Lay on Hands

A solo play storytelling game

You will wander the ravaged land and channel the strange power that runs through your hands to unburden the needy, shrive the wayward and rout the corrupt. You will embrace the weirdness of the wasteland, fight heroic battles and risk your life to fulfil the covenants you have sworn.

It's a bit like Ironsworn meets Troika meets Fallout... with an activity sheet.

What's inside?

This is a 36 page (covers included) black and white zine, featuring...

Tension without dice

Instead of rolling dice to check for the success of your character's actions, you will spin a coin and try to complete sections on one of three drawing mini-games before it comes to a stop. The result on the coin also contributes to the outcome of what you're trying to do, adding narrative tension beyond simple "success vs failure". (If that sounds too gimmicky or you are unable to complete the skill tests, the game supports play using two six-sided dice instead.)

Transcendent randomness

Put yourself in the shoes of an unconventional prophet. At the heart of the game is The Oracle, a table of 36 abstract prompts inspired by tarot fortune telling, which helps generate unexpected detail in every part of the heroic story you'll be creating. It also quite neatly doubles up as the tray for spinning your coin in.

A single page summary

The game's rules are condensed into a single page reference so you can get stuck into the good stuff without getting bogged down.

When your character attempts something with an uncertain outcome you take their relevant faculty (Grit, Slip or Wits), subtract any applicable skills and add on the challenge rating of the action to get the score you need to beat.

Unique artwork

The game's strewn with gritty, grainy block print illustrations. These are lovingly hand-crafted to evoke the naïve, unstudied style of a society rebuilding itself, creating new myths and meaning.

Six different character archetypes

Play one of several idiosyncratic characters, each dedicated to healing a different thing: flesh, soul, mind, pestilence, creatures or tech. Want more freedom? There's advice for amending them as you see fit or even creating your own archetypes.

Your unique world

One of the first things you'll do is create your own post-apocalyptic world. The game's designed to help you play any scenario you can dream up, in any time period you want. Included is a mantra generator, and a random table of 36 post-apocalyptic world characteristics.