Immerse yourselves in this low fantasy world created by A.M. Sterling at your very own table top. Currently in playtesting and revision is Darklands – Heroic Adventures in a Dark Fantasy World.
This game is a deliberate rebellion against the familiar, traditional, morally clear, and boringly simplistic fantasy stories with which modern audiences are most familiar. It is intended to be a ‘low fantasy’ setting, with a much stronger grounding in realistic background and game-play than traditional fantasy games. This includes:
• Departure from staples of fantasy gaming like reality-destroying high sorcery and plentiful unnatural monsters.
• A realistic combat system where characters face real danger and consequences for their actions and failures.
• Using ‘dark’ and ‘politically incorrect’ elements that are or have been present in the real world, but which are usually glossed over or ignored in fantasy games, such as gender roles, ethnic/religious enmity, corruption, disease, slavery (institutional and otherwise), the social and legal realities of feudalism, sexuality, and narcotics.
• At least basic working models of ecologies and economies. There are no mountains of gold, here.
Sterling’s goal is to provide an RPG setting and rule set that is both fantastical and realistic. It’s not capricious. It’s not cozy. It’s not boring.
Coming Q4 2025