Because I'm not expecting players to know the system I'll put a brief overview of how it works here.

At its core Cthulhu Dark is a narrative (and extremely mechanics light) game so players get a lot of say in how things work out. You'll note that in a lot of situations the player gets a say in whether something happens (such as whether their character finds a situation 'disturbing') or what happens (such as what their character's reaction to an increase in Insight looks like).

The intention is not to 'win' the scenario but to enjoy the character's descent into terror and madness. It will be possible for characters to survive scenarios but, like in all the best Lovecraft stories, they won't ever be the same again!

While for the most part I would imagine the characters will pull in the same direction there is no requirement that they remain unified throughout. Certainly by the end of a scenario I have no issue whatsoever if half the characters are trying to destroy the menace and the other half want to bury all evidence of it whatsoever.

I'm setting up the game as 'mature' as while it's going to hit adult themes I would aim to steer away from anything gratuitously gory or macabre.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:56, Thu 25 Feb 2021.

Character Creation

In terms of character creation all you need is a name, occupation and general overview of your character (looks, attitude etc.).

Insight

There is one statistic; your character's Insight. This starts at 1. It represents how far your character sees into the awful truth behind the veneer of 'reality'. The higher it get then the more fragile your character's grip on sanity.

Whenever your character sees or experiences something disturbing then you roll a d6 and if it rolls higher than your current Insight then you add 1 to Insight and your client experiences some form of extreme reaction to the stimulus.

Exactly what your character considers 'disturbing' is largely up to you so roll whenever you think your character would be emotionally effected. Equally the reaction, if Insight goes up as a result, is entirely up to you.

If your Insight reaches 6 then your character has irreversibly lost their mind. They may have truly seen beyond the veil and the sights have changed them forever or their mind has simply cracked from the pressure of it all. Either way, they're out of the game. Make their last scene a good and/or memorable one - they might run screaming into the night, burn a building down around them or swallow a shotgun. Again, entirely up to you (so long as it's plausible in the situation).

At Insight 5 you can, if you think your character would, reduce your Insight by actively suppressing evidence of the horrors you have found. It has to be something big - don't just hide the creepy book, put it through a shredder. Don't ask a witness not to talk, break a kneecap. If you do then your Insight drops by 1. You can't use the same method to reduce Insight twice - you have to bigger next time. If you burnt a book before then next time you need to burn the library...or the librarian.

Investigating

When you try to discover something new, uncover clues, interrogate witnesses for information they might not want to share etc. then you make an investigation roll. Either make one if you think it fits or I'll ask you if you didn't and I think you should have.

You will get to roll between 0 and 3 dice.

You roll 1d6 if what you are trying to do is within human capabilities. Obviously most things will be but some of the more unusual methods (spells, rituals, trying to interpret the message in a dream) won't necessarily mean you get the 'Human Die'.

You roll 1d6 if what you are trying to to do is related to your occupation.

You then get an optional 1d6 if you risk your mind to succeed. If you do so then if this bonus 'Insight Die' (for the purposes of the dice roller we'll say that your Insight Die is always the last one you roll, no matter how many d6 you roll for a test) is higher than your current Insight then your Insight increases by 1. There is no limit to tests you can add the Insight Die to and so for anything beyond human capabilities it will normally be the only die you roll.

Once rolled then you only look at the highest number and that tells you what happens.

On a 1 you get the minimum amount of information which could be useful though it may be vague or not the whole truth. For example if you were trying to work out if someone was lying to you then you would know they are lying.

On a 2 you get the information you wanted but in brief. You would know they are lying because they are scared of something.

On a 3 you get most, but not all, of what there is to know. You would they are lying because they are scared and they keep looking towards their children as if they have seen a ghost.

Alternatively for 1-3 you may get what there is to have but there is an unintended, and
usually negative, outcome. If you were picking a lock then you open it but manage to break it in the process or if you were tailing someone you succeed in finding their destination but get noticed on the way.

On a 4 you get everything a competent investigator would discover. You would know they are lying because they are saw the creature and are terrified it is going to come for their children.

On a 5 you find out everything you wanted with something additional and useful. You might find out what you wanted and recall an obscure fact about the situation, or the case in general, which assists.

On a 6 you get everything from a 5 as well as a glimpse beyond human comprehension. This will often involve learning things which will trigger an Insight roll so is perhaps as much a curse as a blessing...

Other Actions

If you do something other than investigating (trying to escape goons, forcing your way past doormen, hiding etc.) then the dice mechanic is the same. You roll 0-3 d6 depending on which mix of Human, Occupation and Insight dice you can (or choose) to roll and then the highest number rolled indicates how well you do.

As with investigating you always succeed but on a 1 it is scraping by, on a 2 or 3 you do it well enough but with difficulties, on a 4 you do it well, on a 5 you do it with a bonus flourish and on a 6 you do it well but with strange cosmic consequences.

It should be noted that in this game any attempt to defeat a supernatural creature by physical force automatically fails - normally in the form of a horrible death. That isn't to say you can't confront them (or run, hide etc.) with actions, try to defeat them with actions (such as with special incantation you have learned) or even use force against them (such as if you want to push a ghoul out of the way so you can make a runner) - this just isn't the game where you're going to be shooting Cthulhu in the face...

Failure

If any player (including, but not exclusively, me as Keeper) thinks it would be more interesting if a character failed any action then they can roll the Failure Die. To do so they roll 1d6 and, if they beat the highest score on the main roll, then the action fails.

In a tabletop game you would roll at the same time but, for this medium, we'll just roll the Failure Die after the event (or before if a player announces their action but hasn't yet rolled), doesn't really matter.

This shouldn't be used as a matter of course, only when there is or could be an interesting/exciting/entertaining result of the failure. If you're driving manically to get the injured witness to hospital then failing to do so may not be interesting (or, worse, stall the game) whereas if you're driving manically to get away from the cultists who are after you then it could be really interesting if you fail.

Obviously it can be a bit weird in an RPG to roll against another player but it's very much in the Cthulhu Dark spirit of "everything is awful" so I would ask players to try embracing it. If you really don't want to announce you're rolling against a player then just drop me a PM with what you think an interesting failure would be and I'll roll and pretend it was my idea! :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:17, Sun 21 Feb 2021.