His Majesty the Worm

A tarot-powered megadungeon TTRPG about resource pressure, camp relationships, tactical card play, and long-term expeditions into the Underworld.

At-a-glance

Fantasy megadungeon campaign play; tarot-card resolution; GM plus 3-6 players; strong resource, camp, and Bond procedures; PDF currently available, hardcover availability varies.

Genres:
Dark Fantasy Fantasy
Systems:
Old-School Renaissance (OSR)
Mechanics:
Campaign Card-Based / Diceless Exploration-Driven Resource Management Tactical Combat
Themes:
Dark
Decision Tags:
Award WinningRules Medium
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His Majesty the Worm

His Majesty the Worm is best for groups that want a committed, procedure-rich megadungeon campaign where the dungeon is not just a map of fights but a place that grinds down supplies, tests relationships, and turns every return to camp into part of the story. It is not the right first pick for a table that wants a light one-shot, low-prep fantasy, or traditional dice-first dungeon crawling with minimal new procedure.

Designed by Josh McCrowell and published by Exalted Funeral Press, the game describes itself as a new-school game with old-school sensibilities. The core book is a complete 404-page tabletop roleplaying game about adventurers entering the Underworld, pursuing personal quests, surviving scarcity, and returning to camp and city life with consequences that matter.

What the game is

At the table, His Majesty the Worm is a fantasy megadungeon TTRPG for a Game Master and a party of adventurers. The official product page positions the default setup as one GM and 3-6 players, with a tarot deck as the required randomizer. The GM builds and runs the Underworld, while players create characters with personal quests, inventory limits, relationships, and a reason to keep pressing deeper.

The important difference from many old-school dungeon crawlers is emphasis. This is not only about rulings, traps, and treasure. Food, light, inventory, camp scenes, downtime schemes, Bonds between companions, and tactical card play all sit close to the center of the design. The result is a dungeon campaign that wants mundane logistics and character relationships to carry as much weight as monsters.

Publication history and current line

The official site copyright line identifies His Majesty the Worm as a 2023 Joshua McCrowell game, while the current Exalted Funeral listing presents the Exalted Funeral Press edition as the active product page. As of July 4, 2026, the Exalted Funeral store page lists the PDF-only edition as in stock at $40 and the hardcover-plus-PDF bundle as out of stock at $60.

The line is also gaining adventure support. Exalted Funeral is promoting The Castle Automatic, a 100-plus-room, five-level Metroidvania-style dungeon designed for use with His Majesty the Worm. The official site also links to free resources and a Library Heretical page for supplemental and third-party material.

What you need to play

The core book is the main starting point. The digital edition is available through DriveThruRPG and itch.io, and the publisher store is the clearest place to check current print availability. You also need a tarot deck. The official listing frames the game as complete in one tome, so a group can begin with the core rules rather than needing a starter box or separate bestiary.

There is no widely advertised official quickstart in the sources checked. New groups should expect a real rules read, especially for the card-driven challenge system, campaign procedures, inventory pressure, and the rhythm between Underworld expeditions, camping, and city schemes.

Core rules and play structure

His Majesty the Worm uses tarot cards as its randomizing engine. The card system is not just a novelty skin over dice. In combat and other challenges, card play is meant to give every player choices during the exchange and reduce the dead time that can happen when dungeon combat moves one turn at a time around the table.

The broader loop is expeditionary. Characters go into the Underworld, spend resources, confront danger, use gear and clever play to push further, then recover through camp scenes and longer-term city activity. Bonds between companions matter because relationships power rest and recovery. That makes roleplaying scenes part of survival instead of a separate activity that happens after the real dungeon game pauses.

Characters, roles, and advancement

Characters are adventurers with personal quests rather than generic pieces in a purely tactical crawl. The strongest table fit is for players who enjoy seeing identity emerge through equipment, goals, Bonds, hard choices, and the monsters or mysteries the campaign brings into play. It is still recognizably fantasy adventuring, but it asks players to care about the cost of the expedition, not only the loot at the end of it.

Signature mechanics

  • Tarot resolution: the game replaces ordinary dice resolution with tarot-card procedures, including a challenge system intended to keep tactical decisions active.
  • Megadungeon campaign frame: the Underworld is the campaign's central pressure cooker, with recurring expedition, camp, and city phases.
  • Bonds and recovery: relationships between companions feed rest and recovery, making camp scenes mechanically important.
  • Resource pressure: food, hunger, light, and inventory are not optional color; they are core levers of play.
  • Long-term structure: the official listing emphasizes long-term, Metroidvania-like play rather than throwaway delves.

What play feels like

Expect a table rhythm closer to a serious expedition than a casual room-by-room monster tour. Players watch supplies, read the dungeon, make tactical card choices, and then have to live with the social and logistical consequences of retreating, resting, or going deeper. The dungeon is dangerous, but the game is also interested in the quieter stretches between crises: the meal, the campfire, the companion who helped you survive, and the scheme that starts back in the city.

That makes it a useful recommendation for groups that like the pressure of old-school play but want more visible procedure for relationship, downtime, and tactical pacing. It is less useful for groups that want OSR play to stay very rules-light or for tables that mainly want compatibility with existing B/X-style modules.

Running the game

The GM load is meaningful. The Game Master is expected to create and maintain a megadungeon, understand the tarot procedures, track expedition pressure, and keep the camp and city phases connected to player goals. The payoff is a campaign with strong internal rhythm, but the game asks for more preparation and system buy-in than a minimalist dungeon toolkit.

The safest starting path is to read the core rules with attention to the challenge system, resource rules, and Bonds, then begin with a focused Underworld area rather than trying to build the whole megadungeon at once. If The Castle Automatic is available when a group starts, it may become the easiest official adventure path into the system.

Campaign fit

His Majesty the Worm is built for campaign play. The official product copy explicitly emphasizes long-term play, Metroidvania-like structure, camp recovery, and city schemes. A one-shot could demonstrate the tarot challenge system, but it would miss much of what makes the game distinct: resource attrition over time, companion Bonds, repeated returns to the Underworld, and the way a dungeon becomes familiar through hard-earned access.

Reception and awards

The game has strong current reception signals. The 2025 ENNIE Awards list His Majesty the Worm as a silver winner for both Best Game and Best Rules. Exalted Funeral's structured product data reports a 4.96 aggregate rating across 47 store reviews. The official media page collects interviews, reviews, and actual plays, and independent review coverage such as Save vs. Total Party Kill treats the game as a serious modern dungeon-crawl design rather than a simple retro clone.

Where it is strongest

  • Campaigns where a single megadungeon can sustain long-term play.
  • Tables that want resource pressure, camp scenes, and character Bonds to matter mechanically.
  • Players who enjoy tactile card play and tactical decisions that are not just dice math.
  • Groups that want an authored, complete dungeon-crawl game instead of a tiny OSR toolkit.

Where it can frustrate groups

  • It asks for a tarot deck and for players to learn a card-driven procedure that will feel unfamiliar at first.
  • The GM has to support a campaign-scale Underworld and keep multiple phases of play moving.
  • It is not ideal for groups that want very fast one-shots, loose heroic fantasy, or low-bookkeeping adventure.
  • Print availability may fluctuate; the publisher store currently has the hardcover bundle out of stock.

Content and safety notes

The premise centers on dungeon danger, hunger, corpses, monstrous threats, and dark fantasy descent. The tone can be weird, grim, and bodily without being only horror. Groups should calibrate expectations around scarcity, death, confinement, and character harm before beginning a long campaign.

Best starting path

Start with the core book in PDF through DriveThruRPG, itch.io, or the Exalted Funeral product page, then check the official site for resources and current support. Treat print as a restock question until the hardcover bundle is back in stock.

Research notes