Shadowdark Setting Looks Set To Be 2025's First Million Dollar TTRPG Crowdfunder

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Just launched today, the new Western Reaches setting for the Arcane Library's popular Shadowdark roleplaying game (which itself raised $1.3M in 2023) has flown past half a million dollars in the first few hours, and looks certain to join the Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club imminently!

[[Edit/Update--and it's done it! $1M less than 12 hours into the Kickstarter campaign!]]

2025 has been quiet so far this year on the million-dollar crowdfunding front. This new setting is a sandbox environment with new classes and ancestries, and various areas such as the Gloaming Forest, Djurum Desert, and Myre Swamp. It comes in two 200-page digest-sized hardcovers. Also included are new issues of the game's Cursed Scroll zine. The full core set will cost you $129, or $149 for a premium version, with fulfillment expected in December 2025.

At $670K at the time of writing, just 3 hours into the campaign, The Western Reaches is already the 7th most first-day funded TTRPG ever, having just passed 2024's Terry Pratchett's Discworld RPG: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork. It looks set to pass 6th place very soon, which is 2023's Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms - A 5e Tome. Only five TTRPG crowdfunders (so far!) have ever hit the million-dollar mark on the first day. You can see the full ranking at the Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club.

The Western Reaches are an unexplored land of fragile civilizations, majestic landscapes, and forgotten horrors that lurk in the dark.

In the Reaches, you could play as:

• A painted witch from the steppes hunting for the secrets to deeper magic
• An armored knight from the City of Masks guarding frontier villages from attack
• A silent monk from the mountains searching for the assassin who killed his teacher
• A scarred pit fighter from the desert looking to make her fortune outside the arena
• A quick-witted explorer from the jungle who can find any artifact for the right price
• A seafaring warrior from the northern isles who fights for the glory of the Old Gods

This sandbox setting is fast, elegant, and flexible in the signature Shadowdark style. You don't have to memorize lore; you'll discover it as you go. The world moves and grows with you as you explore it.

 

[Arilyn]

The flexibility is great. I used 5e Theros with pulp mode Shadiwdark and added in the God given feats from Theros with a bit of tweaking. I dropped the torch timer because it didn't fit the tone. I changed the xp system to "number of adventures" rather than treasures gained. Totally different flavour and worked beautifully.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Sounds good! The other thing I’ve considered is have pcs stable at 0hp. I could escalate the tension with potential death blows or monsters dragging players off. That way I could dial it up or down on demand.

I actually have a house rule that you can't stabilize at zero hit points. This way you're not dragging around a stable PC with no way to heal them. In my game, you have to get them to 1 hit point or they die. I also roll the rounds until death secretly so the players don't know how long they have.

On the flip side, I let spell casters get at least one successful casting of a spell before they lose it due to a failed spellcasting check.

I also have the characters start with one luck point at the beginning of a session and they can trade them around. They cannot, however, use them to change the roll on the GM side -- only their own rolls. No silvery barbs here!

Regarding the feeling of Shadowdark, one of the reasons I think it's so successful and popular is that it hits a point that D&D just isn't aiming for these days. D&D 2024 and all the 5e variants, got more complicated and crunchier with more heroic options instead of less. A lot of folks clearly like that direction but there are also others who like the more focused simplicity of a game like Shadowdark. Every time I hear a conversation about how many draws and stowings of a weapon a character can do in a turn, I'm reminded of the value of a game like Shadowdark.

D&D 2024 went one way and Shadowdark clearly goes another way. There are different people who love both.

I will say, I think Shadowdark is the best introduction to D&D right now. I've had the chance to both play and run it with people brand new to RPGs and it's so much easier to pick up than trying to explain the income-tax-form-like character sheet of full 5e in any of its variants. Shadowdark is extremely easy to teach new players and get into the game. It also helps them learn the basic mechanics of 5e should they want to get into the crunchier 5e versions. And it's really easy to teach to 5e players because the mechanics are the same.

From my own experience, we ran a year long campaign based on Cursed Scroll 1. Kelsey actually commissioned me to write about the experience in the introduction of the new special edition of Cursed Scroll 1. My group are all veteran players and all of them are GMs and they universally loved it. The players got t-shirts made with all of the deaths of their characters listed on the back (I think it's like 18 of them?). They did say they were eager to jump into a more crunchy tactically heroicy sort of RPG when we finished. Now we're playing Tales of the Valiant which we're all enjoying. But all of them said they'd gladly play Shadowdark again.

For me, it's the perfect convention game and a fantastic system for one-shot games. I use it both for my yearly i6 Ravenloft game and use the Scarlet Minotaur adventure in the free Shadowdark Quickstart pack when running con games. It's fantastic.

So yeah, I love Shadowdark and I think it nails a sweet spot in the whole hobby for a more refined version of 5e focused on the grim and darker exploration of normal folk instead of D&D 2024's more crunchy superheroic high fantasy.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I love Shadowdark, but I REALLY hate the xp system. Sure it works if you just use stuff made for SD. But If I want to use it to run say Keep on the Borderlands, I have to sit and do real work to convert the gold/xp to SDs way of doing things.

I've had a lot of people tell me how to do quick shortcuts that mostly work but it seems easier to just use the xp system for D&D Basic or AD&D (and everyone uses the Fighter XP totals).

I haven't tried it but I expect Shadowdark can work fine with milestone-based progression. I might do so next time I run it.

 

[Scribe]

I actually have a house rule that you can't stabilize at zero hit points. This way you're not dragging around a stable PC with no way to heal them. In my game, you have to get them to 1 hit point or they die. I also roll the rounds until death secretly so the players don't know how long they have.

Love it.

Regarding the feeling of Shadowdark, one of the reasons I think it's so successful and popular is that it hits a point that D&D just isn't aiming for these days. D&D 2024 and all the 5e variants, got more complicated and crunchier with more heroic options instead of less.

D&D 2024 went one way and Shadowdark clearly goes another way.

This is the biggest thing to me. If Post-Tashas 5e is one direction, Shadowdark is the other, and I know exactly which direction I wish to travel. 5e is fine if thats what people are looking for, but it just isn't what I'm looking for, in a number of ways, and Shadowdark just is. I looked over the preview material last night, and just had a smile on my face the whole time. (I do like my Half Elf better, but it is what it is!)

My group are all veteran players and all of them are GMs and they universally loved it. The players got t-shirts made with all of the deaths of their characters listed on the back (I think it's like 18 of them?).

This is also awesome, what a memory.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I haven't tried it but I expect Shadowdark can work fine with milestone-based progression. I might do so next time I run it.

Meh.

Meh!

Also, Referring to your other post: Do you think SD will do better as a campaign game as opposed to a One-shot game with the new books?

 

[Lidgar]

An alternative xp approach (Hunter Mode) is to award half a monster’s level as experience points (instead of treasure).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Kelsey is a class act, and a force for good in the industry, and I can only wish her all the success in the world! One small niggle... I wish there wasn't forced duplicated content. Despite the large acknowledged content overlap between Zines 1-6 and the new bound books, there isn't a pledge level to get the new setting books but without also paying for physical versions of Zines 4-6. I'm pondering why...

I think she probably is listening to superfans in the Discord and not realizing that there's a demand for lower-cost physical tiers.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Regarding the feeling of Shadowdark, one of the reasons I think it's so successful and popular is that it hits a point that D&D just isn't aiming for these days. D&D 2024 and all the 5e variants, got more complicated and crunchier with more heroic options instead of less. A lot of folks clearly like that direction but there are also others who like the more focused simplicity of a game like Shadowdark. Every time I hear a conversation about how many draws and stowings of a weapon a character can do in a turn, I'm reminded of the value of a game like Shadowdark.

100%

I will say, I think Shadowdark is the best introduction to D&D right now. I've had the chance to both play and run it with people brand new to RPGs and it's so much easier to pick up than trying to explain the income-tax-form-like character sheet of full 5e in any of its variants.

Exact same experience here.

• New players pick up the game faster
• They seem to be more willing to try things that aren't on the character sheet (because there is so little on the character sheet, I think)
• Although I use pre-mades for brand new players, when they are ready to create their own characters it's super speedy

I had a similar experience, pre-Shadowdark, with Five Torches Deep, but overall I prefer SD.

The players got t-shirts made with all of the deaths of their characters listed on the back (I think it's like 18 of them?).

That. Is. Awesome.

So yeah, I love Shadowdark and I think it nails a sweet spot in the whole hobby for a more refined version of 5e focused on the grim and darker exploration of normal folk instead of D&D 2024's more crunchy superheroic high fantasy.

Perfect summary.

You should do some writing and make some videos. Oh, wait....

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My players have a problem that "simple" systems always seem to be grim-dark, low-power, fighting rats in a dungeon with a frying pan, die in one hit, kind of games.

You know, I'd like to say it doesn't have to be that way, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a counter-example, so fair point, players.

 

[aiouh]

I think she probably is listening to superfans in the Discord and not realizing that there's a demand for lower-cost physical tiers.

It's already been added on day 2. I changed it already