Blackbirds: The Extinguishing - Core Rulebook

Product Information

I'm an avid TTRPG fan, in the hobby for 20+ years. I own and have played tons of different games ranging from the common to the extremely obscure. This book is absolutely excellent and worth the high price tag. It's a beautiful book with fantastic artwork, high-quality construction, and deep and fascinating lore. The world the book takes place in is one of my favorites. I love the details around the dead gods and the new "gods" who slew the old ones and took over. I love how each of the new "gods" has a disease/condition that they inflict on their followers that transforms them in multiple stages, leading to new and interesting monsters in each of the intermediate stages (as well as cool transforming diseases that can be inflicted on the PCs). Character creation options are similarly amazing. Spells are a standout, all based around pacts made with outsiders (similar to demons) and all coming with a cost. While "power with a cost" is a common theme in dark fantasy scenarios, I've not ever seen it so well-executed before.

A final word on the artwork is due to the astoundingly diverse array of pictures and the talented contributors to this project, for while these richly illustrated and immersively atmospheric images sprawl throughout the book in many different styles, the entire opus as a whole feels piercingly cohesive, even transfixing aesthetically, where one genuinely feels present within the depictions of the stark characters, the riveting monsters and mysterious beings, as well as the devastatingly arresting environments. The Elfwrought are humans twisted by the Aes art of Fleshcrawl, transformed into abominations like the vaguely-canid Cu-Sith and the many-legged Elfmount. In addition to a wonderful Patronage system which reinforces the theme of interweaving the characters with the world and its other denizens, spurring countless story ideas and in character interactions, to say nothing of adding yet more meat to the bones of the characters themselves, the magic system of Theurgy also hinges upon Patronage, in this case with the aforementioned Outsiders and their cryptic Courts, and with whom Odic, or magic practitioners must bargain carefully to receive and wield their powers, the Vitiations and other assorted pact-based abilities. Along the way, in either case, characters are deeply embroiled in the vicissitudes of Fate and the stories which will emerge thereby. Magic Misfire: Attempting to cast a Vitiation or a Spell requires an skill test, and critically or sublimely failing this test can cause some horrible effect to the target or the caster, depending on the spell. For example, attempting to magically empower a nearby weapon will instead destroy it on a critical failure, or destroy all nearby equipment on a sublime failure.Theurges start the game with a relationship to an Imp, the lowest level of whatever otherworldly hierarchy these things have,” Limbaugh tells Nerdist.“The level of relationship is in the form of a structured contract which determines what they can ask for and what they will pay for it. It’s definitely an in-game goal for theurges to seek out and form contracts with other Outsiders that are higher in the hierarchy or have abilities they would like to gain access to.” Body Horror: It would frankly be easier to list the monsters that this didn't apply to. A few highlights: Kraken and Leviathan: The Kraken is merely a massive and ferocious squid, but the Leviathan is something far more than that. The Leviathan is a colossal sea monster, so large as to devour a n entire ship in a single gulp and so mighty that even the direct intervention of an Oligarch or and Outsider Lord can affect it at all, and even they can only do so temporarily.

Critical Failure: In general, rolling a natural 100 or a high multiple of 11 on any skill test will result in a critical failure as well. A natural 01 or a low multiple of 11 will instead result in a critical success. One during spell casting may summon Daemons of Chaos, render you impotent, render you and your party and your distant relatives impotent, or merely give you an insanity point. Guns tend to simply blow up. Attempting to cast a Vitiation or a Spell requires a skill test, and critically or sublimely failing this test can cause some horrible effect to the target or the caster, depending on the spell. For example, attempting to magically empower a nearby weapon will instead destroy it on a Critical Failure, or destroy all nearby equipment on a sublime failure. Deal with the Devil: The one of the setting's main magic systems is Theurgy, whereby a Theurge bargains with an Outsider to exchange some service for magical power. This really feels like something special, and I look forward to what the future holds for both the setting and future game books, as well as Mr. Verniere and the rest of the team behind the book. The writing is top notch both in the world building and fiction aspects, while also having some interesting system mechanics in store, especially with how the game handles it's magic. And the production values of the physical book are great, you get a solid book that should hold up well to repeated reading and use.Verniere showered praise on as many team members as he could, from video game designer Zoë Quinn to Werewolf: The Apocalypse author Bill Bridges. He believes their “weird, bespoke nightmare machine” will find an audience that more mainstream fantasy offerings pass over in their outreach. Once the files are at the printer, then it’s a waiting game. We anticipate having advances in–hand to show off in late June, along with the Servants of the Gods advances to show around the same time. Sample Spreads Instead of just hiring sensitivity readers, the team needs to be diverse in a way that hasn't really happened a lot with a team like ours.

Each technique includes an Extinguish action that puts a pwerful narrative shift in the hands of the players at the cost of shutting the technique down for a while. These actions include combat enders such as flurry of blows from a master swordsman to a magic character calling in an imp to eat the remaining bad guy. Non-combat actions are also available here such as being able to sneak the group into a location unnoticed or extracting a juicy secret from a lover. Verniere sat down with Dicebreaker to talk about the upcoming dark fantasy RPG published by Andrews McMeel, which is still very secretive ahead of its release sometime next year. He sketched the rough edges of the world alongside a group of friends who switched to the Zweihänder RPG in search of something that fit the images in his mind. I was very nervous, but I was incredibly excited. And I was just like, you know, I just have to take this plunge; I have to do this thing.

Table of Contents

I would highly recommend giving this book a shot. Reading through the text was a delight and I eagerly await what comes next. Most forms of The Undead are visibly rotting away, with the Striga also having monstrous fleas emerging from their mouths.