A downloadable game

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PDF - 446 pages, plus 6 battlemaps, tokens, and several gameplay and character sheets.

It’s the first decade of the 22nd century. After a complete ecological collapse, Earth is close to becoming uninhabitable. Wars and hunger are all most know, and only those with ungodly amounts of wealth can hope to escape to the only place where a sliver of hope remains: space. A few hundred live in the obscene luxury of the nascent Mars colony, while the rest of the solar system is being slowly taken over by the megacorporations, eager to extract the last drop of usable resources.

That is, until Drake Industries bought the exploitation rights of yet another rock in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. The momentous discovery that hundreds of alien ships remained dormant - a literal treasure trove of technology - within this lifeless asteroid. According to Drake Industries, this immediately justified building a proper station for the cold rock: Karum Station.

After decades of studies conducted by Drake Industries scientists (whom achieved little more than simply turning on these incomprehensible artifacts), it was discovered that each ship contained several hundred archived coordinates of unknown "sites". The Karum Station Authority was promptly established to organize expeditions to these locations.

Across a Thousand Dead Worlds is a new horror space exploration tabletop roleplaying game that can be enjoyed as a single player experience, or in a group of up to five players, with or without a Game Master - by Blackoath Entertainment! You'll create your Deep Diver, using a free-form character creation system, and begin your journey across the galaxy where you'll discover abandoned research facilities, explore scientific outposts, and traverse other dilapidated sites in search for ancient alien technology. 

Take refuge aboard Karum Station, your home between missions (as long as you pay the fees, of course), and enjoy a drink with your crewmates before spending your hard earned credits on equipment for the next mission. Grab your gear, check your vitals, and prepare to deploy Across a Thousand Dead Worlds!

As a Deep Diver, your job is to board one of the alien vessels (referred to as Àrsaidh ships), travel to these unknown "sites", secure anything of value, and safely return all samples to Karum Station. The only problem is, no one is sure where these mysterious coordinates may lead - perhaps an alien facility, maybe an unobserved planet, or unfortunately straight into a star that has gone supernova, spelling the end of your expedition. 

Built from the ground up with a new, GM-optional system, Across a Thousand Dead Worlds offers a unique solo or group tabletop roleplaying experience with true character flexibility, in-depth setting elements, extensive generational tools, and other immersion building features:

  • Create your Deep Diver, using a free-form character creation system that allows you to design it the way you want to play. Level up, increasing your character’s power by obtaining powerful gear and equipping the combination of Talents (chosen from a pool of dozens) that adapts best to your playstyle. Want to play a support character or a melee specialist? Everything is possible.
  • Discover a flexible ruleset that allows you to solve any action with a single D20 roll. The powerful and brutal tactical combat rules will satisfy anyone itching for a fight, offering a level of action that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Not a fan of minis or tokens? No problem, you can use the more traditional yet equally thrilling rules for your combat.
  • Travel across the galaxy, discovering and exploring ancient refineries, scientific outposts, abandoned research facilities, and more, in search for ancient alien technology. Whether aboard a forgotten prison orbiting a dead star or on the surface of an ice planet, what gear you decided to bring with you and who your crewmates are will greatly influence your chances to survive.
  • Want to know how it feels to be inside a tin can crossing space with a bunch of strangers, not knowing if you’ll have enough oxygen or food for everyone to get there, or even to return? How will your teammates react (PCs or NPCs) when you start breaking down due to stress? Will they help you and tolerate your incessant, maddening foot-tapping, or will things end even before you’ve reached your destination?
  •  Across a Thousand Dead Worlds is not only a complete RPG, but a sci-fi toolbox. Need to generate a planet or an alien station for your favorite sci-fi RPG? Would you like to solo any other sci-fi RPG but don't have the tools to do so? Roughly half of the book is dedicated to random tables and tools that can be easily implemented into any other sci-fi game.
  • This book is just the first step in a long journey; our intention is to support this game for many years to come, and several future releases have already been sketched out. Hop on in while the story is fresh and new, and be part of the universe's evolving story!
StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(5 total ratings)
AuthorBlackoath
GenreRole Playing
TagsDystopian, Horror, Sci-fi, Singleplayer, Solo RPG, Tabletop

Purchase

Buy Now20.00€ EUR or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of 20.00€ EUR. You will get access to the following files:

Across a Thousand Dead Worlds - Core Rulebook.pdf 532 MB
Across_a_Thousand_Dead_Worlds_-_Core_Rulebook_-_COMPRESSED.pdf 45 MB
Battlemaps & Playsheets.zip 88 MB

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Community Copies

Comments

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Hello, I was wondering if you could add more community copies please

If I buy the print copy from a FLGS, am I eligible for a PDF? And if yes, how do I claim it? (I noticed you’re not on Bits and Mortar so the typical way to get the PDF doesn’t work.)

(+1)

I'm afraid I don't really have the infraestructure or know-how to even begin thinking how to do something like this. I'm a single developer and unfortunately there's only so much I can handle. I assume you bought the book in Poland? That's the only place where the book is available at, aside from my own store. I can send them the PDF and see if they are able to distribute it themselves somehow with each sale.

(+1)

Exactly, it’s the shop in Poland :)

I let them know about your response. It would be awesome if you find a way with them to make it work.

(+2)

hi, I’m not the person who asked this question, but it’s pretty simple. Here’s the info from the itch support page!


https://itch.io/docs/creators/download-keys

Thanks for the info! In any case, I already sorted it out with the FLGS!

(+2)

A friend of mine picked up a copy recently and ran it for a small group so I wanted to post some kudos to the designer and say:

It's a neat game with plenty of fun random generators, a future-dystopian setting that you can take seriously or just have fun with, some mildy crunchy combat that's uses a d20 (but isn't "D20 System" if that makes sense), plenty a bit of inventory management, and some nice artwork.

I'd recommend it for anyone interested in some of that stuff.

Thank you for your review, I'm glad you enjoy the game!

Is there any chance of further community copies? I'm in a very tight financial situation right now but this looks amazing and I'd love to have the distraction.

I tend to add a few now and then, just keep an eye open for it!

(+1)(-1)

wow!! any POD coming out soon?

Yes, it will come to DTRPG and possibly Amazon sometime in the near future!

(-6)

Somehow when I read that it's over 400 pages I thought it would have more meat and I got bare bones. Tabels are nice inspiration, and I appriciate gear section. But I would defently like some more ideas that aren't "this are crayones and paper, draw your own picture". Also you should write its 400+ pages of A5 format, with wide margins and big spaces between lines. In scale Buu-Mech-Ok-Yeee!. I give it a weak Ok. 

(+5)(-1)

The tables are there to generate everything you need, and combined with the procedures it works pretty well. There isn't any other way of creating a procedurally generated game focused on solo play. Also, it's not A5 format, it's larger (170x230 mm, whereas an A5 is 148x210 mm). The book is still choke-full of content (the wordcount is over 120K words, if I remember correctly, while your average indie RPG has less than 30K) and I don't think anyone can run out of things to do in many, many years. Regardless of all this, I don't think a game should be judged by the number of pages, but about the content provided and the quality of it. I think ATDW delivers in all fronts. 

(-5)

Well, I disagree, you could have made a more compact layout instead of suggesting a larger amount of content than there is in reality. The mechanical part of the game, it's a blast, totally thought through logical and quick mechanics. On the side of world content, it's lackluster. When reading that there is over 400 pages and sample gameplay, I thought there would be more world building then "roll in a table and fill the gaps". All in all, great mechanics, I really like it, but an empty world. Print friendly version would be appreciated.

(+1)(-1)

Hello, I'm here because of a strange path, I was watching the review of Dungeon Dive on Youtube for the game "Broken Shores", but looking through your works I saw that there was also one of my favorite genre, Sci-fi.

However, I am writing this message because I wanted to ask you if it was possible to have a "community copy"... given that at the moment I find myself in financial difficulties, unfortunately I don't have a job, I know that the answer will be 100% no, given that you don't have put this option, and since this is a very large project (book over 400 pages).

Maybe if I pass a check on a d20...

In any case, the complete cover art is really beautiful, congratulations!

(+4)

No worries, contact me at info@blackoathgames.com and we'll sort it out. 

(+2)

This is so  cool, definite  Heechee Saga by Frederik Pohl vibes. 

(+2)

Glad you like it and spotted the main influence! It takes Gateway and mixes it with Alien and Event Horizon, basically.

(+1)

All of my favs - can’t wait to play it!