Black Death Rising

An OSR RPG by Dying Stylishly Games

“For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

It has been a century since the Black Death arrived in Europe, bringing with it mass death, madness, and despair. It has been two generations since the dead ran out of space in hell and spilled back into the mortal world, rising from their graves to prey upon the living. It has been a generation since the  Beast rose to power, opening the doors to hell.

If this is the apocalypse, how much deeper will things sink before the world is redeemed?

Black Death Rising is a religious horror RPG set in an apocalyptic medieval setting. With flesh-eating zombies, the ravages of the plague, the brutal legions of Hell, the bizarre cosmic horror of the Abyss, the thrashing madness of the fallen star Wormwood, and the rampaging Four Horsemen, the world is being thoroughly wrecked. The worst suffering, however, is entirely human evil; the fascist empire of the Beast, that has corrupted the church, taken over Europe entirely, and now seeks to purge its territory of so-called ‘undesirables’. In the face of such destruction and malice, our player characters are a group of outcasts and misfits, seeking power on the margins so they might one day have the strength to go toe-to-toe with the great powers of the world.

Using a familiar old-school framework, Black Death Rising adapts its mechanics for its specific setting, including:

• The ability for slain player characters to return as undead beings.
• Systems to track the various blights of lingering wounds, spiritual damnation and the Plague.
• Mechanics for the power of prayer and the miracles created by Clerics, and various rare relics that can create unique miracles of their own.
• Spells drawing on medieval esotericism, falling into six schools – Necromancy, Hypnotism, Goetia, Alchemy, and Hermeticisim – as well as scattered Hedge Magic.
• Systems for player characters to recruit retainers and followers, construct a stronghold of their own, and lead forces into pitched battles. 
• Twelve fundamental Natures for player characters to originate from-
  • Regular normal people, Mortal Humans.
  • Magically elevated Purified Ones, artificial saints created by supernatural means.
  • Lycanthropes driven by the raw forces of the wilderness.
  • Ghouls born under the plague’s miasmas.
  • Fallen spiritual beings dwelling hidden among humanity as Mimics.
  • Artificial Homunculi created by human magicians.
  • Bizarre Grotesques spawned by the fallen star Wormwood.
  • Undead Revenants clinging to a semblance of mortality.
  • Undead Ghosts, bodiless souls animating masses of dust and ash.
  • Spiritually hollow undead Waifs, undead bodies with tattered souls.
  • And plague-touched undead Vampires that thirst for blood.
• Eight classes for player characters to pursue-
  • Clerics who draw on the power of faith to create miracles.
  • Medically trained Doctors, who can treat injury and plague and work medical marvels.
  • Martially focussed Knights, able to carve a swathe through their enemies.
  • Disaffected Libertines, who dabble in petty magic, combat and other skills.
  • Outlaws whose criminal abilities focus on stealth and evasion.
  • Trained Professionals with access to a wide variety of practical skills.
  • Witches delving into the powerful secrets of magic.
  • Fanatical Zealots who learn to shrug off potential dangers and keep fighting.
• Two hundred NPCs and monsters, ranging from wild beasts to regular people to the products of witchcraft, including:
  • Various creatures spawned by the Plague, including zombies, vampires, and strangely intelligent rats.
  • The agents of six great witch cults, and their leadership.
  • The legions of Hell, from petty damned souls to various demonic aristocrats.
  • The bizarre residents of the Abyss, where reality falls apart beneath the light of creation.
  • Followers of various ideologies, such as the Revolutionary Army, the followers of Gog & Magog, and the Cult of Babylon.
  • The many fascist agents of the Beast’s empire and their accursed powers of Defixion, from rank and file soldiers to the Orders of Seven Heads and Ten Horns, and even the Beast himself.
• Back-end systems for the GM to create random maps, settlements, factions, events and missions.
• Templates for various adventure sites, such as tombs, strongholds of the Beast’s empire, abandonned shrines, and ruined castles.
• A variety of treasures, including religious relics, magical artefacts, blood-spawned dyscrasias, Enochian power-words, and black-powder engines of mass destruction.
• Cambrian Hunger – a sample adventure to begin a campaign with, in which the player characters find themselves stuck in a village besieged by zombies, and must uncover the place’s secrets to survive.

Black Death Rising is available through DriveThruRPG in PDF.

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