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Children of Time: The Roleplaying Game

Par Rowan, Rook and Decard

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Statut actuel

Pledge Manager ouvert Fin de campagne : 11/08/2026

Fonds récoltés : 185 479 €

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Text reads "CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE BETA PLAYTEST." Image the core book set and a blueprint map of an ark ship sits alongside.

Composite of sci-fi images. At the top, an ark ship slowing signs of damage is approaching a green-blue planet; on the bottom, a big structure built by uplifted spiders rises out of a forest. It looks like a great bone-white tree, and it has webs coming off it. Several spiders are hanging out in the foreground admiring their work. Central text reads: BUILD SOCIETIES. BUILD CHARACTERS. THROW THEM INTO CHAOS. SEE HOW THEY EVOLVE.

Main text: Why Are We Here? Subtitle: "We're going on an adventure." Children of Ruin, Adrian Tchaikovsky

Children of Time: The Roleplaying Game is a tabletop roleplaying game based on Adrian Tchaikovsky's award winning science fiction novels, where societies embark on epic, era-spanning journeys of growth, endurance, and self-discovery.

In the wake of global annihilation, the last remnants of humanity abandon a dying Earth on colossal ark ships, in a desperate bid to find a new home among the stars. Their journey will last thousands of years: they follow ancient star charts that promise terraformed paradise worlds, just waiting for humanity to claim.

But paradise is already occupied. Unknown to humanity, the terraforming process deployed millennia ago had unforeseen consequences – an animal species imported from a pre-collapse Earth has gained sentience and seeks to master their home planet.

Two uplifted spiders sharing information by encoding it in webs. They're in a tunnel, and the one in the foreground looks surprised - it has raised its legs up and is waggling its pedipalps. Maybe it's a scary story.

In the Children of Time RPG, you become the authors of this grand tale. Construct an ark ship of your own and embark on an uncharted exodus towards a planet of your own making, all while you uplift and nurture animals of your own choosing. Or retell the epic saga of the ark ship Gilgamesh and the evolution of the Portiid spiders on Kern’s World. The choice is yours.

Build your legacy of twinned societies across millenia, switching focus from your ailing ark, ship to your evolving planet, and back again as you face existential crises that forever alter the course of history. All to answer the greatest question imaginable: when your beaten ark ship limps into orbit around your history-rich planet, what will your two civilisations do when they finally meet?

Time and fate are in your hands.

Three uplifted pangolins exploring a cracked and dry desert. They have backpacks made of woven strips of cloth and they've painted their scales in blue, pink and orange for I presume fashion reasons. In the distance, a crashed terraformer module - some audacious space junk - looms large.

Heading: How it's played. Subheading: ““Evolution had gifted them with a profoundly complex toolkit for taking the world apart to see if there was a crab hiding under it.” Children of Ruin, Adrian Tchaikovsky

Designed in partnership with Adrian Tchaikovsky, the game's systems work to tell generation-spanning stories of entropy and evolution. The game is an evolution of various systems from previous Rowan, Rook, and Decard titles: the sci-fi worldbuilding and multi-generational storytelling of Legacy: Life Among The Ruins are combined with the beloved fallouts and beats systems from Heart: The City Beneath, which center player agency and turn failure into a dramatic storytelling moment.

Every game of the Children of Time Roleplaying game focuses around a Crisis - the sort of problem that defines an era. Crises are tracked with clocks that are filled in when players make progress towards saving the day - and that chart their descent into misfortune and doom.

On the ark ship, a crisis could be a raging fire, a mutiny, or a dispute over where to land. On the planet, your people might face overcrowding, civil war, or strange creatures from beyond the edge of the map.

The Inferno Clock: A six step clock that starts with two segments marked. Rules discuss how ticks are added and removed, and there's a list of fallout the crisis might apply. — From the Fire crisis aboard the ark: race the clock as you try to quell the flames.

During the session, any player can take control of any character and play stance.

Characters are simple - they’re a name, a couple of abilities determined by their place in society, the cohort they're grouped with, their skills, and a handful of motivations. You might have one character you stick to, or move between multiple.
Play stances allow a player to do things that are usually the responsibility of the GM, like acting as non-player characters, describing the world, or determining exactly how things go wrong. You might prefer to stick to one stance, or flick between them when the mood takes you.

The six play stances: Viewpoint You’re acting through a character, according to their situation, mindset and goals. World You’re working to maintain the consistency of the environment the characters exist in, and acting on them through that environment. Guide You’re helping the table remember the game’s rules and procedures. Doom You’re telling the other players what makes a task hard to accomplish, or throwing nasty costs their way. Crowd You’re voicing the various minor characters that the lead characters are interacting with. Historian You’re keeping track of the grand narrative you’re building together, and pushing everyone at the table to build on what’s gone before and make interesting decisions. — The six different play stances, and the things they each push players to focus on.

Play has three different phases: Speculation, Schemes and Viewpoint Scenes. We start in Speculation, and zoom into the other two as required.

During Speculation, the whole group talks through the events of the ongoing narrative. What’s going to happen next? What problems do we need to overcome thanks to the crisis? Speculation doesn’t use dice, it’s a back-and-forth conversation - if we want to focus on a particular character and their challenges, that’s when the other phases kick in.

During Schemes, a player picks up a character and attempts to advance their goals in the background. Each Scheme has its own unique set of mechanics that allow it to affect the wider story whilst determining any unforeseen side-effects: some use six-sided dice, some relate to the character’s skills and traits, and some are completely diceless.

During Viewpoint Scenes, a player picks a character, and we see their attempts to get what they want - usually overcoming a challenge or convincing someone to see things from their perspective, and often relating directly to the crisis. When the scene’s at its peak, the player rolls a pool of between one and four six-sided dice depending on their skills and their cohort, picks the highest, and works out whether they succeeded and how much it’ll cost them.

When rolling dice, characters can opt to use:

Reach (take a chance and risk blowing it)
Grasp (get what they want, with strategic sacrifice)
Sleight (be subtle, hide their actions, keep one eye on the exit).

Three result tables for the approaches: Reach 6+ You get exactly what you want. 4–5 You get what you want, but trigger a light fallout. 0–3 It all goes wrong. You don’t get what you want, and also trigger a severe fallout. Grasp 6+ You get what you want. 0–5 No fallout is triggered, but time passes and the situation shifts. Boost your roll by using these options: → Trigger a light fallout to add +1 to a dice result. → Trigger a medium fallout to add +2 to a dice result. → Trigger a severe fallout to add +4 to a dice result. Sleight 6+ Pick three of the options below. 4–5 Pick two. 0–3 Pick one. → No-one notices you. → You leave this situation. → You achieve your goal. → You don’t trigger a medium fallout. If someone notices you, apply Difficult or Perilous to later Sleight rolls in this scene. — Three approaches; three sets of results.

However the scene resolves, the table zooms out to Speculation and the cycle begins again. As the crisis continues, it offers up new challenges and unexpected problems related to the core concept - and however the players resolve it, for good or ill, it will leave its mark on the culture.

View of the cryo pods inside an ark ship, where people in suspended animation are frozen for centuries until they're needed. Gantries and walkways criss-cross a large central shaft with the pods lining the walls. It's dark aside from the glow of the pods and light entering from the top of the shaft. An engineer stands on the platform nearest to us and indicates something important off-camera.

Main heading: What Are We Making? Subheading: “We call our discoveries across the stars, each to each. We come running at the promise of something new.” Children of Memory, Adrian Tchaikovsky

This crowdfunding campaign establishes a whole new game system. With that comes a complete collection of books and accessories. Please note: all product images in this campaign are digital mockups. The designs depicted here will likely change in the final products.

Text reads "THE COREBOOK SET." Picture shows the slipcase, which has the composite image from this campaign on the cover, and also the three books that go inside it: your Future, Your World, and Your Ship.

The Children of Time RPG comes as a three book slipcase set. Each book focuses on a different facet of your play: the ark ship hurtling towards a new dawn, the planet that awaits the humans aboard, and the setup and rules that govern your storytelling as you go. Each book is made with distinct layout styles and different materials, so they truly feel like relics from differing cultures.

Your Future: Play as ancient terraformers deep in space, pick a planet you want to make your own, and experience the sudden downfall of your people, as you scramble to save what you can before it's too late. The book feels like a high-gloss prospectus from a culture at its technological peak, and holds the core rules of the game and a gameplay tutorial set during the time of the Old Empire.

Screenshot of a spread from Your Future detailing planet creation. You'll decide things like: air, climate, orbit, life, tectonics and water.

Your Ship: Provides everything you need to play as the desperate post-apocalyptic descendants of humanity. Build your own ark ship and flee the dying ruins of Earth as you embark upon your perilous journey across the stars. The book is designed to look and feel like a well-worn technical manual, with texture and notes from previous users splattered throughout its pages.

Screenshot of a spread from Your Ship. Left page is titled "DISCONTENT," right page is titled "CREATING YOUR ARK." There's an interview with a crew member in the bottom left, along with a polaroid photo of them at work.

Your World: Hands you the reins of evolution on a world long abandoned by the Old Empire terraformers. Choose which animal species to uplift and move through centuries as they evolve, build their own culture, and face incredible strife. The book is bound in vegan leather, with a naturalistic layout style that makes it feel like a history book from an alien culture.

Screenshot of a spread from Your World. It's a Crisis - one of the scenarios that power the game - and this one is WAR. It features the octopus fighting image from earlier. On the right side you can see a WAR PROGRESS clock which tracks the ongoing conflict.

You asked for it and we listened! We've adding a whole new book to the campaign: stand alone solo mode of the Children of time RPG.

Some quick fire points so you know what this means for you.

The Solo Mode is a standalone book that contains everything you need to play the game by yourself, including full rules, crises, and prompts all adjusted for a solo play experience. You won’t need to buy the corebook set to play solo (though the Time Capsule is still a great accessory!)
The book is designed to sit alongside the Children of Time novels, so expect a trade paperback with a simpler layout, largely black and white interiors, and a section of gorgeous colour plates.
You can add a physical or digital copy of the solo mode to your pledge as an add-on, or if you’re a new backer, we’ve also added a new Solo Mode only pledge level as well. The physical version costs £16 while the digital version costs £8.

IMPORTANT: All backers of the I Want Everything physical and digital pledge levels will receive a physical or digital copy of the solo mode for free! So those bundles give you even greater value now!

If you’re hungry for more details, you’re in luck! We’ve dragged Chant Evans into the team to spearhead the writing and design of this one, and he’s kindly provided us with a rundown of what you can expect.

Text reads "THE TIME CAPSULE." Image shows a mockup of the Time Capsule box, which contains handouts and play aids.

The Time Capsule is a box bursting with play aids to help your group run the Children of Time RPG as smoothly as possible. It includes:

Details of what's inside the Time Capsule. You get: - Six Play Role handout cards - Crisis Clock tear out pad For the Planet focus: - Character sheet tear out pad - Cohort sheet tear out pad - Location tear out pad - Planet map (A2) For the Ark Ship focus: - Character sheet tear out pad - Cohort sheet tear out pad - Location tear out pad - Ship blueprint (A2) Also the box has room for your dice and your project coin, too, if you get those.

The Time Capsule is also designed with similar dimensions to the core book slipcase set, and comes with space fillers to hold all your additional Children of Time RPG accessories. That way, you can tidy the game and all its components away into a pair of neat boxes on your shelf.

Text reads "THE QUICKSTART." Image shows the cover of the Quickstart - that Pangolin exploration image from earlier, but this time you can also see the terraformer satellite hanging in the air above the planet.

The Children of Time RPG Quickstart is a high quality booklet which contains everything you need to dive head first into the Children of Time universe.

STRETCH GOAL BONUS!: The Quickstart will now also include a short story written by Adrian Tchaikovsky, features a dangerous investigation into the works of a Pangolin religious poet, whose most recent work threatens to upend everything their society knows about their place in the universe.
Details on the newest species to join the panspecific community: Pangolins! Written with the aid and advice of Adrian Tchaikovsky himself.
Ready-to-play characters from two eras: the human staff of an Old Empire terraforming station, and members of a burgeoning society of uplifted Pangolins.
Twinned crisis flashpoints: jump between the terraformers seeding this world with life as they face their own extinction and the nascent Pangolin civilization encountering the terraformers' technology – and the thing that killed them.
Will support you in telling a self-contained story lasting multiple sessions, or serve as a perfect jumping-off point should you decide to continue the adventure.

Text reads "GROUP REFERENCE SCREEN." Image shows the frankly bonkers four-sided H-shaped screen we've cooked up which lets multiple people use it from multiple angles at once. On some of the panels there's nice big pictures of spaceships; on others there's rules references.

The Children of Time RPG isn’t a traditional roleplaying game with a strict GM, so we’re doing something different with our GM screen: an innovative three-sided Group Reference Screen. The internally-folding design, on robust cardstock and foil, lets you flip back and forth between the ark ship and the planet section at the table.

A GIF showing the way the screen folds, shifting between ark and planet modes. Each side holds a list of beats, assets, fallout, and dice rolling steps.

Text reads "THE DEMO KIT." Image shows the demo bit and some of the cards within - all white on black, very cool.

Learn as you play using this set of 16 A5 cards which act as the perfect tutorial and play aid for the Children of Time RPG. The Demo Kit is designed to take 60-90 minutes to play through, making it a great way to share and teach the Children of Time RPG at clubs, stores, or whenever you're too time-strapped to fit in a full session.

Text reads "CUSTOM DICE." Image shows two sets of dice, one purple-blue, one green. The dice are translucent and have custom-designed faces, with low-res dot images for the blue ones and a charming serif font for the green one.

These twinned sets of sharp-edged resin D6s come in two distinct styles:

The Ship Dice are themed after space and the ark ship program, featuring a vibrant purple scheme with sparkling inclusions that evoke space and stars.
The Planet Dice are themed after a lush alien world where life has taken root, featuring an emerald green scheme with mottled inclusions to give the impression of moss and plant life.

Text reads "THE PROJECT COIN." Shows both sides of the nifty zinc-ally coin you can get, if you'd like one. One side shows an ark ship and reads ARK SHIP PROJECT; the other a DNA strand, and the uplifting virus associated with it, and reads TERRAFORMING WORLDS.

This two-sided zinc-alloy metal coin features a depiction of an ark ship on one side, and a stylised rendition of the Kern uplift virus on the other. This exclusive reward marks your application to the Ark Ship Project during this historic moment in Children of Time.

Heading: Pledge Tiers. Subheading: “the ecosystem was the basic unit of life: species creating, by their very presence, an environment for other species to work in.” Children of Ruin, Adrian Tchaikovsky

The following pledge tiers are available during the crowdfunding campaign. If you don't see a specific collection of rewards that suits you, you can tailor your rewards to your liking by picking up additional add-ons during your pledge management.

Note: All physical rewards come with complimentary PDF versions (with the exception of the project coin and dice sets).

Heading: Stretch Goals. Subheading: “They seeded those worlds with life, and made a catalyst to quicken that life’s growth; they wanted to see what would emerge. They wanted to see if that life would look back at them, and understand.” Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky

As we reach our funding goal and beyond, we've planned a long journey of exciting stretch goals to upgrade your rewards. As we unlock stretch goals, we'll reveal more on the path ahead. From new materials or finishes, to extra gameplay content and more, join us as we cheer on our Ark Ship to see how far it can reach before the campaign ends.

A graphic showing the ark ship's journey between potential new homes. It's currently past Gliese-12b; read on to see what stretch goals that's unlocked, and which are still before us!

£40,000 [UNLOCKED]: We're funded! If we reach this stage, we can launch our ark ship and begin the journey to discover and unlock more stretch goals.
£60,000 [UNLOCKED]: Adrian Tchaikovsky will write a short story that will be added to the Children of Time RPG Quickstart. This story will act as the debut of uplifted Pangolins – the newest species to join the Panspecific community in the Children of Time universe!
£80,000 [UNLOCKED]: We'll add an expansion of new content to the Your Ship book, focusing on the theme of 'Uplift Stowaways' and featuring a new social cohort and a dramatic crisis to bring to your tables. What happens when the ark ship makes contact with uplifted animals on a dying world? How do the uplifts join the crew?
£100,000 [UNLOCKED]: We'll upgrade the core book slipcase set with a printed liner, observation window, and greyboard.
£120,000 [UNLOCKED]: We'll add an expansion of new content to the Your Planet book, focusing on the theme of 'The Plague' and featuring a new social cohort and a dramatic crisis to bring to your tables. What happens when a strange and alien disease spreads through the planet's population? How do the infected find a new place in society in the generations to come?
£140,000 [UNLOCKED]: At this threshold, we'll upgrade the Time Capsule box set with a gorgeous printed liner featuring additional reference materials, and reinforced greyboard.
£160,00: We'll add an expansion of new content to the Your Ship book, focusing on the theme of ‘Ships in the Night’ and featuring a new social cohort and a dramatic crisis to bring to your tables. The ark picks up a signal from another astral body – human-made, but unknown to them. How do they make contact, and how does contact with another refugee from Earth change the stakes?

Heading: Meet the Developers. Subheading: “Humanity is Overrated.” Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky

Children of Time: The Roleplaying Game is made in collaboration with Adrian Tchaikovsky, the multi-award winning author of the Children of Time series.

The game itself is designed by Minærva McJanda (Legacy: Life Among The Ruins, Rhapsody of Blood, Voidheart Symphony), with additional writing and design from Grant Howitt (Spire: The City Must Fall and Heart: The City beneath, Eat The Reich, Paranoia and Honey Heist) and Elaine Lithgow (Broken Weave, Warhammer: Imperium Maledictum and Age of Sigmar: Soulbound).

The game is illustrated by Sam Lamont (Hollows, Dr Who, Monstrous Arcanum, Forbidden Psalm, Prison of Husks, Three of Ghosts), using his unique combination of detailed 3D models and gorgeous digital painting to depict decaying ark ships, vibrant planets, and the staggering expanse that separates them.

This work was made by humans. No AI or Machine Generated works are included in this project. Supporting this project means you are supporting real human beings who have dreams, passions, & bills. Thank You.

Banner with blue text on a black background. Reads: "HUMAN MADE," and has a image of a right hand palm-up.

Heading: Beta Playtest. Subheading: “What is it like to be you? A question nobody can step far enough out of their own frame of reference to answer.” Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky

If you want to experience a taste of the game for yourself, you can download the beta playtest here. If you want to meet fellow players, organise games, or talk to the devs, you can join our community Discord here.

If you want to see the game in action, Producer Elaine joined Michelle, Aida and Darcy at EUphoria Actual Plays - where they explain the core mechanics and get to grips with an out-of-control fire aboard an ark ship - watch here on YouTube.

Two octopuses - I looked it up and that's the plural, not octopodes - having a fight underwater. One is red, the other is brown and black striped.

Heading: Timeline and Shipping. Subheading: “You can never know. That is the problem with ignorance. You can never truly know the extent of what you are ignorant about.” Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky

Making games is tough and full of surprises. Especially once you factor in stretch goals and polish. Thankfully, this is far from our first rodeo.

With that in mind, we have provided our intended timeline for delivering your rewards. We ask that you temper this with our promise that any delays will be a result of our commitment to giving you the absolute best version of the Children of Time RPG and all other rewards.

August 2026: The crowdfunding campaign ends
November 2026: Pledge Manager and Pre-Order store opens.
January 2027: PDF previews are made available to backers
March 2027: Final PDF copies are made available to backers
March 2027: Print files are sent to the manufacturers and printing begins
May > July 2027: Freight movements take place to get the game to our distributors
August > September 2027: Backer fulfillment takes place from our distribution hubs

Shipping costs will vary based on your pledge tier, chosen add-ons, their combined weight, and your location. Shipping costs may also change based on factors beyond our control such as freight cost changes, inflation, tariffs, or wildcard freighter captains blocking the Suez Canal.

To help you plan for this, we have provided some estimated shipping costs for various rewards, but note that shipping costs won't be charged until fulfillment begins.

Important Note for US backers!: At time of writing, there are no US import tariffs on printed materials, including books.