The Eleventh Hour.pdf

The Eleventh Hour

It's the end of the world as we know it – that's the plan, anyway.

by Mike Olson (devlin1@gmail.com)

This is a game about four cultists working in the shadows to bring about the end of the world. The

Grand Convergence – an alignment of heavenly bodies that only occurs once a millennium –

approaches, and with it a rare opportunity to call forth an otherworldly entity of unimaginable power

into the Earthly plane. Extradimensional portals don't just open themselves, though. It's going to take a

lot of effort on the cultists' part to drown the world in blood and darkness.

However, all is not what it seems. At the eleventh hour, one of the cultists is revealed to be an

investigator in disguise, working from within to foil the cult's plans. But will it be enough to save the

world? Or will the cultists make good on this last chance to summon their dark god?

YOU WILL NEED:

• Four players – no more, no less.

• Plenty of poker chips, glass beads, pennies, or similar tokens.

• Several index cards.

• Pencils and paper, including the character and cult sheets.

THE BASICS

This game uses tokens, called Zeal , to measure how much effort cultists put forth when trying to

accomplish their goals. Each goal is assigned a difficulty rating, with higher ratings representing

greater difficulty. Spending Zeal equal to the difficulty rating means the goal is accomplished at a

baseline level of success. The more Zeal spent, the better the results. Likewise, spending less than the

goal's difficulty means failure; the smaller the deficit, the less egregious the failure.

Every cultist starts with 10 Zeal, and can earn more during play. You also have four Qualities –

facts, traits, and skillsets about your character that make them more competent. Every Quality you can

bring to bear in a challenge gives you another token to use for that challenge.

In addition to your Qualities, you have three Attachments – people, places, or things you care

about and that keep you connected to the world. Attachments are inconvenient, because they distract

you from the great work you have ahead of you. During play, your Attachments can grow stronger or

weaker, depending on how well you handle the challenges set before you. The stronger your

Attachments, the more difficult it is to get anything done in the world-destroying department.

Fortunately, you have a Despair to keep you focused on the big picture. The flipside of

Attachments, your Despair is what drove you to the cult in the first place and provides you with the

drive to see your task through to its glorious end.

Although all the cultists are obviously working together, membership in a world-ending cult

doesn't exactly foster a strong sense of fraternity. The player sitting opposite you is called your Rival ,

and you are theirs. While it's your responsibility to play your character and make decisions on their

behalf, your Rival sets the difficulties for the challenges you face (based on your Attachments), and

acts as a neutral-ish arbiter during your turn, in addition to framing scenes and portraying everyone you

interact with who isn't one of the four player cultists. Y'know, like a GM.

After the cultists have accomplished their preliminary goals – mere preludes to the Grand

Convergence and the much-needed cleansing of the world it will bring, but necessary nonetheless –

tally up each cultist's Attachment ratings. Whoever has the highest total is revealed to be the

Investigator , a sheepdog-in-wolf's-clothing who has secretly been working against the others all along.

The Investigator's “failures” up to now have, in fact, been cunningly disguised attempts to sabotage the

cult's plans, and now, at the final hour, the Investigator has one last chance to derail them once and for

all. Some special rules exceptions apply to the Investigator, but we'll deal with those in detail later.

OVERVIEW OF PLAY

Play happens in three acts . Each act has three goals that must be accomplished before moving on to the

next. These are things like “Study the book,” “Deal with the authorities,” and “Prepare the sacrifice.”

The full list is on the cult sheet, a few pages from now.

In the first two acts – I'll explain Act III in a bit – when it's your turn (it doesn't matter who goes first,

really, or if a consistent order is maintained), you have two choices. You can focus on your Despair, or

you can pick one of the unfinished goals in the current act.

Let's deal with the latter option first. When you pick a goal to accomplish, your Rival will set the scene

and describe how one of your Attachments is making things difficult for you. The two of you will

roleplay through the conflict with your Attachment until you reach an impasse, then you'll spend Zeal

to end it. Your Rival will not tell you what the challenge's difficulty is, so don't ask. You'll just have to

spend whatever you think is appropriate and hope it's enough to succeed.

Afterward, your Rival will tell you the degree of success or failure you achieved, as shown on the table.

Margin of Success/Failure

Outcome

Effects

-5 or less

Exceptional Failure (EF)

+Complication and +Attachment

-3 or -4

Full Failure (FF)

+Complication or +Attachment

-1 or -2

Mitigated Failure (MF)

-Complication or +Advantage

0 or +1

Mitigated Success (MS)

+Complication or -Advantage

+2 or +3

Full Success (FS)

-Complication or -Attachment

+4 or more

Exceptional Success (ES)

-Complication or +Advantage, and -Attachment

Effects are additional results over and above simple success or failure. If there is a choice between two

options, your Rival chooses the effect on a failure and you choose the effect on a success. Here's what

they mean.

+Complication: Based on what just transpired during the turn, your Rival comes up with a

disadvantage that fits the situation, then writes that down on an index card and puts it in front of you.

As long you have a Complication in front of you, all of your difficulties are increased by +2. For

example, let's say that in the course of purifying the cult's knives, you had to deal with your sister and

ended up making her suspicious. Your Rival writes “Suspicious Sister” on an index card and puts it in

front of you. Now you're going to have to deal with your nosy sister until you can manage to shake her.

Note: No matter what happens, you can never have more than two Complications at once.

-Complication or +Advantage: If you have at least one Complication, you get rid of one of them. If

you don't, you instead get an Advantage. Based on what just transpired during the turn, come up with a

side benefit that fits the situation, then write it down on an index card and put it in front of you. The

next time you try to accomplish a goal, you can discard that Advantage (toss it aside, crumple it up,

whatever) for +2 Zeal. For example, if you manage to snow your sister so completely that she's now

unwittingly helping you out. Write “Helpful Sister” on an index card in front of you. The next time

your Helpful Sister comes in handy, discard that card for +2 Zeal. No matter what happens, you can

never have more than two Advantages at a time.

+Attachment: Your Rival increases the rating of the Attachment that was just used during the turn by

1. Through your failure, you've grown a little more attached to something or someone in your life,

however reluctantly.

-Attachment: The opposite of that – you've managed to not only achieve your objective, you've

distanced yourself a bit from one of your worldly distractions as well. You're a credit to the cult.

If you achieve at least a MS, write your character's name down beside the goal you just accomplished,

and also notate the level of your success (MS, FS, or ES). Every goal in the first two acts has a benefit

for achieving an ES; follow the instructions on the cult sheet.

If you fail , leave the cult sheet alone. Your turn is over. The goal is still open and incomplete. Hopefully

one of your more-zealous compatriots can pick up the slack.

Focusing on Despair

In Acts I and II (but not Act III), instead of trying to get something done, you can steel yourself for the

task ahead by focusing on your Despair. When you do this, you regain a number of Zeal tokens equal to

your Despair.

Your Despair starts at 1. When you accomplish a goal (as described above) or one of your Attachment

ratings decreases, increase your Despair by 1.

Should one of your Attachment ratings increase , however, decrease your Despair by 1. Nothing can

never lower your Despair below 1.

Act III, When Everything Changes

In Act III, it's the Investigator , not your Rival, who sets the difficulties for the cult's goals. The

Investigator does this by spending Zeal in secret. Think of it as a silent auction – the Investigator bids,

then the cultist bids.

The success/failure table isn't used in this scenario. Instead, record the cultist's margin of success or

failure for each goal. The total will come into play at the end of the game.

Cultists can't focus on Despair in Act III. It's too late for that.

Revealing and playing the Investigator is detailed in a couple pages.

MAKING CHARACTERS, or “FINDING THE CULTIST WITHIN”

First, everyone needs a character sheet. Make copies and pass them out.

Next, take turns picking Qualities :

• Meticulous, Paranoid, Cruel, Charming

• Cunning, Logical, Fearless, Manipulative

• Athletic, Wiry, Unassuming, Graceful

• Doctor, Librarian, Reporter, Cop

Choose one player to go first (via whatever method suits the four of you). That player picks a Quality

from the first list (Meticulous, Paranoid, Cruel, or Charming), then chooses another player. That player

chooses the next player, who picks another Quality from the first list and chooses the next player, and

so on. Whoever picks last off of a given list picks first on the next list.

Continue doing this until everyone has four Qualities. No one can have more than one Quality from any

of the four lists.

(On the character sheet, you can just cross off Qualities as other players pick them and cross off

whatever remains on each list when you pick your own.)

After that's sorted out, write down the source of your cultist's Despair . Here are some depressing

examples: a cheating spouse, the death of a son or daughter, the precipitous decline of public discourse,

corporate greed. Feel free to come up with your own. For what it's worth, I'd feel a lot better about it if

you don't make it something intensely personal. It's a game.

And at the start of this game, your Despair has a rating of 1, so write that down, too.

Then write down your three Attachments . Here are some examples: your child, your spouse, your

parents, [insert extended family here], the music of Mozart, the orphanage down the street, the

sculptures of Michelangelo, the collected works of Milton, the concept of mercy.

Penultimately, write down your Rival's Attachments , and assign a rating to each – 6, 5, or 4. Don't tell

your Rival what these ratings are. Only you get to know (for now).

Finally, give your character a name and think about their appearance. It's okay if you don't know

everything about them right away. There'll be time for that later.

There are two related steps after this:

1. Introduce your cultist to the others. Remember, these people are part of a team. They should

be capable of working together and dealing with one another. Those other three cultists are the

only people who know what the world actually is and what's in store for it.

As a group, name the... thing your cult is dedicated to summoning. And name your cult, if

you'd like. You don't have to, but it'd be handy to know when you're trying to recruit others to

join your cause.

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