Against the Darkness is sold as “a role-playing game of Vatican conspiracy and horror”. Although I'm not a believer, I was raised in a Catholic environment, so these topics have always interested me.
The first surprise comes with the cover. Among other things, there's a woman with a sword... and a clerical collar. My obvious reaction was to say: “WHAT?!” A woman priest? In a Vatican game? It is well known that the Catholic Church only allows male priests, and small details like this make you doubt that the game has been well researched. But, again, I'm only talking about the cover now.
Contents
The PDF file has 71 pages and it's divided in four chapters and four appendices. There's an introduction page called “Welcome to the Darkness”, oddly signed by “The Evil Overlord”. The game's authors maybe?
Chapter 1. Basic Game Mechanics (10 pages)
The game starts almost directly with character creation. The characters are Justiciars, fighters against the supernatural, usually Catholic priests.
All Justiciars have four attributes: Corpus (body), Mentus (mind), Spiritus (spirit) and Fidelis (faith), with a range which goes from 1 to 7. All characters start with one point in each attribute and have 10 points to increase them. Optionally, it is possible to roll 1d6 for each one.
The four attributes not only have a score, but a task resolution dice. An attribute gets a d4, two get a d6 and the last one gets a d8. Justiciars can only use miracles associated with the attribute with the d8 resolution die (more about this later).
Against the Darkness is the first game I read where the attributes have two unrelated scores. Father Rickhart, an example character, has a Mentus of 6 (extremely high) d4 (the lowest dice), and I'm not exactly sure what does it mean. Does he have a very good mind but he hasn't trained it? Or the opposite way?
Next come the skills and miracles, which are unique supernatural abilities. They also have a maximum of 7 ranks, although they can be further increased with specializations (narrower areas). Buying a skill rank (or specialization rank) costs 1 point and miracle ranks 2 points, and players can divide 30 points.
All skills and miracles are linked to one of the four attributes, although Fidelis has no associated skills. For example, Corpus skills are Combat, Mechanics and Speed; and Corpus miracles are Endurance, Pyrokinesis, Raw Physicality and Transformation (limited shape-shifting).
A Miracle can be used a number of times per day equal to its number of ranks, and each additional use causes Corpus or Fidelis damage. Using some miracles requires an activation roll, which is Attribute Miracle Resolution Die against a difficulty set by the GM. The effect of a miracle lasts usually a scene.
About the game mechanics, they're quite simple. For every action you roll Attribute Skill/Miracle Rank Specializations Resolution Die vs. Target Number, which can be an opposite roll.
Combat is briefly described in just one page. Initiative is resolved with a Speed skill check, and the attack and defense rolls are normal. Any successful attack in combat does 1 point of damage, either to Corpus if it's physical or to Fidelis if it's mental or spiritual. Weapons and armor give a bonus to the attack or defense roll, but the damage is always 1 point regardless of the check. Remember that a character has a maximum of 7 points of Corpus or Fidelis.
The chapter ends with healing and character improvement.
Chapter 2. Skills and Miracles (12 pages)
This section describes all skills and miracles, one by one: the situations where they can be used, difficulties, opposed tasks and suggested specializations. Since there are not so many skills, most of them cover broader areas of expertise. For example, Combat is used to fight, to repair weaponry, to predict tactics and to conceal a weapon (or spot a concealed one).
Two miracles are described as “meta-game abilities”. With Divination, the Justiciar can ask the GM a single question (which she must answer), or is able to add a minor detail to any future encounter. With Divine Intervention, he can re-roll any die roll immediately after it occurs, and gets the more favorable of the two results. Honestly, I'm not sure I like at all these two meta-game miracles.
Chapter 3. Advanced Mechanics (10 pages)
The chapter starts with twelve character archetypes, the most common Justiciars. Some of them are rather peculiar: the Blessed Non-Believer (more accurately, a non-Christian), the Blood of the Lord (a descendant of Jesus Christ), the Dispassionate Expert or even the Treasure Seeker. There are also four advanced archetypes: the Cynical Veteran, the Earth-chained Angel (which can fly), the Paragon Soul (a modern Saint) and the Repentant Demon.
The second part of the chapter is dedicated to review the basic mechanics again, now more deeply: task rolls, terror checks, combat, healing and experience. The rules are complete, so I understand that the designer's goal was to provide two sets of rules (the basic and the advanced) which the players can choose.
This is a neat idea, even if they are not that different. Usually the basic rules are more intuitive and left to the GM decisions, while the advanced provide all numerical elements.
Chapter 4. Adventures and Campaigns (10 pages)
The storytelling chapter discusses the different moods and adventure types which can be played with Against the Darkness, and offers four example campaigns:
- A Gate of Evil: The Justiciars have to control a place with a strong supernatural presence, but also with plenty of normal people.
- Hierarchy of Conspiracy: The uncovering secrets campaign, in the X-Files tradition.
- Urban Golgotha: The world is full of demonic influence, usually subtle and hidden, and the Justiciars have to fight against it. This is de “default” campaign.
- The Nephilim Campaign: The game include larger-than-life characters, infused with angelic or demonic blood.
Appendices (21 pages)
Appendix 1 has four starting characters (oddly, two of them with a background text and the other two without).
Appendix 2 includes one sample character for every archetype.
Appendix 3 is called “The Indiculum Maleficorum”, and describes nine possible evils, from the goetic demon to the vampire or the undead pawn. The werewolf character sheet is missing.
Appendix 4 includes the character sheet and two useful summaries (character creation and rules).
Style
The book has few illustrations, all clipart (I suppose coming from the public domain). It's an easy option but it could have been done better. Check The Dying Earth RPG books for using PD images adequately.
On the other hand, the layout is very good. There are a lot of biblical quotations to add the necessary flavor.
Conclusions
Against the Darkness delivers a set of rules to play in the “religious people against the supernatural” genre. Even if the book is advertised as a “Vatican RPG”, the obvious reference is Hellblazer and its main character, John Constantine.
The rules are simple, elegant and very well done. I like them very much. I'm sure the authors have read Ars Magica, but if you don't want to be completely original, better be inspired by the greatest.
But Against the Darkness has one huge problem: the lack of background information. Just a couple of pages describing the antagonists, and nothing about the Vatican and their “special” departments or other possible organizations. Imagine the Call of Cthulhu rulebook without any information about the Mythos. The rules would be just as good, but it wouldn't be the same at all.
So in my opinion Against the Darkness is just a half of a game. The existing part is excellent, but it's not enough to create adventures and campaigns easily. Therefore I give it a 3.
