Forged in the Dark

In December 2021 we presented the new Forged in the Dark Bundle, featuring many recent standalone indie RPGs that use the Forged in the Dark rules based on John Harper’s bestselling FRPG Blades in the Dark from One Seven Design Studio. This offer built on the December 2020 Blades in the Dark offer, which smashed Bundle of Holding sales records for RPG collections. Like the games in the earlier offer, these inventive RPGs take a wide range of approaches to adapt the fast-playing, suspenseful Blades rules — whether for planar fantasy, cyberpunk, paranormal investigation, modern Deep South noir, or magical-girl anime.

Strongly funded in a March 2015 Kickstarter campaign, Blades has quickly become one of the most acclaimed and influential RPGs of the past decade. Blades designer John Harper (Agon, Lady Blackbird) fine-tunes the Apocalypse Engine system, adding rules for progress clocks, stress, and Devil’s Bargains that ensure fast play and suspenseful choices.

In five years Blades has moved from strength to unceasing strength. In September 2021 a British production company optioned rights for a Blades in the Dark TV series, and you have to admire the comprehensive Blades TVTropes page. Most significant is the mushrooming subcategory of Forged in the Dark RPGs. After John Harper made the Blades system available under an open Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, creators flocked to forge their own darkness. Check Harper’s own list of more than a hundred Forged RPGs on itch.io.

Ben Riggs wrote in his June 2018 Geek & Sundry review, “For a game published just last year, Blades has had a stunning influence on the RPG hobby as a whole. To see one game spawn so many others in such a short period of time, one might have to go back to the bell-bottomed days of 1974 to look at the way the very first edition of Dungeons & Dragons birthed games like Tunnels & Trolls and Empire of the Petal Throne. And given that influence, Blades may be more than just a great game. It may be a glimpse into the future of our hobby.”

This Forged in the Dark offer presented many recent standalone RPGs that showcase the latest developments in this fast-growing indie segment. There were five complete games and scenarios in our Starter Collection (retail value $54.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including Into the Dark (Off Guard Games); Errant Deeds: Tall Tales in the Blackwood (The Mythic Gazetteer); CBR+PNK (Cabinet of Curiosities), plus its ready-to-play scenario Mind the Gap; and — lest we forget! — John Harper’s Blades in the Dark core rulebook itself from One Seven Design Studio (previously in the December 2020 Blades in the Dark Bundle). We also added four unofficial Blades playbooks: The Hollow, The Sleuth, The Stitcher, and The Stranger

Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got our entire Bonus Collection with six more titles worth an additional $95, including Mythic Gazetteer’s RPG of paranormal investigation and office politics, External Containment Bureau; Bandit Camp’s Wicked Ones, a tabletop answer to the Dungeon Keeper and War for the Overworld computer games; Sig: City of Blades (Genesis of Legend Publishing), a standalone Forged recasting of the spiritual successor to Planescape, Sig: Manual of the Primes (2016); Copperhead County (Guitar Town), about crime and corruption in Tennessee; and Disaster/PEACE – A Magical Girl RPG (A Couple of Drakes).

Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went this Forged offer’s pandemic-related charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.