Darkness Reforged - SRD (Version 0.1)

19 Jan, 2026

DARKNESS REFORGED is a dark urban fantasy roleplaying game about people caught in a City that should not exist—an artificial reality forged from the Darkness by inhuman powers. Players portray professionals and outcasts who survive the City on its own terms while secretly navigating a second, supernatural life as some of the few who have seen behind the Veil: those who Hunger, those who Rage, and those who Will. Play is driven by tightly wound narrative loops—personal, supernatural, and communal—that generate pressure, fallout, and escalation through Acts and Downtime. Resolution uses a dice pool of d6s, every roll a wager with known risks and settled stakes. Success always comes at a price, failure leaves scars, and players quickly learn when to push through and when to take the loss. Things spiral, the group’s Cover is burned, and in the end the City always pushes back. The characters must decide whether they will feed on it, break it open, or reshape it—knowing that every choice reforges both themselves and the world around them.

Rules Reference

This section is a quick reference to the rules of Darkness Reforged. It is written for use at the table, during play.

Core Concepts (At a Glance)

• You play a character defined by their Loops, behavioural patterns that they repeat under pressure.
• Play alternates between Acts (specific objective, high pressure) and Downtime (recovery and fallout).
• Every roll is made with explicit Risk (of Failure) and Cost (of Success).
• Success is usually possible, but rarely free.
• Knowing when to accept failure and when to push through is key.

Loops

Your character is defined by what pulls them into trouble, what gets them out, and how they recover—until it pulls them back in again. This repeating pattern is called a Loop.

Every Loop has four parts:

• The Hook — What drags you into the situation.
  A need, obligation, temptation, threat, or desire you can’t ignore.
• The Edge — What you rely on to act.
  Skill, power, ability, or supernatural talent. This gives you a Dice Pool to roll.
• The Source — What fuels your Edge.
  A personal reserve of strength, focus, hunger, rage, or will. This is a Resource Pool you spend to cover Costs.
• The Reset — How you recover your Source.
  A Downtime Action (habit, refuge, vice, or ritual) that restores you—and inevitably points you back to the Hook.

When you act in a way consistent with the Loop, especially the Hook, you can lean on its Edge and spend from its Source.

Making a Roll

When you take an action with uncertain outcome:

1. Describe the desired effect and how you make it happen.
2. The GM might offer immediate success at a cost, in which case you do not need to roll.
3. Otherwise, the GM sets
   the Risk — how bad failure gets (number of Risk dice, default 1),
   the Cost — how many successes are required to fully realize the effect (default 2), and
   the Consequences — how things can go wrong in the fiction.
4. Build a dice pool of d6s from one of your Edges.
   The GM replaces some Edge dice with Risk dice (d6s of a different color).
5. Roll all the dice together and count successes.
   For Edge dice:
   1–3 → 0 successes
   4–5 → 1 success
   6 → 2 successes
   For Risk dice:
   1–3 → -1 success
   4–5 → 0 success
   6 → 1 success
6. Add all results together to get your total number of successes.
   You might get a 0 or even a negative total (if the Risk is high).

Interpreting the Roll

Failure (Total successes less than 1)

Choose one:

• Accept Failure — You gain 1 Cut (insight from failure) and the GM describes how things get worse.
• Push Through — If you have enough Cuts to raise the total to 1 success, you can spend them (1 Cut per missing success) and proceed as a Success.

You do not gain a Cut for pushing through.

Only Cuts can be used to turn Failure into Success, not Resources.

Success (Total successes at least 1)

The intended effect happens, but you need to pay for any missing successes.

If your total successes are less than Cost, choose one:

• Pay the Cost — Spend Resources equal to the missing successes. This option leaves no loose ends.
• Go into Debt — If you can not, or will not pay, the GM marks your Debt to the City. One complication will arise—now or later—its severity proportional to the number of missing successes.

You must either cover the Cost in full or accept the Debt.

Only Resources can be used to pay the Cost, not Cuts.

If you naturally rolled higher than the Cost, the GM might translate the extra successes into further effects.

Cuts and Scars

• Cuts represent insight gained from recent failure.
• You gain Cuts when you Accept Failure.
• You may spend previously earned Cuts to Push Through a Failure (1 Cut per missing success).

You start each Act with 0 Cuts.

At the end of the Act, unspent Cuts become Scars.

Scars can be spent through Downtime Actions to:

• Increase an Edge (cost = new level).
• Increase a Source (cost = current level).

Resources

Resources represent internal reserves (Health, Willpower, Focus, etc.) and external assets (Influence, Wealth, Leverage, etc.).

• Resources are spent to Pay the Cost on a Success.
• Resources are restored through Downtime Actions.

Cover (Group Resource)

• Cover represents anonymity, insulation from repercussions, and freedom of action.
• It is a communal resource, shared by the entire Group.
• Any player may spend ("burn") Cover to help pay Costs.

Lower Cover means:

• Harder GM moves in case of an accepted Failure roll.
• More dangerous outcomes of GM rolls on the Table of Changes.

Cover is restored through Downtime Actions.

Acts

An Act is play focused on a single Objective.

• Acts are tense and fast
• Cover usually burns
• Failure escalates

An Act ends when the Objective is decisively resolved:

• The objective has been achieved.
• The characters have decided or are forced to give it up.

Downtime

After an Act, play enters Downtime.

Each player gets:

• Two Downtime Actions for free.

Common Downtime Actions:

• Recover Resources
• Restore Cover
• Spend Scars to advance
• Gather information or assets
• Contain fallout

After the free actions, the GM rolls on the Table of Changes, which includes:

• Pressure Escalates
• Adversaries Act
• Debts Come Due
• Cover Is Compromised
• The City Pushes Back
• Omens and Disturbances
• New Opportunities—with Strings Attached
• A Move against the Group

Any unresolved Debt to the City will end up on this Table too.

Players may take additional Downtime rounds, but each one triggers another GM roll on the Table of Changes.

Some rolls on the Table can start a Reactive Act, especially if the Cover is low, forcefully ending the Downtime.