From the Introduction: This is a Game Dark is a stealth-adventure game. It’s adventurous because we guideour characters on daring missions to infiltrate castles and dungeons. It’s stealthy because our characters are cunning, clever, and outnumbered. Stealth is our advantage. As we play, adventures unfold in our imaginations. The game helps us to imagine in tandem. Instead of any one player deciding everything that happens along the way, we play with cards and dice so we can fairly surprise each other (and ourselves!), to discover what happens on our adventure. That’s important: We play to discover. We Play Thieves The characters we play in this game are thieves and sneaks and scoundrels, out to steal for a cause … or for themselves. This is a gameof roguish ne’er-do-wells, of picaresque protagonists in over their heads, of burglars scheming up heists, of Robin Hoods on the highways and gallant housebreakers on the rooftops. Though disguises and guile are surely facets of play, stealth is the secret weapon our characters use to move through the world and change it for someone’s betterment, at least. Our Thieves Have a Code Dark is a cooperative game. We are not cutthroats out to betray our fellow players or their characters. We have a bond in common, a code that binds us: Kith above coin live to steal another night. This code can be read in different ways, as we’ll see. Still, betrayals and treachery shall abound even without the players’ characters turning on each other. The whole rest of the world is full of NPCs who might not honor your code—or any other.