CHITIN

"To walk among them, you must wear their faces. But when the shell begins to split, the city will hear you crack." Lore You are an Ecdysiast—a creature from the deep tunnels beneath a human metropolis. To explore the surface world, you must grow and wear organic Masks: calcified faces that mimic human features. But you cannot stay above forever. Your alien biology operates on a strict internal clock: The Rhythm. Every action you take causes your body to swell inside your hard carapace. Eventually, your human disguise will split open. You must regularly retreat into the dark sewers to Molt—shedding your old skin, abandoning your current identity, and growing a completely new face to avoid detection. Be careful: the city above is lined with acoustic sensors. If you make too much noise, your heavy footsteps will send vibrating Echoes through the pipes, alerting the human cleaners who hunt your kind. Game Details Number of Players: 1 (Solo) Genre: Subterranean Metamorphosis / Print & Play (PnP) / Solo Journaling Game Play Time: 15–30 minutes Main Mechanics: Push-Your-Luck, Dice Rolling (1d6), Resource Tracking, Solo Journaling Core Mechanics The Biological Rhythm: Your internal ticking clock. As you blend in, your body grows, forcing an inevitable, agonizing molt down in the sewers. Mask Management: Alternate between three distinct organic faces— The Mourner, The Artisan, and The Scholar —each giving you specialized scouting advantages before they are destroyed forever. Alarm Echoes: Walk carefully. Failing to blend in triggers acoustic city sensors, sending tracking echoes through the pipes that bring human cleaners closer to your position. Permanent Metamorphosis: Balance your failing disguises and dwindling masks just long enough to secure 20 points of Humanity Progress to shed your alien skin permanently. Requirements To dive into the deep tunnels, you only need to bring: A Notebook and Pen (to track your scores and write your short journal entries) The Official Game Sheet (optional) The O riginal S ound T rack (optional) One Standard Six-Sided Die (d6) Created for the #1100WordsTTRPGKitchen The city has more urgent dangers to face in: &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="https://soulartoys.itch.io/rat-king">RAT&quot; class=&quot;redactor-linkify-object&quot;&gt;https://soulartoys.itch.io/rat-king&quot;&gt;RAT</a> KING by Soul Art Toys&lt;/a&gt;