Tonight We Rot Gives the Goth Scene Seven Nights Before the End of the World

Dice & Miscreants launched Tonight We Rot on Kickstarter on Halloween. It’s a rules-light, MÖRK BORG-compatible RPG drawing on mid-’80s goth, deathrock, industrial and post-punk. Your group plays a clique of scene regulars in The City, a decaying sprawl where Ash Avenue’s record shop shares the neighbourhood with occult dealers, and the Boiler Flats’ disused factories still have room for an illegal gig.

I was immiediately drawn to this campaign because of the setting, the period and the musical influence behind the setting. Having grown up in the midst of the 80’s and 90’s goth and industrial scene in London, UK, and regularly frequented a variety of clubs from Slimelight, The Catacombs, Full Tilt and others, and been to way too many gigs and basement record shops for the health of my hearing, I had to know more.

Matt, and his cousin, who wrote the game also created a Spotify playlist full of Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Sisters of Mercy, Ministry, Field of The Nephilim, Bauhaus, and loads more, which pretty much mirror a lot of my listening both back then and still today. Bands that have also formed my own playlists for a lot of the RPG and fiction writing that I’ve done over the years and I could easily see myself writing and exploring in The City they’ve brought to life.

A night out in The City

You’re not heroes, and you’re not saviors. You’re scene kids, burnouts, artists, and parasites.

The end is already happening. You’re not going to stop the apocalypse. Make noise while you can.

The first sign of the apocalypse in one Tonight We Rot playtest was a corporate takeover of the airwaves. The players rolled a 2 and a 6 at the end of their session and got Banality Incarnate. Suddenly, broadcasts, flyers and mainstream songs were plastered with branding and cheery slogans. The change was permanent. For a game about the underground music scene, that’s a particularly nasty way for the world to start coming apart.

The World

It’s not the end of the world. But you can hear the rehearsal. - graffiti outside of Club Grave

The City is a massive urban sprawl. Nobody seems to know how far it goes. As far as anyone’s concerned, it’s the only City. No one really mentions other places, even if your favorite band’s tour shirt names them. A few places in The City:

Ash Avenue: Burned-out apartments. Back-alley occult shops. The best record stores in The City. Everyone here is either a cultist, a dropout, or in a band. Often all three.

The Deadend: A crumbling stretch of nightlife that refuses to die. You’ll find goth clubs, dive bars, and secret shows. Neon pink light reflects off wet pavement and makes everyone look dead.

The Boiler Flats: Once the industrial heart of the city, now it’s a cold expanse of brick shells and shattered windows. Illegal warehouse shows flare up between rusted machinery and graffiti-tagged loading docks.

What Do You So in Tonight We Rot?

A rival clique wants trouble. The cops shut down your show. A deathrocker goes missing, and you're out looking for them. An abandoned radio station is broadcasting a signal that shouldn't exist.

You'll chase rumors, deal with the supernatural, and try to survive another night in a city that's coming apart.

Music doesn’t only play a major part in the setting but is also part of the rules. An Audio Occultist can cast through synths, tape loops and feedback, and an old cassette can be an occult artefact. The introductory adventure, Rot and Assimilate, also puts music front and centre, when a zine sends the characters (or clique) to cover an industrial band’s record launch, where a frequency carrying the rot turns the crowd murderous.

Making a misfit

In the campaigns 10th November update we get a walk through character creation with Morbund, an example of the Scene Royalty persona. Players roll 3d6 apiece for Ferocity, Grace, Endure, Edge and Scene. These become modifiers for player-facing d20 checks, with further adjustments from the persona. Morbund ends up with +3 Scene and −1 Endure, a cheap room above a record shop and a vintage leather jacket that offers d4 protection. Once per session, his Spotlight Violence power lets him attack using Scene in place of Ferocity. If you’re going to swing a skull-topped cane in a crowded club, it helps to know how to work the room.

What happens on the seventh roll?

The Nights Generator gives the group trouble to get into, while Torments determine what changes once the night is over. At the end of each session, one player rolls two six-sided dice and reads them in order on the Torments table. The result leaves a permanent mark on The City. The seventh roll ends it. That gives the group a reason to care about the places they keep coming back to. By the time a favourite club loses its regulars or a familiar station stops sounding like itself, the players have had a chance to make those places their own.

The Kickstarter

The core PDF of Tonight We Rot is only US$10, with a digest-sized softcover with PDF available for US$30. The US$18 digital and US$45 print bundles add These Vile Nights, an adventure collection that includes a trip into an abandoned hospital and a hunt for a killer targeting underground artists. The game is due for fulfilment by the end of April 2027.

Tonight We Rot is currently funding on Kickstarter and runs until Monday 30th November 2026.