Cold Shadows

by Alan Bahr

Welcome to Cold Shadows, an espionage roleplaying game of secrets and betrayal. Cold Shadows is set in a taut world of espionage, betrayal, and drama inspired by the great spy stories of authors such as John le Carre and Robert Ludlum. Deliberately engineered to emulate quiet, dramatic stories, where conflict is handled with words rather than violence, Cold Shadows focuses on the consequences of espionage action.

128 pages, Perfect Paperback

Published October 15, 2018

About the author

Alan Bahr is the lead designer and founder of Gallant Knight Games. A game designer best known for the TinyD6 line of games, along with other games such as Cold Shadows, For Coin & Blood, Planet Mercenary, and many others, Alan has been working in the game industry since 2015.
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​He’s an avid fan of Noir films, Arthurian mythos, smooth jazz, clever role-playing games, and his amazing wife.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I backed this game as a Kickstarter in 2017, but have only just got around to reading it (inspired by binging on John le Carre and Mick Herron). It had a difficult road to publication with the death of Stewart Wieck of Nocturnal Media who were to publish it. I think this troubled path shows, I can't help but feel there is a great game here, but it is hindered by a lack of key explanation and detail (for example an explanation of compels). Since 2017 I have been hooked by the brilliant Blades in the Dark, and can't help but feel that this is teaching for many of the same mechanical concepts, but not quite reaching them.