If Revue Starlight Was A PBTA Game

What it says on the tin.
If you've not seen review starlight, I don't know how to explain it to you. Go watch it. There's gay longing. There's a fun coming of age story. The show actually actually has some fairly in depth about art and the pursuit of perfection. There's musical numbers that are also sword-fights and also sometimes love scenes. One character is called banana and she's [spoiler redacted]. At one point a character stares directly into the camera to ask why you're watching this. There is a giraffe.
Look, it's really really good but also incredibly strange.
(this is based on my understanding from the anime and the film: if the stage shows or game contradict this pls don't be angry with me)

Seriously, watch this show.

So, a game. 
I'm also going to assume we all know how PBTA games work. I'm not gonna fuck with that too much. You don't need a GM for this: you're a GM while doing GM things.

STATS.
Three stats, rated between -1 and +3. They are:

Drive. The ruthless urge to excel at all costs. 
Heart. The ability, and desire, to relate to others.
Glimmer. Artistic vision, the spark of inspiration.

When you make your PC, give them a stat each at -1, 0, and +1.

MOVES.

When a move is triggered, roll 2d6 and add the relevant stat. 6- is a miss, 7-9 a hit, 10+ an exquisite hit.

Tear Down
When you try to hurt somebody - physically, emotionally or materially - use this move.
Roll with Drive.
Miss: It backfires, making you vulnerable. Take a condition based on how it went wrong.
Hit: You hurt her, at a cost. Give her a Condition, and she gives you one.
Exquisite: You effortlessly lash out. Give her a Condition, and get a Connection to her.

Manipulate
When you try to get somebody to do what you want, use this move.
Roll with Drive.
Miss: It's obvious what you're up to. She gives you a Condition.
Hit: You're tempting. Give her a choice: do what you want and gain 1 Experience, or resist and let you give her a Condition.
Exquisite: You're incredibly persuasive. Give her a choice; do what you want and gain 1 Experience, or resist and let you give her a condition.

Comfort
When you try to make somebody feel better, use this move.
Roll with Heart.
Miss: Things are just awkward. Each of you loses a Connection on the other.
Hit: There's some solace to be found. She chooses: one of you cures a Condition, and the other gets a Connection to her.
Exquisite: You both come out feeling better. Both of you can cure a Condition, and get a Connection with to other.

Vibe Check
When you probe somebody to work out what's up with her, use this move.
Roll with Heart.
Miss: Your interest is too forward. She gets a Connection on you.
Hit: You get a read on her. Ask her a question about what she's thinking or feeling, and she answers it. If her answer was completely honest, she tells you and gains 1 Experience.
Exquisite: You can intuit the truth. Ask her a question about what she's thinking or feeling, and she answers it. If her answer was completely honest, she tells you and gains 2 Experience. Otherwise, she gives herself a Condition.

Inspire
When somebody is motivated or empowered by you, use this move.
A character can only benefit from being inspired by you once. If you inspire a new ambition in her, she can either keep her current ambition or over-ride it with a new one. A character can, however, be inspired by multiple other people at once.
Roll with Glimmer.
Miss: She's lead astray. You both take a Condition.
Hit: She finds a way to do better. She names an ambition, and until that ambition is completed, she can spend Connections to you to get +1 to rolls towards it. When the Ambition is achieved, she gains an Experience.
Exquisite: She find the makings of greatness. She names an ambition, and until that ambition is completed, she can spend Connections to you to get +1 to rolls towards it. When the Ambition is achieved, she gains an Experience. Further, create a new Truth about that Ambition, replacing any previous ones about it.

Bond
When you share a close, intimate moment alone with somebody, both of you use this move one after the other - the character who initiated the moment rolls first.
Roll with Glimmer.
Miss: Something's just... off for you. She picks one of you to lose a Connection to the other.
Hit: You grow closer to her. Pick one or both: either you offer her something you think she wants, or you both get a Connection to the other.
Exquisite: You share something special with her. Pick one or both: either you offer her something you think she wants, or you create a new Truth about only the two of you, replacing any previous ones about the pair of you.

CONDITIONS.

Conditions are your current status, emotionally, socially and physically. If you get a Condition from a move or a Revue, it lasts until a move cures it, or you finish a Revue.

For each Condition you have, you take -1 when rolling for moves where that Condition gets in the way.

For each Condition you have, other people get +1 when rolling for moves where they can use that Condition against you.

A condition applies both literally and as a metaphor. EG, if you're "Looked Down On", that might mean you have a social disadvantage for being at the back of the class. But it could also mean your rival has the physical high ground over you in a duel.

Example Conditions include (but aren't limited to): Tired, Heartbroken, Retreating, Bruised, Confused, Lonely, Disarmed, Stumbling, Blinded, Unpopular, Aloof, Looked Down On, Cold.

You start play with one Condition; pick what.

CONNECTIONS.

Connections are a pool of points representing how much you mean to other characters. You track Connections to each other character seperately. EG, you might have 3 Connections to Claudine, 1 to Hikari, and none to anybody else.

After seeing the results of a dice roll, you can spend a Connection to somebody to give them +1 or -1 to a roll, or give +1 or -1 to a roll involving them. When you do, say how your influence helps or hinders.

When the game starts, pick two other characters you have some sort of relationship with. Give one of them a Connection to you, and get a Connection to the other.

EXPERIENCE.

Experience tracks how much you're learning and growing. Keep a tally of how much you have. Whenever you have time to reflect, you can spend five accumulated XP to learn something. Pick one of the following; you get +1 to an attribute (up to a maximum of +3), or you learn a new Trick.

TRUTHS

Truths are ideas or themes that are, for want of a better word, true. They shape the world around them in subtle but powerful ways. They apply to everybody and everything, all the time; a Truth is for the entire story, not connected to an individual character.

Truths are defined with a simple phrase, no more than one clause. They deal with matters of emotions, ideals, ambitions and relationships.

Whenever a move succeeding would agree with with that Truth, that roll gets +1. Whenever a move succeeding would contradict a Truth, that roll gets -1. The effects of multiple Truths stack.

You collectively begin with a single Truth. Decide between you what it is.

THE REVUE.

A revue is a struggle for the spotlight, and to shape the narrative of the world. Contestants fight, debate and sing their hearts out so that they can seize the centre stage and embody their ideals.

They are also deeply, deeply surreal, with the set and props responding to the tempo of the fight, morphing to reflect the emotions between the two contestants.

During a Revue, you don't use the six moves on each other: all that is covered by Exchanges instead. You might make moves immediately before or after the revue, though.

A revue takes place between two contestants. When a Revue begins, each contestant states what they're fighting to prove: this becomes their stake in the Revue. 

A Revue is divided into Exchanges, where the contestants exchange words, blows and ideas in their struggle for dominance.

The first step in an exchange is to pick their strategy. Simultaneously, each contestant picks one of the following:

Yield, to give ground and try to recover.
Push, to press forward aggressively.
Dance, to carefully lead your rival.

A Yield beats Push, Push beats Dance, and Dance beats Yield.

They state how they'll use the situation in the fight to their advantage, what they're saying to their rival, and what this means. In each exchange after the first, what you say and how you fight should build on the events of the previous exchange.

Then, work out each contestant's score for the round. For this, add up:
If your strategy beat theirs, add +5 to your score.
Add +1 for each Condition your rival has that you can take advantage of.
Add +3 for each Truth that agrees with you.
Add +1 for each exchange you've already won.
Add your current Connections to her.
Add the result of a 2d6 dice roll.

Whoever's score is highest is the winner of the exchange. If both scores are the same, then the result is a stalemate.

If you win with a Push, inflict a Condition on your rival, and she loses a Connection to you.
If two Pushes tie, each of you inflicts a Condition on the other.
If you win with a Yield, cure yourself of a Condition, and gain a Connection on your rival.
If two Yields tie, each off you cures yourself of a Condition
If you win with a Dance, gain a Connection on your Rival.
If two Dances tie, Each of you gains a Connection on the other.
Regardless of which happens

Most revues will last for three exchanges, or until one contestant relents. If it goes to the end, the overall winner is whoever won the final exchange.

At the end of a Revue, both rivals are cured of all their conditions. Whatever the winner was fighting to prove becomes a new Truth. If she won because her rival relented, however, then if she wishes, the pair may instead decide to create an entirely different truth between them, based on the events of the Revue.

THE STORY STRUCTURE.

The game is divided into normal fluid play, which everybody can involve themselves in, punctuated by Revues between two characters.

Each episode, a character has one Revue against another character they've not yet had a Revue against. Decide a dramatically appropriate time for it to happen. If there's an odd number of characters, pick somebody to sit out who hasn't yet.

Once Everybody's had their review for the episode, start a new one. An episode may need to last multiple sessions.

Decide how long you want the story to last. After that many episodes, whoever's won the most Revue's wins the auditions. In the event of a tie, run tie-breakers until there's a clear winner.

Whoever wins the Revue gets to pick a single Truth from those that have built up over the course of the story. Fuelled by the stolen spark of everybody else, they make a performance that truly embodies that Truth, and that Truth (and only that Truth) lasts beyond the current story. Reality may warp quite a lot to accommodate this.

If you choose to play more stories in the same continuity, you can. The Truths chosen by every previous winner are added to the game's starting Truths. You can keep the same character you played before, if you want, but her spark has been stolen. Reset her stats to -1/0/+1, and keep only one of her Tricks. Her Connections and Conditions carry over. New characters are created as normal, and then you begin again.

TRICKS.

Tricks are unique facets of a character that let them interact with the world (and mechanics) in new ways.

Supporter: You can spend Connections on somebody to give her +1 to her score for an Exchange when she's in a Revue.
Underdog: If you can turn a condition you're suffering from to your advantage, you get +1 to a roll.
Favouritism: If somebody becomes your favourite person, say who and why. Spending your Connections to your favourite person counts double, but you need to spend two Connections to get +1 for everybody else.
Dreamer: When rolling for moves, you get +2 when following an Ambition or benefiting from a Truth, not +1.
Slippery: If your rival's strategy beats yours in a Revue, they only get +3 for it.
Talented: In a Revue, you get +2 for every Exchange you've already won, not +1.
Curious: Whenever somebody rolls a move on you, you can ask "Why did you do that?" - if they answer honestly, they get a Connection to you.
Favourite Tactic: Pick either Yield, Push or Dance to be your favoured tactic. You get +2 to your score when you use that Tactic.
Metafiction Savvy: You can talk to the players by talking to the Giraffe.

You start out with one Trick, and can gain more as the story progresses.

GAYNESS.

Listen, interpretations may vary, but if you play this game and it's not very very gay, I shake my head at you in disapproval.

THE GIRAFFE.

You can assume any out-of-character commentary you make is also being made by the Giraffe. To get into the spirit of things, say "I understand" a lot out of character.

Chaos Warriors

I've been looking back at Esoteric Enterprises, and listening to French Antifascist Rap and arguing about 40k lately, and looking at the state of the world and the inexorable rise of authoritarianism at home and abroad, and being grumpy about how DnD-like games position PCs, and it's slowly solidified into some thoughts.
Here they are.




Scholars and experts will tell you that the true nature of chaos is incomprehensible. Perhaps they lie, or perhaps they've fooled themselves with their sophistry, but either way they're wrong. Chaos is very easy to understand.

Art of Mæredith, by TJmcFuck, whose art is very cool and whose thoughts partially inspired this post.

What Is Chaos Really?

Take the three-by-three alignment grid you're familiar with. It's a lie to confuse you. There's only one axis. Law vs Chaos and Evil vs Good are the same thing. Law is evil, Chaos is good. Ideas like 'lawful good' or 'chaotic neutral' are word games designed to stop you thinking clearly, like 'benevolent evil'.

Law is evil. It has to be, by its very nature. The process of Law is one of domination and subjugation. Law is the use of force - violent or coercive - to enforce the will of the few onto the otherwise unwilling many. Stripping away freedom, autonomy and dignity to subject us to the tyranny of the lawful.

All Cops Are Bastards, and that includes paladins.

Law is the force that decrees certain types of person (women, the poor, the mentally ill, the goblins, the foreigners) as inferior. Law is the force that would strip your bodily autonomy from you, because it considers you unworthy of controlling your own flesh. Law is the force that will inflict pain on those who don't comply, until their will is broken.

Once you understand this, it's simple.

What is Chaos, then? At its heart, Chaos is freedom. Defiance of the forces of Law, personal autonomy, your own will above all else. Chaos is anarchy, black magic, antifascism, the furious howl of those who will be oppressed no longer. Many people understand this, on some gut instinctive level, but few embrace it, and even fewer embody it.

Who Are Chaos Warriors?

A Chaos Warrior, then, is simply somebody whose fully dedicated themself to Chaos. A burning torch of defiance in the face of oppression. They could come from any background, and possess any talents.

The most well known Chaos Warriors are fighters and barbarians, clad in ornate plate armour, carrying unholy weapons, striking down the soldiers of order and defiling their symbols of control. They carve through disciplined armies, burn tax records, demolish prisons and desecrate churches. 

Others are sorcerers, dabbling in forbidden magic, directing unshaped elemental power to remake creation to suit their whims. Witches, blasphemers and madmen, no longer held back by the mere laws of nature.

Others still are more subtle. Rogues and assassins that keep a low profile, sidestepping law enforcement, sowing havoc in their wake and slipping back into the protective darkness. Arson, sabotage and assassination carefully applied to cut the hamstrings of those who would oppress them.

Some Chaos Warriors seem to venerate greater forces. Change, decadence, fury, entropy. Scholars see such practices, and conclude that the Chaos Warriors must be worshippers of greater powers, slaves to some pantheon of unwholesome dark gods. They set to work classifying them, assigning them arrays of various carefully described demons, categorising their various gifts. 

This, too, is a mistake, or a lie. The dark powers, in as much as they exist, are not external gods meddling with mortal puppets. Each dark power is simply a personification of the ideals that a given Chaos Warrior holds dear. 

The lawful see a Chaos Warrior dedicated to decadance and excess - pursuing hedonism and self-indulgence with the same zeal as a priest pursues holiness - and conclude that he cannot be doing so of his own free will. So they hypothesise a dark prince, a thirsting god that he must be enslaved by, and invent all manner of demons and rituals in that dark prince's name. In truth, the dark prince is nothing more than that Chaos Warrior's own desires, given a name and personified. 

It should be noted, however, that Chaos is not stupidity. Chaos Warriors understand the dire threat presented by Law. They are perfectly capable of freely choosing to associate with one another. Often when the momentum builds, they'll gather into huge hordes, knowing that the tyranny of Law can't stand against their collective desires. Plenty wish to see others - the downtrodden and oppressed - find the same enlightenment they did, and work to spread their destabilising message among the masses.

At the end of the day, though, every Chaos Warrior is an individual, following their own path and beholden to nothing and nobody, save their own ambitions.

Mechanics:

Becoming a Chaos Warrior is an option for D&D-like games, ranging from 0th edition to 5th, as well as their various derivatives. Any character can become a chaos warrior simply by wanting it.

Alignment: All Chaos Warriors are chaotic. They have no alignment on the good-evil axis (not even neutrality), as they realise that this axis is a lie. If any supernatural effect checks for good or evil, it fails to find any in them, and instead reports that they're chaotic.

Further, a Chaos Warrior can never be bound by any oath, geas or pact. They might enter into it, but even if the other party is bound by the agreement, the Chaos Warrior may freely disregard the pact.

Chaos Points: Chaos Warriors track the power of chaos within them, gaining new strength as they embrace it. Their pool of Chaos Points starts at 0, and can rise indefinitely high.

Gaining Chaos Points: A Chaos Warrior gains a Chaos Point when they do any of the following:

• Destroy or desecrate a public site of order, oppression or control (such as a prison or church).
• Slay, corrupt or otherwise neutralise an agent of order (such as a police officer, politician or pontiff).
• Weaken the grasp of an institution of law (such as a government agency, church or order of paladins).
• Lead somebody else to become another Chaos Warrior.
• Achieve an extravagant personal goal in defiance of the strictures of law (such as a grand slaughter of the police, drug-fuelled orgy or blasphemous rite).

Spending Chaos Points: A Chaos Warrior can spend a Chaos Point to do any of the following:

• Immediately, shrug off any effect that would alter their mind, subvert their free will, or shift their perceptions. Mind control simply fails as soon as the Chaos Point is spent.
• Free another from a similar effect, as above.
• Heal themselves, or another, a number of HP equal to their remaining pool of Chaos Points, immediately and unnaturally.
• Make a single permanent alteration to their physical form (perhaps shifting gender, growing horns, becoming inhumanly beautiful, or sprouting claws). Sort out the specific mechanical details with your GM, but a good rule of thumb is that the alteration grants Advantage to any appropriate rolls. The more Chaos Points they have when the change is made, the more dramatic the effect.
• Where the Chaos Warrior chooses to rely on luck, re-roll that chance if it fails. They can keep spending Chaos Points and re-rolling as many times as they want, until they run out, give up, or get what they want. They might use this to bump into the exact person they need by sheer chance, close their eyes and walk through a hail of arrows unharmed, stick their hand into a mysterious sack to pull out the exact item they need, or leap from a castle walls trusting that they'll land on something soft.
  
• Create a minor magical effect (of similar scale to something like Prestidigitation) that lasts as long as they wish. They might cause food to go rotten, have unlocked doors open for them, carry an enticing scent, or leave bloody footprints wherever they tread. The more Chaos Points they have, the more dramatic the effect currently is.
  
• Ravage an agent of order (such as a cop or authority figure). For the rest of the encounter, add their remaining amount of Chaos Points to all rolls against that victim (attack rolls, damage, saves etc), and deduct that same amount from the victim's rolls against them.
• Force those submitting to the forces of order (slaves, prisoners, soldiers, the poor) to make a save of some sort. If they fail, they temporarily throw off the chains of order that bind them. What this means will vary; they might flee from the Chaos Warrior, riot against their oppressors, give in to temptation, or something else.

Drawbacks: There are no mechanical drawbacks to being a Chaos Warrior, but any who are public with their nature (or who are discovered) will earn the inevitable and unreasonable enmity of the forces of law and order.

In conclusion, remember:
-none of us are free until all of us are free.
-all cops are bastards.
-if you think it can't happen here, it can and already is.
-fuck the system.
-kill the cop in your head.

Into The Dark City - Part 2

 A follow-up to this post here. Part 2 is the backend stuff, tables and procedures for running the game.

A hack of Into the Odd where you play as legally distinct dark eldar.
The skeleton for the game, Into the Odd, was created by Chris McDowell at Bastionland.com
You get to play as horrible decadent evil space elves, being flamboyant in their extradimensional dark city and raiding realspace for fun and profit.
Please don't sue me, Games Workshop.  

Your Neighbourhood:

We've seen how cavegirl makes a setting before, this is familiar. Drop a full set of dice (one each of d4-d20, and a percentile. Maybe a particularly fun funky dice or two as well.) on a sheet of paper, mark what lands where. Each dice is a faction in your district of the dark city.

Look up the result of the dice on the list below to see what each faction is. For each, come up with a name, a symbol to mark what's theirs, and a quirk.

1: A Homonculus Coven. Practitioners of the ancient art of flesh-warping. Surgical geniuses that produce pain-engines, flesh thralls and bio-implants. Your flesh can be banked with them to be ressurected in the event of an untimely death. Absolutely terrifying, but you need them.

2: A Gladiator-Witch Cult. Fight for everybody's entertainment and nourishment in public arenas. Masters of ancient (and very showy) martial arts. A cross between sports team, public service, and local mascots. 

3: A minor Cabal. Regular Folks, which is to say depraved, decadent and corrupt. Involved with the day-to-day running of some important industry, such as weapon-smithing, slave training, the drug trade, high fashion or espionage. 

4: A prestigious Cabal. Also regular folks, but now with wealth and influence. Influential in their industry, and jockeying for higher power. Their leader might already be a minor Archon; if not, they've probably got their eye on the title, and big plans.

5: A Hellion Gang. Hover-board riding street punks. Ne'er do wells living lives of crime and scandal. Utterly disreputable. The main difference between this lot and a Cabal is largely one of attitude, and their unwillingness to engage with polite society on their own terms. They might grow out of it.

6: A flock of Scourges. Surgically altered Cabalites, blessed with wings and sharp senses. Try to stay neutral on the politics of the Dark City, acting as messengers, couriers and informants to whoever can pay for them. Loyal to their own, and whoever pays them.

7: An Incubus Shrine. Disciplined warrior-monks, practitioners of esoteric martial techniques and violent mysticism. Sell their violent services to the highest bidder. Keep their word. Thoroughly honourable, but with enough martial force that its hard to exploit that honour.

8: A Lamia Convent. A religious sisterhood of poisoners, courtesans and mystics. Frightfully fashionable, having a Lamia as a lover, assistant or assassin carries a lot of social cachet. Absolute masters of alchemy.

9: A Mandragora Pack. Shadow-elves, semi-real, with powers over darkness. Some can become invisible, or intangible, or step through shadows. A bit feral, lacking the refinement and grace of regular space elves. Collect grizzly trophies.

10: A Beast-master Cult. Ofshoots of the Gladiator Witches. Hunt, train, and fight strange animals. The source of the various delightful pets and combat beasts you might have in your menagerie. The most daring mess about with demon-beasts as prey, and if they have any sense of responsibility do it somewhere the inevitable collateral damage won't be too costly. Carry an air of danger.

11: A Medusa Infestation. Ethereal parasites latched onto victims, physically manifested as a mass of brain matter and spinal cords over their head like a hood. Smart. Feed on dreams. Can be negotiated with, paid off, or enslaved, but these ones are largely independent for now. Their gaze brings anguish, madness and catatonia.

12: An Alien Mercenary Company. Exotic and interesting, but not quite trusted. A novelty, rather than part of society. Might be avian predators, serpentine bodyguards, orc freebooters, or beastman corsairs. Insular, disciplined and in it for the money.

13: A Harlequin Delegation. Space elves from outside the dark city. Worshipers of the trickster god, repositories of ancient mythology, performers and scholars. An entertainment novelty. They probably have some grand agenda in the dark city, but nobody really cares.

14: An Outcast Delegation. High space elves from the monastry-worlds in real-space, in (often self-imposed) exile. Temporary visitors to the dark city as they adjust to life outside the rigid paths of the high space elves. Generally considered naive and vulnerable, it's understood that they'll either grow disgusted at the dark city's cruelty and decadance, returning to their monastry-worlds, or else assimilate and become just another cabal.

15: A shrine to a nearly forgotten Dark Muse. Dedicants pursue perfection in one particular aspect of the dark city's decadent ways, be it torture, poison, fear, sensuality, tragedy, power or romance. A little old-fashioned, perhaps, but basically a respectable religion. More superstitious evil space elves leave offerings for the Dark Muse's favour.

16: A Charibdean Fashion-House. Pursuit of aesthetic excellence, constantly inventing and creating. A never ending stream of new designs for those with up to date tastes, ever more elegant, risqué and boundry-pushing. Sit slightly apart from Cabal politics, dedicated to their art.

17: A Daeva Slave-market. Breeders and flesh-sculptors, a source of the most elegant thralls, mentally manipulated to be compliant and surgically altered to match current fashions. Will buy anybody you bring to them who doesn't escape. A bit of a used-car-salesman vibe going on.

18: A famed weapon-forge. Home of a master smith, creator of wonderous new weapons and pieces of violent hyper-tech. A cultist of the dead Forge-God. Treated as a sort of local savant, their creations a source of much gossip.

19: A cult of the Bloody Handed God. Followers ritually don aspects of the bloody-handed god of war, pursuing self-discipline and military excellence. A sort of hobby for cultists to dabble in between more serious matters, and deeply offensive to the high space elves who take this sort of thing very seriously.

20: A Slave Revolt. Escaped thralls lurking in the margins and shadows. Actual revolutionary zeal is quickly tempered by the realities of life in the dark city; soon enough the revolt will become just another gang scrabbling for position, and if it endures could morph into a successful cabal in its own right. Most consider the revolt not worth the effort of suppressing, and express amusement at its petty successes and descent into power.

Other: A cult of the Resurrected God Of The Dead. Absolute weirdos who's apocalyptic faith preaches that the end is approaching, and the God Of The Dead will soon do battle with the Thirsting God. Populists. Viewed with a mixture of distain, wry amusement, and secret worry that they might be right.

Also drop a single token - a coin, counter or similar - that represents the PC's Coterie.
Next, draw a loose network of lines connecting each faction to its neighbours. For each such connection, determine the relationship between the two factions: the closer together the dice are in size, the more friendly the relationship; matching dice sizes (for the d10 and the percentile) indicate an unshakeable alliance, while a d20 and a d4, being the most different in size, are eternally bitter enemies. More middling results indicate some sort of uneasy business relationship or treaty; things aren't openly hostile, but they could become so.
As a general rule, factions closer to the top of the page are also closer to the top of the social heirarchy, unless their nature makes them obviously unworthy (in which case they're a fashionable topic of conversation, but not actually privileged).

Life In The Dark City

d20 Debts:

1: An unusually beautiful and well-trained thrall.
2: A freshly-taken human slave.
3: Several doses of a combat drug.
4: A successful party's worth of recreational drugs.
5: A work of art, depicting something intellectually stimulating.
6: An interesting soul, contained in a soul-trap.
7: Poetry exulting the creditor.
8: A full wardrobe of up-to-the-minute fashionable clothing.
9: An exotic combat-beast, new enough to be interesting.
10: The head of a business rival. It's fine, they'll grow back in the homunculi's flesh pods, but it makes a point.
11: A sample of your own flesh, for... insurance.
12: An invitation to some highly prestigious social event.
13: Jewellery made from stolen high space elf Soul Gems.
14: A piece of interesting hypertech.
15: Direct service as a minion for a short time.
16: A full recording (vision, audio, scent and emotion) of some interesting event.
17: A dangerous secret, yours or somebody else's.
18: A religious relic from before the rise of the Thirsting God.
19: Some sort of practical tool, such as an astronavigation array or surgeon's kit.
20: An excitingly glamourous custom-made weapon.


d20 Trends, Fashions and Fads in the Dark City

1: Living skin clothing, still able to feel and move, proactively adjusting itself to your posture.
2: Additional, surgically grafted limbs, each with a specialised appendage in place of a hand.
3: Tattoos depicting exquisitely heretical versions of ancient space elf mythology.
4: Pet human priests, not fully broken, who babble religious nonsense for your amusement.
5: Snakes. 
6: The plays of the harlequins. One doesn't take them too seriously, but they're very amusing.
7: Dabbling in masochism. Why must it be somebody else's suffering you feed on? The truly refined can feed one another with their sadomasochistic rites.
8: Emotional numbness. Feeling things is terribly gauche, the stylish simply exist.
9: The interplay of light and shadow instead of physical structure. Dwellings divided into rooms by sheets of brilliant light. The fashionable physically nude, accompanied by drones that project strategic fields of shadow that serve as clothing.
10: Exciting anatomical variations. The unexpected reveal of an eye or a mouth somewhere one wouldn't normally be.
11: Tattoos in frames, preserved on still-living skin for posterity.
12: Seemingly sincere and heartfelt religious devotion, for as long as the fashion lasts.
13: Exciting masks, mimicking mythical figures.
14: Mockingly imitating the ways and customs of lesser races, such as humans, orcs, avian predators, etc. Primitive-chique.
15: Perversely Competitive Minimalism. Does your spire really need floor? Do your thralls really need eyes?
16: Hallucinogens. Reality is as you experience it, so why not shape your reality to something more kaleidoscopically interesting?
17: Bonsai Suns. Elegantly sculpted, miniaturised stars, held in a containment field.
18: Vendettas and Duels. Where are we without a few fun duelling scars and a favourite sworn enemy (who you probably end up hooking up with).
19: Memento Mori, reminders of death and mortality. Deliciously ironic, since - with the immortal science of the homunculus covens - death is something that happens to lesser races and poor people.
20: Ironic Asceticism. By depriving oneself and feeling the touch of the Thirsting God, does one not cultivate greater suffering to feed on later? Utterly self-defeating, but deliciously perverse. 

d20 Events, Upheavals and Shifts in Fortune.

1: A slave revolt devastates a key industry as a large portion of the indentured work-force disappears into the undercity. The question is whether the slave population can be restocked before those affected suffer permanent economic damage.
2: A malfunctioning pain-engine goes on an exciting rampage. Casualties mostly confined to those who showed up in the path of its carnage to enjoy the spectacle. And slaves, but they don't matter.
3: A local power undergoes a dramatic coup, the organisational structure is decapitated (possibly literally), and new masters install themselves. The power has a sudden shift in priorities as the new leadership assert themselves.
4: Two factions, formerly friendly, go to war! It's very dramatic, lots of people are gambling on the outcome, and bodies pile up in the streets. It's unlikely anybody dies permanently, of course, so long as they pay their debts to the homunculus covens for reviving.
5: Two factions, formerly rivals, form a convenient alliance, using their combined power to climb the social ladder.
6: An exciting new recreational drug sweeps the social scene, and nobody seems to be paying much attention to the horrible side-effects.
7: A faction embarks in a disastrous real-space raid, taking horrible casualties and suffering a dramatic plummet in their fortunes.
8: A meme-virus sweeps the population, causing people to babble very fashionable nonsense. It's unclear if the meme-virus has intent behind it, and if so what ends it might be working towards.
9: The high ruler of the dark city demands a tithe from all residents of the neighbourhood; those who can't provide it will suffer inventively instructive punishments.
10: A grand olympiad is to be held, the Gladiator-Witches engaging in a championship of blood sports to determine the most prestigious of their number. Gambling, match fixing and furious shipping immediately ensue.
11: A weird psychic fallout occurs, and somewhere important is now horribly demon-haunted. Dealing with the weakened veil, and bringing whoever was dabbling with forbidden psychic powers to justice, will surely bring whoever achieves it prestige.
12: Lurking horrible monsters of the undercity - mandragoras, blood worms, rogue pain engines, mutated escaped slaves - start hunting the public forums, dragging away citizens to unclear but presumably unpleasant fates. It's very funny for now, but at some point somebody should probably deal with it.
13: A faction returns from a wildly successful real-space raid, returning with fabulous wealth. Their status goes into rapid ascent as a result.
14: The high ruler of the dark city, in his whims, declares some draconian new law. While, of course, everybody privately ignores it, it provides some excellent blackmail material when you catch somebody out.
15: Some very violent nutter in ceremonial armour is challenging all comers to single combat, promising fabulous rewards to any who can beat them. It's not entirely clear what their scheme is, or if they're just weird.
16: Speculation abounds that the leaders of two rival factions are secret lovers. Scandal ensues either way.
17: A faction suffers a dramatic internal schism, splitting into two similar but bitterly opposed factions.
18: A faction suddenly, inexplicably self-destructs, leaving a power-vacuum to be filled.
19: Some hidden conspiracy is quietly assassinating prominent citizens, to unknown ends. Working out who's behind it, and what they want, becomes the height of gossip.
20: The most powerful faction locally makes an open bid for power, attempting to conquer their rivals by force and become a far greater power. It would be doomed to failure if their rivals were capable of healthy co-operation, but as it stands the mess of self-serving political nonsense that enmeshes everybody leaves things on a knife-edge.

d12 Cloning Errors:

1: Skin becomes unusually pigmented.
2: Eye fails to regenerate.
3: Skin translucent. 
4: Scars remain from whatever killed you.
5: Fingers elongated, too many joints.
6: Memories of the state between death and revivification linger, they're existentially upsetting.
7: Body ice-cold.
8: Memories of the events leading to your death missing.
9: Limbs too long.
10: One limb withered and less functional.
12: Spine twisted, hunching forward.

d12 Job Offers In The Dark City:

1: One of the lesser races in realspace has irritated me; bring it back as a slave.
2: Assassinate a rival to make a point, they'll come back but they need to be taught a lesson.
3: Steal a rare Hypertech item for me, don't get caught.
4: Find out who pulled off a recent attack against me.
5: Do some industrial espionage, bring me a juicy secret about a rival.
6: Frame a rival for something they can be nicely blackmailed over.
7: Take me on a nice safe guided tour of somewhere exciting in realspace.
8: Spread some handy propaganda for me.
9: A rival is holding somebody I, shamefully, care about hostage, go get them back safely.
10: I did something potentially incriminating, clean up the evidence before it goes public?
11: I'm very bored, bring me something particularly amusing from real-space.
12: Here's some lovely sabotage, plant it where it can do some fun damage to my rivals.

d20 Nightmare Dolls For Sale

1: Allows you minor precognition when you hold it.
2: Wards the area it rests in against demons and spirits.
3: Allows you to sense psychic effects when you hold it.
4: Allows you to dispel psychic effects you brandish it against them. The psychic can make a Will save to resist.
5: Allows you to communicate telepathically with whoever you point the doll at. The subject may make a Will save to resist.
6: Allows you to see people's souls when you hold it.
7: Allows you to cause whoever you point it at to feel your emotions. Potentially very romantic. The subject can make a Will save to resist. 
8: Lets you transfer people's wounds to yourself (healing them and dealing that much damage to you), or visa versa. The victim can make a Will save to resist.
9: Lets you project holographic images where you gesture with it.
10: Lets you cause excruciating pain to a psychic you point it at, reducing their Will by d10
11: Wards the area it rests in against psychic powers.
12: Wards the area it rests in against dimensional intrusions and spying.
13: Lets you read emotional resonances from objects it touches.
14: While you hold it, causes you a little jolt of pain whenever you hear a lie.
15: Lets you instinctively sense danger when you hold it.
16: Lets you project a telepathic message to somebody you care deeply about (love and hate both count) anywhere in the universe, or further afield.
17: Let's you start small fires where you point it. d8 Damage if used to set people on fire.
18: So long as it's on your person, lets your corpse keep talking (and listening to responses) after you die, until you're revived by the homunculi.
19: Inflicts a conscience on whoever you point it at. Reduce Will by d8 if you point it at somebody not used to the sensation.
20: Lets you dull the emotional responses of whoever you point it at. The subject may make a Will save to resist.

d20 Pieces of Advanced Hypertech for sale.

1: Homonculus Ossifactor Field. Causes rapid uncontrolled bone growth. A weapon that hits everybody nearby dealing d12 damage, damage rolls over to Dexterity not Strength.
2: The Dance Of Minds. Lets you swap bodies with a victim, who can make a Will save to resist. You each retain your Will scores, memories, personalities.
3: Handy Portable Black Hole. Held in a humming force-field inside a handbag. Utterly destroys whatever you push in there. Useful for disposing of evidence, or cleaning up after parties.
4: Gilded Demon Cage. Holds an enslaved demon prince. You can poke him through the bars for your amusement, or - by adjusting the dials on the cage - cause him to suffer until he offers you a prophecy. 
5: Curly Soul Straw. Stick the sharpened end in somebody and drink, and their soul comes out with their blood. They lose d10 Will, you regain that much lost Will, and also absorb some of their memories and personality traits.
6: Soul Forge. Feed a trapped soul into it, and it sculpts it into something amusing that you can put on display. Or use it as a component when building hypertech that uses souls. Or whatever horribly inventive thing you can imagine.
7: Nightmare Jammer. Activated by whispering one of your fears to it. Overrides all local communications channels so the listener/viewer instead receives whatever the worst possible message would be - everybody gets their own personalised horrible communication. 
8: Instant Sun, just add helium. A miniaturised star, held in stasis. Release the stasis and add some helium, and it roars into nuclear fire, dealing d20 Damage to everything in a very wide radius every minute, until somebody puts the star back in its box.
9: Homunculus Flesh Pod. Put a dead body in, or even a tiny fragment of one, and fuel the pod with somebody's suffering nearby. The body is revived into a living person once more. Useful in a pinch, so an untimely death doesn't end the fun of a real-space raid.
10: Hypnotic Curtain. Hang over a doorway or other portal. Anybody trying to pass through must pass a Will save or fall into a hypnotic trance, and be rendered helpless. Handy for privacy.
11: Extradimensional Bridge. Teleport yourself and your companions somewhere you've been before. Costs a trapped soul to establish a route if this is the first time you've taken the bridge there.
12: Corpse Thrall Spike. Jam it into the brain of a dead body, and it reanimates as a corpse thrall under your command. 
13: Mirror Gown. Reach into a mirror to pull out the reflection-objects within, or step into the mirror to reside in the reflected pocket-realm on the other side. 
14: Djinn Rings. A set of ten. Each ring contains a bound spirit. You can command the spirit to fetch you an object, releasing it from the ring, but when it returns you need to beat it into submission to put it back in the ring, or else it stays free (and a kleptomaniac).
15: Space Warper. Shrink a distance between two places down to a few feet, or expand it up to a mile. Handy for when you're too lazy to walk very far.
16: Shrinking Water. Sprinkle it on an object and it shrinks down to the size of a rice grain, no matter how big it started out. Once the object has dried out completely, it suddenly springs back up to its original size.
17: Locket Of Safety In Courtship. While you wear this, you cannot be injured by anybody you truly love or who truly loves you. They can still cause emotional pain, however. Taking it off after the first date is considered very romantic.
18: Fashion Gland. Implanted in the body, where it exudes flesh warping hormones. Whatever you want to look like, your body slowly shifts itself to look like that over the course of days or weeks. Requires focussed desire for best results.
19: Quantum-Entangled Paper. Two sheets. Whatever you do to one - origami, writing, tears, bloodstains - happens to the other as well. Popular with separated lovers.
20: Prismatic Gown. The wearer can shift from a particle to a wave temporarily, letting them project themselves over large distances, refract through objects, etc, before reforming.

Real-space Raids

d20 Human Planets to Visit

1: Veranthus. Agricultural world. Herds of shaggy beasts, rolling waves of golden grain. Tranquil, placid and pastoral, until you get there.
2: Asterion Prime. Hive-city world. Teeming masses of humans packed into hyper-dense urban sprawl. Monolithic architecture. Drab.
3: Sigma-Hoth. Ice world. Humans drill for oil beneath vast glaciers. Inhospitable, but very picturesque.
4: Carthagus. Port world. A trade hub where human spaceships dock in orbital space-stations to resuply or sell cargo. Fabulously wealthy by human standards, but to space elves terribly dull.
5: Madrix Delta. Jungle Death World. Human enclaves live beneath the trees, fending off horrible insect-monsters. A challenging visit, but very rewarding. Capturing the beasts is always fun.
6: Capsasitus Twenty-Two. Machine-world. A vast factory where the human machine-cult makes things they naively consider high-tech. Very ugly.
7: Dominus Prime. Shrine world. The humans' primitive religion thinks this place is very important; your visit will really make them upset. Lots of very beautiful slaves here.
8: Pacifica. Oceanic hive-city world. Sprawling ocean rigs lashed by storms. Humans here rugged and independent, not very bright even by human standards. Demons lurk in the depths of the ocean.
9: Planet Brox. Night-locked Urban World. Under a shroud of darkness, the vast cities descend into vice and crime. The humans are trying, bless them. Your atrocities need to be extra atrocious to stand out here.
10: Borneus. Garden World. Light agriculture in a rural paradise. Lots of soft, happy, contented humans, absolutely ripe for the picking. Won't this be fun?
11: Maximus Beta. Post-apocalyptic desert world. Human tribes fight each other among the ruins of a fallen civilisation. The people are ugly and rather dull, but there's lots of interesting pre-human relics to steal here.
12: Floyd Kappa. Mining world. Teeming hordes of slightly mutated humans horribly oppressed by their overseers, forced to work down the acid mines. Hyper-authoritarian dystopia. It's actually quite hard for you to make this place worse.
13: Dendrus Five. Gas giant. Human cloud-harvesters live on floating platforms. Low gravity. A good place for a nice, laid-back relaxing slaughter.
14: Sigma-Sigma-Gamma. Radioactive Death World. Incredibly poisonous. Everything here, including the humans, incredibly mutated. Distasteful. A nice source of gribbly combat beasts for the arena, though.
15: Nullius. Agricultural world. Very boring human settlements live very boring lives farming algae, studiously ignoring the ancient cyclopian alien ruins scattered about the planet.
16: Mortian X. Used to be a lovely agricultural world, now a warzone. Going on for five decades of trench warfare in a pointless civil war. A pit of human misery and meaningless death. Delightful, in an over-the-top sort of way.
17: Vera 12. Machine-world. Human populations toil away building crude, dangerous nuclear devices. Factory-thralls packed in like sardines. Oddly tranquil, probably due to all the sedatives in the drinking water. 
18: Magnifax Ultima. Noble world. Centre of government for the local star cluster. Lots of beaurocrats. Absolutely packed with cultists of the evil gods. Best to be selective who you kidnap, you don't want to accidentally bring a cultist of the Thirsting God home with you.
19: Oasil. Desert world. Ash-choked atmosphere, lots of volcanos. Native humans hardy, cunning, and well-armed to defend against the predatory ash-stalkers. Somewhere you can really get stuck in if you feel sporting.
20: Hoplus Two. Radiactive gas giant. Humans only live in orbiting space station, syphoning the radon atmosphere for fuel. Space stations old, poorly maintained, possibly haunted. Very exciting to visit.

d12 Exciting Things To Steal From Human Worlds

1: Priceless religious relics.
2: Innocent children.
3: Combat-slaves.
4: Beautiful flora.
5: Samples of the local diseases.
6: Unusually beautiful slaves.
7: Untrained psychics.
8: Stolid slaves for manual labour.
9: Prominent local nobility, for a laugh.
10: Old alien technology.
11: Amusing human narcotics.
12: Dangerous local wildlife.

d20 Complications On Real-space Raids

1: The humans here are about to do a civil war, and heavily armed.
2: Some other alien predator is also hunting here, and is actually quite scary.
3: Cults of the dark gods are active here, things could go badly.
4: It's the middle of an important human religious festival.
5: A grizzled human hero is here, he knows how to fight space elves.
6: A squad of human battle-nuns are here, guarding some dignitary.
7: A squad of space marines are here, scouting for new recruits.
8: A powerful latant psychic lurks among the masses here, things will get weird.
9: Space orcs have just shown up, and are having Fun.
10: The humans somehow predicted your arrival, and have prepared for a fight. How quaint.
11: A human inquisitor starts hunting you when you arrive. 
12: The humans are in the middle of a violent religious schism.
13: The humans are in the middle of a horrible disease outbreak.
14: The place has been struck by a dramatic natural disaster.
15: Human technology is malfunctioning as you arrive.
16: Secret human xenophile cultists think you're on their side.
17: Human cultists of the Thirsting God have felt your presence.
18: Human authorities are in the middle of an authoritarian clamp-down.
19: The whole place is absolutely infested with sneaky hidden alien parasites.
20: The humans are overcome with xenophobic religious fervour, and you arrived at exactly the worst moment.

Into The Dark City - Part 1

A hack of Into the Odd where you play as legally distinct dark eldar.
The skeleton for the game, Into the Odd, was created by Chris McDowell at Bastionland.com
You get to play as horrible decadent evil space elves, being flamboyant in their extradimensional dark city and raiding realspace for fun and profit.
Please don't sue me, Games Workshop.  

A disclaimer: The PCs in this game are Bad People. Slavery, torture, poisoning and haute fashion are morally wrong. You shouldn't want to be like your PCs. The key to enjoying this game is to make your villainy so over-the-top and flamboyant that it goes from harrowing to camp.

Your Character

Who Are You?

Roll 3d6 for each Ability Score. 10 is average for an Eldar. 

• Strength – Fighting, fortitude, and toughness.

• Dexterity – Stealth, athletics, and reflexes.

• Willpower – Confidence, discipline, and charisma.

You may swap any two of your Ability Scores.

Characters start with d6 Hit Points, a measure of their ability to avoid life-threatening Damage.

Starter Package

Consult the Starter Package Table below to find your starting equipment and any special information about your character. As well as individual equipment, every character has a backup tissue sample with the Homonculus Covens, and the Coterie has resources of its own.

Equipment

Unarmed Attack: (D4 Damage) EG: Claws, Bites, Fashionably pointy clothing, Elegant martial arts.
Light Weapon: (one hand. D6 Damage) EG: Razor Pistol, Combat Knife, Venom Pistol, Electro-whip, Power Sword.

Military Weapon: (two hands. D8 Damage) EG: Venom Rifle, Gladiator-Witch Arena Weapons, Razor Rifle, Ceremonial Glaive

Noble Weapon: (one hand. d8 Damage) EG: Vampiric Blade, Antimatter Pistol, Lamia Knife, Homunculus Tools 

Heavy Weapon: (two hands. d10 Damage. Cannot move and fire) EG: Venom Cannon, Antimatter Rifle, Homunculus Bio-weapons.

Shield: Armour 1. A protective field of some sort. EG; Shadow field, Displacement generator, Forcefield, etc
Combat Armour: Armour 1. EG: Witch suits, Combat Armour, Ceremonial Plate Armour.
Tools: EG: Torture kit, Artisans tools, Bio-scanner, Climbing gear, Disguise kit, Astronavigation array, Hover-board, Hologram Projector, Manacles, Calligraphy Kit, Tea Set.
Luxuries: EG: Fashionable Clothes, Pheromone Perfumes, Exotic Pets, Poetry Scrolls, Exotic Smokeables, Trophy Racks, Mimic Masks, 

Stun Grenades: Momentarily blinds anyone that fails a dex save.
Combat Drugs: Add d4 to an Ability Score for an hour while high, then deduct the same amount for an hour during the comedown, then return to normal. 
Bomb: d12 Damage to all within the blast.
Poison: Lose d20 str if consumed.
Ether: Inhaled, str save or pass out for an hour.
Antitoxin: Neutralises most toxins.
Nightmare Doll: Lets you do a psychic type thing (precognition, dispelling, telepathy) without attracting the attention of the Thirsting God.
Soul Trap: Lets you trap the soul of a dying person, for fun and profit. 

What Do You Have?

Match your highest Ability Score against your Hit Points to find your starting package. Weapons have their damage roll listed. If two characters would have the same equipment, the second character takes their starting package as if they had one HP less, or one HP more if this is not possible.

Highest Score 3-9: 1 HP: Venom Pistol (d6), Shock Whip (d6), Shadow Field (1 Armour), Artisan's Tools. As part of Scourge-cult initiation, have bio-sculpted wings, and can fly. Roll for Hypertech. 2 HP: Venom Rifle (d8), Combat Knife (d6), Stun Grenades. Nightmare Doll allows you minor precognition. 3 HP: Gladiator-Witch Arena Weapons (d8), Venom Pistol (d6), Trophy Racks, Combat Drugs. Nightmare Doll lets you see souls.

4 HP: Venom Pistol (d6), Power Sword (d6), Pheremone Perfumes. Nightmare Doll allows you to communicate telepathically if the victim fails a Will save.

5 HP: Ceremonial Glaive (d8), Razor Pistol (d6), Combat Hawk (d10 strength, talons for d6). Beast-master cult training lets you talk to animals. 6 HP: Paired Knives (d8), Dark Fire (d6). Disguise Kit. Being born a Mandragora, you can become insubstantial in complete darkness.

Highest Score 10: 1 HP: Gladiator-Witch Arena Weapons (d8), Needle Projector (d6). Hunting Scorpion (d6 Strength, sting for d8). Roll for Hypertech.

2 HP: Venom Rifle (d8), Shock Whip (d6). Flesh Thrall (d8 strength, bite for d4). Roll for hypertech.

3 HP: Venom Rifle (d8). Torture Kit, Pheremone Perfumes. Roll for Hypertech.

4 HP: Ceremonial Glaive (d8), Razor Pistol (d6). 2 Flasks of Ether. Astronavigation Array. Roll for Hypertech. 5 HP: Paired Venom Pistols (d8). Hover Board, Artisan's Tools. Roll for Hypertech.

6 HP: Lamia Knife (d8). Displacement Field (1 Armour). Vial of Poison. Lamia-cult initiation gives social status. Highest Score 11: 1 HP: Razor Rifle (d8), Combat Suit (1 armour). Tracker-worm. (d8 Strength, Bite for d6). Roll for Hypertech.

2 HP: Poison Blade (d6), Venom Pistol (d6). Combat Drugs. Roll for Hypertech. 3 HP: Venom Rifle (d8). Fashionable Clothing, Hologram Projector, Torture Kit. Roll for Hypertech.

4 HP: Venom Rifle (d8), Power Sword (d6). Pheremone Perfume. Demon-cat (d8 strength, Bite for d6) with telepathic link. 5 HP: Flaying Knife (d6), Paired Venom Pistols (d8). Poetry-scrolls. Talking blood-worm (d6 strength, Bite for d6). Minor mutation means you don't need to eat.

6 HP: Shock-whip (d6). 3 Virus Bombs (d12). Vial of Antitoxin. Surgeon's Tools. Homonculus-cult inituation has taught you to cosmetically resculpt flesh with time. Highest Score 12: 1 HP: Power Sword (d6), Telekine Darts (d6). Trophy Rack. Roll for Hypertech. 2 HP: Venom Rifle (d6). Porter Thrall (1 HP, 2d6 Strength). Fashionable Clothes. Roll for Hypertech. 3 HP: Shock Whip (d6). Manacles, Combat Drugs. Roll for Hypertech. 4 HP: Venom Pistol (d6). Ossification-Grenade (d12). Exotic Pet Moths. Roll for Hypertech. 5 HP: Vampiric Blade (d8), Venom Pistol (d6). Vial of Ether. Trophy Racks. Magnetic skin-implants let you manipulate metal.

6 HP: Homonculus Tools (d8), Hidden Poison Blade (d6). Disguise Kit. Torture Kit.

Highest Score 13: 1 HP: Venom Pistol (d6). Vial of Ether, Vial of Poison. Mimic Mask. Roll for Hypertech.

2 HP: Power Sword (d6). Razor Pistol (d6). Combat Suit (1 Armour). Trophy Rack.

3 HP: Venom Blade (d6). Stun Grenade. Pet shadow-cat (d6 Strength, Bite for d8). Exciting feline fang-grafts.

4 HP: Venom Rifle (d8) Disintegrator Powder. Gambling Set. Monomolecular Rope. 5 HP: Lamia Knife (d8). Combat Drugs. Musical Instrument. Lamia-Cult Initiation.

6 HP: Ceremonial Glaive (d8). Ornate Mask, Scorpion-claw Manicure. Glass Bomb (d12). Incubus-Cult Initiation grants social cachet.

Highest Score 14:

1 HP: Venom Blade (d6). Hologram Projector, Still-living Trophy Pelts. Roll for Hypertech.

2 HP: Venom Pistol (d6). Monomolecular Razorwire, Exotic Smokeables. Stun Grenade.

3 HP: Antimatter Pistol (d8). Incense Drones. Vial of Poison. Mummified Hand.

4 HP: Shock Whip (d6). Artisan's Tools, Razor Snares, Bio-Scanner.

5 HP: Razor Pistol (d6). Universal Solvent, Caligraphy Set, Scrimshawed Fingerbones.

6 HP: Combat Blade (d6). Vial of Antitoxin. Recording Array.

Highest Score 15:

1 HP: Gladiator-Witch Arena Weapons (d8). Vial of Ether, Trophy Rack. Pet Nightingale.

2 HP: Venom Rifle (d8). Fashionable Clothes, Vial of Poison. Pet Razor-wasp (d4 Strength, Sting or d8).

3 HP: Razor Pistol (d6). Musical Instrument, Vial of Ether, Exotic Liqueurs.

4 HP: Venom Pistol (d6), Sword (d6). Ossification Bomb (d12). Torture Kit.

5 HP: Gladiator-Witch Arena Weapons (d8). Emotion Projector. One eye replaced with dashing eyepatch.

6 HP: Concealed Venom Pistol (d6), Concealed Blade (d6). Shard Bomb (d12). Artisan's Tools.

Highest Score 16:

1 HP: Razor Rifle (d8). Pocket Multicorder. Exciting Tattoos. Virus Bomb (d12).

2 HP: Ceremonial Glaive (d8). Tea Set, Pheromone Perfume. Incubus-Cult Initiation provides a certain mystique. 3 HP: Beast-goad (d6). Net, Pheremone-Bait, Beast-Skull Trophy. Alluring venom-scars. 4 HP: Electro-whip (d6), Venom Pistol (d6). Exotic Smokables, Pet Centipedes. Empty Eye-socket.

5 HP: Poison blade (d6). Mimic Mask, Skeleton Key. Occasionally-malfunctioning mechanical hand.

6 HP: Venom Pistol (d6). Virus Bomb (d12). Tea Set, Exotic Liqueurs. Eyes glow in the dark.

Highest Score 17: 1 HP: Ceremonial Glaive (d8). Trophy Rack, Decoy Pistol. Incubus-cult Initiation replaced heart with a shard of ice.

2 HP: Venom Pistol (d6). Net, demon-calling pipes. Demon-ravaged leg only semi-material.

3 HP: Combat Blade (d6). Artists Tools, Paint, Easel. Incense-dispensing gland rather distinctive.

4 HP: Vampiric Blade (d8). Tea Set, Fashionable Clothes. Totally colour-blind for fashion purposes.

5 HP: Venom Pistol (d6). Razor Wire, Artisans Tools. Brands mark you as a former slave.

6 HP: Homonculus Tools (d8). Torture Kit, Surgeon's Tools. Grotesque appearance.

Highest Score 18:

1 HP: Garotte (d6). Venom Rifle (d8). Ornate Mask. Tongue surgically removed.

2 HP: Concealed Venom Pistol (d6). Artisan's Tools, Astronavigation Array. One arm replaced with cybernetically-implanted artisan's arrays, and can't be used for general functions.

3 HP: Stolen Venom Pistol (d6). Hookah, Grappling Hook. A delightfully in-vogue fugitive.

4 HP: Electrified Rapier (d6), Displacement Field (1 Armour). Recording Device. Scandalous reputation.

5 HP: Concealed Knife (d6). Vial of Poison, High-Fashion Outfit. Horribly in debt.

6 HP: Venom Pistol (d6). Reams of Poetry, Writing Kit. Tattoos mark you as a former slave. Hypertech (roll d20). 1: Space-folding Origami Spider, lets you teleport 10 ft. For when you're too stylish to walk. 2: Homonculus Flesh-solvent, apply to flesh and re-shape it like putty. Fashion made convenient! 3: Decoy Soul, can be fed to a soul trap, or otherwise used to fool psychics and hypertech.

4: Gravity Adjusting Spotlight, reverses direction of gravity in the area illuminated.

5: Exquisite Pain Recordings. Listeners must pass a Dexterity save to block their ears, or lose d6 Will. Considered prestige entertainment.

6: Reality Compliance Chime, the sound of which causes all psychics nearby to bleed from the ears.

7: Light Ensnaring Prism, when unveiled sucks in all light, causing an area of absolute darkness. Mandragora's love it.

8: Dimensional Adjustment Clamps, can cause an object its attached to grow or shrink by a factor of up to ten.

9: Time-Stuttering Dust: Victim takes d6 Damage and is frozen in time until they pass a Will save.

10: Tiara Of Legal Correctness. Others must pass a Will save to disagree with you, and can do so no louder than a whisper.

11: Soul Ink. Write on a restrained victim's soul; they must pass a Will save or take on the personality traits you write into them until the ink fades. Helps keep your minions in line.

12: Gravity Negotiator Drone. You can walk up walls and across ceilings as if gravity pointed in a different direction. Useful for making an impression.

13: Absolutely Universal Dictionary, lets you talk to and be understood by anything, and understand the responses if things are capable of responding. A bit gauche.

14: Hyperdimensional Handbag, a portable pocket dimension that lets you carry all sorts of things.

15: Romantic Red Twine, state the person you love or hate the most, and instinctively know the direction and distance to them, and the state of their health.

16: Absolute Privacy Shroud, hang it over a door, window, etc and nothing can pass through it, not people or light or psychic signals or anything.

17: Neural Cocktail Glass, lets you read the thoughts of anybody whose vital fluids you currently drink from the glass. Potentially very romantic.

18: Backup Persona, creates a holographic duplicate of yourself, that acts independently but just like you until you absorb it back into your own mind. Useful for busy social functions.

19: The Void Between Atoms And Stars, creates a rift in space-time that leads you back home to a pre-prepared location. Handy for leaving boring events.

20: Contract Papers Of Unerring Law. If you sign a deal on the papers, you know instantly if it's been broken and can inflict d12 damage on the other signatory at will. Also potentially very romantic.

What The Coterie Has

The Coterie: The coterie is a small organisation of evil space elves residing in the dark city. Lacking the numbers, power or prestige of larger cults, covens and cabals, the coterie instead consists of a few closely allied individuals working for their own mutual benefit in the spaces between these large organisations. It's a sort of mixture of polycule, cult, street gang and small business.

Home: The coterie has a small residence somewhere in the dark city. Their own individual spire, tunnel complex or villa-pod. Enough space to be mildly luxurious, as suits evil space elves, but nothing overtly extravagant. Their home's defences are assumed to be secure enough that enemies won't be getting in unless they either get invited in, or put a lot of effort towards it.

Dimensional Portal: The coterie's residence includes a portal back to realspace, allowing them to warp in for raids. Exactly where it takes you is temperamental; see the tables for realspace raids to see where it might take you.

Minions: The coterie are attended to by a number of slaves, thralls and minions, that remain in their residence and - alongside the space elf tech of the place - see to their needs. These are in addition to any pets you might have, and unlike those pets the minions don't get to come on realspace raids; they might try to escape, and anyway, they aren't very competent. For each PC, which minions you have depends on which your highest attribute is:

Strength: A pair of enslaved humans. Less compliant unless motivated, but quite creative.

Dexterity: A pair of vat-grown flesh-thralls. Very compliant, but not very bright.

Will: A single space-elf minion under your power. Perhaps an indentured servant, apprentice or enslaved criminal. Carries some prestige, and could be promoted to the rank of Actual Person.

Two or more tied: An exotic alien thrall. An avian predator, space-monkey technician, serpent bodyguard or similar. Very fashionable.

Regardless of their origin, your minions have 1 HP, and 8 for all stats.

Petty Luxuries: Back home, you have access to appropriately scandalous art, delectable confectionary, still-alive fur rugs that moan when you walk on them, lots of eyeliner, and other necessities of decadent space elf life. Whilst this is utterly libertinous to us, by the standards of the dark city this sort of thing makes you comfortable middle-class.

What Do You Need to Know?

Saves:
A Save is a roll to avoid danger from a risky action or situation.
Roll d20. If you roll equal or under the appropriate Ability Score you pass. 1 is always a success and 20 always a failure.

Turns:
Generally the Players take their turn before any enemies. If there is a risk of being surprised, characters must each roll a DEX Save or be unable to act on the first turn. On their turn, Players can act in any order they wish.

Actions:
On your turn a character can move and perform an action. An action can be anything from negotiating, to attacking, to fleeing. Attacks are detailed below. For other actions the Referee calls for the character at risk to roll a Save. For example, an attempt to trip an opponent might force them to pass a STR Save to stay on their feet, while an attempt to trick an opponent into surrender may force them to pass a WIL Save or lower their arms.

Attacks:
An attacker rolls a die dictated by their weapon, and subtracts the opponent's Armour score. Their attack causes this much Damage. Ranged weapons cannot be used in melee, melee weapons can't be used at long range.
Attacks that are Impaired, such as firing through cover, or fighting while grappled, roll d4 Damage regardless of weapon. Similarly, attacks that are Enhanced by a risky stunt or a helpless or vulnerable target, roll d12 Damage.

Blast:
Blast weapons, such as bombs, cause Damage to all targets in an appropriate area, rolling separately for each. If in doubt as to how many targets are affected, roll the weapon’s Damage die.

Damage:
When an individual takes Damage they lose that many HP. If they have no HP left, they are wounded, and any remaining Damage is removed from their STR score. They must then pass a STR Save to avoid Critical Damage.

Critical Damage:
A character that takes Critical Damage is unable to take further action until they are tended to by an ally and have a Short Rest. If they are left for an hour without being tended to, they die.

Using Hypertech:
A character can use a piece of Hypertech as a normal action, though some Hypertech ask for something in return.

Ability Score Loss:
If a character has their STR score reduced to zero they are dead, which is a bit of a downer but only temporary. If their DEX or WIL are reduced to zero the character is paralysed or mentally broken respectively, and cannot act until they have a Full Rest.

Death:
When a character dies, they are reborn from tissue samples stored with the Homunculus Cults. They will take a few days to re-grow a new body, and will be waiting for the rest of the Coterie when they return home from a realspace raid.
Make a Will Save, if failed roll for Cloning Errors to see how death has affected them. Either way, roll for Debts to see what you now owe the Homunculus Cults for your next revival.
If you can't or won't get a Homunculus Cult to store some flesh for revival, then if you die you just die, and must roll up a new character entirely. But why would you do that when you could be immortal?

Power From Pain: When you witness interestingly unusual or intense pain, you become Empowered by it. You can spend your Empowered status to re-roll a Save or Attack.

If you go an entire day without being Empowered at all, you become Withered, and start losing yourself to the Thirsting God. While Withered, you lose 1 Will, and lose another 1 Will at the end of each subsequent day until you become Empowered again. You can't regain Will while you're Withered.

Other particularly exciting and novel emotions - love, curiosity, fear, joy - can occasionally also Empower you, if they're special enough. Suffering, however, is always a sure thing.

Reaction: When the group encounters another being, the character at the head of the group must pass a WIL Save to avoid an unfavourable first reaction. Some encounters are always hostile, or always friendly, but all have potential to change after first contact. 

Morale:
Groups require a WIL Save to avoid being routed when they lose half of their total numbers. Groups with a leader may use the leader's WIL score in place of their own. Lone combatants must pass this Save when they are reduced to 0hp. This applies to opponents and allies but not Player characters. Fleeing to safety under pursuit requires a DEX Save and somewhere to withdraw to.

Short Rest:
A few minutes of rest spent doing something entertaining - appreciating art, a romantic liaison, basking in somebody else's suffering (or all three) - recovers all of a character’s lost hp. Resting may waste time or attract danger.

Full Rest:
A Full Rest requires a week of downtime back at the coterie's home. This restores all Ability Scores.

Damage:

Damage from falling rocks, explosions and other sources outside of normal combat ranges between d4 and d12, with d20 used only in special cases. Consider how it would affect an average person. A fall that is quite likely to injure an inexperienced character might cause d8 Damage but a huge rock that would crush most might do d12. Poison usually causes Ability Score loss. Effects like Blindness will Impair attacks and call for Saves to carry out usually simple actions.

Advancing in Society

Getting Stronger: Every time you advance in society, your personal power grows as well. Gain d6 more HP, and roll a d20 for each ability score; if you roll over its current value, add +1 to it.

Fledgling: You're ready to go on your first realspace raid! This is where PCs start.

Raider: You've survived your first realspace raid! Congratulations, you're a respected professional now.

Veteran: You've survived three realspace raids since becoming a Raider, and brought something interesting back to the dark city. People might start paying attention to you now.

Sybarite: You've survived five realspace raids since becoming a Veteran, and killed an exciting enemy (a powerful psychic, orc warchief, space marine, alien war-drone or demon), bringing an exciting trophy back with you. At this point, you're becoming a minor local celebrity. You can recruit an Acolyte, roll their stats like a starting PC.

The Road To Archon-hood: After becoming a Sybarite, you mostly advance by recruiting additional Acolytes and fostering their own growth. Anybody can call themselves an Archon, but only the most powerful get to do so a second time. Powers greater than you won't tolerate upstarts without the strength to back up the claim.

Buying Things: You can purchase goods - such as hypertech, weapons, surgical modifications, thralls, vehicles, and other useful gear - through trade. Simply find somebody who can sell, and roll a Debt to see what their price is.

Rarer items - nightmare dolls, soul traps, hypertech, a second dimensional portal, particularly interesting thralls - incur two debts. When purchasing hypertech or a nightmare doll, roll to see what sort is available.

Debts: You can leave a debt unpaid as long as you like. However, an unpaid debt affects your social station and reputation: add one to the number of realspace raids needed to advance to the next social tier for each unpaid debt. Further, if you leave a debt unpaid long enough that it's clear you have no intention of paying it off, your creditors might decide to do something about this; typically, this involves subduing recalcitrant debtors by force and selling them into slavery to recoup the loss.