Inspirations
Games: Apocalypse World system (Powered by the Apocalypse), Fudge system (The Unexplained), World of Darkness, and Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu.
Movies: Black Death, The Road, Valhalla Rising, Season of the witch, The Reckoning and many more.
Bleak: The Abyss for PbP
He fell to his knees and reached out to the neutral sky with blood soiled hands, “God forgive me!” The monk bowed his head and trembled in his battle-soaked robe.
“Cheer up monk, you did God’s work.” A man in dingy chainmale said as he scanned the horizon.
The sun never cuts through the clouds, it is either grey or night. Bright sunny days are legend here, only spoken as ancient memory. The abyss is the unseen presence that rolls through the hill, fields, forests and mountains. This land is cursed and its heroes are too.
“Let’s ride out!” shouted the crusader
They rode toward the darkness leaving blood and smoke behind them. The monk’s head wobbled with each trot and his mind was lost as though he were searching for the light he lost just moments ago. The crusader rode up to the monk and offered a water filled leather pouch.
“Drink.”
Water poured down the monk’s chin.
“They were innocent.”
“Not one of them knew our lord’s prayer. You better rest boy. We haven’t even found our witch yet.” The crusader tapped his horse and galloped to the front of the line.
“Cheer up monk, you did God’s work.” A man in dingy chainmale said as he scanned the horizon.
The sun never cuts through the clouds, it is either grey or night. Bright sunny days are legend here, only spoken as ancient memory. The abyss is the unseen presence that rolls through the hill, fields, forests and mountains. This land is cursed and its heroes are too.
“Let’s ride out!” shouted the crusader
They rode toward the darkness leaving blood and smoke behind them. The monk’s head wobbled with each trot and his mind was lost as though he were searching for the light he lost just moments ago. The crusader rode up to the monk and offered a water filled leather pouch.
“Drink.”
Water poured down the monk’s chin.
“They were innocent.”
“Not one of them knew our lord’s prayer. You better rest boy. We haven’t even found our witch yet.” The crusader tapped his horse and galloped to the front of the line.
This is Bleak: The Abyss, a grim unforgiving rpg where the adventures not only fight the creatures that frequent the muck and mist, they also struggle to keep their sanity and integrity.
Something different is that I have adapted the game to play by post forum. This is the pbp beta test of a game I have been working on.
Character Creation
Weak, Normal, Journeyman, always 2nd and master are the descriptors to be given to the attributes listed below.
2 attributes get “weak”
3 attributes get “normal”
2 attributes get “journeyman”
No one starts at master or always 2nd
The descriptors tell a player how they will role-play when a given situation that needs to be addressed using an attribute.
For example: A character with weak ferocity should not narrate his/her character like they are a battle master.
Attributes:
Instinct - reflexes in battle
Discovery - this tied to intelligence - the ability to think out of the box
Ferocity - strength
Wellness - how physically active your character is
Magnetism - people want to be around you
determination - your mental strength in difficult situations
Awareness - how sensitive your character is to their surroundings
Can you improve your attributes?
The answer is yes.
How?
In the OOC players say I think I have improved….
The other players ask these questions:
In what ways did you attempt to use this attribute?
It what way did the use of a given attribute add to the story?
Did you take a fail to make the story more interesting while using the attribute?
Are you willing to make take an abyss point for the desired attribute?
Desperation Move
What if I want to use a weak attribute as a desperation move? After all, even the things we suck at can be possible.
For non-combat: a character can open themselves to the abyss to successfully gain in sight into a discovery that they would otherwise not have been able to, or a character with low magnetism can seduce an individual or incite a crowd to riot, or to heighten one’s awareness, but they will have to take an abyss point.
For combat: If you chose to fight a losing battle, such as a warrior against 10 fighters or a character that has weak combat descriptors — choose 2 abyss points or permanent damage
• Head: metal plate, loose an eye, deep scar etc. -1 to magnetism
• Torso: surgery (remove a rib etc.), deep scar etc. -1 to wellness
• Arms: loss of a limb, loss of extremities, permanent brace etc. -1to determination
• Legs: loss of a limb or foot, permanent brace, limp, cane etc. -1to instinct
What are abyss points?
Everyone born in Bleak was born with the abyss. There are stories of an ancient past called the days of light, but those are only stories to people living in Bleak today. The Abyss is the darkness that dominates Bleak, it drives people mad, spawn chthonian entities and breeds the plague.
All characters start with one X out of 5 toward the abyss. Once a character reaches 5 abyss points they are lost. They go mad, or anything your imagination can muster.
How else do we get abyss points?
While character’s in Bleak are morally grey, they do have a reason to live and that reason is tied to their drive for light in their own way.
A protector is driven to protect the weak, but if they let the weak die because of another goal then they would also take an abyss point. Drive and backstory are completely up to the player.
Another way is to use special moves. Each archetype has a special move:
Monk: God's Light – it cuts through the abyss, but the abyss pushes back.
Crusader: God's Rage – example: an innocent is hurt opening the Crusader to the abyss.
Heathen: Sacrifice – opens the abyss to gain insight or divination
Physician: Surgery – begins to go mad – losing touch with humanity.
Skills
Skills are directly tied to attributes. If there are 2 attributes within a skill then combine.
For Instance: A warrior has Journeyman in both ferocity and instinct -he/she will be a journeyman level in the skills of melee and climb. Or if he/she has normal in determination and journeyman in instinct – then we minus from the strongest attribute, which would be normal in both swim and survival. If he/she is weak in determination and journeyman in instinct. Then he/she would be weak in swim and survival. If he/she is always 2nd in instinct and normal then swim and survival would be normal and etc.
If you have 2 weak descriptors, then you can attempt with a massive fail and choose and abyss point or physical damage. But you will be rewarded a learning point in that particular attribute at the end of the chapter.
Archetype chose one: Heathen, Crusader, Monk, Physician
Looks:
Background:
Drive:
Attributes and descriptors:
Abyss: X _ _ _ _
Skills (copy and paste table):
Gear:
This is the 1st beta test - feel free to help make the game better and more pbp friendly.
Thank you for your interest!
