[Demon]Storyteller’s Guide

Demon: The Descent

I haven’t talked about Demon for a while, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been on my mind.

Originally Rose was going to develop the Demon Storyteller’s Guide, but scheduling issues and so forth meant that it landed with me instead. She did the initial outlining, and I hired authors (including some folks who responded to the all-call we did a while back!), and got it all squared away. Today, I sent developed text to Michelle for editing and art notes to Mike for arting.

It does occur to me, though, that since I haven’t said much about this book (brain’s been deep in Beast for a while), you might like to see what’s in it. So, here’s the “How to Use This Book” section from the Introduction.

I want to give shout-outs to Rose Bailey, creator and co-developed of Demon, here. Also, Demon veterans Danielle Lauzon and Eric Zawadzki (author of the recently released Demon Translation Guide), new-to-Demon authors Maggie Carroll, Leath Sheales, Vera Vartanian, Andrew Atramor, and Amy Veeres, and new-to-Onyx-Path authors Stuart Martyn and Monica Speca.

How to Use This Book

This book is aimed at Storytellers of Demon: The Descent. While players might look to it for inspirations for their characters’ personal hells or use it in collaboration with the Storyteller to build their Interlocks, its goal is to give Storytellers more tools to use in crafting the chronicle.

Chapter One: New Maps of Hell offers aid in conceptualizing demons’ diverse visions of Hell and ways of pursuing the Descent. Not every demon wants to rule over a Hell modeled after Dante’s Inferno. In fact, most Unchained don’t see that as a desirable Hell at all. This chapter also discusses the Cipher at length, providing suggestions for designing the Ciphers from Keys to Interlocks to Final Secrets. It also looks at what the Cipher is in-world and what it might to an outcast who unlock its secrets.

Chapter Two: Children of a Killer God focuses on the antagonists demons frequently contend with. It includes expanded rules for building angels and Exiles, providing new tools like angelic Incepts and Exile Parameters. It also includes Imperatives, new Numina, and a host of stranger things connected to the God-Machine.

Chapter Three: The Company discusses the espionage genre as a whole and provides tips for presenting it to players in a chronicle. It includes variations on the genre, complete with mechanics to back up the variant style.

Chapter Four: Urban Legends offers a mix of legends and strange phenomena that can be used to inspire stories within a chronicle — whether a Storyteller wants to use them as a “monster of the week” or an important part of her game. It also provides rules and story hooks for introducing characters and antagonists from eight other World of Darkness games, giving each a thematic spin to allow it to fit into the world of techgnostic espionage of the Unchained.

Chapter Five: Shards Infernal offers three alternate settings for games of Demon: The Descent. Want to run a chronicle featuring cyberpunk demon hunters? The story of demonic prophets who are the only thing that stands in the way of a world-ending apocalypse? How about a chronicle set in Biblical times? This chapter provides rules for all of them.