Death Rides a White Horse

This is a prototype. I might come back to it someday.

You know, we used to build cities on rivers. Nearly every single one. Rivers mean travel, transport, trade — the lifesblood of civilization. Aquatic highways. So when we died, we saw water in that too. Osiris and the Nile. Hel’s Naglfar. Charon’s ferry. We crossed water to the other side, aided by psychopomps — the only way we know.

The aquatic highway is dead. When the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways broke ground in 1956, something fundamental changed in the  way Americans perceive the terrain. The Bundesautobahn  did something  similar in Germany.  We might go so far as to say the same of Rome.

Yet we still die. And the psychopomps are still waiting for us — the new highways, to take them to the other side.

DEATH RIDES A WHITE HORSE is a hex-based ttrpg with  one and two player modes about a psychopomp driving lost souls to the other side — in the back of an eighteen wheeler. In order to play, you will need one d4, one d6, and one d10, as well as  a copy of this rulebook and a blank sheet of paper divided into hexes and something to mark it up. I might replace that last one with a blank sheet of paper — but l like to draw the maps as I go.  DEATH RIDES A WHITE HORSE is inspired by the american variation on the classical theme of imperial transport logistics, the podcast ALICE ISN’T DEAD, the game KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO, very specific chapters of the books GOOD OMENS and AMERICAN GODS, and the song CONVOY. 

It was written for the season finale of the first session of reliquary jams, on the  theme of death.