Clerk & Dagger is an Ocean’s 11 style tabletop RPG that’s inspired by Blades in the Dark

Sneak around a medieval fantasy city in a tabletop roleplaying game inspired by Ocean’s 11 and The Gormengahst Trilogy.

Clerk & Dagger is an upcoming roleplaying game that sees players becoming a team of ‘rogue accountants’ in the fictional city of Dis. The city is controlled by a group of corrupt and monstrous magnates who have plundered Dis through the use of Soul Coins, strange artefacts that originate from the eyes of an immortal being known as the Empress of Thieves. Tasked with carrying out all manner of tasks – from assassination to sabotage – players will need to plan their audit jobs carefully if they’re going to get in and out alive.

Players will be able to make their tabletop RPG characters by placing points into a collection of key skills – slaying, sneak, stunt, sleight of hand, search, study, sabotage, silver tongue and streetwise – which they’ll be able to improve as they progress through the game. However players have chosen to place their points will determine how accomplished their character is at pulling off saves, which are triggered by threats from the magnate the players have targeted for that session. Players will also have access to a feat, or a magic trick acquired through a blood oath made between clerks.

The gameplay of Clerk & Dagger is split into two main phases, in a similar fashion to the aforementioned Blades in the Dark. The first phase, the prepwork, sees players gathering information about their chosen target such as their foe’s lair. Players can trade in any soul coins they have acquired in order to gain additional intel from the info broker or magical items from the Magick Item Shoppe. Additional soul coins can be taken from beneath The Empress of Thieves’ throne, however, this will force the player character to take on debt.

Players will then embark on the second phase of gameplay in the fantasy TRPG, the audit. During the audit, players will recount how their clerk has infiltrated the foe’s lair and taken them down. The power granted to them by their collection of soul coins will ensure that a foe is too powerful to be faced directly. Instead, players will move throughout the lair in search of soul coins – with each one collected incurring debt onto the foe and weakening them for a final blow.

Throughout the game, players can attempt to embezzle soul coins from the games master by taking them from a pile in the middle of the table, but only if they can do so unseen. Players can attempt to avoid detection and disaster by employing a ‘twist’ - explaining how they get out of things at the last minute thanks to a previous action – but there are a limited number that players can do. As players get detected and run into trouble, their character’s own debt will start punishing their rolls.

Clerk & Dagger was designed by Liam Hevey, with artwork by Jordan Speer, AKA Beefstrong, and graphics by Eli Spencer. Dice Kapital is the publisher responsible for releasing Clerk & Dagger, as well as other tabletop RPGs like Masters of Mind-Chess and the One Wrestling Ring to Rule Them All.

The Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for Clerk & Dagger is live until July 17, with a pledge of £15 ($19) getting backers a copy of the physical book in October. Alternatively, a digital copy of the RPG is available for a pledge of £8 ($10).