To Reign In Hell (WIP)

Choice of Games games CoG Works In Progress
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Most recent update: September 8, 2025 (Bugfixing only).

The throne of hell lies empty and pandemonium is sweeping across the infernal plains. Ride the wave of chaos, pursue power, delve into the secrets at the heart of hell or change the very nature of the afterlife…

• Play a male, female, or nonbinary character. Befriend or romance demons of all genders.

• Fight for a better hell… or show everyone just how cruel and monstrous a demon can be.

• Form alliances with inhuman terrors and silver-tongued fiends.

• Assassinate your rivals, defeat them in infernal courts, outshine them at soirées or slay them on the battlefield.

• Navigate hellish bureaucracy and demonic contract law.

• Solve a murder. Commit your own.

• Make peace or war with heaven and uncover the secrets at the heart of the afterlife.

• Take the throne of hell for yourself, grant it to another, smash everything or die trying.

Access the demo here.

Currently includes Chapters 1-4. The playable chapters are over 130,000 words long (as of the most recent update).

All public chapters are complete and fully playable, but please note these are drafts that are subject to change. Likewise, all pieces of chapter and cover art are placeholders.

Any and all constructive feedback is appreciated! I’m particularly interested in:

  • Any moments that feel unintentionally confusing/frustrating.

  • ‘Missing’ options; things you wanted to do/say but couldn’t. For reasons of game balance, not all tests will offer the player every primary skill (but feel free to suggest times you feel one is obviously missing).

  • Tests that feel especially unclear or unfair.

  • Spotting typos (blame Titivillus) and bugs.

  • Your favorite moments and characters.

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I will watch your work with great interest and the demo was great

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Just finished playing through and i love it can’t wait to see what happens next :slight_smile:

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So far, so good!

Possible bug: in 3_coil, *if clue_lykaeon_motive = true *set clue_value +5 appears twice. Maybe one of those was supposed to be lyk_wax .

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Wow, I really enjoyed this! It’s rare games let you play evil in a way that isn’t brutal or murderhobo. I particularly enjoyed causing mayhem and ending up with good publicity due to my high silver tongue. This has the making of a very fun power fantasy! Or an angsty crusade, if you want to be boring about it :stuck_out_tongue:

However, there were quite a few situations where my characters had no good option. Basically, situations that demanded physical skills (sneak/attack/endure etc). since I specialized in charm and wits, it meant I was stuck.

If that’s intentional, fair enough, but I might suggest nudging the player to not make doomed builds like I did? Perhaps, if a player chooses wits/silver tongue as their strong skill, the second strongest skill options will be limited to finesse and brutality. Basically hinting to players they want a well-rounded character.

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I liked it. Pretty big demo outta nowhere, I can see this getting some popularity. I don’t know if Romance is really a thing with how strangely built demons tend to be, but regardless of whether it is or isn’t I liked a lot of the flavor and choices. Learning who you were in the past was probably my favorite part, it’s got some pretty neat options-

I think the only check I had that was completely doomed for my build was the one to get Talos to work with me, since I had the opposite of each of the stats being tested, not that it mattered much in the end.

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Will F****** love heaven reaction about the Angel Origins Mc especially the zealot warrior and the Angel who tried to fix reality route when they become the Kings of Hell

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Thank you, I have now removed the duplication and updated the game files.(lyx_wax only affects dialogue but not clue_value; you can get the lyx_wax clue without passing a stat check).

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@Jackrabbit Presenting players with a lot of varied (but never mandatory) evil options for different builds/personalities was very important to me (you’re playing as demons in hell; evil options are a must) and it’s really heartening to hear someone appreciate it. I will say that murderhobo is very much an option at times, especially for high Brutality and Finesse builds.

It’s a good point about bad builds; I personally don’t mind players having no good option on some checks if they specialise as ‘jocks’ or ‘nerds’ (emphasis on some checks) but I am very conscious that some skills overlap more commonly (Silver Tongue and Decree being probably the worst build for this) and picking a social/mental skill and a more physical one is in some way optimal. I may tweak this down the line (when I adjust the difficulty of the checks) thank you.

@GenericUsername Thank you! Romance storylines are coming very soon now the MC has a better sense of themselves (and hopefully the player is a bit more grounded in the world). They will be somewhat odd, given the setting, but I can only hope they meet people’s expectations.

@Ronin_101 and @GenericUsername I’m very glad you liked the backstory options. I had a lot of fun writing them and the decision to leave this particular choice until chapter 4 was significant. My hope was that by having this key choice about the MC come later it would feel more meaningful and players would have a bit more of an understanding for what being a fallen angel or chthonian means in this setting before selecting those options.

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I don’t often post something silly in regards to any WiPs I play…but for some reason, this actually made laugh to myself;

Imagine yourself a spymaster, who happens to also skilled in arms and a sword in hand. Its name ? Diplomacy

…That’s a hilarious oxymoron if I ever thought of by myself.

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I don’t suppose you’d consider making the code visible? It could help people spot bugs

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@Adam_Cay Code unlocked.

@MIGSey I had fun with some of the sword names. You can also kill with Kindness.

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Could someone explain who committed the murder. I am confused

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It was the Masqued

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Not sure how to tag spoilers, but The Masqued admits to it

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go to options that have the plus sign and scroll down and you will see the option to blur spoiler just put whatever text you want in it and it will blur it

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Thanks

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It seems like if you choose to hunt talos and then choose the cunning stat check and pass it loops back

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It did. I have now fixed this and updated the public files accordingly. Huge thank you!

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@stuartmartyn Hey author out of curiousity why was Rangdan afraid of the MC, is it because they used to hang with the first demon or something

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