Revolt against the corrupt Crown - and then be the baddies - in revolutionary RPG Guillotine

A new tabletop RPG will give you a chance to take on the corrupt monarchy of a dark fantasy world, using your passion for revolution - and a touch of heretical magic - to overthrow the Crown. It’s called Guillotine, of course.

Guillotine: Crown of Blood, to give the game its full name, is set against the backdrop of a gothic world ruled by a controlling King - or whatever you choose as your ruling forces to revolt against, be they a tzar or inquisitor - in need of bringing to task. The Crown itself is made up of three different prongs - what those are exactly is decided by the players and their GM-like Director - that must be tackled to bring the system crumbling down.

To do so, players form a revolutionary band pitted against the powers that be. Those might be your everyday rebels, mercenaries or even nobles trying to seize power for themselves, with Guillotine’s ten classes including the likes of honour-bound fighters, fallen dilettantes or firebrands looking to rain down chaos. On the more fantastical end of things, those revolutionaries might include monstrous beings, those with the ability to utilise magic, mechanical puppets or even resurrected revenants, returned to life and able to summon the dead for their cause.

Between their efforts to bring down the Crown during missions, the players will also swap sides and play out the Crown’s own ongoing work to maintain power, fleshing out surrounding events and a list of characters who may appear in later sessions as their foes.

Guillotine’s gameplay is built on the familiar bones of Powered by the Apocalypse, with influences from PbtA game Amour Astir in both its anti-authority theme and handing control of the villains to the players.

Guillotine: Crown of Blood designers Ash Schreuer and Elliot Wren Phillips have taken their first published game to Kickstarter to crowdfund a physical release, with the campaign running until March 3rd.