Trophy Dark is a role playing game supplement written and published by Jesse Ross under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as part of Codex – Dark 2 for $7 and there is also a free quickstart Kickstarter version. The latter is the version reviewed and as 15 pages with two being the covers.
The Overview explains that this is a collaborative storytelling game about a group of treasure hunters on a doomed expedition into a forest. It is adapted from Cthulhu Dark and is also based on Blades in the Dark.
Next is a short in-character account of a doomed expedition.
How to Play explains the rules. The game uses d6s, light and dark coloured ones. When a risk is attempted, a number of d6s are included, a minimum of one but up to three. The highest result is taken, and the results are failure, success with a complication and outright success. The player describes how in each case. In some situations, it is also necessary to make a ruin roll.
Devil’s Bargains are risks that give an extra d6 but at a cost. Some examples are given.
Ruin Rolls increase your Ruin and you must describe how your mind and body are being warped. Reduction Rolls are ways of reducing ruin. If Ruin reaches 6, you either run screaming into the forest or turn on your fellows.
Creating Your Treasure-Hunter explains how to do so on the character sheets.
Game Master’s Guide explains how to run Trophy Dark. Adventures are called Incursions and they are based around a single word theme. Moments are created, as well as conditions, then a five-ring journey. Finally, there is a sample Incursion, Tomb of 10,000 Dreams.
Trophy Dark in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although it is comparatively short, these would have been useful. Navigation is poor. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a couple of illustrations done in the style of hand drawn on paper and a few paper backgrounds. Presentation matches the style.
This is a rules lite RPG. Much of what is done is narrative based, even though there are rolls for things. Players describe what happens, based on a roll or a figure, rather than being told what happens. Being able to narrate the events in an interesting way is therefore an important skill and the game will be less enjoyable to play without this ability. In the game, characters are expected to fail one way or another, though success is possible. They are described as “doomed” after all. Trophy Dark is a simple, different RPG and it can be found by clicking here.
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