It’s 2019, kid. Settle in and make yourself at home.
Welcome to the future!
Dark All Day is available to download for free from DriveThruRPG now!
Dark All Day is a Cyberpunk RPG written by Gary Askham, inspired by SynthWave music and the Films and TV Shows of the 1980’s. You play as a band of fearless outlaws fighting for survival in the oppressive, high-tech megacity sprawl of the early 21st Century.
Includes…
• A unique, narrative-driven system based around an eight-sided Fortune Dice.
• Can be played as a one-shot or an ongoing campaign with player characters that improve and level-up.
• A fast and deadly tactical combat system.
• 7 character archetypes to choose from and dozens of skills to create unique and rich characters - from Mercenaries, Assassins and Spies to Rockstars, Journalists and Hackers.
• A rich world of NPCs and locations with plans for future expansions.
FAQs
Below are a few answers to some of the most commonly asked questions for people who are new to Dark All Day.
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Dark All Day is a Tabletop Roleplaying Game (TTRPG), that will be available to download for free from DriveThruRPG.
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A Tabletop Roleplaying game is a type of game where players take the role of a character and one person takes the role of the Games Master (GM). This person shepherds the players through the game, presenting opportunities and situations for the players to negotiate.
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Downloading the entire Dark All Day rulebook from DriveThruRPG is ‘Pay What You Want’ as are any future adventures, expansions or other resources. You can choose to pay as little or as much as you like.
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As well as one player taking the role of the Games Master, Dark All Day works best with a small crew of 4 player characters. You can play with more, six or seven could work but any more than that could become unwieldy. The minimum number of players is 2 - a GM and a player.
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As well as a copy of the rules and a few players, you will need a set of polyhedral dice. The dice that are used are four-sided dice (D4), six-sided dice (D6), eight-sided dice (D8), ten-sided dice (D10) and twelve-sided dice (D12). The core dice mechanic of the game is based around the eight-sided dice so it a good idea to have more than one, ideally of different colours. Twenty-sided dice are not needed.
In addition, each player will need a blank character sheet and the group will need a blank crew sheet.
The GM will also need to choose an adventure to run. The rulebook includes an introductory adventure, but more are available to download for free from DrivethruRPG. The GM can also choose to run their own adventure.
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Although not necessary you can play using miniatures. Dark All Day has a simple tactical combat system where miniatures will help to illustrate the layout of the battle.
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Thre are currently no VTTs that support Dark All Day but it is something that is being looked into.
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There are 7 character types or ‘Personas’ to choose from. They are the Mercenary (trained fighters who solve problems with either their fists or weapons… or both), the Outlander (cunning survivors who grew up on the outskirts of society), the Hacker (computer experts who can disable corporate security networks in the blink of an eye), the Fixer (engineers and mechanics who use technology and gadgets), the Face (celebrities, influencers, rockstars and artists who use their charisma to beguile others), the Shadow (detectives and spies who use intuition and street smarts to infiltrate and uncover information) and the Offworlder (tourists looking for life experience and adventure or just looking for kicks in the slums of the Santa Carla Sprawl).
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The default way to play Dark All Day is to play as a human character. There are however options to play as three Variant character types - the Mutant, the Automaton and the Synth. Mutants are humans whose DNA has been genetically altered by dangerous radiation. Automatons are human-made robots with primitive intelligence, programmed to carry out simple commands and are usually created for a single purpose, such as defence or labour. Synths are similar to automatons but are much more refined with enhanced AI processors and are visually identical to humans. When first playing Dark All Day you should probably avoid choosing a Variant as your character as it involves an extra layer of complexity on top of the usual rules and abilities.
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Dark All Day has three ways to play; as a one-shot adventure, as a miniseries or as a campaign. A One-Shot is a single mission that can be played in a single evening. The characters tend to be pre-generated and don’t ‘level-up’ during the session. A Miniseries is a series of sessions that are linked by a single, more complex mission. Characters can be pre-generated or can be created from scratch and they may ‘level-up’ a few times during the game. A campaign is a longer running game without a defined ending. Characters will ‘level-up’ many times (and could possibly die) and will take part in many missions.
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Dark All Day is set in the futuristic world of 2019. The setting shares our history up until the 1980’s when it diverges with the discovery of Ion Flow technology and Lightnet communication. These two inventions rapidly increase technological progress but also trigger a devastating nuclear war in the year 2000. By 2019, the world is in a post-apocalyptic state with large parts of the globe inhospitable.
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Dark All Day is set in the Santa Carla Sprawl, a mega city on the west coast of the United States. It is a massive city controlled by corporations but overrun with street gangs. The Upper Sprawl is a gleaming metropolis of steel and glass skyscrapers where the rich and privileged work and play in relative safety, protected by militant Delta Guardians. The Lower Sprawl is an endless expanse of warehouses, mega-factories, hydroponic farms and crumbling hab blocks. The Lower Sprawl is a lawless place where gangs rule the streets and Delta Guardians strive to stem the unrest from boiling over. The richest and most fortunate live on Mars and the Moon in private resorts.
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Although it was originally written as a Forged in the Dark game, there are now so many changes that it can’t be truly called a FitD game any longer. Occasionally you may see a rule or mechanic that survives from the original version of the game.
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The game is inspired and influenced by SynthWave music, a genre of electronic music that itself draws inspiration from the sounds, aesthetics, and cultural elements of the 1980s.
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There are plans for many more adventures which will also be available from DrivethruRPG. In addition, there are plans to release expansions that cover different areas of the Santa Carla Sprawl and beyond.
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Gary is the creator of Dark All Day. Based in London, UK and part of the HATE and D17 gaming clubs, he started playing RPGs as a teenager in the 1980’s. After concentrating on his career in film and TV he returned to gaming around 2015 and decided to write his own game in 2023.
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The cover and maps are created by London-based artist Alex Farebrother-Naylor and all other artwork is created by Buenos Aires based artist João Antunes Jr.
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No A.I. art is featured in Dark All Day.
Check out the Dark All Day merch available from Spreadshirt!
T-shirts, hoodies, stickers and more…