Describing the In Dark Alleys setting on these pages is very difficult. Not because the setting is inconsistent – far from it – but because it is largely kept a secret to the players. This is because In Dark Alleys is a role-playing game which works on many different levels. It is doubtful any RPG has ever spent as much attention to psychological factors. Unsurprisingly, the ideas of Freud and (traditional and more recent forms of) psychoanalysis are very much an integral part of In Dark Alleys. Author and publisher Brian St. Claire King – reviewed recently in Cerberus Too at www.cerberus2.net – has studied psychology himself, which is very much apparent while reading this book.

The players assume the roles of characters who are all endowed with supernatural powers – whether they know it or not. However, no one movement, organisation or religion a Player Character belongs to has a subscription to the truth. Pieces of the puzzle are spread amongst all of the different groups active within the world of the paranormal, but even when all put together, only the game master has all of the missing pieces which together form the basis for the entire setting. For now, it suffices to say that there’s a cosmology connecting all of the different pieces, but no one Player Character will start out knowing what it is. On top of that, the many different interpretations given by the organisations aren’t necessarily correct. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that no less than three chapters within the book start with the word ‘secrets’ (Secrets of the Touched, Secrets of This World and Secrets of the Other Worlds). This is one of those role-playing games where it’s more fun, as a player who has just started an In Dark Alleys campaign, to know little. Of course, whoever has read the book and still starts to play the game will most probably still enjoy himself or herself, but will also miss a little bit of the excitement and the fun generated by slowly unveiling and maybe even explaining the various mysteries which together form the foundations of this RPG.

Introduction and concept

In the introduction, Brian St.Claire-King tells us how there’s beauty in alleys. He talks about how the American society is more focused on outward beauty than on the truth, and how this is nowhere more obvious than in the city of Los Angeles – the default In Dark Alleys setting, even though only 26 pages are dedicated to L.A. and it’s quite possible to use another town or city as a backdrop.

After all of this, readers are guided through character creation. However, one does not start implementing rules, but choosing a character concept. Here, game masters can help by asking intelligent questions about – for example – family, sex, ethnicity, personal history, appearance and motivations.

Psychodynamics

In the second step, 80 points are distributed between 8 personality traits based on Freudian psychoanalysis, each having a minimum rating of 1 and a maximum rating of 20. A rating of 1 means that specific Psychodynamic is extremely weak and has little chance of influencing a Player Character. A rating of 20 means the Psychodynamic is very powerful and constitutes a large part of the overall personality.

Animus/Anima represents the power of the male (if the PC is female) or female (if the PC is male) part of the character’s personality. For example, a man with an Anima rating of 20 will have a very pronounced female side and will be able to communicate and relate well with women. An Anima rating of 1 would mean the PC’s female side is virtually nonexistent and that he has difficulty empathising with women.

Ego is the part of the personality which merges all of the other Psychodynamics into a distinct whole. It suppresses other Psychodynamics when they threaten the self-consciousness. Someone with Ego 20 has no difficulty blocking out certain thoughts and memories and ignoring discomfort and most desires, while someone with Ego 1 doesn’t have a clue about who (s)he is.

The Id Psychodynamic is constantly searching for pleasurable experiences and wants to avoid discomfort.

Reptile represents the most basic of instincts and impulses.

Super-Ego is the part of the PC which fears being punished. This Psychodynamic is usually installed (mostly by the parents) and is, in effect, the conscious. High Super-Ego’s can be very inflexible.

Shadow is the character’s dark side.

Stranger represents the part of the PC which respects strangers and strange things. Racists usually have a very low rating in this Psychodynamic.

Finally, there’s Thanatos: the part which desires, and sees hope in, death and destruction.

Psychodynamics are an excellent tool to find out a lot about a character’s personality with just one glance, but things start to get even more interesting when these abilities are corrupted. This can happen in many different ways, but usually, traumatic experiences are the catalysts. For example, when Reptile is corrupted, the PC’s instincts will force him to do something bizarre or dangerous, like eating a paper, having sex with his or her sister, etc. PC’s with corrupted Super Ego’s will start to feel guilty about things no-one else cares about much, such as combing his or her own hair. If Stranger is corrupted, the PC will start attributing positive personality traits to people who are very different and negative personality traits to people who are very similar to the PC. Etcetera.

The Psychodynamics rules are a truly inspiring toolkit developed by St.Claire-King. They can be used to spice up the game and invite people to actually act and ROLEplay. Needless to say, we can only welcome this. A stroke of genius!

Attributes

Here we find the same Attributes already presented in Tibet and Fates Worse Than Death (King’s two other RPG’s, which also use his Organics Rule Components system): Awareness, Charm, Endurance, Intelligence, Speed, Strength and Willpower. Here, too, 80 points are distributed amongst the different statistics.

There are also three Health Attributes: Body Points, Blood Points and Incapacity. Blunt objects first do damage to Body. When there are no Body points left, they double their damage to Blood. Bladed weapons inflict straight Blood damage. When all Blood Points are depleted, Incapacity and Endurance are lowered, until the character finally dies.

Just as in the other Vajra Enterprises RPG’s, it’s possible to choose Sub Attributes (small Attribute specialisations or flaws, such as Good or Poor Balance, Precision, Climbing or Prowling for the Agility Attribute). This costs or earns 1 Bonus Point per point of Sub-Attribute.

Secret Life

One of the most important aspects in creating a character is choosing a Secret Life. These Secret Lives function as this game’s ‘Classes’ and are all very imaginative and original.

Androgynes are usually initiated during a random sexual encounter in a club, a bar, a bookstore with a lot of homosexual or bisexual literature… During this encounter, the soon-to-be-Androgyne experienced something strange… After a while, (s)he started to realise there’s power in human sexuality. Androgynes think the difference between the sexes was created by dark forces that want to keep us in check. They gain power over their own sex and sexuality.

Animists are priests, shamans, seers or witches from other cultures. In some ways, this is the least inspiring of all of the Secret Lives, since Animists really exist, but thanks to the focus on ethnicity and a fairly elaborate review of different (Aboriginal, Latin-American, Carribean and South-Eastern) belief systems, it isn’t difficult to get interested in this Secret Life.

Cannibals are one of the most bizarre Secret Lives. These men and women are priests who see the flesh as a useless container developed to stop the mind from evolving or being shown. They mutilate themselves and some even chop of limbs and other body parts. Removed flesh and bone is replaced by superior invisible parts, which perform in exactly the same way

Faustians have all gone through a personal crisis. Just when they started to believe they didn’t have the psychological strength necessary to survive, a supernatural entity entered their minds. Suddenly, they did find the will to live and many of them found they had been granted special powers. Beginning characters have already discovered the entity can establish a rudimentary mind to mind communication with them. It calls itself the ‘Dance’, but as time goes on, its demands start to become increasingly bizarre. In all cases, everything seems to revolve around an old, abandoned building, which must be protected at all costs…

Heroes used to be mostly loners, living an existence devoid of promise and hope and obsessed with the idea of fighting Evil. At some point, they found the special training, magical or high-tech device or supernatural powers necessary to live their fantasies. These Heroes started to exchange information, thereby coming to realise there’s a supernatural threat with poses a far greater danger than any criminal might. A threat they are now trying to stop.

Lost are usually drunks who, after drinking themselves into a stupor, suddenly woke up in a different place than where they fell asleep. First, they attributed this to the alcohol, but soon they started waking up in other cities or even continents. After meeting other Lost in local bars, they started gaining more control over their gift; the power to ‘get lost’, to round a corner and reappear in another place (on this world or beyond).

Outcasts are most commonly thought of as insane – schizophrenics who hear voices or see things that don’t exist. In some cultures, they are accepted into the community as seers, while Outcasts in other societies start to believe they are mentally ill themselves. Until they discovered the truth: this world is infested by flying, invisible insects. These entities attach themselves to humans. Also, Outcasts learn that the souls of the dying are harvested by spectral beings, that about one out of every ten humans doesn’t have a soul and more. Often, they need to learn how to block out the thoughts of others and how to harden themselves against the horrible Truth they are confronted with.

Professionals are hired by secret organisations or societies. Most of these groups work for the various world governments. They are assigned to combat the supernatural and keep the knowledge of the paranormal hidden from regular people. But who do they truly work for? And what are the real goals of the Powers that Be?

Scribblers are academics, artists and philosophers who were laughed at or even cast out because of their strange ideas. One day, they stumbled upon a text in a book or sprayed upon a wall which exactly mirrored their own hypotheses. They started looking for more such texts, discovering they were able to gain strange powers through the knowledge they gained this way. More than anyone else, these Scribblers realise neither modern science, nor any of the accepted organised religions or ideologies are able to offer a sufficient explanation of what is going on. More than anyone, they realise that humanity is standing alone, and that some organisations aren’t on the same side. Survivors all got caught up in a deadly accident… which they survived. From that point on, they seem to be almost immortal. Survivors are able to control their own physiology and soak up immense amounts of damage. However, cheating death is not without its price. Strange spectres keep following them around, desiring to lead them to their final demise.

During their childhood years, Wonderlanders spent a lot of time with a special, older friend or family member. During this time, their imagination was stimulated and there was much talk about imagined worlds, creatures and friends. After a while, these contacts were stopped. Later, most Wonderlanders got a message from their former mentor, discovering they had been part of a strange experiment. They also found out their ‘imagined’ world – their Playland – had been real all along. They learned how to travel back and forth to their Playland, how events there can influence the their psychological wellbeing in the real world and how to travel to other Playlands and worlds through their own Playland. Also, their ‘imagined’ childhood friends turned out to be real, intelligent beings.

These Secret Lives are an integral part of In Dark Alleys, and present a very specific atmosphere. Some Secret Lives do not bring any literature, television show or film to mind, and no other role-playing game has similar classes. Other Secret Lives refer to Men in Black, The X-Files, Alice in Wonderland, Matrix or Final Destination. This combination is both refreshing and inspiring; there are more than enough hooks to be base a campaign on, but it also feels as if Brian St.Claire-King has created something new and very adventurous. While reading through this game, we felt something that we haven’t felt some time while reading through a new RPG: a warm excitement, coupled with immense amounts of enthusiasm… and the urge to start creating characters, of course! Just about every Secret Life has a (potential) dark side – even Heroes are sometimes so obsessed that they would shoot someone who litters the pavement. Still, it’s easy to distil a capable, well-meaning group of PC’s out of the different options, all of them unique. For example, the rules presented to create the Heroes’ Powers are excellent. Many different – oftentimes very bizarre – supernatural Powers can be constructed, such as a jacket which weighs down its wearer but also heats up while being used, or the power to shoot nails out of your own body. Also, the omnipresent descriptive texts (about the myth that children are innocent and happy, about secret societies or about Jewish or Islamic Cannibals) contribute a fair amount to the flavour of this setting.

Day Job

Of course, every character also has a normal job. 35 different occupations are listed, most of them fairly generic. Some jobs cost or grant Bonus Points. Since all of these jobs are fairly common, the information listed for each one is contained within one paragraph, followed by income, benefits, drawbacks and Skill Costs (Academic, Athletic, Combat, Creative, Criminal, High Tech, Investigative/Espionage, Labor, Medical, People and Traditional). For example, a Student will only have to pay 4 Skill Points for every Level in Science: Meteorology (an Academic Skill), but a Sex Industry Worker (yes, a prostitute) has to pay 7 Skill Points per Level in the same Skill.

Other Aspects

As is the case in most role-playing games, In Dark Alleys contains a pretty exhaustive equipment list. Fates Worse Than Death lists more items, but that shouldn’t be a surprise, as the technology in modern-day Los Angeles is more limited. It is also possible to choose Disadvantages (which grant Bonus Points) or Advantages (which cost Bonus Points). However, In Dark Alleys does have a limit on the number of Bonus Points available through Disadvantages.

Rules

As we already mentioned, In Dark Alleys uses the Organic Rule Components System.

In short: the outcome of an action is determined by rolling a twenty-sided dice and adding an Attribute. If a Skill is used, each Level in that Skill adds another +4 after the first Level (a Level 1 Skill grants a +0 bonus, a Level 2 Skill grants a +4 bonus, a Level 3 Skill grants a +8 bonus, and so on). The total needs to beat a set Difficulty Number, or – in opposed tests – an opponent’s total. Armour has an Armor Rating (which needs to be beat to hit an unprotected body part) and a Protection Rating (the damage absorbed if the total isn’t higher than the Armor Rating). Often, there are different Protection Ratings for Blunt and Bladed damage. There are a lot of realistic Combat Actions available, such as launching multiple attacks, or counter an attack as a defensive move instead of trying to dodge or parry). Weapons inflict a set number of damage to quicken the flow of combat (even though we prefer partially random damage ourselves).

Chapter Three: A History of Unpopular Ideas

Here, several ideological, philosophical or religious movements are reviewed: animism, buddhism, platonism, neoplatonism, gnosticism, the Descartian doubt, sadism, marxism, nihilism, Freudian psychoanalysis, surrealism, existentialism, punk, feminism and postmodernism. St.Claire-King succeeds admirably in providing an excellent summary of each movement on a single page or part thereof and also provides information about its history, what people fear about the movement and its most important (literary) works. This is an excellent and very interesting chapter! Chapter Four: Los Angeles

This is a 26 page overview of the City of Los Angeles. The author focuses mainly on the seedy parts and the dark side of the town, and doesn’t fail to mention so many things there are fake. Interesting: Brian lies in California himself, and thus is well-placed to talk about the history, public transportation, climate, economy, politics and judicial system of L.A. Predictably, the section on crime is more expansive than all of the other ones.

Secrets

As we already indicated, the next three chapters cover all sorts of secrets. In Secrets of the Touched, we discover what the actual background to each Secret Life is. Oftentimes, the information provided here is very surprising and is very different from what most members of a Secret Life think about their calling or supernatural powers. Here, the game master finds out how and why the Cannibal movement was established, what really happened to Wonderlanders and what their Playgrounds are, what the Dances which live inside of the Faustians are and what they really want, which organisations Professionals work for, etc. All of this is a fascinating read. Obviously, the information is kept hidden from the players for as long as possible. After all, it is immensely more satisfying and exciting to discover the truth behind your powers or background than to know all of this beforehand. All of the information is presented very concisely and mock letters, anecdotes, fully-fleshed out Non-Player Characters and the like add flavour to the texts. This is also the first section where the differences and relations between the Powers That Be and the Powers From Beyond are made very clear.

Secrets of Los Angeles presents a bunch of secretive organisations, sects and beings which are active within the city. We would like to tell you more about this, but it seems to us it’s a far better idea to have the game master surprise you. The information presented herein will surely be very inspiring to game masters and present them with many great ideas, serving as basis for years of gaming.

Secrets of Other Worlds covers the laws of nature in other worlds, the Deserted City where people seem to end up sometimes, the reality of the subconscious and dreams, the way Psychodynamics seem to lead a life of their own and are even physically represented, and more.

To wrap things up, we are presented with two adventures: the short Payphone and the more complex Darkness.

Lay-out and Design

This rulebook is bound very well, even though the softcover isn’t very resistant to damage. Inside, there is no colour, but most of the illustrations are good. Some people come across as being a little stiff. Also, there are still some spelling and printing errors inside of the text.

Overall

In Dark Alleys is a superb horror role-playing game which spends a lot of attention to psychology, an excellent rules system and a unique atmosphere. This is an RPG which has a lot of character and we are sure it will stay in our Top Ten Ever for a very long time. *****

More info: www.vajraenterprises.com

Dirk Vandereyken

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