[Free RPG Day 2024] Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is the ‘Easy Mode’ for Shadowscar, a new setting from R. Talsorian Games, Inc., much like The Witcher: Easy Mode – An Introductory Booklet to the Witcher TRPG for The Witcher and Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future for Cyberpunk RED. It is a world/parallel Earth hopping setting across what Shadow Scar calls the Mosaic in which modern day Ninja, armed with high tech tools and magical artefacts, leap from one world to the next to defeat the Yokai and other minions of the corrupted Great Mother Spirit Izanami. The Player Characters—or Agents—are these Ninjas, members of the Shadow Scar Agency, a secret organisation dedicated to keeping reality safe. The Ninja must conduct their assignments in secrecy and ‘Maintain the Veil’, both to keep the civilian population safe and prevent any mystical monsters from learning of their presence and activities until they absolutely have to reveal both to the targets of their operations. Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness mixes magic, action, and stealth, including not just an introduction to the setting, but also the rules, six pre-generated Agents, and a complete scenario.

The setting is Nakatsukuni, a peaceful land created by the Kotoamatsukami, the First Great Spirits of the Land. When the Great Mother Spirit Izanami died giving birth to the Spirit of Fire, her husband, Izanagi, attempted to retrieve her spirit from Yomi No Kuni, the Afterlife, and appeared to have succeeded when given permission to return her by the Ruler of the Dead. Unfortunately, Izanami has been corrupted by the Ruler of the Dead, and she brought with her an army of twisted souls and horrible monsters and after corrupting the minds of the Yokai, Izanami set out to destroy reality. The war was won by the combined effort of Izanagi and the Kami, but at great cost. Izanami was cast into the Void via a Shadow Scar, but her monstrous minions were scattered across the Mosaic. To counter the Yokai threat, the Kami established the Shadow Scar Agency, an order of Shinobi—or ninja clans—trained by the Six Great Clans of Shadow. The Shadow Scar Agency still fights the Veil War today.

Nakatsukuni remains an archipelago of islands—many floating—shattered by the war against Izanami and her minions. Other worlds of the Mosaic include ‘Steel Court’, a Grand Victorian Empire in which the Stewart Steam Turbine Engine has powered fantastical industrialisation and inventions even as revolt foments the Empire’s ‘Protectorates’; ‘5th Street’, an early twentieth century world recovering from the Great War that would seem to be utterly mundane except the masked vigilantes on the rooftops and the racial inventors working in their workshops; and ‘Refuge’, a world so blighted by the Yokai that humanity has been forced to retreat to a Lunar Colony and massive station orbiting the moon. All three locations will be visited as part of the scenario included in Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness. Thumbnail descriptions are given for the three worlds as well as the Shadow Scar Agency and the six Shinobi clans.

An Agent in Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness—and thus Shadow Scar—has three stats. These are Mind, Body, and Spirit, and these are rated between one and five. Each attribute has six associated skills, each of which is rated between one and three. He has Techniques, Mikkyo, and Quirks. Techniques are special abilities, such as ‘Nimble & Quick’, which increases an Agent’s speed, whilst Mikkyo are secret techniques taught by the shinobi clans which require an Agent to expend Ki to trigger, such as ‘Duplicates’ which enables the caster to create silent duplicates himself that he can control. All six pre-generated Agents come with background and illustration.

Mechanically, Shadow Scar is a dice pool system that uses six-sided dice. Every roll of a three or more is a success, whilst a roll of six is equal to six successes. If the number of successes is equal to or greater than the Difficulty Value, the task is successful. An average task has a Task Difficulty of two, Challenging has a Task Difficulty of three, Difficult has a Task Difficulty of four, and so on. Bonuses and penalties adjust the number of dice a player has to roll. To reflect that the world of Shadow Scar is pulled in two directions by different forces of nature, an Agent has access to ‘Inyo’—Japanese for Yingyang. If an Agent fails a task by a single Success, he can call upon the power of ‘Inyo’ to gain that much-needed Success. Or he can use to inflict an additional three points of damage upon a target. However, when the Agent draws upon the power of Inyo, he draws only upon one side. In response, the other side draws back and the Storyteller can draws upon the Agent’s Inyo to make him fail a task by one Success or have an enemy inflict three extra damage on the Agent. Once that has happened, the Agent has access to Inyo again. Essentially, the fortunes of each Agent swings back and forth quite literally.

Combat is an extension of the rules, with Initiative Order being determined by an Awareness Check. During a turn, each Agent can conduct two actions. Some fifteen possible actions are detailed as are the conditions and hazards that they might suffer. The hazards covered include environmental, mechanical, and magical. When an Agent is reduced to three points of Vitality or less, he suffers the Grievously Wounded Condition, and when his Vitality is reduced to zero, in combat, he can either be killed or knocked out. The latter reduces his Vitality to one rather than zero. If an Agent’s Vitality is reduced to zero or less, it is possible to become a Wandering Spirit, but an Agent equipped with a Spirit Lantern can collect and protect a Wandering Spirit. At the end of a mission, if the other Agents return with a dead Agent’s body and his Wandering Spirit in a Spirit Lantern, the Agent can be resurrected. Otherwise, a new body has to be created.

In terms of setting, Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness covers the means of travel between worlds, the invisible and magical tattoos which enable communication and understanding, arms and armour and other equipment, before leaping into the scenario, ‘Eyes in Darkness’. The Shadow Scar Agency assigns the Agents to investigate a Dodomeki named Kagura, a lieutenant to a powerful smuggler known as the ‘Green Demon’, who runs operations at the ground level of the Green Demon’s Mountain Branch. Two of the Yokai working for Kagura are attending a black-market auction in a makeshift space station called the Scattery in the Refuge. Whatever the Agents do, the Yokai are likely to cause trouble at the auction, meaning that the Agents will have to work hard to protect the Veil. Following the Yokai—or following the clues they leave behind—the Agents jump through a gate or Rift Dive to find themselves at Easy Ray’s Gas Station outside of New Orleans on 5th Street, and when they or their contact make a run for it, it leads to a car chase through the streets of the city. A pair of tables providing random events both outside and inside the city nicely enliven the car chase.

Although this turns out to be a dead end, the Agent’s Handler suggests that a renegade Agent, currently in ‘Steel Court’ might have some information. The renegade Agent is selfish and immoral, but will trade for information—at a price. Which can be money or some entertainment. The information he provides gives the location of Kagura’s hideout in an isolated village in the mountains which she is beginning to fortify. The climax of the scenario is an assault on the village, initially by stealth, helped and then hindered by two of the Kami of the sky having a violent argument over the borders of their territory and causing a severe snowstorm. Success leads provides clues as to the whereabouts of Kagura’s boss, the Green Demon. Locating the Green Demon will be the Agents’ next mission, the details of which are given in Shadow Scar Jumpstart Kit: The Mask of the Green Demon!, the sequel to Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness. The bestiary or ‘Rogues Galley’ at the end of Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness provides all of the stats and details of the Yokai and other NPCs that the Agents will encounter over the course of the mission.

Although ‘Eyes in Darkness’ does have a sequel in the form of Shadow Scar Jumpstart Kit: The Mask of the Green Demon!, it is complete and can be played on its own without the need to run the sequel. Thus, the Storyteller and her players can get a full taste of what Shadow Scar is like to play and what a mission feels like. ‘Eyes in Darkness’ is a decent scenario, with lots of action and plenty of stealth and combat. It is accompanied by some decent maps as well.

Physically, Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is decently put together. Much of the artwork is anime in style and bright and colourful. The cartography is excellent. Whilst well-written, it does need an edit in places.

Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is a solid introduction to the Shadow Scar setting and roleplaying game. There is good advice for the Storyteller on running the game and everything is clearly explained and easy to understand, and all supporting an exciting, action-packed scenario which can played through in a single session or two.