Darkest Days is an Elden Ring-esque tabletop roleplaying game

An upcoming roleplaying game called Darkest Days enables players to explore an Elden Ring like fantasy world.

A tabletop RPG designed to support four to six players, which includes a games master, Darkest Days sees players becoming a group of heroes who are repeatedly brought back to life in order to save the land. In a similar fashion to the recently released video game Elden Ring, the fantasy TRPG has players travelling across a vast world in order to challenge and defeat a series of powerful beings called bosses. As the group manages to overcome each boss, they will be one step closer to restoring the land to its former glory and reclaiming the title of heroes for themselves.

Along the way, the players will have to be careful of traps and varying kinds of enemies that stalk the landscape. The group may also come across non-player characters who will ask them to complete a quest, providing more ways for players to acquire more heroism. Should any character come to a grisly end during the tabletop RPG, then they will be resurrected at a safe place away from combat. Death also forces player characters to permanently lose health points equal to a d6 roll, with final death coming when they cannot lose any more health. Resting can allow players to regain health lost semi-permanently as well as spent spells and find some downtime to socialise with each other. Should a merchant be near, then players can shop for new equipment and items to help them on their way.

When creating their characters, players can pick between six different backgrounds – or otherwise make their own – each with its own base set of skills and starting equipment. Players will want to craft their character around certain types of skills depending on what kind of character they’re envisioning, whether a spellcaster, a fast-moving dual-wielder or slower heavily armoured warrior. Whenever a player character earns five pips, they’ll be able to improve a skill of their choice.

Darkest Days was created by Sandy Belmont, a game designer who has founded their own studio called Bell Moon Games, with Darkest Days being their first major tabletop RPG project. Artwork for Darkest Days was created by Holley McKend, Lio Pressland, Ver, Georgia Roan, Bex Read and Charlotte Hussey.

Elden Ring is a recently released roleplaying video game published by Bandai Namco and developed by From Software, the studio responsible for the Dark Souls series as well as Bloodbourne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The video game sees players becoming characters in a fantasy world that has experienced tragedy and now lies in the remains of its destruction. As an open-world game, Elden Ring enables players to explore it at their own pace, going wherever they want to as long as they can survive the challenges therein.

The Kickstarter campaign for Darkest Days is live until March 25th, with a pledge of £25 ($27) getting backers a physical copy of the RPG in October. Alternatively, a digital PDF version is available for a pledge of £15 ($16).