The Far Roofs

a game of talking rats, god-monsters ... and you.

In the Far Roofs, heroic talking rats and monster-god "Mysteries" have taken up residence on your city's roofs ... and on moody fantasy roofscapes extending beyond them.

You'll play as humans who get swept up in the rats' adventures, confronting wonder—and horror—in this magical, secret world above.

Illustration by Melissa Spandri

It all starts with the Fortitude rats.

You might have heard of them. Seen them on the news, maybe, or met one, or read about them in my other games. But if you haven't, if you haven't heard of them ... 

They're the ones who woke up from the sleep of rats. Who found consciousness and speech. Who became not just rats but people. 

Became heroes.

They are something amazing. Knowing them, is amazing. They don’t exactly have strength to throw around, but they have tenacity and they have grace and hearts overflowing with valor; so much valor you can’t take five minutes in their company without becoming a little braver, yourself. 

They're alive ... with so much energy and vim it'll rub off on you too.

And if you meet them, you’ll love them—I hope; but I also hope it ends there. I can't possibly wish you'd get involved with their stories, go up onto their roofs, become a part of their lives. They are facing such ... terrible ... things.

Illustration by Jenn Manley Lee

There is another world, you see. Right next door to our own.

If you go up ...

If you go up, and you run the roofs like the rats do, you'll find the roofs getting closer and closer until eventually they merge; until you can’t see the houses any longer beneath them. If you keep going from there, you’ll discover whole landscapes that have been hiding above us: strange fairylands, magic gardens, inexplicable towers; all manner of wonders. 

There’s this whole world of magic, and to get there, you just go up, over, and on for a bit. 

... regrettably it is the demesne of the Mysteries.

Illustration by Jenn Manley Lee

On the RPG Itself

The Far Roofs is an original roleplaying system and bundled campaign using pens or pencils, paper, six-sided dice, ten-sided dice, playing cards, and a bag of letter tiles. It's complete in one volume: with this one book and the equipment above, you'll have everything you need to play.

Here's how it works!

To resolve day-to-day actions, players will roll five six-sided dice ("5d6") and look for matches:

• Pairs up to the Trait they're rolling represent "success"—for instance, a Trait of 2 succeeds with a pair of 1s or a pair of 2s. 
• Rolls with no matches at all are "critical failures." 
• Rolls with 3+ matching dice give "critical success." 

To address bigger-picture dilemmas, players draw letter tiles and cards over the course of the game.

They'll build words out of those tiles to represent and summarize new understandings, or, to shape ambiguous and flexible outcomes.

They'll assemble poker hands out of those cards to represent long-term efforts or gambles; the quality of the hand determines how well such things go. 

The included multi-year campaign takes the characters from their first tentative steps on the roofs, through confrontations with moon-stealing monsters, world-shaping machinery, and dead gods, to a final grand encounter with the numinous beyond.

Illustration by Lee Moyer

On the Game's Powers

As the story progresses, your characters will gain access to over 150 unique, narrative-focused powers developed and refined over the course of a decade for the Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG before being simplified and adapted for use herein. Activating these powers is another use for cards, with many requiring a card of a certain value or suit; for instance:

Keen Sense (choose a sense)

5+: sniff out one or more secrets if there are any available to sense; sense anything of interest, if not.
8+: follow a trail.

Or

Old Friends [requires Let’s Talk]

8+: have a favorable history with a stranger, practical stranger, or important member of a group/society of strangers.
♣: someone now knows you like an old friend. This doesn’t directly change their other feelings towards you, but tends to do so with time.

As these powers accumulate, they may change you. They may remake you.

To walk the far roofs is to be at risk of becoming legend, or, a god.

Illustration by Jenn Manley Lee

On the Feeling of Play

In the Far Roofs, you'll often play yourself. Or, a version of yourself. Or, at least, someone relatively mundane you can empathize with.

If you do, this is a game that centers emotional experience.

This is a game designed to feel real: to make you feel embodied and present even as you travel its impossible lands. Its primary moods are wonder; disorientation; presence in the moment. Less often, it'll slip into the register of fantastic adventure, delirium and body horror, inspired (character) genius, or peace.

Whenever that's a sensible emotional palette, the game can adapt to a different genre or a different kind of protagonist. You can play fantasy adventurers, or horror protagonists, or the cast of some cozier tale. The system will follow you into that kind of story, and happily ... but it won't hit quite the same peaks of feeling present; feeling real.

Illustration by Isip Xin

To be clear, the rats don't ... want ... you on the roofs. It's too dangerous up there. Your life's too precious. Your heart, too.

... but you can persuade them. 

Just, look them in the eye, you know? Be forthright. Be honest.

Say: "I can't let this go."

Product

This version of the Far Roofs is an ePub & PDF bundle.

The book is a 256-page volume with black and white illustrations.

Interior art for the PDF was contributed by 

• Jenn Manley Lee, 
• Lee Moyer, 
• Isip Xin, 
• Camille “Karma” O’Leary, 
• Elizabeth Sherry, 
• Melissa Spandri, 
• Patrick R. Kelley, 
• Naomi Rubin, 
• Todd Thomas, and 
• Y.C. Yang;

the cover art, by Isip Xin; and the rat footprints, by Jenn Manley Lee.

Content Warning

this book contains
existential horror; body horror; 
unreality;
references to aphasia, death, dissociation,
despair,
derealization,
skinlessness,
and Grayvale’s sun; 

and,

a ... rather ... large number of rats.