An Abbreviated guide to Hacking ECB

Hello, and welcome. We understand you’d like to hack our game. An admirable goal! Whether you intend on
modifying the existing setting or inventing your own game using the  REDACTED MATERIALS  license,
you’re in the right place.

External Containment Bureau and the REDACTED MATERIALS license are copyright of the Mythic Gazetteer LLC pursuant
to the open licensing terms. Those seeking to make derivative works are encouraged to review these terms at
https://mythicgazetteer.com/redacted-material.

When we, the designers of External Containment Bureau, set out to make our game, we did so with the intent to
provide an experience that was fun, easy to play, and that provided an exciting framework for resolving
mysteries. We also had a secondary goal in mind: make a game that’s easy to modify, hack, and customize.

So, what does the  REDACTED MATERIALS  system offer GMs and designers?

1 Fast and easy character generation provides options for a wide variety of character types.
2 A framework for awesome game-changing special abilities and paranormal powers.
3 A flexible resolution mechanic that centers the narrative.
4 An advancement system that balances increasing capabilities with character longevity.
5 An improv-friendly investigation engine that increases tension towards a thrilling conclusion.
6 A mission and downtime structure that supports GMs with minimal prep.

If these elements appeal to you and would facilitate telling stories in the system you’ve imagined, read on.

Honing Your Concept

As you set out to hack ECB, it would be best to invest time in developing a clear vision of what you are creating.
Consider writing a short statement that serves both as a touchstone, and as a simple pitch for your ideas. Also
set clear boundaries for yourself in order to refine the scope of your game. You might limit your hack to a few
pages of text or expand your idea into a 200 page hard-cover book.

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 Although it isn’t explicitly called out in the game’s text, the pitch and scope of ECB are as follows:

Pitch Agents investigate supernatural forces whilst navigating office politics and their own budding psychic powers.

Scope Zine format. Under 60 pages. Rules-light Forged in the Dark game.

Compare this to the pitch for an urban fantasy hack currently being developed by one of our designers:

Pitch
Truckers, bikers, and other drifters protecting the highways and byways from the supernatural.
Scope
Straight-forward Redacted Materials hack. PDF and a print on demand booklet.

Or this one, for a more wide reaching fantasy epic in the age of sail:

Pitch
Adventurers set out on a race across the known world in order to uncover the location of an ancient relic.
Scope
Low fantasy hack designed for campaigns of 6 or more sessions. Hard-back POD black-and-white book.

As you can see, there are a number of interesting ideas to which ECB might be adapted.

Tweaking the Core System

From the beginning, the ECB team knew we wanted to use a lightly modified version of the Forged in the Dark
Fortune & Action Roll procedures as our core resolution mechanics. Unmodified, these systems provide a
robust basis for games focusing on social intrigue, investigation, and dynamic action scenes.

Forged in the Dark Probabilities

Dice Success Success w/ Complication Failure

0 3% 22% 75%
1 17% 33% 50%
2 31% 44% 25%
3 42% 45% 13%
4 52% 42% 6%

In designing ECB, the team quickly identified the 4-5 result, ‘success with a complication,’ as the most
interesting outcome for our purposes. You can easily change the feel the action in your own game by adjusting
the size of your average dice pool. At 3 or more dice, players approach a 50% chance of a full success and critical
successes become more common. This might be desirable for a high-powered game focusing on pulpy action.

At one die, players are nudged towards a 50% chance of complete failure which may be perfect for games with
a horror aesthetic or for settings that are designed to feel dangerous or oppressive.

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 Character Options
ECB offers a simple character creation system limiting player options to two impactful choices. Players choose
from one of six backgrounds (each with 3 flavors) and one of six departments. These two choices alone result in
108 permutations!

In crafting this system we limited players to options with evocative and thematic flavor. Guided by our decision
to have most action rolls be performed with 2 dice, (and very rarely with less than 1), we reasoned that one of
these character details (their background) would commonly provide a bonus die, while the other (the agent’s
department) provided specific narrative permissions.

However, the  REDACTED MATERIALS  system is flexible enough to function with many different
approaches to character creation. In designing your own system, consider the following:

1 An action and attribute system such as those employed in most Forged in the Dark games.
2 A skill system such as that used in Trophy Gold.
3 A simple -1 to +3 point stat array such as employed in most Powered by the Apocalypse games.
4 A selection of approaches such as those used in Fate Accelerated.

Each of these options provide a different feel to your game. Consider them carefully.

Resonance & Advancement Systems

Resonance is an iconic element of both the fiction and the mechanics of ECB. Like Stress in Blades in the Dark, it
is a finite resource that empowers characters to add bonus dice to a roll, activate special abilities (or powers),
and avoid or mitigate consequences (via Redaction). In the  REDACTED MATERIALS  engine this resource
also doubles as the primary advancement mechanism. For this reason players must strike a balance between
gaining additional power and their characters’ permanent removal from the fiction.

In creating your own version of Resonance it’s best to identify a resource that provides clear benefits in
exchange for increased tension. Resonance is easy to reskin for hacks focused on dangerous magic or psychic
energy but it can be adapted to represent other forces both mundane and fantastical. Consider the following:

1 In a cyberpunk game, players might gain Edge by indulging in performance enhancing drugs and other vices.
2 In a crime-genre game, players might embrace Darkness the more they give in to vengeful urges.
3 In a light-fantasy game, players might expend Fate to power special abilities.

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 Fill or deplete the track a 4th time and players will fall victim to the very forces that empower them. Strongly
consider whether characters choose when and how to embrace this fate or whether it might happen
automatically once the track reaches its threshold.

In your hack, advancement through a Resonance track might not provide enough opportunities for
improvement. Don’t force the issue! The  REDACTED MATERIALS  system won’t be broken if you add XP,
milestones, or other advancement options. If you do, consider reverting to a ‘Trauma’ system such as that used
in Blades in the Dark. Such systems provide a simple and effective feedback loop for high-stakes action whilst
retaining the tension inherent to ECB’s advancement mechanics. Whatever system you choose it’s important to
provide impactful choices, or repercussions, once a PC’s reserves run dry.

Custom Departments
Secondary character details such as one’s specific department and the gear associated with each may not be
load-bearing elements of ECB but they do provide a lot of flavor. For GMs and designers looking to hack ECB
itself, it can be helpful to dissect these items. Let us examine an existing department and compare it to one
invented for this document, as a model:

Department
Department of Human Relations

This department is involved in hiring, witness interrogation, agent evaluation, grief counseling, and
other tasks related to the human element.

Permission
You may offer employment with the Bureau as leverage in a bargain. This may grant a bonus for being
properly equipped.
Gear
Business Casual, Radio, Cover Identity, Small Comforts, Translation Protocols.

Fictionally the existence of a Department of Human Relations implies that the Bureau cares about their
employees and the public. Conversely, the wording and flavor implies a degree of detachment from humanity
at large. The special ability associated with this department reinforces this. The department’s standard issue
gear serves to establish it’s agents as members of the front-line in social and political contests as well as in
matters of empathy.

Mechanically each department is associated with 5 pieces of gear and a single special ability. When crafting
new gear for a department, consider the tone of your setting and be sure to equip your characters both literally
and metaphorically. Crafting special abilities requires a little more finesse but a simple rule applies: each
should allow characters a specific permission in-line with their department's specialty.

Taking inspiration from one of ECB’s pre-gen missions, we can imagine the following custom department in a
campaign featuring 4th-dimensional intrigue and weirdness:

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 Department
Department of Dimensional Stability

This department appeared wholesale from a rift in time mere moments ago and yet it appears it has
always existed, as if it were written into the very fabric of reality itself.

Permission
Agents joining this department are briefed with information from the past, present, and future.
Whenever they gather info. on a supernatural entity or event the GM will provide them with
additional context relating to one of these perspectives, whichever is the most advantageous.
Gear
Retro Stylings, Radio, Cover Identity, Portal Gum, Tomorrow’s News.

In the framing of your game, these custom departments might be subordinate to the big-6 or they might
contribute equally to the mission of your Bureau. Overhauling each of the existing departments can open up
new avenues of investigation and allow you to fine-tune the fiction to your liking.

Crafting Missions & Campaigns

In ECB the primary role of the GM, beyond characterizing NPCs and adjudicating rolls, lies in presenting and
pacing exciting new missions. In developing the rulebook we chose to keep the basic mission structure of
 REDACTED MATERIALS  games flavorful and text-light with distinct options to support improvisational
storytelling and to aid GMs in adapting supplemental material to their own unique needs.

Each official mission includes the following elements in a compact and digestible single-page format:

The Brief
This is the basic premise of the mission, or possibly the inciting incident.
Complications
We chose to include 6 example complications in total, any one of which might be employed by the
GM separately or in combination.
Mission Clock
The size and description of this clock determines the severity of the threat and suggests to the players
and the GM what might happen if the mission is not completed safely or efficiently. Essentially, it
sets the stakes.
Clues
In ECB Agents must form a theory as to how they might identify, contain, and obfuscate the
objective or threat. This section provides 6 suggestions for each clue that lend a distinctly different
flare to the mission.
NPCs
A scenario wouldn’t be complete without characters to interact with. This section includes brief
descriptions of 6 NPCs GMs may employ in their version of the scenario.

In play, the use of mission clocks and the theory roll set the pace and tone of ECB’s investigation phase. While
mission clocks ramp up the tension throughout a session the theory roll offers players the opportunity to
relieve that pressure and to determine their own solutions to the mystery at hand rather than relying on the
GM to provide one.

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 By adjusting the details, or clues, that must be engaged to satisfy a theory roll or its equivalent, designers may
lend a drastically different tone to their investigative phases. In a game focused on exploration, for example,
several of the questions could be altered as follows:

The Exploration Roll

Detail 1
Where is X located? Do you find a map, overhear a rumor, or hire a guide to provide this detail?
Detail 2
What dangers await us? Do you study old stories, interrogate a rival, or employ a scout?
Detail 3
Are we prepared ? Do you hire mercenaries, perform a protective ritual, or haggle for supplies?
Results
As the theory roll, but with the result determining your default position for the journey phase.

This paradigm can be employed to plan heists, execute raids, or even to cook delicious meals.

In a similar fashion the timing and execution of mission clocks and the theory roll can be altered to provide a
different overall structure to your game’s campaign. ECB, as designed, is an episodic game with missions being
completed within the space of one 2-4 hour session. Despite this, the same general structure can easily be
adapted to encompass a slow-burn conspiracy-focused game with clues being found over the course of
multiple sessions. In this case, a single theory roll might usher in the climax of an entire campaign arc.

Creating New Powers & Special Abilities

In ECB most Agents will gain access to psychic powers and strange abilities that enable them to tackle
supernatural entities on equal footing. When designing your own hack you’ll want to adjust these abilities to fit
within the framework of your fiction.

While we can’t anticipate which abilities would jive with your vision, we can dissect our own framework and
explain the considerations that might make for a balanced and engaging special ability:

1 Power is empowering. In the right circumstances, special abilities should feel ‘overpowered.’
2 Power is relative. Powers may trivialize certain tasks but they also open the door to strange new
consequences.
3 Power has a cost. Powers always cost 1 resonance, or its equivalent, at a minimum.
4 Power necessitates action. Powers are inherently dangerous and, thus, usually require an action roll to
utilize.

To demonstrate this, let’s dissect the ‘Precognition’ power included in ECB.

Precognition

Mark 1 resonance to receive a vision about something that is about to happen in the next few moments.
Mark 1 additional resonance to stretch this vision to the next few minutes.

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 As with all powers in the base game, Precognition is extremely useful in the right circumstances. The ability of
foresight can trivialize information gathering, allow Agents to avoid dire consequences, or provide other
benefits depending on how much resonance the player is willing to accrue.

Also note that, while this particular power does not dictate that an action roll must be made, the existence of
malicious supernatural forces in the base setting allows GMs the opportunity to endanger PCs who snoop into
future events or to present them with harsh realities that must be changed. In this way, Precognition becomes
as much a plot device as it does a source of empowerment. If employed in a tense situation, PCs may need to
roll to determine the scope of their understanding or to preempt an impending calamity.

In designing your own special abilities, consider whether the goals laid out by our team accommodate your
vision. If they don’t, invent directives of your own and proceed from there. When designing special abilities
from scratch, you’ll want to take your game’s setting, genre, power level, and any unique mechanics into
account.

Compare Precognition, above, to Duality, a special ability designed for a hack with classic horror themes such
as those found in Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Duality

Choose one condition to link, intrinsically, to a monstrous transformation. What do you become? You
may mark 1 mystery and perform an action roll to bring about this condition at any time.

Note that this ability is flavorful while still offering players plenty of room for interpretation. Might they use it
to roleplay a werewolf, a vampire, or something completely original? When designing such an ability consider
the level of specificity your setting requires.

Planning for Downtime

The mission debrief and downtime phase serve many functions in ECB. Here are just a few:

1 The mission debrief brings in the challenges of bureaucracy and office politics as identified in our vision.
2 The mission debrief gives the GM a chance to identify intriguing wrinkles and loose ends.
3 Filing paperwork and making recovery actions mitigates the likelihood of negative consequences.
4 Acquiring assets and engaging long-term projects provides characters with new toys and unique options.
5 Over multiple sessions, an overarching mystery will emerge as players document clues on the conspiracy board.

If your  REDACTED MATERIALS  hack differs significantly from the source material you’ll want to consider
how the mission and themes of your game align with these details. How does downtime fit into your game’s
vision statement? What purpose do downtime actions serve in telling your story?

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 At a bare minimum, you’ll want to provide options for the players to mitigate Resonance or its equivalent, to
recover from injuries or conditions, and to perform long-term projects. Any additional options should follow
from your own custom content. If your game includes a Coin resource, for instance, it might make sense to
provide players with an opportunity to earn or spend cash.

While designing downtime activities can be something of an art, know that their primary purpose in most
 REDACTED MATERIALS  games will be to allow for a break in the action and an opportunity for the PCs to
engage with the NPCs and plot points they enjoy the most.

Epilogue
Thank you for reviewing our guide to hacking ECB. We sincerely hope that it has been illuminating. In the
future, we hope to provide players and designers alike with fully-realized  REDACTED MATERIALS  games
to play and analyze as inspiration. Keep an eye out for further announcements from the design team and follow
Eric, Eli, Justin, Lexi, and Michael for further updates.

Helpful Links

● External Containment Bureau on itch.io.

● An Amateur’s Guide to hacking Blades in the Dark by ECB writer and designer Michael Elliott.
● The Blades in the Dark SRD contains a comprehensive breakdown of basic FitD concepts and mechanics.
● Modifying the ECB Quickstart Keeper can be a great way to start crafting your hack.
● Join the Blades in the Dark discord server and get feedback on your creations in the #hack channel.
● The TTRPG Safety Toolkit provides a comprehensive selection of safety tools with accreditation which you
can bake into your game.

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