Darker Malleus
A downloadable tragedy
Darker Malleus is an analog adventure game for 2 to 5 players about a band of righteous hunters on a journey to pursue and defeat a champion of the Adversary. Along the way they'll test their mettle and virtue against violence, duplicity, and temptation. In the end, they'll discover that Evil is not so wicked and the Creator is not so good. We play to find out if they'll triumph over the Devil anyway or join the ranks of the Adversary's champions.
It features:
- A fleshed out rules text friendly to veteran gamers and first-time players alike.
- Randomly generated Hunters with varying backgrounds, equipment, and virtues. Plus, the possibility of playing a traitorous False Hunter.
- A resolution system centering the Hunters' growing Hatred and how it eats away at their Virtues.
- Clear advice and procedures for the Adversary, Darker Malleus' GM, to create scenarios and mediate play.
- A luxurious layout that invites meditation on and annotation of the text.
- Full-page, black and white illustrations by Felix Miall.
The Rules in Short
Every Hunter has the seed of Hatred burning in their heart. This Hatred has a value that goes up to 10. Depending on the Hunter's Lifepath, their Hatred starts at 4, 5, or 6.
When a Hunter acts on the world, or is acted on in kind, and we're not sure of the result, we roll a ten-sided die (d10) and read its result as 0 through 9.
When the result is equal to or less than their Hatred, it means that darkness and violence have won out in their heart. When the Hunter is trying to do violence or act with cunning, this is good. When the Hunter is trying to express their inborn Virtue or resist the Devil's temptation, this is bad.
When the result is greater than their Hatred, it means that light and virtue have won out in their heart. When the Hunter is trying to do violence or act with cunning, this is bad. When the Hunter is trying to express their inborn Virtue or resist the Devil's temptation, this is good.
A Hunter facing failure may declare "Not today, Satan!" to overcome their weakness, but doing so increases their Hatred.
A Hunter who, in their weakness, indulges their temptation, increases their Hatred.
If a Hunter's Hatred reaches 10, their heart breaks and they fall to Evil, becoming one of the Adversary's champions.
Critical Praise for Darker Malleus
"Dire and delectable. Darker Malleus innovates on modern design trends and interrogates assumed wisdom. Read it. Play it." --Aaron Burkett of Doom Rides.
"Darker Malleus oozes theme. Simply use the game's terminology and you can't help but fall into character." --Eli Kurtz of Mythic Gazetteer.
Witness the Origin of Darkness
Darker Malleus is built from the bones of one-page, two-player game called Dark Malleus. You can find it here:
Purchase
In order to download this tragedy you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $15 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Boons of the Adversary
Support this tragedy at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copies
For every full price sale of Darker Malleus, we add a download to the community copy pool.
Community copies are free downloads made available for folks experiencing financial hardship. If you can't fit $9 in your budget, for any reason, please help yourself.
Development log
- Update to 1.0.1: New ArtworkJun 14, 2020
Comments
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I've run this game twice now, once with an official scenario and one of my own making which became a two parter.
The rules are easy to pick up and run with. There's a bit more roll play than role play with some of the mechanics but far from deal breaking at all. Nothing any GM can't work with, work around or fudge depending.
What is the most fun, and reason you should stop reading this and buy them, is the setting and mindset you and your players and put in.
You are the bad guys but based on who's perspective of bad? It allows you as the GM to put your players in interesting morally grey situations. The setting, the random tables and the Hatred mechanic all have you players making interesting choices about defeating Evil but "Are we the baddies?" Yes, No, errr? That's where the compelling stories lurk.
Even if you don't play the game itself, it's worth getting just for the ideas and resources you can mine from it.
Definitely worth the $9. It has been a real pleasure to run.
I had the pleasure of playing Darker Malleus with its creator as our GM. It's elegantly simply and we were off into the gloom with characters made in only minutes. The mood and setting were perfect. It was incredibly fun and story-based. I can't say enough good things.