Tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons invariably place players and their characters in dangerous lands filled with dark threats that must be destroyed or overcome. The following RPG game-lines go a step farther and put player characters in dark, doomed worlds where the odds of survival are grim at best. The campaign settings of MÖRK BORG, Trophy, The End Of The World, and Our Last Best Hope, full of peril and shadowed by imminent apocalyptic events, challenge players to rage against the dying of the light.
First edition Dungeon & Dragons and other 1970s tabletop RPGs have a reputation for being lethal and unforgiving compared to modern RPGs. Campaign modules like Tomb Of Horrors exemplify a style of dungeon-crawling role-play centered around spotting devious traps, avoiding or bying over-powered enemies, and coming up with creative solutions to unforgiving challenges. D&D player stereotypes such as the "nine-foot pole" or the "binder full of backup character sheets" emerged from this era of gaming, a paradigm where gamers tried to keep their characters alive in defiance of overwhelming odds.
Some of the tabletop RPGs listed below draw from classic RPG gameplay and the derived design principles of the "Old School Revival" movement, while others draw from disaster movies, apocalyptic dramas, and other forms of media with high body counts. Each of these games, without fail, has settings, premises, and themes forcing players to confront mortality - the knowledge that their PCs are almost certainly doomed - while still encouraging them to fight said end with all their strength, resolve, and ingenuity.
Dark Tabletop RPG: Trophy Dark & Trophy Gold
The default premise of the fantasy RPG Trophy Dark is a mixture of classical D&D dungeon-crawling, fairy tales about getting lost in the woods, and narratives like Apocalypse Now; there is a dark, deep forest filled with mysteries, terrors, and treasures that treasure hunters of varying origins risk their life and sanity to retrieve. Unlike classic tabletop RPGs with an emphasis on "leveling up" and growing stronger, the core mechanics of Trophy Dark are centered around attrition, with player character steadily bleeding resources, good luck, and lucidity as they venture deeper into the forest and fend off its unnatural inhabitants. The spin-off to the Trophy Dark RPG, Trophy Gold, is designed for more light-hearted, optimistic storytelling, giving player characters options to recover and improve themselves each time they return from civilization.
Dark Tabletop RPG: The End Of The World
The End Of The World set of RPGs, published by Zombie Apocalypse, Wrath Of The Gods, Alien Invasion, and Revolt Of The Machines - include different scenarios, enemy write-ups, and plot hooks GMs can use to re-create spectacular global catastrophes and their potential aftermaths. The mechanics and character creation rules for The End Of The World are designed to let players portray fictional versions of themselves - ordinary, fragile people caught up in cataclysms of mind-boggling scope.
Dark Tabletop RPG: Our Last Best Hope
If The End Of The World is designed to re-create stories like Dawn Of The Dead or Cloverfield - movies about ordinary people trying to escape disasters they have little chance of preventing - then Our Last Best Hope, published by Magpie Games, is meant to emulate disaster movies like Armageddon or Deep Impact where groups of heroes are sent on last-ditch missions to save the world.
Instead of making one player the Game Master, Our Last Best Hope uses tokens, plot cards, and reference materials to let every player participate in the game as equals, describing both the game world and their character's actions. In true disaster movie tradition, each player receives a Death Card describing the fate their character is doomed to suffer; "cheating fate" lets a player character survive for a time, but makes future challenges all the harder, while embracing fate and performing a "heroic sacrifice" can clear away obstacle between the remaining player characters and their goal of saving their world.
Dark Tabletop RPG: MÖRK BORG
The dying world of the dark fantasy game MÖRK BORG - a setting that's an unholy mix of early Dungeons & Dragons, Berserk, Dark Souls, and Swedish Death Metal albums -is on the brink of a Biblical/Ragnarök-inspired apocalypse; to quote the MÖRK BORG website, "all your vain heroic efforts are destined to end in death and dismay. Or are they?"
The rules of MÖRK BORG, inspired by "Old School Revival" RPGs, are designed to let players quickly throw together new characters on the fly – a necessity, given how often dungeon scenarios and world-ending threats will chew apart the grave-robbers, sell-swords, and mystics players create. Both the MÖRK BORG rulebook and free digital resources supplement their 'edgy' dark fantasy feel with surreal artwork, including scrapbook collages of hearts, skulls, brutal weapons, and gruesome monsters.
Source: MÖRK BORG, Fantasy Flight Games, Trophy RPG, Magpie Games
