Imaginary Empire Games
Based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) Aotearoa, New Zealand, Imaginary Empire produces critically acclaimed character-driven tabletop roleplaying games. These games aim to find new, innovative, ways to align the rules of the game with the intended experience of the players. Here's a snapshot of games published so far:
Imaginary Empire's debut roleplaying game, EPOCH recreates the survival-horror movie experience, and aims to evoke a genuine tense and suspenseful game over the course of a single session. There are currently more than 20 EPOCH scenarios, each bringing a different style of horror movie to your table. EPOCH products have been nominated for ENnie Awards in categories including Best Rules, Best Electronic Product, Best Adventure, Best Free Product and Product of the Year.
Imaginary Empire's debut roleplaying game, EPOCH recreates the survival-horror movie experience, and aims to evoke a genuine tense and suspenseful game over the course of a single session. There are currently more than 20 EPOCH scenarios, each bringing a different style of horror movie to your table. EPOCH products have been nominated for ENnie Awards in categories including Best Rules, Best Electronic Product, Best Adventure, Best Free Product and Product of the Year. Wicked Lies & Alibis was released in early 2015 and is a whodunit roleplaying game set in the age of Art Deco that allows you to recreate murder mystery stories in the finest tradition of the golden-age of detective fiction. Wicked Lies & Alibis won an ENnie Judges Spotlight Award in 2015.
In late 2015 Death of Legends was released, a dark-fantasy roleplaying game that tells the story of epic deeds against great odds. The game was released for free, in aid of UNICEF New Zealand. Death of Legends won an Indie Groundbreaker Award for Best Rules in 2016.
Fragment, a science fiction roleplaying about the increasingly complex relationship between machine and human, was originally entered into the 2016 edition of the Game Chef competition. A revised version of the game was subsequently nominated for an ENnie Award in the category of Best Electronic Game.
In 2017, Imaginary Empire published several micro story games designed to be picked up and played with minimal preparation. These included 200 Word Roleplaying Challenge entries Candidate and Caper, along with Route Clearance, an expanded and revised version of Andrew Millar's winning entry about soldiers clearing explosives.
As COVID-19 gripped the world in 2020, finding a degree of creative collaboration through gaming seemed more important than ever. Coming in Hot, a game of heists and audacious robberies was published early in the year. Soaring Lions was released late in 2020, bringing the world of professional wrestling to tabletop roleplaying. Soaring Lions was a finalist for the Pavs: The New Zealand Game Awards in 2021 for Excellence in Physical Games.
FREE GAMES
These games are good. Really good. The best way to spread the word about them is to share them with people who'll play them with others. So if you'd like a free game (physical product or electronic copy) please get in touch. Especially if :
- You plan on running the game at a convention (prizes, card-decks and other items can be arranged)
- You review games, or play them online.
- Things have been tough financially of late.
CONTACT
If you'd like to get in touch with Imaginary Empire send us a message via
imaginaryempiregames [at] gmail [dot] com
imaginaryempiregames [at] gmail [dot] com