Car News

Around three years ago, I was offered the opportunity to write the
afterword for an RPG in development called Darkest Dungeons. It was a
modern day horror RPG based on the fantasy world created by Jack Chick
in that infamous anti-D&D tract - a world where innocent teens are
lured into devilish behavior by sinister game masters. Players played
the roles of the teens in the story, who were trying to avoid insanity
and suicide, as well as their characters, who were trying to reach
their ultimate goal - the ninth level of the dungeon.

It was an interesting idea that sadly never seemed to get off of the
ground. I lost contact with the author a couple of years ago, and the
website for the game has been down for about as long (though you can
see an archive of it here, if you wish -
http://web.archive.org/web/20071230172822/http://scruffyco.com/darkestdungeons/
).

Recently an Escapist reader named Dave wrote in to inform me that
there is another RPG that pokes a little fun at the old Chick tract -
a retro-clone fantasy RPG called, coincidentally enough, Dark
Dungeons.

For the benefit of those who may not know: a "retro-clone" RPG is one
developed using the rules of an existing (and usually out-of-print)
RPG, and usually offered for free online as a PDF (or for cost as a
print edition). This makes the rules accessible to those who would
still like to play the classic RPG, but can't find the original
rulebooks, and it also allows for lots of creative revisions of the
rules.

In this particular case, a devotee of classic RPGs created a retro-
clone based on a well-known fantasy RPG, and named it after the tract
that preached the dangers of roleplaying. Which is the exact sort of
'turning a negative into a positive' philosophy that is strongly
endorsed and encouraged by myself.

The fun doesn't stop with the title, however. The rule examples
feature two players, Marcie and Debbie, and their respective
characters, Black Leaf and Elfstar!

See examples here:
http://www.theescapist.com/darkdungeons-rpg1.jpg
http://www.theescapist.com/darkdungeons-rpg2.jpg

There are no mentions of Miss Frost or the Mind Bondage spell, however
- it seems that the author didn't want to take the joke too far, which
is probably for the best.

Dave, the Escapist reader who brought Dark Dungeons to my attention,
thinks that the popularity of the RPG might actually take Jack Chick's
comic down a notch:

"The game has generated so much interest, in the short time since it
was published, that the offical page is now on the first page of
Google's search results, beating even the Wikipedia article about the
Chick tract. There might even be a day when Dark Dungeons - the game -
is so popular, that the Chick tract is pushed into second place on
Google!

That's a pretty high goal to reach, but I'd love to see it happen.

You can find out more about the Dark Dungeons retro-clone RPG,
including how to download or purchase it, at http://darkdungeonsblog.wordpress.com/get-it-now/

(For more information on the anti-RPG tract Dark Dungeons visit The
Escapist's Dark Dungeons page - http://www.theescapist.com/darkdungeons.htm)

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