[1:01 PM]Scon: Hey there everyone! I am the writer of Soot: Tales of Tenebrous which was released last Friday! I am thrilled that I am already doing a Q&A and want to thank Dan the GMshoe for this opportunity. I can tell you a little about myself, before getting to the good stuff. I have been roleplaying for around 20 years and played various systems including World of Darkness, DnD (various editions), Edge of Midnight and Savage worlds. I found that I really enjoyed narrative systems but nothing quite got it right for me. Either it had a nice vibe but the mechanics of the system weren’t quite there for me or there were nice rules but they didn’t quite help support the narrative as I wanted it to. So I created Soot with the idea of blending mechanics and narrative as well as creating a robust ruleset that a GM can use as much or as little of as they feel works for their game and gaming group. I think that’s enough about me! I have popped the general summary of Soot below that you can find on the itch.io site or on my discord. That said this summary doesn’t cover everything about Soot so I guess that is why I am here today to answer any questions you might have!! Oh and visit the server below if you like the idea of entering a competition for a free copy of soot! … more info incoming…
[1:01 PM]Scon: Soot is an in-depth noir style table top system where Players can explore and investigate the mysterious Tenebrous in a world much like our own. GM’s can set their campaign in any age of the world; from the ancient world to a future yet to come. Players can explore and investigate myths, legends and their own personal stories in the world of Tenebrous! *** What if life as we know it wasn’t all there was on Earth? If somewhere, hiding in the shadows of the world, intelligent and strange life grew alongside our own? A life which thrived only because of its own will to persist; a life that could change the very fabric of reality with its desires. Where humanity embraced technology, this life sought refuge in mysticism and magic. Would humanity strive to work together with this life, putting aside its differences and daring to trust, even if that meant embracing the strange and unknown? Or would humanity seek to protect itself from the threat of something alien to them? Should humanity dare to explore the hidden depths of the world or seek safety in the light? These are the stories of that world, where the hidden reveals itself in a tangled web of mysteries, life and death hang in the balance of a single choice, and the clash of violence can lead to either safety and refuge or despair and annihilation. This is the world of Soot, and the Tales of Tenebrous.
[1:02 PM]Scon: A full 400+ page core rule book for a modern (2023) Tabletop Roleplaying game. Soot fluidly combines and adapts to investigative, horror, pulp and action settings. Created in tandem with its own setting, Tenebrous- told in short stories with its own rules section! Simultaneous rounds of combat in Firefights using an innovative Manoeuvre system, where players can counter their foes’ Manoeuvres by predicting their enemy’s strategy. Functional and considered Stealth system with extra rules if it becomes the focus of a scenario. An Investigation system which encourages interactivity and helps a GM avoid dead ends. A Social system which works for both active roleplayers and those that prefer to outline what their characters say. Build cases with Knowledge which characters can improve by learning important Clues or Casing an area. Pick up new Skills or Specialisations without having to spend XP with the Short Term Memory system, or use XP to learn those skills permanently. Switch to a medical mystery or drama with rules for Maladies and Injuries, and keep your character healthy by trying to avoid Stress and Strain. And if all else fails, use Hand to Hand combat to: throw people across bars or disarm, takedown and counterattack opponents. Use clever Combos and create dynamic brawls by using the Combat Advantage system. Please join us on Discord for more updates! https://discord.gg/5RaZqn9S9n and buy the book here: https://tenebrous-publishing.itch.io/soot-tales-of-tenebrous Done!YOU’VE BEEN INVITED TO JOIN A SERVERSoot Tales of Tenebrous7 Online25 MembersJoinitch.ioSoot: Tales of Tenebrous by Tenebrous PublishingIn-depth supernatural noir detective TTRPG system 20231
[1:03 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks, @Scon! The floor is open to questions!
[1:03 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Is Tenebrous a dimension of some sort existing alongside the “real world” Earth, or is it something else?
[1:06 PM]Scon: Tenebrous is the name given to the life that exists alongside humanity. Rather than a dimension, it is right here among us, its just usually hidden. The idea is that in this version of earth a lot of our myths and legends are true, things like Werewolves, Alchemy, ghost sightings are all in some way related to this mysterious life…
[1:06 PM]Aimers: How can players interact with this Tenebrous?
[1:10 PM]Scon: Usually, though it might not always be the case, the GM may decide to set a story around a particular supernatural event or encounter, one possible way of interacting with Tenebrous is investigating this encounter with the supernatural. There are cannon stories throughout the book which could inspire ideas for interactions. These stories are set from the ancient world to the future and a GM could have players interacting with mysteries/creatures and events caused by Tenebrous throughout any of these periods, depending on when the GM wanted to set their story. In essence Tenebrous is a setting the GM can use. (edited)1
[1:11 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Is Tenebrous sentient, and if so, are all supernatural creature essentially part of a “hive mind”?
[1:15 PM]Scon: Yes (it can be) to the first, no to the second. Hive mind is actually one thing I wanted to step away from when writing Tenebrous. Tenebrous might well be considered to be life that develops adjacent to humanity. Parts of Tenebrous may in fact have goals which differ from other parts of it; in fact one of the main cannon stories (The Apocalypse) highlights that! Tenebrous comes in all flavours, from human-like to animal-like as well as completely alien! (edited)
[1:16 PM]Rephath: What would a few typical adventure scenarios be like?
[1:16 PM]Dan the GMshoe: So would you say it’s akin to a supernatural ecosystem?
[1:20 PM]Scon: Hmm… well, a group of investigators may be asked to look into the murder of an individual at a remote farmstead only to find that the local villagers are acting strange. You could easily run a story where the village is the victim to some sort of strange entity… or the opposite, perhaps they are cooperating with a mystical force they revere. This was literally off the top of my head and I went very Cthuluesque but the theme of your story as the GM is up to you! I a have put a lot of effort into mystery and investigative style stories but it is designed to be adaptable. There are in fact examples of play throughout the book that describe adventure scenarios 🙂
[1:21 PM]Rephath: That was my next question. Is this more SCP Foundation or Twilight?
@Dan the GMshoeSo would you say it’s akin to a supernatural ecosystem?[1:21 PM]Scon: Absolutly. But, there are severe limits on Tenebrous which stop it ‘taking over’ or becoming too obvious… all of which are revealed in the (for the GMs eyes only) Tenebrous section of the book!
[1:21 PM]Rephath: Or Scooby Doo.
[1:22 PM]Dan the GMshoe: So does the setting look like the “real world” in whatever time period to the casual observer?
@RephathThat was my next question. Is this more SCP Foundation or Twilight?[1:24 PM]Scon: You could run either, the system is designed to be adaptable to the GM. I would say of those option I would probably run something more SCP, however I would add more interpersonal relationships and plots. There is (what I believe to be!) a solid social system available to use in the book which makes interactions consequential, so you could run a social based game.
@Dan the GMshoeSo does the setting look like the “real world” in whatever time period to the casual observer?[1:25 PM]Scon: Yes. Until a very big event in the modern era, the world looks very much ‘normal’ on the outside. Its only those who scratch a little deeper that find what’s hidden.
[1:26 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Are the PCs strictly normal humans, or do they have access to any weird abilities?
[1:28 PM]Scon: I personally find the idea of more grounded games more fun when doing Noir type investigative stories… However a GM who wishes to run a game with mystical powers has some guidelines for using various Forms of Tenebrous available to them.
[1:30 PM]Scon: (to clarify Forms that can be used by a PC)
[1:30 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Forms = magic?
[1:33 PM]Scon: Yes in a way. Its the name given to the ways Tenebrous manefests itself. Mystical Forms (eg. alchemy, spells, a strange mist that encompasses a town) or Physical Forms (Vampires, Chupacabra, Werewolves dragons).
[1:35 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How does something like a dragon go unnoticed by the general populace?
@Dan the GMshoeHow does something like a dragon go unnoticed by the general populace?[1:38 PM]Rephath: In this reality, Rasputin was poisoned, shot, beaten, drowned, and he still surived. He shaved his beard, shortened his named to “Putin” and took over Russia and no one noticed.1
[1:39 PM]Rephath: So, it’s really not that hard to keep these things secret.
[1:42 PM]Riverbird: Interesting – so are “Forms” templates or “species” of Tenebrous or is it more of a continuum? Is it a vampire because that’s what we would call it, but it’s actually just a strange thing that drinks blood, or are Vampires a set “thing”?
[1:43 PM]Riverbird: (Hi @Scon btw, I eventually found the right server ^_^; )
[1:43 PM]Scon: At the time… It doesn’t. But years later there is no clear evidence of such creatures. That’s why people write about the myths and legends of their time and then people read about these strange abilities or creatures and… never find them… or the magic just doesn’t work. This ties in with some secret stuff in the GM section Spoilered to avoid… spoilers : Tenebrous Forms eventually enter a Decline which means things for that particular form start failing or falling apart. A Vampire may slowly lose its ability to feed and eventually sleep longer and longer, for example. This happens to the entire Form so every vampire would be affected by this. This decline eventually leads to their scarcity and… disappearence. There is also a faction within Tenebrous that is dedicated to covering things up! That is not to say however, that Forms can’t come back… that’s covered by Resurgence, which is also detailed in the Tenebrous section, along with more details as to how Tenebrous stays hidden.
@RiverbirdInteresting – so are “Forms” templates or “species” of Tenebrous or is it more of a continuum? Is it a vampire because that’s what we would call it, but it’s actually just a strange thing that drinks blood, or are Vampires a set “thing”?[1:45 PM]Scon: Depending on your GM and how they want to use Tenebrous there is justification for either. All Vampires could be the ‘same’ with limied variability or they could each be unique Higher Forms of Tenebrous.
[1:46 PM]Dan the GMshoe: So would Vampires be literal undead, or would they be creatures that people just think are humans back from the grave?
[1:51 PM]Scon: They might have the qualities of the undead… but they are still creatures of Tenebrous… but Tenebrous is so varied in the ecosystem that some might spend their entire lives trying to link disparate Tenebrous events/creatures and never be able to fully associate the different Forms with Tenebrous. Actually that sort of hits on to an interesting chicken/egg scenario. Tenebrous are creatures of Will and thus are eminently shapable by human consciousness. Maybe all vampires have these qualities because of some grand story told by a particularly influential person… or maybe someone or something designed them to be that way…
[1:52 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Does the game have specific times in history on which it focusses, or can you literally play at any point in history?
[1:53 PM]Riverbird: Cool – sounds like it’d be perfect for an X-Files style campaign – with supernaturals so varied you could do some unique stuff without outside knowledge leaking in…2
[1:54 PM]Dan the GMshoe: (brb — dog needs out)
[1:55 PM]Scon: You can literally play any time in history. But one of the short stories might inspire you to play at a certain time. For example a Victorina style ‘rippers’ campaign ,an Ancient world Thesian adventure , a modern day x-files (like mentioned above), a 1980s style Stranger Things paranormal story or 1920s style investigative Noir.
[1:58 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What does the future look like in this setting?
[2:05 PM]Scon: During the modern age an event of apocalyptic proportions occurs, plunging the world into choas. There is an Apocalyptic period which a GM can set their campaign in at this point as humanity struggles to maintain themselves in a world where a Faction of Tenebrous has run wild (which is absolutely not supported by all Factions within Tenebrous). After that there a huge lets say intergalactic consequence for an action taken by another Faction of tenebrous (spoilers ahead) The creation of an strange embodiment of Tenebrous called the ‘Shroud’ in Earth’s orbit causes an element of Tenebrous to split itself from the whole and reach out across the Galaxy… Lets say the other residents of this Galaxy are non to pleased by its arrival and decide to pay a visit to Earth!
[2:07 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Wow!2
[2:08 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What is the overall tech level of the future of the setting?
[2:10 PM]Scon: I have only just touched on this part of the setting in the book if it gets popular I will absolutly write a few additional books to fill in details. As my book was already over 200,000 words and 400+ pages I didn’t think I could squeeze any more into it!! However, lets just say if you are a fan of Mechwarrior and Pacific Rim… you probably won’t be disappointed.
[2:11 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Nice!
[2:11 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Do you have a character sheet that we can see?
[2:11 PM]Scon: yup!
[2:12 PM]Scon: Is that clear enough I can try and make it bigger?
[2:13 PM]Dan the GMshoe: I think that works!
[2:13 PM]Dan the GMshoe: I see attributes and skills… What is the relationship (if any) between the two?
[2:19 PM]Scon: Your character (or Actor as I am trying to inject a bit of uniqueness from other systems here) has : Attributes: These are largely static and cannot be bought or modified with XP, they represent their core traits. Strength, Coordination, Vitality, Intelligence, Perception and Confidence. Skills: These are more malleable and can be increased with XP or be used from a character’s short term memory. There is a massive selection of skills but I have highlighted Core Skills which every character has to a cerain extent and offered them for free. I have also divided skills into Professional and Creative/Leisure skills which each get their own XP pool so you never feel like you are having to buy ‘Art’ over ‘Fighting’ and may feel like you are losing out because of that.
[2:21 PM]Scon: When you roll dice in this system you usually select an Attribute + Attribute to roll or Attribute + Skill to roll, depending on the Action the character is trying to perform. That’s the simplest terms the dice system has some layers of complexity above that which I can either briefly touch on or leave for now depending on audience preference.
[2:21 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What is the attribute scale, and what kind of dice are used?
[2:22 PM]Scon: 0-10 D10’s
[2:22 PM]Scon: Same for skills and Attributes
[2:23 PM]Dan the GMshoe: So it’s a dice pool system?
[2:24 PM]Scon: Yes 🙂
[2:24 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Do you add the dice or count successes?
[2:32 PM]Scon: You count Successful Dice. There is a TD (target difficulty) for each Action which can easily be established by the GM based on natural language which is detailed in the Advanced rules: for example if an Action would be a challenge for a Novice the TD is 4 if it is a Challenge for a Specialist it is TD8. The system tries to aid GMs wherever possible to use natural language when constructing TDs for Actions. One of the more interesting aspects of the system is that we use something called Barriers to help determine an Actions Success. These Barriers can be the Core Barriers (they directly relate to the Action) or Additional barriers (they represent a consequence that may occur if special care is not taken to avoid it). An actor with a patched up wound may have to include an Additional Barrier (Reopened Wound ) in their Action. When a player rolls dice they decide how they allocate their Succesful dice (which barriers to Remove). This translates directly to the narrative. So in the example above a character who wanted to avoid the chance their wound may reopen may allocate a Successful dice to the Additional Barrier. If this caused the Action to Fail or be a partial Success, descriptively they were being careful about their injury and avoided taking a risk and ended up not Succeeding in the Action. A GM should be able to derive all sorts of narratives from the dice roll system. (edited)
[2:33 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Huh. Interesting approach! Do levels of success beyond the Barriers matter?
[2:36 PM]Scon: In a standard roll you have 5 Outcomes: Success: You removed all the Core Barriers (all 6) Partial Success: You removed between half and all the Core Barriers (3, 4 or 5) Failure You only removed 1 or 2 Core Barriers Critical Failure: You removed no Core barriers! Critical Success: You removed all Core Barriers and had 3 unused Successful dice!
[2:37 PM]Scon: There is another type of Roll called a Quality roll which is worked out a little differently. There is no TD you line up your dice on your charater sheet and your 6th dice decides the Quality of your Action. This is used when you can’t really Fail an Action such as during a chase, its more about how far you went!
[2:39 PM]Dan the GMshoe: I see… And how does combat work?
[2:46 PM]Scon: There is a whole Scenario section for that. Broadly you have one Action per Combat round. You can use it to either attack or defend. The character rolling lowest on their Combat Advantage (sort of like initiative) each round is most likely to be the one taking a defence action and the higher roll takes an Attack Action. However, both Characters may also use something called a Manoeuvre which allows them to do fancy stuff like knocking their opponent down or disarming them. Each Manouver has a TD cost associated with it, so better manouvers make the Attack or Defence Action harder. This can be mitigated in two ways better Combat Advantage (depending on how the character approached the combat they may have an advantage) or by predicting your opponents Manouver type and trying to use a manoeuvre which counters it! (This is where investigation really helps) Firefights are also possible and use their own manoeuvre system which functions similar to the above 🙂
[2:46 PM]Scon: GMs and Players can create their own custom Manoeuvres if they so wish! (edited)
[2:49 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How is damage figured, and how do weapons and armor work?
[2:53 PM]Scon: There is a damage Table. Its a d100 system. Damage is d1d00 + (Stx2) + (weapon damage) – (Vitx2) and – (Armour). Certain armour also has some special abilities like halving damage if the character is not being attacked with a weapon or they don’t make the effort to bypass it with a manoeuvre.
[2:54 PM]Scon: The idea is that if even a weak opponent manages to get a full sucess on your character there is a chance they will be in serious trouble.1
[2:54 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How deadly would you say combat is?
[2:54 PM]Rephath: Hmm… Why not treat it as a series of obstacles to be overcome? I have to overcome your defense and take you out before you do the same to me?
[2:54 PM]Rephath: Piggyback off your other rules.
[2:56 PM]Scon: It depends. If a character is actively not defending themselves and trying to attack even when they don’t have the upper hand… very. If they are sensible it is more likely that Actor’s of similar strength will wear each other down with fatigue until one passes out or scores a lucky hit. Against Minor GM Actors, they are likely to surrender well before that happens – there are rules for this.
[2:56 PM]Dan the GMshoe: ( @Scon We’re almost at 2 hours, but I have a few more questions. Are you able to go into “overtime”?)
[2:56 PM]Scon: ya 🙂
[2:57 PM]Dan the GMshoe: (Cool. In that case, brb — need to feed the dogs.)
[2:57 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How does the use of Forms work mechanically?
@RephathHmm… Why not treat it as a series of obstacles to be overcome? I have to overcome your defense and take you out before you do the same to me?[2:58 PM]Scon: While I love your creativity and welcome all suggestions on my server under house rules I am sadly at the point of having already published by work 🙂 In this case the hand to hand rules use another part of my game rules called a Contested Standard Action which actually has discreet outcomes for both the Attacker and Defender each round.
@Dan the GMshoeHow does the use of Forms work mechanically?[3:01 PM]Scon: Forms are again something I would look into more broadly in an expansion, however I envision using the baseline rules but complementing them with various special supernatural effects. A Hellhound has for example the ability to breathe fire, in the core rules I have given some examples of when it might want to use that ability what it does. Here’s one of the examples
[3:06 PM]JClements: How integral is this Barriers mechanic in combat would you see it as an extra flavor? Or are they intended to provide factors that really drives the tempo of the scene?
[3:06 PM]Dan the GMshoe: (back)
@JClementsHow integral is this Barriers mechanic in combat would you see it as an extra flavor? Or are they intended to provide factors that really drives the tempo of the scene?[3:08 PM]Scon: Additional barriers are absolutely the most fun thing about many Scenarios, Combat included. Risking your character falling on their ass or even losing consciousness in order to get that big hit in is really thematic and fun for all the Players. In my experience the most fun is had when Players take the big risks and then either win big or get exactly what was coming to them!!1
[3:08 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Can you say a bit about your investigation mechanic and how it prevents dead ends?
[3:14 PM]Scon: Absolutely! Investigation is a fun one, I use two important premises. Evaluation, and Analysis. Evaluation is something that can be done to gather information on people, objects and places, potentially turning these into information or clues. Then characters may combine information they have gathered with a question to perform an Analysis from the characters point of view. So if I had a bloody knife, a blood spatter analysis report and a coroner report I could use Analysis to ask the question; Are the wounds on the victim constant with the blood spatter on the wall, if this knife were used? Provided your character knew enough about forensics they would be able to get a good idea of what happened at the murder scene. This is also used for traditional reconstruction and planning heists. I wrote these rules to be adaptable as a good toolkit for any GM to use. Avoiding dead ends is 1/2 systemics and 1/2 Gming, the systems will never dead end you. Evaluation can be used over time using something called Continuous Evaluation which ensures a bad roll won’t mean the end of your ability to interact with an object. Stress and time constraints limit that, but its a soft lock rather than a hard lock. Analysis likewise can use any combination of clues and questions, there are limits as mentioned earlier with Stress and time, and clues can only be looked at so long without your character starting to warp the facts but a long sit down at a desk and a cup of coffee can help with that! (edited)
[3:15 PM]Scon: The book provides GMing advice for the other half of that equation 🙂
[3:19 PM]Dan the GMshoe: You describe this as a “noir” game. What makes it so?
[3:24 PM]Scon: The overall aesthetics of the art and book help with that (thank you my art people!) 🙂 . Combined with constant themes of light and darkness where both the answers you might seek, the truth and the best outcomes are found somewhere in the middle. Tenebrous isn’t a story of black and white, of good and evil, it is a story of people, choices, actions and consequences. The things that look the most terrifying may actually be your closest ally and the righteous may turn out to be the most fallible of them all. The true aesthetic of Noir in my opinion is in the Grey between black and white and that’s where I hope GM’s will be inspired to take their stories. (edited)1
[3:26 PM]Scon: Oh did I mention there was a Noir art/short story contest going on in my server right now for a free copy of the book? I am sure I might have hehe
[3:26 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Nice!
[3:26 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Does the game include a bestiary?
[3:28 PM]Scon: No only a few entries sadly. I really couldn’t squeeze any more in! I would absolutely consider this as an additional book. I would also be happy if people shared their ideas and custom tenbrous creatures and we could develop a community bestiary in the meantime!
[3:29 PM]Dan the GMshoe: A great idea. 2
[3:29 PM]Dan the GMshoe: I think that’s everything I had… Unless anyone else has any questions, is there anything we haven’t discussed that you’d like to bring up?
[3:33 PM]Scon: Not from me! Just that I am really excited to have the opportunity to talk about Soot: Tales of Tenebrous and that I am willing to keep supporting this setting if communities get behind it. I know money can be tight and I don’t expect copies flying off the shelves but if you like this and would like me to continue developing more, please share its existence with your friends and let me know you would like to see more! Thank you again Dan the GMshoe for this Q&A!1
[3:34 PM]Scon: Can I spam my links again at the end?
[3:35 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Please do!
[3:35 PM]Scon: Please join us on Discord for more updates! https://discord.gg/5RaZqn9S9n and check out the book here: https://tenebrous-publishing.itch.io/soot-tales-of-tenebrousYOU’VE BEEN INVITED TO JOIN A SERVERSoot Tales of Tenebrous7 Online25 MembersJoinitch.ioSoot: Tales of Tenebrous by Tenebrous PublishingIn-depth supernatural noir detective TTRPG system 2023
[3:36 PM]Dan the GMshoe: My turn!
[3:36 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Usual reminder: If you’ve enjoyed this Q&A and would like to treat me to a coffee or two, you can do so at https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe. Anything’s appreciated! Ko-fiBuy Dan Davenport a Coffee. ko-fi.com/gmshoeBecome a supporter of Dan Davenport today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love with no fees on donations.1
[3:36 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks for joining us, @Scon!
[3:36 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks as well to all those who showed up for the Q&A!
[3:36 PM]Dan the GMshoe: You are all always welcome to hang out with us here. We’re a friendly bunch.
[3:37 PM]Dan the GMshoe: If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll get the log posted and link you!