In a raw world that is unfiltered with the unique versatility of a medium. The successful comic series by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido that won several Eisner awards, Blacksad becomes a role-playing game. RPG created with the quality of the comic’s storytelling technique that has powerful narratives and captivation story structure. The comic story is successfully created and transformed into RPG by Nosolorol.

Blacksad: Role Playing is a noir game starring anthropomorphic animals. The story of a black cat private eye called John, who investigates all manner of heinous crimes in the American 1950s. An initiation adventure you and your friends can put yourself in the shoes of Detective John Blacksad and his colleague to discover what is hidden within a crime. Each Blacksad story has a strong social burden in its background that shines light on the real problem.

Characters

All characters are represented by several game traits.

Concept: a summary of the character, composed of three elements:

Features: Values that serve to represent the different areas of action in which the characters can be involved.

There are four:

  1. Strength (brute force, resistance, etc.),
  2. Reflections (coordination of movements, the ability to react, etc.),
  3. Will (presence, aplomb, etc.) and
  4. Intellect (intelligence, cunning, etc.).

All features have a value between 1 and 5 and a descriptive phrase. For example, Weekly’s Stronghold is 1 and its descriptive phrase is “Small”.

Traits: areas where the character stands out and further differentiates our character from the rest, in a way consistent with the chosen concept.

Traits are associated with a feature, so the character will have one or more traits in each of them and have values between +1 and +3. For example, Jake Ostiombe has as a trait of Will “Stubborn +2”.

Milestones: four short sentences that reflect experiences or features that have marked the character. Milestones don’t have to be a negative or positive impact: they reflect what has happened and can be interpreted both from one side and the other, having the face that best fits the idea you have.

Example of Milestones

John Blacksad

  • Educated in an institution for disadvantaged children.
  • He was expelled from the faculty in the first year.
  •  He fought in World War II, but he doesn’t talk about it.
  • The only job he has maintained is that of a private detective.

Cotten

  • He wanted to be a pilot, but his visual impairment prevented him.
  • Worked as an operator in an aircraft factory during the war.
  • He was forced to retire early.
  • You have not lost the illusion of visiting Las Vegas

Agent Cougar

  • He volunteered in the United States Army.
  • He is a World War II veteran.
  • He disenchanted with the agency in his sophomore year at the FBI.
  • He has collaborated little with agents other than Coyote.

Complication: a limitation that prevents you from developing your full potential and that limits you, as a “human” that you are.

John Blacksad’s complication is “You can’t resist a pretty face.”

Combat scores: All characters have

  1. An Initiative value (how fast it acts in stressful situations),
  2. Defense (how hard it is to hit it),
  3. Stamina (the margin in which certain wounds can cause complications),
  4. Resistance (the damage that can withstand) and
  5. Protection (the defenses, natural or not, against the damage).

Consciousness/Awareness: the integrity and moral righteousness of the character, his inclination to do the right thing. This score marks what state your character is in, in his personal story of descent to hell.

Overcoming: the character’s ability to give his best and to take advantage of the situation, his motivation and, in a way his heroics.

Instinct: the strength of the character’s impulses, the degree to which he trusts them, and can use them to his advantage.

One of the most fun aspects of playing a role-playing game is that players should not make logical and rational decisions to solve problems, but should play their character and behave as they would in that situation of the character. In the comics: on many occasions, John Blacksad does not act rationally but is guided by his passions and morality. This is a fundamental element in black genre stories (or noir genre) that stays the same throughout the RPG. The anthropomorphic characters are based on the popular association of the animal, which is used to play off stereotypes and highlight the nature of a specific character.