Black Cloaks House Rules

Black Cloaks primarily uses the Shadowdark system developed by Kelsey Dione. Available here. Modifications and additions to the standard Shadodark ruleset are described below:

Grit

Black Cloaks replaces the Luck point system with a Grit point system. Grit points represent your characters ability to overcome sturggles against adversity. Each time your character fails a skill check they receive a grit point up to a maximum equal to their character level (minimum 1). Characters may spent grit points to add a +1 to checks and cash in up to three to gain advantage. Other PC’s can also contribut to a pool to have PC’s

Sanity

Sanity represents a character’s mental defenses and health. It is taxed by traumatic events, monster’s special abilities, and most notably the dark. Sanity is equal to your Charaisma modifier (minimum 1) Sanity increases every level according to class:

• Fighter - 1d4 *Thief - 1d4
• Priest - 1d6
• Wizard - 1d6

When a caster fails their spellcasting check they may put their Sanity at risk to successfully cast the spell. To perform this, caster’s make a CHA check (DC = Casting check) – on a failure the caster takes 1d4 * spell lvl.

Example DC’s for Sanity damage:

• DC 9 - particularly gruesome death
• DC 12 - forcing yourself to do something mentally difficult
• DC 15 - moving through the dark
• DC 18 - moving deeper into the dark

Sundering and Weapon Quality

Weapons and armor may chip and break with use. On PC attack rolls a confirmed critical miss degrades weapon quality by 1 increment. A confirmed critical hit on a PC degrades armor quality by 1 increment. Weapons and armor can be of Crude, Good, Excellent, and Masterwork quality. Masterwork items require a double crit to degrade. When quality drops below crude the item is destroyed.