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.


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Morrus

Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What's OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.

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MostlyHarmless42 said:
I'll admit I've been sleeping on Shadowdark. As someone who is genuinely interested but put off by the name, the art style, and given that most of the people I've seen who've talking tending to fall into a single category of discontented grognards type players (again no shade intended, it's a valid playstyle justnot for me), and someone who HATES dark edgy angst fests and 1e/2e gritty meat grinder dungeon focused campaigns (or medieval simulators), as well as both of those specific mechanical rulesets, is Shadowdark still worth checking out?

I'm genuinely looking for a potential alternative to Dnd 2024, but I find both versions of pathfinder to be too fiddly with rules, DC20 just seems to be like two decades away from actually being playable/released, I hate card games (so no daggerheart), and my players won't play anything that isn't fantasy (so no call of cthulhu or traveler). To couple that with I actually like the 2024 ruleset (just hate the company) and I've been struggling to find an alternative.
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SD is NOT 5E lite. It is an OSR game. It is fun and has a tongue in cheek dark humor about it, but is intended to be deadly and focus on 'crawls (dungeon and hex). Based on your post, I don't think it is for you. It has very little in common with D&D 2024. That said,it is free to try or just read.
 


Reynard said:
That seems entirely backward to me. ORC doesn't require that you create an SRD for everything you make. It just says that if you create mechanics under ORC, they are by definition Open Content
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So how is it open content if I only make it available in a paid product?

Reynard said:
If you don't like it, don't use ORC.
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No worries, I won't. The bigger question is whether this basically limits the material produced under it and to what extent. Guess we will find out, the CC-BY has no such limitations, I much rather base my material on it than ORC, and I doubt I am alone with that
 
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MostlyHarmless42 said:
I'll admit I've been sleeping on Shadowdark. As someone who is genuinely interested but put off by the name, the art style, and given that most of the people I've seen who've talking tending to fall into a single category of discontented grognards type players (again no shade intended, it's a valid playstyle justnot for me), and someone who HATES dark edgy angst fests and 1e/2e gritty meat grinder dungeon focused campaigns (or medieval simulators), as well as both of those specific mechanical rulesets, is Shadowdark still worth checking out?
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does not sound like it

MostlyHarmless42 said:
I'm genuinely looking for a potential alternative to Dnd 2024, but I find both versions of pathfinder to be too fiddly with rules, DC20 just seems to be like two decades away from actually being playable/released, I hate card games (so no daggerheart), and my players won't play anything that isn't fantasy (so no call of cthulhu or traveler). To couple that with I actually like the 2024 ruleset (just hate the company) and I've been struggling to find an alternative.
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try Shadow of the Weird Wizard, Tales of the Valiant or Level Up Advanced 5e, they all seem to be better fits for what you are looking for
 
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Whizbang Dustyboots said:
And on the question of whether Shadowdark is grim edgelord stuff, one of the "original" monsters in the core book is Totoro with the serial numbers filed off. Kelsey definitely is not taking herself too seriously.
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She and the backers had a running joke about the Shadowbarge aka the container ship with the books landing for Kickstarter fulfillment. When it landed, she made the Shadowbarge an actual monster to use in the game.
 

MostlyHarmless42 said:
I'll admit I've been sleeping on Shadowdark. As someone who is genuinely interested but put off by the name, the art style, and given that most of the people I've seen who've talking tending to fall into a single category of discontented grognards type players (again no shade intended, it's a valid playstyle justnot for me), and someone who HATES dark edgy angst fests and 1e/2e gritty meat grinder dungeon focused campaigns (or medieval simulators), as well as both of those specific mechanical rulesets, is Shadowdark still worth checking out?

I'm genuinely looking for a potential alternative to Dnd 2024, but I find both versions of pathfinder to be too fiddly with rules, DC20 just seems to be like two decades away from actually being playable/released, I hate card games (so no daggerheart), and my players won't play anything that isn't fantasy (so no call of cthulhu or traveler). To couple that with I actually like the 2024 ruleset (just hate the company) and I've been struggling to find an alternative.
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For what it's worth, I like this game a lot, and I'm very vocal about my personal dislike of the "old school brutalism" play style (aka PCs are inept fools going through meat grinder dungeons).

Some may ask "then why the hell do you play Shadowdark"? Fair question!

The default difficulty setting of Shadowdark is "the players will make characters who are mostly inept losers who WILL die at least once during a campaign". That's the championed and advertised experience ("this ain't your modern SOFT D&D game").

However, due to the rules-light system, it isn't difficult to adjust those dials. I have and my players had a blast. Ran the game for adults and with kids (with some controversial house rules that old school grognards abhor). . Everyone had slightly above average stats. The game worked fine. They had a huge challenge and couldn't just charge in to hack and slash.

To be clear, my Shadowdark games are Dark Souls / Elden Ring inpired. Death at zero HP, but the character resurrects at their last campfire (with some potential drawbacks or penalties). So I don't pull any punches with encounters.
 


MostlyHarmless42 said:
I'll admit I've been sleeping on Shadowdark. As someone who is genuinely interested but put off by the name, the art style, and given that most of the people I've seen who've talking tending to fall into a single category of discontented grognards type players (again no shade intended, it's a valid playstyle justnot for me), and someone who HATES dark edgy angst fests and 1e/2e gritty meat grinder dungeon focused campaigns (or medieval simulators), as well as both of those specific mechanical rulesets, is Shadowdark still worth checking out?
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Possibly!

First, it's important to clarify what type of "discontented grognard" we're talking about. Although the emphasis in Shadowdark is on dangerous dungeon crawling, it has none of the icky edgelord vibe that marks the worst of the OSR space. It cherishes the style of play of the 70s and 80s, but isn't resentful of how society has changed since then. So it is certainly not a "dark edgy angst fest" in that sense.

As written Shadowdark is dangerous and swingy, and death is always close at hand, especially for low-level characters. But a few house rules will greatly increase the survivability. The game is so simple and free of bloat that it's super easy to mold it however you want. Still, if you really hate 1e style of play, SD might not be your best choice since the game is very much trying to channel that Gygaxian vibe.
 

Bae'zel said:
For what it's worth, I like this game a lot, and I'm very vocal about my personal dislike of the "old school brutalism" play style (aka PCs are inept fools going through meat grinder dungeons).

Some may ask "then why the hell do you play Shadowdark"? Fair question!

The default difficulty setting of Shadowdark is "the players will make characters who are mostly inept losers who WILL die at least once during a campaign". That's the championed and advertised experience ("this ain't your modern SOFT D&D game").

However, due to the rules-light system, it isn't difficult to adjust those dials. I have and my players had a blast. Ran the game for adults and with kids (with some controversial house rules that old school grognards abhor). . Everyone had slightly above average stats. The game worked fine. They had a huge challenge and couldn't just charge in to hack and slash.

To be clear, my Shadowdark games are Dark Souls / Elden Ring inpired. Death at zero HP, but the character resurrects at their last campfire (with some potential drawbacks or penalties). So I don't pull any punches with encounters.
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The Dark Souls aspects are intriguing to me. I think I'll give those adjustments a whirl on the next bit of SD my group plays.
 

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