London 1749.
“That night, he still could not shut his eyes, for fear of the visions that haunted him.
When they came to check on him the next morning they found him almost dead in his cell. His nails were chipped, bloodied and broken, his hands squeezed two pulpy orbs. His face was defiled, empty sockets devoid of eyes. For the Runner, the agony was not over, because though eyeless, he could still see...”
Welcome to Dark Streets, a game of Lovecraftian horror set in Georgian London.
The year is 1749, and London is a city of vice, crime and misery. Gangs of ruffians rule the streets, unopposed. Crime is at an all time high, fuelled by crushing poverty. Brothels proliferate. Drunkenness is endemic, the gin craze is at its peak. Child-beggars starve in filthy gutters. Corrupt night-watchmen and thief-takers turn a blind eye to wrong-doing. And dark creatures lurk in back alleys, called from beyond by the desperate with nothing left to lose.
But there is a new force on the streets of London; for the author and magistrate Henry Fielding has teamed up with his brother John to form the city’s first police force – the Bow Street Runners. The Fielding’s have persuaded Parliament to fund their crime-fighting endeavour, but they know that there is something behind the vice – for John
Fielding’s blind eyes can see things that others cannot – things that man was not meant to know.
In Dark Streets players take on the roles of Bow Street Runners or civilian consultants, attached to London’s first, desperately small, police force, investigating the dark secrets behind the sordid crimes that despoil the city.
Not Call of Cthulhu, but close, Dark Streets uses the Renaissance Deluxe rules from Cakebread and Walton. Using the D100 system the rules share the same basics as CoC, BRP, etc so will be easy to understand. However the differences are enough to make having access to the rule book unavoidable.
What I’m doing is trying to gauge the interest here in this system to judge whether there is enough to make it worthwhile to invest the time needed to start a game on the forum. If enough members here interested then I may take it further.
If interested please let me know.
