Black Mass

Seeking and Finding in The Woods of Salem

They are alone, seeking a secret place. They are dead set on getting there.

Black Mass is a roleplaying game about two people leaving a community that doesn’t want them, to the woods that calls for them. Those travelers, Lydia and Catherine, confront their pasts to seek their own black mass, a moment of transformation, to put the tools of change into their own hands. 

Black Mass is a tarot-based tabletop roleplaying game played in one sitting over the course of two to three hours. Black Mass is for four to eight players, including a proctor, who facilitates the game.

Black Mass is a pointillistic tarot-based roleplaying game where players share responsibility over two travelers, Catherine and Lydia.

Players take on portions of their personalities, called personas. We join in their successes, their defeats, and we all sign their names into the devil's book together. During a game of Black Mass, players take turns inhabiting different elements of their histories, personalities, and tendencies. Personas revolve around relationships, emotional experiences, discovery, and growth. Each persona is different and sketches out a different piece of each character. Each player gets two: one for Lydia and one for Catherine. 

We play to find out who they are, why they left Salem, and what they find in the woods. Once we know that, we’ll find out what they do after their black mass. 

Black Mass is a game about discovery: through play we learn about Catherine and Lydia, informed by the in-play personas. No two games are similar, and no two Catherine’s and Lydia’s are the same between playthroughs. There are ten personas for both Catherine and Lydia, resulting in many unique combinations at the table.

Credits

Writing by Will Jobst 

Illustration by Kate Liset 

Photography by Kara Kokinos 

Design by Shannon McLean 

Editing by Colleen Riley 

Black Mass Suite by Jack Jobst

56 page, 5.5 x 8.5 inch, black & white, perfect-bound softcover book

Includes download links for digital package with digital version of the book, character sheets, and soundtrack