Crimson Furnace

Crimson Furnace is a tavern management game set in the underbelly of a megalopolis. Players take charge of the Black Maw, a tavern that must be run through daily service, stock management, cleaning, fishing and trading, while managing the risk of unrest among patrons that can escalate into riots or violence.

Core gameplay involves furnishing and upgrading the tavern, its machines and staff conditions, alongside handling finances through legal trade or black market dealings. Cooking uses tainted and occult ingredients to influence guests, with the risk of errors triggering rumours, panic or attention from in-game authorities known as Regulators. Guests are represented as social cards with factions, strengths, weaknesses and risks, which players collect and combine during service to manage synergies and control outcomes, building and refining a guest deck between services.

Additional systems include a herbarium for growing corrupted crops and raising creatures for ingredients, random events such as inspections, thefts, fires and gang tensions, and a narrative layer involving a cult called the Order of the Echomancers. Player choices regarding alliances, corruption and rumour management affect the tavern’s reputation and determine which ending is reached.