The Other OSR: Demon Dog

You are dead. It was not a good death. It was not a good life, either. You sinned. You were condemned again and again for your sins, but those that condemned you were no better, just richer and better protected by their peers. You went to your grave a sinner. You went to Hell a sinner. Then you woke up. You are dead, but can die again. You have made a deal with a Demon Baron. You have been pulled from the charnel pit of corpses and souls and chosen by him. Do his bidding and you can walk the world again. He will even reward you with demonic gifts that will aid you in your work even as those gifts mark you out as some not quite human, not quite holy… Here then is your chance to live and breathe again, if only at the back and call of one of Hell’s Demon Barons. Then again, it is a chance to wreak your revenge upon the pious hypocrites, the sinners who cast that first stone, the rich and the corrupt… If that means you get redemption, then great. If not, and all it means is revenge, then get stuck in. This is your chance for payback from beyond the grave, to be the monster they always said you were. If their souls go to feed your Demon Baron master and not yours, then all the better. You are his Demon Dog now…

Demon Dog is a bloody horror game from Nightfall Games, best known for S.L.A. Industries, the roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism. Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is a tribute to and designed to be compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. This compatibility embraces both mechanics, so that the Demon Dog is player-facing and he makes all of the rolls in play rather than the Game Master, and the tone, one of grim, pre-apocalyptic times. The joint compatibility also means that whilst Demon Dog can easily be run as a standalone roleplaying game, it can also be smashed together with Mörk Borg. Thus, when a Player Character dies (or ideally when all of the Player Characters have died) in Mörk Borg, they could return as Demon Dogs. Alternatively, the Demon Dog could be a continuing threat in Mörk Borg, perhaps even a continuing threat which turns out to be the Player Characters’ future as well as a threat in the here and now!

A Demon Dog first has a life—how he lived, and a death—how he died. These can be as detailed or as brief as the player decides, and the Demon Dog may not even recall much of his life. He has a Sin, a Demon Baron to who he owes his new existence and a Demon Baron who hates both him and his master. He receives a Gift from his Demon Baron, a Mark that indicates his service to the Demon Baron, scavenges some starting equipment, and lastly has values for Agility, Strength, Toughness, and Prescence, plus a lot of Hit Points (or at least more than you usually get in Mörk Borg.

Bronson
Sin: Graveyard Scum (Grave Robber)
Demon Baron (Master): Rellvox
Demon Baron (Enemy): Fechanalt
Demonic Rite: Sacrifice at Rellvox’s at alter, kill and place a severed head on the alter for +2 damage to all rolls.
Demon Mark: Death Maw (teeth like rusty nails, 1d6 damage)
Demon Baron’s Boon: Shout, one per day. Scare someone (Tier One)
Equipment: Shoulder bag, hangman’s noose
Weapon: Ma Wee Hammer! (Maul, 1d12 damage)
Armour: Leather (Tier 1, -1d2 damage)

Agility 08 (-1) Strength 16 (+2) Toughness 15 (+2) Prescence 15 (+2)
Hit Points: 26

Mechanically, Demon Dog is simple. A player rolls a twenty-sided die, modifies the result by one of his Demon Dog’s abilities, and attempts to beat a Difficulty Rating of twelve. The Difficulty Rating may go up or down depending on the situation, but whatever the situation, the player always rolls, even in combat or as Mörk Borg terms it, violence. So, a player will roll for his character to hit in melee using his Strength and his Agility to avoid being hit. Armour is represented by a die value, from -d2 for light armour to -d6 for heavy armour, representing the amount of damage it stops. Medium and heavy armour each add a modifier to any Agility action by the character, including defending himself. Notably though, whilst a Demon Dog can and probably will die, he can be brought back to life, though at some cost in terms of abilities. These though are not permanently lost and a Demon Dog can work to restore them. However, do this too many times and especially if the Demon Dog has superior abilities, he is returned to life with the mark of an idiot tattooed in a prominent place! Where a traditional roleplaying game might have rest or spells as a means to recover lost Hit Points, in Demon Dog, the Player Characters drink ale—a lot of ale.

Demon Dog describes in detail the seven Demon Barons. This includes their purview and their desire plus a table of ‘Busy Work’, essentially tasks that each Demon Lord wants fulfilled. This actually gives plenty of objectives for the Demon Dogs to complete, since not all of the Demon Dogs are going to share the same Baron Demon as their respective masters. This can also cause some tension in play too, since a Demon Dog can be in the service of one Demon Baron whilst another Demon Dog is in the service of a Demon Baron who hates the first Demon Dog. The Demon Dogs have an Overseer who works as their link between the mortal realm and the demonic realm. He assigns tasks and in return for their completion and other activities—such as successfully raiding abbeys for their beer and killing monks, killing rogue or escaped demons, and even rivel bands of Demon Dogs, he will reward you. This can be money, because after all, a Demon Dog still has to eat and drink and equip himself with items other than ones he has scavenged, and it can also be a Demon Baron’s favour, a one-use ability. Add into all of this, the fact that the Demon Barons feud, fight, and squabble, and each has their own Overseers, and the Demon Dogs will be dealing with the fallout from Demon Baron politics as much as fulfilling tasks, dealing with mobs, and taking down witch hunters, exorcists, demonologists, bishops, and others.

A bestiary of demons and other horrible creatures, from Blighted Hounds and Parasitic Boils to Gobshites and Grave Tappers, and even a Sodding Great Dragon(!) are all detail in ‘’Orrible Sods’. ‘Surly Chaps’ describes mortal threats such as Kings Guard, Unbroken Zealots, Blessed Torturers, Tax Collectors, Filth Peddlers, and more, all described in some detail and with a sense of humour. ‘Them That Rules’ provides a broad overview of both those in power and with influence—including the Crown, the Church, the State, and so on. The setting is medieval, but very grim and very dark, and with a streak of black, sometimes puerile humour. This is confirmed with the actual setting for Demon Dog, a region known as Baneshire, one of the many battlegrounds for the Demon Barons. As well as providing thumbnail descriptions of the various cities, town, and hamlets, the poorest wretches of the setting, the ‘Filthy Bloody Beggar are set up as the most useful, as sources of information and rumour. All of which is rounded out with some extra tables, including one of possible missions for the Demon Dogs, but given by mere mortals rather than the Demon Barons. So essentially, the Demon Dogs can undertake jobs off the books and find further use for mere mortals rather than just killing them.

Physically, Demon Dog is more Splatterpunk than the Artpunk of Mörk Borg. In many ways, this makes it more accessible and easier to read, but in some cases, there is text whose heavy, Gothic fount precludes easy understanding. The artwork though is superb, full of hairy, scary monsters and demons, exactly as you would expect from Nightfall Games. The writing style is sparse—which is not without its consequences—and there is a lairy, schoolboy streak of humour that runs through it.

If there is an issue with Demon Dog, it is that it is not obvious what the Player Characters are doing. Nowhere does Demon Dog clearly explain what is going on and how to run it, either in terms of a scenario or a campaign. The lack of a scenario does not help in that regard, and in fact, the Game Master is very much left on her own to determine this. There is much that can be inferred though, but one aspect which is not really explored is how the setting reacts to the presence and activities of the Demon Dogs. Some means of tracking this which could trigger events could have helped and helped the setting become more dynamic. The lack of one, the lack of advice, and the lack of a scenario means that Demon Dog is underdeveloped in places and definitely not a roleplaying game for the inexperienced Game Master.

Demon Dog is a bleary, sweary punch-up of a game. The Demon Dogs of the title are not just the bastards of Mörk Borg, they are the bastards of Mörk Borg on steroids, bruisers and arseholes out to batter and bash the bruisers and arseholes they hated in life. Although the Game Master will need to develop the setting and the set-up a bit more, Demon Dog is ready to serve up a game or two of snarky, vulgar bastards who want to put the boot in from beyond the grave and make sure those who deserve it, get some.