THE END, ARRIVING SLOWLY
Seven Headlines Before the End of Everything.
Using This System Optional
Decay is a campaign dial, not a mandatory clock. Some groups will track it strictly; others will run the whole game without triggering it once. Both are correct. If you want a campaign with a structural endpoint and escalating consequences, use it. If you want a more open-ended city sandbox, leave it on the table and advance it only when something truly historic happens — or never.
"The sun is dying. This has always been true. The difference now is that the city has started charging for the light."
At the start of each session, roll d6. On a 1, advance the Decay counter. The GM may also advance it when the players make things significantly, historically worse.
| Stage | Headline | Mechanical Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SECURITALIA CORP GRANTED EMERGENCY JURISDICTION CITYWIDE. "For public safety. Temporarily. Until further notice." | Patrols double. Bribery costs +50%. All unlicensed activity is now technically a capital offense. Enforcement is selective and everyone knows the criteria. |
| 2 | ANDROID MANDATORY REGISTRATION PASSES INTO LAW. "Unregistered units are property without owner. Finders keepers." | Rogue androids: PRE DR 14 to avoid identification in public. Registered androids are legally property. Legal personhood for androids: suspended pending review. The review has no scheduled date. |
| 3 | PHARMA-VATICAN NATIONALIZES ALL MEDICAL SUPPLY. "Healthcare is a sacrament. Sacraments require faith. Faith requires payment." | All medicine (including surgical supplies, stimulants, painkillers) costs 3× and requires documentation. Black market surges. The Chemist class's services become suddenly, desperately valuable. |
| 4 | QUARANTINE ZONES DECLARED IN THREE DISTRICTS. "Contamination. Unspecified. Do not enter. Do not ask what the contamination is." | Roll d6 for which zones (1–2 Trastevere, 3–4 Ostiense, 5–6 Termini). These zones become inaccessible without hazmat equipment or TOU DR 16 per hour inside. All black market prices in those zones: drop 40% (desperate sellers). |
| 5 | ANDROID LIBERATION FRONT CLAIMS OSTIENSE BRUCIATA. "Non-human exclusion zone established. Humans enter at own risk." | Full urban combat in the industrial quarter. SecCorp and ALF at open war. Humans entering Ostiense without android escort: immediate hostility from both sides for different reasons. The music venues are still running. Nobody can explain this. |
| 6 | SECURITALIA / PHARMA-VATICAN MERGER ANNOUNCED. PRIVATE ARMIES MOBILIZING. "Synergistic value creation across the public-private safety-sacrament sector." | Corp agents attack each other unpredictably. All bribery unreliable (wrong faction answers). The city's three largest power structures are reorganizing. In the chaos, everything costs 20% less and 40% more depending on who you are and who's watching. |
| 7 | THE CITY STOPS PRETENDING. "Infrastructure failure citywide. Emergency services suspended. All citizens are advised to manage their own situations." | All faction dispositions reset to HOSTILE. Power intermittent. Water unsafe. This is the endgame. Play to find out what happens. The book doesn't have an ending. Neither does the city. |