Elegy
A downloadable game
Become a vampire
Elegy is a solo role-playing game about surviving the big city nights as a vampire. Feed to keep your fury at bay, play your role in maintaining the secrecy of the vampire society, create deep bonds with other characters and fulfill promises to make your unlife meaningful to you.
Features
- Versatile rules: Elegy's rules are intuitive and light, and they feature many optional systems to make gameplay more rich and complex. They are also based on Ironsworn, a pioneer of solo RPGs.
- Character customization: Create and evolve your vampire based on your unique combination of skills, supernatural powers, backgrounds, and traits (optionally vibing to the official character creation Spotify playlist).
- Sandbox scenario: Customize and navigate your own version of the sinister Santa Maria and populate it with mortals, werewolves, mages and vampires from different factions.
- Random tables: Generate places, characters and events on the go, or opt for the one-click, digital versions of these tables in Chartopia.
- Multiplayer gameplay: Two options — guided by a GM and co-op.
- Professional graphic design: The design for the book, sheets, and asset cards is completely created by a professional.
Licensing
Elegy is a Miracle M game licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license. Credits for mechanics, pictures, and inspiration are appropriately given in the beginning of the book.
Thank you!
Moro de Oliveira
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Elegy 3.5 (minor updates + ebook for e-readers!)Jul 31, 2024
- Elegy for Kindle: Yay or Nay?May 26, 2024
- Minor fixes in the bookDec 27, 2023
- Ho, Ho Ho! Elegy 3 is out!Dec 23, 2023
- Quick look on next Elegy update!Dec 20, 2023
- New version coming soon: fresh truths, NPCs, quests and optional rules!Dec 09, 2023
- What would you like to see in future versions of Elegy?Nov 09, 2023
- Elegy website out nowSep 16, 2023
Comments
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Heya! I've been currently checking out some singleplayer RPGS, and I decided to try and pick up this game for funsies :D
Just a clarification regarding the current character sheet - what are the little bars next to the health/spirit/blood sections for?
Hello!
They're progress tracks. You use them to track your progress in missions, connections and fights.
Oooh, I see :0 thank you very much!
Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I'd like some clarification (for 3.5) on something? Specifically when it comes to starting assets. On page 29, it says to choose at least 1 power, but on page 9, it just says to choose any three assets. So for starting assets, choose anything or choose at least 1 power?
For the record: at least 1 power.
26 scenes and 50k words into my playthrough, I think it's safe to say that I adore Elegy. I'd been curious about the Ironsworn system, and this is exactly the skin/setting/vibes that were going to sell me on it and on such a longform solo RPG. This is an obvious labor of love, with a phenomenal aesthetic and great worldbuilding elements, imminently adaptable to different interpretations of vampire and urban fantasy lore. Truly, the vibes are impeccable.
I really appreciate how the Playing the Game chapter is structured; the emphasis on an all-purpose flow combined with optional/example moves helped me grok the system, then learn to implement it, then freed me to implement on the fly instead of stopping to check the handbook. It gives my game a lot of momentum.
Also a big fan of the default feminine pronouns.
I'll be playing this for a while, and I'm crazy in love with my protagonist and her strange circle of NPCs. She's hunting down ritual magics that were buried by the past queen while trying to navigate the thorny interpersonal dynamics borne of various blood links; wish her luck! And thank you for this game. 🖤🖤🖤
Two corrections for 3.5:
pg 73 "while others assume forms that remember cats, rats, bears, etc." should be resemble?
pg 133-142 The headers and footers for the Oracles section are doubled(?) which makes for overlaid, illegible text.
Hello, Juushika!
Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you're having so much fun with the system! It's always cool to hear the stories players create.
I'm currently playtesting the 4th edition, which will change a lot of stuff. If you want to keep up with the development, I suggest you check the discord server. I often post test design for rules and sheets, and we're always having fun chatting about anything!
And good luck to your vampire 🖤
Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity in providing community copies of your game. I’m a disabled pension who can’t afford much so these free gifts really help me out in playing games and keeping my mind active.
I really appreciate your hard work and kindness
You're welcome, my friend.
Love it! Minor typo p9, "Power assets are assets are vampiric"
Thank you!
I leave my review of the game here. Great work!! Thanks!!
Great Game!! I love it!!!
Being based on Ironsworn the system have a tweak that make it much more simple abandoning the moves (existing as an optional rules) without loosing the deepness.
The Vampire thematic gives a new air to the genre. As a 30 years Forever DM of VTM still give me a lot of inspiring ideas for my new chronicle and even better yet, i am going to use the Truths to create a new world that refresh the genre itself.
The oracle is great!! If you play Ironsworn and want to try a modern setting with conspiracy and investigation this game is a MUST only for the oracle itself, even if you don´t want the vampire genre.
I used this game without vampires for a one shoot of Cthulhu and one shoot of Cyberpunnk (with Starforged´s assets) and enjoy both a lot.
And that was the version 3.0. I still didn´t read the 3.5 version.
Thank you so much, R0D0!
Check the 3.5 version, you'll like it even more!
Hey! I love love this game, Solo TTRPGs are my favorite! I work for a TTRPG Publisher (Mythworks) and would love to chat with you about potentially collaborating with us to get your games published in print? Feel free to send me an email contact@myth.works if you’re interested, I know I really am! Keep up the good work :)
Just sent an email!!
Hi, I love your take on a solo vampire TTRPG and I look forward to trying it myself. I was wondering if you might release a form fillable PDF character sheet for people who can't print off pages?
It'd be great since I don't own a printer myself.
Didn't think about that. Great call! Will do.
Hello Moro,
congratulations for this fantastic product. The quality is incredibly high (insanely high if you consider that it's a free product!).
If you want it, I make myself available to translate in italian to make it playable in that language too: the Character Sheet, Oracles Reference, Moves Reference, Asset Cards and Truth Sheet (in order). The Book it's too much for the time I have a disposal : D
What do you think?
Hello, fellow neo-latin native speaker!
I'm up to it.
Check my contacts on the second page of the PDF and reach me however you like.
Awesome, I wrote you an email : )
Hello! Small question. For the Familiar power Asset, it says when you drain a small animal it becomes your familiar. Does that mean you can only take this power if you also have the Animal Drinker nature Asset which is needed to drink blood from animals from what I read?
Animal Drinker is unrequired. You may drain animals anyway you come up with (letting them bleed to death, for example).
Hi Moro!
I had my first read-through. Great Game!
I found some typos and wrote down two or three thoughts I had while reading. I put them below. Please know, that they are no critique whatsoever, just some thoughts I had and that I’d like to share.
Thanks again for the fun I’m having with this!
P.S. Oh, And I’d love to have a table of content in the moves reference. That would speed things a bit, especially in the beginning.
P.P.S. “, you gain experience ponts per”, p. 39.
P.P.P.S. The Form a Bond move on p. 52 says, earn XP according to rank, but then lists ticks and boxes as if it were a progress track. Shouldn’t XP be earned in whole points?
Hello, Loxlei!
I'll fix the typos as soon as my day job lets me, and I'll consider building a Moves table of contents in the next update — it's very reasonable, and I'm grateful for your idea.
Also, it always makes me glad to know someone else is having fun with my little game.
Thanks for your feedback!
Hi! Very nice project you have here. However, I skip over the compliments, I'd like to simply give you other feedback on typos, FAQ requests etc. My proofreader mind forces me to do it... :D
'till now, I found (in the 3.5 file):
- page 34: Healing. I think I need additional details about it. How much Health? For example, at page 35 Resting it's more explicit on it. Also, it's different if I get a weak or a strong hit on Healing? Probably, should. I see some detail about recuperating health on Benefits at page 33, but this isn't clear. It's confusing, because that's means that I could gain health during other actions I could make in fiction (and with other Stats)... so? Should I use this benefit only during Healing action? Then, I'd remove it from page 33, and put on page 34 along the Healing rules. On the contrary, if it has to stay on page 33, then the Healing rules feels somewhat superfluous; also, this means that with a weak hit I should take one cost as explained at page 33.
- end of page 34, initial phrase at page 35 (about Appearing Human): the whole phrase construction isn't clear.
- page 35: "During character creation, you can choose up to three non-power assets" I think I didn't see this rule at page 9, and also at page 29 it says "Pick three assets (at least 1 power)". Confusing, I say.
- page 36: "Allies can contribute to your action by making an Action Roll to help you. On a hit, you gain a bonus you can leverage to improve your chance of success. If more than one ally does this, bonuses can be stacked." It's pretty unspecific. Are you referring to the specific "you or an ally gain +2" found on "You create or seize an opportunity" at page 33? If this is true, then you could repeat the rule also at page 36; this could avoid confusion. If (as in Healing rules I mentioned before?) the rules are different, then you could give more details about it.
- I found Progress Track rules at page 37-38 very lacking. If a reader never played Ironsworn, he can't grasp the concept of "ticks", or the concepts of partially filling a square, or (for example) filling 3 full squares in a troublesome track.
- I found the whole optional Moves rule chapter very intrusive, starting from page 44. IMHO, you should decide if you want a lighter, less intrusive system (as the one you proposed in the main rules), or if you want to throw yourself in the full, heavier, mechanics related to the dozens of moves you usually find in games like Ironsworn or Apocalypse World. If you really can't decide, and you want them both (while this is still confusing, for example you can't have Assets that make direct mentions to some specific Move), I humbly suggest to move the optional Move chapter to the end of the book, not underfoot in the middle of it.
- page 89: very minor, in the last rows you used 1tick/harm, while before you used the formula x tick per harm.
Hello, Andrea!
Thank you so, so much for the feedback and directness. For a small creator like me, an insight such as yours is gold.
I'm working on new rules for the 4th edition, basically rebuilding everything from scratch, taking in consideration all the problems you've pointed out and making many other improvements. Right now, I'm playtesting the rules as I build them. If you're interested in keeping up with the project, I suggest you check out the official discord server. The link is in the project page.
Again, thank you!
Hi, I have a question about custom assets.
I am planning to have some lore related stuff be translated or take form of an asset, such as connection to people, influence, places or specific items.
Do we still have to spend 3 exp to get them or do the character obtain them when they do obtain them?
I'm bad at judging if something is too OP or not so another opinion would be a really big help for me.
Acquiring assets requires two things:
For example, you can't just "learn" to be a Gunslinger out of the blue, you also must frame it fictionally: the character trains hard by herself with a gun, or is taught by someone else, your call — it just has to make sense inside the story.
If I were you, I'd write specific conditions for buying the asset, like "this asset can only be chosen when you gather information about X", or something along these lines.
Good luck!
Ah that makes more sense, thank you.
If you want to create your on assets, have a look at https://effortlessmountain.github.io/ironsworn-asset-workbench/assets/new. It makes creating the cards a breeze. (Not my project.)
Hi Moro!
The link to Elegy Light in the announcement is dead. Is it not available any more?
Elegy Lite didn't die, it became what Elegy is today. The liteness was centered around the one-size-fits-all Action Roll.
Originally, Elegy had as many moves as Starforged. Now, moves are an optional rule.
Ah, I see. Thanks for the explanation!
I downloaded Elegy and skimmed through. Great stuff! Looking forward to a read-through on the weekend.
I hope you have a blast!
I do!
Looks amazing, but I’m a bit confused by both Awe and Lore Keeper. They have “+1 forward” listed as effects. Did you mean “+1 focus” on those?
+1 forward means +1 in the next related action.
Wow! You did such a great work here... Thank you very much!
You're welcome!
I've been itching to play WoD/CoD games for many years, but I can't find a group to play with.
Elegy is an absolute blessing, and I can't wait to properly sink my teeth (sorry :p) into the game.
Thank you so much for creating this fantastic game.
**If anybody is interested in giving some of the other WoD games (Mage, Geist, Werewolf, whatever) the Elegy/Ironsworn treatment, reach out and maybe we can collaborate :)
A labor of love. Amazing work, Miracle M!
You combine the mechanics of Ironsworn and VtM really well.
Thank you so much!
On a skim this looks like a great adaptation of the Starforged rules (and that's coming from a diehard werewolf enthusiast)!
Hello! As I continue to read the (excellent) rulebook, I noticed another confusing thing.
On page 35, it is stated that "During character creation, you can choose up to three non-power assets, including any ritual assets" but on page 29, it is stated that I must "Pick three assets (at least 1 power)".
So, which is the correct one?
At least one power, friend.
Thanks!
so awesome 🧛🏻♂️
Thank you! 🧛♀️
the new version made what was already excellent excellent... a robust system that mixes ironsworn and vampire the masquerade with perfection...
Thank you so much, my friend!
Hello! I love Elegy 3 so far. I am currently using it in a modern-day/near-future science fantasy setting where vampires and werebeasts peacefully and openly coexist with humans. I use Starforged for the humans and Silversworn for the werebeasts.
I have a few questions however:
Hello, Cavenir!
1. Will add this to an update: "When you meditate silently for 30 minutes while repeating the name of someone with whom you share a blood link you can communicate telepathically with her for one scene." Thank you for noticing!
2. Yes. See Weaknesses in page 59.
3. It reverses your sleep cycle. You still spend 1 blood to wake up.
4. Of course! Feel free to do whatever you want with the game.
5. You can still pick Fierce and use your claws, it works mechanically the same way, just narratively different. And you can still pick Path of Radiance.
And thank you for your compliment! I hope you have a blast!Thank you so much!
But the "reverses your sleep cycle" thing is a bit unclear to me tbh. Since the rules state that I wake up every sunset, why do I need to utilize the second ability of the Path of Radiance (where it states that you wake up at sunset and rest at sunrise)?
Also, if I use the first ability of the Path of Radiance do I still need to spend 1 Blood to wake up every day?
Oh, and do I still have the ability to spend blood to pretend to be human if I have the Weak Blood asset?
Oof, that's on me. The second Path of Radiance ability should say you awake at sunrise. Will fix that too. And the third ability is made pretty much useless by being Weak Blood.
Thank you so much!
One last question, since it has not been answered yet.
Do I still need to spend 1 Blood to wake up if I use the first ability of the Path of Radiance?
Yes, because it makes yo awake for an entire day (24h).
How is this a FREE game at this level of weight and polish?! And professionally so?!
W h a t ? H O W ? !
I love it.
Oh, you! 🤭
Im running a 1030s game now, im digging it. Look forward to blood sorcery (one of my players keeps asking after it) I've shoehorned in human mages and i use silversworn for werewolfs.
Wow, really cool! I never thought about actually using Elegy for in a dark age setting. How's it going? Also, how are you doing the mage stuff?
This is awesome!
One question - will a new version with backs for the cards be released?
Thanks!
I might include that in future updates!
Thank you!
Hello hello, I have a question for you, my girlfriend is interested in translating this for free into Spanish, she likes this kind of things, and she is a translator, and she wants to make a little portfolio, is it possible that she can do it? By the way, sorry for my poor English.
Of course!
I really liked the game. The layout is impressive and the book is gorgeous. Rules-wise, I'd like to ask for more options on each truth, since they are quite polarizing (either you get VTM-like things or you get the other ones), and also a truth about the origin of vampirism, just to further customize the game, but those are my own requests.
Also, if I wanted to make fan content, do you have any third party policy in mind? Or is it ok to publish under the same CC-BY 4.0 license?
Hello! Thank you for your feedback.
To be honest I thought about other truths but I didn't include any because they weren't that interesting tbh. I might revamp this aspect of the game in the future and introduce many new truths — I'd love to! In the meantime, I must think about them. The one about the origin of vampirism is great!
I totally forgot about the fan content question. Sorry!
You're totally allowed to do custom content. All you have to do is follow the same license.
And please, if you do, don't forget to tell me! I'd love to see other people's visions about Elegy.
Adorei essa pegada de ironsworn para vampiro
Valeu!
I happily purchased a copy of the book and have thoroughly gone through it. I must say, it's truly impressive. The document exudes a high level of professionalism, and I'm particularly enamored of the powers, background, stats, and city setting. After reading it, I really want to dive in to Elegy.
However, I must admit that I'm facing a bit of a challenge due to my lack of experience with Ironsworn and solo RPGs. I'm struggling to grasp the practical application of the rules. I've been diligently taking notes, but it feels like I'm going in circles. I learn best when I can immerse myself in examples, and that's the one thing I'd respectfully suggest might be missing.
Are you aware of any resources or individuals who have provided examples of combat using the system and powers? Perhaps combat that leads to and is later affected by stress, impacts, or losing control due to hunger? In short, examples would be a huge help to newbies like me.
Hi, Mordred!
Thank you for your feedback. You're right, including an example of gameplay in the book would not be a bad idea. I will keep that in mind for future revisions.
Anyway, KJ Curry has published a bit of her Elegy gameplay on her channel. You might want to check it so you can get a taste of what the game can play like.
KJ Curry did a wonderful job. I hope she continues past the second session.
Thank you for the reply and for those of us who learn by exemplars, please do kindly consider adding some detailed examples of the system.
What font did you use for the headers of this book? It looks very good.
Indeed, it's a great font! It's called Mason Serif.
Hey, quick question: would it be possible for you to include (or separately publish) a changelog for new versions of the rules? For example, it's currently not possible to see, whether an update was just fixing a typo or whether game mechanics were changed.
Cheers.
Of course. I did that on the last version (not on the others, my bad). You can see it in the devlog on this same page. Cheers!
I've not read completely through, yet, but it looks great so far. Definitely great work on the layout and art!
Quick question (p. 26):
Shouldn't this be "at 0 blood"? (also "consume" w/o the s).Hi!
You're absolutely right. I just updated the whole sinner part.
Thank you!
Hey, thanks for your response. I finished the book and really enjoyed the lore chapters. Looking forward to giving it a go.
If you don't mind, I have some more comments and suggestions about the rules :)
There is a typo on p. 55:
About the correction for Sinner (and sorry about not noticing this before):
and further below
I would interpret consuming as drinking, i.e. increasing blood from 0 to something higher, but I think you mean pay/spend/lose blood points, correct?
Elegies
Without reading Ironsworn and being familiar with iron vows it might be difficult to imagine what elegies should look like. A few examples or even faction/lineage-based starting elegies to choose from could help with that.
Blood usage
On p. 10 it says
and further down in the comments you mentioned
However, this could be made clearer in the book. It would be nice to have a short section "Using powers" in chapter 3 ("Playing the Game") that explicitely
Moves
I noticed that there are no moves in your game. This reminds me of World of Dungeons, where practically everything is Dungeon World's Defy Danger move, which is formulated similar to your Action Rolls. Do you plan on creating specific moves in the future or did you specifically decide against them? I always find moves to be a good way to introduce more structure to the game and especially to capture the atmosphere of the genre you play in.
Health
Last but not least, I would be interested to know what you think about and if you ever thought about replacing health and blood with only one Blood resource that represents both health and a character's pool to spend on powers. This would further increase the impact of the decision when to use blood and for what.
Cheers!
Firstly, thank you for your awesome feedback. You've been extremely helpful.
I'll correct the typos, add some examples of elegies (maybe all in the same section, maybe along relevant text parts) and change consume to spend — this one is so obvious, I can't believe I didn't see the confusion!
About the blood usage, I'll make all that clearer. I guess I'll expand the Hunger section instead of adding another one, but I'm not sure yet.
On having no moves (only two types of rolls): Elegy started with almost as many moves as Starforged (so more than 30). It might be partly a matter of personal taste, but I found out that having so many moves was getting on the way of the actual storytelling — I hate stopping my game to look for a rule. To me, that kind of rhythm is more important in a more atmospheric game like VtM than it is in Ironsworn.
Lastly, I actually considered merging Health and Blood in the beginning of the development. It's a very interesting concept, but I couldn't think of an elegant way to pull it off considering aspects of the meters (how fast they go down, how often they should be almost empty, how scarce their resources should be, etc.). Plus, the greater diversity of resources creates richer combinations of situations and challenges your character could face.
Again, thanks for the feedback. I'll implement it and credit you asap.
Have a nice day!
This is incredible, Moro.
Thank you!
Hi! I really like the game so far, it's super fun! I'm playing as a vampire detective/P.I. and enjoying it quite a bit. I have a couple questions though!
First of all, I think your oracles are somewhat incomplete, at least if I'm interpreting them correctly. All of the oracles under General and most under Characters share the same issue, being that there are missing numbers. There are columns for 00-10, 20-30, 40-50, 60-70, and 80-90, but no responses for 11-19, 31-39, etc. Am I misunderstanding the way dice are supposed to be used with these tables? Is it like role a d100 to see if you get 00, 10, 20, 30, etc, and then go to the respective column and roll a d10?
Another question I have is using blood. If i don't use a power that requires me to use blood, won't I almost never lose blood? Or I guess my question is really what situations outside of using powers would cause my character to lose blood?
Thanks for taking the time to make this, I love it a lot! I hope my questions make sense and don't come across in a negative way, I love what you've done so far!
EDIT: After reading the rules I see you use a blood everytime you wake up as well as using blood to heal, awesome makes sense! But I still want to know if there are other causes to losing blood other than those 2, although those seem like more than enough to me now that i understand them.
Hi! Glad to hear you're having fun with your vampire detective!
About those oracles: The columns represent the tens, and the lines represent the units. In other words, you roll 1d10 to meet a column and 1d10 to meet a line.
About the blood: You always expend 1 point of blood when you awake each sunset, appear human for a scene, use a supernatural power or heal yourself (edit: after answering this post, I updated the bit about blood and hunger on page 36 to make it clearer). Even if you don't have any Power assets, you'll end up spending blood and needing to feed.
If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask them!
How okay is it to tweak the rules for the setting like how sunlight affects Vampires or adding different monsters to the setting like tooth fairy mice, banshees, mummies or fairies in general.
I personally have no plan to do that officially, but everyone's free to play the game however they want. For the other monsters, you can even base their stats on the ones already existing. That's what I would do.
This definitely scratches the vampire itch! Great work! This is seriously professional level stuff.
Thank you so much!
Great work! Have you ever thought about adapting other aspects of WOD like Mage or Werewolf? Thanks for the hardwork!
Thanks for the compliment!
I've included werewolves and wizards (mages) as sample NPC types. I might include more detailed types of those characters in the future (perhaps with exclusive oracles), but creating player characters that are not vampires would require a really, really deep change in the system.
Amazing work.... the perfect union of Ironsworn and Vampire the Masquerade... If you love World of Darkness, you need to play this :-)
Thank you so much!