Summary
Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that incorporates more disturbing, mature themes into the fantasy setting. It’s present in plenty of fantasy video games, like Dark Souls and Fear and Hunger, as well as anime such as Berserk. Unsurprisingly, the genre is also everywhere in tabletop RPGs.
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While games such asDungeons & DragonsandPathfinderappeal to fans of mainstream heroic fantasy, their tone, lore, and mechanics don’t typically mesh well with other genres. Luckily, gamers who crave a grittier, more serious experience have no shortage of systems to choose from. Below are some recommendations worth checking out for both long-time fans and newcomers to dark fantasy.
10Mythras
Mythras is a setting-agnostic fantasy game created by Design Mechanism, and it’s a promising edition to the sword and sorcery genre. This spiritual successor to RuneQuest is played using percentile dice and offers game masters a wide range of flexibility when designing their own settings or magic systems.
There’s also plenty of room for customization when it comes to creating player characters. It’s fairly granular in terms of rules, which makes it ideal for more experienced tabletop gamers. The creators have also released a variety of different resources for historical settings. Now any GM can make their ultraviolent ancient Roman dreams a reality.
9Shadow of the Demon Lord
Shadow of the Demon Lord was created to fulfill gamer’s most primal urges: to cleave through hundreds upon hundreds of demons while fighting for their lives.
In a dying world rife with corruption, chaos, and pestilence, players will have their characters die repeatedly and love it. This RPG was created by Robert J. Schwalb, one of the minds behind the second edition ofWarhammerRPG and the A Song of Ice and Fire tabletop game. Those who are familiar with games such as D&D and Pathfinder can rejoice: Shadow of the Demon Lord also uses a d20-based rules system, making the barrier to entry low.
8Never Going Home
The horrors of World War I remain some of the most nightmarish things to have ever been committed to memory. Naturally, this makes it the perfect backdrop for a grimdark fantasy RPG.
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Wet Ink Games combines the mundane horrors of war with theLovecraftianhorrors of dark forces beyond humanity’s comprehension. This rules-light, d6-based RPG has a heavy narrative focus, and incorporates real world history into much of its lore. This is a great RPG for fans of other cosmic horror games such as Call of Cthulhu, or gamers who just prefer a more grounded fantasy setting.
7Trophy
Players begin a game of Trophy with the expectation that every single character is going to die. The end goal of this rules-light RPG, created by Jesse Ross, is not to survive. The player characters are treasure hunters, heading straight into the heart of a sentient forest that actively wants them dead.
Like careless teens in a slasher movie, the protagonists can’t help but make decisions that hasten their demise. This is Trophy’s greatest strength: with the knowledge that their character is doomed, players can spend all their time and effort making their death as cool as possible.
6Belly of the Beast
Few other creators would imagine Jabu-Jabu’s belly fromZelda: Ocarina of Timeas the setting for an entire RPG. Created by Sigil Stone Publishing, Belly of the Beast takes place entirely inside a city swallowed by a gargantuan, monstrous god.
Played entirely with d6’s, players navigate through a fleshy, desperate world, scavenging the remains of fallen and devoured empires. The premise of this game may seem a bit esoteric at first, but the creators clearly had a vision. And that vision is apparent in the game’s lore, which is written with a breathtaking level of detail. Belly of the Beast is worth a play for anyone looking for something fresh.
5Ten Candles
Designed by Stephen Dewey, Ten Candles bills itself as a game of “tragic horror”. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where darkness envelops everything, Ten Candles ties all of its thematic elements together with a unique rule set.
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The game’s name comes from the ten candles that are lit in the physical space the game is played in, which are gradually snuffed as the session progresses. As a character suffers more physical and emotional blows, their player burns more parts of their character sheet. Ten Candles is deeply narrative-focused, and its unique gameplay feels nostalgic, like a ritual performed by kids at a sleepover.
4Blades in the Dark
Created by John Harper, Blades in the Dark has both polish and panache for days. The game takes place in the streets of a fantasy city reminiscent of Victorian London. Players take the role of fortune hunters making their way through the city’s criminal underworld.
Light on rules and heavy on the narrative, Blades in the Dark places heavy emphasis on the players' actions and personal agendas. Every action has consequences, and GMs are encouraged to ensure their players pay dearly for their mistakes. Blades in the Dark is perfect for anyone who wants a fast-paced game where their choices actually matter.
3Vaesen
The art of Vaesen is breathtaking, and perfectly captures the flavor of the game’s cold, grim world. Set in a land inspired by Scandinavian folklore, this RPG from Cannibal Halfling Gaming is part horror, part fantasy, part brutal survival. Players carry out quests as they travel back and forth between remote villages, surviving on nothing but their wits and what slim resources they can find.
Death lurks around every corner, but its ubiquity makes every victory all the sweeter. With a ruleset modified from the Year Zero Engine, players are given all the tools they need to create a character who lives, breathes, and eventually dies organically within the game’s world.
2Mörk Börg
Mörk Börg, created by Pelle Nilsson, begins with the GM rolling to determine how much time the players have until the world ends. This quickly sets the tone for the game.
With a ruleset reminiscent of older editions of D&D and art ripped straight from a heavy metal album cover, Mörk Börg has a phenomenal amount of polish. The book also contains a wealth of resources for both players and GMs. This ranges from character customization to filling the setting’s dungeons with a horrific amount of spiders. With so many tools at their disposal, players and GMs alike will have no trouble creating a world modified to suit their brand of horror.
1Kult: Divinity Lost
Every human being on the planet carries a spark of divinity. The world is an illusion, and players must confront malevolent forces beyond their wildest imagination in the quest to achieve godhood. Kult: Divinity Lost is the latest edition of the Kult RPG, created by Robin Liljenberg and Petter Nallo.
The lore of Kult is also deeply engaging, if also twisted and nightmarish beyond the scope of most other RPGs on the market. With an accessible urban fantasy setting and a ruleset modified from Powered by the Apocalypse, Kult is excellent for players who want a great narrative but don’t want to be bogged down by number crunching.
