Black Void: RPG Overview
Picture Babylon, here on Earth, millennia ago. Now picture it being ripped into the vast and endless eternities of space by an eldritch horror the likes of which humans had only ever spoken of in tall tales. This is Black Void: humanity, or more accurately, what's left of humanity, is in a place completely alien to anything its people had ever seen on Earth, where daemonic entities beyond human comprehension rule a brutal and deeply hierarchical society. Humans are the lowest of the low here: frail, fleshy creatures who, to the setting's important denizens, are more useful as food or flunkies than as friends. Humans are taken as slaves, beaten and eaten, sacrificed for power, pleasure, or prescience, and generally live at the whim of higher beings. At the bottom of the caste system, humans are known as Kalbi, rendered in the game as "dog." Yet, through enough favors to particularly powerful patrons, some may claw their way to a higher caste.
As mentioned above, humanity was ripped from the cradle of civilization in Babylon, and there is a strong motif of Arabic culture throughout the books. It's a welcome change of pace from most RPGs grounded in European or Japanese traditions. The vocabulary, much of it transliterated from Arabic, suffuses the culture of the setting. The clothing, societal structures, items, "gods," and daemons all lean into this motif, setting Black Void apart as its own animal. One of my favorite examples is the Wastah system, in which you gain a favor to cash in later when you need help. Wastah is another Arabic term, meaning clout or influence. When I read it in the book, I thought of my own family talking about wastah when I got to cut in line at a bakery where the owner knew my grandpa, or when a waiter brought us free appetizers because we dined at the restaurant often and tipped well. It was genuinely refreshing to see some of my own culture infused into the blood of the game in a way I had not really seen before or since.
Black Void is a tabletop roleplaying game with horror elements that parallel games like Call of Cthulhu or Darkest Dungeon, but with a very heavy emphasis on narrative. You and your character may have your sanity tested as your Arbiter (Game Master) guides you through its unsettling setting. Expect wild and E S O T E R I C experiences as you explore both the mechanics and narrative. For D&D veterans, or those coming from a general gaming background, the system can hit like a sack of bricks, as power gaming is secondary here. The narrative is the driving force, and while roleplaying novices may stumble, the mechanics naturally draw out the "why" of your character: their origin, scars, caste, and innate gifts of the Void. The dread your character feels should flow through your very veins as you venture through the daunting, dystopian cosmopolis of Llynn. Remember: survival is just the beginning.
At the end of the day, Black Void is a breath of fresh air in the landscape of the tabletop roleplaying game hobby. Within a sea of options, it truly stands out and shines despite its dark themes, because it excels at fueling the core of the hobby: roleplaying. It is the roleplaying-game equivalent of "yes, and" in improv, the principle by which people keep a story moving. Whether the circumstances of a session are being stated explicitly by your Arbiter or your mind is racing to interpret the reasons behind the mechanics, everything adds up. There is something genuinely beautiful in Black Void's game design that you cannot quite find in a game like Dungeons & Dragons. A D&D book might have excellent, mostly well-crafted, thoroughly tested mechanics and a lacklustre story, if it has a story at all, even in premade modules specifically intended to present a self-contained, established narrative. Conversely, Black Void's mechanics are at times more translucent, encouraging the player and Arbiter to work together to decide what actually happens within the bounds of what makes sense for the story being told. What's more, the established lore and cosmology surrounding Black Void, particularly the cosmopolis of Llynn, are rich and deeply culturally informed. It feels lived in, it feels larger than life, and even the least important aspects of the storytelling feel as though they matter.
Last but not least, Black Void's creator, Christoffer, clearly cares about the community playing the game. He is often available to help people interpret the rules through Discord, he is communicative, and he frequently considers suggestions for additions to upcoming expansion books. I actually have a credit in the expansion book Black Void: Under Nebulous Skies for the Metaphysical Insight descriptions, simply because I was active in the Discord server at the time. There is something special about being able to interact with the creator of a piece of art about that art, and something even more awesome about being able to take part in the continuation of something you already enjoy.