CAIN: The Harpocrates Dossier
A downloadable game
The rate of Sin manifestation is rising, the current efforts of CAIN stifling the affliction on the world but unable to stop the roiling torrent of the psychic phenomenon known as grace. However, human innovation knows no bounds, and neither does human cruelty. After ages of research and development, something once kept in the depths of the psychic sea has finally been dragged up to the surface by an unknown source.
You, the exorcist, will be the ones on the frontlines, either a hero or a casualty in the war between humanity and the anamalous. But perhaps the line between the two isn't always so clear. Do as your predecessors have done. Don't simply wipe the stain...
LEAVE NOTHING BEHIND.
The Harpocrates Dossier is a homebrewed expansion to the TTRPG CAIN by Tom Bloom, expanding upon the universe and current means of executing sins with more options for both exorcists and handlers alike. Featuring:
- A new set of 12 blasphemies which have recently been cleared for use by CASTLE, each providing a new and unique approach to investigating the phenomenon behind Sin Manifestation.
- 8 hidden blasphemies which have been kept behind locked vaults and have drastic changes on the world in which they exist. 4 of these give way to events known as XK scenarios, which threaten to change not only the structure of CAIN, but the world as we know it.
- 10 new agendas that change the way your exorcist interacts with the world, some more bizarre than others.
- 2 new sin types for the admin to throw at your exorcists known as the Spider, driven by a feeling of powerlessness and the need to change the world around them, and the Butcher, born from agony and determined to spread it to as many as possible.
- A brand new branch of CAIN known as the Mnemosyne Division, dedicated to hunting threat which have evaded the eye of seer through memetic or cognitohazardous means, and a case file for high level exorcists to investigate.
- 3 new virtues, in addition to Tom's supplement the Virtue System found in Games for Freaks vol 1.
- An alternate virtue bonding system which resembles something very similar... is that... a dating simulator?
- A surprise at the end.
With over 50 double-page spreads of sin-killing, black-blood medicine slamming, affliction gaining goodness, theres something in the Harpocrates Dossier for every table. When the whole world falls silent...
USHER IN A NEW ERA.
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Luke 8:17: "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open."
Hi everyone! Thank you looking at my page and supporting! As a small reminder or an anouncement for those who don't know, if we hit a download goal of at least 200 downloads in 1 week, I will also be releasing a follow-up book for completely free called CASTLE and You, a corporate HR style handbook full of fun lore, free posters, and other tidbits which can help any exorcist become a better you!
Update: Reward goals reached and then some! CAIN: Hook, Line, and (Sin)ker will come to an itch page near you, and CASTLE and You will follow shortly after.
Download
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Development log
- HARPOCRATES 2.0 INBOUND - REWARDS UPDATE10 days ago
Comments
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Very cool rules! Feels like they build off of CAIN's existing world while expanding on concepts that could plausibly exist within the setting. A great deal of content with a ton of interesting ideas. Sometimes things feel about 85% of the way there, but generally very cool! The art proves an excellent homage to Bloom's work for the original, and on the whole the dossier "gets" it, so to speak. 8.5/10 easily. Room for improvement, but a very solid addition to the table.
excited for the update! got me to make an itch account n everything just so I could save it with all the other amazing CAIN stuff :) Fantastic as always Tom ;) /j
Absolutely phenomenal, not only does this provide a evocative expanse of options for players and admins alike, it does so with a true and palpable passion for the source material.
The attention to detail throughout is top notch, I could (and have) spent hours just looking at all the little side notes and design elements. I love all the additions that create more questions than they will ever answer, as they are fuel for the hungry admin crafting a narrative.
My only dismay, is that it seems the current PDF appears to be missing some of the pages for the virtues! I can read about Chastity, Sobriety and Absolution. However, though present in the trackers at the end of the document, the others don't have pages.
I'm sure this will be a simple fix, as at the time of the comment the author is planning to release 2.0 in a few days, which I cannot wait for!
Hi! So unfortunately in the wake of the new CAIN 1.3 balance changes, update may be delayed as I update the book alongside to match. And as for the other virtues you can absolutely find them in the book "Games for Freaks 1" by Tom Bloom which is free! I did not come up with the virtues on my own but rather the original concepts come from that expansion at the end of the zine, which you cand download on itch. Thank you for the support and stay tuned for the update!
Absolutely insane read!! I loved it through and through. I do however kind of wish for the XK-scenarios to be expanded upon more. I was hoping to see some sort of tension within the blasphemies themselves where using its abilities leads to a higher risk of an XK-scenario happening. That aside, I am absolutely envious of how your brain works, all of these ideas are genius and I am going to manifest an IDOL sin out of envy. Great work!!
Hi Skullwrym! Thank you for your comment. Honestly I made the XK scenario stuff really open ended so that different admins or tables could adjucate on their own how to run it, but in the wake of everyone confusing the top 4 blasphemies for XK ones (bloom, erudition, enigmata, husk) I am separating the intro pages for both powersets and potentially expanding on the "high-risk" you were hoping to see! Overall thoughts is ill create a timeline talisman that you slash everytime a power is used from one of the XK blasphemies, and at different checkpoints different "events" can happen as a guide for pacing as opposed to any hard ruling. I thank you for supporting the project and look forward to the update soon!
Incredibly cool work! All options will be made to players in the future! (well, most options. We're not quite at XK class yet. )
Love the use of SCP terminology, as that universe is a BIG inspiration for my world as well.
Absolutely excellent. There's a lot to enjoy in this book. Small question! The Mindwalk power in the Erudition blasphemy mentions that it can enter someone's Cathedral. What's a Cathedral? I don't see it mentioned anywhere else in either this or the official books.
Hi Raccoonoo! Thank you for enjoying the book! A Cathedral is a mental subspace that an exorcist could project into the real world through a High Blasphemy gained by bonding with the virtue Temperance, a version of temperance made in a homebrew by a friend of mine! However long since writing it, their homebrew project the Icarus Doctrine never came to fruition as a page on Itch and is also currently unavailable as an official source for the forseeable future. If you are interested in it however, ask around the unofficial CAIN server! There are a few copies going around.
Thanks!
Hello! I am currently preparing a campaign for my players using your expansion since it is sooo cool! But I have a question! Sobriety's high blasfemy says that to activate the ability you have to break the second scripture, but I've read the entire page but I cant find it, could I get some help with what to do?
Hi Momatiw! Thank you for asking! So the strictures are the things located on the left side of the page under the Bond section. Sobriety's second stricture is "You always roll 0D on actions done out of avoiding immediate pain", and usually in a mission, you follow your strictures to the best of your ability and can always take 1d3 non-lethal stress to "break" your stricture. Because the high blasphemy clarity involves the excorcist taking actions to "avoid immediate pain", using any of its abilities subsequently breaks your second stricture. I hope that makes sense?
That Absolutely makes sense! I did see that but for some reason I thought it was just an add-on effect of the initial scripture, but that makes sooo much more sense. Thank you for the help and absolutely phenomenal expansion. The art and the ideas in this expansion are so cool!!
Fantastic as always Tom!
Hi Hyperkick! Just as a heads up I wanted to let you know that this book is not by Tom Bloom but by me! SvelteSnorlax aka Dillon Nguyen. The Harpocrates Dossier is an expansion to his existing game CAIN that is fan made and not in collaboration with CHASM. Just wanted to clarify so that there were no misunderstandings.
Oh my bad sorry. Still great work though!
Amazing work!
Absolute perfection... Thank you for this!
I want to start by saying that I really love everything here, but I'm confused by the "Split" passive. Like if an exorcist is affected by a blasphemy then split both bodies are still affected? Or if while split a body is targed by a power both bodies get the effect or only the original target?
Hi MrOetzi,
For the Split Passive, the main essential of the power is that for the mechanical purposes of anything that would "effect" your stat sheet ie afflictions, stress, etc is shared because you are the same person, just in two places at once. The closest thing you could compare this to is how it works for Charity's Entwine from Tom's Virtue Expansion.
Now for whether or not both bodies get the "effect" really relies on both context, and how your table chooses to rule it. Like most things in core CAIN alot of things are up for interpretation as the narrative focus dictates the mechanics. So for instance I would say if a blasphemy power would deal stress to a Split exo, ie fury from an ally etc, then yes both take damage and therefore both are effected. However if a blasphemy like Hollow or Lift would target one part while the other was on the other side of town, I personally wouldnt rule it that both get effected. Its really just a matter of what works for your setting and what makes "sense" in the context of the story you are telling with your game. I hope that helps.
Thanks, that really helps a lot
Does the Pathos from Guilt's Pessimist last in between sessions, or does it fade like Pathos typically does?
Hi Radio thank you for the question! Pathos will fade between sessions as it usually does in the base rulebook. Fueling the abilities for Guilt to be stronger is more of a secondary as opposed to primary tools. If you’re succeeding in all of your rolls, no pathos acrues and youre doing well. If you fail rolls, continuously get hurt, etc, your abilities now can be stronger/unlocked which is sort of the design philosophy behind it. However honestly if an admin and player decide together to have pathos exists between sessions for a Guilt User, who am I to say no? Do whatever feels right for your table and the rhythm of your missions/sessions.
Just an FYI, the flavor text for Death repeats the flavor text for Husk
Ty! Yes I have a whole plethora of typos to address. They will be fixed in the next version.
absolutely love everything here, absolute peak goodies in here. One question though, a “black coat pillar” system is mentioned in the achievements section, but I tried looking up “glory unto them” and saw nothing, if you have a link to whatever it is (hopefully more CAIN Homebrew) then I’d absolutely love that, thanks!
Hi Kevin! It is another Cain Supplement that is set to release on Halloween this year by a very good and talented friend of mine. There is a playtest for it out currently located in the unofficial CAIN discord.
Hey this stuff is insanely cool and im thinking of allowing a couple of my players the chance to use some of the things within here.
However i did notice that there were a few spelling mistakes and what i think are missing segments of the book. (For Example: In the butcher's domain "The house that eats its young" the section that says what agenda item the exorcists gain if they fail their psyche check is missing)
If i am mistaken in any of this feel free to ignore this little segment but otherwise i think this is worth noting down for a future revision.
Otherwise, again this stuff is really cool and i love it.
10/10, You should be proud.
Hi Flying Crow! Thank you for downloading and enjoying my content! As someone who is a 1 person team there is definitely some typos/errors I missed upon my first edition here, which is why I thoroughly appreciate feedback like yours. I've been noting what people tell me and rest assured the next version will be a bit more polished. (For that specific example I need to remove the word "and" after the statement and bold the phrase "severely hurt someone close to you".)
I hope that the additions you include at your table provide alot of fun and cool narratives for you all to enjoy!!
Amazing. More players need to read this content!!
Peam
hi besti
peak content, this CAIN not be overstated
THIS RULES THE PIXEL ART ARE YOU KIDDING ME
My liege, thou hath cooked.
GOAT. Really loving what I'm seeing here. Definitely gonna integrate your virtue system rework into my current campaign.
As your friend i’m legally obligated to say that this is peak cinema and everyone should buy this.
Absolute CAINinima, 5 stars
Peam
peam
peam.
this so cool!!!!!!!!