I’ve been fascinated by ancient Mediterranean civilizations for as long as I can remember. The palaces of Knossos, the frescoes of Akrotiri, the ships and rituals of dynastic Egypt. These weren’t just historical artifacts to me. They were fragments of a world that felt both impossibly distant and deeply familiar.

About ten years ago, that fascination took a new turn. I discovered the historical phenomenon known as the Bronze Age Collapse. Around 1200 BCE, nearly every major power in the Eastern Mediterranean collapsed within a single generation. Mycenae, Ugarit, Hattusa, Troy. Cities that had stood for centuries fell into ruin. Trade routes vanished. Writing systems disappeared. No one can say exactly why. Drought, mass migration, rebellion, war, earthquakes. Probably all of the above. What struck me most was how fragile it all was. A globalized world, for its time, crumbled under pressure. That feels familiar.

Through the Ashes is a game born from that recognition. Not from nostalgia for ancient glory, but from curiosity about what comes after collapse. What remains when the gods are silent, the cities are dust, and people are still trying to live.

Mechanics as Memory

The core of this game is built on the excellent Nomadic SRD, derived from Breathless by Fari RPGs. That framework gave me exactly what I needed. A focused, resource-driven engine that balances fragility and hope. The card-based structure and interpretive prompt system are built around Carta SRD by Peach Garden Games, whose elegance helped shape the soul of this journey.

Every mechanic in this game supports a single idea. How do we carry on in the aftermath?

Resource Tracks

The four tracks — Health, Sanity, Supplies, Shelter — are not about simulating survival in a technical sense. They measure what it costs to remain human. You do not upgrade them. You do not optimize them. You lose them. You feel their absence. Every marked box is a wound, a compromise, or a burden.

Risk Oracle

The Risk mechanic exists to hold uncertainty. You do not roll for everything. You roll when the outcome is unclear and the stakes are real. Sometimes you do not want to know the answer. But the world keeps moving, with or without your consent.

Card Prompts

Each suit represents a different dimension of inner and outer life. Emotion, motion, substance, fear. The prompts do not dictate events. They ask questions. They create space. They let stories emerge slowly, without closure. That is how this world works now.

Complications

When you push too far, you suffer. The Complication tables are not punishments. They are the cost of surviving too long in a broken world. A broken tool, a failed shelter, a moment of despair. They are not twists. They are consequences.

Legacy Echoes

One of my favorite parts of the game is the optional rule that lets your next character find traces of the previous one. A drawing on stone. A buried knife. A ruin patched over. In a world where nothing lasts, leaving a mark matters. Even if no one sees it. Even if it only matters to you.

Companions

You do not have to survive alone. But connection is never free. A companion can protect you, but only once. When they do, they may die, leave, or change. That moment should hurt. There are no sidekicks here. Only people who walk beside you for a while.

Why This Game, Now

We live in a world that feels increasingly brittle. Climate crisis, migration, broken systems, vanishing certainties. Like the world of the Late Bronze Age, our present is interconnected, strained, and full of warning signs. I am not predicting collapse. But I believe we are already living in its shadow.

Through the Ashes is not a game of heroism. It is a game of memory, loss, continuity, and choice. It is about what you carry, what you leave behind, and what you choose to remember. It asks you to slow down and notice what still matters when everything else is gone.

If, while playing it, you find a moment of beauty or quiet or weight that stays with you, then this game has done what I hoped it would.

— Roberto