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Bleak Spirit RPG
The world of Bleak Spirit is one of majesty and mystery, where the landscape looms vast and conceals manifold cryptic secrets. The twisted descendants of ancient civilisations live among the faded glories of their forebears, pursuing agendas indecipherable to outsiders. And in primordial woods and swamps, fabled treasures and long-forgotten sorceries lie guarded by deadly monsters both fearsome and noble.
This world is gloomy, desolate, lonely - but also beautiful. Long-abandoned fortress ruins still stand as awe-inspiring testaments to the might and vision of their creators. Beside the hungry beasts that prowl the forests, flowers grow, picked out by rays of sunlight glancing through the leaves.
Into this world comes a wanderer, a lone traveller from elsewhere who bears a heavy destiny.
Bleak Spirit is their story
Bleak Spirit is a tabletop roleplaying game for 2-5 players. All you need to play is this book, something to write with, and something to write on.
This world is gloomy, desolate, lonely - but also beautiful. Long-abandoned fortress ruins still stand as awe-inspiring testaments to the might and vision of their creators. Beside the hungry beasts that prowl the forests, flowers grow, picked out by rays of sunlight glancing through the leaves.
Into this world comes a wanderer, a lone traveller from elsewhere who bears a heavy destiny.
Bleak Spirit is their story
Bleak Spirit is a tabletop roleplaying game for 2-5 players. All you need to play is this book, something to write with, and something to write on.
113 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 2, 2023
Do you love exploring the worldbuilding of games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Hollow Knight, teasing out the backstory both of the main character and the world around them from small details and scattered lore? Then this is the game for you!
The players of Bleak Spirit work together to create a story in the mood of the games I've mentioned above. There are ways to adjust exactly how bleak your game gets and it's very flexible on what kind of world you'll be creating. The goal is to individually jump to conclusion about what is happening to the main character and where their journey is heading, and then incorporating those conclusions without revealing too much to your fellow players.
The one thing in here that I didn't vibe with was the advice to avoid non-human characters in your game. That is a popular piece of advice regarding fantasy stories and fantasy worldbuilding these days and in a way I understand it, but I'm also think it's a boring solution to boring problems. If you're tired of elves just being "humans with pointed ears" there are many more interesting ways to deal with that than avoiding having elves in your world. Also, all non-human creatures don't have to be previously established things from other media.
But that's a small, personal thing that irked me, not a problem with the game. Will be taking this book with me to a convention soon - looking forward to creating bleak, morally grey worlds and wanderers with heaps of vague lore~!
The players of Bleak Spirit work together to create a story in the mood of the games I've mentioned above. There are ways to adjust exactly how bleak your game gets and it's very flexible on what kind of world you'll be creating. The goal is to individually jump to conclusion about what is happening to the main character and where their journey is heading, and then incorporating those conclusions without revealing too much to your fellow players.
The one thing in here that I didn't vibe with was the advice to avoid non-human characters in your game. That is a popular piece of advice regarding fantasy stories and fantasy worldbuilding these days and in a way I understand it, but I'm also think it's a boring solution to boring problems. If you're tired of elves just being "humans with pointed ears" there are many more interesting ways to deal with that than avoiding having elves in your world. Also, all non-human creatures don't have to be previously established things from other media.
But that's a small, personal thing that irked me, not a problem with the game. Will be taking this book with me to a convention soon - looking forward to creating bleak, morally grey worlds and wanderers with heaps of vague lore~!
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August 5, 2025Quick disclaimer: I haven't had an opportunity to *play* this game yet, but finished reading through it and wanted to jot down some thoughts.
Bleak Spirit is a storytelling game meant to mimic the majestic, doomed settings and stoic, enigmatic heroes of the Dark Souls games and the many downstream works. It's structured around framing scenes in which the hero encounters details of the world they're exploring, meets strange characters, and clashes with powerful enemies.
I appreciate how light-touch the system is; it dictates the structure and ingredients of the scenes, but there are no crunchier mechanics to be found, nothing to track or count or roll against. I have not read Lovecraftesque, the system from which Bleak Spirit's is derived, but I like the level of focus.
The included example details and establishing scenarios do a lot to give a clearer picture of the setup material that players will produce, and they mostly sound like fun jumping off points if used whole cloth.
The back of the book includes a teaching guide to summarize the rules, and I found this to be oddly dense given its purpose. It would likely be helpful to review as a facilitator before playing, but it feels a little heavy for the format that it's presented in.
Overall, I like the structure of the game and the scenarios provided are enticing; I'm curious to play this and see what kind of story it produces in practice.
Bleak Spirit is a storytelling game meant to mimic the majestic, doomed settings and stoic, enigmatic heroes of the Dark Souls games and the many downstream works. It's structured around framing scenes in which the hero encounters details of the world they're exploring, meets strange characters, and clashes with powerful enemies.
I appreciate how light-touch the system is; it dictates the structure and ingredients of the scenes, but there are no crunchier mechanics to be found, nothing to track or count or roll against. I have not read Lovecraftesque, the system from which Bleak Spirit's is derived, but I like the level of focus.
The included example details and establishing scenarios do a lot to give a clearer picture of the setup material that players will produce, and they mostly sound like fun jumping off points if used whole cloth.
The back of the book includes a teaching guide to summarize the rules, and I found this to be oddly dense given its purpose. It would likely be helpful to review as a facilitator before playing, but it feels a little heavy for the format that it's presented in.
Overall, I like the structure of the game and the scenarios provided are enticing; I'm curious to play this and see what kind of story it produces in practice.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews