In this “Indie Systems” series, it’s my hope that I’ll be sharing some indie game systems that you might not have heard of before, and give you my thoughts on each system through the lens of either a designer or a player. We’re going to kick this off with the game Trophy, and my experience as a player.
Trophy is a collaborative storytelling game, based around the concept of treasure hunters. You and your party have heard a tale, or perhaps been hired to find a treasure, and you’re goal is to get in, secure the prize, and get back out again… But the odds are stacked against you and the chances of you getting out whole - let alone alive - are diminishing from the first step of your journey. Jesse Ross has created an interesting and unique world, full of rumors and myths and labyrinthine locations that do not want to give up their treasures to anyone, and certainly won’t do so without a price.
There are two are version of Trophy, and they each serve different purposes: Trophy Dark is a game that centers around one-shots, or very short-term games, whereas Trophy Gold has adapted the rules of Dark to allow for longer campaigns. Because I have only played Trophy Dark, we’ll focus there for this post.
One thing to be said before launching into the mechanics and such: Trophy is a game that requires a certain amount of trust between each of the players, and the game master. Because of the intensity of the themes within the game, it’s imperative that the players and game master have each other's safety in mind. Hosting a session zero prior to their first game is critical, so everyone understands the lines and veils that they need to respect for everyone to feel safe.
Now! The system itself utilizes d6’s, and so it’s best to have a pool of them. There should be a few in your pool that stand out from the rest: These will be your dark dice to your light dice. I don’t want to go too much into the mechanics, save to say that compared to some systems that have a full battery of dice with different sides and meanings, a d6 system feels refreshingly light. Rolls are really only done when something is considered “risky,” and you may continue to add dark dice to your rolls if you’re not happy with the outcome… But if you roll too high on your dark dice, well. You’re on your way to ruin. And too much ruin leads to the forest warping and twisting you, which will ultimately be your downfall.
My favorite part of the initial Trophy Dark setup is character creation. The designers have given rolling tables for everything: Names, occupations, backgrounds, the thing that drives your character forward, and what sorts of rituals they have access to. As a first time player of Trophy, this was really interesting and helpful, because it allowed my game master and me to collaborate on what some of the terms meant in our game (which may or may not be accurate to the greater Trophy lore, but it worked for us). While rolling on the tables isn’t required to create your character, I found that it still gave me a lot of options while taking away a lot of the stress that usually comes with making a new character in a TTRPG.
Additionally, the character sheet is one of the least intimidating that I’ve come across; it’s literally half of a sheet of paper. That includes everything you need to know about your character (and the official sheet actually has a space for recording your character’s pronouns), including conditions that arise during the course of the game.
Overall, my experience with Trophy Dark as a player is very short lived: I played in a two part series that was hosted by Sword & Key called A Warm and Pleasant Hum (part one can be found HERE, and part two HERE), and it was… Both horrifying and incredibly rewarding. Being introduced to new games is always a challenge for me, but I found Trophy Dark to have mechanics that almost felt like second nature, once you got your feet under you. I highly recommend it.