BETA PLAYTEST DOCUMENT

IMP OF THE PERVERSE

BY NATHAN D. PAOLETTA
Beta Playtest Document
Last Updated October 2018

CREDITS
Game design, visual design & writing: Nathan D. Paoletta
Art: Marnie Galloway
Thanks to: Joe Beason for statistical analysis. Tim Koppang and
Paul Czege for astute reader feedback, Tom Cadorette & Pedro
Calvo for typo and text corrections
Playtesters of earlier versions: Joe Beason, Dylan Clayton, Mi-
chael Harrel, Tim Kleinert, Dave Michalak, Sarah Richardson,
Mark Malone, Brian Wille, Melissa VanDyke, Tom Yeates | (Meta-
topia 2012) Molly Mandlin, Erick Prene, Robert Cornelius, Jon-
athan Hancewicz, Matt Peterson | (Forge Midwest 2013) Ralph
Mazza, Jeremiah Frye, MadJay Brown, Jennifer Martin | (Forge
Midwest 2015) Paul Czege, Mark Redacted, Kelly Vanda | (Origins
2015) Kira Magrann, Jeromy Hastings, Eric Mersmann | (Origins
2016) Kira Magrann, Jeromy Hastings | (Dreamation 2018) Sam
Zeitlin, Jim Crocker (& Others) | The Shuffle Quest podcast (2018)

PLAYTEST FEEDBACK
This game is still in playtest while the manuscript for the full release is
being developed and edited. If you play and have feedback about your
experience, it is very welcome! The best way to submit feedback is to:
ww Email me: [email protected]
If you have rules questions about the game, suggestions for the final re-
lease, or want to share your stories publicly, please consider posting to
the Google+ Imp of the Perverse Community.
ww Search “Imp of the Perverse” on Google+
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE
INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW 5
What You’re In For 6
Jacksonian Gothic America 8
CENTRAL CONCEPTS 10
A Trembling Framework 10
The Arc of Play 12
Using This Document 15

PART TWO
MAKING MONSTERS 17
Born of Perversity 17

PART THREE
MAKING PROTAGONISTS 25
Dramatis Personae 25
Composing a Protagonist 26
THE WORKSHOP 34
PART FOUR
PLAYING THE GAME 39
The Basics 39
Processes of Play 40
Ontogenesis 50
EDITORS RULES 55
Make it Dark, Make it Weird 55
Getting Started 56
Rules During Play 56
Changing Editors 60

PART FIVE
JACKSONIAN GOTHIC AMERICA 63
Why Now? 63
Jacksonian America 65
References 74
 PART ONE
INTRODUCTION &
OVERVIEW
I
mp of the Perverse is a game that asks you and a group of your
friends to enter a Jacksonian Gothic America where mon-
sters are real. Using the media of pencils, paper, dice and your
shared imagination, the rules of the game focus your creativity
and fears into telling a compelling tale of psychological horror as
your characters, the dramatis personae of your tale, hunt down
the very real monsters that afflict their world.
One player takes on the role of the Editor, creating these monsters
and setting the stage for the individual protagonists, inhabited by the
rest of the players. Each protagonist is a person of this Gothic version
of the historical Jacksonian period in America, but what makes them
central to the game is that each bears an Imp of the Perverse on their
shoulders, birthed from their particular untameable urges and urging
them to commit terrible deeds. Only by fighting those who have given
in to their own Imps, literally transformed into creatures of the night,
can these afflicted reject their Imps and gain redemption. This struggle
continually tempts them to embrace their perversity in order to gain
the power necessary to banish monsters back beyond the Shroud be-
tween the world of the living and the world of the dead.
Thus, the question before you: can you resist the seductive draw of
your own perversity long enough to regain your intrinsic humanity,
or will your embrace of the power within lead you to become damned
yourself?
6 Y Imp of the perverse

WHAT YOU’RE IN FOR

Each time you sit down to play Imp of the Perverse, the protagonists
engage in the hunt of a specific monster. The arc of this hunt, from
the discovery of the influence of the creature through gaining under-
standing of its nature to resolving its presence in the world, is a Chap-
ter of play.
You can play a single stand-alone Chapter, or play a series of Chap-
ters that follow the journey of the protagonists from their first hunt
through their experiences as they change and grow in the face of the
terrible evils they confront on the hunt. Ideally, you will play a series,
as the transitions between Chapters are where the protagonists show-
case how they’ve changed, and your group of players begins to con-
struct your own unique Jacksonian Gothic world around them. But if
a single Chapter is preferable, never fear! You will still get the full ex-
perience of the protagonists discovering, investigating and confront-
ing a monster, and facing what that means for their own perversities
in so doing.
Each Chapter generally takes 1-3 sessions of 2-4 hours to resolve.
The very first time you play, you’ll also need a session of similar length
to create your protagonists. If you do play an ongoing game, you do
not need the exact same cast every time. If an individual player cannot
attend, or if you have a new player who wants to try out the game for
just one Chapter, you can simply elide or add the protagonist in ques-
tion when the Chapter begins.
Before each Chapter, the Editor (let’s assume that that’s you, reading
this now) creates the monster that will be the subject of the hunt. Mak-
ing a monster can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, depend-
ing on how fully you detail the monster, its web, and its environment.
There is also a sample Monster included in this playtest document that
you can use as is.
The rest of the players will each create an individual Protagonist,
an inhabitant of the Gothic world whose perversity has pierced the
Shroud between the land of the living and the world of the dead. In
general, the sweet spot for play is two or three protagonists. For four
to six protagonists, the time to play extends and the focus on dramatic
character play requires more effort to maintain. More than six protag-
onists are not recommended.
 Introduction & Overview Z 7

Each Chapter starts with the protagonists aware of what they have
to do, but not of what the nature of the creature is or what it is doing
in their world. Throughout the Chapter, they investigate, discover and
finally confront the monster that you have prepared, while struggling
with the slide towards perversity demanded by the hunt.
There is no question about whether the protagonists will be able
to find or defeat the creature. Thus, the plot of each Chapter follows
a similar pattern each time, as the protagonists search and then de-
cide how to resolve the presence of the horror in their world. The the-
matic questions of play revolve around the effects the hunt has on the
protagonists, and tension comes from how they decide to manage the
temptation to embrace their own Imps. Whether they give in to their
perversities or not, the protagonists will be changed by their journey.
And if any fall, then they must be hunted down.
Whether because of one dramatic slide in one Chapter or a grad-
ual descent over many, a protagonist will eventually fall to their Imp.
When this happens, that protagonist becomes the next monster to be
hunted. If the player is interested in doing so, they then prep that pro-
tagonist as a monster, and become the Editor for the next Chapter! The
current Editor makes a new protagonist to hunt down the poor fallen
wretch, and the story continues. For more on transitioning between
Editors, see page 60.

What You Need to Play

ww Two to five players;
ww A room within which you have the freedom to excercise imagination;
ww The comfort of table, chairs and food and drink to the taste of your society;
ww Adequate facsimiles of the Protagonist Creation Survey and Protagonist
Sheets;
ww A monster prepared, the subject of the hunt to come;
ww Perhaps six or so each red and black six-sided dice--the two colors are a meta-
phor for the difference between the actions of humanity and those of the per-
verse, and as such must be differentiable in some way, whether by color, size,
or design;
ww A notable six-sided die, separate from the rest - this is not to be rolled, but
rather shall track the growing Anxiety of your tale;
ww Pencils and papers adequate for the notation of any other ephemeral details
worth consigning to the page.
8 Y Imp of the perverse

JACKSONIAN GOTHIC
AMERICA
Imp of the Perverse takes place in an America much like our own his-
torical 1830s and 1840s, but with the addition of the Shroud between
the protagonists world of the living and their Imps world of the dead.
Human passions sometimes pierce this barrier, and invite in the ter-
rible things that we still remember as monsters. This is the world that
contains The House of Usher, that once saw the Masque of the Red
Death, that averted its eyes from the Conqueror Worm.
This world contains monsters, yes, and today we have many names
for them. But then, they were simply the expressions of souls over-full
to bursting.
While the game is set within this particular time, it will not ask you
to become a historical scholar in order to play. As you will see when
you make your protagonists, they are embedded squarely in overlap-
ping circles of social relationships from the beginning, and those cir-
cles are drawn from the period and constructed in order to demon-
strate how people related to each other during this time. It’s this
grounding in normal life that creates the tension in your protagonist’s
life as they get closer to the Shroud. The contrasts between the fantas-
tic demands of your Imp and the pedestrian concerns of your family,
the atrocities committed by the monsters you hunt and the obligations
you have to your friends and peers, those are what makes this a hor-
ror game.
The other reason to embrace this period is that it’s a time of rapid,
wild change in America. The growth of new transportation and infor-
mation technologies, the explosion of commerce, the clashes between
opposed ideologies from politics to expansionism to slavery, these
all create cracks in the world in which perversity takes root. You can
set your specific game anywhere from the early 1830s of populist op-
timism, surging mercantilism, Indian Wars and Abolition to the late
1840s of bitter sectionalism, westward expansion, railroads and the
telegraph.
This book contains overviews on the three most thematically reso-
nant sections of Jacksonian America: the East, the South and the West.
Each overview describes the particular historical attributes of that re-
gion with an eye towards giving you tools to bring that tone and tenor
 Introduction & Overview Z 9

into your games, along with little details and historical incidents that
are particularly suited to bring into a horror game. However, this rich
history is not limited to just those chapters, and you will see more ref-
erences to historical context wherever it serves to explain something
about how the game works or illustrate how to use it in play.
Again, the goal of including this history is not to give you home-
work; this is a fantastical, fictional, Gothic version of the world, and
the one you create at your table will diverge quickly from anything
“real.” Simply creating protagonists, a monster and its web of influence
in the world will put you in the right mental space, and then you can
bring in as much detail as you wish from there. The resources in this
book are there to support you, not place a barrier in your way.

Making Your Own World

Making a unique dark, troubled world is some-
thing the protagonists of your tale are empow-
ered to do as part of their struggle against their
perversity. Each hunt, each particular creature
brought to heel and banished from the world,
also reveals more and more of the nature of
the Shroud itself. The metaphysics of the twin
worlds, the particulars of how, why and where-
fore one becomes a monster, what the nature of
the Imp means for those afflicted, and the tech-
niques and resources available to repair the dam-
age done, those are all subject to the particulars
of your fellowship. After each Chapter of your
tale, you shall have opportunities to make state-
ments about your world and how it works, and
those shall be truth forevermore.
10 Y Imp of the perverse

CENTRAL
CONCEPTS
H
ere are the basic concepts upon which Imp of the Perverse
is built. While you’ll see them surface in various ways in
play, it’s important that the Editor (or whoever is teaching
the game for the first time) reads over these and knows that they
are available to be referenced when needed.

A TREMBLING FRAMEWORK
All but one of the players of this game are the dramatis personae, cre-
ating individual protagonists, each with an Imp of the Perverse on
their shoulders. The other player is the Editor, who creates the mon-
ster they will hunt, as well as the web of influence the monster has over
mortal society. All players have a set of principles to guide their play:

Each Player:
ww creates a protagonist, still fully human but marked by their
perversity
ww commits to playing their protagonists struggle for humanity and
with their Imp
ww advocates for their protagonists success, but take opportunities
to make dramatic decisions and support the other players in the
characterization of their protagonists

The Editor:
ww creates monsters and puts them in the same social context as the
protagonists
ww constructs a compelling, dark world full of challenge, doubt and
wonder
ww engineers specific situations for each protagonist that dare them
to embrace their darker self
ww demonstrates the consequences of the protagonists actions with
integrity (in this order: integrity to the dark Gothic world, in-
tegrity to the characters development so far, integrity to the de-
mands of the unfolding narrative, and ideally all three)
 Central Concepts Z 11

These principles won’t always be present in every moment, and some-

times only one or two of them will make sense given the narrative, but
taken together they describe the attitude each player should have as
they play. Protagonist players are committed not just to success but
to engaging in the struggle with their Imp, whatever that means for
them; the Editor is committed not just to create monsters and provide
challenge, but construct a world around the protagonists that has in-
ternal integrity, whatever that means for the story as it unfolds.
And here are some core conceits of the game:

In Imp of the Perverse:

ww monsters cannot win, and the end of each Chapter will be marked
by the protagonists ending the monsters influence over the mor-
tal world
ww protagonists cannot die, unless the player decides to make it so as
part of their dramatic struggle
ww monsters are unique, created as a metaphorical description of
their core perversity made manifest in the world; even those that
share a kind of perversity embody it differently and have differ-
ent portfolios of horror
ww protagonists are always aware they have an Imp, and are also al-
ways aware of others who are similarly afflicted (how this looks
and feels in play is up to you)
ww protagonists always know when a monster arrives in their vicin-
ity, though not the specifics of its nature or agenda; the begin-
ning of each Chapter is marked by that knowledge dawning on
the protagonists

These are the boundaries that describe the space of play; the rest of
the rules of the game can be widely interpreted to suit the nature of
your tales as they unfold. If you change any of these conceits you are
venturing outside of the game as presented here, so be aware!
12 Y Imp of the perverse

THE ARC OF PLAY

In order to play this game:
ww The Editor makes a monster to be the subject of the first Chapter
of play, and the other players make protagonists. The monster can
be a response to the nature of the protagonists, or can be selected
beforehand.
ww The Editor creates the web of the monster and places relation-
ships of the protagonists, or the protagonists themselves, into it.
Thus, every Chapter starts with some kind of connection, no mat-
ter how tenuous, from the monster to some kind of social circle
the protagonists share.
ww The group plays through the Chapter using the rules and proce-
dures presented in this book.
ww At the end of the Chapter, any protagonists who have fallen to
their Imp take over the Editor role and create their former protag-
onist as the next monster.
ww The other protagonists go through Ontogenesis, spending checks
made during the Chapter in order to recover, grow and reveal
new truths about the nature of the Shroud
ww If you wish to continue playing, the next Chapter then begins
(with the same protagonists or a different cast, depending on
whether any fell to their perversity or you have players joining or
leaving the group).

During a Chapter, the Editor presents the mystery and challenge for
the protagonists, and they use the resources at their disposal to solve
the mystery and address the challenge.

Each Chapter of play follows this pattern:

ww First, the protagonists become aware that a monster is near, both
from their innate sense of perversity and from strange, bizarre
or inexplicable things happening to or around their relationships.
ww The protagonists engage in Ratiocination, investigating the dis-
turbances in their circles, gathering facts and clues, and slowly
unveiling the nature of the horror and the agenda of the monster.
ww As they investigate, Anxiety rises, indicating they they’re getting
closer but also increasing the activity of their Imps.
 Central Concepts Z 13

ww Once the protagonists discover the monster and feel that they
have enough information and/or motivation to take action, they
engage in Exertion to change the world around them and gain ad-
vantages, stymie the monster or engage it directly.
ww Eventually, the protagonists will confront the monster and re-
solve the horrors it is visiting upon the world.
ww Once the monster is defeated (destroyed, sent back beyond the
Shroud, exorcised, brought back to humanity, or however else it
happens), the protagonists take stock of what they’ve done before
returning to their mortal lives - if they can.

This is a flexible structure meant to give shape to the story without de-
termining it beforehand. Each Chapter plays out differently depending
on the nature of the monster and the protagonists, how interested the
players are in diving into deep characterization or taking plot-driv-
ing action, and the particular bits and pieces of the Jacksonian Gothic
world the group wishes to use as the backdrop of their story.

GETTING STARTED
Starting a Chapter requires the following:
ww A cast of protagonists
ww A monster to be the subject of the story
ww Someone to feel confident enough in the rules of play to get
started

You can use the playtest Chapter included in this document, which
contains a cast of pre-generated protagonists along with a fully
prepped monster and Web. Or, you can have a first session where ev-
eryone makes their protagonists together. The Editor can either make
a monster beforehand, and integrate the protagonists into its Web
once they are created; or, the Editor can make the monster as a re-
sponse to the group of protagonists, touching on their concerns and
perversities intentionally.
Either way, you’ll need your cast and your monster before you get
started. Then, follow the guidelines in the Editors Rules (page 55) to
kick off the story.
14 Y Imp of the perverse

CONTINUED PLAY
After the first Chapter ends, then what? Continuing play with the same
cast of protagonists can take a lot of forms.
First, and most importantly, if any protagonists gave in to their Imp,
their former protagonist becomes the subject of the next hunt. That
player has the option to become the Editor for the next chapter as well;
if they don’t choose to take it, the Editor is still in charge of developing
the new monster using the same method as any other.
If this is not the case, than the Editor generates (or chooses) another
monster to be the subject of the next hunt. This involves thinking
about any shifts of time and/or place - is this immediately subsequent
to the last Chapter, perhaps growing out of the horrors visiting upon
the innocent as part of the hunt? Or is it the next season, or the next
year, when a new creature comes again? Is it in the same city, impact-
ing the protagonists same circles? Or are they called to a new place in
order to confront a new horror?
In addition, after the first Chapter the players will have had the
chance to start establishing facts about the Shroud between worlds.
The nature of your particular Gothic Jacksonian America will take
shape through these facts and the other context established during
play; you should use these facts as a framework for subsequent crea-
tures and settings. If the Shroud begins to take form as the interaction
of the prayers of the living with the wishes of the dead, say, then per-
haps the next monster should center on someone who intentionally is
praying for the dead to rise again. If it’s more about specific locations
holding power over those who have passed on, perhaps one of those
locations becomes a locus of a creature still living, determined to keep
its corporeal body beyond the Shroud. Use the nature of the Shroud as
an incubator for your monsters.
And so, each Chapter is another revolution in this grand cycle. Play
as many as you wish, until you have achieved satisfactory endings for
your protagonists or simply have explored the themes of the game as
far as you wish; as long as everyone has been able to engage with their
protagonists perversity, learned something about what that means for
that character, and had a hand in stopping at least one monster from
spreading its horror into the world, you have played the game fully
and well.
 Central Concepts Z 15

USING THIS DOCUMENT

This is a playtest document, containing a full-scale revision of the ex-
planatory text of the game from previous version, along with new ma-
terial that will hopefully help guide you towards getting into the spirit
of the material and making thematically resonate decisions during
play. It also contains some more resources and information about the
time period, to help build the world of the protagonists in a way that
feels like it has some relevance to the history.
The bulk of what you actual need to know in the moment to make
characters and to apply the rules as you play should be contained in
the reference sheets! But if you want to get the full explanation of how
a rule works, the context around it, or to get the holistic sense of how
everything hangs together, make sure to read to relevant section of
the text.

If you are looking for:

Making Monsters - read Part Two, starting on page 17
Making Protagonists - read Part Three, starting on page 25
The core rules for play - read Processes of Play, page 40
What happens after a Chapter - read Ontogenesis, page 50
Safety tools - read page 35 for setting initial boundaries
during protagonist creation, and page 47 for tools to use
during play
Fighting, death and destroying monsters - read page 60
Deciding when and where to set a Chapter - read page 66
and page 68
More about the history - read Part Five, starting on page 63
 PART TWO
MAKING MONSTERS
M
onsters are those who were once human, but gave in to
their Imp of the Perverse. While this game is embedded
in the social fabric of Jacksonian America, you are play-
ing the game as a modern person, and the situation you create for
each Chapter of play will be guided by your own ethical and moral
framework. As the Editor, it’s up to you to create a subject of the
hunt that is worth the effort to end the horror it visits upon the
world.

BORN OF PERVERSITY
All monsters start with a core perversity, the thing that, once they gave
in to it, turned them into a literal creature of horror. Pick something
for the monsters perversity that you think is unacceptable. It doesn’t
need to be grotesque or evil, but it should be something that you con-
sider, well, perverse. Something that you think people shouldn’t do (or
at least shouldn’t do to excess). Unlike the perversity of the protago-
nists, this could be something that truly repulses you or that you think
it irredeemably evil - the monsters you create for this game are not
sympathetic, even if their original form had noble intentions or ideals.
Your monster has given in to or actively embraced their perversity,
rending the Shroud between worlds and transforming into a tangible
expression of their perversion; but it is still embedded in the mortal
world. It needs people. It uses people.
Once you’ve come up with the idea for the monster, you will start
building the Web of those who have fallen within its orbit.

Answer these questions:

ww who does it surround itself with?
ww who has it hurt?
ww who is protecting it (or has an interest in it being protected)?
ww who does it want (or who can it not resist) and why?
18 Y Imp of the perverse

Your answers create the status quo for the monster and those it influ-
ences. Make notes on people and relationships but don’t try to plan out
how things will happen once action is taken: the protagonists will de-
stabilize the monsters status quo in play.
Your ultimate goal before play is to have a grasp of what drives
the creature, and then to create the creatures Web, a map of the re-
lationships it has with potential servants and victims. This Web will
have blank spaces used to connect the protagonists into the monster’s
world, so there needs to be enough flexibility in what you have in mind
to accommodate how the players choose to create their characters. (Of
course, if you are playing with a returning cast this is easier and you
can make a tighter Web).
You can fully detail the monster and then figure out the Web, or you
can start with the Web and then come back to consider how the mon-
ster will escalate once play begins, whichever approach makes more
sense to you.

THE SHROUD
Once you’ve outlined the monsters perversity and have an idea of who
will be in its Web, you need to decide where it is in relationship to the
Shroud between worlds.
If the monster is still alive, but transformed by their perversity such
that they are no longer human, then it is close to the Shroud. It it is
still a creature of physical flesh and blood, though with terrible power.
If the monster has passed on to the world of the dead, but still be-
devils the living, then it is past the Shroud. It no longer has a physical
form, but can appear in and interact with the world of the living.
If the monster has crossed back in order to satisfy its horrible de-
sires, than it is returned from beyond the Shroud. It clothes a fell
spirit in the mockery of physical form, and there’s no telling what it
can do.
The less human the monster, the more appealing it is to the protag-
onists own Perversities and the more influence it can have over their
Imps and their ability to change the world around them.
 Making Monsters Z 19

FOR EXAMPLE
Here is an example of a monster from Kickstarter backer Os-
mina Deveraux: Eleanor Bradway King.
Her core perversity is a fasci-
nation with the peccadilloes
and failings of others, taken to
the extreme of actively encour-
aging new and more extreme
actions in order to viscerally
experience the joys of deprav-
ity without facing any conse-
quences herself.
She’s a reporter, who uses her
position to gain information
on potential victims (or “cli-
ents” as she thinks of them),
and then blackmails them in
order to drive them to worse
and worse acts.
To establish her general status
quo:

ww Who does it surround itself

with? People who are ap-
proaching the point where
they will pierce the Shroud with their own perversities, if
they haven’t already.

ww Who has it hurt? Once she loses interest in a “client” she’s

blackmailing, she releases her archive of material in what-
ever way hurts them the most. Often, innocent people get
caught up in the scandal.

ww Who is protecting it (or has an interest in it being pro-

tected)? Those she blackmails will do anything to keep her
from making their sordid stories public.

ww Who does it want (or who can it not resist) and why? Any
whisper of a new, unique depravity will summon her like a
moth to flame; she gets bored easily and is always looking
for new “clients”
Eleanor Bradway King is still alive, but transformed with ex-
traordinary sensory organs; this monster is close to the Shroud.
20 Y Imp of the perverse

THE FUTURE
Consider the monster’s status quo, and then envision how the situation
will escalate once the creature knows it is being hunted.
What does escalation mean? Escalation is the growth of the impact
the creature makes on the world if left unchecked. Absent the inter-
ference of the protagonists, the monster’s power to inflict pain and
emanate the perversity that birthed it will grow and grow. Here are
the three arenas in which the monster of your story will escalate it’s
horror:
ww Escalation in Area: the physical or social area affected by the
monster grows. To start, pick a geographical space or social group
which the creature inhabits, hunts, or finds victims (or allies).
Each escalation in area extends the borders of this starting point,
or brings a new one into the monsters purview.
ww Escalation in Horror: the supernatural powers the monster gained
as the result of its nature. To start, describe the ability that the
monster possesses beyond the ken of mortals. Each escalation
makes its powers more horrible, sadistic, cruel or damaging.
ww Escalation in Emanation: the terrible things that those impacted
by the monsters existence are compelled to do themselves. To
start, pick the baseline reaction inspired in those who see or are
victimized by the creature. Each escalation twists, heightens or
makes those actions and reactions more horribly spectacular.

Your monster should start with the first entry in each arena filled out,
as this is what will structure the initial mystery of your story. Depend-
ing on how much time and inclination you have to prepare, you can
map out the rest in advance, or leave spaces to fill in to respond to
the direction of play. Escala-
tion creates the framework
Mind Control & Related Horrors
aids your in-the-moment de-
If your monster exercises mind con-
cision making during play. Of
trol or some similar power, that be-
course, if the context of your
longs in escalation of horror, not of
unfolding story demands a
emanation. Emanations are the rip-
certain kind of escalation that
ple effects of the monsters presence
doesn’t neatly fit into these
in the world; the monster directly
categories, you should always
controlling another is a horror it vis-
give in to that demand!
its upon them. Of course, these often
dovetail, with a person subject to
control then suffering the emanation.
 Making Monsters Z 21

ESCALATION IN PLAY
During play, you will escalate the monsters influence on the word
around it. Some escalations are triggered by certain milestones, and
some are at your discretion (see details in the Editors Rules section).
For now, keep in mind that whenever you escalate, you pick one of the
arenas of escalation, and then move to the next step on it. If you al-
ready have that step filled out, go ahead and decide how that looks in
the game. If that step is blank, or if you have a better idea now that you
did during prep, fill it in when the moment is right.

FOR EXAMPLE
Eleanor Bradway King is able to heighten the desire in others to
indulge in their perversity, as well as detect exactly what will
force someone to act on that desire. As a reporter, she capital-
izes on her normal activities in order to find new “clients.”

ww Escalation in Area: To begin, a certain social circuit as her

beat (like local politics, or the arts - this should be chosen
in relation to the protagonists, once they are known). Esca-
lation: an adjacent social circle, or a group of people one
of her victims introduces her to. Depending on the direc-
tion of the story, you could choose either path to go down.

ww Escalation in Horror: To begin, she can force others to in-

dulge in their perversity, whatever it is. Escalation: She can
bring a perversity to the surface in someone who previ-
ously did not have such urges. For the final step, let’s leave
it blank for now and see how things go in play.

ww Escalation in Emanation: To begin, her clients get closer

to the Shroud, drawing spirits to them in accordance with
their terrible deeds. Escalation: first, her clients start bring-
ing her new potential victims (with motivation depending
on the person, from trying to free themselves to actively
trying to enhance her powers). Second, her clients pierce
holes in the Shroud, drawing Imps to themselves and (po-
tentially) generating a whole host of new monsters! Per-
haps they can be saved by eliminating Eleanor, or maybe
this will create the next hunt directly out of this one.
Planning out the escalation of Eleanor’s horror shows a vision
of what will happen if she isn’t stopped, but leaves enough flex-
ibility that her agenda and powers can bend to the needs of the
story as it unfolds.
22 Y Imp of the perverse

THE WEB
Now that you have a conception of what the monster is and what is
can do, you create its Web. The Web is a map of the relationships that
put the protagonists into proximity with the monster and its victims.
Place the creature at the center, and arrange those it is concerned with
around it, drawing lines to each with a couple of words about why
they’re important to it, what it wants from them or why they’re pro-
tecting it. Make any obvious connections now, or add any new char-
acters you think are necessary or that the Web demands as it comes
together.
These characters are nodes on the Web. They are descriptive, not
prescriptive - the role that they play for the monster is what’s import-
ant at this stage, not demographic details about who they are and what
they do. You want flexibility to swap out a particular character with
someone introduced by one of the players during the Episode, or with
an off-the-cuff character that suddenly makes more sense.
As you arrange the characters, think also in terms of escalation. The
creature is already impacting those closest to it on the Web; as the sit-
uation escalates, it will be begin to influence those farther and farther
away.
Once the players make their protagonists, you will connect them
into the Web through bonds of family, profession or amateur interest.
None of the characters in the Web should be an island, they should all
have the potential to be the lead that gives a protagonist a personal
stake into stopping the monster once the horror begins to be revealed.

FOR EXAMPLE
Lets sketch out an initial Web, without having any particular
protagonists in mind. Eleanor Bradway King is at the center. She
has direct connections to a Jacob Cobbler, a well-regarded gro-
cer who she is blackmailing. She works for a publisher, George
Harold Humbert (at least to begin). There’s a widow who’s sus-
picious of her, Mary-Ellen Green, who is also friends with the
grocer. We’ll place some empty-for-now areas for some poten-
tially useful roles, a relative to Cobbler and a rival reporter who
also works for Humbert.
 Making Monsters Z 23

THE WEB
Place the protagonists on the outer edges of the Web. Place characters that the monster is most
immediately pursuing or in proximity to closest to the center. In between, place protagonist relationships,
people they would know, and people the monster’s inner circle are involved with. Draw connections such
that the protagonists are connected to the monster through at least one other character.

of the family Jacob

Mary-Ellen Shops With & friend
Cobbler
Green A Well-Regarded
A suspicious Widow Grocer
A Relative
ing
Is mail
(po Suspi ck
te cio Bla
Is
“cl ntial us O
ien ne f
t”) xt

Eleanor Wo
rks
For
Bradway
King George
The Monster
Harold
a rival reporter Humbert
Publisher of the
newspaper

ndpdesign.com/imp

Once we know the protagonists, we can place them around the

outside and draw the most interested connections. Perhaps one
of them is also in the journalism business; they would natu-
rally fit with Humbert and the rival journalist. A protagonist of
Affairs with some kind of merchant interest could know Cob-
bler, of course. A protagonist of Service or Leisure could be ac-
quainted with or related to Mary-Ellen Green; you can simply
change her name if she would work as a relationship. Or, some-
one could have been in business with her now-deceased hus-
band, and so know her socially. In all of these cases, we would
revise the Web before play with these connections, along with
any new ones that come up as good fits for this monster.
 Making Protagonists Z 25

PART THREE
MAKING
PROTAGONISTS
T
hese tumultuous times reveal those who have... troubles.
Haunted by something just out of sight, they are restless,
quick to anger and difficult to reason with. They keep up a
brave face when in company, but when alone - well, there is little
comfort to be found in a restless soul.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE
The Editor makes a monster, one who has already given in to their
perversity; the rest of you will play one of these troubled souls who
has gained the attention of an Imp of the Perverse through the appe-
tites, desires and actions you’ve taken that separate you from human-
ity. This imp feeds on the inhuman energy released by your adjacency
to the Shroud between worlds, and as your perversity grows, it twists
and transforms you into an inhuman expression of the darkness be-
yond the lights of civilization.
There is always a choice. Your imp grows restless in the presence
of rival creatures, already transformed; you are drawn to these mon-
sters, giving you a chance to throw off your own perversion by send-
ing those who have already fallen to a final rest.
When you play this game, you create the stories of these hunts. Your
group of protagonists forms the cast of these tales, linked together
through admiration for each other and the sure knowledge that those
without your affliction are defenseless in the face of the horrors in the
world. When a monster appears, your imps become restless and agi-
tated, drawn to the hole in the Shroud like a moth to flame. It is up to
you to take the action necessary to stave off damnation.
26 Y Imp of the perverse

COMPOSING A
PROTAGONIST
Each player creates a fictional resident of Jacksonian America, held
apart from society by their perversity. This section describes the pro-
cess, and “you” refers to players making their protagonists.
You conceptualize your protagonist through a question-and-an-
swer survey which provides the skeleton of a person, their family, and
their social and professional position. It is up to you, of course, to add
flesh to these bones in a way that satisfies your mental image of your
protagonist.

THE SURVEY
To make protagonists, follow the series of numbered steps on the Pro-
tagonist Creation Survey. Here’s the basic procedure for how to do
this, and for quick reference.
The rest of this section con- Picking a Survey
tains fuller explanations of There are two surveys at the current
each component of making a time, the basic one and one for Pro-
protagonist. tagonists of the West. The process is
Numbered List the same for both, but they have dif-
Summary ferent Career and Family options to
ww Choose a Career. Then: reflect the differences in social fabric
West of the Mississippi.
1 Choose whether you’re
a man or a woman (or
which you present as in casual society).
2 Choose what kind of family you’re a part of.
3 Choose where your family is from.
4 Decide on your marital situation. Name your spouse and/or
children, if you decide that you have any.
5 Decide on whether you are happy or unhappy in your situation.
6 Decide on whether you have hunted a monster before.
7 Pick a fellow protagonist to admire.
8 Decide on what else is important.
ww During this process, you will also discuss and decide on your Per-
versity and your Greatest Strength.
 Making Protagonists Z 27

Careers
Protagonists have a careers as part of the society in which they live.
The first step to creating a protagonist is to select which of eight ca-
reers they follow; this choice circumscribes the choices you’ll continue
to make, giving you a specific field within which your particular con-
ception of the character will grow. Many individual professions or life-
styles could fit into different careers (a well-off academic could follow
a career of Letters or of Leisure; a hard-working parish priest could
follow a career of Service or of Affairs; a French fur trapper could fol-
low a career of Exploration or Survival). The career describes a com-
bination of the nature of their lifestyle with their overall raison d’etre
more than the particular day-to-day of their life.
A career of Affairs - You are a
professional, run a business or
otherwise have responsibility
for some kind of affair in order
to keep you in the manner to
which you are accustomed. Per-
haps a doctor, a lawyer, a finan-
cier or a smuggler.
A career of Arms - You are trained
in the use of arms and have made
a career out of it, whether in bat-
tle or politically. Perhaps a veteran
of any number of battles (War of
1812, any of the Indian Wars, skir-
mishes with the Mexican Army), a
mercenary from abroad, or a grad-
uate of West Point.
A career of Exploration -
You journey afield or abroad,
whether out of wanderlust, the
search for adventure or the need
to generate new discoveries for
whoever employs you. Perhaps
a surveyor of new territory, a
scout, a geographer, or a spy for
28 Y Imp of the perverse

a business concern. Protagonists of Exploration tend to be

those that have a home base in the East or South, and who re-
turn there between outings.
A career of Leisure - You are in-
dependently wealthy, taken care
of by another or otherwise have
complete control over how you
spend your personal time. Per-
haps a patron of the arts, a débu-
tante, a socialite or someone who
married into money. Protagonists
of Leisure tend to live in the East and South, the West is less
friendly to those with little to occupy their time.
A career of Letters - You are en-
gaged in a world of the mind and
the soul that involves writing,
reading and correspondence. Per-
haps a poet, an academic, a re-
porter or editor, or a lecturer.
A career of Opportunity - You seek… something. Riches, ter-
ritory, a new life, a new way of organizing family or commu-
nity - whatever it is, you see the possibilities of finding or mak-
ing it on the frontier. Perhaps a
gold-bug, a settler, a Utopian or
someone fleeing persecution. Pro-
tagonists of Opportunity tend to
be defined by seeking something
in the West that they can’t get
elsewhere.
A career of Service - You pro-
vide services to or are employed
by another, whether in a domestic
or labor role. Perhaps a nanny, a
skilled laborer, a journeyman or ap-
prentice, or a butler. This can also
include those who are indentured
servants and the enslaved.
 Making Protagonists Z 29

A career of Survival - You live in

a dangerous land, and you know
how to stay alive. Whether na-
tive to the area or someone who
learned it quick, you make a liv-
ing off the land or by keeping
those who know less than you
alive long enough for them to get wherever they are going.
Perhaps a Native American guide, a mountain man trapper,
an isolated farmer or a vaquero. Protagonists of Survival may
head East eventually, but the land they know is in the West.

Slavery and Protagonists

The fictional world of the game reflects the truths of history, including
the presence of slavery in America. It is up to each individual group
about whether and how to engage with this in your games, but the
final text will include more context, safety tools and suggestions for
how to engage with that and other painful topics from our history.
Structurally, there is no barrier to playing a protagonist who is a slave.
Fictionally, you’ll need to decide how they logistically engage with
the arc of the game - it is certainly in keeping with history that many
slaves had freedom of movement within certain boundaries, for exam-
ple, or you could play them as accomplished at escaping from direct
oversight. Your choice of Career can help with this - Service is the ob-
vious choice, but if your protagonist is one of Survival or, perhaps, Let-
ters, that lends a different context to how they engage with the world.
If you are interested in playing this kind of character, make sure to
discuss this with the group and make sure everyone understands the
manner in which you want to engage with this subject manner. The in-
tersection of the very real horrors of slavery with the fictional horrors
that the game is designed to evoke is something that everyone should
be aware of and opt-in to having in their game.
During play, make use of the X-Card and Red Mist, set up Lines and
Veils, and use any other safety tools you need to help guide everyone
on the same journey into exploring fictional content that is potentially
harmful to the real live people at the table.
30 Y Imp of the perverse

Protagonists of these eight careers can be played together in any com-

bination, but there are two sets recommended for beginning games
or one-shots, depending on where in the country you wish to set the
game. Each has its own Protagonist Creation Survey.

For games set in the East or South, choose from:

ww Leisure
ww Letters
ww Affairs
ww Arms
ww Exploration
ww Service
And for games set in the West, choose from:
ww Opportunity
ww Letters
ww Affairs
ww Arms
ww Survival
ww Service
The established cities and cultures east of the Mississippi are home to
many who live lives of comfort, following their particular interests;
also, those who leave and return with news, riches and marvels are
particularly suitable as protagonists. The nature of the frontier, on the
other hand, lends itself to those who are seeking new opportunities
and making a new life, and those who make a living off the land itself
(whether for survival, or to guide others through the dangers of the
West).
However, as long as it makes sense to you how-and-why your pro-
tagonist is in the physical location the game will take place in, there’s
no restriction on the career you choose.
It is recommended that no protagonists share a career for the sake
of diversity in Qualities during the game, but if that is a particularly
compelling idea to your group there is no prohibition on doing so.
 Making Protagonists Z 31

Filling out the Survey

Once you pick a career, simply go through each numbered section in
turn and choose one option from the list provided under each. Allow
your choices to inspire your imagination about what your protagonist
is like, what they care about and who they have in their life.

Your selections will give you:

Qualities - intrinsic, notable elements of your protagonist.
Qualities have a positive rating that measures how many
times you can potentially use it. You will gain specific Qual-
ities from your Career and often from 234 , , , and 5 ;
sometimes you’ll be able to create a Quality you define your-
self(2 and8 ); sometimes you’ll be able to add +1 to an ex-
isting Quality.
Relationships - people with whom you have a meaning-
ful connection. Each Relationship has a positive rating that
measures how many times you can potentially use it. You will
need to name your Relationships when you gain them, usu-
ally from24 , and 8 . Sometimes you’ll be able to add +1 to
an existing Relationship. You also have a special relationship
with a fellow protagonist that you admire, composed in 7 -
this does not have a number, but will matter during play.
Standing - your social standing, reputation and ability to talk
to the right people at the right time. Your Standing has a pos-
itive rating of points you can spend for Ratiocination. Add
together all choices that give you Standing for your starting
total (usually from your Career, and then 23, , and 8 ).
Resources - your material wealth. Your Resources has a posi-
tive rating of points you can spend for Ratiocination. Add to-
gether all choices that give you Resources for your starting
total (usually from your Career, and then 2 and 8 ).
Reason - your deductive reasoning and problem solving abili-
ties. Your Reason has a positive rating of points you can spend
for Ratiocination. Add together all choices that give you Rea-
son for your starting total (usually from your Career, and
then 2 and 8 ).
32 Y Imp of the perverse

Empathy - your ability to connect and gain insight into other

sufferers. Your Empathy has a positive rating of points you
can spend on insights into the supernatural. Your Empathy is
determined by your answer to 6 .
Edges - supernatural senses and abilities that you may have
for being (too) close to the Shroud that separates the world of
the living from the world of the dead. They have no number.
You might start the game with one depending on your an-
swer to 6 .
Your Lucidity - a central number measuring where you cur-
rently stand on the continuum from fully human (6) to fully
perverse (1). This is the target number for your Exertion rolls.
You’ll determine your starting Lucidity by your answer to 6 .
Your Greatest Strength - your most human, most admirable
trait. Your Greatest Strength has a positive rating that mea-
sures how many times you can potentially use it, starting the
game at 3. You can compose your Greatest Strength at any
point during the process.
Your Perversity - that which your Imp impels you to do
against your better judgment. This has no number. You can
compose your Perversity at any point during the process.
Once you’ve made all the selections necessary, transcribe your choices
to a Protagonist Sheet (provided as separate documents, you can use
the general one or one that matches your career), and introduce your
protagonist to the table.

Final Details
ww Name your Relationships, and note them as Responsibilities or
Obligations. Do you have a responsibility for the person, or they
to you? Are they obligated to you or you for them? It’s up to you
how this manifests in the protagonists life, but you must check
the R or O circle to indicate what each Relationship is.
ww Specify what your protagonists lifestyle is like, and how they in-
habit the career that you chose.
ww Talk about why you chose the protagonist you admire, and what
exactly you admire about them. Determine the nature of how you
know the other protagonists (or whether you do at all).
ww Start each Chapter of play with 1 Weirding die. You will get more
Weirding Dice as Anxiety rises (see page 57).
 Making Protagonists Z 33

YOUR PERVERSITY
Your perversity is the core of your protagonist, the reason they are a
part of this story. You can come up with this as the basic concept, or let
it unfold as you make choices and go through the survey, but before
starting play you should have a solid handle on the flaws that attracted
an imp from beyond the Shroud to bedevil you.
A perversity is something that you, personally, think is unaccept-
able. It doesn’t need to be grotesque or evil, but it should be something
that you consider, well, perverse. You don’t need to figure out all the
details at first, and you certainly should not pick something that makes
this protagonist unappealing to you to play. The perversity should be a
source of compelling tension for you during play, something for you to
indulge in when appropriate and fight against when necessary.
While your protagonist is embedded in the social fabric of Jackso-
nian America, you are a modern person, and your characterization
should and will be guided by your personal ethical and moral frame-
work. Don’t pick something that people “of the time” would consider
perverse - pick something that is relevant to right now, to be chan-
neled through the abstraction of your protagonist and the fictional
game world they are a part of.
When generating and workshopping your protagonists’ perver-
sity, think about it being “outwards-facing” instead of “inwards-fac-
ing,” something that keeps the character involved in the world. One
common sticking point is picking a perversity that naturally drives
the character away from interacting with others in play. The two most
common of these are paranoia and narcissism (and variants thereof).
This game provides tools for you to explore those kinds of issues,
but you have to meet it half-way and consciously make decisions that
result in the character involving themselves in the hunt, instead of
shutting themselves away, in order for play to flow naturally. When
workshopping (see below), come up with answers to questions like:
ww How does this drive me to interact with others, instead of shut
myself away?
ww What habits have I made to try and mitigate my perversity, be-
cause I’m aware of what happens when it takes me over?
ww What motivates me to reach out for help when I need it?
34 Y Imp of the perverse

YOUR GREATEST STRENGTH

Your protagonist will struggle with their perversity, but they also strive
to retain their humanity, and the source of this struggle is your great-
est strength. This is the most admirable quality, the most human part,
the thing that elicits tension when it seems to be under attack.
Like perversity, you generate any greatest strength that seems right
for your character. It should be something that you truly find admira-
ble or desirable in the real people in the world around you!
Sometimes perversity and greatest strength are flip sides of the same
coin; sometimes they are opposites, pulling your protagonist in differ-
ent directions as each comes to bear in the game. There is no hard and
fast rule about the relationship of the two, but if you’re having trou-
ble with one, consider looking at the other and using it to inspire you.
What does your greatest strength imply about your perversity? What
room does your perversity leave in your personality that can be filled
by your greatest strength?

THE WORKSHOP
As the players compose their protagonists, the Editor should lead a
workshop conversation to delve into each characters perversity and
greatest strength. Workshopping fleshes out the basic ideas, making
them richer in play, and digs past the surface concept to see where it
really intersects with the players feelings on that behavior, so they can
be confident in their engagement with it.
Generally, this phase will focus mostly on perversity, but make sure
to include the greatest strength as well! Sometimes a player will have
a great idea for one but have trouble with the other. This is an oppor-
tunity for everyone to help out and really develop a good, meaty idea
for them to run with. Often, players have a strong basic idea but have
trouble putting it into words; the functional goal of the workshop is
for each player to have a solid sentence or short phrase that encapsu-
lates the basic thrust their perversity and their greatest strength. The
nuances will develop in play, but you want to have a strong founda-
tion to begin.
Since perversity treads into the realm of potentially triggering or
harmful content, the workshop is also a negotiating space where play-
 The Workshop Z 35

ers can ask for others to respect their boundaries or steer away from
a certain perversity that will make their play experience troubling or
painful. If anyone has a hard line about certain content, this is the time
to say it. The Editor should ask and check in with players about setting
any hard lines at this time. All perversities are public knowledge to
all players, so everyone should have a chance to hear what others are
thinking before things get set in stone.
To lead the workshop, the Editor asks the players to explain what
they have in mind and offers suggestions to “sharpen” the idea. All the
players can contribute, but it’s usually most effective for the Editor to
manage the conversation.

Safety Tools While Making Protagonists

Lines: If a player has certain content they don’t want to have in the
game, that can be announced and noted now. “I don’t want to deal
with sexual violence” and “I don’t want to be surprised by spider mon-
sters” reference different kinds of content, but are both hard lines that
should be respected in play.
Veils: Players can request that certain content be veiled so as not to be
the focus of explicit narration (often expressed as “staying off-screen”).
This often comes up during play, but can also be introduced and noted
now so that everyone knows. “Can we veil explicit violence,” for ex-
ample, will set a tone for the game to come that respects the players
willingness to engage with the content as long as it’s not gratuitously
described.
The X-Card: Place an index card with an X on it on the table, within
reach of everyone. This allows players to touch it to indicate that the
current subject is something they’d like to see withdrawn, without re-
quiring them to speak up in a possibly uncomfortable situation or pull
everyone’s direct attention to them at once. It may also be touched in
order to start a conversation about a Line or a Veil - it’s up to the player
who touches it to expand on why. If they don’t, simply move on from
the X-carded topic without requiring a conversation about it.
These techniques, along with the Red Mist, should be used in play as
well, though perhaps used slightly differently (as explained in the Rule
of Play section).
36 Y Imp of the perverse

Some key questions to ask about perversity:

ww How does your perversity manifest in your everyday life?
ww What does it look like when you give in to your perversity?
ww How does your perversity harm you?
Some key questions to ask about greatest strengths:
ww What is a time your greatest strength saved you?
ww How do others recognize your greatest strength in you?
ww How would it change you to lose your greatest strength?
Though perversity makes the protagonists exceptional compared to
those around them who have not gained an imp, they are not super-
powers. While the player is preparing to engage with and portray the
behaviors demanded by the perversity, the character wants to free
themselves of it in order to live a fulfilling human life.
During this workshop, the players hear each other work out their
characters motivations and impulses out loud. They should certainly
help each other out and offer suggestions when they have ideas. This is
also the best time to note certain content that they would rather not be
front and center in the game (using the safety tools presented above).
This is also a good time to summarize the possible endstates for a
protagonist, so everyone knows what the stakes of their decisions are:
ww If Lucidity falls to 1, you give in to their Imp, allow your perversity
to overcome you and become a literal monster.
ww If you reach 6 Lucidity, you overcome their perversity entirely and
lose the need to engage in the hunt, re-entering mortal society.
ww It is much easier for the former to happen, but the latter is not im-
possible. In both cases, that protagonist is no longer playable.

So, if a player wants to play a protagonist that rapidly spirals down-

ward, they may wish to pick a suitably active or horrible perversity,
while a player who’s interested in the fight to regain humanity may
compose a particularly actionable greatest strength in order to have a
way to always engage in that struggle.

ADDING TO THE WEB

Once the protagonists have been made and everyone has work-
shopped their perversities and greatest strengths, take a break. If you
have a larger group or spent a long time on the workshop, this could
be the end of the session. Either way, before the first Chapter of play
 The Workshop Z 37

begins, the Editor needs to place the protagonists, and possibly the re-
lationships that they have formed, into the Web of the monster.
First, look for thematic resonance; for example, if the mon-
ster is violent one, and one of the protagonists has a perver-
sity revolving around violence, see how closely you can fit
them into the Web. The nature of a resonant perversity will
generally put that character into the spotlight in the Chapter
to come.
Second, look at the Relationships each protagonist has gen-
erated. Can any of them also serve as a node you’ve already
placed on the Web? Can any of them be related directly to the
monster, or to an existing node? Look for opportunities to as-
sign an existing node on the Web into a Relationship, and thus
to bring the associated protagonist closer to the monster.
If there are no obvious connections for a certain protagonist, just man-
ufacture what you need. This is a short story, after all; coincidence and
serendipity are two of your most useful tools. Create new secondary
characters, give the monster an interest in the work of the protagonist,
or simply decide that it saw them passing on the street and became en-
raptured; whatever you need to do to put them on the Web. It feels ar-
tificial now, but it will quickly evolve in play.
Finally, fill in any obvious connections between characters on the
Web that have been created by these additions.

Seeding a Web
For a demo game or oneshot, you can “reserve” nodes on a Web that
you’ve made before the session, and request that the players create
protagonists that fit into certain slots. For example: “This game will
need someone to be in the medical profession, someone involved with
the theatre and someone part of or close to the military.” In this man-
ner you can simply slot the characters into your existing Web in order
to save time, maybe just changing some names or adding some other
relationships that come up during the creation process.
Do not skip running the perversity and greatest strength work-
shop, however! Even with a set of pregenerated protagonists (like for
the Quickplay Chapter in this document) the heart of the game comes
from the player investment in their characters perversity and greatest
strength. Even a brief workshop will help get everyone ready to play
together.
 Playing The Game Z 39

PART FOUR
PLAYING THE GAME
A
horrible creature of the night, and a cast of dramatis
personae compelled to pursue it even as they struggle
with their own demons; now it is time to discover the tale
threaded throughout the particular interests, fears and abilities of
the stage as it’s been set.

THE BASICS
To begin the game, you must have an Editor who has prepared a mon-
ster as the subject of the hunt (Part Two), and a cast of protagonists
each fully realized with their own perversities and greatest strengths
(Part Three). For more about the organization and basic tenets of the
game, review Part One.
This section contains the rules that structure each Chapter of play:
ww The protagonists discover the horrible influence of a creature;
ww they investigate what is happening and the nature of the horror;
ww they confront the monster in order to resolve its agenda and end
the threat it poses to the mortal world.
In addition, it covers:
ww All the tools the Editor uses to challenge the protagonists and
complicate the story as it unfolds.
ww How to determine the changes within the protagonists in-be-
tween each Chapter of play.
The Editor frames scenes, plays the characters that interact with the
protagonists (NPCs) and narrates the influence of the horrible on those
affected by the monster. The players play their protagonists as they see
the effect of the monster on the world around them and take action to
end it. Every effort they make to find something out, discover a clue or
answer a question will be rewarded; the answers lead them down into
the abyss of knowledge. Then, once they feel like they’re armed with
the information they need, they have to do something to prevent the
creature from harming anyone else.
40 Y Imp of the perverse

PROCESSES OF PLAY
These are the two central processes that drive the game along: Ratio-
cination and Exertion. Ratiocination is the process of discovering clues
and putting together the real story leading up to the discovery of the
monster, and is done via expenditures of resources. Exertion is engag-
ing in physical, mental or moral struggle, and is done via rolling dice.

RATIOCINATION
At the beginning of a Chapter, the protagonists know that there’s
something out there, but not what it is or what it’s doing. As you dis-
cover the effects the monster is having on those around them, you’ll
need to engage in Ratiocination to discover new information. There
are three broad ways to discover things:
ww Through the people you know and the institutions you’re a part
of (represented by Standing)
ww Through the expenditure of material resources or leverage of
your influence (represented by Resources)
ww Through making deductive inferences that incorporate lateral
thinking and sudden insights (represented by Reason)
Standing, Resources and Reason all have a number of points you have
to spend in that area, as per their Protagonist Creation Survey. When
your protagonist has a question they want answered, narrate how they
go about figuring it out within the bounds of one of those arenas, and
spend a number of points out of it equal to the current Anxiety (see the
Editor section - this starts the Chapter at 1, but increases through play).
The Editor may have the answer at hand, or may have to make a de-
cision in the moment; either way, the answer always should be some-
thing that moves the investigation forward and brings you closer to
the monster in some manner. The answer can be simply revealed, or
can be a result of roleplaying out a scene.
If you don’t have enough points, or you would simply rather revel
in your connection to the Shroud, you can make a deal with your Imp
instead. Spend nothing, and the information is revealed through su-
pernatural or uncanny means. You make a red Ontogenesis check (see
Ontogenesis for details).
 Playing The Game Z 41

Standing
Standing represents your social standing within a specific geographic
or social area (a city, a region, a country, a social club, a cultural group,
etc). This means that you have a reasonable chance to be acquainted
with other people who are a part of the same group, and that they
have a reasonable chance to be acquainted with you; in addition, you
have a working knowledge of the geography, customs, and ways to get
around and find things you’re looking for within that area.
When you generate Standing during protagonist creation, you will
either select a group you have standing in, or you’ll detail it yourself.
You can spend your Standing “for” any group you have Standing in,
they are not limited to different groups.
If you run out of Standing points, you’re run out of the social capi-
tal necessary to get favors, made too many demands of your contacts,
or simply hit the limits of what you can find out through your local
knowledge.

Resources
Resources essentially represent money, though many of a certain so-
cial class use the fact that they are wealthy as effectively as specie.
When you generate Resources during protagonist creation, make
note about the source of your wealth. This will help give context for
when it’s appropriate to spend your Resource points, and what it looks
like when you run out.
If you run out of Resources points, you’re literally out of cash,
you’ve overextended your credit or others know that you no longer
have the ability to fulfill your promises or cover your debts.

Reason
This is a rational age. Reason represents education, experience, and
the ability to put together facts, make logical inferences and draw con-
clusions based on evidence.
You do not have to justify or detail your Reason - it’s innate logical
and lateral thought.
If you run out of Reason points, you’re so overwhelmed by exposure
to the unknown, mysterious and horrible that you can no longer bring
your logical mind to bear to solve situations.
42 Y Imp of the perverse

Spending and Gaining Points

As detailed above, you spend points to find clues and uncover the mys-
tery surrounding the monster you seek.
ww Spend points out of one pool for one discovery (that is, you cannot
spend 1 Standing and 1 Reason if Anxiety is at 2, you must spend 2
from the same pool).
ww There is no way to regain points during a Chapter of play.
ww You regain points in between Chapters (see Ontogenesis for the
details).

FOR EXAMPLE
Consider a protagonist by the name of Gerard de L’Oiseau, a
Creole sailor in New Orleans. He is an explorer, sometime sol-
dier of fortune and notorious rake; he is struggling against a
desire for self-harm and trying to find a way to feel alive when
he’s not in pain.

RATIOCINATION
Gerard has been asked by the nephew of one of his sailer friends,
a young soldier by the name of Thomas Clough, to help him
find his “fiancée” who has disappeared. I narrate how Gerard
goes to the taverns and flophouses of his acquaintance, looking
to find a woman who matches the description he’s been given.
This is using his Standing in New Orleans, of which he has 2.
The current Anxiety is only 1, so I simply spend 1 point from his
Standing pool, and the Editor informs me of two possible leads
for the location of the woman in question.

EXERTION
Discovering clues and finding the monster is essential, but what do you
do when things get dangerous? What happens when you have to take
action, not just lean on the resources at your disposal? Whenever your
protagonist takes risky action or engages in struggle, it calls for an Ex-
ertion roll. Specifically, you always roll:
ww When your protagonist imposes their will upon the world
ww When your protagonist uses an Edge
ww When your protagonist is in mortal danger
ww When your protagonist puts another in mortal danger
 Playing The Game Z 43

You do not need to roll when an outcome is simply uncertain, unclear

or immaterial - in these situations, the Editor narrates appropriate
events in order to maintain integrity with the dark Gothic world, in-
tegrity with the nature of the characters as they’ve been played, and
integrity with the events of play as they have unfolded so far.
Remember, if your goal is to find something out, thats a matter of
Ratiocination (unless you use an Edge, in which case you always roll).

Making A Roll
To make an exertion roll, you must narrate what your protagonist is
doing, what action they are taking that imposes their will or creates a
mortal danger. Sometimes, to make the situation clear, you will also
need to state what your protagonist is trying to accomplish, but this is
not always necessary. Then, you assemble a pool of black and red dice.

To add black dice to your pool, you risk attributes of your

protagonist:
Are you demonstrating a Quality? Take a black die for each
Quality you’re demonstrating. Only take 1 per Quality, even
if the rating is greater.
Are you embodying your Greatest Strength? If so, take a
black die. Only take one black die, even if the rating is greater.
Are you calling upon, leveraging or specifically defending
a Relationship? If so, take a black die. Only take 1 per Rela-
tionship, even if the rating is greater.

And then, the Editor asks:

Does your perversity apply? If so, take 1 red die.
Are you calling upon an Edge? If so, take 1 red die. Edges are
always used intentionally by the protagonist, and always re-
quires an Exertion roll.
Does anyone want to tempt you? Every player has a pool
of weirding dice. You can offer a weirding die to the acting
player by taking on the role of that player’s imp for a brief mo-
ment and describing what the imp says, promises or threatens
in order to help (or “help”). Multiple players may offer dice,
and the imp speaks with a cacophony of voices. It is up to the
player rolling to accept any (or all) offered dice; if they do
NOT accept the dice offered, they make a black Ontogenesis
check (described later).
44 Y Imp of the perverse

And finally:
Is the protagonist you admire involved with the situation?
If so, take a black die. This Relationship is NOT at risk.
Is the monster or its influence present? The Editor may
spend one of their own weirding dice to turn one of the play-
ers black dice red. If the player already has all red die, then
they make a red Ontogenesis check before rolling instead.
You now have a small pool of red and black dice. Roll them, and com-
pare each die to your Lucidity.

Every die that equals or exceeds your Lucidity is a hit:

If you have no hits - something terrible happens. Anxiety
increases by 1. The situation resolves against you. Since you
have no hits to spend (see below), everything you risked on
the roll loses 1 from its rating.
If you have any hits - spend your hits on two things: success,
and maintaining your humanity. Each attribute you risked
loses 1 from its rating unless you spend a hit to maintain it.
Any hits left over represents your degree of success.

Then, compare your red and black dice that are hits:
If you have more red hits than black hits - you lose your
composure, and narrate how we get to see a glimpse of your
Imp come out. Make a red Ontogenesis check.
If you have more black hits than red hits - you maintain
your composure. Make a black Ontogenesis check.
If they are tied - Look to highest number for whether the Imp
comes out or not; you choose whether to make a red or black
check depending on how you narrate the result of the roll.

Using Edges
Any use of an Edge is an exertion roll, even if the goal of the protag-
onist is to gain information, find a clue or otherwise engage in what’s
normally covered by Ratiocination. If the player wants to find some-
thing out in a supernatural manner that does not fall under any of their
Edges, that is “make a deal with your Imp” under Ratiocination.
 Playing The Game Z 45

After the dice have been cast but before narration of the outcome, you
can choose to embrace the imp. When you do this, immediately lower
your Lucidity by 1, then recount hits. Narrate how your imp emerges
through you to resolve the situation. Anxiety increases by 1.
ww You can only embrace the Imp once per roll.
ww You can embrace the Imp even if you have hits, if it will give you
more hits.
ww You cannot embrace the Imp if it would not gain you any hits.
Success, Failure & Maintaining Humanity
If you get no hits at all, the situation, whatever it is, resolves against
you or your interests. Anxiety increases by 1. If you get hits, you have
two things to spend them on:
ww Success
ww Maintaining Humanity
Spending hits on success means that the situation resolves in your
favor, to a degree corresponding to hits spent. This is contextual to the
situation; a single hit spent on success means you basically get what
you want, with more making your success more and more heroic.
Why not spend all your hits on success? Everything you risked on
the roll (that is, each Quality, Relationship and Greatest Strength you
called upon to gain a black die) goes down by 1 unless you spend a hit
on maintaining it. The hunt grinds away ceaselessly.
ww Anything you spend a hit to maintain retains its current rating.
ww Anything you do NOT spend a hit to maintain loses 1 from its cur-
rent rating, except for Relationships, potentially (see below).
ww When you get no hits at all, everything you risked loses 1 (and
Anxiety goes up by 1).

When something you have a rating in hits 0, make a red Ontogene-

sis check. Your protagonist has lost this part of themselves to the hunt,
and can no longer risk that thing on Exertion rolls. You should also use
this to guide the play of your protagonist for the rest of the Chapter.
What does it mean to lose that Quality? How do they react to the end
of that Relationship?
You may be able to recover these things, or replace them, after the
end of this Chapter through spending black Ontogenesis checks (page
50).
46 Y Imp of the perverse

Finally, note that losing a “negative” Quality (like Unhappy) may

be a welcome outcome! Not all parts of the protagonist are ones they
want to have. Strategically risking specific things in order to lose them
is a productive and valid choice for play.

FOR EXAMPLE
Upon following one of the leads to the nave of a small, aban-
doned church, Gerard hears a scream! He rushes in through
the rotting door and comes upon a woman, bloody and uncon-
scious, in a heap on the floor. Her breath is slowing, and I de-
clare that I want to keep her alive, as it seems that she is quickly
slipping towards death. This is Gerard imposing his will upon
the world. He has the Quality of “Exploration”, which doesn’t re-
ally apply. His Greatest Strength is “Never Backs Down” which
certainly does, so I pick up 1 black die. Gerard has no Edges,
and his Perversity of a masochistic desire for pain doesn’t seem
immediately relevant - but I say “I’ve grown up with all kinds
of strange gods and spirits around here, I use my knife to cut
my palms and use my blood to anoint her face, trying to call
a loa to help me. I only need a drop of blood but I slice both
palms, just spraying blood everywhere.” The Editor agrees that
that’s in keeping with his perversity! So have 1 red die and 1
black die in my pool, with a current Lucidity of 5.
Seeing this, another player offers me a red die from her weird-
ing dice, which I accept - as my Imp, she says that the blood
I smear on her face seems “delicious,” and I narrate how hesi-
tantly lick some of it off as part of my invocation to a healing
spirit (gross!).
I roll my 3 dice, getting 2, 4, 5. I have one hit (the 5, equal to my
Lucidity), which means I have more red hits than black. I make
a red Ontogenesis check. I only have the one hit to spend, ei-
ther on success or on maintaining my Greatest Strength (the
only trait I risked). I think it’s more dramatic and important
for her to live, so I spend the hit on success, and Gerard’s Great-
est Strength goes down by 1. If I’d wanted to, I could have em-
braced the Imp and lowered my Lucidity to 4, which would
have given me 2 hits - but I’m saving that for later.
 Playing The Game Z 47

Safety Tools While Playing

As Anxiety rises, the Editor ramps up the horror of the monster, and the pro-
tagonists use their Edges and choose whether to give in to their Imps, the
likelihood of players introducing harmful or painful content can grow. The
nature of this game is such that everyone should be ready for some gross,
weird or disturbing things. But players don’t always know in advance what is
going to hit them viscerally or trigger an emotional response that takes them
out of the game. Here are some tools to help navigate this kind of content.
The Red Mist: This technique is meant to integrate with the themes and flow
of the game, as well as be a tool to manage difficult moments. When it seems
to you that a scene or moment is heading towards a place you don’t want to
engage with, reach out to touch the Anxiety die (or the X-Card) and say “a
red mist rises.” From the perspective of an outside audience (i.e. your group
as you describe things in the game), a red mist obscures the action of the
scene. When it drops you only see the aftermath. You can bring in the red
mist to your own scene, or to obscure the details of another; you can do it
for your own comfort, or because you can see that someone else is uncom-
fortable but doesn’t want to make it an issue.
Whoever was narrating the scene should take a moment to think through
where they were going, and then they describe the aftermath or result of the
scene, eliding the details of what happened in the mist.
The X-Card: Place an index card with an X on it on the table, within reach of
everyone. This allows players to touch it to indicate that the current subject
is something they’d like to see withdrawn, without requiring them to speak
up in a possibly uncomfortable situation or pull everyone’s direct attention
to them at once. If someone touches the X-Card, roll back what was just in-
troduced into the game and move on without discussion. Logistically, it may
also be touched to raise the Red Mist (in which case the player announces
that as well as touching the card).
Lines: Respect all lines drawn during protagonist creation by not introduc-
ing them in play. If something comes up that happens to be a line that hadn’t
come up yet, and someone wants to draw a new one, respect that as well.
Veils: Keep all veiled content behind the veils drawn during protagonist cre-
ation. If a situation comes up that someone wishes to be veiled in the mo-
ment, respect that as well. This differs from the Red Mist in that you skip the
aftermath as well, just outline what happens behind the veil and move on.
48 Y Imp of the perverse

HELPING & HINDERING EACH OTHER

If you want to help another protagonist when they make a roll, you
must say so before they roll the dice. Pick a single one of: your Quali-
ties, your Greatest Strength, or a Relationship that applies to the situa-
tion, and hand the player you’re helping a single black die.
If the roll is a total failure, with no hits, you lose 1 in what
you risked to help.
If the player gets hits, they choose whether to spend a hit on
maintaining what you spent (along with what they risked). If
they do so, they get a black Ontogenesis check in addition to
any others stemming from the roll.
In addition, whatever Ontogenesis check they make as a re-
sult of the roll, you make as well. If they get an additional
black check as described above, you do not make that, just
whichever one they make for more black or red hits.
If you want to hinder another protagonist, you must say so before they
roll the dice. You do not specify an element on your sheet; rather, sim-
ply narrate how you’re interfering, take one of their black dice out of
their pool. If they have no black dice, take a red die. If you would take
the only die they have to roll, they count as failing the roll with no hits.
You make a red Ontogenesis check whenever you hinder another.

RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships are the people that matter most in your protagonists life,
and so you can call upon them for Exertion rolls for black dice. You
have an additional option if you choose not to spend a hit to main-
tain a Relationship: instead of losing 1 from its rating, you can switch it
from responsibility to obligation, or vice versa.
This switch must have some reflection in the events of play or come
directly out of the nature of the Exertion result. Describe the nature of
the change and how it changes the timbre of the relationship. If there
is no obvious way to reflect the change in the fiction, then you cannot
take this option, and must lower the rating as normal.
When you lose your last point in a Relationship, cross it off your
sheet. It is destroyed forever.
The exception to this is the fellow protagonist that you admire; the
black die you gain from that Relationship is not at risk, and does not
need to be maintained with a hit.
 Playing The Game Z 49

EMPATHY
In addition to Ratiocination and Exertion, you may also need to use
your protagonists powers of Empathy to discover a monsters weak-
ness, unveil what it wants in the mortal world, or otherwise make a de-
cision about how to confront the creature.
When you are in the presence of the monster, or with a horror that
it has visited upon the world, you can spend 1 Empathy to narrate how
something connects with what they are facing, and ask the Editor a
question. This question can be about the nature of the monster, about
what it’s planning or doing, about a weakness, or how to put it to rest.
The Editor answers the question. This is a true answer, as whatever
the Editor brings in is immediately understood to be helpful and rel-
evant to the question asked. This answer does not have to pre-deter-
mined, and in fact often will be something that the Editor hasn’t yet
considered. This is OK! The Editor answers in accordance with their
principles: to maintain integrity with the dark Gothic world, integrity
with the nature of the characters as they’ve been played, and integrity
with the events of play as they have unfolded so far. This is a moment
where the player and the Editor work together to determine how the
protagonists can find a way to end the creature’s time on this earth.
When you spend Empathy, make a black Ontogenesis check - or, if
you have any, you can erase a red Ontogenesis check. This is the only
way to get rid of checks during a session.

FOR EXAMPLE
Later in the Chapter, the soldier Thomas has re-united with
his fiancée, Matilda - but as she tenderly strokes his face, it
erupts with malignant fungus! Gerard pulls Matilda away as
Thomas screams, and she start mumbling that “Madam Catoire
will be pleased”. Finally, Gerard knows who has been haunting
Matilda, and I feel like this is an opportune time to use his Em-
pathy to find out more. I simply spend a point of Empathy and
ask the Editor “Why isn’t Matilda consumed by the fungus like
the other victims I’ve seen? ”
The Editor uses Matilda to answer in a trance-like voice:
Madam Catoire, a vengeful spirit that delights in the decay and
destruction of young men and women, sees Matilda as her new
material body. She is keeping it pristine until she is powerful
enough to return from beyond the Shroud.
I could erase a red Ontogenesis check, but I decide to make a
black one - Gerard is motivated to save Matilda!
50 Y Imp of the perverse

LUCIDITY
Lucidity is a central part of your protagonist, tracking the progress of
their slide towards perversity or their climb back to humanity. Mea-
sured from 1 to 6, your current Lucidity is always the target number
for your Exertion rolls.
In addition, you will sometimes have the option to embrace the imp
to gain more hits; this lowers your Lucidity by 1 immediately (and you
recount your hits for that roll).
Finally, there is an Ontogenesis roll at the end of each Chapter,
which will either raise or lower your Lucidity by 1. After this roll, you
determine whether your protagonist is still on the hunt, has turned
into a monster, or finally managed to free themselves from their imp.
Sometimes, the protagonist you admire will hit 1 or 6 Lucidity before
you do. You gain or lose 1 additional Lucidity depending on their fate.

ONTOGENESIS
Ontogenesis tracks your protagonists long-term trend towards either
giving in to their perversity or regaining their humanity. You’ll have
seen reference to making black or red checks as the result of certain
choices or die rolls; these checks contribute to an Ontogenesis roll at
the end of the Chapter, after the story has been resolved.

MAKING CHECKS
Making checks means making a literal checkmark in the correspond-
ing black or red circle on your protagonist sheet under Ontogenesis.

Here are all the times you make black checks:

ww If you have more black hits than red on an Exertion roll.
ww If you have equal black and red hits on an Exertion roll, and you
choose to resolve the roll without the imp.
ww If you reject a weirding die from another player for an Exertion
roll.
ww If another player helps you by risking one of their traits for
your Exertion roll, AND you spend a hit to keep that trait from
dropping.
ww If you help another player by risking one your traits for their Ex-
ertion roll, AND they get a black check as a result of the roll.
ww If you choose to when you spend Empathy.
 Playing The Game Z 51

Here are all the times you make red checks:

ww If you have more red hits than black on an Exertion roll.
ww If you have equal black and red hits on an Exertion roll, and you
choose to resolve the roll by allowing the imp to appear.
ww If you give into your perversity in order to drop your Lucidity and
get more hits on an Exertion roll.
ww If you help another player by risking one your traits for their Ex-
ertion roll, AND they get a red check as a result of the roll.
ww If you already have all red dice in your Exertion pool, AND the Ed-
itor spends one of their weirding dice on your roll.
ww If you make a deal with your imp to find something out by super-
natural means without spending any points on Ratiocination.

Here is the only time you erase a check during a Chapter:

ww If you choose to do so when you spend Empathy, you can erase a
red check INSTEAD of making a black check.

Checks do nothing for you during a Chapter, but you use them to
make your Ontogenesis roll after the Chapter ends. The results of this
roll are what you use to renew traits, gain new ones, gain new Edges
and add details to the nature of the Shroud in your story.

THE ONTOGENESIS ROLL

At the end of a Chapter, once the creature has been defeated or its per-
versity resolved, the story ends. Then, each player makes an Ontogen-
esis roll for their protagonist. This represents their gradual develop-
ment over time, either closer to regaining their humanity or closer to
their imp and the world beyond the Shroud.
Total up the checkmarks in your two circles, and roll a correspond-
ing number of black and red dice (so, if you have 2 checkmarks in red
and three in black, roll 2 red dice and 3 black dice). Sum the dice in
each color. In the unlikely event that someone ends up with no checks,
they simply roll off one red and one black die, and let the winds of
chance take them (they still have no checks to spend, however - see
below).
ww If black has a higher total, add 1 to Lucidity.
ww If red has a higher total, subtract 1 from Lucidity.
Each player narrates how the change looks in a brief epilogue scene.
52 Y Imp of the perverse

If this would bring your Lucidity to 6, your protagonist has

found a path towards shedding their perversity and rejoin-
ing humanity as a singular being! Describe how they get the
Imp off of their shoulder and regain their human life. If you
would like to continue playing, make a new protagonist, or
take over as Editor for the next Chapter.
If this would bring your Lucidity to 1, your character gives
in to their Imp and their perversity finally pierces a hole in the
Shroud, turning them into a monster. Describe how this hap-
pens, and what the character turns into. If you wish, you take
on the role of the Editor for the next Chapter of the game, and
create your late protagonist as the monster of the next hunt!
The last Editor makes a protagonist to join the next Chapter.
If you aren’t comfortable with this and wish to keep playing,
simply make a new protagonist for yourself. The Editor still
preps your former character as the next monster, however.
If the protagonist you admire hits 1 Lucidity and gives in to
their imp, this has a fallout effect on you. You lose 1 Lucidity
in addition to your Ontogenesis result, and cross that Rela-
tionship off of your sheet. If you are still on the hunt (i.e. this
does not also bring your Lucidity to 1), you gain 1 Empathy -
your insight into the monster that was so recently your fellow
is a valuable weapon.
If the protagonist you admire hits 6 Lucidity and regains
their humanity, this has an uplifting effect on you. You gain 1
Lucidity in addition to your Ontogenesis result. If you are still
on the hunt (i.e. this does not also bring your Lucidity to 6,
your Relationship with them turns from admiration to a stan-
dard one (of either responsibility or obligation) with a rating
of 2. Even if they are no longer on the hunt, they are someone
in your life that may be valuable to you.

Games with 1 or 2 protagonists

In games with fewer players, they’ll be making more Exertion rolls. If you
find that players are getting so many checks that they can easily restore
all of their traits after every Chapter, go ahead and institute this rule:
After making the Ontogenesis roll, but before spending checks, each
player erases a total number of checks equal to the final Anxiety score of
the previous Chapter, as evenly divided between red and black as possi-
ble (players choice as to where to erase odd numbers).
 Playing The Game Z 53

GROWTH AND CHANGE

If you reach neither end of the Lucidity spectrum, your protagonist
is still on the hunt. You spend your Ontogenesis checks in order to re-
fresh, revive and grow your character in preparation for the next hunt.

If you have black checks:

ww Spend 1 to gain a new Relationship with someone your character
gained a bond with through the events of the last Chapter. This
starts with a rating of 1, and you choose whether it’s a relationship
of responsibility or obligation.
ww Spend 1 to add 1 to any existing Quality or Relationship (if you
have one of these that dropped to 0 during the Chapter, it is no
longer existing - to get it back, you have to spend 2, as noted
below).
ww Spend 1 to add 1 to your Greatest Strength (even if it’s at 0).
ww Spend 1 to bring a single Ratiocination pool (Standing, Resources
or Reason) back to its starting level of points.
ww Spend 2 to gain a new Quality (starts at 1) that describes some-
thing you’ve learned about this character, or something that
they’ve learned, through the events of the last Chapter.
ww Spend 2 to add 1 point to the starting level of a single Ratiocina-
tion pool (Standing, Resources or Reason).
ww Spend 2 to bring your Empathy back to its starting level.
ww Spend 3 to add a point to the starting level of your Empathy.
If you have red checks:
ww Spend 1 to create a fact about the Shroud, and the relationship be-
tween the world of the living and the world of the dead. Narrate
a scene demonstrating this fact, and from now on it’s true in your
Gothic world.
ww Spend one more than your current number of Edges to gain a new
Edge. This can be selected from the starting list if you have no
Edges. If you already have an Edge, then generate an Edge that re-
flects your character’s perversity and demonstrates how your Imp
is coming closer to the surface.

If you end up spending for everything you want and still have checks
remaining, erase them before the next Chapter begins.
54 Y Imp of the perverse

FOR EXAMPLE
Madam Catoire has been banished from Matilda and thrown
back to the land of the dead, and it’s the end of the Chapter. Ge-
rard finds himself with four checkmarks in his red Ontogene-
sis circle, and six in his black circle. I roll 4 red dice and 6 black
dice, getting: 3, 4, 6, 6 on the red dice and 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5 on the
black. My totals are 19 to 18! Gerard’s Perversity has a slight
edge, and his Lucidity falls from its current value of 5 to 4.
I have six black checks to spend. I lost 1 from Gerard’s Greatest
Strength, and also from a Relationship, so I spend 1 each to re-
store those. I also feel like he’s been demonstrating a new Qual-
ity, doing noble things out of a sense of responsibility for oth-
ers. I spend 2 checks to take a new Quality of Noble 1, and my
last 2 to bring Reason and Standing back to their starting levels
(spending 1 on each pool).
Finally, I have four red checks to spend. Whenever my imp
made an appearance in play I narrated how the women around
Gerard reacted more to it than the men, and I think that’s
an interesting detail. I spend 1 to establish this fact about the
Shroud: “Women are closer to the Shroud, and more sensitive
to those beyond it.” I spend another to create a new Edge based
on the contradiction in Gerard’s behavior that emerged over
the course of the Chapter, where’s he’s acting more noble but
his imp is trying to make him more lascivious. I call the Edge
“Hedonistically Attractive” - I envision that he will call on it in
situations where he wants to gain the attention of another, no
matter what they are doing or who they are normally attracted
to. It costs 1 because I have no Edges currently (if I’d already
had 1 it would cost 2, and so on). I then erase my final 2 checks,
as I’m out of inspiration for things to spend them on.
Gerard is now ready for his next hunt.
 Editors Rules Z 55

EDITORS RULES
T
he protagonists live in a world of horror and madness,
barely restrained by the onrushing engine of humanity
hurling itself into the future. The veneer of civilization dis-
solves as they get closer to the monster at the heart of the story;
no matter what they do, they are changed by the hunt itself. That’s
your job, to make them change.

MAKE IT DARK,
MAKE IT WEIRD
The Editor has two umbrella duties: to prep the monster that will be
the subject of the Chapter of play, and then to manage pacing and rev-
elation of the horror during play. Coming up with the monster and its
Web is covered in Part 2. This section covers what you do during play.
There is no question as to whether the protagonists will find, and ul-
timately defeat, the monster. You’ve given it an agenda (driven by its
perversity) and people around it (on their Web) that intersect with the
social and personal circles of the protagonists. Everyone knows there’s
a monster out there when the game starts. So, in play, you set charac-
ters and events motion in order to give the protagonists more things to
care about as they chase down the monster, and then monitor the pace
of the game as the players take action.

Some techniques that this game calls for include:

ww Strong, direct scene framing to bring the protagonists face to face
with horror and perversity.
ww Rapid cutting between protagonists, when they are separated,
to keep the action going for all players and keep story threads
together.
ww Create NPCs on the fly in order to fulfill any dramatic role called
for in the moment.
ww Narrating the horror of the world in visceral detail to the extent
required by the events of the game and the escalation of the mon-
sters horror.
56 Y Imp of the perverse

You have an agenda, at all times:

ww Construct a compelling, dark world full of challenge, doubt and
wonder.
ww Engineer specific situations for each protagonist that dare them
to embrace their darker self
ww Demonstrates the consequences of the protagonists actions with
integrity (in this order: integrity to the dark Gothic world, in-
tegrity to the characters development so far, integrity to the de-
mands of the unfolding narrative, and ideally all three)

GETTING STARTED
This will depend a lot on the protagonists, your monster and its Web,
and the overlap between the agenda of your monster and the interests
of the players. Especially for the very first time you play the game, ev-
eryone is getting used to their character and the rules at the same time
as getting into the story, and it’s appropriate to take some time to sim-
ply build the specific world around the protagonists and let them in-
habit it for a little while before the monster rears its ugly head.
The reason that protagonists are created the way they are, through
the survey that gives them a career, family, a specific place of origin
and relationships, is because the horror of the game comes from the
growing gap between normal life and the horrors that await society
once the monster takes action. The first couple scenes of the game
should present normalcy, with the undercurrent of tension (since
they know a monster is out there), and then shatter it by showing how
someone (ideally a Relationship) is suddenly and awfully impacted by
a horrible act of the monster.

RULES DURING PLAY

You never roll dice or spend points. You have a few things to keep track
of, and you can spend your Weirding Dice to represent the presence or
influence of the monster. All of these are below, along with guidelines
for how to interact with the rules the protagonists have. But, generally,
your job is to frame scenes, answer questions and showcase the world
in accordance to your principles above.
 Editors Rules Z 57

ANXIETY
Anxiety refers to the growing sense of disassociation from the human
world as the protagonists get closer and closer to the monster (and
take advantage of the powers afforded them by their imps).
Anxiety is represented by a special die, ideally large and imposing,
placed on the table where everyone can see it. Each Chapter starts
with Anxiety at 1. Anxiety rises as the result of things that happen in
the game, and generally tracks how close the protagonists are getting
to the monster at the heart of its Web.

Increment Anxiety up by 1 when:

ww The protagonists first glimpse the monster, or the horror it is cre-
ating in their world.
ww The protagonists first take decisive action to destroy the monster.
ww Each time a protagonist embraces their imp as part of an Exertion
roll, losing 1 from their Lucidity.
ww Each time a protagonist fails an Exertion roll (getting no hits at
all).

The effects of Anxiety are:

ww Every time Anxiety goes up, every player (each protagonist player
AND the Editor) add a Weirding Die to their pool.
ww Current Anxiety is how many points a protagonist needs to spend
on Ratiocination to answer a question.
ww The horror of the monster escalates, either to something you
prepped or to something new that grows out of the events of play
so far.
There is no hard limit on Anxiety, but generally a 3 or 4 means its prob-
ably time to move things along to encountering the monster, if they
haven’t gotten there already.

ESCALATION
The protagonists actions in a Chapter are going to disrupt the mon-
sters status quo. This means that the general situation, static before
the protagonists start poking around, will change and push the mon-
ster to taking more and worse actions of its own as its little world be-
gins to crumble around it.
The horror of the Chapter escalates as the creature feels threatened,
lashes out and generally uses terrible abilities and appetites to try to
58 Y Imp of the perverse

neutralize the threat it faces. This escalation is tracked for everyone by

the Anxiety die, and the monster moves through it’s own areas of Es-
calation as the protagonists get near.
What does escalation mean? Pick one arena of Escalation that you
already prepped for your monster (Era, Horror or Emanation), and im-
plement the next stage (or invent it based on the events of play so far, if
you didn’t come up with it beforehand). Compose a scene highlighting
or demonstrating the new addition to the monsters arsenal, change
the behavior of a Relationship or simply describe something that hap-
pens “off-camera” to bring the players into what’s going on, so they
can orient their protagonists towards it with their play. Escalation is a
good time to introduce an abrupt change, bring in new NPCs, or stage
a dramatic death in order to showcase how serious things are getting.

RATIOCINATION
When the players spend points to figure things out, simply tell them
what they want to know! Sometimes you’ll have a specific answer from
your prep. If you don’t, use it as an opportunity to build in more weird-
ness and integrate the players interests into your scenario.
If you don’t have a answer on hand, you can also just describe the
consequences of their inquiry, and then ask the player what they find.
This technique (called Fishing) can be helpful when players go off in
a direction that strains your creativity, or if you just don’t know what
they’re aiming at.
If a player makes a deal with their Imp in order to avoid spending
points, make sure to tie the supernatural means of discovery into the
monsters portfolio of horror, if you can find any way to do so.

EMPATHY
The purpose of Empathy as an option for protagonists is two-fold: first,
and most importantly, sometimes the players find themselves in a sit-
uation where they have no clear fictional path to handling the mon-
ster. Empathy allows them to overcome this hurdle by making a con-
nection to the monster and thus learning something about it. Second,
it’s an opportunity for you to adjust your conception of the monster
based on the events of play.
Since they ask you a question, and whatever you say must be true,
you can use this to tell them the secret you’ve embedded into the mon-
ster from the beginning or to come up with something totally new, but
 Editors Rules Z 59

inspired by how the story is going and where you’d like to see it end.
Whenever you answer an Empathy question, make sure it’s some-
thing actionable - it should always lead the protagonists to try some-
thing once they’ve processed the information. And if they extrapolate
from it to something you hadn’t considered, that’s fine! Go with it.

WEIRDING DICE
You start with Weirding Dice (red dice) reflecting how horrible your
monster is, per what you chose when you prepped them.
Near the Shroud - start with 2 weirding dice. The creature is
still mortal, but unalterably changed by its perversity.
Past the Shroud - 3 weirding dice. The creature departed the
mortal world, but continues to trouble the living.
Returned from beyond the Shroud - 4 weirding dice. The
creature passed, but has returned, whether as a spirit or
clothed again in vile flesh.
During Play - you gain one Weirding Die whenever Anxiety
goes up (along with the protagonist players).
When a protagonist makes a roll in the face of the horrible, you may
spend a Weirding Die to turn one of their black dice to red. If they
already have all red dice in their pool, they make a red Ontogenesis
check before they roll, instead.
In addition to using your judgment, these triggers demand a Weird-
ing Die, if you have any remaining and a player is making a roll:
ww To represent the creature’s influence over a seemingly innocuous
situation.
ww Upon the first appearance of the creature in full view.
ww When a protagonists actions are in tune with the monsters port-
folio of horror (whether it is present in the scene or not).
ww To demonstrate the truly horrible, gruesome or traumatizing na-
ture of a specific act of horror, regardless of source.
ww Any time it would make dramatic sense for the protagonists Imp
to come to the surface, whether because of the monster or because
of their own actions.

At the end of each Chapter, discard any Weirding Dice you have re-
maining. There is no reason not to use them all in the course of a sin-
gle Chapter.
60 Y Imp of the perverse

FIGHTING & DEATH

There are no rules specifically about how to kill a monster, or other-
wise resolve its presence in the world. Often, there will be a confron-
tation that feels like the climax of the story, and someone will make
an Exertion roll to try to deal with it. If they succeed, they do it, and
the monster is dead! If they fail, it’s time for Escalation, and the mon-
ster gets even more dreadful. They’ll have to try something else. Even-
tually, though, they’ll make that roll (or otherwise engineer a fictional
situation that ends the threat of the monster), and thats that.
There is no health or wound system for protagonists either. If a pro-
tagonist is in a fight, they will probably be making an Exertion roll,
in which case you let the dice guide you as to how it all comes out. If
this isn’t appropriate, than you simply decide what happens in accor-
dance with your principles, like anything else that is in question. And
of course, if they choose to use an Edge to handle a dangerous situ-
ation, that’s always a situation ripe with opportunity for the imp to
make an appearance.
There’s no way to kill a protagonist, unless the player puts them-
selves in a situation where their death is the only dramatically satisfy-
ing outcome. Then its up to the player whether they die. If they choose
to die, and the main story is continuing on, they can still participate by
spending their Weirding Dice on other players rolls!

CHANGING EDITORS
At the end of the first Chapter, there’s often a moment of analysis while
everyone takes in how their Lucidity has changed over the course of
the game, and what that means for their protagonist. Sometimes, one
of them has already gone all the way down to 1! More likely, after two
or three Chapters, the inevitable decline of a protagonist who has in-
dulged in their perversity will lead them to that state.
Regardless, when a protagonist is down to 1 Lucidity, they turn into
a monster themselves. This is an invitation for that player to prep their
former protagonist as the monster for the next Chapter, and take on
the Editor role! In a way they continue to play that character to their
inevitable end, after all.
If the player is comfortable being the Editor, then it’s a simple tran-
sition - maybe you help with the prep in some way, or explain spe-
cific things about the world that you’ve been using the inform your
 Editors Rules Z 61

portrayal that haven’t become literal text in your storys yet. Certainly
refer them to the parts of this text that you find helpful. Ideally, they’ll
have observed and absorbed the way you have exercised the duties of
Editor so far, and be ready to add their own unique take on the role.
If they are not comfortable or simply not interested in being the Ed-
itor, then you go on as usual - perhaps you ask for their input on cre-
ating the monster, and the Web will probably be pretty easy to com-
pose. If it seems like too much to go straight into the hunt for a former
comrade, do a different monster first, or jump ahead in the protago-
nists timeline.
Similarly, if a protagonist attains 6 Lucidity, they have fully divested
themselves of their perversity, and they can rejoin humanity (with,
perhaps, some terrible stories that they hope never to have to tell).
This is also an invitation to change Editors, if that player wishes to try
out the role of the hunted rather than the hunter. In this case, they
would make any monster they wished, rather than one based on their
former protagonist - but note that that character may still be present
in the Chapter to come, especially if they are a Relationship to another
protagonist.
Whenever a protagonist comes to the end of their story, and the
same group of players wish to continue playing together, than who-
ever is now without a protagonist simply makes a new one to intro-
duce in the next Chapter. They could have a relationship to the exit-
ing protagonist, or to someone else still on the hunt, or be a stranger
drawn by the pull of the monster in the world; regardless, they are
made the same way as any starting protagonist, and choose one of the
current protagonists to admire.
 Jacksonian Gothic America Z 63

PART FIVE
JACKSONIAN
GOTHIC AMERICA
T
he modern world! It’s a wondrous time. Amidst diminish-
ing echoes of revolution arise fresh ways of ordering soci-
ety. A wondrous new invention promises to enable commu-
nication across entire nations in only seconds. America explores
(and exploits) the vastness of its land. Europe grapples with the
collective identity of the worker while taking a deep breath be-
tween conflicts. Industry takes root and factories rise, building
the framework of an entirely new world to come. This marvelous
progress is built on the fresh graves of those who had their native
worlds suddenly upended. For every mechanical invention, a new
disease arises; for each innovation in finance and trade, land and
bodies are sold and stripped of value. The cities and ports bustle
and grow, but in forests and farmlands, mountain caves and shel-
tered canyons, in the flickering shadows left by gaslight and can-
dle, there is an ancient darkness. Waiting.

WHY NOW?
The inspiration for this game springs forth from the intersection of
morbid romanticism and acrimonious social commentary embedded
throughout the work of Edgar Allan Poe, who bookends this span of
time neatly - his first published prose (MS. Found in a Bottle) was in 1833,
and he died (of causes still unknown) in 1849.
These two decades cover a significant shift in the nature of America
itself. Many of these trends would continue to develop over the course
of the 19th century, of course. But the changes brought by westward
expansion, the accelerating transition from rural to urban life, the
growing mercantile class, the leaps and bounds of everyday technol-
ogies, and the growth of political and social movements devoted to a
myriad of causes pulled America into the burgeoning industrial age
and set the stage for the idealized memories we have of our past.
64 Y Imp of the perverse

This swirling maelstrom of change, and the anxieties and fears that
come along with it, is what creates the cracks for perversity to grow in
this world. Thematically, the horror of a monster springs from the ten-
sion between its primal perverse essence and the modernity in which
it sits; monsters pull back the veil of progress and show us that human-
ity itself has enduring darkness within, darkness that cannot be driven
out no matter how bright the surrounding lights.
Thus, inspiration and thematic heft dovetail, and 1830s and 1840s
America, the Jacksonian era, is the fertile ground within which to
plant your monsters and your protagonists, and watch them grow and
change as they explore the world around them and take action to make
their world just a little bit better - and in so doing help themselves.

USING THIS SECTION

This is a game, not a history lesson. However, part of creating the hor-
ror of the dark Gothic world around the protagonists is creating a
baseline of normalcy, and then demonstrating how perversity and the
monsters that spring from it disrupt and damage that human world.
The protagonists immediate context is embedded in the survey you
use to create them - career, family and marital status are all key things
to know to situate them in their social circles, which then create the
nodes that connect the protagonists to the monster.
This section gives a broad overview of the nature of the world
around the protagonists at different points during the Jacksonian Era.
This current playtest text does not yet contain all the inspirational de-
tails and specific touchpoints to help you bring exciting verisimilitude
into your game; eventually, details about the world relevant to specific
parts of the game will be included alongside that material.
 Jacksonian Gothic America Z 65

JACKSONIAN AMERICA
The period from Andrew Jackson’s election in 1828 until the early
1850s is considered “Jacksonian,” as the changes in America reflect the
agenda and ideology that he embodied as President. Though Jackson
was succeeded by Martin Van Buren in 1836, it was his (idealized) vi-
sion of an America where the everyday people knew what was best for
themselves, and his distrust of government as a tool for change that
shaped national policy and party politics for decades.
Jackson died in 1845, His influence lingered in the Democratic Party
that he founded as it morphed into the party of slavery and segrega-
tion, ushering in the next great conflict; but this era saw America com-
ing into its own as a nation before breaking apart into the Civil War.
Despite a significant recession in 1837, this was a time of transition
from agrarian to industrial economies, the incubation of radical new
technologies and ideologies, and the exploitation of seemingly unend-
ing resources of the land itself.
Between 1830 and 1850 the United States of America expanded geo-
graphically as well as economically, essentially adding the entire West-
ern third of the continent to its map. While most people lived intensely
local lives, the explosion of new communication and transportation
technologies made the world smaller even as square mileage grew.
Magazines and periodicals carried the news of the day anywhere a
postal carriage could go.
Of course these influences changed the texture of everyday life, but
each region of the country was strongly rooted in the traditions and
mores of how it came to be, creating significant variation in lived ex-
perience between wheat farmers in Massachusetts and cotton growers
in Georgia, fur trappers in Illinois and flatboat handlers on the Missis-
sippi, Senators in Washington DC and Generals in California.
For our purposes here, we’re going to explore Jacksonian America
along the twin axes of time and space, each giving three major areas of
significant variation within which to set a game of Imp of the Perverse.
These are not hard limits; you can abstract the general sense of the
time to whatever level you feel comfortable. However, if you want to
leverage the specificity of history in order to portray the world around
the protagonists, decide: is your game early, middle, or late in the pe-
riod; and is your game in the East, the South or the West?
66 Y Imp of the perverse

CONSIDERATIONS OF TIME
It is not necessary to pick a specific date in which to play; using the
general melange of tone you pick up from this overview along with
specific details that jump out to you as interesting is totally valid. How-
ever, there are two break-points worth noting here that mark signifi-
cant shifts in the tone and tenor of the times: 1837 and 1845.
ww Early Jacksonian Period: 1830-1836
ww Mid Jacksonian Period: 1837-1845
ww Late Jacksonian Period: 1846-1850
Each individual Chapter of play will be more strongly framed by the
geographical place you choose to set it in than the year or date; how-
ever, by using the tone and tenor of the general period, you can add a
lot of texture and detail to your games the enhance the deeper themes
of play. In the sections to follow, you will find an overview of each re-
gion of America (the East, the South and the West), organized roughly
chronologically, and using these three time periods as touchpoints.

Setting Your Game Before 1837

The most literal period of Jacksonian America, this time is defined
by the nature of the president in many ways. He campaigned against
elites and aristocrats, casting himself as a man of the people. The cre-
ation of the Democratic Party (with him at the head) began the two-
party system that defines American politics to this day. He was victo-
rious at the Battle of New Orleans, a national hero to those who saw
that victory as a final repudiation of the British; he signed the Indian
Removal Act that led to the Trail of Tears, the forceful expulsion of
tens of thousands of Native Americans from their lands in the south
to the west. His election was the result of direct democracy, his elec-
tors chosen by popular vote in almost every state; he was a land spec-
ulator who owned slaves on his plantation in Tennessee. To paint with
an extremely broad brush, the tone of this period was of exuberance,
a sense that America finally had its proper place in the world, that the
democratic ideals of its founding were finally being fully expressed -
for those who had the ability to enjoy them.
 Jacksonian Gothic America Z 67

Setting Your Game between 1837 and 1845

Things quickly changed as a result of the Panic of 1837. This was an
economic crisis that stemmed from the lack of a centralized national
bank (a concept that Jackson hated and successfully managed to de-
stroy while he was in office) along with rising tariffs, rampant land
speculation, and a poor growing season for southern crops. Martin
Van Buren, Jackson’s Vice President and newly elected to the Pres-
idency, was a strategist but not a great orator; his efforts to resolve
the economic fallout of Jackson’s policies without diverging from the
Democratic Party’s stance against central banking did not have great
results. From 1837 through the mid-1840s, most of the country was in
a recession, with unemployment soaring even as cities swelled with
the influx of laborers and immigrants thrown off their land or fleeing
their own problems. The defining tone of the 1837-1845 period was pes-
simism, growing factionalism and the sense that there were riches out
there to be had, if only one could figure out how to get to them.

Setting Your Game After 1845

In 1845, the United States annexed (by request) the independent Re-
public of Texas, laying the stage for the Mexican-American War to kick
off in 1846. The end result of this war was an immense addition of land
to the US: what are now the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Col-
orado, Arizona and New Mexico were all subsumed into America by
1850, creating (along with the Oregon Territory in 1846 and Minne-
sota Territory in 1849) the map that we are familiar with today. This
triggered a major wave of westward expansion - the ability of settlers
to stake claims to 160 acre homesteads in the west, the establishment
of the Oregon Trail and the beginning of the California Gold Rush all
happened in the late 1840s. While there was a sharp division in opin-
ion between those for and against the war with Mexico, the sudden ad-
dition of so much land to explore and potential wealth to claim tran-
sitions the tone of this period back to one of optimism, but tempered
with the apprehension of exploration and conflict along the way.

Apologies
From here on, this section is more of a set of outline notes than com-
posed text. This is the main section that is still being written for the
manuscript. Hopefully, there’s enough here to give you a sense of this
world for playtesting purposes.
68 Y Imp of the perverse

CONSIDERATIONS OF SPACE
One thing that will drive your choice of location or region will be the
protagonists in play (as some are more suited to the West than others),
but generally, the game flows easily if you place it in an urban cen-
ter of some kind, where the social relationships can naturally connect
the monster to the protagonists. The general tone of your game can
be strongly influence by the regional culture and concerns; these are
briefly touched on below.

Regions
Any state or territory is a good choice for the “regional” choice when
making a protagonist. Below are general comments on what parts
of the map the region covers, and then notes on relevant events and
trends that occurred in that region.

The East
The eastern seaboard, strongly British and Dutch in origin, Puritan
and Catholic, and generally Whiggish. Maine, New Hampshire, Ver-
mont, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jer-
sey, Delaware. Functionally, Ohio. Maybe Maryland, DC, Michigan,
Indiana.
ww Conflict: The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston in 1837 - a conflict
between Irish mourners and Yankee firemen on Broad St. sparks a
riot that comes to include 1000 people and is only resolved when
Mayor Samuel A. Eliot sends in 10 military companies to restore
order and patrol the streets.
ww Conflict: The Aroostook War (also called the Pork and Beans War)
was a border dispute between Maine and New Brunswick (still part
of the UK at the time) in 1838-1839. While it did not lead to armed
conflict past informal militia skirmishes resulting in injuries and the
capture of several British soldiers, it required serious diplomatic ne-
gotiations to fix a permanent border in 1842. The dispute concerned
things like logging rights and the use of public lands, huge issues to
the residents of the area (many of whom were French-speaking and
did not consider themselves members of either country!).
Good cities to set a game in - New York City, NY; Boston,
MA; Philadelphia, PA
 Jacksonian Gothic America Z 69

The South
The mid-Atlantic and Southern slaveholding states, French and Span-
ish influenced, and generally Democratic. Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Alabama,
Louisiana. Functionally, Kentucky, West Virginia. Maybe Maryland.
Florida Territory (becomes a state 1845).
ww Conflict: Nat Turner’s slave rebellion occurs in 1831, in Southampton
County, Virginia. 60 whites and around 100 blacks died, Turner was
executed, and the event triggered new legislation tightening restric-
tions on free and slave blacks across many Southern states.
Good cities to set a game in - Richmond, VA; Baltimore, MD;
New Orleans, LA

Notes on Everyday Living in a Eastern or Southern City

ww Urban centers are lit by gaslamps at night.
ww The first centralized municipal police forces emerge (Philadelphia
organized a 24-hour force in 1833; the Boston Police was established
in 1838); most policing is a watch system of volunteers (or petty crim-
inals serving sentence) plus constables empowered by the city or
municipality to serve warrants alongside other duties.
ww Fire and medical emergency services were similarly a patchwork of
community volunteer groups and for-profit private enterprises.
ww People got around cities by walking, riding horses, or taking stage-
coaches (some on fixed paths, like a bus service, and some more like
a taxi). People of means might have a private coach or horses de-
pending on where their home is positioned in an urban area.
ww Mail service is effective and reliable, with local stagecoach operators
generally living on their government contracts to carry mail. Postal
rates are high compared to cost of living, but stamped postage could
be reasonably expected to be delivered. Dense urban areas could
see delivery of mail up to 4 days a week, while farther-flung regions
would see a mail coach once a week or a less.
ww Cities were dirty! Sanitation was poor, with most people sharing out-
door privies, garbage piles and drainage ditches. Packs of dogs, pigs
and goats scavenged freely, as they dealt with a lot of the refuse.
ww Cities were growing really fast (up to 60% growth over 10 years), and
the poorest inhabitants did end up in packed slums. Craftspeople
were no longer living with their masters and labor was becoming
less of an artisanal process and more of a commodity, so the “work-
ing-class” neighborhood was forming as well.
70 Y Imp of the perverse

The West
Border states, former territories and the land opened up by the Mexi-
can-American war. Thinly populated, culturally integrating with local
and indigenous populations, with a frontier mentality then generally
cared about land policies over party. Illinois, Missouri, and many terri-
tories (their year of admission into the Union is in parentheses): Michi-
gan Territory (1837), Wisconsin Territory (1848), Iowa Territory (1846),
Minnesota Territory, Arkansas Territory (1836), Oregon Territory (has
a local Government 1843, becomes territory 1848). Texas annexed 1845;
territory from Mexico added 1848, California added 1850, Utah and
New Mexico territories added 1850.
ww The Texas Declaration of Independence is signed in 1836. The Repub-
lic of Texas gained independence from Mexico after Gen. Sam Hous-
ton wins the battle of San Jacinto. This is the conflict that includes
the famous stand at the Alamo, also in 1836. It was annexed into the
United States in 1845, one of the actions that precipitated the Mex-
ican-American War. See more about that under National Conflicts.
ww The Mississippi is a huge deal, not only bisecting the country but
also providing the main way that trade goods got from north to
south, and vice versa. It’s essentially a frontier society all of it’s own,
even as it touches on regions of the East, South and West in turn. Cit-
ies on the river would have a “lower” or “new” section dedicated to
docking, trading and night life for sailors, (Vicksburg Landing, Nat-
chez-Under-the-Hill) and an “upper” or “old” section, farther away
and home to permanent residents and civil authorities (Vicksburg,
Natchez-on-the-Hill). The river people (or voyageurs) had their own
river-driven society, coming together into boat cities, competing for
trade, driving off (or becoming) river pirates, jumping on and off of
boats depending on the winds of fortune, and generally living a bru-
tally difficult life trying to stay alive and make a profit on the biggest
river on the continent.
Good cities to set a game in - St. Louis, MI; Santa Fe, NM, Chi-
cago, IL (established 1833); Houston, TX (established 1836)

National Concerns
It is impossible to touch on everything that might be interesting or rel-
evant to a particular game set in a particular location or year; thus, the
notes below are under the broad umbrella of things relevant relatively
 Jacksonian Gothic America Z 71

universally. Of course, the distribution of the effects of any particu-

lar event or trend was uneven, but here are some good things to know
about the world around your protagonists.

Notes on National Politics

ww This era was the true establishment of the two-party system in
American politics. Jackson (and, arguably even more importantly,
Martin Van Buren) hardened the Democrats into a more cohesive
party, valuing Jackson (specifically), presidential power (broadly),
sovereignty of the people, farmers and laborers, Manifest Destiny,
and laissez-fair economics. The Whig Party coalesced from mem-
bers of the older National Republicans and the Anti-Masonic Party
to counter the Jacksonian Democrats. Whigs are the party of Con-
gressional power, modernists, protectionists, Protestants and the
emerging urban middle class. Both parties have internal divisions
between those who support and oppose slavery, including those who
unite (sometimes across party lines) to keep slavery and abolition off
the table as voting issues in Congress, in order to keep that fault line
from splitting the parties.
ww Patronage (placing political supporters into appointed offices as re-
wards for the support) was a widespread and accepted practice, and
extended from national politics down to local municipalities, often
fueled by family ties.

Notes on National Conflicts

ww Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act in 1830, establishment of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and directly leading to the unforgivable
brutality of the Trail of Tears. Conflict with Native Americans is on-
going: some notable conflicts include the Black Hawk War (Illinois/
Wisconsin, 1832) and the Second Seminole War (Florida, 1835-1842).
ww The Mexican-American war breaks out in 1846, following the annex-
ation of the Republic of Texas into the Union. President Polk sent
troops to support the American interests, arguable baiting the mili-
tary forces of Mexican President Valentín Gómez Farías into attack-
ing them and starting the war. It concludes in 1848, with Mexico
ceding enormous amounts of territory to the US, and receiving $15
million in compensation for war damage. There’s a lot of really weird
and interesting things about this war, including the American-side
politics of President Polk not really trusting General Zachary Tay-
72 Y Imp of the perverse

lor and a strange double-cross by former President Antonio Lopez

de Santa Anna, in exile in Cuba, working both sides to essentially get
American help to return to the presidency of Mexico with promises
that he’d end the war on favorable terms; he reneged and continued
the war, ending up having to surrender once Major General Win-
field Scott captured Mexico City.

Notes on National Economics

ww Jackson, an ardent enemy of central banking, vetoes the re-charter
of the Second Bank of the United States in 1832. This put the onus
of funding the growth of the American economy on state and local
banks, (many of which were poorly run if not outright frauds).
ww The first labor union in the US, the National Trades Union, was es-
tablished in 1834. By 1836 it had 300,000 members. Employers were
bitterly opposed, and the legal right for Unions to exists wasn’t rec-
ognized by the Supreme Court until 1842.
ww In 1835, a 7-month long strike led to the national movement for the
10-hour work day, leading to its establishment at the federal level for
public words projects (in 1840) alongside some state laws.

Notes on Social Trends

ww An explosion of newspapers and magazines at local scales, as well
as with state-wide, regional or national distribution, accelerates not
only the dissemination of news, and the factionalization of political
and interest groups, and literacy rates in the general populace.
ww Abolition emerges as a united idealogical force. The iconic aboli-
tionist newspaper The Liberator is first published in 1831 by William
Lloyd Garrison, in Boston (and continues weekly publication until
the Civil War). Abolitionists make a moral argument for immedi-
ate emancipation of slaves and the end to segregation, a more rad-
ical position than the moderate gradualists who saw emancipation
as an eventual end-point, and the Free Soilers who argued that new
territories must be free but slavery could remain where it already
existed.
ww America is on the cusp of transitioning from an agrarian to an in-
dustrial society. Mass communication is coming into being (between
the telegraph, steam engines and cheap mass publications), but most
urban areas are still geographically isolated and dependent on local
agriculture for support. Most of the south is dependent on slave
labor for goods.
 Jacksonian Gothic America Z 73

ww The sense of America as not being as “advanced” or as “good” as Eu-

rope is strongly entrenched in many elites.

Notes on Technology
ww The Colt revolver is patented in 1836.
ww Samuel Morse patents the telegraph in 1837. The technology quickly
becomes adopted for business and official dealings, and eventually
links the country from coast to coast (by the early 1860s).
ww The daguerreotype is invented in 1837, announced to the world in
1839 and rapidly becomes the first widely-available image reproduc-
tion technology. 1839 is considered to be the “birth year of photogra-
phy”. Daguerreotype comes to America in 1840, promoted by Sam-
uel Morse.
ww Railroads are built in earnest across America; the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad opens in 1830, and mill owners in the northeast invest
in railroads in order to get better shipping rates (compared with
canal boats). There’s an explosion of local routes in the south (the
Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad and the Raleigh and Gaston Rail-
road both begin construction) along with longer ones meant to con-
nect regions of the country.

Notes on Literature and Culture

ww On the Continent, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo and Hans Christian
Anderson are all writing and publishing.
ww In America, notable literary minds of the time include Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Caroline Kirkland, and of course
E.A. Poe; in addition, the influential newspapers The Southern Liter-
ary Messenger, Knickerbocker Magazine, The New York Herald and
Graham Magazine are all established.
ww The novel as we know it today has yet to be fully established. Se-
rial stories published in magazines, poems and books of poetry, es-
says on social, political or literary topics of the day and biographical
sketches of figures of note make up the majority of published work.
74 Y Imp of the perverse

REFERENCES
Selected Bibliography
ww The works of Edgar Allan Poe
ww Fabian, Ann. The Unvarnished Truth: Personal Narratives in Nine-
teenth-Century America. University of California Press, 2000.
ww Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life 1790-1840. Harper &
Row, Publishers, 1988.
ww Levy, Buddy. American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David
Crockett. Berkley Books, 2005.
ww Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. Cooper Square
Press, 2000.
ww Sandlin, Lee. Wicked River: the Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild.
Pantheon Books, 2010
ww Schudson, Michael. Discovering the News: A Social History of Amer-
ican Newspapers. Basic Books Inc, 1978.
ww Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Re-
membrance. HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
ww Sides, Hampton. Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson
and the Conquest of the American West. Anchor Books, 2006.
ww Watson, Harry L. Liberty and Power: The Politic of Jacksonian Amer-
ica. Hill and Wang, 2006.
ww Woodard, Colin. American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival
Regional Cultures of North America. Penguin Books, 2011.

Selected Ludography
ww InSpectres, by Jared Sorensen
ww The Burning Wheel, by Luke Crane
ww The Mountain Witch, by Timothy Kleinert
ww Dogs In The Vineyard, by D. Vincent Baker
ww Apocalypse World, by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker
ww Conspiracy of Shadows, by Keith Senkowski
ww Masque of the Red Death D&D Campaign Setting, by William W.
Connors