The sky is black; a tectonic rumbling can be heard; the ruins sprawl, their shapes incoherent and puzzling; a sea of colorless sand stretches into the darkness; and titanic pillars that disappear impossibly into the lightless sky. This is The Vast, a liminal realm far away from our own. Always waning and on the verge of collapse, its crumbling ruins hide countless lost souls and alien treasures. Small societies and factions have cropped up, attempting to survive and remain sane.
Originally published in 2020, The Vast in the Dark is a system-neutral exploration setting, a crumbling alien wasteland filled with brutalist megastructure ruins. Mine or spelunk the titanic lodestone Pillars, crawl the twisted megastructures of the Ruins, or breach the unknowable edges of the Depths. But beware the Harrowing, a form of ego-decay, a slow erosion of the psyche. Linger too long and you lose memories, joys, even the drive to leave. It is only a matter of time before you become one of the Crawl.
The Vast in the Dark's no-prep world generation provides a toolbox to quickly build giant hexcrawl maps, local areas, and dungeon complexes on the fly. This Expanded Edition (2022) includes 10 Monsters with horrific quirks and abilities, 34 Artifacts to offer dangerous gifts, 15 Spells if you can stomach their price, and more. Flavorful feats and perks with flavor, from Psionherd to Vacant Amygdala, give weird tools for the player to use and exploit. Run games without worrying about micromanagement, and instead focus on cunning choices and calculated risks.
Learn more at VastInTheDark.com.
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