I recently came across this post about a dark entity on Goblin Punch and the post that inspired it on False Machine. I think they're brilliant. The idea of the darkness itself as a living, breathing, existential threat is a compelling one, and the idea that there are different species of it that I can catalogue for myself while my players might not even figure out they are two different things gives me a unique kind of joy.
The False Machine descriptions are evocative and inspiring, but emotion and metaphor doesn't leave much to actually use at the table. Its descriptions of darkness are often vague and amorphous as shadows themselves. I don't know how to present my players an encounter with a "contemptible dark" or one that "appreciates glass".
The Goblin Punch rules are generally quite good for darkness as a monster - dark must surround a light source before snuffing it and takes at least one Round per light source to do so (more for larger sources like campfires). Fires aren't extinguished, just darkened. Lights can be "healed" by another light. Being swallowed by the dark deals damage per Round and escalating odds of random table effects occurring.
So here's a bunch of darks that look, feel, and smell different. Any of them can be:
- A monster you can't stab
- A puzzle in a room
- Just how the shadows work in this dungeon, nobody knows why
- What exists below the Underearth, the fragile foundation on which The Mundane World rests
- A spell for a particularly edgy caster
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| Hey... |
One
Description: This dark is thick and oily. It fills the cracks in the floor first as it encroaches on the light. The thinner parts at its edges have a rainbow sheen like slicked water. It is cool (but not cold) to the touch. Once it has surrounded you and your torch, it will submerge you from the bottom up. It makes you feel like you need to hold your breath, as if you just dived into a pool.
Properties: This dark cannot mix with water. Spilling water will slow it down, a misty spray or fog will halt it until the mist dissipates. Holy water will cause it to recede and can be used to create a path through the dark.
Two
Description: A misty black fog that smells like a putrid, deathly miasma. You feel a sense of impending doom in your chest when you breathe it in. It gets thicker, reducing your range of vision until you can no longer see the torch you're holding.
Properties: This dark has a chance of infecting you with a disease, and can be dispelled by magic which cures disease.
Three
Description: Your shadow dances as the torchlight flickers but something is wrong. You almost didn't notice. Instead of stretching outward across the floor and against the walls like your compatriots' shadows, yours reaches toward the torchbearer. You feel as though your own shadow is mocking you. It grasps with a dim hand to smother the flame.
Properties: Though this shadow defies your control, it is still your shadow. It cannot stretch out longer than a few times your own height, so keeping distance from your party's torchbearer will thwart its plans to grasp the torch. You can also crouch or go prone to shorten the shadow. Moving another light source to the opposite side of the light it's attempting to reach will turn it into a regular shadow of that opposing light - the dark can then attempt to possess a different person's or object's shadow.
Four
Description: Dark emanates as if from a black sun, leaving lit un-shadows where people and objects block its path. The source of the un-light is visible as a deep darkness that hurts the eye as your pupils dilate to take it in.
Properties: Standing in direct un-light for too long can cause searing-cold burns to the skin. You can simply block the un-light, but much as throwing a cloth on a fire would cause it to burn, attempting to cover the source with a cloth would freeze it to the point of brittleness.
Five
Description: A dark, flickering flame emits the warmth of a hearth, but does not consume the matter on which it burns. Those lit by the flame will feel no pain - instead they will feel at home and no longer be compelled to move. They will stand comfortably in place until they can stand no longer, slipping into a comfortable sleep. The flame burns until their body rots. The flame is predatory - it burns a person's soul and keeps the soul from passing over until there is no physical body left to hold the flame.
Properties: The black flame spreads across organic (living or dead) matter but does not burn it. Water will not put this flame out, but a regular flame will. Yes, this means setting your friend on fire. Each round the black flame deals damage to a character's Personality (in DCC; in other games, use the nearest thing to "willpower") and when it reaches zero that character loses all will. Instead of a DC 10 Reflex save, a DC 15 Willpower save is required to "stop drop and roll" the flame out.
It doesn't take much imagination to see how this flame might be useful to necromancers and disastrous to forests.
Six
Description: When you light your torch to stave off the shadows, you notice it takes longer than normal. Not to light the torch or feel the heat of the flame. It takes longer for the light. The flame burns for a few seconds before the light hits the walls and floor. Your shadow struggles to catch up to you. Curious, you snuff out your torch. This time it takes a moment for the light to leave. As you attempt to relight your torch, a sense of dread enters you. It's taking much longer this time. Let's not test it further.
Properties: Any changes in lighting conditions take 1 Round to take effect. Each round, there is a 1-in-6 chance a torch inside this dark goes out and must be relit. For each light that goes out within or near this dark, both the number of Rounds delay and the chance in 6 go up by 1.
The maximum speed you can move through this dark without overtaking your own light is 30' initially and goes down by 5' with each light it consumes.
Note: The math almost certainly doesn't check out on the movement speed and it gets squirrely when considering different radii of light and move speeds. It's just intended to be usable and feel "wrong" - let's not start calculating redshift at the gaming table.
More to come.
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