Tomb Raider RPG quickly dusts it off with an open playtest
The Tomb Raider franchise, reimagined by developers at Crystal Dynamics, is brought to life as a new tabletop role-playing game called Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth. But don’t expect something as simple as a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons clone. While combat and exploration are more or less established science in the world of TTRPGs, Lara Croft hopes her latest effort will uncover the far more valuable treasures of open-ended story design and character development.
The game, which has been in production for over a year, is being released Blades in the dark publisher Evil Hat Productions, will combine two groundbreaking RPG systems: Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the dark. The goal is to create a modern and inviting expression of the Tomb Raider universe. Polygon recently spoke with the game’s team, including Evil Hat founder Fred Hicks, Tomb Raider franchise narrative director at Crystal Dynamics John Stafford, and the game’s lead writer, the author of the Hellboy inspired one Apocalypse keysRae Nedjadi.
Image: Evil Hat Productions
“We have a very strange thing going on at Evil Hat, where generally everything we’ve licensed (…) the licensors have sought us out,” Hicks told Polygon. “This was true with The Dresden Files role-playing game that was the beginning of the company in the first place. Crystal Dynamics sent us an email one day, and (…) when an opportunity like that comes along, you take it seriously.”
“When I met them, I felt like they understood the franchise well, they understood how we approach storytelling, character-based stories,” Stafford said. “We like characters to have a beginning, middle and end, and the choices they make, and the design reflects that. That it appealed to us, that it fits very well with the way we like to tell stories.”
Nedjadi, who calls himself a Tomb Raider fanboy, clearly relished the opportunity to work on the project, a process that started with an epic rehash of the original video games.
“Lara has been different people throughout the franchise,” Nedjadi told Polygon. “(But) Tomb Raider (2013), that was the first time in an action-adventure game I felt like they were trying to (say something about) what would drive someone to survive and use violence to keep moving forward. What does that look like? It felt like they got better at it every game in that series.
To reflect the nuance of Crystal Dynamics’ evolution of the character and her world, Nedjadi and their writing team – including Evil Hat’s Hicks and Sean Nittner, sensitivity consultant Pan Punzalan, as well as author and game designer April Kit Walsh (Thirsty sword lesbians) — built the core of the game around a discrete series of player actions called moves. At the center of each move is not a number or a bonus to hit, but a question that – once answered – will add to a player’s growing dice pool. Those at the table will have to grapple with the answers to these questions no matter how the dice fall.
“The specific design choice that Rae and April made early on was that instead of having stats, (…) each move has its own question that you ask (as you build your dice pool),” Nittner explained. “If you’re trying to explore an area, you have to have the time to do it. But then there’s also a personal move that each character calls for and that helps (help bring) your characters’ problems, complications, and strengths into this particular move. You want to say yes to these things because the more you say yes, the more dice you get. So it’s that reminder to bring out that element of your character.
The game is still an early version, but the 200-plus page manuscript shared with Polygon already contains key elements. Take the early version of the game’s Legacy class, also known as a playbook. A Legacy character is both “burdened and privileged by those who came before (and) a scion of great power and a history of coveting the Truth.” Like Lara, players who choose the Legacy Playbook will ask questions such as Are you living up to your legacy?, Are you healing your legacy?And Do you doubt your legacy? It’s the answers to those questions, expressed through a character’s imagined motivations and a roll of the dice, that will bring an outcome to a given situation – and add richness to the story being created at the table.
“It’s that reminder to bring out that element of your character (in every action),” Nittner said. “The Reclaimer may be wondering: Am I strengthening the beliefs of my people? Or, if they’re playing the rebel archetype, they might wonder: Am I going against the beliefs of my people? They must constantly think about how their actions correlate with their (character) values.”
“It’s not just in your character, though,” Hicks added. “One of the great things about the question approach that Rae and the design team have taken is that you’re both doing character reflection and introspection and putting it out there by saying how you answer – yes or no – to the question. There’s also a bit of world-building that happens collectively every time someone picks up the dice, as you can claim something that’s a new detail on the scene that wasn’t there before, but that flows with the direction of the answers given. And I think this keeps everyone highly engaged at the table, and it also keeps everyone looking into the characters and building connections to the world at the same time.
While things like hit points and healing will have their place, Shadows of truth states that a character’s true downfall can only come when they push themselves to the point where they fall into their shadow selves. It’s a place that can only be reached under the most dire of circumstances, and it represents a character who “gives in to the darkest thoughts and urges that haunt him.”
“The only way you can get out of it is if someone helps you come to your senses,” Hicks said. “That’s when Jonah (Maiava) comes to Lara and says: Sit down. We need to talk about where you’re going. It’s not the right way.”
Repeatedly falling into the Shadow Self, whatever the reason, can also be a way to take characters out of a given campaign.
“The Shadow Self method that Rae and his team came up with (…) doesn’t look like one story moment, it’s an entire storyline,” said Hicks. ‘You’ve gone backwards a bit. You didn’t fall into the peaks. You took it out at the last minute. But it has shocked you enough that your view of yourself has changed over time, and only your friends will be able to pull you back from that edge.
“I want alternatives to death to be more interesting than death,” Hicks added.
Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth will be brought to life through a crowdfunding campaign scheduled for sometime in 2025. Evil Hat says the core rulebook will be larger than anything the company has produced to date – both in terms of page count and the size of the volume itself, which will be much larger than the now standard 6-by-9 format from the company. But that final push cannot be achieved without an initial playtest, which includes several adventures that Nedjadi and their team are eager to share. The first is about the legend of the Bukunawa, a mythical snake-like horned dragon known in the Philippines.
“I’m really surprised how well it works and how fun and super fun it is,” said Nedjadi, a Filipina. “My goal in (presenting) a postcolonial, anticolonial design is to show other ways to have fun. Show different perspectives. It is not my intention to punish or condemn. It’s really just to show a different perspective, from a place of respect and reverence for these people, their stories and their living history.”
“Working with Crystal Dynamics has been very fascinating,” added Nedjadi, “because they are very excited about the fact that we have introduced new knowledge. (…) Even though we’re bringing in new places, new artifacts and new things, I try to keep it as much in the spirit of Tomb Raider as possible.
More information about Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truthincluding details on how to participate in the upcoming playtest, will be available at the Tomb Raider website.