A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Dark Signs

Dark Signs by Markus Raab and Janina Posdziech is a role playing game supplement published by Son of Oak Game Studio through the City of Mist Garage Community Content Programme for use with City of Mist.

The supplement is available as a 12 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and one the front matter, content warning and disclaimer.

The opening paragraph explains that this is a case – adventure – for City of Mist and that at least the Quick Start is needed and preferably the two core books.

Background explains that this case is about the dark signs that will bring about the end of the world. It’s triggered by three orphan sisters and a fourth dead one who have taken on the role of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, when the dead sister is revived. The case takes place in Johns Park, where the church of St John is. The Timeline has brief overviews as to what happens on the days and when, and a sidebar explains the meaning of the times given; they refer to the Book of Revelations. Stats are given for the Beast and two cutscenes are given.

The case’s iceberg then follows, which goes to depth 4. Depth 0: The Hooks has one for the characters hearing about a death at an esports competition. A sidebar suggests looking to earlier events in the timeline as a source of alternative hooks.

The different depths then have clues to get to the next depth, until the final showdown. The characters need to either stop the sisters from summoning their fourth, Death, or defeat Death. If they fail, the City will have problems. Some suggestions as to how this could affect cases are given in a sidebar.

Dark Signs in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though comparatively short, has enough different sections that these would have been useful. The text maintains a two-column format and quite a few minor errors were noticed. There are a number of colour illustrations, which all appear to be photos run through a cartoon filter; the result is surprisingly effective. Presentation is decent.

If the case has a fault, it’s that the outcome is perhaps a little too extreme. Having a short case potentially result in Death stalking the city with a noticeable effect seems a little excessive. It could, however, be tweaked and reworked a bit to fit with the Hades Avatar from the MC Toolkit. Dark Signs isn’t a bad adventure, just a little extreme in effect, and it can be found by clicking here.