Pop over to Dark World Studios and you can download the alpha/beta of their gritty 1930s RPG Acheron. Check your spam folder.
It’s a tabletop RPG in which monsters and mystery merge together with magic, set in the 1930s and when The Government controls history.
There’s a war for resources, fought by various Factions and in the horizon the endless and foreboding shape of The Wall.
In Archeron, you can be another cog in the machine or head out into the streets, and places once lost to history to try and forge your own destiny.
It’s a brutal system. Characters have an average of 6 Hit Points, and a 9mm pistol does 1d10 damage. Armour will keep you alive.
There are three playable races in the game; humans in different shapes and sizes, Darkleechers and Soulmenders.
Darkleechers appeared shortly after The Breach; hundreds of thousands washed up upon the shores without any memory of where they had come from or who they were. The Human population was split on the issue of what to do with them in many places, while others chose to treat them as a pest to be eradicated. Most people thought that Darkleechers were a dark omen, marking great misfortune to come. There were riots in the streets, mass lynchings, inhumane experiments by science cults, and a wave of mass hysteria. Eventually, the Government intervened, resulting in the First Race War. This treatment molded Darklenchers to distrust, to hate, and to become more cunning than the humans who terrorized them.
Dark World Studios say their philosophies are player choice, simplified realism, gritty combat, corrupting consequences and fun.
There’s no public timeline for the full release, not yet. Still, we’re told that the first deliverable will be a core rulebook that combines a traditional player manual, game master guide and bestiary into one. That’s expected to come in at over 350 pages.
There’s no art in the download that’s currently available, and the layout is rudimentary. However, the website has a gallery of impressive art.
Though the majority of citizens don’t even believe in magic, magical ability is possessed by many in the world of Acheron. Many different organizations and peoples have differing ideals concerning the use of magic. Some say it’s not real but are still cautious and hateful of anything they can’t understand while others believe in its existence but believe it is a corrupting force used for evil.
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