5 Tips to Make Your Games Grittier and More Dangerous | Exploring Grimdark in your RPG

Sure, your party just dethroned the tyrant, but is the person they put in his place really any better? Is there a good option among the solutions to your party’s current problem? These and many other questions lead to themes explored in grimdark. Grimdark seems to be a staple of fiction at present. Audiences love exploring the viscera of violence, the corruption of political systems, fluid morality and the consequences of actions — even those traditionally deemed heroic. We can look to things like A Game of Thrones, The Witcher and others for examples of dark fantasy settings with grimdark themes.

Grim? Check. Dark? Check. Game of Thrones fits the bill for grimdark fantasy.

Defining grimdark for your RPG

Before we dive in let’s explore the difference between dark fantasy and grimdark, as there is some overlap. Dark fantasy explores realism and consequences of actions. Grimdark can also do these things, but for something to qualify as grimdark it must also possess an atmosphere of darkness. Grimdark often bleeds into bleaker realms than required by mere dark fantasy. Grimdark is a very loaded label at present, with some people loving it while others immediately avoid it like the global pandemic. While all grimdark fantasy would also qualify as dark fantasy, the reverse isn’t necessarily true; sort of a squares and rectangles situation, here.

Grimdark fantasy embraces the danger and possibility of death, regardless of a character’s contributions to the plot. It oppresses its audience with a constant threat, such that just as one threat is eliminated it gives rise to an even greater danger. While fiction receives mixed responses with the grimdark genre, I tend to think that grimdark’s best home is at the gaming table.

There’s a certain degree of suspense involved with a deadlier game. Many players find this added risk appealing, provided it’s executed well. So let’s talk about 5 tips to make your games grittier and more dangerous.

Calculate fewer hit points

Hit point calculations in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons are very finicky. At early levels players feel very fragile, but at higher levels they feel almost godlike. A way to mitigate the growth of hit points relies on a variant rule I’ve devised related to hit dice. At 1st level, still calculate each player character’s hit points the same way — grant the maximum of their hit dice and add their Constitution modifier. However, for each level beyond 1st a player character gains hit points equal to their Constitution modifier, plus a number based on their class’s hit die as shown below:

• +1d6 hit die = +1 hit point
• +1d8 hit die = +2 hit points
• +1d10 hit die = +3 hit points
• +1d12 hit die = +4 hit points

This mitigates the growth of player hit points and makes the Constitution modifier much more important. It also makes battles significantly more deadly. When using this variant rule it’s important to enforce that each player is guaranteed a minimum net hit point increase of 1. Otherwise your fragile wizard with a Constitution modifier of -2 actually becomes weaker with each level (which could have its own interesting implications, but that’s not what we’re discussing right now).

Decrease monster health and increase monster damage

For this idea, halve the amount of hit points a given creature possesses, but add one damage die to each attack and damaging ability the creature has. This greatly ramps up the danger for any combat but it also means the players can more quickly kill a threat. This rule makes for speedier combat and I find it’s a fantastic optional rule for if you want to just throw a mob of enemies at your allies.

Along the same vein as this rule, Zee Bashew made a video about how to make zombies especially terrifying!

Loss of life and limb

Few things are scarier than a character suffering a blow that consumes half or more of their hit points in a single strike. If you really want to amp up the tension, consider forcing players to whom this happens to roll on an injuries table such as the one below.

This can be absolutely devastating, and having personally played in a game where such a rule was enforced it was really intense for me to have to adapt my character to losing an arm, but it made for some fantastic character growth and interactions. For even more dice rolling fun, consider picking up a “body die,” which is usually a d8 or a d12 that specifies an area of the body hit when a character makes a critical hit. Alternatively, feel free to use this table:

Limit Ability Score Improvements

This idea came to me while I was talking with a friend about weird ideas for variant D&D rules. Anytime a player character would gain an Ability Score Improvement, instead, the player must choose a feat. This not only opens up the game for more interesting options to be explored, whether grimdark or not, but it also severely limits Ability Score Improvements. ASIs are fairly uncommon as is, and this would limit it still further because only certain feats grant a single +1 to an ability score, thus requiring two feat investments to gain the same benefit as a traditional ASI.

Limit attunement slots

By allowing a character only one attunement slot you greatly increase the significance of magic items that require such. Usually, dark fantasy (whether grimdark or not) severely limits the presence of magic, inspiring a degree of wonder and awe by its very presence. Most very significant magic items require attunement, and by limiting attunement slots you force your players to think about which single item is best for their characters. This also prevents some nasty combinations that can come from magic items, thus further grounding your world in the gritty, physical world.

What do you think?

Do you like grimdark settings for your own game table? Do you have your own ideas for how to embrace grimdark in tabletop RPGs? We want to hear from you in the comments!