# Cosmic Dark tags: #game/rpg/cosmic-dark ![[Cosmic Datk (cover).jpg]] # Cosmic Dark _Cosmic Dark_ is a game of "weird space horror" by Graham Walmsley, designed for people who looked at _Cthulhu Dark_ and thought, "This is delightful, but what if we added the crushing ennui of corporate capitalism?" You play as Employees of Extracsa, a conglomerate that views you as slightly less valuable than the mining equipment you operate. Your job is to fly into the bleakest corners of the galaxy, usually near a golden scar in reality called the "Glitch," and perform tasks that are almost certainly going to end in your physical or mental undoing. The game dispenses with the tedious paperwork of character creation. You show up, accept your inevitable demise, and start playing immediately. The horror here isn't just tentacled monsters; it's the slow realization that your employer has calculated the cost of your life and found it acceptable. It deals heavily in body horror, time loops, and the sort of reality-bending nonsense that makes you wish you’d just stayed in cryosleep. ## Core Die Resolution Mechanics The mechanics are ruthlessly simple, designed to get you to the dying part faster. - **The Dice Pool:** When you try to do something—usually investigating why the walls are bleeding—you roll a pool of six-sided dice. - **Reality Die:** You get this if your action is physically possible (a low bar, frankly). - **Specialism Die:** You get this if your job title (e.g., Geologist, Meat Shield) is relevant. - **Changed Die:** You add this if you are pushing yourself or if you are already weirdly altered by the cosmos. - **The Result:** You take the highest number rolled. - **1:** You barely succeed. Congratulations on the bare minimum. - **4:** You succeed competently. - **5:** You succeed and find a **Record**—usually a piece of corporate data proving Extracsa knew you were doomed all along. - **6:** You succeed, but you also encounter an **Anomaly**. This is a glimpse of the horror, something impossible that likely warps your fragile little mind. - **The Changed Stat:** This is your countdown clock. Everyone starts with a **Changed** score of 1. When you encounter something horrifying (like an Anomaly) or force a reroll using your Changed Die, you roll that die. If the result is _higher_ than your current score, your score goes up by 1. When it hits 6, you are "broken," effectively removed from play. You can try to lower it by removing the offending body part or memory, which is exactly as gruesome as it sounds. - **The Failure Die:** Just to make sure you don't get too comfortable, anyone at the table can roll a **Failure Die** against you if they think your failure would be amusing. If their die rolls higher than your highest die, you fail. ## Editions - **First Printing (2025):** The game is currently in its first edition. As it is a relatively new release following a Kickstarter campaign, there are no prior editions to compare against, though it is spiritually and mechanically the successor to _Cthulhu Dark_. ## References - [Review and Overview - Who Dares Rolls](https://whodaresrolls.com/cosmic-dark-preview/ "null") - [Review describing the tone and mechanics - The Dice Pool](https://thedicepool.com/2025/04/23/cosmic-dark-assignment-report/ "null") - [Kickstarter Campaign Page - Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grahamwalmsley/cosmic-dark "null") - [Retail Listing - Leisure Games](https://leisuregames.com/collections/2025-battleforces/products/cosmic-dark "null") - [Article on the game's launch - Geek Native](https://www.geeknative.com/173119/from-cthulhu-dark-to-cosmic-dark-weird-space-horror-ttrpg/ "null")