Table Of Content

Sinister Beard Games Presents A roleplaying game of Stealth, Guile, Violence and Devilry Game development, writing and layout by Oli Jeffery, © 2020 Sinister Beard Games. Illustrations by Kasha Mika, © 2020 Cover by Harriet Moulton, © 2020 Editing by Lauren McMannamon Sensitivity Editing by Misha Bushyager Thanks to Frank Smiles and Jenny Lord for their help in playtesting and many useful suggestions, and for essentially fixing combat for me. Thanks to the Gaunlet Gaming Community LLC for their kind assistance in funding the cover illustration for this game, and to Jesse Ross and Jason Cordova for Trophy, without which this game would not exist. This work is based on Trophy (trophyrpg.com), product of Jesse Ross and Hedgemaze Press, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Trophy is adapted from Cthulhu Dark with permission of Graham Walmsley. Trophy is also based on Blades in the Dark (found at http://www.bladesinthedark.com/), product of One Seven Design, developed and authored by John Harper, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Trophy™ is a trademark of Hedgemaze Press. The Rooted in Trophy Logo is © Hedgemaze Press, and is used with permission. 2 The Book of Lore Laefendport The scabrous, rainslick metropolis of Laefendport was mere decades previously nothing but a collection of hovels and shacks, home to scavengers who scraped a meager existence salvaging whatever they could from the many ships dragged into the notoriously treacherous waters to its immediate east, and wrecked on shores so jagged and jutting it seems as if the very earth was reaching up in protest. Its name meant Liars Port, a reference to the treachery of both its tides and its residents. Farming was nigh impossible, as the area for miles around Laefendport was afflicted with the Night Rain - so called not because it fell at night, though it often did, but because of its colour. Black as a moonless winter sky, viscous and inert, the Night Rain falls near constantly, poisoning all but the hardiest, most unappealing plants, deforming and driving animals mad, and leaving anything it touches greasy and stained. For centuries, only the desperate or the touched would go anywhere near Laefendport. Until, that is, the Eisenhart Process. Named for its inventor, Friedrich Eisenhart, this is the alchemical process by which the Night Rain can be filtered and made combustible. Suddenly, there was a freely available source of fuel literally falling from the sky. Free, at least, until the noble families arrived to harvest it. This discovery led to a great revolution of industry and science, and the cancerous growth of Laefendport from barely a town to the largest city in the country. Noble families became businesses, businesses became dynasties; and above them all, the royal family of House Wilderose loomed: to them all the dynasties paid reverence and, more importantly, taxes. The Night Reign The Royal House, House Wilderose had never lowered itself to actual industry, instead supporting itself through taxation alone. The Eisenhart Process marked a turning point. Suddenly, the other Houses were rich beyond any of their previous imaginings, and equally suddenly found themselves disinclined to pay their taxes. When the tax collectors arrived in Laefendport from the capital, they were turned away. When they attempted a second meeting, complete with an attendant squadron of guards, their heads were returned to the capital in their collection boxes. There followed much sabre rattling on both sides, but neither the Wilderoses nor the dynasties wanted a costly war, and so the Houses invited the Royals to Laefendport in order to resolve the matter diplomatically. The entire Wilderose family attended, with the full force of the Royal Guard at their side. They thought that would make them safe; but the Guard had already been bought. The Wilderose dynasty was massacred that day. Reports on exactly who was slain and who managed a desperate escape vary, though nobody who saw the bodies of the King and Queen strung from the rooftops of the House Eisenhart refinery can wipe the image from their memory. Laefendport was named the new capital city, and the Noble Houses control of the nation was complete; the Night Reign had begun. 3 The Red Right Hand While many of the citizens of Laefendport and beyond still keen for their King and Queen, they do so quietly; public Royalist sympathy is now punishable by imprisonment, torture or death under the brutal police state of the Noble Houses. The members of the Red Right Hand are not among this quiet herd. The Right Hand was the name of the Royal Secret Police, back when the Wilderoses reigned. They should have been able to stop the dynastic coup, but even they could be bought. The leaders of the Right Hand owed their fealty to the Noble Houses, and any loyal agents who discovered the plot were disposed of. Even after the revolution, there were some who were still loyal to the Wilderoses, and conspire to find any rightful heir to the throne and return them to power. They are now known as the Red Right Hand, both to reaffirm their loyalty to the heraldic colours of House Wilderose, and in honour of the amount of Noble blood they have spilt since the Night Reign began. You play as one of these brave but terrible people. The Sisters Laefendport does not traffic with gods. The sea swallows everything that dares come near, and the sky pisses down black tar onto the land. If ever anyone prayed to a god here, their prayers were demonstrably not answered. Instead, Laefendport has the Sisters. They are not things to worship, they are things to blame misfortune on, to curse, to avoid. If you mutter their names in a prayer, it is to ask that they overlook you for another day. There are two families of Sisters, each with three members: the Brostnest Sisters, the Sisters of the Lost, and the Ryne Sisters, the Sisters of the Hidden. The Brostnests hate the Rynes almost as much as the Rynes hate the Brostnests; the citizens of Laefendport know better of the Sisters than to enquire as to why. A Whispered & Bitter Prayer The Right Hand were taught the sacred art of devilry to further the plans of the crown. Arcane power flows from the Sisters, but they do not grant it freely. To access their domains, you must reach into the blackness that lies beyond the rain and steal some of their divinity. The whispered prayer is not to be granted that power, but that you will not be caught by the Sister when doing so. 4 Technology in Laefendport is at aT elecvhenl orloouggyh ilny Nthieg hsat mReei gn Let me walk through the stinking as the late 19th to early 20th alleys to the music of drunken centuries, but nearly everything beatings is powered by refined Night Rain. PJ Hartvey, The Last Living Rose Until the discovery of the Eisen- hart Process, there was no steam or oil technology, and the only flammable was wood and coal, either inefficient or dangerous to mine. Laefendport has undergone a radical technological shift since the discovery of refined Night Rain. The streets are lit by flickering Rainlight. Gunpowder and explosives do not exist in the game world, so firearms powered by small capsules of liquid and flint are a new and powerful invention, and were key to the success of the Night Reign's revolution. With guns such a novelty, melee weapons are still common; they're cheaper to produce, and a knife in the kidneys will see to you just as surely as a bullet. Ships powered by the Rain have made travel easier, but not safer - the ocean is filled with monsters warped by years of exposure to the Night Rain. More common are smaller gondolas either hand rowed or powered by Rain fed outboard motors, used to navigate the labyrinthine canals that criss-cross the city. Primitive automobiles exist, though they are luxury items possessed only by the very rich. Generally styled in metal and wood art nouveau patterns, they are handcrafted per owner and as much an expression of personality as they are a mode of transport. Elsewhere, horses and carts are still common, as is the shit they leave behind on the streets. The Noble Houses House Breman, The Pirates Sailors, traders and warriors who brave the monstrosity haunted seas around Laefend- port to trade with far off lands like Mohtuharri and Mahl Kalada (or, more accurately, force their subjects to do so); they also provide the majority of the other houses' security, at a cost of course. They are ruled by Admiral Lydia de Breman. House Eisenhart, The Alchemists House Eisenhart is the Noble line that first discovered how to refine the Night Rain, a process they still jealously guard from even the other houses. They control all the refineries in Laefendport, and as such their influence can be felt in all the other houses, who, in turn, hate them utterly. The head of the house is Alchemist Supreme Friedrich d'Eisenhart. House Foreyda, The Traitors House Foreyda are negotiators, deal makers and liars par excellence. They handle all negotiations with powers outside of Laefendport on the other houses' behalf, always making sure that they get the choicest end of any agreement. Reciprocation is anathema to the Foryedas - to them, every deal must have a winner and a loser, and they intend always to be the former. The head of the house is Lord Wordsmith Logan de Foreyda. 5 House Forbehn, The Blasphemers There was no religion in Laefendport before the Night Reign, aside from a few forbidden cults to the Sisters. Now House Forbehn, previously bookish cowards known for their vast libraries and knowledge of the minutiae of Noble history, made a grab for power, establishing themselves as the heads of Those Above Others, a religion that places the Nobles families as demigods spiritually above the mere humans they rule over. Nobody, themselves included, actually believes it, but the creed is enforced by their gold masked soldier-priests. They are ruled by Father Aldhelm de Forbehn. House Kleinengest, The Overseers While Eisenhart brew poisons and balms in their labs, and Seeracraff tinker and giggle to themselves, Kleinengest makes. They own workhouses around the city that produce workable, saleable, practical applications from the other Houses wild and vapid imagnings. Their factories are brutal and frequently fatal places, but should the poor not be glad to be sacrificed to the great gods of Industry and Progress? They are ruled by a Mistress Ada de Kleinengest. House Seeracraff, The Tinkerers Previously tinkerers and toy makers of little import, the Eisenhart process has allowed House Seeracraff to develop mechanical monstrosities such as clockwork soldiers, great striding suits for guards, and security measures such as flame walls. They take delight in endless crea- tion, and in the destruction their creations wreak. They are headed up by Artificer Natalia de Seeracraff. House Wilderose, The Lost Few of House Wilderose yet live after the tragic events that began the Night Reign, and none so far who would dare to attempt to take their throne back. Were they kinder, gentler, better rulers than the current regime? Probably not. They are Nobles, and Nobles are a different species to whom the travails of the proletariat mean nothing, if they are aware of it at all. But they were your House, and you shall avenge them. Their lost heir is Princess Emile de Wilderose. 6 The Book of Rules The Night Reign will fall Night Reign is a roleplaying game of stealth, guile, violence and devilry for a GM and one or more players, Set in a quasi-Edwardian metropolis perched on an inhospitable peninsula beset by toxic black rain and ruled by a corrupt cabal of Noble Houses. You take the role of members of The Red Right Hand, a conspiracy loyal to the recently deposed royal family, using your talents in assassination, infiltration and dark sorcery to strike out at your oppressors. Gather your apparatus of infiltration To play Night Reign, you'll need two Sets of regular playing cards with the jokers removed, and two pools of poker chips in different colours, which you can acquire from your local bawdy house, or perhaps from a sinister street magician. We recommend that the two decks of cards have different backs so they can be easily distinguished from each other. The GM claims one of the decks of cards and shuffles it thoroughly. This is the Night Deck, and is used by the GM to Set difficulty on tasks, to represent obstacles that the players must overcome, and to provide actions for the players' opposition in combat, should you come to so gauche an activity as crossing blades in the open. The Night deck should be placed within easy reach of the GM, and within sight of the players. The players claim the other deck. Divide the deck into number cards (including Aces), and face cards (all Jacks, Queens and Kings). Shuffle both of the players' decks individually and place them next to each other. The deck with the number cards is the Royal Deck, and the deck with the face cards is the Sisters' Deck. Pray that you don't need to draw from the latter. All players draw from the Royal Deck, or if they are foolhardy and impetuous, from the Sisters' deck. Both these decks should be placed within easy reach of all the players, or if this is impractical, you can nominate one player to draw on the party's behalf. Number cards are worth the value of the number printed on them. Aces are worth either one or eleven, and can change between these two values at any time according to the whim of the player drawing, even after they are drawn. All face cards are worth ten, and a portion of your Soul. Choose one of your pools of tokens to represent Shadow, and one to represent Flame. Traditionally, black and red tokens provide a pleasing visual feedback that even the most Sister-touched inmate of the Broadgate Asylum can understand. The GM will also need tokens to represent Opposition; they may have their own pool or borrow from unused Flame and Shadow tokens, as Opposition tokens are only ever in play temporarily. You will also require one copy of the City sheet for the party and a copy of character sheet for each player. Character and City sheets can be distilled from the very æther at sinisterbeard.com/nightreign. 7 Characters in Night Reign In Night Reign, you play an agent of the Red Right Hand, a contra-revolutionary group dedicated to bringing down the Noble Houses who betrayed and murdered your masters, the Royal House Wilderose. Your task is not an easy one, and you will likely die in pursuit of it. But even when your bones are the playthings of rats and your flesh is withered, Laefendport prevails. You may find yourself making several characters over the course of a campaign. First, choose your Name, Pronouns, Appearance and Cover Identities. Name, Pronouns and Appearance have no mechanical implication, but help you to portray your character. Place and proper names in this zine take inspiration from mangled versions of Old English, German and Russian; choose a name that follows suit. Names and appearances may also be informed by your cover identities. Your Cover Identities are the false roles you take to avoid being arrested by the Noble Houses. Pick two from the list on page 30, or invent your own. Each Cover Identity provides one free dot in a talent (page 30), and a network of connections which may be used as narrative permission (page 28). Next, choose your Talents. Talents describe what your character is good at, and can be marked to provide a mechanical bonus. You have 13 dots to distribute however you wish. You may choose 13 individual talents at one dot each, or choose several to specialise in with two or three dots. Collaborate with the other players in your group to ensure a wide breadth of Talents are covered between you all. Remember that you get a free dot in a specific Talent from each cover identity, so you'll have 15 dots in total. Next, choose your Prayers, if any. Prayers (page 36) are dangerous spells you can cast to perform miraculous feats. All agents of the Red Hand can learn and use Prayers, regardless of Talents or Cover Identities. For each dot you have in a Devilry Talent, you may choose one Prayer from that Talent's Prayer list (page 36). You can attempt to cast Prayers which you don't have access to (even if you have no dots in any Devilry Talent) by selling your Soul (page 18). Finally, choose your equipment (page 20). At the start of the game, you can choose up to five items, and you may acquire more during Incursions. You do not have to take all of your equipment with you on every Incursion, as discussed on page 20. You start the game with your Body and Soul tracks at 0, and no Conditions. Don't worry, they'll come. Oh, they'll come. When you draw Night Reign uses cards instead of dice to resolve conflicts, like any decent ruffian or scoun- drel. Depending on the circumstance, one may use Stealth, Guile, or Violence to overcome things between them and their goal. Oftentimes, you'll face off against the GM's hand to see if you succeed. These actions, and how they're resolved, are explained below. After completing any action, discard any cards drawn from the Royal Deck into a discard pile face up in sight of everyone. Any cards drawn from the Sisters' Deck do not get discarded after an action and are instead replaced at the bottom of the Sisters' Deck. Whenever the GM draws cards from the Night Deck, they are replaced at the bottom of the Night Deck once they are no longer relevant. Cards from the Night Deck are never discarded. If you make a Stealth draw and cannot immediately overcome the opposition, you must choose if you will next use Guile (page 13) or Violence (page 15). 8 Improving your odds When you use a skill or piece of equipment to discard a card during any draw, you must mark it the skill or equipment used - simply cross through one of its boxes on your character sheet. When all available boxes on the skill or piece of equipment are full, you may no longer use it in this Incursion. Skills and equipment usage boxes reset at the start of each Incursion, so use pencil or Betrand Merryweather's patented removable Rain Ink when marking. Shadow and Flame Tokens Shadow tokens represent how close you are to achieving your goal, and how well you have covered your tracks. The more of these you have, the better. Flame tokens represent noise made, blood shed and times you were carelessly spotted. The more Flame tokens you have, the harder it will be to achieve your goal through stealth, and the worse things will become in the city, but needs must when the devil drives, and oh, sirs, madams and all in between or nowhere at all, Laefendport has many a devil. You start every Incursion with no tokens of either type. Throughout the Incursion, you'll gain Shadow tokens when you sneak successfully close to your goal, and Flame tokens when solving a problem through open violence takes longer than anticipated... All tokens are pooled, so tokens gained be they shadow or flame affect everyone. You must learn to work together as a cell effectively if you're to succeed. Spending Shadow tokens Bypassing opposition without open violence If the group wishes to bypass opposition they face as the result of a Stealth draw without open Violence, you must pay as many Shadow tokens as your current Flame pool, or the number of your Chaos track, whichever is higher, to do so. If both of these are currently at 0, as they will be at the start of the campaign, you may attempt to bypass opposition without open violence without spending Shadow tokens. Note this only covers open violence, as in a straight up fight. Dragging a guard into the shadows and slitting their throat before they can cry for help does not count as open violence, though it does count against your immortal Soul - but that is not a matter for these rules. Achieving a Set's goal Incursions are divided into Sets, and each Set in an Incursion has a specific goal. Once you have three or more Shadow tokens and the majority of the group agrees, you can spend three tokens to achieve the Set's goal and move onto the next. Buying off Flame tokens, Suspicion and Activation Tracks Once an Incursion ends, your individual suspicion rating, any dots activated in your or the City’s Conditions, and any Flame tokens your group has acquired can be bought off with Shadow tokens on a one for one basis. You do not have to buy them all off, but any remaining Suspicion or Flame tokens will have a detrimental effect, the Suspicion to your individual character (see page 21), and Flame tokens to the City. The number of Flame tokens that cannot be bought off in this way are added to the City's Chaos rating. 9