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Blacklight, a Shadowdark supplement
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<blockquote data-quote="timbannock" data-source="post: 9307088" data-attributes="member: 17913"><p>Very late to this thread, but just wanted to pop in and let folks know that I picked up Blacklight and absolutely love it.</p><p></p><p>Here's a mini-review:</p><p></p><p>I'd been poking around for a game to run an SCP-style game of Mobile Task Force members (mix of military and scientists) investigating a few "anomalies" and possibly some portals to adjacent "realities" like The Backrooms and such. I didn't have a coherent story in my head yet, just some set pieces in a rogue military laboratory using a device to access The Backrooms themselves, and a short list of what SCP creatures I planned to use.</p><p></p><p>For game systems I'd considered Cortex (my favorite system), but I didn't have a clear enough picture of the themes involved and how the characters would affect them/be affected by them, which is pretty much what you need for Cortex to sing. I'm not a big Delta Green or percentile system fan, and while I wanted there to be a focus on tactical action stuff at points, I didn't want that to be the only thing, so both sides of that took out a few other options that otherwise would've been strong contenders: Savage Worlds is too action-heavy for my tastes, Gumshoe is too action-lite. I'm not a Fate person; anything Fate I would rather just use Cortex. I've been a huge fan of Death In Space, CY_Borg, and Vast Grimm, so I was considering hacking those together.</p><p></p><p>Then I found Blacklight.</p><p></p><p>Not only does it have everything I wanted, it has some really neat stuff I hadn't considered, too. The classes and gear are all the highlights you could ever need. Leveraging Shadowdark monsters for various cryptid-like monsters works like a charm, especially if one has Unnatural Selection, an expansion for Shadowdark with a host of new monsters. But even better, there's a great list of "alternate realities" that are simply reskinned concepts like The Backrooms, but they are very thematically reframed, allowing you to bring a lot of other settings to bear as alternate realities in the game world. The reframing does a lot of great work that parallels various SCP origins, so that ties everything together very nicely. On top of that, the class abilities -- which I already mentioned liking -- are extraordinarily diverse and well-written, allowing for that perfect mix of combat and investigative abilities across the spectrum. Non-military characters won't feel completely out of their element in a fight, and likewise the tactical characters will still have fun stuff to do during investigations.</p><p></p><p>I'll be using Blacklight for this campaign now without a doubt, and without any house rules of note, which is an extreme rarity for me as a constant system tinkerer and game designer. I've already backed [USER=7038492]@Scrying Dutchman[/USER] 's <em>Modern Necessities</em> so I can have more gear and ideas to bring to bear for the game. It's perfect for what I wanted, and I can't recommend it enough.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="timbannock, post: 9307088, member: 17913"] Very late to this thread, but just wanted to pop in and let folks know that I picked up Blacklight and absolutely love it. Here's a mini-review: I'd been poking around for a game to run an SCP-style game of Mobile Task Force members (mix of military and scientists) investigating a few "anomalies" and possibly some portals to adjacent "realities" like The Backrooms and such. I didn't have a coherent story in my head yet, just some set pieces in a rogue military laboratory using a device to access The Backrooms themselves, and a short list of what SCP creatures I planned to use. For game systems I'd considered Cortex (my favorite system), but I didn't have a clear enough picture of the themes involved and how the characters would affect them/be affected by them, which is pretty much what you need for Cortex to sing. I'm not a big Delta Green or percentile system fan, and while I wanted there to be a focus on tactical action stuff at points, I didn't want that to be the only thing, so both sides of that took out a few other options that otherwise would've been strong contenders: Savage Worlds is too action-heavy for my tastes, Gumshoe is too action-lite. I'm not a Fate person; anything Fate I would rather just use Cortex. I've been a huge fan of Death In Space, CY_Borg, and Vast Grimm, so I was considering hacking those together. Then I found Blacklight. Not only does it have everything I wanted, it has some really neat stuff I hadn't considered, too. The classes and gear are all the highlights you could ever need. Leveraging Shadowdark monsters for various cryptid-like monsters works like a charm, especially if one has Unnatural Selection, an expansion for Shadowdark with a host of new monsters. But even better, there's a great list of "alternate realities" that are simply reskinned concepts like The Backrooms, but they are very thematically reframed, allowing you to bring a lot of other settings to bear as alternate realities in the game world. The reframing does a lot of great work that parallels various SCP origins, so that ties everything together very nicely. On top of that, the class abilities -- which I already mentioned liking -- are extraordinarily diverse and well-written, allowing for that perfect mix of combat and investigative abilities across the spectrum. Non-military characters won't feel completely out of their element in a fight, and likewise the tactical characters will still have fun stuff to do during investigations. I'll be using Blacklight for this campaign now without a doubt, and without any house rules of note, which is an extreme rarity for me as a constant system tinkerer and game designer. I've already backed [USER=7038492]@Scrying Dutchman[/USER] 's [I]Modern Necessities[/I] so I can have more gear and ideas to bring to bear for the game. It's perfect for what I wanted, and I can't recommend it enough. [/QUOTE]
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