#49: Surveying the Dark (in Spaaace) - Part 3

Jul 18, 2021

We continue our wide-reaching survey of Forged in the Dark games. This issue, we travel far indeed… even to the edges of the galaxy and beyond. Here’s a round-up of all the sci-fi FitD games I could find!

So, the big one. You probably know Scum and Villainy, maybe the most popular FitD game out there? It’s much lighter in tone from Blades despite the fact that you’re still playing scoundrels in space. A solid, good time.

If you want something gritter, check out Voidfarers (hardscrabble criminals-turned-revolutionaries-turned-found family in space try to survive under authoritarian empire, In-development) or Nocturne (profiteering in a dark weird sci-fi world, In-development)

Military Sci-Fi

Brothers in Arms: Play artificial soldiers in a regimented army. Lots of changes from the default here, including no action ratings. Instead every mission has a large pool of dice and you can choose how many dice you want to spend from the pool for every roll. Seems really neat. In-development.

Beam Saber: After a stellar Actual Play campaign by Friends of the table, Beam Saber is pretty famous and is hard to believe that’s technically still in-development. You play pilots (of mechs or maybe something else) in a war that you only hope to survive. It has an excellent set of supplemental material as well. In-development.

It’s a big game though so if you want a slimmed down version that’s easier to pick up and play, check out Metal Sword.

Also: Brushfire (mechanical stormtroopers in service to a noble house, early development), Voyagers in the Dark (Star Trek-inspired game of a crew on an exploration ship, Complete),

Feat. The Apocalypse

Songs for the Dusk: Rebuild the world and grow a community after a cataclysmic event. The game hasn’t had an update in a long time. The current playtest version hews close to basic Blades but future updates promise a very different end result. In-development.

Moth Light: You play human survivors in a world that has effectively ended and now giant beasts called Moths stalk the land. The Crew playbooks have been redesigned into Pacts - which are explicitly campaign frameworks. Different pacts are going to lead to radically different games. In-development.

Asphalt and Trouble: A game of biker gangs surviving climate catastrophe. They ride the desert, do anti-corporate hijinks, and generally try to survive. Probably should’ve gone under Cyberpunk. Lots of neat changes to the harm mechanics and the consequence/complication system. In-development.

Also: Glow in the Dark: A short hack of Blades for playing Max Max style adventures. Complete.

Miscellaneous

Morphs in the Dark: Animorphs! Primarily play book rewrites but with player-facing mechanics also being rewritten like rules for morphing, etc. Free! Complete?

hello, world: Play discontented citizens of a digital utopia. I haven’t had a chance to read this yet but it’s intriguing! Complete.

The Brightest Things We Know: Play demigods battling the forces that seek to destroy humanity. Inspired by the videogame, Destiny, I believe. Has loot mechanics! Early development.

Girl by Moonlight: One of the most unique FitD games in development, Girl by Moonlight is a game of tragedy and magical girls. It does lots of cool things with campaign structure and with action rolls like Confess and Empathize, the game clearly wants to be a very different experience from Blades. There’s no way to get your hands on it right now but Evil Hat will release the final version eventually. Keep an eye out for it. In-development.

II. Listen of the Week

+1 Forward, the podcast about everything PbtA, is doing a limited-run Summer Series on Forged in the Dark games. Through the series, they’re interviewing designers of FitD games with small bits of actual play in there as well. In their latest episode, they speak to Stras and John of Offguard Games about Scum & Villainy. Really excited for the games they feature next!

III. Links of the Week

A really nice article about Warhammer, randomness and what games can teach us about how the world works: “We struggle, sometimes, with randomness and uncertainty. We struggle with it in the sense that we don’t enjoy it – we don’t like not knowing what’s going to happen. We struggle with it in the sense that we are bad judges of how likely or unlikely things are… But we also struggle with it in the sense that we don’t recognise it”.
A written actual play of a solo game, Grimoire by Anna Landin, where you’re a witch inventing spells.
A review of Sigils in the Dark, a solo journaling game where players draw arcane sigils and make dark pacts with dangerous forces.
Session Zero Con was nominated for a Diana Jones Award - which is really cool and well-deserved. I wrote about it on the newsletter for those who have never heard of it. (The Diana Jones Award is a strange institution that doesn’t seem to have any rules at all but I’m just glad that Session Zero Con is getting this kind of attention, they deserve it!)

IV. Small Ads

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