Author: Stefan Struck (monkeyEcho)

Maybe I wrote that hack only to practice my stippling…? #aFistfulOfDarkness

Working on roll20 assets using that style.

#aFistfulOfDarkness – Alpha 3 Release for Playtesting

Final alpha version for your playtests. I hope you will like the new content and I hope, too, to see some playtest reports. That would be really helpful and very appriciated. Thanks in advance for your time and effort.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18L6o0YyK7dJc8csNiIwKQyCHoVhvbQFI/view?usp=sharing

Next on the Todo list are roll20 charactersheets and more roll20 assets.

Changelog for Alpha 3 – Updated Read action. Updated Underworld Runs. Doom/Riders instead of Menace/Threat. Added End Game. Generic Claims for Neutral / Light / Darkness. Changed Entanglements to Events. Dropped Cult Playbook. Updated Character / Posse Sheets. Additional mining Faction. More rules for Revenant. Updated tables and names. Adjusted Payoff. Updated Mutation. Lots of editorial changes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18L6o0YyK7dJc8csNiIwKQyCHoVhvbQFI/view?usp=sharing

#aFistfulOfDarkness

Short info on the #aFistfulOfDarkness hack:

Currently stuck in making up my mind about the latest change to the hack. I switched Heat/Wanted Level to Doom/Riders (of Doom) bringing the end of the world and the total war of light vs. darkness. Trying now to make all those other pieces fit to that which is much harder than expected.

What I want to say: If you’re planning to do a playtest of A Fistful of Darkness (which is awesome!), please let me know because I may have a newer document ready for you.

Thanks for your patience and interest in my hack.

A Fistful of Darkness – Alpha 2 Release for Playtesting

New playbooks added! Have fun and let those play reports coming! 🙂

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fEST1RMC5wk046sUvo3DJ-kLB14RKsoS/view?usp=sharing

#aFistfulOfDarkness

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fEST1RMC5wk046sUvo3DJ-kLB14RKsoS/view?usp=sharing

Another picture for my #aFistfulOfDarkness hack to get into the mood.

Better watch out in those swamps at night (and days, too) …

Roll20 clocks for my “A Fistful of Darkness” hack or for those others gunslingers. This is raw material for use as rollable table in roll20, how_to included. Note that the 8-clock was modeled as two interlinked 4-clocks. Hope this is useful for your game.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Clkd6DXOJGPccmxMis78dLpPn52xd9im/view?usp=sharing

#aFistfulOfDarkness

First Playtest of “A Fistful of Darkness” weird west hack

Short summary of the first two session of the very first game of “A Fistful of Darkness”. A big THANK YOU to the playtesters Stephan Kannengiesser Jens Römer and Peter Schmitz.

Session one saw the creation of the posse (= Bounty Hunters), PCs (= The Fist, The Thunderheart, The Scout) and world building (creating Mudwater and surroundings). We learned that we have a lot of swamp in the area, the Ghost Cliff as home of the Black Rider and lots of other interesting places (see map). We found out that Mudwater currently don’t have a graveyard because someone found Hellstone there and the dead had to make room for the mines. Missing, too, is a butcher because the last one went Hellstone scavenging and now the Thorton Ranch is providing the food for the city. An arrangement not everybody is happy with not only because of the inferior quality of the food delivered.

On the good side Mudwater has a Train station because one of the railroads reached the city already and as an additional facility we have Master Lees Chinese Laundry with Master Lee happening to be the mentor of the Fist PC.

The posse’s Hideout is a classic cave-hidden-behind-waterfall, provided by the Thunder Raven Tribe (+1 Status) overtaken from the Black Rider who is not only a mysterios guy but is obvious mundane enough to need a hideout (minus 1 Status). The Thunderhearts tribe and their rivals brought two new tribes to the game and we learned that their’s a “good” way to mine for or use Hellstone (without heavy impact and pollution of nature) and a “bad” industrial way which most of the white folks are using. The spirits of nature are not amused about that, as well as some of the tribes.

After first choosing the Hellstone Scavengers playbook for the posse, the players switched to Bounty Hunters because after some discussion they decided to be demon hunters. As demons seem to come with too much civilization and the “bad” way of mining, it was clear that someone has to do something about it and hunt them down. Originally the Bounty Hunters playbook was not meant for this approach but worked nevertheless quiet fine. They took the occultist as main contact and established that he’s the one paying good money for demons. I’m curious to find out if the occultist has a specific application for all those demons or what will happen with them in the future.

From a GM point of view a lot of material to work with, so the purpose of the world building phase was fulfilled: A living piece of the world the PCs are committed to and lots of story hooks to get the story going. Nice 🙂

Second session started with the Starting Situation from the “book” and saw the hunt of the Demon Hunters for Stan McCarthy which is not only a bad man (illegal Hellstone mining, robbery, murder, etc.) but seems to be possessed by a demon, too. They heard about an incident in a nearby Hellstone mine in which the hunted took shelter. The owner of the mine, the Ironware & Metal Goods, did not have the resources to investigate right now, so this looked like a good opportunity to go and catch that guy. Arriving there without additional incidents (rolling a 6 for the Travel Engagement) they found that no living soul was in sight, the equipment was mainly destroyed and the were remains of a recent battle. Two dead miners next to the shaft going vertical into the mine and the cage dangling some 20 meters below. The Thunderheart consulted the nature spirits to gather information: they were not happy and warned him about impending doom with vision of some spider being and ice cold air. Then the Fist jumped/climbed into the shaft and the action started.

Maybe I don’t have describe every detail here, so just the results: They had some run-ins with monsters (undead miners, spirits flies, Spider Spirit/Demon/God/Thing) and managed to catch McCarthy and bring him back to Mudwater. Two of the three PCs got their first trauma during the main battle which is ok from my point of view because it brings new stories and XP triggers.

What I have to look into are:

– Double Engagement (Travel Plan + “Main” Plan) may not be needed. Here we had only one Engagement that went so well that it does not seem appropiate to repeat it with the second plan. Maybe I just merge the travelling part into the main plan and that’s ok.

– Loot Table: Was ok, but did not brought any surprises and may be too much coin for the group on top of the regular pay out.

– specific rules for Dungeon Crawling: Was ok but not a blast. Maybe not needed at all?

Trying to write not too much, this is what I want to share. #aFistfulOfDarkness