Trophy Dark is the role-playing game that offers doom instead of glory

Tabletop role-playing’s most interesting developments of the past couple decades have been taking place in the indie games scene. Trophy DarkThis movement is evident in its ability to capture a horror fantasy tragedy using collaborative storytelling techniques. For a single game, players will explore an environment filled with supernatural creatures, psychological terrors and environmental challenges. The ultimate goal of these encounters is to destroy the world. Trophy DarkImpeccably spun tales that are structurally and tonally in line with movies like Annihilation, Apocalypse NowAnd The Field of England.

TrophyThis article first appeared in Codex magazine, an RPG publication published by The Gauntlet in 2018. Designer Jesse Ross sought to capture setting elements from Free League Publishing’s SymbaroumMechanical inspiration comes from titles like Cthulhu DarkAnd Blades in Dark. The cultivated design was refined by the community and has been a huge success on Kickstarter. It is now being developed into a standalone product. Trophy Dark.

Trophy Dark has arrived, and it’s as wondrous as it is poetic.

Image: Jesse Ross/The Gauntlet by Hedgemaze Press

Wilhelm was outwardly solid and took control of the situation. He didn’t glance back to check if Lady Pela nor Yacomb were following him. Neither the unhinged widow nor the grisly smuggler held the forester’s trust, but his attention was entirely focused on the mangrove-dense fen that had swallowed them.

Both were searching for something special, something they had in common. They all sought the whisper of The Swirling Court. Another was seeking the everlasting reverie of Festival of Shiba. And the final, they were looking for restoration of Temple of Tanahlot. They were all entwined in the mythic Flocculent Cathedral because their devotions were intrinsically tied to that holy place. They searched for what was impossible.

Its ruleset is quite short, however. Trophy DarkThis is an inspiring system. The role of treasure hunter is a difficult one. The characters will all die from mental and physical degeneration, with each character being given a principle to accept their fate. This isn’t D&D and no one is getting out with the treasure. A group can leave the session with a truly amazing story, marked by their unique fingerprints.

The random generation of characters is done by randomly selecting from a number of tables. You’re given a background and an occupation that offer some skills, a central drive to guide you, and a small group of black-and-white six-sided dice to impress your agency.

GMs only make rolls during play if the stakes are very high. The simple dice pool mechanism consists of a single white die if you’re skilled in the task and a black die if it’s perilous. You should aim for a minimum of a six to win; however, you can achieve some success by rolling a four- or five.

The collaboration that goes along with rolling the dice is more important than the act itself. Players and GM alike toss out suggestions for a contest’s stakes, and may even offer the active participant a devil’s bargain. These are straight from Blades in DarkAs the protagonist, you may be willing to pay a small price in exchange for a white bonus.

This is just the beginning. Ruin is the primary source of stress. This is a track measuring the character’s well-being and their descent into madness or death. When Ruin reaches six, the character dies and is taken back by the forest. This happens to nearly everyone by the session’s climax.

Ruin increases when the highest roll in a pool is one of those dark dice and it happens to be higher than the character’s current Ruin stat. As it causes characters to feel anguish, this creates a natural progression in play. The outward expression of the fraying mind is Ruin, which increases as it acquires conditions.

Image: Jesse Ross/The Gauntlet by Hedgemaze Press

The group finally managed to find some relief after fighting against swarm upon swarm of vicious insects. The group had set up camp close to the Cathedral’s effigy. This figure was constructed of wood with thin branches that reflected the spirit of the woman. The straw she used to curl her hair made it look like straw. This dedication was a great way to calm Yacomb, but Wilhem didn’t find the same peace.

He was scratching at his ears and claiming that one of these insects had infiltrated his skull.

Yacomb was horrified. Yacomb was shocked. Later on, in a fever nightmare, Wilhelm scratched at his ears so intensely that many of the outer cusps had been removed.

It was a bloody tissue flap that moved with motion and framed what looked like a bizarre fungal growth. It was horrendous.

Trophy DarkIt is also very progressive. It is very progressive. A whole section in the book provides thoughtful advice and guidance about the discussion that must be had regarding the darker places where the story may take you. It’s refreshing how forthright the author is with a sensitive topic.

Incursions are the focus of the majority of the book. These provide rough structures for the horrific adventure. The equivalent of a bare-bones module with content centered on probing the participants with specific questions and framing specific scenes to tease out the Incursion’s central theme. The adventure is segmented into five rings, with the fifth being the central destination of the Incursion and the focus of the character’s goals.

The structure is very comfortable. It’s malleable enough to tweak and adjust on the fly, encouraging the GM to work in new scenes and moments tied into what’s occurred thus far. It is a source of great inspiration and almost can be used directly from the text. This combined with the player authorship makes this a very powerful tool. Trophy DarkYou can run it with very little preparation. It hums like an instrument tuned to play its own captivating ballad.

Image: Jesse Ross/The Gauntlet, Hedgemaze Press

It was possible. Through the help of bandits and beetles, they were able to get past the sharp antlers of Jade Stag. They also managed to escape their wounded doppelgangers. Their journey was over, and now the air was alive.

Cathedral was actually a huge growth of closely woven trees. Moss covered the spaces between them and protected the interiors from the light. The next step was debauchery and chaos that took place in the middle of near-death and hallucinogen.

Wilhelm was gone in the blink of an eye. As his body was broken at the altar, his life began to slip from his eyes. His lips were silent as he muttered prayers for the sisters who held court in the living dream. Yacomb, who was searching for Tanahlot’s lost temple in the underground tunnels beneath the Cathedral Cathedral, was found stumbling along the darkness. Lady Pela, who was nearly drowned in one of the flood-water-filled crypts, was badly injured and now seeks help from fellow hunter.

Yacomb deceived her and led Yacomb to the welcome altar. He was determined to satisfy its thirst and sought blood. Lady Pela knew better than to fool. Motes of dust and embers from Yacomb’s torch froze in the stillness of the air. The time had stopped for the widow. Yacomb was able to regain his bodily autonomy after a four-inch blade entered the back of his small.

Wilhem would still be alive if he heard the rhythmic sound of the corpse being carried up to the Cathedral. She had won. Stuffing the ashes of her dead husband into Yacomb’s bloody mouth, she closed her eyes and raised her voice, for the Festival of Shiba had begun.

Trophy DarkThe drive to a sinister and striking conclusion. Because the play format allows for one-shots, participants can cross narrative lines into high-stakes conflict. The participants will find themselves in a delirium state after the curtain has closed, and when the protagonists have been left behind.

It was a unique experience. We began to talk about returning once the epilogue was over. Trophy DarkPerhaps with some space for the trauma story to be sat and found closure. If you are looking for a more formal commitment, this sister product might be the best. Trophy GoldAlthough the story is similar and just slightly more sinister, you can still play out the same diabolic tales through an ongoing campaign. It is tempting to return for more singular Incursions and weave bits of past backstory into an even grander tapestry. We can also build our own collections of stories as an everlasting nightmare.

Trophy

Price at publishing time.