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This RP is a Dark Low-Fantasy inspired by Berserk, the Souls franchise, and dark fairy tales. There are two principal ideas. First, how will players overcome supernatural odds without magic or other superhuman abilities? Yes, you heard that right, a fantasy RP where the humans don't have any magic. More on that in a bit.

Secondly, what can players create when the story is up to them, rather than the GM? Every player in this RP will be Marked by the creatures of the Night. The Night Mark attracts evil creatures, but it also has a specific purpose. Whatever creature marked you can find you, no matter how far you run, no matter where you hide. Perhaps a Vampire marks a young woman as his next mistress, then tracks her down across the kingdom. Perhaps a pregnant woman is marked so her baby can be swept away and replaced with a Changeling. Whether the creature eats humans, sacrifices them, or worse...The players choose what marked them and why. Then it's up to the characters to deal with these monstrosities when they come to make good on their marks. I control the creatures attracted by the Mark, and work with players on the storylines to run things smoothly. As long as it's reasonable, fair, and most of all interesting, anyone can introduce plot threads.

Characters have a good reason to team up, because Marked attract one another the same way they draw the creatures of the night. To remove the curse, you must slay that which marked you, and there is strength in numbers.

Now, a bit more about magic. Magic does exist in the setting, but for the most part only the creatures of the Night can use it. The only "magic" that humans can use are the kinds that aren't really magic--old women who practice herblore and make foul smelling poultices might be called witches, and strange bespectacled men who peer over steaming beakers might be considered alchemists, but there is no real magic that is available to normal humans. At first one might say "well, how boring!" but my thought process is that, for one thing, an RP like this needs to be difficult. A fight with a werewolf is much harder for the guy who only has a sword and a shield, as opposed to the guy who can call down lightning. And in the same way that this is a tale of dark creatures, it is also a tale of those who fight those creatures. Of heroes.

And the best heroes get by not on the strength of unnatural powers, but by their character and cunning.

In addition to slaying the creatures of the Night, I had other ideas revolving around a Church, and the reaction of characters ostracized by society. I haven't developed a lot of the setting yet, as I'd like to see if I get any interest first. If you have any questions, ask away.

I started a game that was a lot like this a long time ago. I love the concept and I think tying it to Berserk and similar dark "works" is a great idea. I'm not sure I can give my interest as a player just yet as I have a hectic period in my life coming soon, but I will give my interest as a follower and reader.

Bump.

This sounds really interesting. I really like the idea of nerfing all the characters. Makes the RP more challenging and allows the players to challenge their creativity.

Love the sound of this - definitely interested!

I like it. I may be willing to join, assuming you'd let the players make up some lore for their own characters.

I was thinking a sort of "barbarian", though personally he's more like just a guy who just never lived in a city or town for long. He raises dogs for hunting and guarding, and has his family's battleaxe from back when they were "barbarians". He's technically a poacher and not really a citizen of the nearby city/nation/whatever cause he never pays his taxes, and because of that he's a vagrant. It helps since he knows about the creature hunting him down; a mind-controlling, shapeshifting demon. She (though technically genderless it often takes the form of a woman) is not just trying to kill him, but take his soul so she can turn his body into an undead thrall and increase her own power by consuming his soul. This demon is also technically his mother (And grandmother, and great-grandmother, etc), because the way she steals your soul is through sex. His past fathers failed to slay the demon before she got to them, and now it's my character's turn to try to end his curse or end up an minion to her as well.

Possible enemies include: Wild animals, guardsmen who don't like barbarians/vagrants, his own undead ancestors, his former tribesmen (The one who raised him but for reasons he left on bad terms), and of course the demon herself. All my guy has is his family's axe, his own dagger, a pack of dogs, and the will to live. And just about all of those things are much more fragile than they appear.

I like it. I may be willing to join, assuming you'd let the players make up some lore for their own characters.

I was thinking a sort of "barbarian", though personally he's more like just a guy who just never lived in a city or town for long. He raises dogs for hunting and guarding, and has his family's battleaxe from back when they were "barbarians". He's technically a poacher and not really a citizen of the nearby city/nation/whatever cause he never pays his taxes, and because of that he's a vagrant. It helps since he knows about the creature hunting him down; a mind-controlling, shapeshifting demon. She (though technically genderless it often takes the form of a woman) is not just trying to kill him, but take his soul so she can turn his body into an undead thrall and increase her own power by consuming his soul. This demon is also technically his mother (And grandmother, and great-grandmother, etc), because the way she steals your soul is through sex. His past fathers failed to slay the demon before she got to them, and now it's my character's turn to try to end his curse or end up an minion to her as well.

Possible enemies include: Wild animals, guardsmen who don't like barbarians/vagrants, his own undead ancestors, his former tribesmen (The one who raised him but for reasons he left on bad terms), and of course the demon herself. All my guy has is his family's axe, his own dagger, a pack of dogs, and the will to live. And just about all of those things are much more fragile than they appear.

Yes, the plan was for players to create their own lore and flesh out the setting on their own if they chose to do so, but I would still be looking over everything and making sure that what people came up with was consistent with what was already laid down. Your ideas would work pretty well as is, though maybe limit it to just one animal companion rather than a whole pack.

Just for ease of recognition, I was planning to work with known mythology/traditional fantasy creatures when it came to the Night--the Fair Folk, goblins and trolls, vampires and werewolves, things like that. If you'd like to make up other creatures of the Night I'm fine with it as long as it's fitting and fair. In the case you suggested, something like a succubus would probably work.

If I get more people interested, I can probably go ahead and work on some of the setting, so as to give people an idea of what they have as a base to build on. Character sheets too. As seen in the tags, I'd like a fairly large number of participants though.

Awesome. And yeah, a Succubus was basically what I had in mind, but I wasn't certain if you wanted to go the fair folk route or if we can introduce more occult things. I'm sure there's a shapeshifting seducer of sorts in contemporary fair folk lore too. As for the animal companion I suppose I can limit it to a single dog, perhaps a horse for traveling. I'll start putting together a skeleton for my future CS.

Bump. Though the topic is tagged as Large Group, I'd probably say at least five or six besides myself would work as a bare minimum.

@Dark Light@Lucius Cypher@SunsetWanderer@CharmingDevil@Halvtand

I've got some of the setting done, along with a CS. I hope we get some more interest, and that this will sway anyone who might still be on the fence. If any of you would like to expand the lore of the setting, add locations to the map, and other things, please let me know and we'll discuss it. I definitely want the players to be able to build this world up as much as they would like, I just want to make sure everything fits together smoothly. Same with the character sheet, I kind of feel like I might have left something out but I can't think of what at the moment.




Once any questions/comments are cleared up, I'll probably put up the OOC tomorrow sometime.

This reminds me a bit of the revisit to the castlevania/(Hugh jackman) hellsing franchise. Trained but unempowered are sent to fight the monsters with those few given the slimmest chance to end the monsters for once and for all.

If this is still open I would really like to join.

I'm also interested, pretty much got a character written for this already.

I'd love to join.

@knighthawk@Sophrus@Dynamo Frokane@BilboTheGreat

You're all very welcome to join, there's no cutoff point. I will ask, however, that people don't make more than two characters at a time simply because I have a personal dislike of creating a "party" run by a single player. When it comes to things like NPCs or their own enemies of the Night, though, everyone has pretty much free reign as long as it's reasonable.

EDIT: I'll probably have the OOC up later this afternoon.

@Zeroth Are you playing all of the creatures of the night?

Are you playing all of the creatures of the night?

Only the "random encounters" that would be drawn as a result of the Mark--creatures that just happen to be in the area. A person's personal enemy is up to them, unless they would specifically like my help with it. It doesn't count as a full character on its own, as I don't really want to go into depth and "humanize" the monsters unless doing so directly helps the human characters' development. Even then they shouldn't be "redeemable."

@Zeroth So if and when the creature that actually put on the mark shows up, I would play them?

Sorry if I seem like an idiot, just confused xD

So if and when the creature that actually put on the mark shows up, I would play them?

Sorry if I seem like an idiot, just confused xD

Yes, whatever creature serves as your character's "antagonist" is up to you. And no problem, this is probably going to be a confusing concept to a lot of people because the general formula has the GM controlling all the bad guys that challenge the heroes.

@Zeroth Awesome. I'm gonna make my character soon (: