Gloomhaven’s designers took board games by storm — now they’re coming for RPGs

polygon.com:

Gloomhavendesigner and Cephalofair Games CEO Isaac Childres has always been fascinated more with the combat and technical aspects of tabletop role-playing games than the actual character interactions. That led him to adapt many of the mechanics of the 4th edition rule set of Dungeons & Dragons into the massively successful board game, tying it together with a story that players could uncover as they go. But now he’s working in the opposite direction, using the board game’s combat mechanics as the basis for a new TTRPG.

“I wanted to create this RPG-like experience that didn’t require a GM [game master], a big open world that you could explore and pick what you wanted to do and go through all these combats and just have a good time,” Childres told Polygon. “It just felt natural to take it full circle and go back and make an RPG, since a lot of fans said they’d be interested in that. I figured it probably wouldn’t be too much work, but then I realized it was still a lot of work, but at that point we’d already invested in it.”

Pledges are open for Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Gameon Backerkit until July 19 as part of a massive crowdfunding campaign that has raised more than $4 million. The core rulebook includes rules for both players and the Gloom Master, along with an adventure module designed to provide about 20 hours of gameplay. A deluxe box set contains a GM screen, character sheets, class decks, and card holders. Copies of both are expected to ship in July 2024.

While Cephalofair has already released videos of several actual-play sessions to demonstrate the RPG, the game is still being playtested with a particular eye on how to make the previously GM-less Gloomhaven game easy to run.

“It’s all about creating a robust