All Towers
Live (and possibly die) through an apocalypse. You create the end of the world as you see fit.
All Towers is a solo journaling RPG that utilizes the Major Arcana of a tarot deck.
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The world is ending and you cannot stop it, but you must survive as long as you can.
All Towers is a game about surviving and enduring the apocalypse. The game isn’t specific about what has happened and leaves it up to the player to determine when and where everything takes place.
You only play with the major arcana and start by removing the Tower and the World. Each day you pull 3 cards, one for morning, noon, and evening, and resolve the prompts for each time.
The prompts are purposely vague such as ‘start a project’ or ‘explore an area,’ which allows for a lot of variety when you pull the card a second time, and since you can shuffle the deck at any time during the game, you’ll probably be pulling cards more than once.
Several of the cards are known as a ‘trigger card’ and as soon as you pull it, you add the Tower back into the deck. Once you pull the Tower twice, you add in the World and shuffle. The game ends when you either pull the Tower a third time or pull the World card.
Played for 10 Days until tragedy struck and my character decided that it was best to flee their settlement and head for shelter
somewhere else.
You can read my playthrough HERE
A more thorough review:
All Towers is a post-apocalyptic game that uses the 22 Major Arcana of a Tarot deck, though you don't need to know the meaning of the Arcana to use them in this game.
At the heart of All Towers is the Tower countdown mechanism that creates a pacing and tension that can get rather intense; after all, your deck of inspiration is only 20 cards in size at the start of the game and whittles down further and further.
Despite the small deck size, All Towers doesn't generate games that end in just a few turns due to how the Tower is used:
* the Tower and World (the "world is saved" card) aren't inserted until you hit specific trigger cards in the deck (such The Sun or the Hanged Man)
* you need to come across the Tower three times for the world to be destroyed if you haven't drawn the World yet;
* and drawing Judgement acts as a Tower count reset.
This creates rising tension, as you have a period of time where the threat of Tower looms in the distance, then the Tower comes closer and closer to ending your game as your deck whittles down; but you can have a temporary reprive in Judgement---indeed, the way Judgement is used, it's almost guaranteed to happen.
I'll note that the use of the Tower card specifically as the countdown to doom mechanism, and Judgement as a reprieve, and the World as salvation are extremely thematic to their original meanings in Tarot, which I find neat.
The rest of the cards have prompts tied to them with nice inspiration examples to make use of.
I always recommend inspiration aids (Story Cubes, opening a book to a random page and picking a random significant word, etc) when playing solo journaling games, because you don't have other players to bounce ideas off of.
I very much like All Towers, because it's provided me with much-needed catharsis as I imagine a world I survive and make better, rather than sinking into catastrophizing despair, even though I prefer quieter games. For those who like a tense experience rather than one more at ease, All Towers is ideal.
These are excerpts of a sample playthrough.
Day 1. Tower count: 0.
Morning (I: The Magician). I decided to visit the Buddhist temple on this island. At the temple I feel like the world is still alive and thriving. The monks here maintain the natural scenery even though global warming has devastated so many places, including my island. I meditate here.
Noon (VI: The Lovers). I ask the head monk if I could become a monk here too. They said no because they can't support too many people here, however there are other temples I can apply to.
I decide to study how to become a Buddhist monk while I send applications for work at other temples.
Evening (XIII: Death). I discover that I can't leave the island anyways. Travel has been blocked by the government because of the fuel shortage.
Day 2. Tower count: 0.
Morning (XV: The Devil*). [As a trigger card, I now add the Tower and the World to the deck.] As morning dawns, I've been studying Buddhism all through the previous night. I think about how we need to meet each other halfway during the end of the world. Nowadays helping other people is the best and most important way for us all to survive.
Noon (XVIII: The Star). I brew tea and cook a comfort meal of sweet rice with Chinese sausage. I eat lunch while chatting on IRC with my best friend. Afterwards I eat mikan while thinking about how much I've healed from the past.
Evening (X: The Wheel of Fortune). Many people have left the island by being rich enough to escape the Earth into space. Afterwards, day by day, more and more animals returned. Tonight I watch a snowy owl fly across the clearing silent like a pale ghost.
Day 3. Tower count 0; the Tower and World are in the deck.
Morning (III: The Empress). The Washington State government has started a program to distribute food to everyone left. Surprisingly the quantity and quality of the food boxes were pretty good! There's even multiple options for food sensitivties and allergies. These days the farmers have food surpluses.
Noon (XVI: The Tower). [Tower count increases by one, and the Tower is reshuffled into the deck.] Global warming is currently causing devastating weather.
Evening (VIII: Strength). I apply to keep my current housing now that the landlord corporation has disbanded due to leadership rocketing off the Earth. At least I'll have a roof over my head.
Day 4. Tower count 1.
Morning (XX: Judgement). [Tower count resets to 0.] Currently I can't do much to improve my situation as my job in the previous world permanently disabled me, even before the world began falling apart. I start painting again.
Noon (II: The High Priestess). I learn about a program where people can get financial support to move to another place as long as they have family (including found family) there. I think about applying...
Evening (XI: Justice). I chat with my dearest friends about using this program to reunite with them. We decided to also apply for an additional program where we can send packages to each other for free.
--- days of nail-biting setbacks and determination pass ---
Day 8. Tower count: 1. Deck is very, very thin.
Morning (XVI: The Tower). [Tower count increases by 1 to 2, Tower shuffled back into deck. If we draw it again we end the game prematurely.] I get on a ferry off the island, then get on a plane to get to the agreed-upon meeting place.
Noon (XIV: Temperance). [There's like two cards left in the deck after drawing this one, and one of them is the Tower...] I and my found family find each other in the airport and embrace.
Evening (XXI: The World). [We drew the World before the Tower count hit 3! The world is not destroyed.] We stay at a hotel while we plan out our new life together as we watch the news report about the world starting to stabilize now that the rich people are gone and no longer taking up all the food, water, housing, farmable land and crops, and fuel.
The End
PS: I can only assume the Tower ended up hitting the rich people rocket instead.
Wow, that was intense and extremely cathartic. With just 22 cards (the Major Arcana) All Towers creates an apocalyptic yet hopeful journey of about eight (in game) days. The Tower mechanic creates rising tension, appropriate as this is a mid-apocalyptic rather than post-apocalyptic game, yet there is more than enough to keep hope alive and allow you to come up with ways to survive. Despite the small number of cards, the way the Tower mechanism is designed you won't find yourself cut off too early, and it is far more likely you will finish the game at the wire.
I needed this game, after being in the Pacific Northwest where we all recently baked nearly to death to the point that roads buckled and powerlines melted. Being able to envision a realistic way to survive climate change helped me a lot to get my head back on straight.