is ultimately about hope, not despair. It insists that our lives and choices do have meaning, even in the face of an implacable horror that cannot be fully defeated. 

Because although you cannot hope to destroy all the Worms, you can fight them here. You can resist them now. You can save these people.

But there are no victories without cost. 

And all too often, that price is paid in blood. 

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Content Warnings:

Before the Worms is recommended for mature players who wish to explore emotionally intense subject matter. The game engages sincerely with themes of:

• Emotional and psychological trauma
• Psychological manipulation
• Systemic violence, institutional abuse, and exploitation
• Complicity, ethical compromise, and moral corruption
• Personal and relational sacrifice, loss, and tragedy
• Self-destruction, self-betrayal, and loss of agency
• Body horror (specifically, worms and parasitism used as metaphor)
• Physical violence and cruelty
• Metaphors that resemble cult behavior and indoctrination
• Metaphoric reflections and implications (though no direct depictions) of patterns of abuse, grooming, intimate partner violence, and gaslighting

Though the text contains disturbing imagery and grapples with intense subject matter, it does not directly depict graphic violence. 

Although sexual abuse is indirectly implied, it is never specifically discussed nor directly depicted in the text or imagery. 

Though this game focuses its horror on human violence and cruelty, pains have been taken to ensure that these depictions are not gratuitous. The game treats this subject matter seriously, and centers player support through the use of explicit safety tools and "breaths" built in to the system. 

Remember: this is not a game about despair. Though it centers trauma and cruelty, it is not about evil. It is about we choose to do in the face of it. 

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Credits:

This text is original prose written and laid out by myself. The system is an original design (though drawing from the lineage of games like Cthulhu Dark and Ten Candles). I composed the artwork by collaging images I sourced. Some are from the “Faces 001” art pack by Jean Verne, used under the CC BY 4.0 license. The rest are public domain images, and royalty-free photos sourced from Unsplash. All known photographers are credited in the text. 

During the development of earlier versions of the game, I used Chat GPT to provide feedback and bounce ideas off of. At no point did I use it to generate any text or images. As of the current version (2.6) the text has been rewritten, partially with the intent of removing any such influence from the work, as I have decided to stop using LLMs and AI models indefinitely. 

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Sharing and Support:

This game is offered freely, as a gift to the community. The suggested donation amount reflects the time and care that went into the work. But if you can't afford to donate, or don't wish to, please take it, free, gratis, and without obligation. 

I would truly love to hear from anyone who finds this game meaningful, useful, or intriguing. It would make my day to hear your play reports. And if you have any questions, concerns, or critiques to share, I would love to hear them as well. The game is still in development, and any feedback is helpful.