| Introductions... In the distant future the evil and tyrannical government of Mars has waged war on Earth. In the catastrophic battles that followed, refugees from Earth have fled to the furthest corner of the inhabited worlds to colony D-455, now called Refuge. Hidden, humanity looks forward to enjoying this eden.But this planet is not quite what it seems. Dimensional rips in the fabric of reality have allowed energy called Leyas to seep into the planet's atmosphere. This energy alters everything from the growth of plants and animals to the powers and abilities of sentient beings and renders many of the technological devices that Earthers rely on useless. Stranded and desperate the Earther Colonist have fought for the last two thousand years to keep a foothold on their new home. And they are not the only ones. Refugees from other dimensions have also fled to Refuge. Warriors bred by the alien Falosini have been seeded across the face of Refuge. Hidden in the vast forests of Refuge live communities of K'iorn, Tall and agile, these hunters have learned to harness the Leyas to grow great Treetop cities. Their cousins, the Vorin, have learned to camouflage themselves much like an Earther chameleon. Underneath the great mountain ranges of Refuge live caverns full of the short stocky K'iou, masters of mining and metalworking. On the tops of these mountains are great Aeries filled with the winged Baribur, warriors who pride themselves on their song as much as their skill in battle. Many more sentient beings inhabit this brave world. Punctuated by Wars and Revolts the Earthers now rest at an uneasy stalemate with their new home and its inhabitants.But darkness is brewing on the horizon as the very beings that these other races fled now wish to conquer our Dimension. The Hordes of the Evil Quall N'drone, beasts whose war machines have terrorized countless Dimensions have come and only by the actions of the heroes of Refuge can they be stopped. Or we're all food and hosts to their larval young. Take up sword and shield and fight as a Berzerker, your anger destroying your enemies with fire and flame. Perhaps you'd prefer to be a Dragoon and use the Leyas grow whatever weapons you need from your own flesh. Maybe you'll be a Summoner calling monsters and warriors from other planes to fight for you. Or maybe you'll be a Magus and use the Leyas itself as a weapon raining down fire, lightning and acid upon your foes. Or perhaps you will give up your soul and become a Vampyr, embracing the shadows to drain the very life from your enemies. Maybe, just maybe you'll be one of the few Earthers left who cannot be affected by the Leyas. These warriors, called Immutables, fight using everything from Six shooters to shotguns, Lasers to plasma ejectors, power armor to tanks. Whatever you choose, a world of adventure is before you. Where your choices will have real outcomes. You'll make your way through Nightmare filled caverns, Demon plagued towns, Cities filled with all manner of beings, and across the very dimensions themselves in hopes of saving our Dark Refuge. Dark Refuge is an Adventure Game intended for 2-8 players. Play as one of 13 types of adventurers and one of 12 different and unique races each with their own special abilities All you need is the Dark Refuge: The Adventure Game rule book , dice, a pen/pencil and paper. |
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| Dark Refuge FAQs Dark Refuge in a nut shell What is Dark Refuge? Dark Refuge is a pen and paper adventure game designed for 2-8 players. It is a revolutionary game in two respects. First, its incredibly easy rules are designed for players of any skill level. The second is its revolutionary Leyas ability system allowing battles to take on the fast paced exciting flow as bright and vivid as your imagination will allow. Refuge is also the name of the planet on which the game is set and the players characters inhabitant. Their lives are fraught with peril, filled with intrigue and bursting with action. The player controls the actions of his character through this completely realized and vibrant world. The Narrator controls the world around the players and creates/moderates any adventures the characters encounter. When faced with battle, or the need to use the Leyas the player rolls the dice and the Narrator interprets that dice roll. After each adventure, characters gain points allowing them to upgrade their abilities, attributes or buy new skills. A set of adventures can end at any time, such as when the characters accomplish their initial goals. Or it can continue into a Campaign,an open ended story that continues whenever the players get together. Why is this fun? Have you ever wished you could have the powers of your favorite movie character or comic book superhero? What would you do if given those powers? Dark Refuge allows a player to create any type of character they would enjoy acting as. In many ways the game is about play-acting. You and your friends will weave stories that you will be remember for years. This game is also a social event. You and a group of friends get together and enjoy each other's company. The moving story keeps everyone interested but gives them the opportunity to express themselves individually. At the very least you get the cathartic satisfaction of playing your character, hacking and slashing through hordes of terrifying monsters. For more involved gamers and those who have experience with other games what makes the system unique is it's relatively low points of contact, fluid ability to do things, and adaptability for a variety of gamers. Granted, certain plausibility fanatics that MUST have a chart to know how far they can piss into a river based on skills, attributes, and desired distances may not find the game that satisfying. For the rest of us who want a fun, fast and fluid game and game system, Dark Refuge is a must. What creatures can I play as? There are 13 different races each with their own cultures, histories and special abilities. Earthers are our descendants, humans who have colonized the stars. The K'iorn are tall and slender hunters who stalk the forests of Refuge. Their close cousins are the Vorin, able to camouflage themselves like chameleons. In the sky above Refuge, the winged Baribur fly composing epic songs and waging war. Deep under the mountains the stocky K'iou forge weapons and carve grand stone monuments. Not all the races are goodly beings. The evil Pelebor also soar in the sky, raiding and slaving with their dragon-riding cousins, the Uthvelor. These malicious aliens are known for their murderous frenzies. The native Olgogs are known for their immense strength, while the gnomish Kumfei are brilliant engineers. The thieving Bastards are a diminutive race resembling Earther children who survive by stealing from the Earther colonies. What types of characters can I play as? This game allows for a very wide variety of characters using only 13 different categories of adventurer. A Bravo is a character who must achieve a meditative state to use the Leyas. They can be played as a samurai, armed with a katana and a deep sense of honor. They can be just as easily played as a swashbuckler using the game's simple rules. Berserkers control fire Leyas with their immense battle rages. Troubadours use their song to cast spells on their enemies. Dragoons grow dragon-like claws and heavy armor and battle in animalistic fighting styles. Priests use the leyas to heal and drive away shadow creatures. Magi and Mancers use the Leyas to mold reality around them. Shapeshifters are able to copy their enemies' every ability. Maybe the path of the fallen is more intriguing. A Vampyr feeds off the fear of his enemies, using it to power his virtual invincibility. A Bandit is a stealthy rogue that has become addicted to theft. A Burnout was once a great and powerful Mancer, but was forever scarred by a leyas backlash. Burnouts frequently are missing many of their memories and powers but can draw on a long experience with the leyas. |
| What is the Leyas? The Leyas is an extra dimensional energy that allows the characters of Dark Refuge to accomplish astounding feats. It can be used to create the standard fare of fireballs, lightning bolts and acid blasts. The really unique nature of the Leyas is the wide range of powers available to players. Using the Leyas, all characters can augment their normal abilities, change their body, and summon creatures who will fight for them. No longer is a single weak mage the only spell caster in a group. The revolutionary aspect of the Leyas is the ability of a character to chain multiple powers together. A player can even create their own artifacts and magical items using any spell available in the game. The Leyas also will cause a character's fear to create Nightmares. These Nightmares can be accidentally created anytime filling the game with suspenseful tension. What makes this game different from the rest? The Magic system (or "Leyas") is easy to learn and very versatile, allowing players to even create new spells in the heat of the moment. The ability to cast multiple spells in a single round and the ability for a character to easily and quickly turn any ability they know into a magical artifact also has an amazingly useful in-game effect. Players concentrate less on "gaining loot" and more time on acting in-character. The magic system is intuitive and easily used by new players. It allows a lot of variation and combination, keeping advanced players interested. This game crosses genres. The players can have a science fiction adventure one day and then play a tolkienesc sword and sorcery adventure the next. A wild west gunfight flows easily into a battle against undead. The battle system is designed to move quickly. This removes many annoying and complex dice rolls one finds in other systems. It is designed to emulate the fast paced battle found in video games using a single 10 sided dice for attacks and dodges. Above all else, DR is approachable by players of all ages. Younger players enjoy the vibrant characters and the cool powers. Mature players will appreciate the deep and thought provoking undercurrents that run through the world of Refuge. Political and social issues influence the player's game increasing the reality of the experience. What type of future is there in the Dark Refuge license? DR is a pen and paper adventure game for people seeking a new social experience, not just geeks in their attics. The first three Dark Refuge novels: Godswords:Saga of the Bladed Sun, The Day Earth Died, and The Nightmare Lord have been successfully released. The Northern Kingdoms Border Wars has led to hundreds of new groups joining the DR Family. After that a series of sourcebooks expanding the Dark Refuge universe were released, including the EEF Guide and Religions of Refuge. In 2012 we are releasing The Time Shredders, an exciting new product that uses a deck of standard playing cards. 2013 and Beyond has the Draco Liberatti and a series of Humorous comics, Dork Refuge. Interested Parties should contact our Webmaster. |
| Dark Refuge, Northern Kingdoms: The Border Wars and Dark Earth are registered trademarks of Dark Refuge Games Inc. All characters, races,pictures and other terms used on this website are property of Dark Refuge Games. |
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| What makes Dark Refuge a new experience is the world, and the way characters interact with the mythos of the world. It takes place after Humanity has colonized our galaxy, after a Golden Age of Earther Ascendancy. It was through the greed of the Earther Authority that the Golden Age fell. They hired on a Mars based corporation known as the Iron Republic to provide for them large quantities of cloned workers, miners, and laborers who were expendable on planets where radiation and local alien species would quickly wipe out any Earther Colonists foolish enough to set up settlements. These cloned "Brethren" quickly gave Mars a distinct advantage, and when the Iron Republic finally turned on Earth, the Earther Authority gave up. The CEOs, politicians and aristocrats gathered a force of soldiers, technicians and scientists and fled Earth, leaving the poor and displaced to be enslaved by the Iron Republic. Yet even as the Earther Authority fled, they were traveling into a trap. They chose to use a small colony on a planet known as Refuge as their staging post to restart their society. The leader of this colony, a tyrant, Commissar Enric Von Glomhammer had already made treaties with the Iron Republic turning Refuge into a penal colony once the displaced Earthers arrived. Glomhammer had purposely hid the true nature of Planet Refuge from the displaced Earthers, knowing they would have never come if they had known. This planet stands at an intersection of dimensions. Into it flows a naturally occurring energy known as The Leyas. The Leyas responds to emotion, and even unconscious thought, and the Earthers soon found their technology would malfunction due to the fear or stress of the operators. At night, fears and anxiety would manifest Nightmares, beings of shadow who could only survive by consuming the life-force and flesh of their creators. The Earthers freaked out of course, and not believing some "energy" was causing this they began blaming the natives of Refuge, creatures known as Olgogs. Olgogs, tall, humanoid and covering in thick green fur, easily became the scapegoats for these Nightmare attacks. A Religious group known as the Church of One formed. Believing that man was made in god's image, the Church of One denounced the Olgogs as therefore being in the image of the devil. They began hunting down the nomadic Olgogs, calling them by the derogatory name of "Goblins". And thus began the Goblin Genocide. Meanwhile a few learned people began to manipulate the Leyas, using its power as a physics placeholder to accomplish seemingly impossible feats. Adepts, those skilled at the Leyas, quickly became another group hunted as witches by the Church of One. Traveling further and further a field hunting Olgogs and Rogue Adepts, the Earthers soon learned that Refuge had been colonized millennia before by a group of dimension traveling aliens known as the Children of the Falosini. Bred by the Falosini as subspecies of Warriors, these Children of the Falosini would not be driven off by the racist Church of One'. They met them in battle, only adding fuel to the Church of One's claims that these aliens were sorcerous beings(i.e. Demons). It would have been a war that would have wiped out both the Earthers and the Children of the Falosini, however during their war it was revealed that the true purpose of the Children of the Falosini was their dimension spanning conflict with the evil Quall N'drone. The Quall N'drone were a race of beings with four arms, six horns on a bovine face, and blood hot enough to scald the flesh of an Earther. The Quall N'drone required other creatures to use as hosts for their larval young, bringing them into constant conflict with the Children of the Falosini. Known for wiping out dimension after dimension, the Quall N'drone was a significant enough threat for the Earther Colonies of Refuge and the Children of the Falosini to form an uneasy peace. They drove the Quall Hordes back...but their threat always looms on the horizon. The game world takes place 2,000 years after the colonization of Refuge, as the different factions vie for control. A small introduction to the most common factions: EEF- The Earth Expeditionary Force; the ancient armies of Earth who served the Earther Authority, they now act as the defenders of the Earther Colonies. They accept Earthers, Olgogs and the Children of the Falosini into their ranks. Armed with technological weapons, hovertanks, Striders (mecha) and aircraft. The Children of the Falosini- Bred for war, each race of the Children is focused on a specific type of battlefield: K'iorn and the camouflaging Vorin (forests), the winged Baribur (the air and mountain tops), the K'iou and Kumfei (underground and mines) and the Bastards (suicide troops, pyromaniac Halflings with bombs). The Church of One: This Nazi-esc religious group is only Earthers and will kill any other alien races they meet (or any who use the Leyas). Their mark is crucifying entire villages they feel are "heretics and blasphemers". The Uthvelor and Pelebor: These cursed members of the Children of the Falosini are outcasts and follow a Rogue Falosini Sovereign. Their curse causes them to go into killing rampages whenever they experience extreme emotions, however it grants them the benefit of being able to read the memories of others. The Northern Kingdoms: Kingdoms of Slave-soldiers who served the alien warlord I'tash, and regularly raid the Earther Colonies. Masters of the Leyas. The Cult of the Horned Dogs: These Earthers foolishly think being a host to a Quall N'drone Larva is a blessing and serve the Quall N'drone Hive Queens. They are hated by all other groups. The Quall N'drone: Seeking to use all of Refuge as a breeding ground, and all living creatures as hosts for their monstrous larva. The Merchant Houses: These oligarchies control the trade between the Colonies, regularly hiring Guild Assassins and Guild Thieves to raid and kill each other's minions. The Syndicates: The 99s- Mafioso who run the Colonial Drug trade. The Scarabs- Undead criminals who run the trade in illegal artifacts, and run Pain and Torture clubs. The Duskan Archers- Slavers who raid Merchant Caravans and sell their victims to the Quall N'drone, the Uthvelor and Pelebor and the Northern Kingdoms. V.L.A.D- The secret shadow government of the Colonies, they have spies in every community, and their agents vary from heroic spies to despicable criminals. They often manipulate the different factions to conflict, just to hide their own secret activities. As you may have noticed the ideas of Emotions have a large effect on game play. In DR we have two extra stats, Emotional Control and Temper which will affect events in game. A person with low Emotional Control will create Nightmares with their fears and will cause their technological devices will malfunction. However there are even characters called Immutables which are completely protected from the Leyas. They cannot use it, but can safely use Technology and are highly prized in the armies of the different factions. This exciting setting combines with easy to learn rules. It plays very smoothly and quickly for new players. The nice thing for GameMasters (we call them Narrators, because we try and focus on creating entertaining stories) is that the GM doesn't need to constantly refer to the books for basic tests. Players usually only have to refer back to the book for spells, Monster stats and background information on the different factions. |
| A Quall N'drone Warrior |
A Nightmare Lord
(believed to be long extinct)
(believed to be long extinct)
| A Flayer Servant of the Quall N'drone |
Domino
K'ias Shapeshifter
K'ias Shapeshifter
| Dark Refuge Games Game Books Dark Refuge Core Book The Time Shredders Complete Leyas Guide DR Sourcebooks Outlaws Guide EEF Guide Northern Kingdoms Guide Campaign Guides & Modules Border Wars:Aftermath Draco Liberatti (coming soon) DR Novels Day Earth Died God Swords Nightmare Lord Daemonsbane (coming soon) Tales of Refuge I: The VLAD Incident (coming soon) Tales of Refuge II: Victims of the Border Wars (coming soon) Time Shredder Novels The Resistance Lives On (coming soon) |
| Have you ever dreamed of a place where your belief and will could change reality? Welcome to Refuge |