Doomsong TTRPG Review - A Song Worth Singing

When the immortal and one true god was murdered, the world seemed to whither and sour. But that was long, long ago, and the immortal god’s children, now locked away in the underworld, are but malevolent powers who leech their influencer into the kingdom of Lethe. But who are you? Well, you’re just a member of a guild, trying to survive the grim and ghastly world of Doomsong.

What Is Doomsong?

Doomsong is a brand new Tabletop RPG created by Jack Caesar and Chris Caesar, along with Morgan Finley (author of the Lord Have Mercy Upon Us adventure for the game) and illustrator Moritz Krebs, published by Caesar Ink. In this game set on the verge of a biblical apocalypse, players take on the role of guild members struggling to eke out an existence and survive in the treacherous kingdom of Lethe.

With a core rulebook coming in at nearly 300 pages, as well as additional materials already available for purchase like the adventure Lord Have Mercy Upon Us, printed maps and calendars, and more - Doomsong is hitting the market ready to make a splash.

Doomsong Revels In Simplicity

The core mechanic of Doomsong can, essentially, be boiled down in wonderfully simple terms: your character makes checks by rolling a d6, and the player will consult their character’s traits and abilities to make a case for why their roll should be higher.

With many of the difficulty checks set at 5, you’ll need those traits to add to your roll. Is your character from the slums with the Slumcaste trait? Then you’ll have an easier time navigating the city and get a +1 to your roll. But traits can be hindering, too. For example, if the same character from the slums wants to impress a noble, that Slumcaste trait could end up giving them a -1 to their roll!

Combat follows a similar logic, with the difficulty of the roll to attack set by your opponent’s toughness. As you hack away at your opponents (and they do the same to you), that toughness level will drop (damage is dealt to a character’s toughness, there’s no HP as it were), making it easier and easier to hit them with each successive strike.

But combat also has a great dice-assignment mechanic to it. Each PC has two dice that they assign at the start of their combat round to various actions. The faster they happen, the less powerful, the longer they take to go off in a round, the more valuable or powerful the action. It's a great way to handle what ends up being a really interesting, mixed activation initiative.

The World of Doomsong is Rich and Deep

While you can pick this game up off the shelf (or off of DrivethruRPG), learn the basic mechanics, and set your table off on their (not so) merry way, Doomsong really rewards GM’s who are into the world building, into the lore, and take the time to read through the book.

That’s the experience I had with this game. I sat down and read this book cover to cover, totally engrossed in the world created here. Subway ride after subway ride to and from the day job, I had my nose stuck in this book, learning about the various powers that shape and control the Kingdom of Lethe.

Ruled by a vicious ecclesiastical government who seeks to root out and destroy any who perform heretical magic (as all supernatural power comes not from the dead true god, but his ruinous children), and set in a low-magic world that is, for lack of a better term, falling apart at the seams, Doomsong and its world was right up my alley.

For fans of medieval horror like myself, sometimes playing this game feels like the TTRPG equivalent of the baroque, terrifying, chokingly religious vibe of Between Two Fires, which is… just about exactly what I’m looking for in a game.

The game contains a full bestiary of nasty adversaries, from your common mercenary to talking bears, stomping giants to the Sublime demi-god named Hope (not as good an entity to run into as the name implies).

Death is a Fact of Life in Doomsong

This is not the kind of roleplaying game where you create your character, kit them out with incredible gear, and set out to avenge the murdered one true god. Not by a long shot. Doomsong is a game that revels in its own lethality, and encourages players to think of their characters as one part of a great story, actors who can - at any moment - exit stage left.

In my first game with my table, after a bit of carousing with other members of the Ratcatchers guild, they set off to find out why a church bell won’t stop ringing (I pilfered a few of my favorite adventure hooks from the Lord Have Mercy Upon Us campaign book for my custom campaign), and were soon ambushed by robbers on the road.

A fair fight, weighted slightly in my players’ favor, and still they left the fight bruised, banged around, and with one of my characters missing an eye! That was just the first fight, with little nobodies in the grand scheme of the bestiary. What a rush!

And the one thing I think Doomsong does so right here to soothe some of that sting from a highly lethal game is simple: character creation is quick and really, really fun.

Doomsong Character Creation - Roll With It!

In Doomsong, creating your character is all about rolling on tables and making decisions based on those rolls. First, you roll on the Origins table to see where you’re from, originally.

You could end up rolling and being from the uncharted wilds of the Weald, born in the slums, from a working family on a farm, the middle class, or wealthy elite (or you could be something really strange/special). After determining your birthplace - which does make a lot of difference in the world of Doomsong - you’ll be instructed to turn to another page to resolve another life path roll.

Rolling on that table may offer you options, and this is where you acquire traits, abilities, and sometimes (though its more rare) starting gear: do you gain some new trait from having lived at one time as a performer? Were you a soldier in the army? Only the dice (and your own decisions you make throughout) will tell.

In this way, character creation is fun and fast, and does an incredible job of mixing intense randomness through dice-rolling with giving you choices and options throughout. Hell, you can even die during character creation!

Doomsong TTRPG - Final Thoughts

And that’s why I love Doomsong so much, every step of the way you’re

invited to truly choose your own adventure, from character creation on up to how you interact with the world, it’s the perfect blend of gritty details (do you have enough food to last your journey) and abstraction (your weapon gives you a +1 to your roll… that’s usually it).

With absolutely stunning artwork that truly evokes a feeling of dread, and gameplay that is as entertaining and thought-provoking as it is brutal, Doomsong is an absolute must-try for fans of classic RPG’s, and for players who want to get away from the plot-armor of other big-name fantasy RPGs. 

Give it a try, there’s even a free download of trial rules available on itch.io.

The copy of Doomsong used to create this review was provided by Caesar Ink. All images in this review care of Caesar Ink.

CONS:

May be too lethal for some tables