Blood and Doom is a d10 dice pool RPG of dark but heroic fantasy rich in setting and supported with detailed rules. A free Primer Bundle contains 500+ pages(!) and a poster map. A Kickstarter for three books is live until the end of April and funded in under 24 hours. Ferruccio Argento from Dicetale Games was kind enough to talk to me about the RPG his company has created and their current kickstarter. Check out the free primer for the rules, player character options, spells, monsters, setting, and more.
Charles Dunwoody (Charlie): Thanks for talking with me, Ferruccio. Blood and Doom used a D10 dice pool with a variety of rule options layered on top. What mechanic do you think captures the essence of Blood and Doom the best?
Ferruccio Argento (Ferruccio): Thanks for having me! Happy to talk all things Blood and Doom with you and dive a bit deeper into the system and its setting. So even though I love the d10 dice pool and the degrees of success that come with it, I’d have to say that Blood Points and Doom Points best capture the game’s essence.
Blood Points are used by all Classes, whether martial, expert or magic. The first two can spend Blood Points to use Powers, while the latter uses them to cast Magic. It’s a unified system that makes all Classes similar in how they operate. Powers also make playing a Barbarian, Guardian or Slayer (to name a few examples) more interesting this way, closing the gap between what you often find in spellcasters being extremely versatile while martial classes are limited to just gaining more attacks per turn. Powers include things like being able to smash bricks or iron locks, remaining hidden even if you attacked from a concealed position, or thwarting an opponent when they attack an ally.
Doom Points on the other hand, allow you to reroll dice that didn’t result in a success. Your d10 dice pool triggers successes on an 8, 9 or 10 (a 10 being two successes), and you can reroll all dice that came up a 7 or lower to either try and succeed when you failed, or instead roll a minimum of 5d10 even if your Ability and Skill would allow you to roll only 2 or 3. Spending Doom Points comes at a cost though, as the Doomsayer (as the GM is called in Blood and Doom) can sometimes ask for a ‘Doom Roll’ to determine is something narrative in the fiction of the game turns out one way or another. The less Doom Points you’ll have left, the fewer d10 you get to use for a Doom Roll, significantly lowering your chances of succeeding one in the long run.
An example I often give is when your Character would be locked up in a prison cell and you ask the Doomsayer whether there’s a loose brick you might use to make an escape. Often times, a GM would just make up an answer, but really, it could be anything. Those aren’t the things that you’ve got meticulously prepared, and even if you did, letting chance decide in those moments can be a lot of fun. As the Doomsayer in this scenario I would ask for a Doom Roll. If it succeeds, the Character notices a loose brick and the story can develop from there. If it fails, they’ll be stuck for a while longer and will have to find another way to escape.
Of course, there’s many other uses for a Doom Roll as well, and even multiple Characters can be asked to make one, for example to see which of the two frontmost Characters will be the target of a trap that just triggered or get attacked by a Dragon (if there’s no obvious choice given the circumstances). In these examples, the Player who rolls the lowest number of successes will be targeted.
Charlie: Player characters include both class and an archetype like a barbarian nomad or a druid stargazer. What is your favorite class and archetype and why?
Ferruccio: My favorites have actually changed a few times during the development of the game and as the Classes and Archetypes (of which there are 18!) got fleshed out more. Coincidentally you just mentioned two of my favorites: the Nomad and the Stargazer. I tend to like Archetypes who have an affinity with nature, and those two both fit the bill. Currently however, I’m rooting for the Assassin Viper, which is just an overall awesome Archetype that can brew poisons, has a collection of venomous spiders and scorpions they can send out to do their lethal work, and the Viper has a collection of masks they can put on with near-magical powers that allow them to see through deceptions, recall what took place at a given spot during the last hour, or take on a frightening, demonic visage.
Charlie: Blood and Doom rules are described as player facing. What does player facing mean to you and how was that idea implemented in the rules?
Ferruccio: I first got introduced to player-facing mechanics when playing Powered by the Apocalypse games. Then, later again when I tried out Numenera. To me it means having more fun as the GM (or Doomsayer) and having to worry less about executing attacks for a group of monsters and more about the overall narration and story of any given scene or encounter. You can simply call out what happens and it is up to the players to respond by making their dice rolls and making the ‘rules-related’ decisions.
But it has other benefits as well, like keeping players more engaged when it isn’t their turn. For example, in a player-facing game a player rolls to defend when their character gets attacked instead of the GM rolling for the monster to attack. This means at any time during a round players are actively participating in combat because at any time they could be asked to act. Not only that, but in Blood and Doom, several Traits and Powers play into ‘defending’ (to name but an example) which means that aside from just rolling dice to defend, you’ll have some meaningful choices to make as well that could mean the difference between success or failure.
So how it’s implemented in Blood and Doom’s rules is a bit like I just described. The Doomsayer lets the players know what happens, and they decide how to respond and roll the dice. You have to experience this to know how relaxing it feels, and how much more ‘brainspace’ you’ll have available to make combat more interesting. What plays another big part in this for Blood and Doom is the fact that there is no set initiative order, and anyone just takes one turn per round in any order as feels natural. You’d be surprised at how well this plays out at the table, as any action always evokes a reaction, and it’s just less of a ‘game’ and more like a real scene from a movie. That’s also why turns don’t happen simultaneously in Blood and Doom. One action actually is followed by another, and then another, and so on. Not having to track initiative is such a relief, which in combination with the player-facing rules makes combat a breeze to run.
The Doomsayer still gets to roll some dice though, because let’s be honest: rolling dice is fun! First, the Doomsayer can roll a d10 to determine randomly what action a monster will take. Every stat block has at least 4 and sometimes up to 10 unique actions that are very narratively-driven, and each has a number from 1 to 10 corresponding to the result of this die roll. Some weaker actions could trigger on a result of 1-3 for example, or a 4-5, but more powerful actions usually trigger on just a 9, or a 10. So if you roll high as the Doomsayer that means trouble for the players and that’s just a ton of fun to see happening at the table. Oh, and the Doomsayer rolls for damage when a monster’s attack succeeds too.
Charlie: What support is provided to GMs to help run Blood and Doom?
Ferruccio: Blood and Doom consists of three books: the Core Rulebook, the Guide to Athyr, and The Twelve Pillars of Doom. The Guide to Athyr provides a ton of information on the world of Athyr, including hex maps, places to explore, settlements, NPCs, quests and lots more. The Twelve Pillars of Doom covers each of the 12 cults that are set to bring doom upon the world in great detail and in such a way that you can build a campaign around them with developing goals and story arcs.
To come back to your question, we really thought it important that you can play Blood and Doom using just the Core Rulebook, and so this is entirely possible. The other two books simply go more in-depth on these subjects I just mentioned, but aren’t required to play the game. So we added a Doomsayer Section to the Core Rulebook, covering everything from the game’s concepts, tips and advice on running adventures, tables for setbacks and injuries, and how to use monsters or create your own.
There are also extensive travel mechanics covered in this section, a dungeon exploration checklist, an encounter checklist, tips on rewarding Blood Points and Doom Points, coming up with setbacks, and just all those kinds of handy tools to have by your side as a Doomsayer to make life easy for you.
Charlie: The world of Athyr seems to be doomed with the Twelve Pillars of Doom looming ominously, but the player characters are heroes who may save the day. What is one aspect of the world that plays into this darkness opposed by heroes?
Ferruccio: So the Twelve Pillars of Doom is actually a name used in the book that includes the 12 cults and the 12 extradimensional entities that they worship, known as the Twelve Heralds of Doom. As you can imagine, they are a big problem for Athyr, gathering in the dark in secret to further their goals, whether it be to become the masters of an enslaved people, to see the world destroyed, or to have all life meld and join together with their Herald of Doom to experience eternal suffering and agony (though they may think it to be a transcending experience, even the cults are of course fooled).
What plays into this I think is the fact that Athyr is, despite that it has always been plagued by monsters and other dangers, a wondrous and magical world to behold. The rise of the cults is about to change that forever, and unbeknownst to most, many other worlds out there in the vastness of space have already fallen victim to the Heralds of Doom. So much so, that Athyr is one of the few places left in the universe that isn’t yet corrupted.
As you can imagine, times are dire, and one fun part of the game that emphases this well is that when a character has died (so actually died, not being on the brink of death), Munagi spirits will come to rip their soul from their body. As a player, you then have a choice: will you accept this fate, or will you decide your time hasn’t come yet and rage against the dying of the light? If you choose the latter then you resist your soul being taken, and your allies can fight the Munagi to prevent them from taking your soul, perhaps giving your character another chance at life, or maybe all perishing in the process. This of course comes with some consequences should a character come back to life, and you can’t keep doing that forever, but fighting the very spirits that come take your soul simply because you are a hero that is needed to save the world from doom certainly fits what you’re asking.
Charlie: What products are being offered via the kickstarter?
Ferruccio: We’ve got a ton of fun products, but I do want to say upfront that really the only thing you ‘need’ to play is the Core Rulebook, whether a PDF or Hardcover. But then there’s of course the Deluxe Slipcase Set which includes all three aforementioned books, a Poster Map of Athyr, a Doomsayer’s Screen, multiple Adventures, a Dice Set with custom symbols for the successes (but again, as cool as they look I thought it very important that regular d10s will work just as well), Card Sets including Conditions, Injury, Trauma, Weapon Attributes and more, and finally: 18 very cool-looking miniatures: nine Characters and nine Monsters.
We also unlocked some very nice Stretch Goals already, and next up are complete sets of tokens, maps and handouts for all adventures on Roll20 (a Character Sheet is already available there so people can play online today), a new class: the Priest, a full orchestral soundtrack of which you can listen to two sample tracks on our Kickstarter page, and much more.
Charlie: Many readers of EN World are D&D and Pathfinder players. What would you say if they asked why should they try Blood and Doom?
Ferruccio: I come from this background as well and I would say to them simply: come and enjoy the freedom of a story-driven, cinematic game that, unlike many other narrative games out there, still offers that crunch and customization you know from D&D and Pathfinder. That’s also why I created Blood and Doom: I like how some of the simpler, story-driven games out there play, but they cannot keep me interested for more than a few one-shot adventures. With Blood and Doom, I’d say many D&D and Pathfinder player will find intuitive and easy-to-learn mechanics that always keep the action moving forward while at the same time seeing you interested for campaigns that last years.
It's no secret that sometimes a combat in D&D can last a few hours. I’ve had some in the late evening that (for everyone at the table) just felt like a grind to get through, especially at higher levels. Blood and Doom is built around the concept of still giving you tactical choices during combat (cooler ones I’d say even) while just getting it over with in half an hour or so. It’s high risk, high reward, and no 600 Hit Point Dragon exists in the game. (Blood and Doom uses Wounds, Injury and Madness over that anyway.) When you’ll get attacked by a Dragon in Blood and Doom, it doesn’t need that many Hit Points. When its bite attack hits you, your armor will break and you’ll likely lose an arm or leg. That’s much scarier to me than 600 Hit Points.
There’s a lot more to say here, but one thing I’d like to mention is the dice pool. I love a d20 system just fine, but with a dice pool, you can roll those ‘extra successes’ above the required difficulty. When that happens, those successes become Momentum, which you can spend to do cool things like trigger your weapon’s attributes. In Blood and Doom, weapons don’t just deal damage, but each has a combination of attributes like Brutal, Vicious, Penetrating, Riposte, Massive, and so on. When you attack and gain Momentum, you can spend that to unleash the effects of the weapon, either chopping off a monster’s tentacle, penetrate their armor, cause ‘bleeding’ wounds, or make a counterattack when you defend yourself.
If that doesn’t convince the readers yet, I’d just point out that the Primer Bundle is completely free, shows you about 80% of what the game is like, and is fully playable. Just have a look and see what you think!
Charlie: Any final comments you’d like to share with the readers of EN World?
Ferruccio: Sure! Creating Blood and Doom has been quite an experience. It has been in the works for over two years, and I have given it my all to create a truly immersive game, from the mechanics to the setting’s writing, to the art, to the way stat blocks are designed. From the start I intended to make this game playable for free so everyone can just see it and play it and then make up their minds if they feel it’s worthy of backing on Kickstarter. I hope if people go and check out the Primer Bundle they will like what they see. Also, the community that has come into being around Blood and Doom is really amazing, and so many people are excited and discussing the game on our Discord, organizing games, and so on. Feel free to join if you want to learn a bit more about the game and join the fun!
Charles Dunwoody (Charlie): Thanks for talking with me, Ferruccio. Blood and Doom used a D10 dice pool with a variety of rule options layered on top. What mechanic do you think captures the essence of Blood and Doom the best?
Ferruccio Argento (Ferruccio): Thanks for having me! Happy to talk all things Blood and Doom with you and dive a bit deeper into the system and its setting. So even though I love the d10 dice pool and the degrees of success that come with it, I’d have to say that Blood Points and Doom Points best capture the game’s essence.
Blood Points are used by all Classes, whether martial, expert or magic. The first two can spend Blood Points to use Powers, while the latter uses them to cast Magic. It’s a unified system that makes all Classes similar in how they operate. Powers also make playing a Barbarian, Guardian or Slayer (to name a few examples) more interesting this way, closing the gap between what you often find in spellcasters being extremely versatile while martial classes are limited to just gaining more attacks per turn. Powers include things like being able to smash bricks or iron locks, remaining hidden even if you attacked from a concealed position, or thwarting an opponent when they attack an ally.
Doom Points on the other hand, allow you to reroll dice that didn’t result in a success. Your d10 dice pool triggers successes on an 8, 9 or 10 (a 10 being two successes), and you can reroll all dice that came up a 7 or lower to either try and succeed when you failed, or instead roll a minimum of 5d10 even if your Ability and Skill would allow you to roll only 2 or 3. Spending Doom Points comes at a cost though, as the Doomsayer (as the GM is called in Blood and Doom) can sometimes ask for a ‘Doom Roll’ to determine is something narrative in the fiction of the game turns out one way or another. The less Doom Points you’ll have left, the fewer d10 you get to use for a Doom Roll, significantly lowering your chances of succeeding one in the long run.
An example I often give is when your Character would be locked up in a prison cell and you ask the Doomsayer whether there’s a loose brick you might use to make an escape. Often times, a GM would just make up an answer, but really, it could be anything. Those aren’t the things that you’ve got meticulously prepared, and even if you did, letting chance decide in those moments can be a lot of fun. As the Doomsayer in this scenario I would ask for a Doom Roll. If it succeeds, the Character notices a loose brick and the story can develop from there. If it fails, they’ll be stuck for a while longer and will have to find another way to escape.
Of course, there’s many other uses for a Doom Roll as well, and even multiple Characters can be asked to make one, for example to see which of the two frontmost Characters will be the target of a trap that just triggered or get attacked by a Dragon (if there’s no obvious choice given the circumstances). In these examples, the Player who rolls the lowest number of successes will be targeted.
Charlie: Player characters include both class and an archetype like a barbarian nomad or a druid stargazer. What is your favorite class and archetype and why?
Ferruccio: My favorites have actually changed a few times during the development of the game and as the Classes and Archetypes (of which there are 18!) got fleshed out more. Coincidentally you just mentioned two of my favorites: the Nomad and the Stargazer. I tend to like Archetypes who have an affinity with nature, and those two both fit the bill. Currently however, I’m rooting for the Assassin Viper, which is just an overall awesome Archetype that can brew poisons, has a collection of venomous spiders and scorpions they can send out to do their lethal work, and the Viper has a collection of masks they can put on with near-magical powers that allow them to see through deceptions, recall what took place at a given spot during the last hour, or take on a frightening, demonic visage.
Charlie: Blood and Doom rules are described as player facing. What does player facing mean to you and how was that idea implemented in the rules?
Ferruccio: I first got introduced to player-facing mechanics when playing Powered by the Apocalypse games. Then, later again when I tried out Numenera. To me it means having more fun as the GM (or Doomsayer) and having to worry less about executing attacks for a group of monsters and more about the overall narration and story of any given scene or encounter. You can simply call out what happens and it is up to the players to respond by making their dice rolls and making the ‘rules-related’ decisions.
But it has other benefits as well, like keeping players more engaged when it isn’t their turn. For example, in a player-facing game a player rolls to defend when their character gets attacked instead of the GM rolling for the monster to attack. This means at any time during a round players are actively participating in combat because at any time they could be asked to act. Not only that, but in Blood and Doom, several Traits and Powers play into ‘defending’ (to name but an example) which means that aside from just rolling dice to defend, you’ll have some meaningful choices to make as well that could mean the difference between success or failure.
So how it’s implemented in Blood and Doom’s rules is a bit like I just described. The Doomsayer lets the players know what happens, and they decide how to respond and roll the dice. You have to experience this to know how relaxing it feels, and how much more ‘brainspace’ you’ll have available to make combat more interesting. What plays another big part in this for Blood and Doom is the fact that there is no set initiative order, and anyone just takes one turn per round in any order as feels natural. You’d be surprised at how well this plays out at the table, as any action always evokes a reaction, and it’s just less of a ‘game’ and more like a real scene from a movie. That’s also why turns don’t happen simultaneously in Blood and Doom. One action actually is followed by another, and then another, and so on. Not having to track initiative is such a relief, which in combination with the player-facing rules makes combat a breeze to run.
The Doomsayer still gets to roll some dice though, because let’s be honest: rolling dice is fun! First, the Doomsayer can roll a d10 to determine randomly what action a monster will take. Every stat block has at least 4 and sometimes up to 10 unique actions that are very narratively-driven, and each has a number from 1 to 10 corresponding to the result of this die roll. Some weaker actions could trigger on a result of 1-3 for example, or a 4-5, but more powerful actions usually trigger on just a 9, or a 10. So if you roll high as the Doomsayer that means trouble for the players and that’s just a ton of fun to see happening at the table. Oh, and the Doomsayer rolls for damage when a monster’s attack succeeds too.
Charlie: What support is provided to GMs to help run Blood and Doom?
Ferruccio: Blood and Doom consists of three books: the Core Rulebook, the Guide to Athyr, and The Twelve Pillars of Doom. The Guide to Athyr provides a ton of information on the world of Athyr, including hex maps, places to explore, settlements, NPCs, quests and lots more. The Twelve Pillars of Doom covers each of the 12 cults that are set to bring doom upon the world in great detail and in such a way that you can build a campaign around them with developing goals and story arcs.
To come back to your question, we really thought it important that you can play Blood and Doom using just the Core Rulebook, and so this is entirely possible. The other two books simply go more in-depth on these subjects I just mentioned, but aren’t required to play the game. So we added a Doomsayer Section to the Core Rulebook, covering everything from the game’s concepts, tips and advice on running adventures, tables for setbacks and injuries, and how to use monsters or create your own.
There are also extensive travel mechanics covered in this section, a dungeon exploration checklist, an encounter checklist, tips on rewarding Blood Points and Doom Points, coming up with setbacks, and just all those kinds of handy tools to have by your side as a Doomsayer to make life easy for you.
Charlie: The world of Athyr seems to be doomed with the Twelve Pillars of Doom looming ominously, but the player characters are heroes who may save the day. What is one aspect of the world that plays into this darkness opposed by heroes?
Ferruccio: So the Twelve Pillars of Doom is actually a name used in the book that includes the 12 cults and the 12 extradimensional entities that they worship, known as the Twelve Heralds of Doom. As you can imagine, they are a big problem for Athyr, gathering in the dark in secret to further their goals, whether it be to become the masters of an enslaved people, to see the world destroyed, or to have all life meld and join together with their Herald of Doom to experience eternal suffering and agony (though they may think it to be a transcending experience, even the cults are of course fooled).
What plays into this I think is the fact that Athyr is, despite that it has always been plagued by monsters and other dangers, a wondrous and magical world to behold. The rise of the cults is about to change that forever, and unbeknownst to most, many other worlds out there in the vastness of space have already fallen victim to the Heralds of Doom. So much so, that Athyr is one of the few places left in the universe that isn’t yet corrupted.
As you can imagine, times are dire, and one fun part of the game that emphases this well is that when a character has died (so actually died, not being on the brink of death), Munagi spirits will come to rip their soul from their body. As a player, you then have a choice: will you accept this fate, or will you decide your time hasn’t come yet and rage against the dying of the light? If you choose the latter then you resist your soul being taken, and your allies can fight the Munagi to prevent them from taking your soul, perhaps giving your character another chance at life, or maybe all perishing in the process. This of course comes with some consequences should a character come back to life, and you can’t keep doing that forever, but fighting the very spirits that come take your soul simply because you are a hero that is needed to save the world from doom certainly fits what you’re asking.
Charlie: What products are being offered via the kickstarter?
Ferruccio: We’ve got a ton of fun products, but I do want to say upfront that really the only thing you ‘need’ to play is the Core Rulebook, whether a PDF or Hardcover. But then there’s of course the Deluxe Slipcase Set which includes all three aforementioned books, a Poster Map of Athyr, a Doomsayer’s Screen, multiple Adventures, a Dice Set with custom symbols for the successes (but again, as cool as they look I thought it very important that regular d10s will work just as well), Card Sets including Conditions, Injury, Trauma, Weapon Attributes and more, and finally: 18 very cool-looking miniatures: nine Characters and nine Monsters.
We also unlocked some very nice Stretch Goals already, and next up are complete sets of tokens, maps and handouts for all adventures on Roll20 (a Character Sheet is already available there so people can play online today), a new class: the Priest, a full orchestral soundtrack of which you can listen to two sample tracks on our Kickstarter page, and much more.
Charlie: Many readers of EN World are D&D and Pathfinder players. What would you say if they asked why should they try Blood and Doom?
Ferruccio: I come from this background as well and I would say to them simply: come and enjoy the freedom of a story-driven, cinematic game that, unlike many other narrative games out there, still offers that crunch and customization you know from D&D and Pathfinder. That’s also why I created Blood and Doom: I like how some of the simpler, story-driven games out there play, but they cannot keep me interested for more than a few one-shot adventures. With Blood and Doom, I’d say many D&D and Pathfinder player will find intuitive and easy-to-learn mechanics that always keep the action moving forward while at the same time seeing you interested for campaigns that last years.
It's no secret that sometimes a combat in D&D can last a few hours. I’ve had some in the late evening that (for everyone at the table) just felt like a grind to get through, especially at higher levels. Blood and Doom is built around the concept of still giving you tactical choices during combat (cooler ones I’d say even) while just getting it over with in half an hour or so. It’s high risk, high reward, and no 600 Hit Point Dragon exists in the game. (Blood and Doom uses Wounds, Injury and Madness over that anyway.) When you’ll get attacked by a Dragon in Blood and Doom, it doesn’t need that many Hit Points. When its bite attack hits you, your armor will break and you’ll likely lose an arm or leg. That’s much scarier to me than 600 Hit Points.
There’s a lot more to say here, but one thing I’d like to mention is the dice pool. I love a d20 system just fine, but with a dice pool, you can roll those ‘extra successes’ above the required difficulty. When that happens, those successes become Momentum, which you can spend to do cool things like trigger your weapon’s attributes. In Blood and Doom, weapons don’t just deal damage, but each has a combination of attributes like Brutal, Vicious, Penetrating, Riposte, Massive, and so on. When you attack and gain Momentum, you can spend that to unleash the effects of the weapon, either chopping off a monster’s tentacle, penetrate their armor, cause ‘bleeding’ wounds, or make a counterattack when you defend yourself.
If that doesn’t convince the readers yet, I’d just point out that the Primer Bundle is completely free, shows you about 80% of what the game is like, and is fully playable. Just have a look and see what you think!
Charlie: Any final comments you’d like to share with the readers of EN World?
Ferruccio: Sure! Creating Blood and Doom has been quite an experience. It has been in the works for over two years, and I have given it my all to create a truly immersive game, from the mechanics to the setting’s writing, to the art, to the way stat blocks are designed. From the start I intended to make this game playable for free so everyone can just see it and play it and then make up their minds if they feel it’s worthy of backing on Kickstarter. I hope if people go and check out the Primer Bundle they will like what they see. Also, the community that has come into being around Blood and Doom is really amazing, and so many people are excited and discussing the game on our Discord, organizing games, and so on. Feel free to join if you want to learn a bit more about the game and join the fun!
