Shadow Scar RPG Hardcover core book by R. Talsorian Games

Sinister monsters lurk in the shadows, manipulating the many worlds of the multiverse we know as the Mosaic. Their goal is simple: to resurrect the fallen Goddess of Death, Izanami, and tear down the fabric of reality itself.

But luckily, there's one group of people standing in their way. The Shadow Scar Agency is a group of secret agents trained in ninjutsu by ancient clans of shinobi and sent out into the Mosaic to foil the yokai's plans. You are one of these agents!

Welcome to the many worlds of Shadow Scar!

Delve into the secret world of the Shadow Scar Agency as a ninjutsu agent waging a shadow war against the monstrous Japanese yokai!

With the intuitive and easy to learn Mosaic System new players can jump in and play quickly.

Infiltration and stealth are your greatest weapons! As a Shadow Scar Agent, you'll need to outmaneuver your enemy's night vision, keen hearing, and other senses to successfully assassinate your targets.

At the heart of Shadow Scar is the Shadow Scar Core Rulebook, everything you need to start telling your own tales of the Veil War. The Core Rulebook is a 292 page, hardbound, full-color, 8.5" by 11" book which is completed and ready to go to the printers. Within its pages you'll find all sorts of interesting material meant to help tell your stories. 

An Introduction to the Veil War: The first chapter of the Core Rulebook gives you a look into the history of the Veil War, lets you know what to expect from the game, and gets you up to speed on the basics of Shadow Scar.

Character Creation: After the introduction you'll find the character creation chapter which gives you all the information you need to create your characters, figure out the background of your team, and generate a unique handler to help you in the field. This section comes complete with a variant of our well-known Lifepath system which allows you to make a series of rolls to help you flesh out your character's background before and since becoming a Shadow Scar Agent.

Advancement: Next, you'll be guided to a chapter dedicated to advancing your agent. Here we discuss how you level up your agent, what the different ranks of the Agency mean and what types of high level abilities you'll be able to look forward to as you start your story.

The Armory: The next chapter is one of the most important, the Shadow Scar Armory. Here you'll find 12 pages of weapons, outfits, drugs, poisons, explosives, disability aids, tools, and magical artifacts that you can requisition from the Agency to use on your missions.

The Rules: After the Armory you'll find a chapter dedicated to learning the rules of Shadow Scar. This short chapter goes into the details of manipulating people with Social Actions, using special senses to foil infiltration, assassinating your targets, and getting into full on battles. This section also covers things like how to maintain the "Veil" and keep the civilians from finding out about the war, and how to rift dive to leap between dimensions.

The Lore of Shadow Scar: This leads into one of the largest chapters in the book, dedicated to the lore of the setting. Here you'll find a history of the Agency and the Veil War as well as a series of deep dives into the history and cultures of 4 worlds of the Veil War.

The Storyteller's Guide: With all the system and lore in hand the next chapter is devoted to giving the Game Master, or the Storyteller, a little guidance on how to run Shadow Scar. This chapter includes tips and tricks from the lead designer, Cody Pondsmith, information on the factions that oppose the Agency, rules for building missions, and for bringing your own favorite worlds into the Veil War.

The Rogues Gallery: The next chapter is the Rogues Gallery, a bestiary of 40 entries detailing human threats as well as devilish yokai drawn directly from Japanese myth and legend. Each entry is presented on a single page with easily referenced statistics and abilities to make running combat encounters and infiltration easy. Among the many entries in the Rogues Gallery you'll find filth licking akaname, brutish and powerful oni, treacherous kitsune, mind-reading Satori, and even the unassuming karakasa-obake.

The core system for Shadow Scar is designed to be fast, simple, and easy to learn. We wanted to present a relatively beginner friendly TTRPG that provides an in depth experience tailored to its world and story. The Shadow Scar System features:

• A simple resolution mechanic
• A focus on flavorful abilities over simple bonuses
• A whole host of resources that you can requisition from the Agency
• A focus on stealth that allows you to play like a true ninja
• A deadly combat system that allows for resurrection
• Easily referenced enemies to make playing easy

Simple Resolution: The foundation of all resolution in Shadow Scar uses pools of six-sided dice. Every character has Statistics and Skills which show what they're good at and what they're trained to do. Anytime you need to do something that could result in narratively significant failure, you have to make a Check by rolling your Skill Base, which is a pool of dice equal to your appropriate Statistic and Skill. Every value of 4 or greater is a Success and any dice that roll a 6 are considered 2 Successes. If the number of Successes you get is equal to or greater than the Difficulty Value (DV) of the task, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail at your task, and the Storyteller can rule that you cannot reattempt the Check unless you can somehow improve your odds.

Abilities Over Bonuses: To give the player characters as much flavor as possible the majority of your character sheet is devoted to unique abilities you gain from your homeland of origin and the shinobi school you were trained in. The first type of ability is your homeland ability which represents your unique upbringing in one of the worlds of the Mosaic. These can include things like the ability to see into the Spirit World, analyze machinery for clues and quirks, and call on the grace of Lady Luck to help you succeed at Checks. Then there are techniques taught to you by your shinobi clan which allow you to do things like sharpen your teeth and nails into deadly fangs and claws, track down your enemies by scent alone, or craft magical runes to enhance your weapons. Finally, there are mikkyo, secret magical techniques that use your life force, or ki. Mikkyo can allow you to do things like breath fire, summon grasping vines, see into the future, and place curses on your enemies.

Working Within the Agency: As an agent of Shadow Scar you are working within a greater organization and you have access to all the resources that entails. At the beginning of every mission, you can go to the Agency Armory to rent armor, weapons, tools, and magical artifacts to customize your load out for the mission at hand. As you gain more status in the Agency you gain access to more powerful items and artifacts. You'll also have a team handler who you can call on in the field to help you by acquiring vehicles for you, sending out scouts, calling clean up crews to get rid of evidence, and more.

Focusing on Stealth: Shadow Scar casts the players as secret agents trained in ninjutsu so we wanted to put a heavy focus on infiltration and stealth. Players will have to sneak past their enemies and find ways to counteract special senses like night vision, keen hearing, and motion sense. In most circumstances combat is a last resort for when things get dicey. Afterall, a full scale battle in the streets of New York is going to draw a lot of attention that you don't want. To facilitate this, Shadow Scar has an Assassination  system to allow you to remain hidden and tactically take out your opponents. If you can get close enough to your opponent and remain unseen, you can make a Stealth Check against their Awareness Skill Base to kill them silently. But be warned, you aren't safe from assassination yourself. You have to be aware and keep your eyes out for counterspies and enemy assassins.

Death & Second Chances: Shadow Scar can be an unforgiving game  if you aren't careful but there's always a second chance if you weren't able to spot the assassin lurking in the shadows. When a character dies, their spirit enters the Spirit World. In the Spirit World the character is at risk of passing on forever, but clever agents are able to use this change of state to their advantage, negotiating with spirits in the Spirit World or spying for their allies. To keep you from passing on permanently, an ally can put your spirit into a spirit lantern, which will hold your soul indefinitely until you can be resurrected by the kami back at headquarters. Just make sure to bring your body back or it'll be a pretty penny to create one from scratch.

Easily Referenced Enemies: In an effort to keep things quick and easy to reference, enemies, both human and non-human, are laid out on a single page each. In an enemy's dossier you can find all their abilities, statistics, weapons, and even some odd quirks you can use to bring them down. You'll also have an image of the enemy with a short entry describing them and how they operate.