Exchange Hit Points for Hit Songs to Fight Despair in Against the Gloom

Play as pirate rockstars on tour aboard flying ships; use your favorite songs to create the world, then protect it from the Gloom, one rockin’ gig at a time. 

Billed as a “role-playlist-building” TTRPG, Against the Gloom, the newest offering from Scryptid Games, has set sail on Kickstarter. In the game, players take on the roles of Gloomfarers, pirate musicians playing gigs on anchora—floating island oases that dot a sentient and malicious void called the Gloom. The Gloom wants to devour anyone and any place that dares to resist its corruptive influence, but it is vulnerable to music. It’s up to the Gloomfarers to use their bard-like musical powers to push the Gloom back and protect the anchora. 

Penned by designer, musician, and Scryptid Games co-founder Dustin Patrick Winter, Against the Gloom asks players “What if our heroes exchanged their battle axes for Stratocasters?” The game puts worldbuilding in the hands of the players, asking them to listen to songs from a shared playlist to inspire each stop on their magical mystery tour. Throughout the game, the players roll big handfuls of dice, Yahtzee-style, to resolve challenges. 

The Gloomfarers call on songs pulled from their playlist to fuel their powers, their ship, and their band, and to inform the creation of the world around them. But these fantastical rockers must also get in sync, not just with themselves, not just with the music, but with each other, lest the Gloom force them into disharmony and division. At its heart, the game is about the joy and power of music, chosen family, and building community in the face of the void. 

As a recent playtester aptly said, “Against the Gloom is a rockin’ good time full of hopepunk, found families, communal world building, and the power of music to heal the world."

There's room on the ship, ideally, for 3-5 players. Facilitation in the game passes from player to player each session as the characters sail from place to place, creating the opportunity for folks new to the facilitation side of things to dip their toe in.

The campaign is currently building speed toward its most ambitious stretch goal: a mixtape album featuring Gloom-inspired songs by acts like Bard City, Epic Levels, and more. Already on offer are the game itself— featuring illustrations from artists Gigi Wilder and Jupiter V—custom dice, a band t-shirt with backers’ hometowns listed on it as the tour stops, and opportunities for artistic collaboration with the game’s designer to build example anchora for the game book. More goals will be announced as the campaign draws closer to port.

Publisher Scryptid Games is the indie press that broke through last year with the innovative Psychic Trash Detectives, the mystery game that uses actual trash during play. The creator of that game, Brigitte Winter, who was a 2023 finalist for Dicebreaker’s Designer of the Year, is collaborating closely on Against the Gloom, promising that this game too will be deliciously weird and resonant.

Roll dice. Build your playlist. Fight the Gloom.