Nighthawks, the urban vampire RPG from Sunless Sea and Blackwell folk, has a Kickstarter (Updated)

Update: As detailed in our original story below, Nighthawks—The Vampire RPG is a fantasy roleplayer that pulls from Sunless Sea's narrative style and Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines' dark atmosphere. It's the work of Wadjet Eye's Dave Gilbert and narrative designer (and sometimes PC Gamer writer) Richard Cobbett. And it's now got a Kickstarter.

Its campaign page blurb reads:

Three months ago, you died. And in that moment you were reborn as something new. A monster. A predator. Not a creature of the night, but one of its masters.

Unfortunately, things aren't simple as they used to be. Vampires have finally been exposed, and though your existence is tolerated, your new nature is not. You came to the City hoping for a new start, but found only suspicion and starvation. Now you stare at the ceiling of your cheap hotel room as a penniless outcast, suckling on rats and destined to wither away.

But every new era brings new opportunities, and in the political chaos of a world gone mad, even an outcast may rise. An outcast can change everything.

This is the story of how you rose.

If any of that tickles your fancy, throw garlic, crucifixes, wooden stakes and/or money at Nighthawks—The Vampire this-a-way. At the time of writing, it's accrued just shy of £15,000 of its £96,819 goal with 29 days left on the clock. Our original story follows.

Original story:

Sunless Sea writer Richard Cobbett—who occasionally writes for PC Gamer—and Blackwell developer Wadjet Eye jointly announced a new game today: Nighthawks, an "urban fantasy RPG" about living as an outcast vampire in a grim society.

"Enter a decaying city as a fledgling vampire out to climb from rags to riches," the official site reads. "Feed your endless hunger. Run your own nightclub. Master secret powers. Embrace the night and live its stories … Then, as the fragile peace threatens to snap, be ensnared by modern politics and ancient conspiracies that will forever decide the fate of both human and vampire societies."

We'll learn more about Nighthawks when it arrives on Kickstarter next month. Details are scarce at this stage, but according to Cobbett, Nighthawks blends the literary style of Sunless Seas with "the dark atmosphere of beloved urban fantasy games like Vampire: Bloodlines." Judging from its announcement trailer and some early images, it plays like a modern, grimdark adventure game driven by branching dialogue and interactions. There also seem to be several resources to manage, including your bank balance. Have a look:

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.