Running a Tales Event

Principles

• We encourage players and crew to run Tales events in between our main Campaign Events.
• Anyone is welcome to run a Tales event.
• We will support you where we can.
• Please check with the Game Team before committing to an event concept.

The Death Unto Darkness Game Team always wanted to create a community around the game. Death Unto Darkness has encouraged individuals who began as players and crew to 'take the reins' and run events since its original conception. While we want to keep to tight narrative campaigns with a clear start and a clear end to them, we and our community benefit from encouraging others to run stories that compliment the main narrative. We also appreciate that there is a huge degree of time and investment into playing a system like ours, as it often uses kit that cannot be recycled for other systems.

We set out to provide room for people to run their own events or 'Tales' from our universe. We support these events directly to the best of our capacity.

We call these events Tales because Death Unto Darkness is a collaborative creative experience and while labelling them is important to differentiate for easy between Campaign Events and them, we in no way want to indicate that we consider them 'lesser'. Rather, they focus on narratives away from the one we're telling and provide excellent roleplaying spaces for our players to flesh out their characters. We want to encourage them, they're great (and occasionally... we actually get to play them).

Tales are considered 'canon' and are an important part of our system - anyone is welcome to run them and we will do our best to support and encourage you to do so.

If you're thinking about doing so, thank you, if you've done so already, thank you - without you putting in the time and effort to run these we'd not have nearly as rich as setting as can be accomplished in two Campaign Events per year.

Tales Events – a Runners Guide

If you are running a Death Unto Darkness Tale there are a number of specific things that you need to keep in mind that are a priority for us considering approval of your event.

• You must comply with the Death Unto Darkness System Policies and Ethos – failure to adhere to this and protect DuD players attending your game may result in Game Team action. A Tales event not wishing to adhere to our OOC policies will not be sanctioned, and will not be granted permission to use our ruleset. We care very much about the community we have created and we expect all members of it to adhere to our OOC philosophies.

• You may amend the DuD ruleset where it helps the flow of your game, for example if you are running a one-day event if you want to increase or decrease the time taken for various stats and abilities to recover you may - do check with us first as there may be metaphysical reasons certain skills work the way they do.
  • If you do choose to use amended rules you must make players aware before the game.

• Individuals excluded by the Death Unto Darkness Game Team should not be welcome at Tales Events – please check with our team first before you accept anyone onto your event just in case there are outstanding objections to their presence.

• You MUST provide an overview of plot and rules changes for your event to the Game Team at deathuntodarkness@gmail.com at least two weeks before the game in order for it to be approved.

• Both Players and Event teams should report to the Game Team after the event the results or any changes that have occurred to characters as a result of the event otherwise these cannot be accounted for.

Support from Death Unto Darkness' Game Team

• We can provide only limited support.

• We cannot provide refs and plot for your event.

The Death Unto Darkness Game Team welcomes and supports its community by encouraging the creation and running of games within Death unto Darkness campaign settings our focus will always be upon the Campaign Events, and for our events to succeed we cannot spread our focus too widely.

Members of the Death Unto Darkness Game Team are free to attend your event and act as a Storyteller if they wish to do so and can perform all their functions as per usual, but this is strictly voluntary and only if the Event team requires them in this role.

Props and Logistics

We cannot promise the provision of normal event logistics such as Madness/Corruption cards for players who are not pre-existing, please consider this when inviting new players to attend your player event and if planning the use of these effects be aware that you should not use standard Corruption cards at your game as these often require resolution from the Game Team.

While we don't want you using Core Madness/Corruption Tracks at these events - if you want madness/corruption effects then you can create your own (we have adobe publisher files).

The Death Unto Darkness Game Team is happy to loan out items from our Crew Kit store, however you are responsible for the transport of these items and the replacement of them if they are damaged while they are in your care.

Due to the limitations placed on our banking account and paypal we are unable to process payments and funding for your event, you will need to be responsible for this – we do not sanction the running of Tales Events for profit for legal reasons surrounding the IP we use. It is the recommendation that any spare budget is donated to charity, or donated to DuD for investment in improving the available kit for Campaign and Tales Events.

Plot

Although we largely encourage players to explore the Death Unto Darkness and 40k setting we have some explicit limitations that we would expect you to adhere to:

In our opinion a great Tales Event plot is resolved within the context of that event - there might be seeds or hints of wider plots that could be followed up at a Sequel game or potentially (with Game Team agreement) at a Campaign Event if it would not be too alienating to those who could not attend the game.

As tempting as it to create a new world-ending threat, we would prefer you don't introduce something that would spell cataclysm for the sector if the players failed – ongoing issues that might be a thorn in the side of the Imperium (a Xenos infestation, the summoning of a new Daemon) are great - but an Archenemy Death Star is probably best avoided.

• We will not sanction any plot that utilises elements expressly forbidden by our Controversial Themes and Dark Roleplay policy.

• Consequences: The best events are those with consequences we like Tales events that happened and we can reinforce that the players actions mattered. Please keep the game team abreast of these because we will inflict ongoing consequences where appropriate - we will always discuss with a Event Team what they think is appropriate.

The Prosperitas Sector

There are a myriad of ongoing plot threads in the Prosperitas Sector and we are open for some of them to be toyed with by the PCs;

• Major NPCs: There are several NPCs in the Dramatis Personae who are important to our narrative and we would rather you didn't use - but there are also ones we are happy to free for use if asked. If you are creating major NPCs whose deaths or actions can be very important - please be sure to get permission from the Game Team first.

• The Inquisition: We will not approve plots that kill off current Inquisitors, or change the status of the Ordos Prosperitas be that positively or negatively, the rise or fall of the Prosperitas Inquisition will occur at Campaign Events only (political fallout from the PCs as Agents of the Inquisition doing something stupid as a Tale is fine).
  • Please do not create new Inquisitors for your plot, an Interrogator with ties to one of our pre-existing Inquisition NPCs would be more than appropriate.

• The Prosperitas Crusade: Events that contribute to the success or failure of the Prosperitas Crusade make GREAT Tales events - because our focus is on the Holy Ordos and their objectives in combatting esoteric threats at main events often the best opportunities the PCs have to contribute to the Crusade are through small (but still meaningful) and subtle actions - a Tales event is a great event for the Crusade to move forwards as it's conflict with the Archenemy is largely a backdrop to which our little war in the shadows is fought.

• Noble Houses and Politics: The politics of the Imperium are complex and myriad, our agents often run afoul of them - we are happy to approve Tales events that feature them but we would need forewarning of their use in plots - many player characters have ties to Noble Houses or are members of them and those plots moving forwards without their involvement would be unfair.
  • When creating new Noble Houses for your plot please consult with the game team if you plan for them to have wider scope beyond the immediate territory your event is set in.

• Planets: Some of the worlds in our sector are essential to our plot going forwards, some are less so - we are not explicitly against the destruction or loss of a planet to an enemy as a part of our narrative but we would like warning. Simultaneously if you wish to introduce a previously uncharted world then you are welcome to, but a new already Imperial world would be difficult to justify unless it emerged from the warp storms in Subsector Tenebris - both of these would need discussion with the Game Team first. Please feel free to use any of our existing worlds but, again, if they are relevant to plot we will suggest alternatives or introduce restrictions if necessary.

• The Treatment of Abhumans, Mutants and Psykers: Please avoid any plots that use Abhumans, Mutants and Psykers if you are going to shirk away from the systematic discrimination and abuse they face within the Imperium - this is a core concept of Imperial culture and one we are keen to maintain it as a theme because it reinforces that the players do not work for a kind or tolerant utopia.
  • In the same vein we discourage plots that would focus on the resolution of these issues - the Imperium really has nobody not un-indoctrinated enough for us to get into discussions about the potential for liberation of slaves and so on.

• Space Marines: The Angels of Death in the Prosperitas Sector take the form of the Lions of Nemea (a local Space Marine Chapter) and the Death Watch of Watch Station Aegaeon (individuals from a myriad of Chapters who serve the Inquisition) - both of these require heavy physrepping it is unlikely we will approve a Lion of Nemea without consideration or a member of the Game Team or Permanent Crew playing one as they have a lore brief that is kept secret. A Marine of the Death Watch is a more likely ask but will be subject to some scruitiny.

Be aware that we will not sanction any event which uses; Custodes, Sisters of Silence, Grey Knights or Officio Assassinorium – we may approve plots relating to these powers, but not those that feature them.

Other human threats such as rebels from the Rising Flame as well as pirates and criminals and other nerdowells are fair game - we have lore available on the larger criminal enterprises in the Prosperitas Sector available if you want a more substantial non-chaos non-xenos threat.

Mortal Followers of Chaos

The Archenemy is a persistent threat in the Prosperitas Sector in the form of a myriad of cults and two large factions of mortal servants of the Chaos powers who present the main opposition for the Prosperitas Crusade taming the Sector;

• Warp Cults are the most common face of Chaos across the Imperium, they are disaffected Imperial citizens who have turned to worshipping the dark powers due to the uncaring silence of the God Emperor. We have a number of major (spanning several planets) cults in the Prosperitas Sector which we would like to be asked before you use them, but you are free to come up with your own cults for your events (as these often make nicely contained threats that can be eradicated in a single event).

• Chaos Factions refers to two large forces of non-Imperial (mostly) Human servants of the Dark Gods.
  • The Ætin Heima are a triad of worlds touched by Nurgle in Subsector Tenebris that are populated by Space Barbarian servants of Chaos we call the Eye-Tribes in recent years these have been formed into the Weeping Eye and Creeping Death who are warbands led by a pair of Champions of Nurgle with multiple tribes beneath them (not all aligned to Nurgle) if you want barbarian human-shaped raiders in your event these Warbands or just an Eye-Tribe would be a good choice.
  • The Regency used the rule the Prosperitas Sector as an isolated state that believed that Horus won the Horus Heresy for thousands of years - the Prosperitas Crusade was initially against them but they were believed to have collapsed some hundred or so years ago - recently a remnant of the Regency has launched a counter-offensive with a huge number of reserve forces that the Imperium was not aware of. The Regency are the main military and political threat to the Imperium in the Prosperitas Sector (other than itself) and make a good human foe for military events.

• Traitor Astartes the existence of Traitor Astartes is unknown to common citizens and the Prosperitas Sector at large, if this changes we will let you know.

• Xenos servants of Chaos are a great way to use made-up unknown races of Xenos in a different way.

Using Xenos

Xenos serve a largely background role in our Campaign Events appearing as monstrous threats or mysterious allies - they have a role to play in our sector but will rarely be front-and-focus of our events. However the presence of any Xenos creatures or technology at a Tales Event is expressly by Game Team permission only – there are various factors for this including ensuring that briefing of various Xenos races adhere to our version of canon but also that they fit with our standards.

Eldar

There are explicitly four groups of Eldar in the Prosperitas Sector and we ask that you don't make more;

• All Eldar are held to a high kit standard, please please please consider this before you decide to use them - we want to execute them better than a cheap elf costume.

• Craftworld Amenti Eldar and Harlequins from the Masque of the Dancing Moon have a significant role to play in Campaign Events - we would request that if you are going to use them you check with us first - we are unlikely to approve their use.

• The Ishari are core to our plot and we would discourage their use outside of Campaign Events but as ever are always open to ideas.

• The Circle of Thorns are a Criminal Organisation who are a mix of Dark Eldar Mercenaries, Eldar Corsairs and Haemonculi are a very viable threat if you wish to use Xenos foes at your event - they also employ other Xenos and humans as part of their criminal network making them ideal for LARP encounter writing as you can pad out encounters with well-kitted Dark Eldar with human servants.

Other Xenos

We have a myriad of local Xenos infestations of varying severity as well as the presence of the Eldar - the majority of these are not known in the wider Imperium and represent localised Xenos foes that have to be contended with in the Prosperitas Sector a handful are mentioned in Known Xenos of the Prosperitas Sector in passing detail but more detailed briefs exist.

As a general rule we would much rather you created a brand new Xenos race for your event then use one of the major Xenos factions from the main canon - aliens are far more challenging to understand when they are largely unknown to the players - infections of minor Xenos races (Hrud, Kroot ect) are something we are happy with.

Genestealer Cults are the only current major 'Xenos' faction from the main-canon that have a role in our narrative and are workable for Tales events - these are currently a new and unusual threat in the Prosperitas Sector and what their appearance heralds is not yet understood. The Genestealer cults in the Prosperitas Sector also have their own lore that makes them different to the canon ones so talk to the Game Team before using them.

Costume and Physreps for any alien technology or creatures is subject to ref team review, we have a high-quality requirement for any phys reps and costumes for alien races.

• Squats (avoiding their new name) have recently re-appeared as a new faction that straddles Xenos and Abhuman, their homeworlds are close to the Galactic Core (and therefor far from the Prosperitas Sector) we are open to their inclusion in events but we wish to avoid them becoming Comedy Space Dwarfs (we are ok with well-done Space Dwarfs) - we do have a local (minor) enclave.

• Orks we have recently (at the time of writing) sold off our Ork props as we could not find a way to deliver them as what we wanted (horrible monstrous creatures rather than comedy football thugs) as such we would prefer not to approve their 'return' to our narrative and keep them a distant threat moving forwards.

The following are forbidden from use at Tales events:

• The Tau (but not Kroot), contact with the Tau has not been established in the timeframe that DuD is set and the Prosperitas Sector is too distant from their worlds.

• Tyranids, the Tyranid menace has yet to arrive within the timeframe that DuD is set.

• Necrons, this threat is still slumbering or unknown to the Imperium.

The Warp

The Warp is a constant presence in the Galaxy, although it is hidden behind a veil the impact of its presence on reality is so very intense that it would be impossible to avoid mentioning it even if it is only at the fringes of an event plot;

• Warp Decks - Psykers, Sorcerers and Exorcists all have decks that represent interacting with the warp - please instruct your players to remove any card that says 'get a ref' unless you have checked the cards meaning with us and are clear what you should do if it is pulled.

• Rituals - Psykers and certain other characters have the potential to do Rituals (all rituals follow these guidelines) - you may forbid players from performing rituals if you wish, if you wish to introduce a ritual that players can discover at your event - then it will follow the guidelines above as if you were a player and the Game Team cannot promise you approval.

• Manifested Daemons - we discourage full-blown manifestations of Daemons unless it is near the climax of an event, at the time our event occurs these are incredibly rare occurrences and are really cataclysmic events that would happen at the apex of a warp event. We forbid the use of 'standard' Daemons (i.e. those with recognisable models) unless you are borrowing the kit from another source as we would much prefer our Daemons to be unusual and varied rather than conforming to singular archetypes. If you do want to use a daemon be aware we have two categories;
  • Named Daemons - owing to the fact we cannot physically represent stories-tall Greater Daemons our biggest Daemonic big bads are 'named' Daemons these Daemons are major figures within the Chaos pantheon of our Sector and are incredibly bad news if they are summoned into reality they are character-killers by nature and would never be summoned as more than one such creature at a time.
  • Nameless Daemons are lesser creatures, not so powerful to have their own individual True Names but rather manifestations of psychic gestalts representing human sins and negative emotions.

• Ghosts are the result of a psychic stain left on reality by the death of an individual, they range from simple hauntings that are shocking but little more than psychic recordings to poltergeists who can effect the real world, these have their own mechanics (requiring the finishing of unfinished business or the destruction of their corpse) which can be provided by the game team.

The Darkness

The Darkness is a force made up for our canon that represents the major threat that the Players are facing down - it will not appear in detail at any Tales event but its cultists might as peripheral threats and the ambient effects of its power may have an impact on your event please check with the Game Team if there are any ongoing side effects you need to be aware of.