At the Hands of an Angry God

Jonestown. The Branch Davidians. North Korea. Have you ever wondered why utopian experiments never seem to pan out? This game will either show you why—or demonstrate that you and your friends are the One Chosen People who can make utopia work!

At the Hands of an Angry God: a Game of Utopia is a story-game in which players represent factions attempting to establish a self-contained, Utopian community. The type of community in question might be Puritan settlers in the New World, a space-faring community surviving devastation, or modern religious zealots like the Branch Davidian and Jonestown communities. It doesn't really matter, as the basic rules of the game allow for as many settings as you can dream up!

One player represents what this game calls Fate: a catch-all term for the forces that pose challenges to the community, such as guardians of an old order, famine, disease, riot police, nearby "savages," divisive internal elements, weather events, and the like. Every other player represents what this game calls a Family (a term which may be literal in some games), and takes actions to defend their Family and extend its influence. The degree to which Family players cooperate and compete is entirely up to them, and may change as they desire during the game.