Urban fantasy has become a cornerstone of pop culture, including tabletop gaming. Players like hunting monsters in the streets of the modern world just as much as they do in the dark halls of Dungeons & Dragons. They also love becoming those monsters and getting wrapped up in supernatural intrigue mixed with human drama.
Onyx Path Publishing built their audience through modern worlds with strange twists. They published the 20th Anniversary lines of the World of Darkness as well as the modern myth of Scion and science-fiction heroism of Trinity Continuum. With Curseborne, currently raising funds on Kickstarter, they’re looking to build a horror setting on their terms with a fresh take on the idea.
“We started brainstorming,” said Danielle Lauzon Harper, developer of Curseborne, “and hired several teams of writers to come up with their best ideas, which we then developed into the finished manuscript that’s steadily becoming available to backers of the Kickstarter. You’ll find an extensive list of contributors to the game in the book’s credits because we received drafts from so many people. I don’t think there’s anyone whose work hasn’t been incorporated in some way into the game. As the game’s developer, I ultimately decided what ended up in the complete version of the game with the help of Eddy Webb, Matthew Dawkins, and Rich Thomas.”
Modern urban fantasy usually focuses on the plots of different supernatural factions in a world where humanity doesn’t know they truly exist. Some tabletop games lean into mixing different types of supernatural beings while others focus on one kind of monster with camps inside vying for power. Curseborne lets each tablr decide where to focus.
“Flexibility is one of Curseborne‘s major selling points,” said Lauzon Harper. “We’ve designed it so everyone’s characters is slightly different from each other, so that Storyguides can run murder mystery and missing person plots as easily as they can monster hunting and family intrigue. The liminalities in Curseborne (areas where the fabric of the mundane world is weak and unusual and dangerous geographies occupy our world) are a really fun aspect of the setting and allow for exploring haunted houses, alien vistas, and horror movie features such as Stephen King’s Derry and Overlook Hotel or Twilight Zone-like timelocked spaces and uncanny locales. “
The corebook offers Storyguides the tools to build their own settings. The games can be as initmate as a small town full of monsters to giant, globetrotting conspiracies. The tone can run from the ghoulish glee of Wednesday to the brooding soap opera of The Vampire Diaries.
“We feel Curseborne offers something familiar to fans of established horror games and plenty of fresh options to attract new players or bring people back who are tired of playing in old playgrounds,” said Lauzon Harper. “Importantly, we know our fans associate Onyx Path’s work with horror games, and we want to show them what we can do with the freedom to do exactly what we want the way we want to do it. Curseborn is a place where fantasy, horror, mystery and even kitchen-sink drama are all present.”
Despite being a dark setting, there’s a bright future in store for Curseborne. Future books look to dig deeper into each Lineage and offer more ideas to incorporate into an ongoing campaign.
“We have a whole list of potential books for Curseborne!” said Lauzon Harper. “We’re looking at everything from dedicated location books and historic settings to adventure packs and deep dives into each Lineage and Family. We also want to get Curseborne VTT enabled so people can access it via their preferred VTT platform. We’re also planning to expand the play loop from street level in the core book to higher power levels in future books. Personally, I’m looking forward to digging into the various Families and their connections to one another with and between Lineages. I know my colleagues are looking forward to building on the foundations of the setting material in the Curseborne core via location books. Look out for that chapter coming up in the manuscript previews, because the sheer volume of locations and story hooks linked to them will give you Storyguiding material to last months of playtime.”
Curseborne is on Kickstarter through October 31st, 2024. Manuscript previews and early access to the game will be availabke to backers. Digital release is expected in October of 2025 with print copies targeted for December 2026.
