No Man's Land

THE HARVEST Forty-eight hours ago, Kaiser Wilhelm's secret weapons program—Die Verdun-Protokoll—achieved a breakthrough. Bio-mechanical monstrosities combining human tissue, industrial machinery, and arcane rituals were meant to harvest the enemy. Instead, they harvested everyone. YOU ARE NOT ALONE You wake in No Man's Land surrounded by corpses from both sides. One other survivor remains—an enemy soldier. You don't speak their language. Hours ago, you would have killed each other without hesitation. Now you hear the clicking, whirring, wet breathing of something hunting through the dead. Trust the enemy or die alone. PLAY AS BOTH SOLDIERS Control both protagonists—one Allied, one German—switching perspectives throughout the story. Each has separate Survival and Sanity tracks, but they share a Trust track that measures their fragile alliance. Watch as strangers become allies. Enemies become brothers. Languages merge through necessity. Names are learned. Humanity is spent. Monsters are fought. Some survive. Most don't. None emerge unchanged. CORE FEATURES ✓ Dual Protagonist System — Play both soldiers, experience both perspectives ✓ Three-Track Degradation — Survival (physical), Sanity (mental), Trust (shared) ✓ Language Barrier Mechanics — Start with gestures, learn words, forge understanding ✓ Humanity as Currency — Spend permanent pieces of yourself to survive ✓ Asymmetric Horror Combat — Monsters are superior, tactics and cooperation required ✓ 12 Unique Monsters — Each with German names and special abilities ✓ Dieselpunk Atmosphere — WWI trenches meet bio-mechanical nightmares ✓ Journal-Driven Solo Play — Write from both perspectives, create intimate narratives ✓ Multiple Endings — Victory, tragedy, sacrifice, transformation, or something worse ✓ 2-3 Hour Sessions — Complete story arc with satisfying conclusion ✓ Print-Friendly Design — Optimized for home printing on standard 8.5" x 11" paper GERMAN TERMINOLOGY GUIDE The game uses authentic German military/occult terminology: Die Ernte (The Harvest) — The catastrophic event Das Blutwerk (The Blood-Work) — Human processing machinery Der Schlachtgang (The Abattoir March) — Organized monster hunting Die Todesmühle (The Death-Mill) — The creation facility Der Eisenregen (The Iron Rain) — Mass monster attacks Die Ernte-Kinder (The Harvest's Children) — The monsters themselves WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT Unlike traditional solo RPGs, No Man's Land forces you to embody BOTH sides of a conflict. You can't make one soldier "good" and one "bad." They're both men, both scared, both far from home. The monsters don't care which flag you serve. The language barrier creates early complications that must be overcome through trust and shared experience. You'll track which words each soldier learns, when names are exchanged, what understanding emerges from silence. Combat is asymmetric horror — the monsters are faster, stronger, and don't fear death. Soldiers must cooperate, use tactics, and make desperate choices. Every battle matters. Every wound counts. Humanity isn't just flavor — it's a mechanical resource you spend permanently to survive critical moments. Each box represents something you can't get back: memories of home, belief in your cause, hope of return. RECOMMENDED MEDIA If you love these, you'll love No Man's Land: Films: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930/2022), 1917 , Paths of Glory , Frankenstein's Army Books: Storm of Steel (Jünger), The Guns of August (Tuchman), Testament of Youth (Brittain) Games: Valiant Hearts , Verdun , 11-11 Memories Retold Music: The Green Fields of France (Eric Bogle), And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda CONTENT WARNINGS This game contains depictions of: War violence and combat Body horror and transformation Mental trauma and breakdown Chemical warfare Death and loss of humanity (literal and metaphorical) It also contains: Cooperation across enmity Finding humanity in horror Sacrifice and brotherhood Hope forged in worst conditions Take breaks when needed. This isn't meant to be endured—it's meant to be felt. WHAT'S INCLUDED CORE RULEBOOK (12 pages) Complete rules for play Character generation Combat system Monster generation Scene structure Multiple endings Quick reference EXPANSION PACK (10 pages) Extended encounter tables Additional monsters Expanded environmental hazards Campaign tracking Advanced mechanics Designer's notes Historical context Both are optimized for ink-efficient home printing PLAY TIME & REPLAYABILITY Single Session: 2-3 hours for a complete story arc from waking to resolution Campaign Play: Multiple soldiers, different starting points, cumulative legacy tracking High Replayability: 12 different monsters with unique abilities 144 possible character combinations (2d6 x 2d6 for each soldier) Multiple communication outcomes 10 distinct endings Procedural scene generation Player-driven narrative choices Every playthrough tells a different story of the Harvest. DESIGN PHILOSOPHY "What if the monsters of WWI weren't metaphorical?" The Great War was humanity's first industrial-scale conflict—war as machine, as factory, as systematic horror. The scale of death was so vast it became abstract. But two men, forced to trust each other despite everything separating them—that's intimate. That's human. That stays with you. No Man's Land uses mechanics to create meaning: Trust starts HIGH (suspicion) and must be earned DOWN through cooperation Language barriers create complications that trust transcends Humanity spending forces real, permanent choices Asymmetric combat requires tactics over violence Both soldiers matter equally—their bond is the story FOR FANS OF Solo journaling RPGs (Thousand Year Old Vampire, Wretched & Alone) Historical horror (Cthulhu by Gaslight, Achtung! Cthulhu) Cooperative survival (The Captain is Dead, Pandemic Legacy) War narratives (Apocalypse World, Night Witches) Dieselpunk aesthetics (Scythe, Iron Harvest) Trust mechanics (Dog Eat Dog, The Quiet Year) CREDITS Designed by Julian Grant For Tommy and Fritz, wherever they are. They stopped the Harvest. No one believed them. But we remember.