Protect The Child (Playtesting!)

Humans have always been protective of their young, sometimes overly so. Humans have also always feared that which might make their young strange or different, and so insist that only humans can raise their own young. Monsters cannot raise human young. This is known.

You have a human baby. You cannot find its parents. What is even worse, is that this child has powers, powers that others covet, and so everyone wants it. If you want to prove that you’re not the heartless monster that everyone says you are, that means you’ll have to raise it, at least until you find someone who is better suited to it than you. 

You are creatures of fur, scales and fangs. You have claws that can rend flesh, faces that can crack mirrors, howls that can cause ears to bleed. 

And your charge wants a blankie.

Protect the Child is a Forged in the Dark game about monsters caring for a young human, a human who contains strange and mystical powers that make them a valuable asset in any monster crew. The setting and factions present in this game are flexible: you might be aliens in a far-flung future galaxy, fantasy monsters from rival kingdoms, or even everyday wild animals that fear human society. 

Protect the Child is based on Blades in the Dark, product of One Seven Design, developed and authored by John Harper, and licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.  

Game Design and Layout both done by Mint-Rabbit. Art is Public Domain (https://game-icons.net/). Ideal for 3-4 players.

This is an alpha play-test. The game is currently in a Google Docs format, and has a number of Google Sheets play-kits: one for creating your own original setting, and three quick-start settings. There is also a bare-bones black and white pdf of the current rules. This is alpha play-test version 1.2.

Monsters of the 1700's is a quick-start about supernatural creatures escorting a cursed child through a dark forest.

The Secret Lives of Dogs is a quick-start about dogs at a park returning a toddler to his parent.

Lily's Angels is a quick-start about a group of modern monsters helping a young girl find her place in the world after her coming-out goes horribly, horribly wrong. (Content warning: Transphobia, Homelessness, Religious Abuse, State Violence, and Experimentation)

You can also find a fourth quick-start setting, Digital Glitch, here.

Playtest Server Open!

If you would like to get involved in the playtesting of this game, the Discord Server is open to the public! Get involved here!