Graham Walmsley, who wrote seven ways to make space scary for Geek Native, has launched Cosmic Dark on Kickstarter.
The weird space horror tabletop RPG was almost immediately funded and is now at 450% of its target with about four weeks left on the crowdfunding clock. You can chart the progress of this rocket ship of a campaign from the pitch page.
It’s not just name-dropping to mention that Graham Walmsley wrote the cult popular Cthulhu Dark. Scott Dorward, who wrote for Call of Cthulhu, described Cosmic Dark.
Cosmic Dark builds on Cthulhu Dark in all the right ways, expanding into a new universe of darkness while remaining simple and immediate. This is weird cosmic horror that finds inventive ways to drive us beyond human limits.”
The book has six scenarios in which characters find out about Extracsa. The pitch is that you’re able to play through these scenarios just by opening the book, as there’s zero prep.
Handiwork Games’ Paul Bourne has provided the cosmic front cover and Matteo Bocci the interior. Cosmic Dark itself is a 180-page hardback.
Cosmic Dark scenarios are designed to make things easy for you as GM, giving you all the tools you need to tell a story at the table. Towards the start of every scenario, there’s a Psych Assessment, in which the characters are asked questions like “Which other team member would you murder, if you could?” or “What scares you most about space?”. Whatever they say, you’ll bring their answers back later in the scenario. It’s a way of tying them directly into the horror.
Backers at £15 get a PDF copy of Cosmic Dark, and the opening pages of Extraction, the first scenario, are already available for free.
At £36, and with worldwide shipping, Cosmic Dark backers get the hardback and PDF.
There’s a launch edition at £52, a reward of a signed bookplate, a limited edition bookmark and a scenario called Invasive.
The “full page” unlocks at £80, which includes the hardback, the signed bookplate, Invasive, your name in the book and a mysterious letter.
The £125 tier gets backers the “Cryo” upgrade, getting them into a (fictional) cryo chamber, and then at £500, super backers get a custom-made one-page scenario.
The top tier, however, is £7,777 and that comes with a visit by a “representative from Extracsa” who will have a mission for the backer. As of yet, no one has been brave enough to pledge at this tier.
The campaign runs until June 17th, and Graham expects the game to ship in January.
