THE pENDulum AND the pIT

What is THE pENDulum AND the pIT?

It opens only for a second, yet decades pass in a blink. The Eye has always watched, neither good nor evil. Older than morality, humanity and older still than even the most primordial Great Old One. The Eye was the first and shall be the last. When it watches humanity is safer, the others cannot fully emerge under its focus. The Eye draws to a close once more, what darkness follows without its watchful gaze? 

As the Eye wavers, powers once forgotten manifest, hooded figures gather under forgotten monoliths and the pit fills. 

THE pENDulum AND the pIT is played as the world grows closer to another dark age. There are two roles, the singular Eye and the Seekers. The Eye watches, holding no bias, witnessing and narrating the actions of the Seekers while they try their best to delay the inevitable for a little longer.

THE pENDulum AND the pIT comes in the form of a folded leaflet (A4 when unfolded) and character sheets. The picture included is of the RPG printed using the Riso Printing process, the downloads are a smoother finish. 

Character Creation

Character creation is quick and simple, taking players only a handful of minutes to create their own Seeker, ready to face the things that lurk in the dark. You assign four set numbers, one to each attribute, then choose a Calling which gives your Seeker a special ability to utilise at a terrible cost. 

For example: The Call of Answers, A Private Investigator who can use their ability to find a clue which points them towards the next step in a mystery.

The Seekers then gain access to five items related to their Calling. These items are not created immediately, but are instead declared by the player when they need them most. If the item is used to bypass a roll, it is destroyed or used up in the process. 

 For Example: A Seeker with the Private Investigator Calling declares they have a crowbar on them and use it to pry open a locked door without having to roll, however the force breaks the crowbar, rendering it useless. The Seeker now only has 4 items left to declare.

Attributes

Each Seeker has four attributes, each representing a cornerstone of their character:

• Body (strength, fortitude)
• Brain (logic, knowledge)
• Bravado (charm, wit)
• Beast (the unseen, the odd)

Rolling Dice

When a Player declares a course of action that holds a risk of failure they roll to determine the outcome. If they roll under their attribute they fail and are faced with a choice:

1) Accept defeat, the action fails and the pENDulum swings forward one position.

2) Or push on, damage the attribute used by the difference between it and the roll, but with this sacrifice the action succeeds.

The Pendulum

The pENDulum tracks the world’s movement towards larger tragedy. Depending on the position, its power manifests in different ways. With each failure or use of a Calling ability the pENDulum moves forward a position. It swings back and forth plaguing the Seekers with small inconveniences or boons at each step. Once it has moved through each position (P1 to P5 or vice versa) the pIT fills by a level.

For Example: On its fifth position, the pENDulum causes the Seeker's to lose a lead. A sudden downpour is unleashed by the heavens which washes away the tracks the Seeker's were following in the woods.     

The Pit

The pIT fills slowly but surely, unleashing unique events at each threshold. Some of these events are tied to the Investigation being played, while the others are the same for every unfortunate misadventure. After five levels the pIT spills over causing the endgame to kick in, those who work against the Seekers begin their dreaded ritual.  

For Example: 4) A blood eclipse, civil unrest runs rampant. The town slowly turns against outsiders, the Seekers included.

The Investigation

The Investigation is the campaign as a whole, it is comprised of: The Hook, Mysteries and The Ritual.

The Hook

The instigating event that draws the Seekers in. The hook serves to bind the Seeker’s together, and to introduce them to a pool of mysteries for them to try and solve.

Mysteries

Mysteries are short mini investigations that the Seekers can solve to acquire special items and to gather fragments which will weaken the ritual, making it easier to halt when the time comes. The mystery pool contains 10 sources (newspaper clippings, police reports, missing posters) that can be used to start a mystery. However only 5 mysteries are integral to the hook (each giving the Seekers a fragment if solved), the remaining 5 are coincidental events that are plaguing the town. It is up to the Seekers to determine which mysteries to pursue.

The Ritual

The summoning of some abhorrent aberration or simply a spell to remake the world in some horrifying visage. Whatever it is, it is coming. The ritual is the end goal of the forces that work against the Seekers. Banishing the ritual consists of succeeding at a series of at least 6 challenges. For each fragment (up to five) the Seekers recover, a single challenge can be automatically completed.

Physical Copies: https://ko-fi.com/s/e204ecdfa4

Writing: Max Storey of Two Idiot Detectives

Art and Layout: Saga Mackenzie, https://sagaillustrates.itch.io/