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The Darkest House

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That house on the outskirts of town, sitting empty behind a crumbling wall. The one people whisper about. The one that has gone unlived in for years. Sometimes a few hearty souls creep in, it is said, to see what treasures or secrets they can find. Most find nothing—just an empty old house. Some return shaken. A few don’t return at all.

You’ve seen this house before. If not in this city, then in some other. You’ve heard the rumors—and if not, well, someday they’ll find you.

What happens to a house when it sits alone for so many long years? What jealousies and hatreds does it quietly nurture? What whispers echo through its empty hallways? What waits, crouched within its dark rooms, hungering for the return of life?

For you?

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The Darkest House is an mega-adventure that takes you into a unique realm of horror. It’s made for the game you’re playing right now, to be integrated into your campaign regardless of the setting or game system. And its format—an entirely new form of tabletop RPG product—is uniquely optimized for online play.

The Darkest House will chill and frighten your players like no other RPG experience. But along the way their characters will have experiences that make them stronger, deeper, richer, and more powerfully bonded as a party. And it will improve the way you run and play RPGs online.

Come explore the Darkest House!

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A New Type of RPG Product

The Darkest House is a digital product designed for the needs of a game being run and played online—and built to take maximum advantage of that mode of play. Think of it like an RPG book that’s been reimagined from the ground up for the online environment, with pages formatted for your screen, easily-sharable resources, no page-flipping, intuitive navigation, and additional features that don’t just make online gaming easier—they take advantage of its unique nature to deliver a better RPG experience. Your players may find the Darkest House a daunting challenge, but you’ll find it amazingly easy to GM.

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The Darkest House works with your preferred online TTRPG platform. You run it on Zoom or Discord, or a virtual tabletop like Roll20 or Astral, or however you normally run online games. Only the GM needs a copy of The Darkest House, just like only the GM needs a copy of a conventional adventure book or PDF. The GM needs a desktop or laptop computer (Windows or Mac OS—your purchase includes both versions) to use The Darkest House.

The Darkest House can be run in person—in fact, it’s great for that, too—but the GM will need a computer with internet access and the ability to share digital files with the players.

Taking Root in Any Setting

That old house that everyone whispers about; that apartment at the end of the hall where no tenant ever stays for long; that strange unit in the station quarters sector, where everything seems a bit off. These are among the many entrances to The Darkest House.

Like an invasive vine or a creeping shadow, The Darkest House insinuates itself into any world. It is a malignant and primal force, unconcerned with the specifics of the worlds it seeps into. The Darkest House exists in our world—in your world—in any world. Wherever there is hunger, The Darkest House can gain a foothold. It is perfectly happy to take root in your campaign.

Making Your Game Better

The Darkest House is compatible with the game you’re already playing—in fact, it’s specifically made to be integrated into your current campaign. Why? Because the house draws upon a character’s memories and personal fears. It challenges their very notions of morality, family, friendship, love, and truth. You can run The Darkest House with new characters, but it really shines when played with characters that already have history, personality, and shared bonds. Those character will emerge from the house with greater insight into their world, their companions, and most of all themselves. The Darkest House was really built to be added to your existing campaign—and by deepening your PCs, it will make that campaign even better!

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The House System easily converts characters from the game rules you’re currently using (it takes about five minutes), and then lets you return to your normal character sheets when your PCs emerge from the house. The House System is a sort of RPG Rosetta Stone, allowing easy translation from any game system—and even letting you bring characters from different games together.

Your regular, ongoing game will be better after you’ve experienced the Darkest House. PCs emerge more deeply developed. Parties emerge more cohesively, with stronger bonds.

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The Next Big Innovation from Monte Cook Games

The Darkest House consists of:

  • The downloadable product, containing the many dozens of rooms of the house itself. This is what the GM will primarily use during play.
  • Scores of narrative props, maps, illustrations, and other resources, all designed to be easily downloaded, copied, or otherwise shared with the players, with minimal effort on the GM’s part.
  • Secrets of the House in PDF, a GM’s guide detailing the house’s background, conversion rules, and the House Rules set you’ll use as your PCs explore, and try to escape from, the Darkest House.
  • Crossing the Threshold in PDF, which gives players the character conversion rules and everything they need to explore (and try to escape from) the Darkest House.
  • Character sheets, GM and player reference sheets, and other components to streamline play.

This unique format is unlike any existing RPG product. It makes online play fast-paced and easy on the GM, and provides an incredibly immersive experience for the players. The Darkest House is fully compatible with all virtual tabletops, as well as videoconferencing, Discord or Slack play, or any other platform gamers commonly use for online TTRPG games.

The Darkest House hates you. The Darkest House wants you.

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Reviews (1)
Discussions (4)
Customer avatar
James G August 02, 2022 8:01 pm UTC
darn. No Linux version yet? If not, will it run smoothly with Wine? Really want this...
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Customer avatar
James G August 02, 2022 8:04 pm UTC
or, will it run in a TTRPG setting that itself runs on Linux, or...?
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Nelson L September 16, 2021 2:12 pm UTC
PURCHASER
"The app was unble to load This app requires an internet connection. Please check your connection and restart the app." XXX? Is this a scam?
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Nelson L September 16, 2021 2:23 pm UTC
PURCHASER
https://upload.cc/i1/2021/09/16/R9NxGB.png
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Nelson L September 16, 2021 2:24 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I just drag some image from app to browser, than it ask for password. Now i can't load in the app anymore.
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Ryan M August 13, 2021 1:42 am UTC
PURCHASER
It's obvious a lot of work went into this game. My issue is, I've been wanting to run this for over a month and I haven't been able to start. Part of the reason is that you have to learn a new ruleset. I like the module and the resources, it just feels like those food blogs where you have to read someone's doctoral dissertation on why they chose to have kids before you can actually get to the recipe.
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Robert B August 23, 2021 10:47 am UTC
I do feel like the lack of page restrictions led to a lot of over-editorializing. That said the base mechanic, once you get to it, is pretty straightforward: on a 1-10 scale how far is your character in their overall progression vs. how hard is what they're up against on the same scale.

If I have a concern, it would be that 2d6 really doesn't give you a lot of wiggle room to add bonuses or penalties. Even a +1 modifier either way shifts your odds 20%! If you end up stuck with a modifier of 3, one way or the other, leaves you stuck with a 90% chance of either succeeding or failing--at which point why bother even rolling? We're planning to roll 2d12 instead against a default difficulty of 13 (which thematically is just a neat target number to have for a haunted house game anyway). It should make it so you can actually have meaningful modifiers in the game without it blowing up all the math.
Customer avatar
Andy H June 22, 2021 8:26 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Great premise, I'm looking forward to running The Darkest House.

But I have a question: When exactly does the House act?

Secrets of the House, p. 30, says: "If a character **succeeds**, and the House Die is higher than either die, the house acts."

But the GM's Reference Sheet says: "Players must also roll the House Die (another d6) and tell you if the result of that die is higher than either of the other two dice they rolled. If yes, **regardless of any other outcome**, the house acts."

So does the House act on a failed roll if the House Die is the highest or does it only act on successes?
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Customer avatar
Robert B August 23, 2021 4:12 am UTC
When you make a roll you're normally rolling 2d6 (3d6 if there's a Boon or Bane in play) plus a special d6 for the House Die. If the House Die comes up highest--the House acts, regardless of whether the roll succeeds or fails.
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Customer avatar
Andy H August 23, 2021 7:49 am UTC
PURCHASER
I have tried playing it that way but this resulted in the House acting all the time. Especially since many of the things that happen, when the House acts, require rolling more dice so it kind of snowballs.

Since then I switched to what page 30 of "Secrets of the House" states: "If a character succeeds, and the House Die is higher than either die, the house acts." Now the House acts much less!
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Customer avatar
Robert B August 23, 2021 10:34 am UTC
Huh. That's weird from a statistics standpoint. So of all the dice on the table, the House die was frequently coming up the highest? That's atypical for sure. Personally, I like the idea that the House can act whether you win or lose--but for sure I'd recommend using something like the page 30 rule instead if you're ending up with the House going again and again, especially if it's disrupting the pacing of your game. Anyway glad you've found a fix that works for your group. Have fun with it!
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Customer avatar
Andy H August 27, 2021 7:18 am UTC
PURCHASER
You're completely right for single actions, then it's unlikely the House acts. But in the House System you often times have to roll multiple times. In a fight, for example, the PCs roll to hit and they roll to avoid damage. And if they have to hit an enemy a couple of times it's pretty much guaranteed that the House acts at some point in every fight. And then it likely acts after the fight as well, because if the party rests, everybody rolls again for every wound to check whether they are healed. And then you have some actions of the House that effect all PCs, like everyone suffering a mental attack. And whenever the whole party rolls at the same time, the House is pretty much guarenteed to act on one of these rolls. I didn't run the math, to be honest, so maybe we were just incredibly unlucky, but that was our experience. And that's why we changed it. But thanks for your thoughts on the matter! =)
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Product Information
Silver seller
Author(s)
Pages
300
Publisher Stock #
MCG291
File Size:
164.01 MB
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File Last Updated:
May 26, 2021
This title was added to our catalog on June 02, 2021.