# Coriolis: The Great Dark tags: #game/rpg/coriolis-the-great-dark ![[Coriolis - The Great Dark (cover).jpg]] So, you've heard of **Coriolis**, the game of "Arabian Nights in space," and you think you know what you're getting into with **Coriolis - The Great Dark**. Well, think again. Free League decided to take their vibrant, politically charged universe, jump it forward a couple of centuries, and dump it into a desolate, dying star system. Gone are the bustling markets and intricate faction plays of **The Third Horizon**. Instead, you're an Explorer, which is a fancy way of saying you're a glorified tomb raider, delving into ancient, Blight-infested ruins because your new home, Ship City, is circling the drain. It’s less _Firefly_ and more _At the Mountains of Madness_ with a dash of 19th-century "we're definitely not just here to pillage" expeditionary bravado. Your mission, should you choose to accept it (and you don't really have a choice), is to plunge into the darkness, find shiny alien junk, and try not to have your mind and body warped into a pretzel by a mysterious space plague. Good luck with that. At its heart, **Coriolis - The Great Dark** runs on the refined Year Zero Engine, which means you'll be chucking handfuls of six-sided dice. Your dice pool is a mix of Base Dice (from your attributes and talents) and Gear Dice (from your equipment). You're hunting for sixes; a single six means you've succeeded, probably without tripping over your own feet. More sixes, and you might actually look competent. Of course, failure is always an option, and that's where the "pushing" mechanic comes in. You can reroll any dice that aren't a one or a six, but this is where the universe gets its pound of flesh. For every one you roll on your Base Dice, you lose a point of Hope, inching ever closer to despair. For every one on your Gear Dice, that shiny piece of equipment you rely on takes damage and might just break, leaving you in a very awkward position. It’s a neat little system that perfectly simulates the slow, grinding attrition of hope and resources as you delve deeper into places you really shouldn't be. The shift from **Coriolis – The Third Horizon** to **The Great Dark** is less a new edition and more a complete thematic reboot. While the original was a sprawling sandbox of trade, intrigue, and exploration across a vibrant star cluster, **The Great Dark** is a much more focused, and arguably grimmer, experience. The open-ended "what's our group concept?" of the first game is replaced with a clear directive: you are Explorers. The rules have been streamlined, shedding some of the perceived bloat of the original and aligning more with Free League's more recent Year Zero titles. The introduction of the Hope and Heart tracks, alongside health, adds new layers to character attrition, making the psychological toll of your delves just as dangerous as the physical threats. It’s a tighter, more atmospheric game, but some may miss the grander scope and more optimistic (if still dangerous) feel of its predecessor. ## References - [Coriolis: The Great Dark - Free League Publishing](https://freeleaguepublishing.com/games/coriolis-the-great-dark/) - [Coriolis: The Great Dark RPG – Explore A Lost Horizon - Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/coriolis-the-great-dark-rpg-explore-a-lost-horizon) - [Coriolis: The Great Dark Quickstart - DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/475603/coriolis-the-great-dark-quickstart) - [In Coriolis: The Great Dark, only hope can save you - Wargamer](https://www.wargamer.com/coriolis-the-great-dark/hope) - [Thoughts on Coriolis: The Great Dark now it's officially released? - Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/1mqtp4s/thoughts_on_coriolis_the_great_dark_now_its/)