Setting:HR Giger's Dark World

This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess.

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introduction

Welcome to hr giger's dark world.

This is a campaign setting for any generic rpg system based on the critically acclamed /v/ darkseed. The games are Abandonware now beause the last game in the series darkseed II was released in 1995 and the games are no longer available from steam or even gog.com. The artwork for the "dark world" areas of the game are based off artwork provided by the late swiss surrealist hr giger. Giger's artwork depicted human flesh in an unnatural union with cybernetics resulting in strange machines and creatures called biomechanoids. these creaures are the main inhabitants of the dark world. Some of them may appear human but they are anything but. their insides are completely foreign to human anatomy. best of luck to you in your adventures in the dark world!

the setting

-tell us which of us is ik and whtch of us is uk and tell us whether it is day or night -biomechanoid guards

The light world is the same as you or me have it here in real life, all the laws of physics apply, the sun still shines, and most people go about their lives normally. But sometimes people happen across a portal to the dark world (Almost always a cursed mirror.) When characters first enter the dark world they might be curious but that curiosity always turns to fear when they stumble accross a evil dark worlder, their curiosity will always turn to terror or disgust because the human mind cant handle the horrors of the dark world. Eventually the terrifying surreality of the dark world will destroy the minds of those who linger there too long. (more on this later) The dark world version of earth was conquered by the ancients. The ancients are from a different planet in the dark world, then they came to earth with theier spaceships and now they are plotting to conquer earth. They have tried twice to conquer earth. First they tried using the epyonomous dark seed they impregnated average joe mike dawson using a machine to shoot the dark seed into his brain. He stopped the ancients and killed the dark seed by destroying the ailen power source and taking pills given to him by the keeper of the scrolls (a frendly darkworlder.) The second time the ancients tried growing a new monster called the behemoth. But mike dawson was around to stop them again by destroying the incubator of the behemoth with a sword given to him by another friendly darkworlder called the keeper of the sword. But mike dawson was murdered by his dark world counterpart jack.

Mechanics

Still under construction, but hopefully it will be a system that allows for both adventure and survival horror. (millitary sci-fi/action too?)

Stories over stats

so instead of a player picking stats as numbers, they build the character similar to how Mount and Blade does it. You choose certain events in the character's life (or pick it randomly). These events lead to different stats being added to the character's sheet. We will eventually make a list of major character events that will include childhood events to illnesses that will have appropriate stats and roll modifiers. If something isn't mentioned, the GM will have discretion on how to stat it. Personally i think it would be important that players not really know how their abilities and personalities work in the dark world to continue to have that sense of discomfort. They should be encouraged to guess its effects and be (un)pleasantly surprised. Essentially where other games would stat these, these would now be feats.

Power of Senses

HR Giger's work seems to imply a lot of sensation, so how it affects your hormones and senses should be a major component of the game. So perhaps instead of the regular RPG stats (SPECIAL/SDEIW/etc) we stat their ability to recieve sensation. Essentially we make perception our only stat, and break it up.

Sensation Levels

For the sake of simplicity we will have only 5 levels (Null, Dull, Normal, Acute, Ascended)

Null

This character does not have this sensation, for better or worse.

Dull

This character's ability to perceive with this sensation is blunt, impaired, or juvenile.

Normal

This character's operates within an average human's ability.

Acute

This character's sensation is unusually strong, but not abnormally so

Ascended

This character has an unnatural awareness of something.

The Great Sensations

These are your chief sensations that will be used most of the time.

Sight

The ability to visually percieve that around you.

• Null Sight - The Character is blind
• Dull sight - Character has a childlike understanding of colors and shapes, may also be color blind, apropasia, or other visual impairments
• Normal sight - character has good visual identification skills and peripheral vision.
• Acute sight - exceptional identification of objects and perhaps more deft ability to pick out values and color.
• Ascended sight - the great works of art are boorish and tame, and the character can see colors and shapes that he cannot describe

Sound

Touch

Taste

Smell

Empathy

The Lesser Sensations

There is very little your character can actually do to affect these stats, but they are in play.

• Pain

  Pleasure

  Orientation

Your sense of balance but also situational awareness

• Time

  Temperature

Sensations with Backgrounds

Certain life events, or incidents will give the character some buffs to this when they meet a certain criteria. For instance lets say a character is/was a mother. The character will have stronger observational and empathy skills when it comes to children. So long as it is within normal parameters, you can use your traits to temporarily bump up one of your sensations.

The Dark World Self

The Player shouldn't actually know what the dark world self is like. Perhaps the Mirror self of the character should be drafted up semi-randomly by the GM. So that he knows the stats and characteristics of this dark world character. But the player only knows about him overtime. I think it could be an interesting universe of self discovery.

So for instance lets say the person "Studied hard in college" he is going to get bonuses to intelligence in certain fields, but he also gets a penalty to stress, as well as maybe arrogance (making it hard to acclimate to the weirder parts of the dark world). Once the player (or dice) determine your character, the GM will then use that along with some Dice to craft the dark world version of your character.

The Dark World and its Creation

From what I saw from the original game the Dark world is roughly similar to the original world, correct? This seems like an interesting opportunity for the world because it will offer some unique opportunities for the player to take advantage of that. So for instance if we were to set up certain ground rules about the correlation between light world and dark world (for instance, lets say a road is a road, wherever you go). Players can be encouraged to explore their "light world" for the sake of preparing themselves for the dark world. This could add some interesting complications for the players because when you travel around the overworld, it can have consequences for your regular life.

For example if you are scouting around a particular block, looking for clues based on the overworld what is in the dark world, your girlfriend/wife could be concerned why you keep disappearing to the part of town where all the strip clubs are. Or if you become too obsessed with what you are doing, neighbors or co-workers could start to be unnerved by your behavior.

Additionally it could be a sort of creative aid to GMs in the same way fallout is. They could take a city or town they know well and the darkworld could be a demented parody of one.

Level Backwards and ways to avoid it

As you travel through this strange world you will have to pay a heavy price. This wont be a "Sanity Mechanic" because i think insanity works best when you think you are being sane. So in this case as you become more "experienced" in the Dark World, it doesnt actually mean you necessarily get better, in fact this world is taking its toll on your mind, body and soul. When a player levels up, while in the dark world they will have to expend some of their strengths/boons/etc. In order to proceed. The world you knew before no longer exists, best to leave its ways behind. Perhaps the dark world self and light world self exist in zero sum with each other, so in order to pick new skills to survive the dark world you abandon the light.

Now there is a way to avoid this, you can slowly become one with your dark world character. The problem is, you dont know what his personality is like. So you can avoid losing something, but you gain something you have little control over. Certain actions will now no longer be done by you, and their is a chance your dark self will act on your stead. And this will pass over into the light world as well. After all he's let you into his life, you let him into yours now. Is your family, your wife, and your old ways safe from him?

Core problem with making Darkseed an rpg

I think if there was a key obstacle to making an RPG about an HR Geiger universe unlike say Lovecraft, is that HR Giger is not a writer, he is a visual artist. Which means we have to translate his visual language into something that works in a primarily auditory and conversational format like a tabletop RPG. Its not going to be enough to have HR Giger art in the splat books, we are going to have to find ways to make the characters feel uncomfortable and lost in Geiger's world without having to put unnecessary burden on the gm to have to describe everything unneccessarily.

I would love to bounce ideas back and forth on this, because i suspect one of the key issues we are going to run into is that we need some effort in the mechanics, objects, rules and society of the dark world. Objects cant just look weird they have to behave weird as well. your character has to react weirdly, and acclimatizing to the world should come at a cost.

the fluff

The dark world was peaceful before the ancients came from beyond the dark world's dimmest stars the maintainers of the peace in the dark world before the ancients took over were the keepers. the keepers of the light, scrolls, and sword and a fourth keeper: keeper of the souls. the keeper of the souls rules the underworld of the dark world the keeper of the light holds the light, the source of good in the dark world the keeper of the scrolls holds the scrolls, the source of knowledge and wisdom for the dark world and the keeper of the sword uses the sword to keep the peace in the dark world. The keeper of the souls controls life and death in the dark world in the underworld. There is a river of blood where all of a creatures life force is dumped into the river of blood. humans arent so easily destroyed in the dark world humans can die up to 3 times in the dark world before finally expiring. When humans die for the first and second time in the dark world they can climb the staicase back up to the dark world proper. The drekketh guards are the enforcers of the ancients when the ancients cant be bothered to quell a rebellion or maintain order in their enslaved dark worlders and humans. The drekketh guards are designed to be intimidating to the maximum. They are horrfying to those unfammiliar with the creatures of the dark world. Wearing masks like skulls and carrying terrifying biomechanoid weapons. They are a force to be reckoned with. The rebellion largely died off once the keepers were executed or detained. And the resistance's best spy, goth died but the resistance is still a underground movement just it needs to regain it's strength couid some light worlders join the resistance? or couid there be a revelation where the resistance learns how to topple the ancients? only time shall tell... Privileged workers are dark worlders who chose to join the ancients and got special treatment. they get higher security clearance better food and are even in higher standing than the drekketh guards. A privileged worker access card can open almost all high-security doors and operate high-tech machinery. so if a light worlder gets a hold on it he may be more of a threat to the regime of the anicents than if he didnt have the card. Dark worlders are forced to take mandatory life force drainings called offerings. The offerings power the stasis-crypts of the ancients. Eventually a dark worlder who drains his life force enugh will die. but not in the traditonal way. they are forced to roam the endless underworld as undead because they had no more life force to dump into the river styx. Sometimes these zombies find their way out of the underworld and they are so angry that they will attack the ancients for stealing their life force and not being able to join their ancestors in the river styx.

ways to experience the dark world

Currently There are multiple ways to use the dark world campaign setting, here they are:

survival horror: Experience the dark world in its most horrifying form: survival horror! characters in this style shouid have to fight to stay sane, alive and everything in between. what you shouid expect: jumpscares, thirst, hunger, loneliness, fewer amount of lives, and fighting to stay sane. gm tips: have the players discover the dark world by accident e.g. a mirror in a attic or funhouse a la darkseed II characters that are all around good for this campaign style.

millitary sci-fi become a soldier in the frontlines of the battle for the dark world and fight for the destiny of two worlds! what you shouid expect: big guns, lots of tech, lots of action, espionage, and ass kicking! gm note: campaigns like this will be very similar to terminator 2 and half-life 2 with guerrilla fighting and characters with more combat prowess are recomendeded.

adventure: wander around the dark and light world solving puzzles (basically just like the games) what to expect: key hunts, complex dialog with npc's, puzzles, and mystery. gm note: characters with higher senses may do better than others in the mental aspects of puzzles but for those who are strong there are other ways around...

contibutors

fluff writer, project organizer, and darkseed veteran: savagereaper

game design and stuff: Wammnebu

note: (Anyone who adds something substantial to this page will be credited.)

links: darkseed II trailer: [1] download darkseed 1 from my abandonware (you have to have dosbox to run darkseed):[2] download darkseed II: [3] download (game requires windows 3.1 installed in dosbox)