A downloadable game

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A one word RPG about worms. You can play it as a LARP too if you want.

"A truly dense & poetic game, rife with possibility & riddled with iterative replayability. Constantly amazed at how a simple shift of setting can have massive reverberations on the context (implicit & explicit) of this genre-defying [live action?] roleplaying game." - Aaron King, RPG designer & zine-maker

"[redacted word] (We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG) with David Block" Dice Exploder Podcast 

"I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that, of any work in the medium of tabletop roleplaying games, Worms is the only text that can go toe-to-toe with Hamlet." - Infinite Jest: Hamlet, RPGs, and the Human Condition by A.A. Voigt

If the price of this game is a hardship to you, please email me at Taylor@RiverhouseGames.com or DM me on Twitter @LeviathanFiles and I'll get you a download key, no questions asked.

StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(171 total ratings)
AuthorRiverhouse Games
TagsExperimental, lyric-game, Short, Surreal, worm

Purchase

Buy Now$1.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $1 USD. You will get access to the following files:

WABW.pdf 3.5 MB
WABW Print.pdf 24 MB

Comments

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(+2)

Worth every cent. It's up there with The Tragedy of GJ237b as one of my favourite experimental games. I'm going to get so much play time out of this

high praise! Thank you 🥰

(2 edits) (+3)

I love this game so much!
It actually inspired me to re-interpret it as a biology-core one word RPG:
"We Are Butt Worms" lets you live out your tapeworm fantasies.

 Thank you for the inspiration! You are a legend.

🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱

(+5)

LaBresh has written a text that so fundamentally understands the themes of Hamlet that they’ve distilled its essence down to a title and one word. 
(+1)

This is brilliant!

(+3)

My friend told me about this game and I had to check it out.
Surely I said, fool that I was, this game cannot be a single word! 
Of coarse, buffoon that I was, the game will have more in it!
Perhaps, dumb dumb idiot face that I was, the game just uses that one word allot like, as a gimmick or something?
NO!
The title does not lie, it IS but a single word and that word is... one you will have to buy the book to find out.

Over all we had a great time, only ran it as a one shot, but the 6 hours of wriggling about on the ground will go down as one of the finest role playing experiences my group has ever had.

7.8/10 - Too much water

(+3)

i did it :)

(1 edit) (+1)

Gotta say I failed my google foo test and my curiosity got the better of me. It's a bit like that time Cards Against Humanity sold an expansion with Bullshit. I feel like I have unknowingly participated in an art project and the profoundness of the experience will wake me up at 2:22 am on Sunday.

(+1)

Is this available in hardcover anywhere?

(+6)

only if you look very hard. you have to dig for it.

(+3)

I downloaded this almost a year ago, and every time the chronic pain hits particularly hard, I think "wow I'm playing worms." 10/10

(+8)

one of the most games of all time!

(+9)

5 stars all the way. I play this every night before I go to sleep.

(+10)

I want to play this game with my friends but it's too long and they got bored :(

(+11)(-1)

I think I want to try before I buy

(+4)(-1)

I want gummy worms 10/10, I demand a 2e version

(+11)(-1)

Instructions unclear, have accidentally become worm. Please advise.

(+6)(-1)

you're on the right track, that's part of it. just keep going.

(+7)(-2)

This is genuinely my favorite RPG product out of my entire collection. I even did the thing: I went down on the floor and let loose. Liberating.

(+8)(-7)

Got my covid booster and i played this all day! :)

(+5)(-1)

I play this game all the time! The best part is that it's one of the few games of this nature that you can play solo. You can be the DM and the Player. You can be the worm. I believe in you.

(+2)

(+2)(-2)

I'm so happy right now.

(+3)(-1)

Thought of you today. https://youtu.be/TujtFPFJHJQ&t=1524 Your day, be lovely.

(+6)(-2)

I pull this game PDF out several times a month when I need a boost. Never fails to immediately fill me with delight. The layout, the pacing, the build up, the climax, 10/10 will play again.

(1 edit) (+4)(-2)

From the ashes of depravity rises the phoenix of quality. How else to describe We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG? Such a revolutionary step forward in the lineage of one of the most beloved physical game properties of all time! The beautiful words and ideas embedded into this game will surely resonate in the archives of the history of all media ever made. It is perhaps true to say that no mistakes are forever etched in stone for the stone into which We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG was carved has itself been transmuted offering a message of hope to those who have ever erred in their judgement. You are not beyond redemption. You may change, and you may become more so much more than you were before. If there is any message to be taken from We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG, It is this: What a fortune, a privilege, a joy it is to have had such an experience, it leaves me hopeful that as a community - as a world - there is time for us to become our greatest selves, as great as we ever could dream of in our wildest, most ambitious visions for a brighter future.

/c

(+8)(-2)

This game has taken permanent residence in my soul and I may never recover.

(+5)(-1)

Worms

(+6)(-1)

Counterpoint:

Worms.

(+10)(-2)

I just found my favorite system.

It's amazing how this jewel amongst role-playing games flew under my radar for so long. But it is so, the best things are often hidden deep-deep under the surface and you find them only by accident, or pure luck, while searching for something completely different. This amazing creation by Riverhouse Games contains everything we could possibly wish the modern RPGs had:

- simple and clear rules

- unique setting

- they do not require experienced game master

- each game is slightly different

I tried the game immediately after first read and although I was kinda nervous and, ahem, writhed on my chair a bit, after few minutes I found out that this game does not force their players into streamlined play style - whether you approach your alter-ego with all the seriousness or a humble smile on your lips, you all will be awarded equally - with an experience you all will strive to fell again. And again.

The only downside of this masterpiece is the title cover, thanks which I have constant urge to buy a pack of gummy worms.

(+8)(-3)

A ttrpg dev asked me to name the best product made in the last 10 years, I instantly said this game. Turns outs we weren't taking about ttrpgs, just products in general. I still stand by it.

(+10)(-2)

I still, months later, regularly think about this game. It's so deeply compelling I feel moved to play it more often than I ever expected. 

(+25)(-3)

My good friend is an education professor and is planning his curriculum for a "games in education" class. I was chatting with him, and we inevitably got to talking about, "What is a game?"

I sent him the link to We Are But Worms and got to listen live on the phone as he bought it, opened it, and started laughing. He uttered The Word, continued to laugh, and then wheezed out The Word again. He said, "What if I broke the class into groups and assigned one group Monopoly, one group soccer, one Call of Duty, and one We Are But Worms?"

I'm really hoping he puts this in the curriculum. I'll let you know if he does. He teaches at a small liberal arts college in Minnesota, so maybe you'll get some response games.

(+21)(-2)

The rules-heavy and crunchy approach this TTRPG takes does bog down character creation for the first couple sessions, but otherwise it has a very solid combat and exploration system.

(+15)(-2)

I really appreciate this feedback! I've been thinking about ways to make the rules slimmer for exactly the reasons you have here, but I haven't found an approach that really feels right to me. But I'm really happy you enjoyed the rest of the game!

(+6)(-1)

Transcendent.

(+5)(-1)

I want to tattoo the entire content of this game on my body

(+6)(-1)

I opened this game and shrieked. 

(+6)(-1)

This wears baby shoes like minaudiere

(+10)(-1)

I just wanna say that I made an account specifically to download this pdf, and it was 1000% worth it.

(+4)(-2)

...as the kind of person that would do this you have my attention- and possibly my haunted sour skittles?

(+6)(-25)

Writhe

(+24)(-1)

spoiler

(+3)(-14)

Writhe