The wildly popular board game Gloomhaven had elements of a role-playing game from the start. Its choose your own adventure style and massive worldbuilding leads to intricate characters, epic quests, and grand battles. Now it’s officially getting an RPG version. Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game is getting its own crowdfunding campaign starting in April 2023. If it’s anything like the original game or its sequel, Frosthaven, it’s likely to raise millions. If you’re ready to step into the role of Gloom Master and start a new epic journey, here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor.
Cephalofair shared the news that the RPG will launch on crowdfunding platform Backerkit. The game will continue using cards instead of dice, rewarding player ingenuity rather than relying on luck. According to the game’s designer Isaac Childres:
…this isn’t just the board game with a GM. First of all, we’ve opened up the playing field to allow for any class and ancestry combination. You can be an Inox Spellweaver, an Orchid Cragheart, or anything else… And this newly developed system integrates card management into the role-playing experience. That’s right, we’ve added a third skill check action to these cards, which lets you perform great feats out of combat, but also opens up a new dimension in combat, letting you swing from chandeliers, kick through walls, or even convince the bad guys to stop fighting.
For those who have already spent countless hours playing Gloomhaven games, there’s yet another way to update the experience. A second crowdfunding campaign will also launch in April 2023. This one is for a line of miniatures that can be used in the role-playing game or any of the other titles, replacing cardboard pieces in the board games. There are more than 500 figures in all and they work with the original board game and its sequel and multiple spinoffs.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.