in February 2020 as part of Kickstarter’s Zinequest initiative. There are two versions: Trophy Gold, which is suited for long-term campaigns, and Trophy Dark, which is session-length and brings the game’s more tragic aspects to the fore.Trophy is not a game about heroes. The players are greedy, foolish treasure hunters invading a forest which does not want them there and defies all attempts to comprehend it. There are monsters within the forest, but the most important threats are not physical: insanity, hubris, and the omnipresent fear of betrayal from your fellow looters. It is possible to survive an expedition and bring back treasure, but even then the horrors a survivor has experienced will leave them a broken, haunted wreck of a person.
Not that there was much to wreck in the first place...
These tropes shiver within the bloodstained woods:
- Equivalent Exchange: It's a rule of Trophy Gold that no magical item have strictly positive or negative effects. It must always have a combination of both, to prevent players from falling into complacency.
- Only in It for the Money: Most player characters are debtors, a backstory that quickly justifies why they would risk their necks in the wilderness. The premise of the game dictates that even financially comfortable PCs be suicidally greedy.
- Purple Prose: Trophy storytellers are encouraged to do this, for two reasons. Firstly, the game is largely about atmosphere; every expedition should feel unique. Secondly, plural nouns like "zombies" imply that the subject is common and can be easily defeated. "Swarming undead whose rotting hearts are visible through half-flayed skin" helps the player to get into character and see the monster as their character would see it.
