Shadowblack: The Awakening Taint and Power

In our first article on Taint, we briefly discussed my basic views on character alignment and morality. Choices that may weight on your psyche make it harder for you the resist the taint. But what about those who wield supernatural power?

Shadowblack: The Awakening - Taint and Alignment

The taint system is something I know I'm going to tweak until the end of time. The idea behind it is that the supernatural is just that, unnatural. It infects, corrupts and ultimately consumes the mind, body and spirit.

In Shadowblack: The Awakening players will generate something called taint. Taint represents how corrupted by "The Dark" the character has become. Generate too much taint and you may find yourself being something worse than that which you hunt.

These next three Articles will explore taint from a story and mechanical side. Hopefully it will relay my vision.

Shadowblack: The Awakening - The Hunter's Mark

The group of people who fight the night collectively call themselves Hunters. Most of these men and women have been “touched” by the dark forces known currently as the Shadowblack. Touched individuals are called "The Awakened”, representing their knew knowledge, if lack of understanding, of the supernatural world. The evil forces have begun to corrupt their soul, and it in turn has granted them great power.

Shadowblack: The Awakening Setting

As stated, Shadowblack: The Awakening is a re-imagining of an old campaign I never got a chance to run. The System will be FATE Core by Evil Hat Productions. It is a slightly action-y horror campaign in the vein of Supernatural, Buffy, Dr. Who, Reaper and X-files. Meaning that there will be a fair share of butt-kicking but without the proper investigation and plan, it will be the PCs getting walloped.

iHero put on hold, Shadow is the New Black

So my player's have spoken, We met and discussed our next campaign. The vote was unanimous of those present and horror was picked. We then narrowed down the setting and they decided they want to try my Shadowblack: The Awakening setting. so here's the skinny.



The system is FATE Core. It is a newer system based off of Fudge (I guess). I literally discovered it by accident and because the publishers let you download a copy for free I was able to read it before buying. I won't go into huge detail about it here because I intend to do a more thorough review after some gameplay.

The basics of the Shadowblack campaign are such:

• The supernatural exists. Evil stalks the unsuspecting and remains hidden in the dark while we explain it away as psychosis, superstition or hoax.
• Sometimes when a normal person encounters this evil they survive but are forever changed and marked by it.
• People who have witnessed the "shadow" are called "awakened". The awakened literally bear a mark of evil. Some form of discoloration or stigmata that represents their encounter.
• This mark bestows unnatural power but at a cost. Using this power slowly but surely begins their descent into something awful.

I will be posting to the blog background and campaign info.

You can learn more about FATE at:
Evil Hat Productions FATE Core page
FATE System Reference Document