His Majesty the Worm - Starter Guide

What is His Majesty the Worm?

His Majesty the Worm is a dungeon-crawling roleplaying game written by Josh McCrowell and published by Exalted Funeral. It sits at an interesting crossroads: it shares the spirit of the OSR - resource management, deadly consequences, player-driven problem solving - but builds an entirely new rules system from scratch. The designer calls it "new-school with old-school sensibilities," and that description holds up.

The game centers on a group of adventurers forming a Guild to explore a vast megadungeon called the Underworld. Above it lies the City, a grimy, living hub where they resupply, pursue long-term schemes, and bury their dead with appropriate ceremony. The tone sits somewhere between mythic fantasy and dark fairy tale - strange, grounded, and a little melancholy.

How does the system work?

The most immediately striking thing about His Majesty the Worm is that it replaces dice entirely with a tarot deck. The deck is split in two: the Game Master draws from the Major Arcana, while players draw from the Minor Arcana. The four suits of the Minor Arcana - Swords, Cups, Wands, and Pentacles - each correspond to one of the four character attributes. When a player attempts a risky action, they draw a card and add the relevant attribute to the card's value. If the total meets or beats 14, it succeeds.

There is a push-your-luck element built in: if the first draw falls short, a player can pull a second card, risking a critical failure if it still does not reach the threshold. Drawing a card that matches the attribute's suit on the first pull triggers a critical success. Because drawn cards are removed from the deck temporarily, each draw shifts the odds for those that follow - the deck has memory in a way that dice never do.

Play is structured around four distinct phases. The Crawl phase covers exploration of the dungeon proper, where light, rations, and inventory matter constantly. Darkness is genuinely dangerous, food determines how deep you can go, and there are no perception skills or trap-detection rolls - players must describe what they actually do. The Challenge phase kicks in when combat begins, running as a tactical card-driven system where every participant has meaningful choices every round. The Camp phase is where the party rests inside the dungeon, eating rations and using Bonds - the relationships between characters - to recover Wounds and Resolve. The City phase handles the return to civilization: paying taxes, honoring the fallen, and preparing for the next descent.

Those Bonds deserve particular attention. Each character defines relationships with every other member of the Guild through simple descriptive statements. When players lean into those relationships through roleplay, the Bonds become charged, fueling the recovery mechanics during camp. It is a clever design that ties mechanical reward directly to the fiction at the table.

Character creation involves choosing a kith and kin (ancestry), selecting one of four Paths tied to the tarot attributes, and assigning stats. Characters level up naturally in their Path, but can pay mentors in the City to learn talents from other Paths. When a character dies - and some will - money spent on the funeral determines how much of their experience and traits carries over to the next adventurer. Death has weight here, but it is not the end of the story.

What do you need to get started?

The core book is all you need to play. It is a large-format hardcover (roughly 9x12 inches, the size of a coffee table book) containing rules for players and the Game Master, character creation, dungeon and city building procedures, a bestiary, and a starter dungeon. You also need a standard tarot deck - any 78-card tarot deck will do.

The book is available as a PDF or in print through Exalted Funeral and itch.io. There is no dedicated quickstart, but several free sample chapters from the game's development are available on itch.io, including sections on city creation, magic, dungeon building, and alchemy. These give a solid sense of the game's scope and design philosophy before you commit.

Who is this game for?

His Majesty the Worm is for groups who want a dungeon crawl with genuine mechanical teeth - not just atmosphere. It rewards players who engage with the fiction and lean into their characters' relationships, not just those who optimize their action economy. The resource management is real: running out of torches or food in the depths has consequences.

It works best with a group willing to invest in the Camp scenes, treat Bonds as more than a stat, and embrace the implied weirdness of the setting. If your table wants to skip the roleplaying and go straight to the fighting, the game loses much of its texture.

It is less well-suited to groups looking for a straightforward dungeon fantasy experience with familiar D&D touchstones. There is no armor class, no strength modifier, no perception roll. That is a feature for some players and a stumbling block for others.

How does it compare to other systems?

Fans of Shadowdark will find common ground in the emphasis on resource scarcity, light as a threat, and lethal consequences. His Majesty the Worm is more complex in its social and recovery mechanics, and the tarot system creates a fundamentally different feel at the table.

Compared to Old School Essentials or other OSR titles, it trades compatibility with legacy modules for a tightly designed set of original procedures. You cannot drop a published B/X dungeon into it without some conversion, but the dungeon-building tools in the book are robust enough that this is rarely a problem.

Where do you begin?

Start by reading the core book cover to cover - it is written in clear, approachable prose and explains the reasoning behind every design decision. Then run a Session 0 to build the Guild together: character creation in this game is a collaborative act, and the Bonds established at the start of play matter from the first session.

The game's official website (hismajestytheworm.games) has additional resources, including reference sheets. The designer, Josh McCrowell, is active online and the community around the game is supportive and creative. The +1XP crew has produced actual play content that shows the game in motion, which is worth watching if you want to see how the phases and card mechanics play out in practice.

Recommended products at Netherbook

The core book is where you start and, honestly, where you will spend most of your time. It is a substantial, beautifully produced volume that functions as both rulebook and sourcebook. Pair it with any standard 78-card tarot deck you like the look of - the visual language of the deck will sit on the table the entire session, so it is worth picking one whose art you enjoy.