Looking for a dark fantasy game

Good evening everybody,

The days are getting shorter, the darkness being more and more prevalent.
The perfect situation to raise the mood for some dark fantasy game.

As such I am asking if someone would be willing to run a game in the vein of The Witcher, Dragon Age, Symbaroum etc.

I am willing to learn systems, if the game is appealing (as long as it is not a "roll your goddamn character" system).

And for those concerned, I don´t want to play the special person in such a game (like the witcher in a Witcher game).

Anybody willing to run a game?

(and with how slow PbP is, not starting at zero would be awesome.
Oh, and I don´t do solo or duo games. I love playing with other people).

About me:
I play rolegames for around 20 years, doing play by post since 2015. So far I have only been active on another big PBP site, but thought I could step into this place too.

Just curious, by "roll your own character" do you mean character generation done by rolling on tables rather than building it purposefully?

Exactly.
Rolling the class, random stats that can´t even be attributed to the places you want (rolling stats is fine, but not having to place them in order rolled) and so on.
Getting a particular character forced on you isn´t something I am fond of.

By the way, what does "dark game" mean?
1. Dark theme: you have to fight vampires and zombies killing people all over the place.
2. Dark character motivation: your PC is the vampire or at least someone a criminal ready to kill innocent for money.
3. Dark events/atmosphere: I've played Call of Cthulhu, were 95% of the game we were interacting with simple people, but investigating dark rituals executed by unknown people. We felt miserable unable to prevent next murder...
4. Anything else dark
5. Everything above in one game

Dark is more about the atmosphere and the tone of the game. That is why I used the Witcher and Symbaroum as examples.

I think it is best to describe it as not upbeat. Normal fantasy settings have always a hopeful tone, that things will somehow go well, that the good will prevail.
Dark fantasy on the other hand has a more gritty, desperate tone. Life is hard, death awaits at every corner (either in general or due to special, current circumstances like for example rising of the dark Brood in Dragon Age).
It is generally more realistic.
If I had to use pictures to describe the feeling I would use pictures from the Symbaroum RPG.

I hope that clarifies it a bit.

Symbaroum is such a great dark fantasy setting. I love the Corruption mechanic and how it just mechanically oozes drama into exploring the forest or engaging with magic.

Ravenloft!

Can't go wrong with the classics.

It is a lovely setting, but sadly incredible niche. Had the honor to play in one Pbp game. The first adventure got rid of more than half the party, with one dying and two being corrupted beyond hope.
I find Ravenloft personally quite boring.

I ran a short one-on-one in Symbaroum a couple of months back because I wasn't sure how I would feel about the mechanics. I dearly love the setting but find the system more along the lines of 'serviceable.' But after the playtest, I'd probably stick with it if I ran it again, or for a larger group. Which I might, at some point.

I love dark fantasy, myself, btw, though I also love die-in-a-ditch OSR games, where you roll up your PC and they tell you who they are through play. I enjoy both styles. I just need to finish up a long-running SotDL game I run on another sight, then I can put that grim energy into something new on GP.

I love Ravenloft (the original module), btw, but traditional D&D and horror just don't go together for me. Non-humans, infravision, powerful spells that neuter things that are normally scary... nope. Make mine humans-only without Vancian magic in their hands for gothic horror.

I'm currently running a Shadow of the Demon Lord game, which I would suggest you look up (the system/setting, that is, not my game as sadly we're full). There's random character rolling, but it's for minor stuff only and completely optional.

I've played a bit of The Witcher and we even had two of those in the party. It's only a special character if you build the story around them, otherwise it's just another variant race good at fighting, might as well be a dwarf.

Symbaroum is on my list of games to try out, I picked up the free quickstart and absolutely intend to use it soon.

Another on my list I suggest you look up is Heart: The City Beneath. Very much the tabletop RPG version of Darkest Dungeon, especially once you see the art style.

Also interested in this. I've mostly had to be the one Gaming in my past groups, and none of my friends liked horror or dark themes. Been wanting to get into a game like that for a while now. No time to run one atm unfortunately.

Symbaroum gets better with the second book rules wise. But all in all it is rather rules light setting.

But I guess as long as you slap some corruption mechanic on magic users, you could use most systems to play it and just use the setting.

edit:
Damn, was to slow posting and missed a few posts
@DarK_RaideR
All good systems/games. Heart: city beneath is something I need to look at.

Currently playing in DarkRaider's Shadow of the Demon Lord. And also playing, not Heart, but Spire: The City Must Fall. You're in the right place, I think there are a number of games currently running here which fit your idea of dark fantasy.

My SotDL game hasn't really picked up steam, but I'm also playing in that Spire game and I can safely say if you do ever play a dark fantasy game here, I can't recommend BedzoneII enough as a participant.

SotDL is a gem, though it starts to bog a little (IMHO) at higher levels when the PCs have tons and tons of abilities, at least in PbP play. Fantastic core mechanics and world, though, and no one is better at coming up with awful spells than Schwalb.

I kickstarted Heart but have never read it! I better, because I dearly love Darkest Dungeon.

Althrion, what's the 'second' Symbaroum book? The Advanced Player's Guide, or the GM book?

The Advanced Players Guide is what I meant. Adding a few abilities and some skill bonuses really healps fleshing out characters, making the characters a bit more flexible and less bland.

But all the books are a good investment, despite taking a bit of the mystery, if you read to much as a player.

Yeah, I've got virtually all the books in PDF, and a good number of them physical. Definitely picking up that you have preferences around liking characters that are mechanically differentiated. Your roots in 3.5 and Pathfinder, perhaps?

Actually I had my roots in The dark eye, which is mechanically just bonkers and over the top.

But I prefer it, when rule systems enable to play what you envision. But that doesn´t mean it has to be rules heavy. Actually FATE for example is a excellent system to play whatever you want, without being bogged down by rules for every action.

Same with Symbaroum, that is like an abridged d&d/Pathfinder. But personally I think, the second player book was needed to enable specific ideas.

I just like it, when the character rules match what your character is supposed to be.

Ah, The Dark Eye -- makes sense. Agree that the core of Symbaroum is pretty simple, but I find all the layers on top of it wearying, especially if you include the Advanced Players' Guide where they recategorized some things. Having Boons and Traits and Abilities and Powers and Traditions... I personally think the whole affair is in a pretty significant need of a second (third, technically?) edition.

I'd admit that I'm curious about the 5e version that's coming... as long as they get the classes and corruption right, it should be pretty sweet.