An awful world awaits...
Oligarchy is a game of political horror, Rooted in Trophy. You play as rotten bastards: corrupt politicians, decadent aristocrats, and other greedy elites. You are each determined to maximize your own wealth and comfort while your actions tear society apart around you. Eventually, society will tolerate your abuses no more. But the iron confidence that is your privileged birthright makes you certain you will avoid that doom. You'll do anything to make sure you get yours (and get away with it).
Oligarchy includes three incursions, storylines to follow as your rotten bastards careen toward a doom they think they'll avoid:
- Sleep Furiously (Theme: Greed) The more you accumulate the better you feel. You are a dragon among your hoard. Extracting and exploiting free lands and free hands, doing what the Market demands. You love, no, you LIVE for that. Where there's demands you will find the supply. Anything is a commodity if you're flexible enough.
- Eye of a Needle (Theme: Collapse) They keep saying it's the End Times. That the Final Judgement hangs over all men's heads like Damocles' sword. Well, no Seven-Headed Dragon will keep you from fleecing the rubes as long as they let you. So what if the signs are becoming visible? They were always there if you had the eyes to see them.
- Hindsight (Theme: Promises) Elections are a hopeful time, and the fine wool of hope makes a fine blind over ones eyes. This campaign makes many promises as the dust chokes half the nation and the floodwaters rise. Each one is a mask over your scheming and disdain.
You conduct your sordid business and pork-barrel legislation using the excellent framework provided by Trophy Dark, a tabletop roleplaying game system by Jesse Ross. The basics are simple: when you take a greedy action, state what you hope will happen and build a pool of light and dark dice based on fictional circumstances and what you're willing to risk. Roll and take the highest result to find out your fate. Did you get away with your exploit? Did you make things worse? Did the consequences of your actions bring you to Ruin? Play to find out.
Everything you need to understand the core rules of the Trophy system is freely available in a System Reference Document. Visit TrophyRPG.com to read them for yourself.
- Written by Aaron Burkett
- Edited by Lexi Antoku
- Layout by Dee Pennyway
- Art Direction by Eli Kurtz
