Free League Announces Coriolis: The Great Dark

Coming to Kickstarter next month is a new science fiction TTRPG from Free League. A sequel to Coriolis-The Third Horizon, the new game features "exploration, mysteries, and intrigue at the far edge of space".

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We are incredibly excited and proud to announce Coriolis: The Great Dark, our brand-new science fiction roleplaying game about exploration, mysteries, and intrigue at the far edge of space. Venture out into the unknown on mighty Greatships, delve deep into ancient ruins and partake in the Byzantine schemes of powerful guilds.

Coriolis: The Great Dark will be launched on Kickstarter March 19. Inspired by 19th century polar expeditions, deep sea diving and pulp archeology, Coriolis: The Great Darkoffers a new take on sci-fi roleplaying that emphasizes mystery, a sense of wonder and breathtaking visuals.

Sign up for Coriolis: The Great Dark RPG on Kickstarter!

Visit the Kickstarter pre-launch page and sign up to be notified the moment the campaign goes live! All backers who pledge levels with physical rewards within the first 24 hours will receive a bonus item soon to be revealed. If successfully funded, all backers will get the PDF version of the game months ahead of the official release.

Coriolis: The Great Dark is fully standalone game, but is also the spiritual sequel to our critically acclaimed Coriolis – The Third Horizon, Free League’s very first science fiction RPG. Coriolis – The Third Horizon was granted the Judges Spotlight Award in the ENNIE Awards 2017 and was one of the first international releases from Free League.

 

[CapnZapp]

Free League as a company even gets its name from one of the factions in Coriolis, so they do have some attachment to the setting.

For those that didn't know:

Free League (Fria Ligan in Swedish) started as regular fans of the Iron Ring publisher (Järnringen) and their Mutant game. When they released Coriolis, those guys were sufficiently inspired to start creating fan material for the game.

When Iron Ring decided to unwind their operation (as I understand it more because they were creatively exhausted rather than for financial reasons) Free League stepped up and purchased the licenses that Iron Ring relinquished.

They started by issuing a new edition of Mutant: Year Zero and with it the new rules engine that have carried them since.

Fun fact 1: Later the Iron Ring guys had renewed rpg inspiration and started a new company, also called Iron Ring, publishing Symbaroum. But by this time Free League was by far Sweden's biggest rpg house, so they simply bought up and merged their old idols.

Fun fact 2: Iron Ring itself is named after an in-game faction (in the Mutant Heirs of the Apocalypse edition). So I guess it follows that these fans also wanted to name their company after an in-game faction...

 

[CapnZapp]

Yeah, the first version of Coriolis was not particularly well-designed. I remember that there were lots of things that double-dipped on increasing costs, and a hit location table that used the damage roll as a hit location roll, and things like that. Not sure if I still have the book or if I threw it out in a purge I did a few years ago.

The first edition is top notch campaign and atmosphere wise.

Unfortunately it is truly dire rules wise.

Basically you use the setting info but replace the rules engine altogether. Which, I guess, is what FL did.

 

[Anon Adderlan]

My group likes to roll dice a lot more than Free League wants us to. We like the chance of things going sideways. It's just that we had far too many roll 12d6 plus reroll and still no 6s in sight — even if we had played it as written and far less rolls, it still would have sucked the fun out of it.

That's still a greater than 98% chance though.

it's more akin to the Riddick setting.

It really is, and it's strange to me how this isn't listed as an inspiration.

 

[aramis erak]

That's still a greater than 98% chance though.


It really is, and it's strange to me how this isn't listed as an inspiration.

American action film with poor marketing, and 4 years old when Coriolis 1e was released?

Sure, might be there, but it's more likely just due to the same inspirations.

 

[schneeland]

Campaign is live: Coriolis: The Great Dark RPG – Explore A Lost Horizon.

Unsurprisingly, already founded and smashing through the first stretch goals.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm excited for this. I went fancy-schmancy and got the dead tree level so all the maps will be all tactile and whatnot. Mostly I just buy PDFs due to shipping costs and limited storage space, so actual books are a real treat.

 

[CleverNickName]

And it's already 1475% funded in just a matter of hours, with 3200 backers.

I'm not surprised; it's a beautiful-looking product.

 

[schneeland]

I also went for print this time. After all, it has a box - and kids grognards love boxes!
But I'm glad they added a Foundry module as an add-on (once pestered enough by the fans ). This significantly increases the chance that I will actually play Coriolis: TGD.

 

[Fenris-77]

I do love boxes. I also love new dice. I also love extra maps and art. I'm very happy with my pledge so far.