Dark Designs in Nightgate Abbey

A Game of Gothic Horror

October, 1936. Rafe Polrook had a taste for queer friends. Before he was murdered, you were one of them. You saw him that day before, then he was dead, and his family’s executors took him away. You thought you knew Rafe well but never knew he was the last of his family or held an ancient Cornwall estate. You were summoned from London to the reading of his will.

Dark Designs in Nightgate Abbey is a game of mystery and survival as Rafe's scattered friends gather with the remnants of his family and their associates at his estate, unaware that Rafe's family was once the center of a still-devoted cult that intends to bring its last surviving member back from the dead, and Rafe's killer is still at large.

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The Game & Funding

One gothic horror scenario for a Keeper and 2 or more players with all the rules needed to play. Requires two or more six-sided dice.

The game is currently in development. The current files include a brochure for players and a booklet for Keepers/GMs in PDF and Markdown format. Both are under 2000 words. As we make funding goals, I will be able to expand these versions, hire an editor and visual designer, and purchase art.

$250. Professional layout.

$500. Professional editing.

$800. Expand GM book to 2500-3000 words.

$1000. New layout for Dark Designs in Verdigris.

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Inspirations

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• Bay of Blood by Mario Bava
• The Killer Is One of 13 by Javier Aguirre
• Gates of Hell trilogy by Lucio Fulci

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Rules & Sources

Dark Designs in Nightgate Abbey is based on Dark Designs in Verdigris, a game about what's left of the Emerald City long after the fall of Oz, which first appeared in Codex Emerald in 2019, with a a follow-up in Codex Childhood. 

The game is a single-move PbtA system inspired by World of Dungeons and Offworlders. In 2020, Dark Designs in Verdigris was nominated for an IGDN Groundbreaker Award for best setting. Previous adaptations of DDiV include the free Dark Designs in Krevborna for Jack Shear's Krevborna setting.

The text of Dark Designs in Nightgate Abbey is available under a CC-BY 4.0 license.