A year ago, Night Vale Presents and Renegade Game Studios announced an official Welcome to Night Vale RPG. Since that announcement, details and developments have been bare. Thankfully, the publisher has given Night Vale fans a major update, including a launch date for the game’s crowdfunding campaign.
The Welcome To Night Vale RPG Backerkit Campaign
According to an official newsletter by Renegade Game Studios, the Welcome to Night Vale RPG will be produced by a crowdfunding campaign on Backerkit. This is an understandable strategy given the built-in fanbase as well as the success of similar projects such as The Magnus Archives and Old Gods of Appalachia RPG campaigns.
Furthermore, it is confirmed that the Welcome to Night Vale RPG will be using Renegade Game Studios’ Essence20 TTRPG system. This is notable since this marks the first time Essence20 is being used for an RPG not based on a Hasbro toy property: GI Joe, Power Rangers, Transformers and My Little Pony respectively.
Given Essence20’s focus on wild dice swings and numbers-lite player expression, it can feasibly work for a Welcome to Night Vale RPG. The satirical science fiction podcast debuted in 2012, and it spotlights a small desert town where all conspiracy theories are true.
It is a strong central conceit. One that is used for running gags and surreal standalone stories involving secret police, cults with unknowable powers, bizarre local events, and mysterious lights in the sky.
Since the podcast’s debut, Welcome to Night Vale has seen several spin-offs. A live show debuted in 2015, which was produced into satirical albums including The Haunting of Night Vale and The Thrilling Adventure Hour. In addition, novels set in the Night Vale universe have been published, the most recent being 2020’s The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home.
The Welcome to Night Vale podcast spans more than 250 episodes with episodes being uploaded biweekly to this day. The Backerkit campaign for the Welcome to Night Vale RPG goes live October 1.
