Killing Time is an existential duet rpg about a hero attempting to kill the embodiment of the concept of time. This sounds like it should be pretty lightweight but I've got good news for TTRPG sickos. This game is *wildly* maximalist with its design.
The PDF is innocent enough. 35 pages, with clean but bare text throughout and a solid, evocative cover. As of this review, the game is out in an ashcan format, so text and visuals are not finalized.
Now, content-wise, for a duet game Killing Time is relatively resource intensive. You need a tarot deck, a coin, a grid map, miniatures, timer, d6s, d12s, and tokens. It's also kinda thematically heavy. Safety tools are included.
The heaviness is because Killing Time talks about mortality and doomed causes and changes in the universe. It is also, interestingly, a duet game that the players can lose. The hero can take damage and die. Time dies if the hero makes it to the end.
Mechanically, the first part of Killing Time plays a little bit like a Wretched & Alone. The hero pulls cards, Time reads prompts, the goal is to progress through the deck---although there's a risk of taking too much random damage before then and dying. While this is happening, a timer is also running. Various cards interact with this timer, and include delays. Furthermore, the more the players are drawn into the roleplay, the more the timer runs down naturally. Time can kill the hero just by being interactive.
The second part uses the battle map, and the cards from the previous phase as a resource, to conduct a 4e style grid combat. Both sides have moves. Time has bodyparts that can be broken that change its attack options. There are multiple phases to the fight.
The third part of Killing Time, when it arrives, is difficult to explain. It's a choose your own adventure, and the goal is to guess the pre-set right answers, but the two players are also roleplaying the entire time and the story is moving back and forth between a frame story and a story-within-a-story and there's an owl and it's kind of a lot.
The fourth and final part of Killing Time is a long guided conversation between Time and the hero. And I mean long, long. The game's sections are forty minutes each, but there's enough material to cover that it feels plausible to run out. It's also considered and philosophical, and I think even if you don't play the game you could get something out of reading the fourth part.
Overall, I think for people that Killing Time clicks with it will REALLY click. If you like kinda sensitive existentialism and absurdity and having fight chemistry between you and the universe, I'd strongly recommend giving this a go. If you just like duet games, I'd still recommend taking a look at Killing Time, because I haven't seen many rpgs that are quite like it. It takes an extremely audacious swing and makes solid contact with the ball, and I think it ought to be talked about more.
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Killing Time is an existential duet rpg about a hero attempting to kill the embodiment of the concept of time. This sounds like it should be pretty lightweight but I've got good news for TTRPG sickos. This game is *wildly* maximalist with its design.
The PDF is innocent enough. 35 pages, with clean but bare text throughout and a solid, evocative cover. As of this review, the game is out in an ashcan format, so text and visuals are not finalized.
Now, content-wise, for a duet game Killing Time is relatively resource intensive. You need a tarot deck, a coin, a grid map, miniatures, timer, d6s, d12s, and tokens. It's also kinda thematically heavy. Safety tools are included.
The heaviness is because Killing Time talks about mortality and doomed causes and changes in the universe. It is also, interestingly, a duet game that the players can lose. The hero can take damage and die. Time dies if the hero makes it to the end.
Mechanically, the first part of Killing Time plays a little bit like a Wretched & Alone. The hero pulls cards, Time reads prompts, the goal is to progress through the deck---although there's a risk of taking too much random damage before then and dying. While this is happening, a timer is also running. Various cards interact with this timer, and include delays. Furthermore, the more the players are drawn into the roleplay, the more the timer runs down naturally. Time can kill the hero just by being interactive.
The second part uses the battle map, and the cards from the previous phase as a resource, to conduct a 4e style grid combat. Both sides have moves. Time has bodyparts that can be broken that change its attack options. There are multiple phases to the fight.
The third part of Killing Time, when it arrives, is difficult to explain. It's a choose your own adventure, and the goal is to guess the pre-set right answers, but the two players are also roleplaying the entire time and the story is moving back and forth between a frame story and a story-within-a-story and there's an owl and it's kind of a lot.
The fourth and final part of Killing Time is a long guided conversation between Time and the hero. And I mean long, long. The game's sections are forty minutes each, but there's enough material to cover that it feels plausible to run out. It's also considered and philosophical, and I think even if you don't play the game you could get something out of reading the fourth part.
Overall, I think for people that Killing Time clicks with it will REALLY click. If you like kinda sensitive existentialism and absurdity and having fight chemistry between you and the universe, I'd strongly recommend giving this a go. If you just like duet games, I'd still recommend taking a look at Killing Time, because I haven't seen many rpgs that are quite like it. It takes an extremely audacious swing and makes solid contact with the ball, and I think it ought to be talked about more.