And another bundle - Forged in the Dark

[ffutures]

This is a new offering for a game system I don't really know very well:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Forged

This new Forged in the Dark Bundle presents many recent standalone indie RPGs that use the Forged in the Dark rules based on John Harper's bestselling FRPG Blades in the Dark from One Seven Design Studio. This offer builds on last December's Blades in the Dark offer, which smashed Bundle of Holding sales records for RPG collections. These new and inventive RPGs take a wide range of approaches to adapt the fast-playing, suspenseful Blades rules to planar fantasy, cyberpunk, paranormal investigation, modern Deep South noir, magical-girl anime, and more.

We provide each title complete in .PDF. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices. (By publisher request, the DriveThruRPG versions of some of these files are inobtrusively watermarked.)

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's pandemic-related charity,Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$149.50. Customers who pay just US$9.95 get all five complete games in our Starter Collection (retail value $54.50) as DRM-free ebooks, including Into the Dark (Off Guard Games, retail price $15); Errant Deeds: Tall Tales in the Blackwood (The Mythic Gazetteer, retail $10); CBR+PNK (Cabinet of Curiosities, retail $5.50) plus its ready-to-play run Mind the Gap (retail $4); and -- lest we forget! -- John Harper's core Blades in the Dark rulebook itself (retail $20) from One Seven Design (previously in last December's Blades in the Dark Bundle). As a convenience to our customers, we also add four unofficial fan-made Blades in the Dark playbooks by Justin Ford of Moth-Lands, sold on a pay-what-you-want basis on DriveThruRPG: The Hollow, The Sleuth, The Stitcher, and The Stranger

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $34.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with six more complete RPGs worth an additional $95, including External Containment Bureau (The Mythic Gazetteer, retail $20); Wicked Ones (Bandit Camp, retail $20) plus its Toolkit Deck (retail $5); Sig: City of Blades (Genesis of Legend Publishing, retail $20); Copperhead County (Guitar Town, retail $20); and Disaster/PEACE - A Magical Girl RPG (A Couple of Drakes, retail $10).

Blades/Forged in the Dark resources

• The Blades in the Dark website, its free downloads page, its long list of fan creations, and the Forged in the Dark license
• The Reddit Blades subreddit and its list of all Forged in the Dark games
• Twitter bots: Doskvol News and Doskvol Scores
• A sophisticated post-Actual Play analysis: "Band of Blades and Recompiling Code" (Paul Beakley, Indie Game Reading Club)
• In 2017-18 on his blog The Walking Mind, Rob Donoghue of Evil Hat Productions analyzed Blades to a depth few recent RPGs have enjoyed (or endured). The Walking Mind Blades category lists nearly two dozen lengthy posts, newest-to-oldest; start with his introductory May 2017 post.

Last time I said:

This looks to be interesting and a lot of people seem to love the setting and system, and you're getting quite a lot for your money, but I'm a bit busy in the run-up to Christmas and won't be able to look at it properly over the next few days, so please judge for yourself.

And as if by magic they've offered this new bundle in more or less the same time slot, e.g. I'm going to be really busy again for the next couple of weeks and probably won't be able to do more than glance at it. All I can really say is that this is a system that has a lot of enthusiastic players and seems to produce lots of interesting indie settings. If you've already seen it you'll probably be interested in this new offering, if not it's well worth a look.