Surreal fantasy RPG Invisible Sun - and its 14kg Black Cube - returns from the shadows for a limited print run

One of the oddest and most extravagantly presented tabletop RPGs of the last ten years is briefly reappearing in this reality for a limited print run. Monte Cook Game’s Invisible Sun, which comes packaged in a 14kg (30lb) Black Cube of components, will crowdfund a small number of physical copies on Backerkit later this month.

First released in 2018 via Kickstarter, Invisible Sun transports players beyond the mundane Shadow of the Grey Sun and into the real world - a place suffused with magic, demons, alien wonders and more alien threats. Player characters are amalgamations of desires, secrets and goals where the experience gained from failures and setbacks can be just as potent as victories.

Publisher Monte Cook Game used a modified version of its in-house Cypher System to power stories told using Invisible Sun, but it has remained an elusive title in their portfolio due in part to the expensive and elaborate boxed set (originally priced at $197) but also thanks to a roleplay experience that is equal parts Gaiman’s Sandman, del Toro’s dark fantasies and the antagonistic puzzle box nature of Kieron Gillan’s DIE comics.

Invisible Sun Contents Video

The entire contents of the original Black Cube will be reprinted, which included four books, 1,000 cards, character sheets, a Tarot-esque Sooth Deck, dice, a Testament of Suns plinth, maps, handouts, and a separate art book. Many of the components contained their own secrets for players to unravel during the course of their campaign. Monte Cook said in a blog post that other material from Invisible Sun’s product catalogue would also be reprinted during this campaign, including the Vislae Kit and other supplements.

Campaigns using Invisible Sun travel amongst eight slivers of reality, each governed by their own sun - Indigo Gold, Silver, Red, Green, Blue, Grey (our normal reality), and Pale. The player characters, magic-wielders known as Vislae, can slip between these realms and experience life under different Suns. The interconnected Path of the Suns weaves a multitude of mysteries and unique forms of life that are governed by specific sets of natural laws - sessions will play out much differently depending on where the group decides to travel.

While Monte Cook didn’t specify if the sourcebook would be updated or changed in any way, they did note that Satyrine has been recently afflicted by a war that significantly touches every character’s backstory. Invisible Sun places a lot of weight on character choices and weaves their desires directly into the world, so expect this war and the altered Indigo Sun to prominently feature in whatever happens next.

Invisible Sun has been propped up as a singular roleplay experience by those who have prized open their own Black Cube and slipped beyond the Grey Sun’s light, but the sparse number of physical copies has kept the RPG in most players’ “wish I could play it” list. Monte Cook published a digital version via a mobile app and webapp - which was also used to enhance sessions using physical components, but this is the first time in five years the publishers has offered folks a chance to snag their very own chunky cube.

The Invisible Sun reprint Backerkit Campaign will launch sometime later this year, as the publisher has only specified “this autumn” in public announcements. A sign-up page with more information can be found on Monte Cook’s website.