Post-Apocalyptic Horror Tabletop RPG Slashes Into Kickstarter

When Shadows Fall is the newest post-apocalyptic horror tabletop roleplaying game to be successfully funded through its Kickstarter campaign. The project launched on July 7 with a $3,820 USD goal, and as of this writing has raised over $8,000 USD with over 200 backers.

The When Shadows Fall RPG Kickstarter was launched by Neal Latham, an avid tabletop roleplaying gamer since 1991 who is also designing and writing the game. Latham’s team includes Anthony Lee-Dudley (Editor), one of the founding members of the WeirdWorks, an international horror game writers and creators group. Latham has also secured the talents of Chris Cold, a concept artist and illustrator who specializes in the darker side of fantasy and science fiction art.

According to its Kickstarter description, When Shadows Fall (WSF) is a horror roleplay game about surviving in a post-apocalyptic UK. The game is set in an alternate-universe 1990s era where a bizarre fog (The Shadow) has covered the country and has destroyed power stations, corrupted the land, and caused hundreds of thousands of people to vanish, or become mutated.

The players take on the roles of survivors, people constantly trying to avoid The Shadow and the creatures within it while scavenging for food and supplies in a new Dark Age. Players must contend with their own survival at all times, and decide if they want to help others do the same, or simply leave them to their own fates and The Shadow.

When Shadows Fall tabletop RPG sample page

When Shadows Fall is a newly-designed system, influenced by systems such as Cortex, Mutant Year Zero, and Powered by the Apocalypse. Players make all the rolls, using two each of 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 sided dice. The GM sets the difficulty numbers for success and failure in various situations, with success measured in degrees for every two points above the required difficulty level the dice roll.

When Shadows Fall also includes two game mechanics that are sorely underused in tabletop RPGs: physical and mental fatigue. Players have a set number of fatigue points which may be used to reroll failure rolls, but lowers your fatigue level, thereby making future situations much more difficult for your character to survive.

Backers of the WSF Kickstarter campaign will receive a Quick Start rules PDF and a hardcopy of the core rules book. The campaign has already slashed through its four stretch goals, which include a 7-piece polyhedral dice set with a crushed velvet pouch, two Kickstarter-exclusive game scenarios, a timeline and map add on for The Shadow, and a book pack of pre-generated characters designed by Kevin ”Toad” Barthaud (Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne) and Symon Leech (Brambledown Designs).