Dark Inheritance

[Messageboard Golem]

Now is an Age transformed by disaster and wonder, a world of terrifying adventure.

The catastrophe known as the Rip transformed Jerusalem into an urban nightmare. Life as we knew it has been forever changed.

Hidden from the masses, the Human Genome Project unearths the secrets of our race, secrets burried deep inside each and every member of humanity - the Godgenes.

The Rip and the Godgene blur the boundaries between science and what can only be called - Magic. Relics and powers of the Lost Age crash onto streets lined with glass and steel.

From beyond the world we know, terrible threats arise. From their abyssal prison, the Daemonhost have been set loose to threaten this teetering new world while denizens of the Otherworld stalk the shadows.

You are a titan, an inheritor, genetic heir to the gods and monsters of legend. Locked within your genetic code are answers to ancient mysteries and new, startling revelations. What secrets will you uncover - or die to protect?

Dark Inheritance features:
- A d20 Modern campaign setting of mythic horror.
- An action packed world where the mysteries and terrors of the supernatural world collide with the crises of modern events and technology.
- Play a Titan, a character born with the genetic legacy of ancient gods or monsters.
- Pick one of five distinct lineages of primordial power.
- Explore an ancient world once lost behind eldritch gates, filled with hidden secrets, ancient evils, and potent magics.
- Choose your style of play! Be members of the secret Black Ops government agency: - Project Titan; the criminal but spiritually enlightened Eight Heavenly Dragons Triad; the ancient and inscrutable Promethean Order; or one of four other exciting Allegiances. Each Allegiance has its own spin on action.
- An ancient world to be explored, one remembered only in myth, an Otherworld once lost behind eldritch gates, filled with hidden secrets, ancient evils, and potent magics.
- Complete rules for mystical birthrights and Legacy feats, the powers of Titans.
- Seven all new advanced classes and two prestige classes. Play an Explorer, an Initiate, a Super Soldier, a Two-Fisted God of Guns, or Five other exciting classes.
- New relic creation rules designed for GMs to create unique artifacts balanced for characters of any level.
- Rules and guidelines to create your own Daemonic cults, who covet power gained through blood sacrifice.
- All new spells, feats, magic items, and supernatural terrors.

 

[JoeGKushner]

In many ways, Dark Inheritance is the first sourcebook to bring the feel of the World of Darkness setting to the D20 Modern rules.

What do I mean by this? Like Aberrant, there is a huge event, in this case, the Rip, a merging of two cities, Jerusalem and an alien, otherworld city, that causes strange things to happen quickly. Behind this event, a seemingly unrelated discovery in the field of genetics allows mortals to tap into powers long lost and forgotten in the pre-historical era. Now things went on in that lost era, things that are only now starting to come to light. Sound familiar?

Character's no longer have to be human, but can be Titans, wielders of the ancient power. Like White Wolf, those powers come with potential cost if overused. The characters have several Birthrights (background) they can claim, each one being a link of different powers bonded together by tradition and history. These Birthrights are grouped by their original source. For example, the Crimson Lords are the masters of 'culture and society' and have abilities that reflect positive or negative emotional response with others. These Birthrights are set up in many ways like the Charms in Exalted, easy to use and easy to see what abilities are needed to progress to different parts of the chain. Each section mapped out. While interesting in and of itself, these Titans are balanced for the most part. They receive less skill points and don't get the extra human feat at first level.

Now the next step in providing the GM the tools he needs to run almost any style of campaign comes in the Allegiance that the characters pick. There are eight fully detailed organizations, each one supporting a different style of play. This in and of itself provides a great deal of structure for GMs to build almost any type of campaign they want. Want a John Woo festivity? Go with the Eight Heavenly Dragons. Want a military mission with cold blooded mercenaries who often do the right thing? Run with First Team.

Each group includes background, goals, methods, organization, characters (short stats only), operation protocols, equipment and other good stuff. Some of it, like the current plotlines, secrets, enemies, and Genre with a listing of films, television shows and books, actually helps you get in the mood and right frame of mind to role play.

So now you've got a world with a huge event causing all sorts of strange things to happen. Demons and aliens from the Otherworld spilling into ours. Relics long lost and forgotten starting to show up due to the breach which reveals things not possible to find before. Different agencies with different styles of play, all in the same world though, but what about game mechanics?

The chapter, New Character Options has you covered. Need new occupations? How about new uses of Skills? Nah, you're all crunch lovers who want the Feats. Some I swear I recognize from the Ultra Modern Firearm book like Blind Shot. Some are set up to help with the Demon Cults and augment the powers of the Titans or reduce the penalties of the Titan race.

Some readers are going to want something more than feats. They'll want Advanced Classes. How about the Stim Freak, a drugged up warrior or the Super Soldier, a typical case augmented with genetic and DNA manipulation. Not all of these are scientific based though. Some like the Eldritch Monk and Initiate are all too eager to embrace the magic that now flows through the world. For Prestige Classes, there are only two, each one a five level class. The first, the Spec Ops is a soldier's soldier. The second, is an obvious tribute to the myth that is John Woo with the Two-Fisted God of Guns. This alone made me want to roll up a character and select my feats and get going with the gunplay while Face Off plays in the background.

There's other stuff you'd expect in a setting book. New spells, equipment, monsters, ideas on using cults, advice on running different styles of campaign, background ideas for the Birthrights and other goods. The material on monsters deserves a little more explanation as there's more than just demons. See the Rip itself allows creatures from the otherworld to come into our world. These are corporeal beings but don't always follow the standard patterns of evolution. The demons themselves aren't stupid either and use humans to gather cults that they may use for power in exchange for providing, I believe the book puts it, mere scraps of power, to the mortals that serve.

The chapter layout follows a logical pattern in that it presents the history and background information first to set the tone before going into the game rules. The layout of the book is easy on the eyes with some annoying typos cutting into the flow here and there. The art is top notch with some favorites like Marcio Fiorito, Scott Purdy, Santiago Iborra and other illustrators bringing many of the facets of the setting to life. Some may not favor the black splash pages between chapters but I find that they add to the flow of the book while keeping the feel. Ironically, I think that the cover is probably one of the weakest illustrations in the book being a burning man that really doesn't convey the high energy, genre fitting nature of the book.

If the book has a weakness, it's a little thin in some areas. For example, with all of the background information on the first chapter centered almost exclusively on the Rip and the fate of Jerusalem, there's no map or other solid information that the GM can use right away. There's no pregenerated adventure to start the game off, putting a lot of burden on the GM. There's perhaps too many options and factions that the players will have to keep track of. For example, if you're a bold GM and allow the players to belong to multiple Allegiance groups with multiple Birthrights, will they and you be able to keep it all straight? Eight groups and Six Legacies (Birthrights) make for some confusion. Add to this that the Legacies really aren't groups or organizations in their own right, unlike the Allegiances, and you've got the potential for a lot of confusion.

I see a lot of growth for a setting like this. There can be Splatbooks on the various Allegiances and perhaps even on the Titans. Already there's a book on Modern Magic planned and I've been told that a free adventure is coming to the website.

If you want a campaign world that offers you the chance to one week play in a manner similar to the Raiders of the Lost Ark, another week X-Files and a third week like Hard Boiled with characters who hunt down the ancient relics of their forefathers as they battle against the negative enhancements while fighting off the demons from the past, then Dark Inheritance has something for you.