Substitution
A downloadable game
THE WORLD CAME TO AN END...
Well before you were born, the world ended. While there is no one thing that signified the end of days, archivists agree that the "Year the World Ended" was 2324. Disease, wars, and natural disasters destroyed civilization as we know it, driving people into tunnels and underground bunkers. Most of these pocket cities fell apart due to illness and infighting, leaving only a few dozen remnants of humanity left.
...BUT THAT HASN'T HAPPENED YET
The greatest scientific minds of the early 25th century formed the Substitution Initiative. Substitution technology allows a mind to be uploaded into a quantum computer and sent back in time to permanently override an individual's mind in the past.
To stay under the radar, Substitutes inhabit the bodies of people that had a low impact on the world. They receive text messages from the future via the same quantum computer that transported them. These texts contain their orders, which are missions to carry out that will ideally change the timeline enough to save the future.
YOU ARE A SUBSTITUTE
Leave your present, travel to the past, save their future.
What's Included?
- Full rulebook PDF, Spreads (best for computer monitors)
- Full rulebook PDF, Pages (best for phone or tablet viewing)
- Full rulebook as a text-only PDF, Pages
- Character sheet PDF
- Character sheet PNG (available on the sidebar)
- Gone Rogue Adventure Frame PDF
Content Warning(s): apocalyptic themes, violence, possession, betrayal
Supplies Needed: a set of polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20), pencils, and these rules
Game Length: 2-3 hours
Third Party Supplements
Check out Breathless Snapshots, a collection of Adventure Frames for various Breathless Games, including two for Substitution!
Other Sci-Fi Titles
from Chubby Crow Games
This Game is Breathless
Substitution is a Breathless game about performing critical missions to save the world from itself.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copies
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
If the price is a hardship for you, please feel free to grab a community copy, no questions asked! I will be adding one new copy for each purchase of the game, and one for each 5 star rating, so if you don't see one now, check back again later!
Development log
- Version 2.2 ChangelogMar 29, 2024
- Substitution 2.1 UpdateMar 31, 2023
- Gone Rogue: UpdatedJan 14, 2023
- The Vitrification Contingency, a Sequel... or Prequel?Jan 05, 2023
- Gone Rogue Adventure FrameDec 08, 2022
- INDIEcember, and v2.1 ChangelogDec 08, 2022
- Substitution 2.0 ChangelogOct 09, 2022
- HQ Improvements - Full Rules!Oct 02, 2022
Comments
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I like the way your game is put together, but one thing is confusing me - Stunts are never defined anywhere? Even in the breathless SRD unless I'm missing something...
I get the idea that they're a 'moment of cool', but are they defined at the start of play as Your Stunt is X, or can it be a different...maneuver each time you refresh?
Also, am I reading correctly that in your first mission your ONLY loadout is your vocational item? (unless you Rummage?)
Yes, this is correct; when you begin your first mission, you'll only have your vocational item. You definitely can Rummage right away though!
Thank you for the question!
Stunts are meant to be undefined - they're not a specific action you can take. Instead, during the game, you can check off your stunt box to roll a d12 instead of whatever die you'd normally use.
So it's not so much "I am a stunt driver so I can use a d12 to do a sick maneuver", but it's "I'm driving a car and my other skills have worn down, and I really need to get away, so I'm going to check off my Stunt to get a d12 on this roll".
So essentially it can be different every time you use it.
Does that help clear it up? If not, I'd be happy to try to make it less confusing. I appreciate you asking!
yes that helps. I was trying to think of them more like Stunts in FATE, but that makes sense given the lack of a space to define them on the character sheet.
thanks again!
Ooh yeah that makes sense! I'm glad I could help :) Thank you again for your interest, it means a lot!
this game was so fun! usually time travel games are hard, but Harper explained how all the paradoxes work in this universe and it made for some really fun dramatic turns. I also like that there's a set crew of 5 and everyone has a specific job, it seems like it really helps each person focus on their thing without much overlap and lead to some really cool moments.
Thank you! I love time travel and I love the paradoxes and wild happenings so I put a lot of thought into it haha. This means a lot! Thank you so much.