🌌 Gods & Galaxies
Fantasy TTRPGs and sci-fi adventures dominate this post-gamescom roundup
What’s Inside: Fresh back from some much-needed Spanish sunshine and a hectic gamescom, we're diving into a collection of campaigns that are absolute eye candy.
1. Dreams of no Sleep
Upcoming Page | Dice wrapped in grit and glamour
Dreams of no Sleep has a pretty packed Gamefound page with tons of info to digest, but here's the gist: it's a god-slaying fantasy TTRPG that mixes dice rolling with coin flipping to tackle deck-based challenges. You can play with 2-5 people, and the game splits into two phases - when you're awake, you're roleplaying, and when you're asleep, you're fighting. The art looks incredible and the combat system seems solid, so it's definitely worth keeping an eye on.
2. Starfinder: Afterlight
Upcoming Page | It’s time to save the galaxy
Just to be upfront - my colleagues are working on Starfinder: Afterlight, but even with that potential bias, I'm still going to hype the game up. I'll be backing it when it launches. Now, it's not technically a TTRPG, board game, or visual novel, but I'm throwing it into this week's roundup anyway because it looks and sounds incredible, plus it's using a 2e ruleset. That's enough for me to bend the Dice Engine rules on this occasion. You can view its teaser trailer, here.
A sci-fi party based RPG
Build a team of misfits from across the galaxy
Explore unique stories, with each decision you make directly impacting the gameworld.
3. Mörk Sol
Upcoming Page | In a horrific galaxy, far, far away…
Mörk Sol is the debut project from Infinite Citadel, and it's a rules-light, grimdark sci-fi TTRPG all about family, survival, and trying to find meaning in a universe that really doesn't care about you. Taking inspiration from The Expanse, Alien, and Dead Space, it's heavily focused on ship combat and life among the stars. They've been playtesting this thing for two years and even ran full campaigns at GenCon, so now they're looking for funding to get it into hardback.
Here's what you'll be doing:
Exploring the Span, taking on jobs, and scavenging parts
Upgrading your gear and trading whatever you find
Working your way up to bigger and more dangerous jobs until either you die or the galaxy does
4. The Long Rest
Upcoming Page | Its cast is ready and waiting
I've been looking for a good issue of Dice Engine to feature The Long Rest for a while, so I figured I should finally give you a heads up about it. You hardly ever see audio dramas on crowdfunding sites, which makes this one pretty special. They've already got their cast lined up, and it's this supernatural fantasy thriller about six survivors trying to track down their missing leader. As someone who's always got an audiobook going, I think there's definitely space for more crowdfunded content like this. As long as the writing holds up - and especially the acting - it could be really solid.
5. Beneath Us
Upcoming Page | It’s time to face the onslaught
BAFTA nominated writer Joseph Oliveira is back on Kickstarter with a new issue of their awesome Beneath Us series. Having already created over 60 successful Kickstarter projects, this latest installment keeps following that group of young offenders who got sent to help rebuild a remote village after a tsunami hit, only to find out the place is hiding some pretty dark secrets. You can grab the previous issues from the Afterlight Comics store, here. I would highly recommend.
6. DIE RPG Quickstart
Live Page | When the real world sucks, but the fantasy might kill you
I discovered this gem after catching up on the brilliant blog Old Men Running The World, by Jim Rossignol and Kieron Gillen. DIE RPG Quickstart, created by Kieron and Stephanie Hans, drops a group of deeply flawed real-world people into a fantasy realm through a sinister RPG. There, they become Paragons - twisted versions of classic fantasy classes who must confront how their lives diverged from youthful dreams and face their buried secrets. The Quickstart is pay-what-you-want on Itch and Drivethru, offers amazing artwork, and if it hooks you, the full edition is available too.
Final Turn
One More Win by the incredibly talented Andy Kelly (who wrote the fantastic Perfect Organism: An Alien: Isolation Companion) is available on Etsy right now. I grabbed my copy a couple weeks ago, and though it flew off the shelves pretty quickly, Andy has been good enough to print another batch of this Ridge Racer Type 4 fanzine. It's lovingly crafted with original writing and gorgeous imagery from the game - absolutely one to grab.
Teburu Dungeon: Sword & Sorcery just wrapped up its Gamefound campaign and absolutely crushed it with over 900,000 euros in funding. It's basically the beloved fantasy game reimagined for the Teburu System - that digital playing surface from Xplored. This co-op dungeon crawler works with 1-5 players and brings back the original crew for a brand new campaign that's been designed specifically for the Teburu system. I'm betting there'll be a late pledge option coming up, so definitely jump on it if you get the chance.
Thanks for reading this weeks issue, and thanks so much for understanding the delay so I could take a much needed break with family :)