Here's a surprise for anyone who plays Forged in the Dark games. Mythworks' Kickstarter for Breathless: Frightmare Edition closes today (7 May 2026), and it picked up an unexpected boost when John Harper, the designer of Blades in the Dark, jumped on Bluesky to rally the TTRPG community behind it. The campaign funded shortly after his post.
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See how it worksBreathless: Frightmare Edition is a remastered version of René-Pier Deshaies' indie zombie horror RPG Breathless, originally a free one-page game from Fari RPGs. The Frightmare box is a CBR+PNK-style "storypak" containing twelve double-sided pamphlets covering player sheets, GM guides, hazards, havens and locations. Mechanically it uses a step-down dice system that represents the slow collapse of stamina, sanity and luck with every roll. The game's loop, "Loot. Shoot. Survive.", is built around three play modes (Journey, Survival and Haven) and is designed for six to eight sessions.
Here's the bit that's caught everyone's attention. To thank backers, John Harper has announced a free supplement called Requiem for the Wretched Dead, set in the Deathlands outside Doskvol. That's the wasteland just past the lightning barriers in the Blades in the Dark world, full of petrified trees, ash and supernatural horrors. The supplement uses Breathless mechanics but can also be run with Blades' rules, giving Forged in the Dark groups a new way to take their crew beyond the city.
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Set up your group for freeFor UK GMs running zombie one-shots or wanting a portable horror RPG to take to convention pickup games, this is a quietly clever package. Estimated delivery is January 2027.
Sources: EN World | Mythworks | Kickstarter
