Tomb Raider RPG Cancelled For Creative Differences

Evil Hat Publishing has just announced that the official Tomb Raider TTRPG has been cancelled.

Sad news: We are canceling the Tomb Raider RPG project. Due to creative differences we couldn’t get our vision to gel with the licensor’s, so we've chosen to part ways.

The stellar team designing this game put their hearts into making this an exciting, dynamic RPG of adventure and exploration.

We're proud of the work they've done and we plan to retool the project as a standalone game with a fresh, original setting.

You haven’t seen the last of it.

An official Tomb Raider RPG was originally announced by Square Enix in 2021 for the 25th anniversary of the property. 2023's Lara Croft's Mark of the Phoenix released as free PDF on the Crystal Dynamics website.

The Evil Hat version was announced in February 2024 as a full-color hardback book. The plan was to allow you to play Truth Seekers, allies and contemporaries of Lara Croft who Indiana Jones out hidden artifacts for the benefit of good.

Explore hidden tombs and uncover powerful secrets! Defy danger as you race to discover forgotten artifacts and prevent nefarious forces from exploiting them! Race to unearth secret artifacts and forgotten truths in order to save them from the nefarious forces that would exploit them!

Mystery awaits, and sometimes, the answers we seek can only be found in shadow…

In this officially licensed tabletop RPG you play members of the Truth Seekers: contemporaries of Lara Croft who strive to reveal long-hidden knowledge and thwart those who would steal and exploit artifacts for their own gains. It is a game of action, exploration, and self-discovery. Face perilous challenges and tough choices as you learn what it takes to be a hero.

Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth requires 3-6 players, pencils, paper, the rulebook, and at least six 6-sided dice in order to play.

Your group will collectively create their Team using one of the Team Playbooks and then build individual Team members choosing from the Crafter, Scholar, Hunter, Companion, Legacy, Changed, and Reclaimer. One player, the Keeper of Truths, describes the dynamic and compelling world around the Team as they all make the connections which bring the adventure to life.

Collect Truths and draw upon your Maps, Aid, and Lore to boost your rolls as you race to enter the Final Tomb!

The Truth is hidden. The Truth is dangerous. And in the end, the power of Truth is what we make it.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Sounds like the makers of Outgunned should put in a pitch for the Tomb Raider IP.

 

[jolt]

So much of the Tomb Raider IP is based on Lara Croft. If you're not playing Lara Croft it would feel somewhat strange, I think. In Conan, even if you aren't playing him, there's still a fantasy world to explore. Even with Indiana Jones, you can take him away and still have generic pulp. If you take Lara Croft away, I'm not sure what it is you have.

 

[kronovan]

..

 

[kronovan]

I mean, if TR isn't distinct enough for a game of its own, neither is Leverage or Firefly.

Well considering all 3, I wouldn't necessarily agree that Leverage or Firefly aren't distinct enough to justify their own TTRPG books.

The problem with Tomb Raider IMO, is it falls squarely in the Foreign Adventure and Lost World pulp subgenres, and doesn't do much to raise itself out of them. Yes, there's a bit of the crimefighting subgenre blended in, but not much. Even the Croft Manner side-setting is cliche - just another take on the wealthy heir/heiress using their fortune to pursue interests that official channels are reluctant to, or ignorant of. The best thing about TR is its cool and attractive heroine, who in the original trilogy of videogames is revealed as a bright, witty and at times compassionate woman when you finally get to hear her voice in cut scenes. As well, it's those pulp subgenres reset within a modern timeline, which allows the player to play with some modern, cool tech like sophisticated PDAs, firearms and exploration gear. The challenging puzzles disguised in architecture and relics and are also a nice twist on the genre.

That said, such clever puzzles can be found in many TTRPG campaigns and adventures - not nearly as unique as they are, or were, to videogames. Not to mention there's many modern era TTRPGs with all of that cool gear ready to be cherry-picked from tables. The team/party-of-characters aspect is also wanting in much of TR series, with it only starting to become significant in TR Legends. Based upon many player's complaints at the time about having to listen to comm chatter among characters though, it wasn't exactly welcomed by all. IMO it's only the latter trilogy of games, that emphasizes the team element effectively, but even then, the vast majority of the game is still a solitary Lara out exploring and fighting on her own. So, in other words, as a series and setting, not exactly the best foundation to build a TTRPG from - at least one that emphasizes party play.

Contrast that with Firefly and Leverage, both of which feature a team of interesting, unique and quirky characters, all of them drawing from distinct character archetypes to make their party work. As well, for their genres, neither tread on well-worn ground. Space Western series like Firely are almost the sole domain of anime and cartoons, with Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Trigun and The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers probably some that are better known. But how familiar are TTRPG fans with them? And Firely embraces the styles and themes of the genre full on, with some scenes looking like vistas taken right out of a John Ford western. Whereas Leverage seems like some strange twist on the Crimefighting subgenre. I certainly remember in my youth, charming thieves featured in movies like To Catch a Thief and the It Takes a Thief TV series, who were presented more as protagonist than the antagonist. But I wouldn't exactly categorize Leverage's ensemble of characters as "charming."

Bottom line...Firefly and Leverage, due to their emphasis on a party of off-beat characters (Firefly sometimes has a sex-worker wading into the action, while you're never sure Leverage's mastermind will drunkenly stumble into a scene), of differing archetypes, does better justify a book that can present tools and ideas to build them. As well, their setting and genre twists, does make the case for a book that could give some ideas on how to set the scene and get the tone right. IMO Magaret Weiss games did well with both books.
Tomb Raider on the other hand, is mostly well-worn pulp, with only the fact that its protagonist is female and that it’s pulled forward into a modern timeframe, giving it any kind of uniqueness.

 

[Anon Adderlan]

"we couldn’t get our vision to gel with the licensor’s"

In other words, they couldn't subvert the property with their ideological messaging. Thankfully they weren't this bad when they published The Dresden Files or else it would never have been released.

They lost me the moment they stuck a woman with running blades on her legs on the cover. If they'd cared enough to spend five minutes researching the actual disability they would have easily discovered that running blades are only useful for, wait for it, running. Specifically running on a hard even surface with good traction. They are awful for everything else, and especially for clambering around in a ruin in the jungle. An actual prosthetic for that would have feet on it, because feet are important for things like standing and walking. The fact that they did not do that bare minimum research was enough to clearly tell me that they were the sort of people who viewed disabled people as a checkbox to flaunt for their product and not someone to be supporting.

It's not that they don't care though, it's that they're completely detached from reality and expect everyone to adopt their truth.

Maybe their research consisted of watching the movie Kingsman: The Secret Service. One of the characters in that movie was all about unrealistic running blade physics. (It's not a movie I'd recommend, so feel free to take my word for it and save yourself two hours which could be better spent doing something else.)

And ultimately I'm willing to bet my legs that more amputees fantasize about being this kind of badass than whatever that was on the cover.

 

[AlexofBarbaria]

So much of the Tomb Raider IP is based on Lara Croft. If you're not playing Lara Croft it would feel somewhat strange, I think. In Conan, even if you aren't playing him, there's still a fantasy world to explore. Even with Indiana Jones, you can take him away and still have generic pulp. If you take Lara Croft away, I'm not sure what it is you have.

You don't want to play an archaeologist who shoots animals with dual handguns and pranks their butler by locking them in the fridge?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You don't want to play an archaeologist who shoots animals with dual handguns and pranks their butler by locking them in the fridge?

Less problematic than Indy's history with Marion.

 

[cbwjm]

I think I recall something about a tomb raider rpg, did they have a quick start or basic rules intro document? I feel like I downloaded it and maybe had a quick flick through then never went back and looked at it.

It's not a franchise that I think needs its own system, I could see a setting book for savage worlds though. I'll have to check out outgunned:adventure since enough people have praised it for a pulp adventure game.

 

[dbm]

I think I recall something about a tomb raider rpg

I think one of the staff members at the development company was into TTRPGs and released a game of his own writing (with the company’s permission).

 

[MGibster]

Less problematic than Indy's history with Marion.

It doesn't count unless it actually made it into the movie.