I recently began a project to adapt John Harper’s blades in the dark to an original setting, a city located at the crossroads of twelve interconnected fantasy worlds, each based on a sign in the western Zodiac. This location overlaps significantly with city of Doskvol in terms of vibes and tone, and fits easily atop the “infrastructure,” but has some significant differences in terms of gimmick and material history.
The city is situated specifically in a world that draws from motifs and associations resonant with the zodiac sign Scorpio, which leans very deliberately into gothic horror and noir tropes. This world has been plunged into existential turmoil when a group of thinkers, attempting to free themselves from reliance on Nature, Literally Killed the Sun, bringing eternal night and a plague of restless dead, as in Doskvol. The city itself is called, plainly, “Lighthouse City,” and it is exactly what it sound like: almost every structure is mounted with some sort of light, which serve the same function as the lightning barriers in blades, protecting the city from supernatural incursion.
I will begin my approach with the factions that Harper supplied on page 283 of the core book. A good portion of then can be left well enough alone, and some require mere cosmetic or thematic alterations.
- The Bluecoats, Crows, and Gray Coats have each been renamed as the Night Watch, The Gulls, and the Nights End, to fit the flavor of the city more.
- The Cabbies and the Brigade are given technology more in keeping with a city heavily reliant on boat traffic - in addition to goatdrawn carriage, the former has motorized water taxis, and the latter of course possessed a fleet of fireboats. The Cabbies also double as hearse-drivers.
- The Billhooks have been reflavored as “Cannery boys: A tough gang of ex-waterfront workers who gutting knives, fishing hooks, and harpoons,” to reflect the city’s history as a fishing capital.
- The Deathlands Scavengers are renamed the Sandbar Scavengers, and are reflavored as a naval salvage operation. The Deathlands as a concept are less of a thing in this setting, and most magical artifacts are the result of tidal forces depositing alien flotsam from other worlds.
- The Lampblacks are renamed the Wickies (representing disenfranchised lighthouse workers who turned to crime), and have been raised in tier and hold to reflect their vast numbers.
Other factions require more thought and development. Vampires are a much bigger presence in Lighthouse City than they are in Doskvol - in fact, they constitute a defined political class. The constitution of Lighthouse City has enshrined the freedom of every individual to pursue the privilege of becoming an immortal union of flesh and spirit, yet citizens are subject to “moral screening” to make sure they can handle this immense and terrible responsibility.
- I have made the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh one of the entities responsible or this process. The church is moved from the “fringes” to the “institutions” list, to reflect its central role in the legal and cultural apparatus of the city, but I have given it a Weak hold, reflecting the fact that it is under threat of losing status as the main arbitrator of Vampiredom.
- The City Council has been split into two governing bodies, the harried and ineffectually bureaucratic House of Day (iii); and the elite, largely undead House of Night (iv), which find themselves in perennial legislative gridlock, and have been lowered in tier to reflect this.
Counter to the Vampires are the Penumbrists; they are an ideological-scientific-religious movement descended from the “cultured” monster hunter archetype. They see the Cataclysm as having resulted in a fractured collective psyche, and that both society & individual “monsters” can be healed through proper application of a scientific dialectic. They are especially popular among werewolves, which are also a Thing in this setting :). Penumbrism is represented among several factions:
- The Path of the Moon (Formerly the Path of Echoes): A new spiritualist movement, popular among the city’s elite.
- Luna Institute for Psychopempsis (Formerly the Reconciled): A walled-off section of severely haunted city blocks, now repurposed into a sanatorium and research center for the treatment of “psychically unwell” Ghosts.
Mentions of specific geographic and ethnic terms have been replaced by their equivalents, which I will go into detail with in another post. Lighthouse City is not currently part of a traditional empire, and as such certain assumptions about its administrative structure are altered.
- The Imperial Military is divided into 2 seperate bodies - a private military company of about 100, and a standing professional army of 150 troops.
- The Ministry of Preservation is renamed the Customs Authority, which theoretically regulates and subsidizes intercity trade
- The Inspectors are now the Undertakers - a body of private investigators that emerged from literal morticians. Due to their scientific and supernatural expertise, they have de jure jurisdiction over the investigation of murders that supercedes the Night Watch. They are extremely secretive and opaque.
- The Foundation is reworked as the Keeper’s Union, a powerful trade union consisting of Lighthouse Keepers. They’re knowledge of the city’s many lighthouses are unparalleled even by the technocratic sparkwrignts, with which they are in an uneasy stalemate
Untitled Hexcrawl Entry
Some context: In order to avoid my tendency for planning ambitious projects and getting burnt out or overwhelmed, I’ve decided to take a more conducive approach where I write short snippets of game components and other writing exercises, and post them semi-frequently. This is an entry for a hypothetical hexcrawl that draws heavily from early medieval ireland. It owes a lot to the fantastic wolves upon the coast campaign I am lucky to be a part of, chronicled on modality’s blot.
The Reek of Gaeispuir: A Lone mountain, the only one of its height for miles, jutting into the sky. It was said Gaeispuir the Magician traveled to his mount on his mission to to scour the land of evil. There he fasted for 240 days, tormented by flocks of demonic birds and the advances of a Succubus, all of which he spurned and cast into the depths of the mountain, sealing them away. Many ancient ritual sites and stone cairns of uncertain origin dot the side of the peak. At the very top is a cave with a large stone blocking the entrance, requiring the strength of at least 12 men to move. If successfully moved, 3d6 demonic bird-bats will emerge and attack the PCs. Inside the cave is a jeweled brooch (300 sp) used in the binding ritual.
NPCs
Donnel (He/Him, She/Her) - A man who lives in a hut at the foot of the Reek. He will gladly tell travelers the legend of Gaeispuir and the mountain if asked, but his telling will vary slightly from the standard version. In her account, Gaeispuir was bested by the demon, who trapped him and took his form, spreading heresies and falsehood for the rest of his supposed life. According to Donnel, he has been trying to move the stone for years, which he believes will free the Magician, but has grown too old and frail to continue.
In actuality, she is the Succubus from the legend, unable to leave the side of the Reek. If she successfully tricks the PCs into moving the stone, she will take the form of a double-headed snake demon. If the PCs revisit the hut, he will attempt to possess one of them - if not, she will flee to the nearest settlement in an attempt to find a suitable host.
Sleuthsim: Introduction and Rules Part I
Sleuthsim began on MSpaint fan adventures & tumblr, as a homestuck or problem sleuth style forum adventure/webcomic hybrid, presented in the style of a visual novel a la hiveswap friendsim (the release of which inspired this project in the first place, way back in 2018). This was partly because both the form and content of the story were a natural fit, partly because I felt i required a spontaneous source of procedural input in order to coalesce a database of ideas I’d built up over the past few years into something with a sense of momentum and direction.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found that the audience inputs were too inconsistent to move the story along. Besides, if they ever picked up, my current job and school situation would not allow me to work on a webcomic with a consistent update schedule. I decided that the procedural or generative element of the story would be more productive if it came from a solo adventure or journaling game, going by the example of the excellent play reports of EGRESS developed and compiled by KB of the blog Goblin Cat Gallery.
The game I feverishly typed up in the next several days is a hexcrawl through a mysterious mansion that functions as a school for young detectives, attempting to solve a mystery. The rules are outlined below. These are noticeably incomplete - I am hoping to “playtest” and figure out what works as the story progresses. I may add or remove rules & elements, test variations, or just take a break and play a pre-existing journaling game. By its very nature, this is project is experimental and variable. I may workshop this into a tabletop game that can stand on its own with one or more players, or a story in some other medium that uses original characters instead of preexisting IPs. Play to find out what happens!
A note on the form
Part of my reluctance to put pen to paper relates to the scope and reception of the project - it is at its heart a work of fan fiction. While the work possesses a unified framework largely inspired by homestuck/hiveswap and a series of unfortunate events/all the wrong questions, the cast of characters and attendant media properties ballooned to megacrossover status. The amount of media properties represented resemble works like Tails gets Trolled, Scoob and Shag, or (I say with reluctance and distaste, revealing my middle school reading habits) Powerpuff girls doujinshi.
The obvious downside of this is that the more specific and diverse my cross-section of tastes and interests on display, the fewer people will be “into” it, or even familiar with all of the works referenced. This is an extremely personal work, the equivalent of smashing toys I like together, and I have no idea how legible it will be to any given reader (the name of this blog will give some indication as to why it shook out this way). With this in mind, the subsequent posts will consist of with a record of play/development and a summary of the narrative that occurs, followed by text that renders the fiction itself in the form of dialog and text (maybe with some images if i have the time). If the fiction portion of this is not of interest to the reader, feel free to just read the game potion (vice versa too, though i have a hard time imagining this to be the case).
Sleuthsim Rules 01 - the Case
The primary mystery-solving unit of play is a case - a case may consist of multiple days of in-game time, but the assumed default is 1 day. At the start of a day, you have 12 hours (divided into 24 moves, or 3 rounds of 8 moves each) to solve a case; Begin by separating the major arcana from a tarot deck, then drawing a spread of 3 cards: space one represents the victim or object of a crime, space two represents the nature of crime, and space three represents the companion who will be assisting you in solving the mystery for the day. After this is determined, shuffle these cards back into the tarot deck - this will be your primary deck. You will also need a secondary tarot deck, as well as at least 2 decks of regular playing cards to build yours and NPCs’ action decks.
The goal is to solve the case by forming a Denoument, or presentation of your interpretation of the case. This consists of a spread of tarot cards representing the Perpetrator (major arcana), Motive (cups), Method (Swords), Feasibility (Staves), and Drama (Pentacles). Each suit must be of the same number for the Denoument to be successful.
You solve this mystery by exploring the house, in the form of a hexcrawl, which resets at the start of each day. Your starting hex represents the scene of the crime. Roll 1d10 to determine what part of the house this is: 1-2 = 1st floor, 3-4 = second floor, 5-6 = third floor, 7-8 = lower level, 9-10 = grounds. Each hex entered, including the starting hex, must have a type of room determined by either a d20 or a d10 depending on the part of the house (I will link to the relevant tables when they are posted).
Traversing a hex takes half an hour. Roll 1d6 to determine how many additional entrances a room has, then a another to determine their position. The result is number of degrees clockwise to the side of the hex you entered from. If a 6, it is located in the floor or ceiling (flip a coin). If you roll the same number twice, then the entrance located there is obstructed, only accessible via a Puzzle.
To traverse a hex with more than one entrance, roll 1d2-1d6 to pick a direction (clockwise from top right), and move there. Each hex has 1d4 objects of interest. Draw the result from your primary tarot deck - each of the faces and major arcana is an NPC, and each of the minor arcana 1-9 are clues. Discovering a or solving a clue, or meeting a person adds that card to your evidence deck. If that card is a minor arcana, it also puts a card of the corresponding suit into your action deck.
At the start of every round (4 hours), your companion will present you with a dialogue option in the form of a single card drawn from the primary deck. Decide what the upright or inverted interpretations of this card represent. If you choose upright, they gain a point of trust, and you loose an action card. If inverted, they gain a point of mistrust and you gain a dialog card. Trust and mistrust cancel eachother out. Characters can have up to a maximum of three for either. For each point of trust, a failure turns into a success during debate or interrogation. Vice versa for mistrust.
NPCs have clues of their own to uncover and suspicions of their own to needle. Whenever someone is encountered, they will have a number of face down cards drawn in their evidence deck drawn from your secondary tarot deck, along with a corresponding dialog card (if applicable). They start with 1 card, and automatically add another each round.
You can choose to present cards from your evidence deck to NPCs to elicit their feelings and opinions. Roll 2d6 to determine their reaction:
2 They immediately become suspicious or aggravated, triggering a debate.
3-6 Their opinion is not immediately helpful or relevant to the case at hand
7-9 You notice a tell, prompting an interrogation.
10-11 They offer one of their clues in exchange for a physical (10) or mental (11) puzzle
12 - They present you with evidence of their own, sharing one of their face down cards freely, or giving +2 rank to an evidence card if they are already known
During dialog (interrogation or debate), you each draw 3 cards from your decks and lay them out in order. Higher suit beats lower. In the case of numerical ties, specific suits beat other suits during interrogation; this win order is reversed for debate. During interrogation, double ties go to the PC; during debate, they go to the NPC.
A successful interrogation means you uncover one of their face down cards, search your primary deck for its equivalent, add them to your catalogue, and shuffle. If you already have the card(s), you instead raise or lower the number of one of the suits in your Denoument by 1, as your suspicions are confirmed (this means searching your primary deck for the desired card, discarding the original card, and shuffling).
During interrogation, each win reveals a face down card from the NPC. However, this leaves you vulnerable to countermeasures - if you have the majority of losses, that NPC will interrogate you, triggering a debate. Winning a debate allows you to raise or lower the number of one of the suits in your denoument by 1. Losing it means you lose a card from your Denoument.
When discovering a clue, roll 1d4 to determine its nature
On a 1, the clue is straightforwardly apparent, and you add it to your evidence
On a 2, the clue requires a skill check to notice it and determine its significance
On a 3, the clue requires a Physical Puzzle be solved to retrieve it
On a 4, the clue requires a Mental Puzzle be solved to retrieve it
Skill checks have a starting difficulty threshold of 3 (roll above to succeed). The threshold goes up by 1 every round. You add the number of action cards in the relevant suit as a positive modifier.
Puzzles require a number of cards of a matching suit that add up a random number (roll 1d6 per round for physical puzzles, 1d4 per round for mental). Physical puzzles require evidence cards, and mental puzzles require action cards.
The day ends when 24 moves have passed, or you have drawn all cards in the primary deck. At the end of a case, If you have a denoument, you must defend it by debating a Teacher NPC.
Hello!
This is a place for compiling various thoughts, creative efforts, and special interests (several uses of the term), mostly in a ttrpg related space.
I am currently working on Sleuthsim, a procedural storytelling fanfic venture that mostly uses an original solo journaling game, with characters from a proliferation of mystery-adjacent media.
Other projects (as of yet unnamed) include a resistance-engine RPG about posthuman mechs, and an urban hexcrawl designed using Into the Cess and Citadel by Alex Coggon and Charles Ferguson-Avery.