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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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This is the second in my series of short reviews of the games in the 24 Hour RPG Design Contest. This is not a full review - I have only read the game, not played it, so take my opinion for what it's worth. Since the rules themselves are fairly brief I will not give a detailed accounting of the mechanics but only bring up points I find particularly interesting.
Against the Darkness takes an idea that has been used in a few RPG:s before - that the monster children fear are real - and adds a new twist: it's not the children themselves who fight these monsters, but their pets. This creates an intersection of two recurring themes in the contest (fighting monsters and animals as PC:s) that I find quite interesting.
The main attribute mechanic assigns each character scores in Fight and Flight, the two main animal behaviors, with various attributes tied to each of these two. I find this a neat mechanic that rewards playing to type (an attribute can't be higher than the main stat it is tied to) while allowing for variations (a generally Flight-y animal could still have a Fight-y attribute).
Using Fight and Flight is also handled nicely: you pick the one you want to act according to and roll against it. If you fail, the opposite instinct kicks in and you don't get to add the main stat you rolled against when acting, which makes a huge difference in your chance to succeed.
Without going into details on the mechanics, I think this is cool but I'm not sure how well it works in practice. Again, I haven't actually played the game, but it seems like the system rewards picking either extreme values for Fight and Flight or keeping both very close to each other. Having a 7-3 split seems inferior to 9-1 or 5-5: you'll rarely get any use out of that 3 anyway, so you should either dump it completely or go for full generalist status. But maybe this works better in actual play.
But that's my only complaint about the mechanics, which are otherwise clean and simple. The game only gives stats for three different monsters, but that's enough to get a sense of what's out there and making your own is not hard at all.
In conclusion, I think Against the Darkness is a game with an interesting premise and neat mechanics that tie together well.
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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Thanks for the review!
I have the same fear about the mechanic as you do and am looking for ways to balance it out.
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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I don't think it's a huge problem but it needs a long, hard look. It's somewhat compounded by the 2d10 roll, since with, say, Fight 3 and Sharp Claws 3 you will still fail nearly all the time - even 5/5 only gives you a 50% chance of success (assuming I remember the mechanics correctly; I don't have the rules here right now), pushing you even further towards the extreme ends of the spectrum.
There's also the fact that it seems that with fighting monsters being one of the key goals of the game, Fight is also favored over Flight, but that's more a problem for scenario design I think. It will be up to the GM to create situations where all kinds of abilities are useful.
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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None of the mechanics are set in stone, especially the 2d10 mechanic. I'm going to keep fiddling with different mechanics to see what works best.
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