While writing and designing The Darkest Age: Resurrected, I found myself responsible for creating the details and powers of the Surgeon character class. The Darkest Age tabletop role-playing game initially had a Physician character class with unique and twisted abilities. It was horrific fun to play—a personal favorite. When we sat down to decide what to include in The Darkest Age: Resurrected, I knew that the Surgeon was a must.
The character class in the original The Darkest Age could be played as a benevolent healer trying to put the world back together, one stitch at a time, or something less savory. The class had the potential to be a real mad scientist type. Dr. Frankenstein, stand aside! The rules of the original game allowed for the wild, long-term development of the character, culminating in many dark science powers/feats that enable the character to perform miracles of medicine, even in a dark and significantly unenlightened time.
The Darkest Age: Resurrected uses the MORK BORG core rules, which are lighter, faster, easier to learn, and offer some seriously dynamic narrative opportunities. Incorporating The Darkest Age elements into a leaner rules system was a challenge. We stripped the classes down to their essential nature, and abilities were rebuilt from the ground up. This was to reflect the nature of our game setting and the fluid nature of the MORK BORG core mechanics.
Not quite a healer or cleric in the traditional sense, the Surgeon class is a narrative role-player’s dream character. Featuring six backgrounds, including Bone Crafter and Noble Doctor, and disturbing new powers of dark science, the Surgeon character class is a real creeper. Choosing what to triage and what to keep was undoubtedly a challenge. The whole reason that The Darkest Age: Resurrection was written was to allow DA players to adventure in a more streamlined but also more dangerous campaign setting with rather more cutthroat rules.
While still not much of a toe-to-toe fighter, the Surgeon is a powerful and helpful addition to any adventuring party. With the ability to stave off and possibly cure Plague Infections, the Surgeon can keep your party fighting longer and put some of your adventuring party back together!
Maybe we should set up a forum where folks can post and discuss their favorite classes. From the original role-playing game or talk about the bizarre adventures their Surgeon characters have had.
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