Stories in the Dark uses the core rules from Stories from the Grave, but with these changes/additions.

Game Length

Each installment is intended to be one session of gaming, typically the length of a movie, played in realtime.

Acts

To aid with longer installments, there are four Acts, each approximately the same length (~30 minutes).

Act 1: Stasis

• Introduces Primary Characters and foreshadows the main conflict.
• Grave Intentions are not lethal.
• Ends with an Inciting Event.

Act 2: Struggle

• Characters witness and deal with the main conflict.
• Grave Intentions are lethal.
• Ends with the Midpoint.

Act 3: Pursuit

• Characters take action to oppose the main conflict.
• Grave Intention rolls are -1 in this Act.
• Ends with the Climax.

Act 4: Conclusion

• Characters face off directly with the antagonist(s).
• Grave Intention rolls are -2 in this Act.

Legacies

When a Primary Character dies, they leave behind a Legacy, granting their player some deeper agency on the story following their untimely demise. They initially receive a number of Legacy Tokens as a sum of:

• Grave Tokens collected by the character
• Demise, based on how they died:
  • Heroically: 3
  • Sacrificially: 2
  • Unintentionally: 1

Dead PCs can spend Legacy Tokens by describing how their legacy affects the living, to:

• Edit a scene, based on how others remember them
• Boost someone’s Intention roll by 1 (before rolling), based on knowledge or advice they gave
• Flashback: describe a scene from your character’s past
  • Highlight who else was there, the scene subject, and how it changes things in the present
  • Play out the scene, ending with a changing fact or cliffhanger
• Haunt someone: force a living character to deal with your memory, to:
  • Change action, before rolling
  • Collect a Grave Token
  • Hesitate: reroll and take worse result

Legacy Tokens are not collected once spent—they are permanently removed from the game and cannot affect the dead character if they return to life.

At the end of each Act, a dead PC chooses one of the following:

• Remain dead, and receive 2 Legacy Tokens
• Return to life during the next Act, and does both:
  • Provide a reasonable explanation for the character’s survival
  • Collects any remaining Legacy Tokens (as spent Grave Tokens) when they re-emerge
    • Legacy Tokens can still be spent up until then