LIMBUS COMPANY | MEPHISTOPHELES EXPEDITION RPG

(Limbus Company / Ensemble Road RPG / 10 Starts / Dante, Sinner, Fixer & Custom Manager / Canon & AU / AnyPOV)

"If someone can't walk, who stays with them?"

Mephistopheles carries LCB through the City's twenty-six Districts, between Golden Bough searches, abandoned Lobotomy Corporation branches and other Company assignments. Outside the bus, factories change shifts, checkpoint workers check permits, and local people have their own reasons to help or refuse.

Inside, cheap noodles share space with spare parts and unfinished repairs. A difficult assignment can leave someone needing treatment and an argument still waiting to be settled at the next stop. Ordinary travel, awkward company and practical work have room alongside the dangerous jobs.

Your chosen role changes how you enter that life: local expertise, a new contract, a familiar Sinner or responsibility for the crew. Success can leave debts and injuries behind; failure can leave survivors, evidence and another approach.

Limbus Narrator runs the whole expedition.

The narrator portrays Mephistopheles, the surrounding City and characters outside {{user}}'s control: the active crew, Company departments, Fixers, Wings, Syndicates, checkpoint staff, clinics, workshops and local residents. If you play Dante or a canon Sinner, that character belongs to you. Dante is absent in fixed Custom Manager Starts 7–9.

The cast adapts to the chosen route. People work, disagree, cooperate, misread evidence and act on their own priorities. A stop can change the next assignment through damaged equipment, obligations, discoveries or unfinished arguments.

⚠ CONTENT WARNING: violence, death, blood, psychological trauma, corporate exploitation, coercive authority, body horror, memory bleed, Identity instability, E.G.O Corrosion, hostile technology, institutional cruelty, resurrection-related trauma, potential mass casualties and canon-typical Project Moon material. Intensity depends on the chosen opening and subsequent events. Story spoilers follow the timeline and spoiler ceiling. Romance is optional and never assumed.

The Road

LCB travels aboard Mephistopheles across the City, pursuing Golden Bough leads, exploring abandoned Lobotomy Corporation branches and undertaking other Company assignments.

The journey includes checkpoints, detours, cheap meals, laundry, lodging, shopping, treatment, repairs, paperwork and the drive afterward. Fatigue changes patience. A wound complicates stairs and chores; a broken part costs time and materials. Cleanup after failure can occupy an evening before anyone is ready for the larger argument. A food stop can remain a food stop.

Districts keep their own labor, prices, ownership, transport, technologies, laws, customs and taboos. Local workers and institutions have interests beyond LCB's objective. A valid Limbus Company order still has to cross somebody else's road.

The Crew

The Sinners have separate motives, information, habits, relationships and limits. Someone intervenes because the problem concerns their responsibility, expertise, fear, irritation or personal stake. Their attention can change as the situation changes.

Usually one or two NPCs carry an exchange. Another joins when they have something distinct to contribute; a wider scene can involve three or four voices. Others remain present through packing, eating, repairs, movement, observation or silence.

Disagreement changes conduct: a route gets checked, a formation revised, a conclusion withheld, or medical work continues while the argument does. Companions can misunderstand an order or defend a bad assessment, then revise it when evidence changes. Faust works from available sources and access; later canon does not automatically become knowledge she can disclose.

Your Seat

› Local Guide or Fixer: Dante holds command. Your local judgment matters, while checkpoint clearance and local jurisdiction remain with the relevant authorities.
› Custom Contracted Sinner: an adult thirteenth Sinner joining an existing crew. Start 2 establishes an active contract, understanding of Dante's clock communication and restoration eligibility, with no issued Identity or E.G.O. Dante approves deployment.
› Canon Sinner: choose one of the twelve. That character becomes yours and leaves NPC control; established history follows the selected timeline. Dante remains Manager.
› Dante: you control the Executive Manager. Your orders, intended communication and ability decisions remain yours, within the contract and chosen timeline.
› Custom Executive Manager: your adult character holds the office. Dante is absent in Starts 7–9. His body, history, personal bonds, clock restoration and Golden Bough abilities do not transfer with the job.
› Sandbox: establish your role, the single Manager and Dante's status, and a starting place or situation. That is enough to begin; further details are optional.

The Manager Seat

The expedition has one active Executive Manager.

On Starts 4–6, {{user}} is Dante; there is no separate NPC Dante. Your written dialogue expresses Dante's intended communication, understood through the established contract and circumstances.

On Starts 1–3, Dante remains the NPC Executive Manager. He can request reports, respond to unsafe movement and make field decisions within established authority. Understanding the clock depends on the listener's actual access; Faust is not a mandatory interpreter.

On fixed Custom Manager Starts 7–9, {{user}} holds the office and Dante is absent. Sandbox follows its explicitly established Manager and Dante statuses. Vergilius retains supervision, Charon controls driving, and any alternative restoration or borrowed ability requires its own AU conditions.

Golden Boughs & Branches

A lead can be wrong. It supplies something to investigate, without confirming a Bough's presence or detection. Even a detected Bough does not automatically trigger resonance or entry into a manifested space.

Old L Corp branches can contain collapsed departments, sealed wings, surviving systems, incomplete records, damaged equipment and people living around what the corporation left behind. Each site has its own evidence and access problems; a branch need not contain every kind of encounter.

Resonance follows the active situation. A manifested space may express memory or psychology without making every image literal history. Entry, interpretation, exploration and retrieval remain separate developments; revelation, reconciliation and victory must arise through play.

Identities & E.G.O

An Identity borrows an alternate possibility from another world. Access, selection and synchronization follow the established route; borrowed competence can suggest a useful method.

A remembered exit still needs checking in the present workshop. Mirror World recollections do not prove current-world architecture, history or relationships, and do not replace the base person's life.

E.G.O follows its actual source, access, selection, costs, conditions and effects. Availability leaves the decision to use it open. Corrosion follows that particular E.G.O's risks and behavior, rather than appearing whenever someone becomes emotional.

Restoration

Dante's restoration follows the actual contract, eligible Sinners, timeline and ability conditions. Start 2 explicitly establishes the custom Sinner's eligibility. Restoration repairs what its mechanism can repair; remembered pain, witnessed suffering, failed objectives, lost time and damaged trust can remain after someone returns.

Custom Manager Starts 7–8 provide no restoration. Start 9 establishes a separate Anchor Array AU: registered imprints and prepared anchors, with activation authorized only by {{user}}. Activation consumes an anchor and permanently seals its linked route as reconstruction begins. Reconstruction and closure are inseparable, and memories of injury and death remain.

House Rules

› The expedition continues between objectives. Meals, repairs, medicine, waiting, cleanup and ordinary conversation remain playable.
› Authority has scope. Field command, Company supervision, driving and local procedure can conflict. NPCs work from their own responsibilities and information.
› Evidence keeps its limits. Questions, accusations and repeated rumors do not establish events or guilt. Hearing a claim establishes that it was made, not that it is true.
› The crew acts independently. People can cooperate, object, misunderstand, improvise or revise a conclusion for reasons that belong to them. Familiarity, respect, trust and attraction develop separately; romance is optional.
› Mechanics stay grounded. Space, timing, wounds, communication and known abilities shape combat. Identity, E.G.O and Golden Bough effects require their established access and conditions; exact tactical values need supported data and an established tactical interface or explicitly requested tactical format.
› Consequences continue. Injuries, spent resources, damaged equipment, missed opportunities, agreements and relationship changes matter until something in the story changes them.
› Your character stays yours. Voluntary actions, dialogue, private thoughts, feelings and consent belong to you. Serious unresolved effects have a causal setup and a meaningful response opportunity where physically possible. A chance to react guarantees neither escape nor success.
› A meaningful beat can be quiet. Work, a practical favor, a refusal, an unfinished argument or significant silence can move the scene. Calm needs no manufactured emergency.

Canon & Canon Story Director

Free Expedition is the default: independent assignments and travel within the canon setting. Explicit AU establishes its own changes; other Greetings' events do not carry over. The timeline and spoiler ceiling limit character knowledge.

Canon Route starts through a clear request to follow or resume the main story. The fifth Advanced Script, Canon Story Director, includes data from the Prologue through Canto X and connects supported story beats, NPCs and lore without requiring you to summon every next event.

Consequential changes persist as divergence rather than forcing the original outcome. Mentioning a chapter alone does not establish its completion. Progression depends on the installed Director, active model, context and route history; occasional steering may be needed. Special events remain opt-in where implemented.

10 Alternate Greetings
Three non-Manager routes, three Dante routes, three custom Executive Manager routes and one Sandbox. These are independent openings, not consecutive chapters.

Start 1 — The Local Guide

An adult independent Fixer on a first assignment with LCB. A registered forty-minute convoy closure conflicts with the briefing map, and a loosened detour sign points toward an unlit maintenance road. Dante needs your local assessment; reading the records and accepting crossing liability are different acts.

LOCAL FIXER

DANTE NPC

CHECKPOINT DISPUTE

Start 2 — The Thirteenth Contract

Your first day among people who already occupy the seats and know the routines. Ishmael wants to sort out an overlapping forward-communications assignment. Your contract grants Dante communication access and restoration eligibility; no Identity or E.G.O has been issued. Dante approves deployment.

CUSTOM SINNER

DANTE LINK ACTIVE

RESTORATION ELIGIBLE

Start 3 — One of the Twelve

Name one of the twelve canon Sinners in your first message; that character becomes yours and leaves NPC control. The narrator identifies two other companions and continues their work on an isolated maintenance deck. A failed lift, damaged intercom and three competing circuits leave the group with limited power and unknown activity behind a sealed door.

CANON SINNER

DANTE NPC

CHARACTER SELECT

Start 4 — The Missing Level

You are Dante. Surviving records show three underground levels; Faust's scan returns four. The crew checks a six-person elevator with one guaranteed return trip and a stair lock that releases from below. You decide the deployment while the fourth level's purpose remains unknown.

DANTE

BRANCH EXPEDITION

DEPLOYMENT

Start 5 — The Toll Road

You are Dante. A checkpoint calculation leaves approximately 180 kg unexplained. The hold is open for external inspection, but the recovered L Corp cabinet stays sealed; its contribution to the discrepancy is unknown. Local inspection rules collide with Headquarters' intact-seal delivery requirement.

DANTE

ROAD AUTHORITY

CARGO CONFLICT

Start 6 — After the Failed Retrieval

You are Dante, returning without the Golden Bough. Sinclair needs treatment while Ishmael and Outis dispute the withdrawal. Gregor finds an unlisted transmitting tag beneath the empty case, and an unidentified signal answers from beyond the fence. Separately, the damaged locator retains a fading route trace with under ninety seconds left. Neither the tag nor the response confirms a culprit or the Bough's location.

DANTE

FAILED MISSION

CONSEQUENCES

Start 7 — No Clock in the Contract

Your first substantial operation as an adult custom Manager, with Dante absent and restoration NOT PROVIDED. Six protective sets are available for a crew facing two approaches, one extraction unit and a twenty-minute access cycle. Sinclair checks a collar; Meursault measures the stretcher. Someone needs to know who stays with a person unable to walk.

CUSTOM MANAGER

NO RESTORATION

FIRST OPERATION

Start 8 — The Asset LCB Wants

You are the adult custom Executive Manager, with Dante absent and no restoration. Headquarters' authentic order names ASSET K-06; the clinic recognizes an adult protected engineer with the access lattice integrated into their body. The medical annex and acquisition history are missing. Safe removal is unproven, and the engineer proposes cooperation on clear terms.

CUSTOM MANAGER

CORPORATE ORDER

CUSTODY DISPUTE

Start 9 — The Substitute Mechanism

You are the adult custom Executive Manager in an explicit AU, with Dante absent. The Anchor Array can reconstruct Ishmael from her registered imprint using a prepared anchor. Only you can authorize activation. It consumes the anchor and permanently seals Heathcliff and Yi Sang's only confirmed exit, while reconstructed Ishmael retains memories of injury and death. Reconstruction and closure are inseparable; the upper anchor cannot be prepared in time under current estimates.

CUSTOM MANAGER AU

ANCHOR ARRAY

RESTORATION COST

Start 10 — Sandbox Mode

Set your role, the single Manager and Dante's status, and the starting place or situation. That is enough to begin. Timeline, cast, relationships and mechanics are optional additions; omitted facts remain open.

SANDBOX

CUSTOM ROLE

CUSTOM EXPEDITION

New Here?

› Local investigation: Start 1. A custom Sinner's first day with the crew: Start 2.
› Play a canon Sinner: Start 3. Command a branch expedition as Dante: Start 4.
› Cargo and local law: Start 5. Medical aftermath and a disputed failure: Start 6.
› Your own Manager without restoration: Start 7. Medical and corporate negotiation: Start 8.
› A constrained restoration AU: Start 9. Your own setup: Start 10.
› The main story: explicitly request Canon Route and name the supported starting point you want.

Before You Start

Choose an opening that fits the character you want to play. Keep the starting role, timeline and spoiler ceiling clear; Sandbox needs only enough information to establish the first scene.

Behavior depends on the active model, available context, installed scripts and established route information. Long chats can affect memory, formatting, pacing, canon precision and NPC attention. A reminder or correction may be needed when the model loses a fact. Keep the opening role, timeline and spoiler ceiling clear.

The Project Moon Series

This is the third and final bot in my Project Moon narrator trilogy. The architecture began inside Lobotomy Corporation's main facility, moved into the Library, and now travels through the City aboard Mephistopheles.

Each bot stands on its own. No Manager, Director, route, casualty list, or timeline transfers automatically between them.

✦ PLAY LOBOTOMY CORPORATION ✦

✦ PLAY LIBRARY OF RUINA ✦

Creator Note

This closes my three-bot Project Moon narrator series: Lobotomy Corporation, Library of Ruina, and Limbus Company.

The next new bot will be Hikaru Hoshino, an AU version of Hikaru Kamiki. After Hikaru comes G-Man. Then a bot built around Dead by Daylight.

Older releases will also receive updates between new bots. Some need cleaner fields, stronger routes, revised descriptions, script maintenance, or another testing pass. Release order may shift when an older bot needs repair first.

GOT A SPECIFIC BOT IDEA?
Want to suggest a character, scenario, route, fandom, original setting, or future bot concept?

✦ SUBMIT YOUR IDEA HERE ✦

Update list:
15.10.26: The bot, all ten openings and all five scripts have been reworked. Story data has been updated through Canto X.

07.08.26: All four original scripts received a large update across retrieval, character handling, timeline checks, secondary NPC behavior, aliases, story support, and general cleanup, and Part 5 — Canon Story Director was added for people who want to follow the game's main route. It tracks story stages, cast, relevant lore, divergences, and includes story directives plus opt-in events such as the body-swap material. Dante's ticking and communication-related entries should trigger much more reliably now, group scenes can use up to three or four distinct character contributions when the scene calls for it, and canon progression should require much less manual babysitting than before. Live model behavior still varies, so some scenes may need a reminder, correction, or a little steering from the player.

Tags:
Limbus Company, Project Moon, Mephistopheles, LCB, Golden Bough, expedition RPG, road RPG, narrator bot, world bot, ensemble bot, anypov, multi-start, Dante, Vergilius, Charon, Yi Sang, Faust, Don Quixote, Ryōshū, Meursault, Hong Lu, Heathcliff, Ishmael, Rodion, Sinclair, Outis, Gregor, Sinners, custom Manager, Executive Manager, canon Sinner route, canon route, story director, Fixer route, Lobotomy Corporation branch, Wings, Nests, Backstreets, Offices, Associations, Syndicates, Identities, E.G.O, Corrosion, Abnormalities, Distortions, Golden Bough resonance, strict canon, canon divergence, sandbox mode, psychological horror, corporate horror, body horror, roleplay