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.

 

[Bae'zel]

It's an easy back for me: I loved running Shadowdark for grown ups and with kids (with some easy home rules to make it less lethal). Had an absolute blast. It's so easy to hack and tweak that I don't even THINK of looking at 3rd party material.

 

[Retreater]

The FOMO is high for me - especially since I don't have any of the Shadowdark books. I'm still on the fence because I have so many OSR systems. My groups don't especially like them, so it's unlikely I'd ever use it.

 

[DarkCrisis]

The FOMO is high for me - especially since I don't have any of the Shadowdark books. I'm still on the fence because I have so many OSR systems. My groups don't especially like them, so it's unlikely I'd ever use it.

Great thing about Shadowdark when introduced to a D&D 5E group is that’s it’s basically 5E trimmed of all the bloat and super powers.

 

[Nightfly]

The most exciting part to me is the THREE new one-page adventures. I like everything Kelsey does, but her one-pagers are masterpieces. Just brilliant exercises in minimalism.

 

[Nightfly]

there are free preview PDFs over at the KS page that allow you to play many of the new classes and content for FREE right now! At least 4 new classes and a new ancestry (half-elf) are available. Sitting at almost $700K just 5 hours or so in...

Seriously, the amount of free stuff in the previews is insane. Several new classes, tons of new spells, downtime activities, and more. Possibly even more material than is in the free quickstart rules, which is nuts.

 

[nightnoongames]

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The most exciting part to me is the THREE new one-page adventures. I like everything Kelsey does, but her one-pagers are masterpieces. Just brilliant exercises in minimalism.

She's already hit an initial stretch goal to bump this to 5, too!

 

[Retreater]

Great thing about Shadowdark when introduced to a D&D 5E group is that’s it’s basically 5E trimmed of all the bloat and super powers.

We went in the opposite direction and started A5E. My players like their super powers, hence their hesitancy to play OSR.
I'm waffling between a PDF pledge or maybe just getting the core book. I don't know about a $200+ purchase to get everything.
The starter set PDF wasn't able to sell them.

 

[Uta-napishti]

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...

EDIT: Now there is such an option added several days later, cool!

 

[Distracted DM]

We went in the opposite direction and started A5E. My players like their super powers, hence their hesitancy to play OSR.
I'm waffling between a PDF pledge or maybe just getting the core book. I don't know about a $200+ purchase to get everything.
The starter set PDF wasn't able to sell them.

It can be tough to move from 5e to a simpler system- many players will either lament the loss of power, they'll miss all the build options, or they'll "not want to learn another system" because 5e is all they know.

I think the best options to get away from 5e (for those that have reticent players) are either Pathfinder 2e (still too much crunch for me, though now that I've run A5E for a couple years I'm beginning to wonder) and Shadow of the Weird Wizard.

Alternatively, if you can do a completely different genre, that might be best and is an excellent excuse to have to use a new system... Say you pitch them sci-fi or star wars or whatever, it's not Another Fantasy Game so they might be more open.

 

[Retreater]

It can be tough to move from 5e to a simpler system- many players will either lament the loss of power, they'll miss all the build options, or they'll "not want to learn another system" because 5e is all they know.

I think the best options to get away from 5e (for those that have reticent players) are either Pathfinder 2e (still too much crunch for me, though now that I've run A5E for a couple years I'm beginning to wonder) and Shadow of the Weird Wizard.

Alternatively, if you can do a completely different genre, that might be best and is an excellent excuse to have to use a new system... Say you pitch them sci-fi or star wars or whatever, it's not Another Fantasy Game so they might be more open.

Not to get too much of a tangent from the Shadowdark KS, but really quick...

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.

Some of us have played Pathfinder 2E. I think it's too much of an ask for players to learn it (since we're playing in person and not on Foundry). This is a group that found Savage Worlds too complicated. (I hope that A5E ends up not being more complicated than PF2).

We just wrapped up a sci-fi game of Savage Worlds. That genre (as well as Supers) is too far out of my comfort zone and adds more complexity. I am comfortable with horror, but they don't want to play that.

A5E was acceptable to them because it builds on the base of 5E. Shadowdark could be similar (just in the opposite direction), though I'm concerned that they would feel underpowered, they dislike resource management, and I think you roll randomly for advancement instead of getting to decide how to grow your character.