Game Master Agenda
Matteo Sciutteri
Convey a cursed city during the night of the Hunt.
Introduce weird and enigmatic characters.
Fill Hunters’ lives with horror and darkness.
Play to find out.
Action Roll
When a Hunter faces a risky situation, the outcome
is determined by the Action Roll.
The Hunter describes what they want to accomplish
and what Attribute and Gear they will employ to do
so.
The GM assesses the situation saying if the Hunter
is in a controlled, risky or desperate Position. The
worse the Position, the harder the consequences.
The GM will also tell the Effect level the Hunter
would accomplish (great, standard or limited) and
possible outcomes of the roll. Some Gear or Ability
can improve the Effect level.
The Hunter can then raise or lower the Effect at the
cost of a worst position or vice-versa.
The Hunter gathers their dice:
� A number equal to the Attribute rating.
� Adds bonus dice from Stamina, Blood, or Assist.
If they end up with zero or less dice to roll, they
roll 2 dice and keep the lowest.
The Hunter rolls all the dice and reads the single
highest result (two or more six is the “6s” in the
table). Player and GM work together narrating the
action, but the latter has final say over the outcome
and is the one declaring the Consequences.
Critical. They succeed with increased
6s Effect.
6 Success. It goes as well as intended.
Partial Success. They do it but also suffer
a Consequence: Harm, Reduced Effect,
4/5 Lost Opportunity, Worse Position or
Complication.
1-3 Fail. Things go bad and they suffer the
Consequences.
Se�ing
The city of Heliwyr is damned. Decades ago, a mad priest officiated an ancient ritual,
awakening a wicked force that branded every inhabitant, corrupting their blood.
On nights with a blood moon, the curse awakens, depriving the inhabitants of their minds. Game Master’s Scroll
Few are those who manage to resist the call of cursed blood, locking themselves up in the
house and praying to the gods who have abandoned these places.
Most of them, on the other hand, give vent to their madness, with depraved and violent
actions, wandering through the streets of the city armed with torches and pitchforks,
looking for victims to kill and torture, and then eat their meat.
Finally, those who decide to follow the path of the priest, voluntarily feeding on the corrupt
blood of people, become Apostles: almost immortal creatures, with bestial features, devoid
of any humanity.
On this blood moon night, a group of hunters has been sent to the city of Heliwyr, to stop
the madness once and for all.
We were born wrapped in darkness, covered in blood.
But the light touched us, and now our eyes are open.
The Hunt is our way, the Hunt is our purpose.
Oath of Hunters
BloodstonE is an action-packed horror game with a dark, gothic feel.
Player Characters (PC) are a group of hunters, sent to the city of Heliwyr on a blood moon
night, to hunt down an Apostle who is attempting to ascend, opening a gateway to the realm
of the Ancients. What awaits them is a risky, probably deadly task: the city is besieged by
citizens maddened by the mark of the beast, and reaching the Cathedral will require courage
and strategy.
As a GM you present obstacles and risky situations to the Players, asking how they want to
deal with them. Don't try to tell a story - that's not your job.
Your role is to conceive a decaying, corrupted city and bring it to life, imagining its
desperate inhabitants, its abandoned and dark places, and the dangers that haunt it. Let
yourself be surprised by what will happen: the story you will play will naturally arise from
the choices of the Players facing the dangers you have imagined.
The game has a high pace: the Hunt is a race against the clock. The Hunters arrive in the city
of Heliwyr at dusk, and they must find the place where the Apostle is hiding, before
midnight strikes. Only in this way they will be able to prevent the ritual.
BloodstonE is designed for one-shot games: every time we play, we play different Hunters,
who will face new obstacles and challenges every time.
The blood moon nights in Heliwyr never end.
6 SIDED 2 TO 4 2 TO 5
DICE HOURS PLAYERS
Action-Horror Role Playing Game
This work is based on Blades in the Dark, product of One Seven Design, developed and authored by John
Harper, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Forged in the Dark
 Running the Game The Hunt Consequences and Harm

A game of BloodstonE is organized in three Acts: the hunt, the final battle, and the Act I: the Hunt Reduced Effect: their Effect level is reduced.
epitaph. As the GM your task is to introduce the initial situation: the hunters have arrived in Heliwyr
and they will now have to traverse the labyrinthine streets of the city, facing the maddened Complication: introduce an immediate problem
Before the game, prepare some ideas. Look for evocative images that can help you citizens marked by the beast, to gather information on the Apostle's whereabouts. Briefly that results from the action, create or advance a
visualize your Heliwyr, so you can convey this idea to other players. describe the scene. danger’s clock, advance the Night’s Clock, or
consume their resources (i.e. bullets).
What is the city like? Does it rise along a river? Or is it perched on top of a After introducing the arrival of the hunters to the city, you must immediately present them
mountain? What smell hangs in the air? What shape do the spires of the tall with an obstacle to deal with. Whether it's a group of violent villagers, a blood-corrupted Lost Opportunity: the circumstances have shifted
towers have? What alien creatures are represented in the large statues creature, or a danger to face, the important thing is that the PCs immediately have something and they lost their opportunity.
found around the University? to solve, to get the game going.
Worse Position: put them on a bad position.
Following the first obstacle, ask them what they want to do. Point out the places they can visit,
Detail three or four locations in the city, and join them together, establishing links and let them decide where to go and why. Harm: deal 1-5 Harms to the hunter involved, based
between the areas. At least one of these areas must be connected to the Cathedral: the Describe what they see as they enter the bowels of the city. Keep the tension high. Wandering on the Position. The PC marks Blood per each Harm
place where the PCs will meet the Apostle. around Heliwyr must be a surreal and frightening experience: any kind of horror can be suffered.
You should have a diagram like that: hidden around every corner. Use the sparks of inspiration found in this manual if you wish. If a PC takes Harm and there is no Blood left to
When the PCs arrive at the new location, introduce the new situation. mark, the PC is dead.
(s) = secret passage
(t) = tunnel The game continues in this way until one of these two events takes place: the Night's Clock
Forbidden (s)
Tomb Abandoned strikes midnight or the PCs reach the Cathedral. In both cases Act I ends, and Act II begins.
Progress Clocks
District
Start Act II: the Final Battle
(t) If the Hunters reach the Cathedral in time, they find the Apostle officiating the ritual, which is
The simplest obstacles can be overcome with simple
still incomplete. If, on the other hand, the Night's Clock arrives at midnight, the Apostle
success. However, complex obstacles or particularly
Old City Cathedral
completes the ritual and now they have unsealed the cursed power of the Ancients. They will
powerful enemies may require more effort on the part
Gates Bridge be the one to reach the PCs in the place where they are.
of the characters.
Introduce the Apostle: what monstrosity has defaced their flesh? Describe what they are doing
When you need to keep track of similar situations,
and how they are preparing to do battle with the Hunters.
you can use progress clocks.
The Apostle is a formidable opponent: they take the initiative and lashes out against the
When you detail a place, mark at least three points of interest (items or area elements Hunters, they do not wait for them to make the first move. Ask the PCs how they react and
A progress clock is a circle divided into segments.
that hide pieces of the city's history). then let them try to find a way to deal with it.
The greater the complexity of the obstacle or the
Whenever a PC observes or interacts with one of these points of interest, enrich the When the fight is over (successful or not) Act II ends, and Act III begins.
danger of the threat, the more segments that make up
description with strange and alienating details. Don't give an explanation of things!
a clock: 4, 6, or 8. When all the segments are filled,
Show the madness of the city, both in the architecture and in the details, and let the Act III: Epitaphs
the clock is completed, and the obstacle is overcome.
players wonder about them. Hunters who survived can greet the dawn. Ask each PC to describe what they think and how
You can also use them to track an event over time or a
Then reward the PC with 1 Insight. defeating an Apostle changed them. Will they hunt again? Or will they retire? Will they be
countdown.
able to find peace, after all the horrors they saw in Heliwyr?
For Act I, you will also need some obstacles and enemies to face.
Advancing a progress clock depends on the Effect
Use the tables below as inspiration, or invent everything from scratch, perhaps taking If no Hunter has survived, the Apostle has prevailed and it will be you, the GM, who will
level: limited marks one segment, standard marks
inspiration from books or movies that you like. describe how the horror of the Ancients befalls the city and the whole world.
two segments and great marks three segments.

D Dangers and Obstacles D Weird Characters Heliwyr, the red city

1 A group of armed citizens
2 Cultists praying to the beast
3 Gregor, the graveyard keeper
4 Souls moaning in the dark
5 A flock of three-eyed ravens
6 A giant demonic boar
D Locations
1 Crumbling Church
2 Hive of Bones
3 Upper Iron Bridge
4 Path of Old Chains
5 Lost Archive of Madness
6 Broken Gates
This game is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
1 Camilla, woman of the night
2 Niklas, a skeptical man
3 Carrol, chapel dweller
4 Valea, nun of the lost church
5 Lucille, retired hunter
6 Errik, collector
D Apostles
1 Alenna, the First Vicar
2 Frederik, the Wicked Father
3 Inwaer, the Dark Martyr
4 Lyra, the Corrupt Matriarch
5 Urial, the Minister of Flames
6 Judas, the Accuser
Heliwyr, the red city (or the damned city), is the oldest city in the kingdom. Once rich and
thriving, it fell out of favor following the curse of the Ancients.
Now it is a pile of dirt, abandoned and decaying houses, tangled and dark streets. The few
inhabitants who have not left the city are shy, frightened, or insane.
When describing the city to players, get ideas from these elements: The Night’s Clock is a special 8-sides clock that
Tall gothic buildings, decaying houses covered with mold, distant violins playing requiem of you must create at the beginning of the game.
death. Flickering street lights, piles of debris inhabited by rats, bridges and crumbling roofs. With it, you’ll keep track of the time left before
Labyrinthine sewers and deconsecrated churches. Spires intertwined in an unnatural way. midnight.
Inhabitants barricaded in their house, frightened, crying and squirming. Furious, thin and You can advance it choosing that as Consequence, or
smelly dogs, seeking prey. Damned by the mark of the beast roam the city. Madmen when the characters move from one place to another
screaming and cursing, cursing the gods. Squares with macabre statues and tombstones in the city.
stacked one on top of the other.
If this clock is completed, Act II begins.
BloodstonE is a game by Matteo Sciutteri (matteosciutteri.itch.io) - @MasterRPG