Vileborn: A Nobledark Adventure Into Adolescent Conflict and Dark Heritage
How designer Claudio Pustorino's love of coming-of-age stories shaped a dark, immersive TTRPG experience.
Vileborn Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/horribleguild/vileborn
Hi Claudio, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your history with RPGs?
Sure! I grew up with an older brother who introduced me to video games and tabletop role-playing games early on. I was only 10 and I was already joining in on gaming sessions with his friends, which had a big impact on me.
Though I pursued a career in user experience design and coaching, I never stopped creating games. In 2008, I released Il manuale dei livelli infimi (Book of humble deeds), a free Dungeons & Dragons supplement that gained unexpected success in Italy, launching my career in the industry. After losing someone very close to me, I stepped away from game design for a long time.
In 2020, I returned with Not the End, a game dedicated to that person. To my surprise, it won Game of the Year at Lucca Comics & Games and, in 2024, received six Ennies nominations. After Not the End, I've created a bunch of other original TTRPG’s in the Italian market and provided game design consultancy on international projects like Cowboy Bebop, Household, and Outgunned.
The Italian gaming scene has taught me so much, but I’m always eager to learn. There are so many talented designers and incredible games worldwide, which inspired me to explore the international scene. Now, with the support of Horrible Guild, I’m excited to step into that space with Vileborn, my first game in English.
Tell us about Vileborn.
Vileborn is a nobledark TTRPG about young heroes who face the darkness of the world while embracing their own.
I've always had a soft spot for fantasy novels where young heroes embark on epic adventures to discover who they truly are. Books like The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss or Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, Nevernight by Jay Kristoff, just draw me into a flow state. I’ve lost count of how many I’ve devoured.
Vileborn taps into familiar (and sometimes even clichéd) elements of coming of age fantasy novels to give you a game very easy to approach but fresh in it’s own way.
Vileborn Setting
The setting of Vileborn features a world plunged into darkness, with themes of societal collapse and the rise of the "reviled." What prompted you to create this particular setting, and what kind of atmosphere do you hope to evoke in players?
I wanted Vileborn to feel both familiar and unique. Every setting element has its own distinctive flavor but is also easily traceable to familiar aspects of our folklore, making it enjoyable for both structured-setting enthusiasts and players who prefer minimal reading.
The setting is designed to allow characters to navigate adolescent conflicts with the world, their teachers, and themselves.
I’d like to thank Camilla Zamboni for suggesting "Reviled" as the name for the monstrous creatures in Egas, as it beautifully complements "Vileborn," illustrating how they are two sides of the same coin: monsters with a human side and humans with a monstrous aspect. Special thanks also to Stefano Mancuso for helping me detail the narrative elements while respecting the strict parameters I established.
The "Vileborn" Quickstart mentions that the game draws inspiration from nobledark coming-of-age novels. Could you elaborate on what aspects of this genre resonated with you and how they are reflected in the game's mechanics and setting?
What resonates with me most about coming-of-age novels is that their protagonists are designed for adventure. They have a lot of potential but don’t yet know how to harness it. They’re old enough to realize that the adults around them don’t have all the answers, yet still young enough to have much to learn. They are young enough to be reckless, but old enough to be aware of the consequences of their choices.
Capturing this growth potential and integrating it into both the game mechanics and the setting has been an exciting challenge. Character sheets are designed to be gradually filled in, clearly illustrating players’ learning curves.
Each character's dark heritage is often claimed to be understood by adults, yet no one truly knows its limits and potential. This uncertainty is reflected in the rules; the only way to discover the full potential of heritages is through exploration, a trial-and-error process in which Vileborn often find themselves almost completely alone. Also, every dark heritage comes with a dark urge… and everyone knows that learning to know your urges is quite a big deal in adolescence.
The setting of Egas is described as a world inspired by familiar folklore and elements. What specific folklore or mythology influenced your vision for this world? Will the full game have any elements of exploration of the world?
As I mentioned earlier, we heavily drew from familiar elements of folklore to create a setting that is immediately understandable for those who prefer not to delve too deeply into the lore, while still offering a unique flavor for those who want to explore these aspects more extensively.
One thing I can say is that the game manual won’t provide any unquestionable truths about the elements it describes. Certainly, Reviled will have their descriptions, behaviors, and statistics, but just like the Vileborn, the core elements of the setting will be presented through the perspectives of those who know something about them or have opinions on them (like the church or the empire) without ever revealing the absolute truth of what they truly are.
The only way to define these elements is to shape them during the course of the campaign. As you explore the Order of Dusk and the lands of Egas, you will forge your own truth and discover answers that are unique and unrepeatable.
The "Lex Umbræ," the Empress's decree conscripting the Vileborn, seems to be a source of tension within the world. What led you to create this dynamic between the Empire and the Luminarian Church, and how does it impact the player characters' experiences? And will players in the full game have opportunities to interact with the Empress or influence imperial politics?
Society tells you who you should be, church tells you who you shouldn’t be and why you’re flawed, your teachers try to mold you into something useful. Does this sound familiar? If the answer is yes, then you’re right on target! :-D
The Vileborn are caught in a conflict between the Luminarian Church and the Empire: they are crucial to the war against the Reviled, yet they are also seen as manifestations of darkness. It wouldn’t be a coming-of-age story if the protagonists had clear and reliable coordinates to navigate the world around them.
The gameplay will unfold in three acts: the first focuses on training within the Order of Dusk, the second on exploring Egas, and the third serves as a conclusion where the Vileborn confront the key elements they have encountered earlier. The darkness, their natures, Egas’s politics… The elements at the top of the setting’s hierarchy are intentionally distant at the beginning, only to be grasped by the end.
Vileborn Mechanics
The Quickstart mentions seven distinct Dark Heritages. Could you give us a glimpse into the creative process behind designing these heritages, and what kind of gameplay variety do you aim to offer players through these choices?
One fascinating aspect of folklore is its reflection of our worst nature, our fears, and our impulses. For each dark heritage, we analyzed the narrative opportunities that allowed us to explore in terms of powers, but more importantly, urges and temptations.
When you choose a dark heritage, you select the monster that society sees in you and the potential that society wants to exploit. While some gifts of dark heritages may overlap, their interpretation will always be unique: what kind of monster do you see in yourself, and how much do you feel defined by the narrative that adults have constructed around you?
You possess the ability to do what no one else can, and paradoxically, that is exactly why you are feared and judged. This is the essence of the seven dark heritages.
Reverie, the sacrament used by the Order of Dusk, is described as a double-edged sword, both healing and potentially addictive. Can you provide more insight into the long-term consequences of relying on Reverie and the moral dilemmas it might pose for the players?
Like any drug, Reverie is addictive. Over time, its effectiveness will wane, requiring more frequent and larger doses to achieve the same beneficial effects. In terms of gameplay dynamics, this revolves around the number of marks that can be erased from your dark heritage and wounds when consuming Reverie.
Reverie is a leash that gets shorter with time. After the first act, the Order will no longer provide it; you will have to synthesize it from the blood of the Reviled you hunt... and you’ll need increasingly larger amounts.
Are the Reviled merely monsters? Can they be redeemed? Is there a way to break free from the influence of the Order of Dusk? These are difficult questions when the safest way to control your impulses is through a drug synthesized from the blood of the Reviled.
Tests in Vileborn rely on a combination of Approaches, Personality, and Training. Can you explain the reasoning behind this system and how it encourages players to embody their characters?
While I completely understand the logic behind games that say, "Describe what you do, and the GM tells you what to roll," I personally tend to prefer games where the core mechanics encourage a little bit of introspection. Beyond personal preference, in a game designed to immerse you in a coming-of-age story, it felt much more fitting to go in this direction.
In Vileborn, it’s the player who decides which approach to take and brings personality and training into play to build their pool. The questions here are: "How do I want to approach this situation?", "Is there something about who I am that can help me?", "Is there something I know how to do that could be useful?"
These questions are subtle, implicit, and in their own way, pretty basic. But asking them continuously to yourself creates an interesting layer of inner play that deepens your connection to your character, and fosters a steady and controlled bleed between you and your character.
Challenges in Vileborn, such as sneaking into a fortress or defeating an opponent, require assembling a pool of different dice types and rolling to meet or exceed a Difficulty. What was the inspiration for this dice mechanic?
Until now, my original games have never used dice; I prefer more immediate methods that don’t involve calculations or arithmetic. However, for Vileborn, I wanted to emphasize the ludic element and make the game more palatable for everyone. After all, rolling dice is satisfying. We often associate dice with role-playing games, and I didn't want to present an overly radical approach to the international audience with my first game.
At the same time, I aimed for a game that posed meaningful questions while assembling the pool and that was extremely straightforward to read once rolled. The solution I found was the most effective way was to roll one to three dice, keep the highest, and compare it to the difficulty.
This method is immediate in both composition and reading but also deep and "spacious" enough to allow complexity overtime. Vary your dice pool, add a basic bonus like +1, keeping more than one die and achieve multiple success, re-rolled some dice, are good variations that can polish this basic, universal mechanic.
How did you try to ensure that the elements of Conditions and Wounds would impact player choices and contribute to the game's sense of danger?
Every condition "speaks" to your character sheet differently, restricting your ability to use specific parts of it. For example, Shame prevents you from utilizing your personality, Fear hinders your training, Rage negatively affects half of your approaches (Reason, Precision and Subterfuge).
Additionally, the approaches are named after some of the most common emotional states of young adults, which helps immerse you in the psychology of your character. They serve as both situational penalties and narrative descriptors.
The concept of "Change, Conflict, and Adventure" is described as the core of Vileborn. How do these three pillars manifest in the game's mechanics and narrative structure?
I’ll try to be brief... and I’ll fail 😀
Change: Your character grows and transforms in unpredictable ways, discovering the gifts of their dark heritage through experimentation and chaos. The world around you is shifting, and you are a force that can help shape this change.
Conflict: You are in conflict with your nature and your guardians, caught in the middle of a struggle between the church and the empire, all while living in a world that has experienced the greatest conflict in its history for the past five years. Your character sheet emphasizes the tension between your human side (above) and your monstrous side (below), and your powers always have both positive and negative aspects.
Adventure: Unlike other games with similar themes but a different focus (like the incredible Monsterhearts by Avery Alder, for example), the medium for exploring and developing your characters is adventure. Each of the three acts is literally filled with opportunities, and the narrative premise of every Vileborn campaign takes the exact form of the hero's call to adventure.
The game says it emphasizes the protagonists' journey of growth and self-discovery. How does the game system actually support this aspect of the narrative?
I can't anticipate too much right now, but I can say that the character sheet is literally designed to help you visualize your growth margins, and the core mechanic for exploring your dark heritage is an invitation to delve deeper.
Character growth won't be rigidly tied to experience accumulation; instead, it will progress alongside the meaningful experiences your character undergoes. The three-act structure is also crafted to provide a balanced and significant sense of progression throughout the story.
The Quickstart and Beyond
The Quickstart provides a pre-set adventure, "Lex Umbræ." How does this adventure introduce new players to the core mechanics and themes of Vileborn?
We designed Lex Umbræ as a step-by-step tutorial. After an initial read-through by the Darkness (the GM of the game), players can dive into the game without prior knowledge of the rules. Scene by scene, they'll learn a piece of the game, and by the end of the first session, they'll have learned all the rules through play.
The quickstart also includes a second session, allowing players to experiment with all the mechanics in a more open-ended way.
It’s mentioned in the Quickstart that the complete Vileborn rulebook will offer more tools for creating original stories and characters. What are some examples of these tools, and what kind of creative freedom do you envision for players and game masters?
When it comes to characters, each Background and Dark Heritage will provide suggestions for shaping the character's approaches, personality, and training. Additionally, the gifts from the Dark Heritage will offer ample room for customization and serve as a creative springboard for exploring one's dark heritage.
The GM will find a list of intriguing situations to stage in each of the three acts, along with guidance on how to weave them together into an organic and well-structured narrative. They will also have a series of challenges—both Reviled and typical situations to tackle—already designed for gameplay, which can be used and assembled as desired.
Lastly, the setting elements will be broadly sketched but not defined 100%. When you play Vileborn, you are the one shaping your version of Egas, and this is by design.
The Darkness is the name of the role played by the game master. Are there any differences from a GM’s responsibilities in any other RPG that would earn such an ominous name?
Absolutely! The GM calls the tests but does not determine what to roll; that responsibility falls to the players.
Additionally, when the characters confront the Darkness or the Reviled, the GM rolls the Darkness Die, the only d12 in the entire game. This special die can generate a variety of complications and can also be included in the Vileborn's pool when they explore their darkness.
This choice is intended to illustrate just how dangerous the darkness is. While the Vileborn have a significant advantage when exploring it, they are still playing with something that is partially beyond their control.
It is said that the blurred lines between monster and human is a central theme in Vileborn. What are some ways that Vileborn drives this theme home for players and gets them to confront their characters' darker impulses and the complexities of morality?
The only way to learn more about your dark heritage is to explore it. Each time you do, the Darkness Die may generate complications. If you don't want to use Reverie, the only way to remove marks from your dark heritage is to yield to your impulses. Additionally, the Reviled that the characters hunt serve as a mirror to their own nature, with a clearly identifiable human aspect beneath their monstrous exterior.
Moreover, the humans that interact with the characters are often worse than the monsters they seek to defend themselves against. In the world of Egas, there is a great deal—truly an immense amount—of moral ambiguity.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced so far in developing the Vileborn RPG?
I tried to create a game that has an approachable flavor while still offering a certain depth—not just in terms of gameplay, but also narratively. Achieving this balance is quite a challenge; it’s like mixing a good cocktail. I can say that Vileborn is a cocktail with many ingredients, and the line between a muddled mess and a successful blend is very, very thin.
The Quickstart mentions that player feedback is crucial for the development of Vileborn. What kind of feedback are you particularly interested in receiving from players, and where can they send their feedback?
First and foremost, I’d love to hear your impressions of the overall gaming experience. The metrics I’m particularly interested in are:
Is the rule system immediately understandable?
Did you often need to reference the manual?
Are the character sheets readable and comprehensible?
What kind of balance did you find between ludic and narrative?
If you have any feedback of any kind, I would be eternally grateful if you could share it on the Horrible Guild Discord server, in the channel dedicated to Vileborn! Join here.
Looking ahead, what are your long-term goals and aspirations for the Vileborn RPG?
I strongly desire to create a game that provides the inspiration and space to be played over time. My dream is to develop a publishing line that expands the ways players can explore the world of Egas, maintaining a rule structure that is always compatible while adding depth.
For instance, I would love to eventually allow players to play veterans of the Order of Dusk, members of the Enlightened Church and nobles of the Egas Empire. Offering more options for the Vileborn is an obvious choice, but I also want to offer different perspectives to create a world that is increasingly nuanced yet still accessible.
Ultimately, the goal of a game is to be played. I aspire to see Vileborn played and pushed beyond the boundaries I could have imagined. There’s no greater joy I can imagine for myself.
Links:
Vileborn Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/horribleguild/vileborn
Horrible Guild Discord Server: https://discord.gg/h55Szzrr