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DARK fil
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GRAAL
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ARTHURIAN HORROR ROLEPLAYING
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Sa

SCOTT MALTHOUSE
Introduction
Albion is on the brink of destruction.
Arthur and his knights succeeded in
acquiring the Graal, but it deceived
them. One by one they became afflicted,
and soon the darkness seeped out of
Camelot’s walls. It has been 10 years
since that hallowed day. Twisted,
malevolent shadows that once stood for
valour stalk the wilderness. Mordred,
Lord of Putrescence seeks the lost
Excalibur. Arthur is joined to Mordred,
an unrecognisable slobbering pustule.
Players take on the roles of the
Afflicted, noble heroes who hold onto a
sliver of humanity. Their only hope is to
find Excalibur to shatter the Graal.
One player is the Graal Master (GM).
They guide the game, make rulings and
control non-player characters. The game
uses six-sided dice (d6s).
Tests: When you nee to do something
that could fail, roll the relevant
Archetype dice plus a Test Die (d6) and
take the highest die.
1: Doom: Everything goes wrong and
you’re put in danger. Ignore the highest
die for every 1 rolled.
2-4: Complication: Things don’t go
your way.
5: Minor Success: Things go your way,
but barely.
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6: Major Success: Everything goes
fantastically. You succeed and then
some.
The Graal: Anytime you would make a
Test, you may tap into the tainted magic
of the Graal. Take any number of dice
(best to be a different colour to your
regular dice) and roll them as part of the
Test. If any of these Graal Dice turn up
a Doom and there’s no Major Success
to ignore the Harrowing Wind goes up
by 1.
Harrowing Wind: The Graal creates a
magical wind that alters the world. The
Harrowing Wind begins at 1. Through
play it can increase, triggering Afflictions
and making Albion more dangerous.
• Increase by 1 when: A PC dies,
a Doom appears on a Graal Die,
when the PCs fail a quest.
• Decrease by 1-3 when: The
PC’s complete a quest, a named
villain is destroyed.
Effects:
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• 1: Albion is a regular level of
bleak.
• 2-3: The Graal’s powers grow
stronger. Increase Afflictions by 1.
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• 4-5: Night usurps day. Increase
Afflictions by 1. Food and water is
scarce. Foes gain an extra die
• 6: Vegetation is ash and streams
are dry. Rolling a 1 or 2 counts as a
Doom. Increase Afflictions to final
stage. Foes gain an extra die.
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Battle: When committing violence, make
a Test with the relevant Archetype. Only
players roll.
1 :Grave Wound: You have taken a
Grave Wound and hang on death’s door.
Lose all Archetype dice. If you can’t, you
die. Ignore the highest die for every 1
rolled.
2-4: Minor Wound: You take a Minor
Wound. Lose an Archetype die. If you
can’t, you die.
5: Minor Success: You deal a Minor
Wound to the enemy. If they can’t, they
die.
6: Major Success: You deal a Grave
Wound to an enemy, halving their dice
(round down).
Characters
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Every character is an Afflicted. They are
between mortal and beast. Through the
game their Afflictions will come into
play in different ways, benefiting and
hindering.
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Archetypes: A character consists of 5
archetypes, each with a list of common
ways that Archetype is Tested.
• Knight: Valour, swords, maces,
lances, spears, brawling, riding.
• Hunter: Wilderness survival,
axes, bows, crossbows, natural
medicine, tracking,
• Scoundrel: Sneaking, daggers,
poisons, acrobatics, bluffing,
intimidation, slings
• Chaplain: Prayers, charming,
demons, holy healing, connections,
folklore
• Sorcerer: Sorcery, occultism,
history, languages, research, scripts
Archetype Dice: Split six d6s between
Archetypes, to a maximum of 3.
Afflictions: Roll d3:
1. Beast: You are rage incarnate.
As your affliction grows you
become more akin to a bear or wolf.
2. Living Dead: You are between
the veil of life and death. As your
affliction grows so does your lust
for flesh.
3. Demon: Your soul is forfeit. As
your affliction grows you take on a
demonic visage.
Ask Yourself: What maintains your
humanity? What do you regret? What
will you atone for? Who do you fight
for?
Equipment: For each die put into an
Archetype, choose a starting piece of
gear.
• Knight: Sword, mace, spear,
lance, sick horse, lantern, dented
shield, battered armour, 2 shillings.
• Hunter: Bow, crossbow, axe,
healing herbs, mucky earring, torn
armour, 8 pence.
• Scoundrel: Dagger, sling, drop
of poison, lockpick, cloak, flint, 3
shillings.
• Chaplain: Prayer book, holy
cross, vestments, tallow candle, drop
of holy water, stale bread, 4 shillings.
• Sorcerer: Book of omens,
rabbit liver, pagan symbol, staff,
pouch of salt, 5 pence.
Armour & Shields: You may destroy the
armour or shield you’re wearing to turn a
Grave Wound into a Minor Wound or
negate a Minor Wound.
Healing: A natural salve will heal a Minor
Wound, taking d3 hours to prepare with
the right ingredients and a Hunter Test.
Holy tinctures heal a Grave Wound fully,
taking d6 hours of prayer to prepare
once per day with a Chaplain Test. This
has no effect on Afflictions stage 4 or
higher.
Tainted Weapons: Some weapons have
become tainted by the Graal’s sorcery.
These always add a Graal Die when in
battle. It is difficult to determine
whether a weapon is tainted, but
sometimes they whisper dark thoughts
or will their owner into bloodlust.
Money: Money comes in pence, shillings
and pounds, with 10 pence to a shilling
and 20 shillings to a pound.
“And now I take upon me the adventures of holy
things, and now I see and understand that mine
old sin hindereth me and shameth me”
Afflictions
Afflictions increase in potency as time
progresses. When the Harrowing Winds
pick up, so too do Afflictions increase.
Note that when the Harrowing Wind
decreases, Afflictions don’t increase. All
Afflictions begin at 1. The rules to a
previous Affliction stage still apply when
advancing.
Beast
1. You can see in the dark. Small
batches of fur sprout from your
body.
2. Your sense of smell is
heightened. You only eat raw meat.
You emit a foul odour.
3. Your face is contorted, fangs jut
from your jaw. Normal people fear
you but you are stronger. Add one
die when brawling. Reduce a die
when attempting to do anything
involving natural charisma.
4. You have a great bloodlust that
must be sated. You must go into the
wilderness for 1d3 days and devour
animals.
5. You can only speak in
monosyllabic words. Any sorcery
you attempt must add double the
required Graal Dice.
6. You are a beast transformed.
You can’t talk or cast spells. You
cannot use weapons. Unarmed
attacks gain an extra two dice.
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Living Dead
1. Your skin is ashen and your hair
is falling out.
2. Fangs develop in your gums.
You must drain blood from an
animal thrice per day or deduct an
Archetype die for each meal missed.
3. Your eyes are sunken. You can
smell a drop of blood from a mile
away. For an hour after you have fed
gain an extra die in any Archetype.
4. During the night your senses
heighten and you gain an extra die
when fighting unarmed.
5. Feed on adult humans thrice per
day rather than animals. If you miss
a meal, you take a Grave Wound.
You cannot cross running water and
holy water does a Minor Wound to
you.
6. You are a gluttonous wretch.
Natural light burns your eyes. When
you drain blood, heal a Minor
Wound. You take a Minor Wound if
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you go within a foot of a Cross.
Demon
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1. A faint smell of brimstone
follows you around.
2. Crossing the threshold of a
chapel deals you a Minor Wound.
Gain an extra die when attempting
to lie or seduce.
3. Stubby wings sprout from your
back allowing you to fly for a minute
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at a time. Holy water does a Minor
Wound to you.
4. Your wings are at full span,
allowing you to fly indefinitely.
Horns form on your head. People
avoid you like the plague.
5. You receive messages from the
Underworld that you must act on
otherwise you will be unmade. You
cannot use sorcery to help others.
6. You resemble a humanoid goat.
Holy water deals a Grave Wound as
does going within a foot of a Cross.
“The first words the fair knight could frame
were: ‘Curses on both cowardice and
covetousness! Their vice and villainy are virtue’s
undoing”
Sorcery
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Before the Graal was found, magic was a
wondrous thing. Now it is malevolent,
seeking to end the world. Anyone with a
die in the Sorcerer Archetype can
attempt to use sorcery. Dark Graal uses
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a freeform system that requires the GM The infernal buzzing of flies can be
and players to decide the price of a
magical effect.
Casting: To cast a spell, make a Sorcerer
Test. The player casting decides what
effect the spell will have and the GM
determines how many Graal Dice to
add, up to a maximum of 3. A very
minor effect like lighting a candle or
creating a light breeze may not need a
Graal Die, but healing a wound or
transfiguring oneself may require one or Gogmagog (15 dice, club)
two.
• Major Success: the spell works fine. themselves.
• Minor Success: the spell works but
its impact is lessened.
• Complication: the spell fails.
• Doom: the spell backfires.
Foes
Opponents in Dark Graal are the
various beasts and creatures of folklore
and Arthurian myth, albeit with a dark
fantasy bent. Lancelot is a twisted
demonic entity with three eyes, Lady
Guinevere haunts the woodlands as the
Long Lady. When creating a foe, choose
a number of dice they will have and a
special ability. Their dice are rolled when
attempting any Tests and act as their
health. Think about the weapons they
may use and any armour they have. The
following are a few examples you can
use to get started.
Vile Imp (2 dice, claws)
A waft of rot and a chatter of yellowing
teeth.
• Servant: Won’t attack an
Afflicted with a Demon
affliction in stage 3 or more
Plague Knight (3 dice, sword,
armour)
heard within the knight’s suit.
• Cloud of Flies: reduce a die to
create a cloud of biting flies that
acts as a 2 dice foe
Lady of the Lake (5 dice, spear)
Bulging eyes, flapping gills and a voice
like a drowning cat.
• Water Rejuvenation: Spending
an hour in a lake heals all dice.
A towering king of giants whose
language is that of the mountains
• Ancient and Mighty: Gogmagog
cannot be gravely wounded.
Safety
Dark Graal is a dark fantasy game with
disturbing and often violent themes. It is
in everyone’s best interest to discuss
lines before playing and enforcing the X-
card. As a rule, Dark Graal does not
include harm to minors, and despite the
game being set somewhere around the
13th century there is no misogyny,
homophobia, transphobia or racism of
any kind.
Credits
Dark Graal was written and designed by
Scott Malthouse and is copyright
Trollish Delver Games.