You were having a nice day.
Everybody was having a nice day.
But now it's all

Gone to Hell

Playtest Version 0.4

A storygame of gratuitous violence
by David J Prokopetz

Table of Contents

Credits & Acknowledgements

Gone to Hell is written and edited by David J Prokopetz. Special thanks go out in no particular order to:

This document uses the fonts Metamorphous by James Grieshaber and Ubuntu by Dalton Maag. Crime Scene Skull icon by Freepik; used under license from www.flaticon.com.

Gone to Hell © 2020 Penguin King Games Inc. This game is a work of fiction; any resemblance to real people living or dead is actually kind of funny.

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What the Hell Is Going On?

Gone to Hell started with a simple question: what if Doom were a narrative-driven storygame?

The answer to that question ended up being a 24-hour RPG, unimaginatively dubbed Doomguy, that was basically a joke revolving around taking a straightforward gorefest like Doom and cramming in as many storygame clichés as possible, from diceless resolution to rotating GMs to collaborative question-and-answer worldbuilding. Somewhere along the line, though, I realised I might actually have something there, and started working on it in earnest.

This is the result of that work: an initial playtest-worthy pass at a revised and expanded Doomguy that takes its mission statement slightly – but only slightly – more seriously, and broadens its horizons by incorporating more diverse source material, including Metroid, Bayonetta, and even a dash of Sonic the Hedgehog. (Yes, really!) At its core, however, the same idea remains: you're telling an action-packed story of one person against the apocalypse, and though you may occasionally do things other than rip and tear, in the end it all comes down to blowing stuff up.

Everything's gone to hell, and it's time to give 'em hell right back.

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The Game

This is the part where I explain how to play the game.

What You'll Need

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Setup

Usually you'd start with character creation, and Gone to Hell is no exception. Things are going to work a little differently from what you might be used to, though, because rather than having one Gamemaster and multiple players, Gone to Hell has one player and multiple GMs! Here's how it works:

  1. Go around the table and have each player pick an Opposing Force playsheet. This is the facet of the apocalypse you'll be responsible for in play. There's no separate GM role, so every player has to choose one! If there are more players than Opposing Force playsheets, or if some of the available playsheets don't seem appropriate for the game you have in mind, see the Optional Rules section for some ways around that.
  2. Underline your choices in the choose one or more lines on your Opposing Force playsheet. If none of the options on a given line appeal to you, you can write your own at the end of the line and underline it instead.
  3. You'll see a fill-in-the-blanks section called Your Hunger, Your Instruments, Your Laws, or Your Damage, depending on your playsheet. Fill in just the first line; the others will be filled in during play whenever inspiraton strikes
  4. Optionally, cross off and re-write one (and only one) of your Opposing Force's Agendas to better suit your personal vision for them. This can change how your Opposing Force plays pretty significantly, so it's okay if you leave the Agendas as-is the first time you play.
  5. Give your Opposing Force a suitably sinister title.
  6. Write your name on the playsheet so you don't forget whose is whose, and pass it around the table so everybody can see your choices.
  7. Once everybody's Opposing Force playsheet is filled out, spend a few minutes brainstorming what sort of world the apocalypse is taking place in and how the various Opposing Forces fit together. Don't pin anything down too firmly, though – everything could change once you start playing!
  8. Make any final adjustments to your Opposing Force playsheet that came out of the brainstorming phase.
  9. Bring out the Slayer playsheets and decide as a group what sort of Slayer would work best for your game. Each one lends itself to a different sort of story – the Slayer playsheets section will outline how.
  10. Collaboratively work through the choose one or more lines on the Slayer playsheet in the same way as above. You can either collectively brainstorm a choice for each line, or go around the table and have each player choose one at a time.
  11. Answer as many questions as you wish from the Your Legend section of the Slayer playsheet. Again, you can collectively brainstorm each answer, or take turns. Any questions you don't answer now can be filled in during play.
  12. As with Opposing Forces, you have the option to cross off and re-write one Agenda; decide as a group.
  13. Give your Slayer a name and an appropriately terrifying epithet. (The Slayer is always an appropriate epithet, if an unimaginative one!)
  14. Decide on the order in which players will take turns being the Slayer; this is called the scene order. It can be any order you want, but I recommend starting with whoever owns the most metal albums.
  15. Whoever's first in the scene order, pick up the Slayer playsheet, and set your Opposing Force playsheet aside for the moment.
  16. Also pick up one token from the pile and put it in front of the Slayer player.
  17. Start the first scene!

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How to Play

Gone to Hell plays out as a structured conversation. There are no dice, nor any other randomisers. If you're holding the Slayer playsheet, you're the Slayer. Your Opposing Force fades into the background for the duration; they're still a factor in the story, but they're not currently driving the plot. (No playing two roles at once!) Conversely, if you're not holding the Slayer playsheet, you and the other Opposing Forces (if any) act as co-GMs to challenge and react to the Slayer.

Play is divided into scenes, which work a little like this:

  1. At the start of each scene, the Opposing Forces collaborate to describe the unreasonable situation the Slayer finds before them. They need not drop the Slayer directly into a fight, but should include some real, present danger.
  2. The Slayer will investigate, ask questions about what they see, and talk to any non-Slayer characters who might be present (if they're the talkative sort), and the Opposing Forces players will answer. After a minute or two of this, the Slayer should take an action (see below); if not, refer to your Opposing Force playsheets to find out how to handle the Slayer stalling for time!
  3. The Slayer takes an action according to the rules on the Slayer playsheet.
  4. One or more Opposing Forces respond by taking reactions according to the rules on the Opposing Force playsheets.
  5. Play returns to freeform question-and-answer mode until the next time the Slayer takes an action (or gets caught stalling for time).
  6. After several action-reaction cycles, the Slayer will trigger the end of the scene – your Opposing Force playsheet will explain how. One of the Opposing Forces will step forward and wrap up the scene in the appropriate fashion.
  7. Pass the Slayer playsheet to the next player in the scene order. They are now the Slayer, and the former Slayer picks up their Opposing Force playsheet. Also move any unspent tokens in front of the new Slayer, and add one more from the pile.
  8. Start the next scene!
  9. Repeat steps 1–8 until each player has been the Slayer at least once. After this, you can collaboratively narrate a cliffhanger or epilogue to end the session whenever it feels like you've reached a good stopping point.

You've no doubt noticed that the Opposing Forces are largely reactive. After each scene begins, everything is driven by Slayer actions; the Opposing Forces can't inititate unless the Slayer is stalling, and even then, they're limited in what they can do. This is very much intentional: though the Opposing Forces act as co-GMs, the Slayer drives the plot. Don't worry – you'll get your turn as the Slayer soon enough!

All of the above notwithstanding, you may always ask questions or offer suggestions to help another player out when they're stuck. This does not count as your action or reaction, and overrides every other rule. If you're wondering how to square this with the stalling for time rule, it's simple: if it's the Slayer who's spinning their wheels, hit 'em where it hurts. If it's the Slayer's player who's floundering, throw them a lifeline!

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Random Advice

The previous sections cover how to play the game. This one includes some pointers, observations, and miscellaneous advice on how to get the most out of those rules. (This material will receive a more formal organisation and probably its own chapter when the game exits playtest status – I just wanted to get it written down for now!)

For Everybody

For Opposing Forces

For the Slayer

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Opposing Force Playsheets

Opposing Forces in Gone to Hell fall into one of five main archetypes:

This section will be updated with links to additional and fan-created Oppsing Force playsheets as they become available – watch this space!

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The Horde

You are the apocalypse. Some might think they can fight you, or control you, but in the end all they are is meat.

Your Nature (choose one or more): An alien virus; an assimilating hive-mind; a rampant AI; an ontological infection; the literal forces of Hell

Your Aesthetic (choose one or more): Fire and brimstone; suppurating rot; flesh melded with machinery; crawling shadows; tentacles and too many eyes

Your Mood (choose one or more): Gruesome; desolate; haunting; feral; obscene

Your Hunger

The essential act of the Horde is to take – freedom, memory, dignity, lives. Tell us what gets your juices flowing:

Your Agendas

As you play, let these principles guide you:

Taking Reactions

Each time the Slayer takes an action, each Opposing Force may react. Some reactions may be taken once in total per Slayer action, not once per Opposing Force; if this is the case, the Opposing Forces should work out amongst themselves who gets to take it. After each reaction, the last Opposing Force to react asks the Slayer what do you do?

Also, you may always ask questions or offer suggestions to help another player out when they're stuck. This does not count as your reaction.

Heavy Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Light Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Heavy Reaction per Slayer action.

Routine Reactions

In response to any Slayer action, you may:

You may also take a Routine Reaction without waiting for the Slayer to act if the game's pace flags or the Slayer seems to be stalling for time.

Light Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Heavy Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Light Reaction per Slayer action.

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The System

The way people talk, you’d think it was the end of the world out there! No, even this can be made to serve your purposes. Everything is under control.

Your Nature (choose one or more): A failing empire; a corporate oligarchy; a paramilitary death cult; a glorified philosophers' club; the power behind the throne

Your Aesthetic (choose one or more): Bristling weapons; slogans and shareholder reports; fashionable uniforms; chrome and white plastic; skulls

Your Mood (choose one or more): Bleak; dehumanising; conspiratorial; debauched; mundane

Your Instruments

You have tools at your dispostal that give you power over the apocalypse. Tell us what they are – and the price that was paid for them:

Your Agendas

As you play, let these principles guide you:

Taking Reactions

Each time the Slayer takes an action, each Opposing Force may react. Some reactions may be taken once in total per Slayer action, not once per Opposing Force; if this is the case, the Opposing Forces should work out amongst themselves who gets to take it. After each reaction, the last Opposing Force to react asks the Slayer what do you do?

Also, you may always ask questions or offer suggestions to help another player out when they're stuck. This does not count as your reaction.

Heavy Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Light Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Heavy Reaction per Slayer action.

Routine Reactions

In response to any Slayer action, you may:

You may also take a Routine Reaction without waiting for the Slayer to act if the game's pace flags or the Slayer seems to be stalling for time.

Light Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Heavy Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Light Reaction per Slayer action.

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The Cipher

You've been planning for the apocalypse since before the people facing it were born. All this has happened before.

Your Nature (choose one or more): Immortal precursors; alien ghosts; an ancient secret society; a huge brain in a jar; actual, no-shit angels

Your Aesthetic (choose one or more): Crystals and holograms; rust-streaked metal; crowns and wings; expressionless masks; rune-scrawled stone

Your Mood (choose one or more): Cryptic; ethereal; grandiose; contemptuous; creepy

Your Laws

You're bound by the laws of your nature – things your agents always do, never do, or are driven to do. Describe them here:

Your Agendas

As you play, let these principles guide you:

Taking Reactions

Each time the Slayer takes an action, each Opposing Force may react. Some reactions may be taken once in total per Slayer action, not once per Opposing Force; if this is the case, the Opposing Forces should work out amongst themselves who gets to take it. After each reaction, the last Opposing Force to react asks the Slayer "what do you do?"

Also, you may always ask questions or offer suggestions to help another player out when they're stuck. This does not count as your reaction.

Heavy Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Light Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Heavy Reaction per Slayer action.

Routine Reactions

In response to any Slayer action, you may:

You may also take a Routine Reaction without waiting for the Slayer to act if the game's pace flags or the Slayer seems to be stalling for time.

Light Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Heavy Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Light Reaction per Slayer action.

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The Rival

Your whole life has been building to this moment. There's a reckoning coming, and the end of the world means there's nowhere to run.

Special: This playsheet is recommended for games with three or more players – many of the Rival's reactions need another Opposing Force to play off of.

Your Nature (choose one or more): A former ally; a crazed idealogue; a lost sibling; a spurned admirer; an evil clone

Your Aesthetic (choose one or more): Scars and cybernetics; a shining aura; a weapon just like the Slayer's; a cloak to dramatically cast aside; numerous belts

Your Mood (choose one or more): Furious; tragic; austere; theatrical; absurd

Your Damage

What exactly is your beef with the Slayer? Air your grievances here:

Your Agendas

As you play, let these principles guide you:

Taking Reactions

Each time the Slayer takes an action, each Opposing Force may react. Some reactions may be taken once in total per Slayer action, not once per Opposing Force; if this is the case, the Opposing Forces should work out amongst themselves who gets to take it. After each reaction, the last Opposing Force to react asks the Slayer "what do you do?"

Also, you may always ask questions or offer suggestions to help another player out when they're stuck. This does not count as your reaction.

Heavy Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Light Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Heavy Reaction per Slayer action.

Routine Reactions

In response to any Slayer action, you may:

You may also take a Routine Reaction without waiting for the Slayer to act if the game's pace flags or the Slayer seems to be stalling for time.

Light Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Heavy Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Light Reaction per Slayer action.

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The World

The apocalypse is only the beginning. One world must die for another to be born: you are that world, and you will not be denied.

Your Nature (choose one or more): A broken dimension; a hellish fortress; a parasitic timeline; the dream of an elder god; the new law

Your Aesthetic (choose one or more): Locks and chains; impossible angles; gratuitous lens flares; knife-edged silence; quivering meat

Your Mood (choose one or more): Inchoate; oppressive; glorious; disorienting; hateful

Your Demands

The dross of the old world will be burnt away to forge the iron of the new. Tell us what you require of those who dwell in you:

Your Agendas

As you play, let these principles guide you:

Taking Reactions

Each time the Slayer takes an action, each Opposing Force may react. Some reactions may be taken once in total per Slayer action, not once per Opposing Force; if this is the case, the Opposing Forces should work out amongst themselves who gets to take it. After each reaction, the last Opposing Force to react asks the Slayer "what do you do?"

Also, you may always ask questions or offer suggestions to help another player out when they're stuck. This does not count as your reaction.

Heavy Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Light Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Heavy Reaction per Slayer action.

Routine Reactions

In response to any Slayer action, you may:

You may also take a Routine Reaction without waiting for the Slayer to act if the game's pace flags or the Slayer seems to be stalling for time.

Light Reactions

When the Slayer takes a Heavy Action, you may:

The Opposing Forces may collectively take at most one Light Reaction per Slayer action.

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Slayer Playsheets

Gone to Hell includes three basic Slayer archetypes:

This section will be updated with links to additional and fan-created Slayer playsheets as they become available – watch this space!

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The Avenger

For you, the apocalypse is personal. Somebody's responsible for this, and that somebody needs to die. You're coming for them, and heaven help anyone who gets in your way.

Your Look (choose one or more): Bulky armour; spikes and chains; rippling muscles; scars and tattoos; a torn, filthy uniform

Your Attitude (choose one or more): Earnest conviction; grumpy impatience; disturbing enthusiasm; grim determination; frothing rage

Your Weapons (choose one or more): All the fucking guns; a roughly forged sword; fire, and lots of it; your own enhanced physiology; whatever you can lay hands on

Your Idiom (choose one or more): Capturing experimental hardware; upgrading your cybernetic implants; recovering mementos of your past; taking the strength of your defeated foes; getting so angry you spontaneously develop super powers

Your Legend

Answer these questions:

Your Agendas

As you play, let these principles guide you:

Taking Action

Any time the Opposing Forces ask what do you do?, describe what you do. Your actions are divided into three types: Heavy Actions, which require you to spend a token and return it to the pile; Light Actions, which let you pick up a token from the pile and add it to your supply; and Routine Actions, which do neither of those things. After each action, the Opposing Forces get to react.

Also, you may always ask questions or offer suggestions to help another player out when they're stuck. This does not count as your action.

Heavy Actions

Spend a token to:

Routine Actions

You may always:

Light Actions

Gain a token when you:

Doing Other Stuff

Between actions, you can ask the Opposing Forces what you see, talk to non-Slayer characters (if you're the talkative sort), and perform incidental tasks to investigate and move about your environment. This doesn't count as your action unless you ask one of the three questions the Opposing Forces are bound to answer honestly – or unless you're stalling for time!

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The Hunter

Some people confront the apocalypse because they have something to protect, or something to prove, or because they have no choice. You? You do it because it's your goddamn job.

Your Look (choose one or more): Sleek power armour; Gothic finery; an immaculate military uniform; an eye-concealing mask; a long, tattered coat

Your Attitude (choose one or more): Detached curiosity; smug composure; stoic angst; trenchant courtesy; deadpan snark

Your Weapons (choose one or more): Modern military hardware; a transforming multi-gun; flying combat drones; a finely wrought sword; your bare hands

Your Idiom (choose one or more): Finding and assimilating alien technology; dynamically adapting to novel threats; improvising tools and weapons from whatever's handy; downloading combat programs from a central database; copying your enemies' special abilities

Your Legend

Answer these questions:

Your Agendas

As you play, let these principles guide you:

Taking Action

Any time the Opposing Forces ask what do you do?, describe what you do. Your actions are divided into three types: Heavy Actions, which require you to spend a token and return it to the pile; Light Actions, which let you pick up a token from the pile and add it to your supply; and Routine Actions, which do neither of those things. After each action, the Opposing Forces get to react.

Also, you may always ask questions or offer suggestions to help another player out when they're stuck. This does not count as your action.

Heavy Actions

Spend a token to:

Routine Actions

You may always:

Light Actions

Gain a token when you:

Doing Other Stuff

Between actions, you can ask the Opposing Forces what you see, talk to non-Slayer characters (if you're the talkative sort), and perform incidental tasks to investigate and move about your environment. This doesn't count as your action unless you ask one of the three questions the Opposing Forces are bound to answer honestly – or unless you're stalling for time!

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The Thrillseeker

In the midst of so much death, you've never felt more alive. The apocalypse? Sounds like a challenge worthy of your considerable talents – bring it on!

Your Look (choose one or more): Trendy threads; exposed skin; leather and studs; ratty jeans; bondage chic

Your Attitude (choose one or more): Calculated coolness; theatrical pomp; sensual swagger; bubbly optimism; gruesome glee

Your Weapons (choose one or more): Blades and bullets; super-speed; cinematic martial arts; body-horror transformations; a kickass laser sword

Your Idiom (choose one or more): Taking trophies from your enemies; drawing from places of power; inventing new techniques on the fly; unlocking your true form; revealing you could always do that and just didn't feel like it

Your Legend

Answer these questions:

Your Agendas

As you play, let these principles guide you:

Taking Action

Any time the Opposing Forces ask what do you do?, describe what you do. Your actions are divided into three types: Heavy Actions, which require you to spend a token and return it to the pile; Light Actions, which let you pick up a token from the pile and add it to your supply; and Routine Actions, which do neither of those things. After each action, the Opposing Forces get to react.

Also, you may always ask questions or offer suggestions to help another player out when they're stuck. This does not count as your action.

Heavy Actions

Spend a token to:

Routine Actions

You may always:

Light Actions

Gain a token when you:

Doing Other Stuff

Between actions, you can ask the Opposing Forces what you see, talk to non-Slayer characters (if you're the talkative sort), and perform incidental tasks to investigate and move about your environment. This doesn't count as your action unless you ask one of the three questions the Opposing Forces are bound to answer honestly – or unless you're stalling for time!

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Powering Up

Most of the actions on the Slayer playsheets are pretty self-explanatory, but the power up and catch a reprieve options that let you make up new actions to add to the playsheet can be tricky, especially if Gone to Hell is your first exposure to the genres it's emulating. Rather than assuming that everybody reading this document already knows what a video game powerup system looks like and how to construct one, I'm going to take this chapter to describe one way to handle it.

Everything that's discussed here should be considered strictly advisory. Depending on the source material your game draws from, you may decide to handle power-ups in a totally different fashion. You might not use new actions at all, reserving power-ups for restoring actions that have been crossed off – or you might be be writing down new actions in every scene!

Starting With Extra Actions

In most cases it won't be necessary to start with any extra actions for your group's Slayer concept to work. Nearly every option that's discussed in this chapter can also be represented by writing in an extra entry under Your Weapons or Your Idiom and rolling the effects in under one or more of the playsheet's standard actions. This won't give you some of the formal benefits of defining it as an action, like messing with the token economy or being able to damage it as a Light Action, but if you don't care about any of that stuff it's definitely the simpler way to go.

That said, if there's something you absolutely need to make your Slayer concept work that doesn't fit as a weapon or idiom or can't reasonably be covered by your Slayer playsheet's standard actions, there's no rule against pencilling in a new move or two before the start of the first scene. There's only one Slayer, and everybody gets a turn to be them eventually, so you don't really have to worry if it's balanced!

Limits on New Actions

There’s no formal cap on the number of actions that can be added to the Slayer playsheet in this way. For most games I recommend a soft limit of three or four such actions, with any new actions beyond that replacing an existing one that hasn’t been used in a while. That’s explicitly not a rule, though; for some scenarios (and some Slayers), accumulating a list of special tricks as long as your arm is totally appropriate!

In any event, I’d limit it to no more than one new action per scene, unless there’s a really good explanation.

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For Routine Actions

Whenever you run into something that lines up with the Slayer's idiom, you can add a new Routine Action to the Slayer playsheet. The next chapter discusses the anatomy of Routine Actions in much greater detail; as a brief introduction, the standard Routine Actions on every Slayer playsheet break down like so:

New Routine Actions give the Slayer additional ways of handling one or more of the above. They don't have to line up one-to-one with existing actions, but thinking of them that way can make it easier to come up with new ones on the fly.

Dealing With Lesser Threats

Every Slayer has the option to destroy any lesser threats within reach as a Routine Action, though some playsheets provide other options – for example, THE HUNTER can also evade. New actions of this type either create additional options, or modify the conditions under which those options can be used. Some examples might include:

Dealing with lesser threats can also cross the line into environmental manipulation or finding a new angle by doing something useful with a threat rather than evading or destroying it. This could look like any of the following:

These actions take the form [do something to] lesser threat(s) [under some condition] by/using/with [method].

Engaging With the Environment

The most straightforward way of giving the Slayer new ways to engage with the environment is to grant a new mode of movement. Examples include:

Another, slightly less obvious option is to change how the Slayer engages with the environment by not engaging with certain features of it. In their most basic form, these actions let the Slayer claim immunity to a specific danger or environmental condition, like:

These actions will usually represent a protective suit, chemical treatment, fortifying magical glyph, body-hardening meditative practice, or something to that effect. Technically the Slayer needs to burn a Routine Action to activate this protection when it’s needed, though in practice the Opposing Forces may give them a free pass and assume it’s always active. Conversely, the Opposing Forces may decide as part of a Heavy Reaction that it’s temporarily worn off or been overloaded!

These actions take the form [do something unusual] by/using/with [method].

Finding a New Angle

There are a couple of ways to approach finding a new angle. The first and most basic gives the Slayer a new toy to play with that grants a specific set of problem-solving tools – e.g., a gun, gadget, gauntlet, or martial arts technique that works by:

Some of these options may cross the line into engaging with the environment as well as finding a new angle, depending on how you approach them. That's okay – like I said earlier, thinking of each new action as a 1:1 counterpart with a standard action on the Slayer playsheet is just a convenient shorthand. A given action doesn't have to be restricted that way if it doesn't make sense for it to be.

The second and more comprehensive option is what you might call an alt mode: the Slayer transforms into or assumes the role of something that gives them a new set of capabilities to play with. Variations on this theme include:

These effects are mostly narrative, but the Opposing Forces might determine that certain other actions work differently until the Slayer changes back. If the Slayer spends enough time fooling around in an alt mode to invoke the stalling for time rule, the Opposing Forces can knock them out of it as a Routine Reaction.

These actions take the form Find a new angle on a problem by/using [method].

Powering Up

The standard Routine Action for powering up already reflects the Slayer's idiom(s), so adding a second one will be unusual. Normally it will only make sense to do so if the Slayer suddenly acquires a new way to power up mid session. (Maybe they get turned into a vampire?) The option does exist if such a scenario ever comes up, though!

These actions take the form Catch a reprieve by/using [method].

Asking For a Hint

New actions of this type supplement the final Routine Action on the Slayer playsheet by granting an additional question you can ask the Opposing Forces and be guaranteed to get a straight answer. This might represent:

Taking this option multiple times will usually expand the capabilities of the existing information-gathering method rather than adding new methods. Most extra questions will be something along the following lines:

These actions take the form Use [method] to ask the Opposing Forces [question].

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For Heavy Actions

Heavy Actions follow a similar pattern to Routine Actions, so all of the previous discussion applies here too. Your new Heavy Action would just have bigger effects: removing greater threats rather than lesser ones, wiping away problems rather than finding new angles, and so forth.

However, the standard Heavy Actions on most Slayer playsheets are already very flexible, so that approach will often feel unsatisfying. Another approach is to create new Heavy Actions that break the rules in some way, letting the Slayer do things that don't obviously fall within the scope of any existing Heavy Action. You can think of these as Gone to Hell's equivalent of those rule-breaking special moves in a video game that require you to charge up a meter or expend some limited resource.

A few examples:

Environmental Control

Spend a token to create a particular environmental condition spanning the entire scene. This action lets the Slayer exercise a moment of Opposing Force-like control over the staging of the scene. Possible effects include:

Actions of this type just state the thing the Slayer does – there's no special phrasing.

Mass Destruction

Spend a token to take out all the lesser threats in the scene, regardless of whether they’re within reach, as well as inflict variable amounts of collateral damage depending on how the action is described. This could represent:

Actions of this type take the form Destroy/banish/etc. all lesser threats in the scene by/using/with [method].

Perfect Defence

Spend a token to completely no-sell, well, just about anything. This one requires a fair bit of collaboration with the Opposing Forces in order to set up a sufficiently ridiculous attack or peril that simply surviving it is dramatic enough to be worth the token. If you absolutely need the Slayer to be able to shrug off a nuclear bomb to the face, though, this is the action for you. Possible justifications include:

Actions of this type take the form ignore any single attack by/using/with [method].

Scale Up

Spend a token to change the scale of the conflict for the rest of the scene. The effects of this action are mainly descriptive, changing what counts as an obstacle or a threat from the Slayer’s perspective: things that formerly constituted greater threats might be treated as lesser threats, and things that were simply out of the Slayer's league may now be approachable as greater threats. It may also modify how other actions work, at the Opposing Forces’ discretion. This might involve:

If the Slayer uses this effect as a scene-ending Heavy Action, they receive the benefits of increased scale for the next scene instead. Actions of this type take the form change the scale of the conflict by/using/with [method].

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Creating Your Own Playsheets

Unless you skipped straight here, you've no doubt noticed that large portions of them follow a pretty strict formula. I've tried to make it as simple as possible to homebrew your own playsheets, and in this chapter I'm going to expand on some of the finer points of that formula.

Note: this discussion assumes you're already familiar with all of the playsheets included in this document, so if you haven't read them yet, go back and do so now!

For Everybody

Every playsheet starts with a high-level concept. I start by coming up with at least three different examples of that concept from popular media and finding the common thread; ideally, these examples should be from first-person shooters, spectacle fighters, or – to a somewhat lesser extent – survival-horror games and Metroidvanias, since that's what will mesh best with the game's existing material, but your source material could be just about anything.

You'll want your go-to examples to be as different as possible from one another while still sticking to your central theme, or else you're going to have a hard time filling out some of the following sections, particularly the choose one or more bits. Once you've got them firmly in your mind, the next steps depend on what kind of playsheet you're creating – an Opposing Force, or a Slayer.

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For Opposing Forces

Every Opposing Force playsheet begins with a trio of pick-lists: Your Nature, Your Aesthetic, and Your Mood. Aim for around five entries on each list.

Your Nature is the most straightforward of the three: a basic statement of what the Opposing Force's deal is. This is the one where players are least likely to exercise the or more clause, so it's okay if they're mostly mutually exclusive, but be on the lookout for interesting pairings. Each entry should be around 3–4 words long; occasional outliers are okay, but if they're consistently longer, you're probably overspecifying.

Unless the Opposing Force is a singular being like THE RIVAL, Your Aesthetic isn't just a fashion statement: it also establishes what sorts of descriptive cues you can use to signify that a given place or situation is under that Opposing Force's influence. Mutually exclusive options are less okay here – try to make sure that every possible pairing is a distinctly interesting option in its own right.

Finally, Your Mood sets the tone when this Opposing Force's player is in the narrative driver's seat. It doesn't necessarily reflect the attitude of any particular agent of the Opposing Force, though it totally can if it's the sort of Opposing Force the Slayer can talk to. The fatal temptation here is to break out a thesaurus and just find five different ways of saying the same thing, so mix it up!

Your Thing

Every Opposing Force has its own unique gimmick, from THE HORDE's hungers, to THE SYSTEM's mechanisms of control, to THE RIVAL's bewildering array of psychological hangups. These are filled in during play, so you don't need to come up with anything right now, but you should put some thought into exactly how what's being asked for reflects the Opposing Force's core theme.

The secret trick is that each Opposing Force's Thing is the expression of its fifth Agenda: THE CIPHER has laws by which it may judge, THE SYSTEM has instruments through which to exert its control, and so forth. You may find it works better for you to skip ahead and figure out the Opposing Force's Agendas now, then come back and figure out its Thing afterward.

Your Agendas

An Opposing Force's Agendas are a set of basic storytelling prompts to help its player figure out how it should react to the curveballs the Slayer throws at it. They break down like so:

Heavy Reactions

Heavy Reactions are how the Opposing Force brings the pain. There are exactly five, as follows:

Routine Reactions

Routine Reactions are the workhorses of the playsheet. They're troublesome, but not terribly harsh; in response to any Slayer action includes Heavy Actions, and you don't want a Routine Reaction on your Opposing Force playsheet that can completely reverse a Heavy Action's victory!

Light Reactions

Light Reactions have the least formal structure, which gives you an opportunity to inject some extra personality. The first four Light Reactions typically consist of some combination of the following options, in no particular order. No Opposing Force playsheet will have all of them, and some may have multiple versions of the same one.

The final Light Reaction is another boilerplate scene-ending trigger – time to copy and paste!

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For Slayers

Like Opposing Forces, every Slayer's playsheet begins with a series of pick-lists: Your Look, Your Attitude, Your Weapons and Your Idiom. Each one should have around five options. That might not seem like a lot, but remember that the group can write their own entries when the playsheet is actually used; your goal isn't to exhaust every possibility, but to provide a solid direction for the group's brainstorming.

Your Look is probably the easiest – just steal bits of costumery from the examples you came up with in the first step. These can be both self-contained looks and individual touches of colour. Try to make sure that at least most of the options are amenable to being paired up, and watch for fun or unexpected combinations.

Your Attitude is the one pick-list where you shouldn't worry about having lots of seemingly incompatible entries. Slayers contain multitudes; picking two wildly incompatible attitudes and figuring out how to reconcile them is part of the fun!

Your Weapons is where the Slayer's basic problem-solving tools are established. You don't need to worry about any give entry providing a complete toolkit, since the group can pick as many as they want when statting out their Slayer, so your priority should be to get a good mix of straightforward options and weird ones.

Finally, Your Idiom describes what the Slayer's powerups and health pickups are going to look like. Try to provide at least a little bit of in-character justification for each entry, but you don't need to be terribly realistic about it – Gone to Hell isn't particularly subtle about the fact that it's a tabletop video game. Most of the entries should be able to justify powering up in some fashion, but it's okay if one or two are pure recovery options.

Your Legend

This section consists of a set of three brief backstory questions. They should be the sorts of questions that can be answered in a single sentence – we're not interested in making any group that uses this playsheet write a book here! The trick is making sure that all of the questions are equally applicable to all, or at least most, of the media examples you have in mind. If you can't come up with any such questions, it's possible your examples aren't as closely related as you thought they were.

Your Agendas

Like Opposing Forces, a Slayer's agendas follow a particular pattern. You can adjust or rearrange if you playsheet concept warrants it, but try to stick mostly to the following set:

Heavy Actions

Heavy Actions are how the Slayer gets shit done. Spending a token is basically an I win button, at least in terms of what's immediately in front of the Slayer, and these actions should reflect that.

Routine Actions

Routine Actions represnt the Slayer's core competencies – things this particular Slayer can always do and expect to succeed, unless they've recently gotten the stuffing beat out of them. They're still things that cost, in terms of giving the Opposing Forces a chance to react, but they don't draw on limited resources.

Light Actions

Light Actions generate the fuel for Gone to Hell's engine, and they all do it the same way: by looking the Opposing Forces in the eye and saying please hurt me. The Slayer's choice of action determines what form the hurting takes. You don't need to specify any particular consequences here – that's what the Opposing Forces' Heavy Reactions are for.

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Optional Rules

The preceding chapters should give you the tools you need to handle most situations. Here are some extra rules for a few edge cases that are likely to come up.

Alternative Scene Pacing

The pace of Gone to Hell is mostly determined by the the action economy within each scene. The Slayer can take at most five Heavy or Light actions before hitting a scene-ending trigger, and will often reach one before that, which puts a cap on the number of significant events that can occur in each scene. An enthusiastic Slayer can burn through them in a real hurry!

As noted in the Random Advice section, the token economy also determines the Slayer's expected ratio of wins and losses. I'm going to cover some options for adjusting that as well.

For Longer Scenes

If you're interested in longer individual scenes, your first impulse might be to bump up the number of actions of a particular type that are needed to end a scene, to four or even five. That doesn't always work out in practice, though: requring a very large number of the same type of action may strain the Slayer's creative resources.

A better option is to institute a rule that the Slayer can't take two of the same type of action in a row. Here type refers to Heavy, Routine, or Light. There's still nothing to stop the Slayer from taking nothing but Heavy Actions (or, conversely, nothing but Light Actions) whenever the opportunity arises, but they'll have to do other stuff in between, thus preventing scenarios where a scene is over in three cycles flat. This rule can be relaxed during boss fights and high-tension scenes.

For Grittier Games

While fiddling with the scene-ending triggers isn't the best way to adjust the pace of the game, it's a great way to adjust the tone. As discussed earlier, the Slayer can theoretically emerge victorious in every scene if you're careful to always break even with your tokens. For a game where the Slayer is obliged to take some losses, you can use different thresholds for victory and disaster: for example, it might take three Heavy Actions to emerge victorious, but only two Light Actions to end a scene in catastrophe – or four Heavy Actions to win and three Light Actions to lose, for slightly less tension.

This can be extended to even larger imbalances, but even a one-point difference is enough to ensure that the Slayer will lose fairly often. In particular, if the Slayer ends a scene with zero tokens, it becomes impossible to emerge victorious in the following scene. Even with the free token to start the scene, you can't gather enough tokens to win without triggering a loss in the process. A bigger imbalance expands that guaranteed-loss threshold accordingly.

Removing the free token at the start of each scene will have the same effect on the token economy as unbalanced scene-ending triggers, but it feels harsher, so it's best reserved for games on the grimmer end of the scale. If you decide to institute unbalanced scene-ending triggers and remove the free token at the same time… well, it's your funeral!

For Fluffier Games

All of the preceding advice can be applied in reverse to achieve a game where the Slayer literally never loses: either skew the scene-ending triggers in favour of victory (e.g., three Heavy Actions to win, but four Light Actions to lose), or increase the number of free tokens awarded at the start of each scene to two.

Variable Grittiness

If your group is prepared to put in some extra work, you can decide whether to use unbalanced scene-ending triggers on a scene by scene basis. Just bear in mind that if the imbalance you decide on is bigger than the number of tokens the Slayer finished the previous scene with, the next scene becomes unwinnable! This can create an incentive for the Slayer to accept some early losses and hang onto a few extra tokens, just in case.

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Doubling Up on Opposing Forces

If you're playing with a very large group, or if a smaller group has a specific scenario in mind where some of the Opposing Force playsheets don't fit, you can allow multiple players to choose the same Opposing Force. There are two specific changes to the usual setup process that need to happen here:

I don't recommend doubling up like this in two-player games, nor that three or more players pick the same Opposing Force. If you've come up with a premise where that would actually be a good idea, I'd love to hear about it!

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Two-Slayer Co-op

Sometimes you might feel like playing with multiple Slayers – you know, get a little of that two-player co-op action going. That's totally doable, but it complicates the process of play a fair bit. Here are the high points:

The game's narrative flow strongly depends on having at least as many Opposing Forces as Slayers, so two-Slayer co-op is recommended for groups with at least four players. (This may require doubling up on Opposing Forces – see above.) If you're thinking about running a six-player group with three Slayers, you're a braver soul than I.

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Branching Paths

An alternative way to handle multiple Slayers in a single game is to take a page from those video games where multiple protagonists are pursuing the same or related goals, but via different routes that only occasionally intersect. In this variant, the role of the Slayer doesn't rotate, but the narrative spotlight does.

Note that your Slayer will never directly face your own Opposing Force, since you can't play both roles at once. Put some thought into why this should be the case story-wise.

I don't recommend this variant for groups larger than three. Partly this is because there are only three Slayer archetypes in the core game, but mostly it's because every additional narrative branch multiplies the amount of information you need to keep track of. It's by no means unmanageable, but if you decide to pull a Game of Thrones at your table, don't say I didn't warn you!

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Downtime Scenes

Gone to Hell's basic format is a headlong rush into endless peril where something is trying to kill you in every scene. If you'd prefer to take a breather now and then, you can institute downtime scenes, which work like this:

A downtime scene is a great opportunity to take stock of the Slayer's next objective, interact with NPCs without something horrible breathing down your neck, and brainstorm ideas for the following scenes. It's also a good time to decide whether anything that happened during the previous set of scenes warrants answering any unanswered questions from the Your Legend section of the Slayer playsheet, or filling in any remaining blanks on the Opposing Force playsheets.

Finally, if you're using the branching paths variant in your game – and if it makes sense to do so – you can use a downtime scene to have different players' Slayers meet up!

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Diceful Scene Resolution

If your group wants a little more uncertainty in their lives than the basic rules of Gone to Hell provide – or if you just like to roll dice! – you can try the following rules on for size. For this variant, you're going to need three or four dice in each of two colours, where each colour represents a particular type of Slayer action. You can use any colours you want, but I'm going to assume for convenience that blue dice correspond to Heavy Actions, and red dice correspond to Light Actions.

Use the normal scene-ending triggers: the Opposing Forces can end the scene when the Slayer takes a third Heavy Action or a third Light Action. However, before describing the outcome, pick up a number of blue dice equal to the number of Heavy Actions the Slayer took this scene, and a number of red dice equal to the number of Light Actions the Slayer took this scene, and roll them all together.

Don't add any results up: instead, look for the single highest die of each colour. If there's a tie for the highest roll, discard the highest die of each colour until a clear winner emerges, or until one colour runs out of dice. Treat a colour with no remaining dice as having a high roll of zero.

Finally, compare which colour has the most (remaining) dice with which colour is showing the highest roll, like so:

Depending on the tone your group is aiming for, the reversal outcomes (i.e., mostly red, blue high and mostly blue, red high) can represent simple good or bad luck, but you also have the option of going for a full-on Shocking Twist. Maybe talk that one out first, though!

Breaking Ties

In scenes where the Opposing Forces declined a scene-ending trigger, or if certain other optional rules are in play (see below), it's possible to end up with the same number of dice of each colour. When this happens, treat the colour corresponding to the Slayer's final action for the scene as having the most dice. For example, if there are the same number of blue and red dice and the Slayer's final action was Heavy, read the mostly blue lines on the results table.

There's also a slight possibility of getting a tie for the highest roll, in the specific scenario that you're rolling three dice of each colour and all six dice line up into matching pairs. If this happens, the session ends immediately with a bullshit sequel hook.

With Unbalanced Scene-Ending Triggers

If you're also using the optional rules for unbalanced scene-ending triggers, they'll need some adjusting to play nice with diceful scene resolution. Rather than requiring a different number of actions for each trigger, unbalance the dice by throwing in an extra die corresponding to the direction you want to skew the results: an extra blue for victory, or an extra red for tragedy. Other ways of adjusting the game's tone, like messing with the number of tokens awarded per scene, can be used as-is.

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Changelog

If you're terribly curious how the game has been revised over time, you've come to the right place.

Version 0.4, 2020-04-23

Version 0.3, 2020-04-18

Version 0.2, 2020-04-15

Version 0.1, 2020-04-12

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