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.

 

[The Soloist]

nevermind... misread the post.

 

[mamba]

Still though, there is a quality to the game that isn't quite there for a lot of others.

I am not knocking SD, it would be one thing to get money from the KS, it is quite another to grow the community afterwards, and SD has clearly taken off.

It and Dragonbane are probably the more interesting ‘oldschool’ games to me, but then I am not really interested in recreating B/X or 1e, so most of the ‘pure’ clones are out anyway.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I just listened to an episode of Between Two Cairns where they talked about Vancian spells in Vance were sentient demonic beings, expressed their desires to the caster whose head they were trapped in, and wanted to be cast.

Put those Vancian spells into a game, and now we've got something interesting happening. (No idea if Dying Earth DCC has this take on them.)

That's how D&D should have designed the Warlock!

Speaking to spell mishaps, the thing (or a thing) about D&D, is that over time they've weeded out all the ways that your character might get hurt. Level draining: gone. Ability draining: no longer permanent.

Next came special items. Familiar dies? Spellbook lost? Special other thing gone? Summon a new one over a long rest!

Then they started protecting players from making choices they might regret. Don't like your spells, or invocations, martial maneuvers, or weapon masteries? Change 'em! Class options: no longer permanent.

The only Bad Thing thing left is Death, which (in my experience) is highly unusual in 5e. Too many ways to avoid it.

So I don't think spell mishaps would really fly in D&D world. It feels too much like a Bad Thing.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I am not knocking SD, it would be one thing to get money from the KS, it is quite another to grow the community afterwards, and SD has clearly taken off.

It and Dragonbane are probably the more interesting ‘oldschool’ games to me, but then I am not really interested in recreating B/X or 1e, so most of the ‘pure’ clones are out anyway.

I'm also fairly enamored of Dragonbane at the moment. I love the really flat power curves.

 

[mamba]

I do find it interesting that a "distilled D&D" uses a roll-to-cast system instead of a Vancian casting system for its spellcasters. If an edition of D&D did the same, people would be out for blood.

not me, I’d prefer it over spell slots

 

[Aldarc]

not me, I’d prefer it over spell slots

I prefer roll-to-cast systems. I'm just noting that if D&D had done this, then people would be out for blood.

Which suggests to me, at least, that it's about nostalgia and sacred cows, not what actually is enjoyable in game. (And, speaking for myself, I do not love explaining spell slots again to players in their first few games, nearly every single time.)

And it may be that some of the people enjoying roll-to-cast in Shadowdark may be also out for blood if D&D did it for reasons much as you say.

 

[Scribe]

If D&D wanted to go back to actual slots, with specific spells per slot, and more limitations on Casting..I wouldn't complain.

Many of the 'issues' people have with D&D are only issues because of changes to the default assumptions as the game has gone through the various editions.

 

[Nikosandros]

Yeah, it's funny how "bring back spell slots" never shows up on anyone's wishlists for the new spellcasting class.

I personally like Vancian magic, but I appreciate that different games do things differently, so I wouldn't want to use it in Shadowdark.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I'd love to hear arguments about why people like spell slots.

One thing I do NOT alike about spell slots is that I don't particularly enjoy mechanics that are available X times per Y time period. The only real decision to be made isn't a decision but a guess: "How likely am I to wish I had this resource later?" And unless you know for sure this is the big boss fight at the end of the working day, you don't. You're just guessing.

I think this is why people forget they have Inspiration in D&D: you keep thinking, 'well maybe I'll get lucky and succeed anyway...' so you keep saving it for a more important roll, and eventually forget you have it. Which is why I have always played Inspiration the way SD uses luck tokens: it's a re-roll, it's not advantage.

SD spellcasting works a similar way, but now the psychology is reversed: sure, you might fail the roll and lose the spell, and wish later on that you still had it, but you might succeed, so you'll get it now AND later! At least for me, that makes it more likely I'll use a spell, rather than try to save it.

 

[overgeeked]

I'd love to hear arguments about why people like spell slots.

When playing AD&D, B/X, etc I love proper dedicated spell slots.

It’s another mode of shenanigans and inventive play, like equipment. Did you think ahead and pack a dozen pitons or iron spikes? Then you get to spike the door open or closed or rig up a pulley system or use them in any number of other ways. Did you forget to bring them? Then you don’t get to use them.

It’s one of those limitations that were needlessly removed. Limiting spell like that fostered creative play. Thinking of new, different, and weird ways to use spells. I miss that. In 5E you can just pack a dozen spells in your brain and free cast whatever the best spell for the situation is. No need for creative casting or inventive uses of spells. You still have that on occasion, of course, but nowhere near the frequency of old-school play. I miss that so much.

Necessity is the mother of invention. They removed the necessity, and thereby removed the invention.

ETA: As you say upthread, it’s another means of protecting the players from their choices or even having to make choices. Like encumbrance. Having to choose what to take and what to leave is an interesting choice. Something simpler is better, like gear slots (as in Shadowdark) as opposed to full on pound counting, which is mostly tedious bookkeeping. But removing that entirely removes interesting choices and game play. Also see the importance of light.