Deviant: The Renegades, the latest game for Chronicles of Darkness 2e, is live on Kickstarter and into stretch goals. The logline is nearly this: Boys sans the beautiful superhero veneer. The core concept is: You were made through an experiment or a ritual, you were made powerful, and that power made you enemies who conspire to own you. When I first read about Deviant: The Renegades, the experiment part made me think of Promethean: The Created and the Conspiracies (the enemies) sounded like Pentex (the evil corporation from Werewolf: The Apocalypse) leaving me to wonder what new ground this covered. But, I’m a Chronicles of Darkness fan so I backed it. I got access to the backer-only 71-page Deviant: The Renegade KS Manuscript Preview and it opened my mind to what stories this RPG offers: Scanners, Eleven from Stranger Things, Officer Murphy from Robocop, The Fly, and the horrors of Swamp Thing, all set in the World of Darkness. A game where you are ruined and fighting back, and I could see where those stories would go.
This is Onyx Path Publishing’s 38th Kickstarter (39th if you add in the Scarred Lands Creature Collection for 5th Edition RPG Kickstarter under the official OPP Kickstarter account), and they have the crowdfunding process down to a science. That science includes instant access to the Deviant: The Renegade KS Manuscript Preview for backers. Both a sample of the game and a guarantee this project exists in draft, this is the best advertisement OPP could provide.
This is a review of the preview, not the finished game and “these manuscript previews may not yet be in their final form — there are still minor edits, maybe a few typos, and possibly some rough edges still to sand down on these previews, but you can consider them about 95% finished.” With that in mind, what I’m reviewing will be expanded upon and revised by the time the final book drops, which is February 2021 for the PDF and August 2021 for the print hardcover.
That said, they don’t wait until after the campaign to start production, they come to the party with a draft in-hand and preliminary art, and that’s what I’m looking at.
TheOnyxPath.com Previews
Through an experiment or ritual, you gained powers, but the process broke your soul and put you on the radar of a Conspiracy. Maybe they made you, maybe they found out about you, regardless, they’re out to capture and use you. At the same time, your powers aren’t a gift, they’re a body horror that is destroying you and your life. Deviant: The Renegades is for CofD 2e, which is the current version of the Storytelling System, a variant of the Storyteller System.
Suggested sources of inspiration include: “Dr. Jekyll, Dr. Moreau’s creations, The Invisible Man, the works of Cronenburg (especially The Fly), Guyver, Akira, Tetsuo, Dark Angel, Gargoyles, Beauty and the Beast, Roswell, Orphan Black, and Fringe.” Add to that list The Gifted, Bladerunner, and Memento.
Before the campaign started, OPP shared details about the game at cons and on their website. In his second blog about DtR, Dave Brookshaw shares some of the points that make this game different than other CofD games. Mechanically, this will be a streamlined version of the CofD 2e system with fewer moving parts. Because you gained powers through an experiment or dark ritual, the powers selection will be both broad and simplified with specific mechanics designed to be reskinned to cloak your concept. The Conspiracies will have character sheets and powers based on the power level of your characters ensuring some balance.
The blog covered an early playtest (with the scenario and characters shared here). Among the other blog posts are a look at a draft of the “Origins” chapter presenting the five beginnings for the Remade:
- Autourgics. “The Elect wholeheartedly wish to be Remade, to satisfy a sincere personal desire or some ideologically driven urge.”
- Epimorphs. “With threats and promises, Conspiracies convince Volunteers to become Remade. Where the Elect seek transformation for its own sake, Epimorphs agree to it to pursue some secondary goal: money, freedom, or safety for loved ones.”
- Exomorphs. “Remade intentionally, but against their will.”
- Genotypal. They were born this way.
- Pathological. This was all an accident. A horrible, irreversible accident.
Deviant: The Renegade KS Manuscript Preview
The preview draft is the barebones intentions of the property. Among what it shares are the five Origins above and Clades, which are the five classifications of the Remade’s powers:
- Cephalist. Psychics, effectively. While not exclusively Eleven from Stranger Things, or Charlie McGee from Firestarter, these are good examples of the Variations, the Scars, and the Conspiracies these characters face.
- Chimerics. Hybrid human-animals that will inevitably be compared to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but are more likely meant to be The Fly. Striking closer to TMNT, the game includes Manticores, Remade animals (instead of people).
- Invasives. Cyborgs and those possessed by mystical talismans. Robocop touches on this concept as does Swamp Thing.
- Coactives. They channel power through their body. Marquee characters from the X-Men embody this idea.
- Mutants. “Clearly biological in origin, but inconsistent with other Clades. The bodies of these Grotesques defied the circumstances of Divergence but nevertheless changed, albeit in unexpected ways.” The experiment was attempted but it failed and we’re left with a highly adaptive mutant almost like a terrestrial John Carpenter’s The Thing.
- The Clades, Mutants, and a Mutant Variation (power), Rapid Healing, can be read here.
Want to read some sample Variations like Telekinesis, Bioluminescence, and Boneless (here)? How about Scars (drawbacks) such as Concentration, Power Build-Up, Lying Eyes, and Identifier (here)?
The game explores isolation and being an outsider combined with body horror, pain, and a thirst for revenge. As a Remade, you are poor and running for your life. You have some powers that vary from meh to great, but you’re faced with the elite: powerful, organized, and prepared. The myriad number of Conspiracies that hunt you are more than your equal and your only option to avoid them is to disappear. Get off of the grid, become homeless, or take up a life of crime and you might be safe. But, you burn for revenge and that does not correlate with lying low.
“Stability” (This was covered on a blog post as well as a Kickstarter update)
The process by which you became a Remade was traumatic enough to break your soul and ruined who you were. As a result, you have to remake yourself psychologically (you cannot recover physically). However, you are a work in progress and always in danger of breaking. Stability is a mental health tracker that measures how far away your character is from that collapse. If you become unstable, your Scars will increase and, in the worst case, you’ll be overtaken by your mutations. Think Hulk and Mr. Hyde.
“Conviction & Loyalty” (This was covered on a blog post as well as a Kickstarter update)
As a Remade, you are driven by your interactions with others called Conviction and Loyalty. For each dot in either stat, you have one character who you feel strong hatred or protectiveness towards. Suffering for someone you’re loyal to will regain Willpower, while working toward a character on your Conviction list will gain a Willpower and a Beat. Consider the reasons and lengths that Cameron Vale goes to in the final fight with Darryl Revok in Scanners.
Egg’s Thoughts
Taken as a whole, this game has the potential to play through some of the best horror stories that have not been touched on by the rest of the World of Darkness. For my table, I see Stephen King’s Firestarter (a little older) as inspiration. Kids with psychic powers, hormones, nosebleeds, migraines, and the Conspiracies that made them and killed their parents out to co-opt them. I can see doing a Swamp Thing-esque campaign in which the horror is yourself and what you will do to protect what is left of your world. Deviant: The Renegades opens your table to a range of horror games you’ve been waiting to play.
Deviant: The Renegades – a tabletop roleplaying game by Onyx Path Publishing
END DATE: Thu, October 17 2019 12:01 PM EDT.
“Contribute to help us create a traditionally printed version of Deviant: The Renegades, a new game in the Chronicles of Darkness line.”
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