The Scar

Dana Reyes has come to Dunmore looking for Adrian Cole. He disappeared years ago. Now there are signs that he came here willingly—and that someone in the town knows what happened to him.

Dunmore is a place where streets shift, memories become unreliable, and people can become trapped in unfinished versions of themselves. As Dana searches for Adrian, the town begins to respond to her presence. The deeper she goes, the more she has to question what she remembers, what she owes Adrian, and how much of herself she is willing to spend to find him.

HOW IT PLAYS

The Scar is a solo, story-driven psychological horror RPG built around exploration, uncertainty, and consequences.

You play Dana and explore Dunmore as a reactive Pointcrawl. You draw the map as you go. Connections can change. Locations behave differently depending on what kind of place they are.

The core system uses 2d6 + a relevant stat.  At higher Dissonance, ambiguous answers become harder to trust without changing the underlying odds.

Four types of locations shape play:

• Shelters give Dana opportunities to recover.
• Threats create immediate danger.
• Lore locations reveal truths and attach a cost to significant discoveries.
• Galleries distort reality and bring Dunmore's deeper influence into play.

THE THREE TRACKERS

Dana's story is shaped by three trackers.

• Dissonance measures how much she can trust her own perception.
• Debt measures what she has spent chasing Adrian.
• Marks measure how much of Dana the Portraitist has already claimed.

They create different pressures as the story progresses and determine what follows Dana into the final confrontation.

CALLING ON THE SCAR

The game's signature mechanic is Calling on the Scar.

When Dana fails a roll, or wants to push a 7–9 result further, she can reroll.

She gets another chance.

Then her Debt increases by 1.

The Scar is tied directly to the promise Dana and Adrian made to each other as teenagers. Every use turns that promise into a concrete part of the game's economy.

DUNMORE REMEMBERS

The map is part of the story.

You draw Dunmore as Dana explores it, recording confirmed and uncertain connections. When the world changes, you cross out the old connection and draw the new one.

The town gradually becomes a record of Dana's journey—and of the things she can no longer be certain about.

THE GREAT CANVAS

The story builds toward the Portraitist and the Great Canvas.

By the final chapters, Dana must decide what she actually wants from Adrian, what she is willing to sacrifice, and whether getting someone back is the same thing as saving them.

The game supports four major ending shapes:

• The Return Dana and Adrian leave Dunmore together.
• The Release Dana destroys the Great Canvas and releases those held inside it.
• The Portrait Dana accepts the Portraitist's offer and remains in Dunmore.
• The Empty Room Dana walks away and leaves Adrian behind, refusing to force the final choice.

The trackers shape the consequences. You decide what Dana wants.

WHAT YOU NEED

• This game
• Two six-sided dice
• A pencil
• Paper for the map and notes

The Scar is designed as a complete solo psychological horror experience, with its own protagonist, setting, story progression, mechanics, oracle, pointcrawl, and endings.