Author: Cass Reyfield

Hi all!

I just finished my full release of v4.1 Karma in the Dark. Feels so good not to have a list of things that still need to be finished!

I’ve found that players are better than me at describing the game, so to paraphrase what one said: The game is a Dystopian Futuristic Fantasy where you make your own world and it’s all about oppression, resisting corruption, and being disposable mercenaries controlled by those with more influence than you.

Instead of grabbing turf, you’re trying to prove your relevance to bigger factions and raise enough influence to impose your ideals on the world and shift the status quo. You constantly push for your ideals, but if you sell out on them you get bonus dice and everything is easier. Eventually you become so corrupt that you conform to society and end the campaign.

Rulebook: http://bit.ly/KitD_Release Sheets/Records: http://bit.ly/KitD_Sheets

Quick Rule Ref: http://bit.ly/KitD_RuleRef

Website for Misc other: https://www.casskdesigns.com/karma-in-the-dark.html

Feels bittersweet posting here knowing Google+ is going away, but this community is why I started designing in the first place,so I’m glad I made it to full release before then.

https://www.casskdesigns.com/karma-in-the-dark.html

Hi all! I wanted to share that the new version of Karma in the Dark (v4.0) is out for testing: https://www.casskdesigns.com/karma-in-the-dark.html

Description:

You are a team of outcasts in a futuristic world decimated by the magical Outbreak. You resist against ruthless megacorps, warring gangs, scheming bureaucrats, and shadowy cults, with one chance at a better life: be useful to those in power. Some might call you a mercenary; some might call you a sell out. You call it surviving.

As you compromise your ideals for success, your team will sink down to a new level of conformity. Cross a threshold, and the campaign’s narrative will twist to reflect back a growing darkness in the world around you. You will have to choose: maintain your ideals; save your community; or embrace corruption in your rise to power.

The system is designed for your group to create your own world. The structured world creation will help you define your group’s unique dystopian flavor and supernatural powers, then project those elements into an alternative future of your design.

Significant Updates:

More developed safe house and neighborhood system, tied directly into entanglements

Addition of team ambitions and goals, to focus play

Integration of Brie Sheldon’s script change tool to help manage tone and player comfort (really helps manage some of the potentially dark themes in the game)

Refined contact mechanics to make contacts central to gameplay (and get rid of the idea of a set fixer)

Refined PC and team playbooks with a continued emphasis on narrative abilities (now with propaganda/slander-spreading Performers!)

Example worlds and factions for pick-up-and-play, along with quick reference sheets for frequently used mechanics.

Overall:

It’s almost exactly 2 years since I shared version 1.0 of this game. I intended it to be a quick hack, but the passion and support for the Forged in the Dark community inspired me to keep improving this concept, which has been an awesome experience. So thank you!

Tides of Gold v1.0

A pirate fantasy game

https://www.casskdesigns.com/tides-of-gold.html

This hack started as a “how would I make ship combat more unique but still in the spirit of FitD?” and became an 80-page fleshed out world with some specific seafaring rules.

With 9 detailed ports, 50 factions, 5 new playbooks, 4 ship types, and 3 unique crew types, this hack focuses heavily on creating a world groups can pick up and play. It is also Blades compatible if people want to cross playbooks between settings.

I also went a little crazy and made a sea monster bestiary with 22 unique sea monsters.

Setting Introduction

The game takes place in the subtropical region of the Desideria Sea. This sea is the central heartbeat of transport, trade, and cultural exchange between all three continents of the world.

Two generations ago, the region was invaded by mysterious Sea Raiders, not-quite human creatures who introduced Renaissance technology to an Iron Age world. It has been fifty years since humans fought back these creatures, and in that time they have unlocked numerous secrets of their advanced technology, catapulting a mystical world into a mechanical future.

This period of peace and invention spurred on a new level of trade and exploration. The sea offers the promise of endless wealth for those with martial power, and constant threat of abduction and ransom for those without a patron’s protection. As the wealthiest merchant houses rise in power, they began to push against the confines of the treaties made to defeat the Sea Raiders. While most still hide behind hiring privateers, some fear a new age of piracy is on

the horizon.

The mark of the supernatural has not receded completely from the region. Deadly monsters live in the deep, and even the most advanced weaponry will not save an unprepared crew.

You play to find out if you can thrive amidst the teeming threats of the ocean: competing pirate fleets, corrupt government patrols, marine cults, lost islands, and lethal sea creatures, all while the crew members are torn between their vices and ambitious drives.

UPDATE: Released version 3.1 on 2/20/18. Streamlines mechanics, better defines magic/tech, and clarifies some rules.

I wanted to share with the community, that after 17 months of play testing, I’ve just released version 3 of “Karma in the Dark”. What started as a Shadowrun hack has become its own game.

Karma is a game about fighting an oppressive system in a cyberpunk-fantasy world. The team tries to earn a professional reputation without becoming as corrupt as the factions that hire them. It includes:

* Easy rules to create your own cyberpunk-fantasy world

* A karma system that tracks the team’s corruption level; as the team compromises their values for the sake of power, the GM advances a karma Front that brings more darkness into the world

* A contacts system, so that characters truly live by the “you are who you know” motto

* Advancement focused on social currency; as the team improves their rep, they gain access to special contracts, which are the pathway out of irrelevance and to becoming a faction that can survive the GM’s Front

* A focus on a persistent world more than persistent teams, with mechanics for the players to change the world depending on choices they make during each campaign

* Lots of customization, with 9 classes that can be mixed-and-matched, 6 team types, and the ability to choose between 9 different safe houses which affect upgrades and the narrative, as it determines the team’s starting neighborhood

The Blades and Shadowrun communities have been super helpful in the design process so far, and I’m extremely grateful. This is a major update (with much revision ongoing) so any feedback is appreciated.

http://www.casskdesigns.com