Tabletop Game / Dishonored Roleplaying Game

The Dishonored Roleplaying Game is a roleplaying game set in the world of Dishonored, made by Modiphius Entertainment and using their 2d20 system.

The Core Rulebook can be purchased from Modiphuis Entertainment's official site or DriveThruRPG.

The game includes examples of the following tropes:

• Artifact of Doom: Most of the corrupt bonecharms have some negative drawback that makes their use very inconvenient or even painful. The one that fits this trope best is probably Darkened Edges, which causes the bonecharm's power to spread doubt and discord, adding Chaos every time the wearer spends a Void point.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: The description of the Aristocrat NPC states that by and large, the Empire's aristocracy are a bunch of ruthless, decadent backstabbers who should not be trusted, and the two suggested story hooks include a nobleman trying to frame a rival for piracy and a noblewoman plotting to murder her own illegitimate son for being inconvenient to her if someone found out.
• Bad Luck Charm: The Splintered Bone effect found on some corrupt bonecharms causes the bonecharm to twist its wearer's fate as a form of revenge for its poor craftsmanship, making complications more likely.
• Bears Are Bad News: Tyvian bears are described as having fangs the length of a man's arm and claws that can puncture metal, and local folklore holds that they are literal embodiments of the island's brutal and unforgiving wilderness.
• Character Customization
  • Character Class System: At character creation the player chooses an Archetype, which decides their starting skills, styles, focuses, talent, belongings, and contacts.
  • Point Build System: After character creation, the player can choose to spend XP to build their character however they want, though gaining talents from another Archetype costs extra XP.
  • The Six Stats: The six Skills somewhat align with this trope, but not quite. Fight, Move, Survive, and Talk roughly map to Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, and Charisma, respectively, while both Study and Tinker mostly equate to an Intelligence stat.
  • Skill Scores and Perks: Perks are called Talents and skills are called Focuses.
• Combo Platter Powers: A player with the Outsider's Mark get a selection of six powers and six passive enhancements. They start with one power unlocked, but the rest must be unlocked with runes.
  • The powers are:
    • Bend Time slows time around the user, allowing them to take two actions in one turn and making it so any contested checks against the user have a penalty.
    • Blink allows the player to instantly move to another nearby space.
    • Blood Briar summons a mass of vines and tendrils that entangle anyone who gets near it.
    • Dark Vision allows the user to see living creatures, valuables, and security systems through walls.
    • Devouring Swarm summons a swarm of ravenous vermin such as rats or bloodflies, which attack nearby creatures unless they can also summon that kind of swarm.
    • Eye Within allows the user to learn the personal truths of everyone around them.
    • Far Reach allows the user to shoot out a long tendril of shadow that can pull them towards solid surfaces or pull smaller objects and creatures toward them.
    • Fog Caller summons a thick fog that obscures the surrounding area from sight.
    • Mesmerize summons an entity from the void that hypnotizes two nearby enemies, leaving them unable to perceive their surroundings for one round and with no memory of what happened right before they were mesmerized.
    • Possession allows the user to enter the body of an animal and control its movements for a short time.
    • Thorns allows the user to fire a volley of sharp thorns as a ranged attack.
  • The enhancements are:
    • Agility grants the user supernatural speed and agility, allowing them one automatic success on any Move tests.
    • Beast Whispers allows the user to speak with a specific kind of animal.
    • Dark Inspiration causes the void to enhance the user's talent for art or industry, allowing them to automatically gain one success when making a skill test with a specific creative focus.
    • Dark Scrimshaw grants the user insights into the inner workings of bonecharms, making it easier for them to research and craft bonecharms of their own.
    • Escape makes it so that once per full moon, the user will be able to cheat death by dissolving into a swarm of animals such as rats or bloodflies, which disperse and later reform back into their body at a specific shrine or sanctuary.
    • Glimpse Hollows allows the user to see into cracks in the world where the Void is leaking through, allowing them to glimpse other times, places, and even versions of reality.
    • Shadow Kill makes it so that any creature killed by the user dissolves into ash and vanishes into the void.
    • Strength allows the user to throw things at a greater distance, as well as granting one automatic success on all tests to Fight Forcefully.
    • Vitality increases the user's stress track.
• Cult
  • Due to the Abbey of the Everyman working tirelessly to stamp out any and all heresy that they find, worshipers of the Void or the Outsider typically congregate in small groups. While some of these cults simply work to keep the old ways alive, others have loftier goals of tearing down the Abbey and returning to the old days when they could practice their faith openly. Despite being incohesive and mostly-unconnected, their separate actions often seem masterfully coordinated.
  • The Eyeless is part cult and part criminal organization. Their criminal activities typically involve dealing in occult items and information (whether genuine or not) and scamming people with phony seances and tarot readings, which serve as both a source of funding for the higher-ups' research into the Void and as a smokescreen to spread misinformation about the true nature of the Void.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The rulebook notes that the people of Dunwall are extremely xenophobic, distrusting anyone from a different culture or even just profession.
  The average Dunwaller can’t pronounce “xenophobia” or tell you what it means, but they will show it to you at least three times during a casual conversation—if they’re willing to talk to you without knowing where your family comes from.
• Dirty Cop: While there are a few law enforcement officers who genuinely try to do good by their fellow citizens and keep the peace, many more are brutal or corrupt.
• Fantastic Flora: Blood Briars are large, semi-sentient plants connected to the Void. They can be summoned by characters with the Blood Briar power, at which point they'll attack any living being that gets too close by wrapping their vines around their victim and sending out a barrage of thorns.
• Fictional Holiday:
  • Sterrenoct is said to be the highest holy day of the Outsider-worshipping people who occupied the ground of Dunwall long before the Empire was formed. In the modern day, it prompts dozens of otherwise separate cults to gather in a forgotten, deep part of the Dunwall Sewers to carry out their strange rituals.
  • The Festival of Churners in in the Morleyan city of Alba is a day to celebrate both the living and the dead. Celebrants don red robes, shuck off their shoes, and make their way to the water. There, they erect banners for the dead and cook feasts together, with some of the food being tossed into the waves to feed their lost loved ones.
• Grim Up North: The northernmost and least-populated island in the empire is Tyvia, a land of harsh wilderness, snowy tundra, and icy mountains.
• Health Potion: Sokolov's Elixirs return from the video game, and can be used to remove all the drinker's stress - assuming that it's the genuine article, at least. Bootleg or watered-down versions might have no effect, or even increase the drinker's stress instead.
• Ironic Nickname: Somber Jack is a ruthless and feared pirate captain who commands a whole fleet of ships. He really enjoys his job, and has been known to laugh while slitting throats.
• Kill It with Fire: Recommended as the most reliable way to deal with Bloodflies and Nest Keepers.
• Mana Potion: Piero's Spiritual Remedies return from the video game, and can be used to fully restore the drinker's Mana - assuming that it's the genuine article, at least. Bootleg or watered-down versions might have no effect, or even increase the drinker's stress.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: This being a setting where the supernatural most definitely exists, it can be hard to tell reality from simple myth. The Devourer may truly be an ancient Sea Monster, or it might just be a legend. The folklore of the Tyvian city of Meya claims that that people who vanish into the wilds become the vicious hounds that prowl the countryside, but those hounds' unusual intelligence could be totally natural. Every ship to sail down the Strait of the Outsider end up sinking, with rumors as to why ranging from a sea monster to a gateway to the Void. It's up to the GM to decide which of the various legends of the world have any real grounding in reality.
• Monster Whale: One suggested story hook is Misery Mal, a huge whale that has sunk every whaling vessel it come across. Slaughterhouses and whaling companies are offering a large reward for anyone who kills it, but one cultist seeks to protect and commune with it.
• Non-Combat EXP: XP is gained from achieving goals as well as a handful of mechanical interactions, none of which necessarily involve combat.
• Not-So-Safe Harbor: The Den, an island designated as a neutral ground where various pirates, gangs, and fleets can meet, do business, and acquire supplies.
• Plague Zombie: The Weepers of Dishonored and Nest Keepers of Dishonored 2 have NPC writeups. Both are people infected with diseases that cause them to grow feral and violent in its late stages.
• Protective Charm: The Feral Cacaphony bonecharm effect allows the wearer spend Momentum to transform incoming projectiles into small vermin.
• Pirate Booty: One of the suggested story hooks for Clemente Landing is that a group of pirates have moved into the area looking for the treasure of Captain Clemente, spurring a treasure hunt that pits neighbor against neighbor.
• Sea Monster:
  • Legends tell of a creature known as the Devourer, an enormous and mysterious beast that lives in the open ocean between the Isles and Pandyssia. Some say it's a whale, though one larger than any known whale has ever grown, while others claim it's an entirely different kind of beast.
  • On the somewhat more mundane side, the waters surrounding Morley are home to massive eels.
• Still Fighting the Civil War: The island of Morley attempted to secede from the empire in 1801, 36 years before the start of the first Dishonored game. Many of the natives still resent Gristol and support the idea of an independent Morley, some even going so far as to join criminal gangs or extremist groups like the Ox Tongues, who seek to drive out Imperial influence no matter the cost.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: One of the bonecharm effects is Yearning of the Leviathan, which allows anyone who holds the charm in their mouth to breath underwater.
• Touched by Vorlons: Even if the player characters don't actually possess the Outsider's mark, they are still assumed to be subtly touched by the void in some way. This gives them a resource called Void Points, which can be spent to reroll dice, get an automatic critical success on one of their dice, or to alter, remove, or add one truth to the current scene.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: A non-video game example. Destructive or malicious actions taken by the player characters add to a counter of "Chaos Points," which can be spent by the GM to make bad things happen later down the line.
• Wicked Witch: Since the game offers details for playing during the events of either Dishonored or Dishonored 2, it includes information about the Brigmore Witches, as well as stats for Delilah Copperspoon.
• Wretched Hive: The rulebook instructs the reader to imagine a mixture of "the worst scenes of Dickensian London" and "an appalling level of governmental oppression and religious and supernatural dread." Multiply that by two, and what you've got is almost as bad as Dunwall. It's a racist, classist, run-down city full of organized crime, corruption at every level of government, and a state religion of fanatical Knight Templars carrying out witch hunts.

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