The premise drew me in: the old gods are dead, the new gods are forming, and the world is in chaos. There are a lot of good and intriguing ideas in the setting, there was a fresh take on the fae (aes) ancestry, but as I read further the book became more and more focused on twisted body horror. The Outsiders, the Oligarchs, and almost every entry in the beastiary - all David Cronenberg and Kingdom Death packed in a roleplaying game. If this is to your taste - you and your group will love the setting. It's not to my taste, which is fine, but there is the realization that it will never reach the table. The question may be: why did I buy it? Well, that's why such a low review. There was absolutely no indication of this in the product description. Hopefully, this review will help others make a more informed purchase.

Incredible game; 100% worth a buy. Best GrimDark setting i have come across. A fantasy world fraught with peril; with some of the most well realised and original world building you could hope for. The lore makes you want more; and the mechanics keep you on the edge of your seat, but satisfied all the same. It is a truly co-operative story telling experience; and the fate & fortune system is so engaging. 10/10 !!!!

To say that I love Blackbirds so far would be an understatement. Let me start by being completely transparent, I got Blackbirds by chance at gencon 2022 for free. However after reading through the book and understanding how amazing the Blackbirds' team had done I knew I had to do my part. To put it in perspective, I love Blackbirds so much that even with a copy, I made sure to buy another travel copy (in case of emergencies) as well as a digital copy in order to always have everything. To begin with the ways characters are made and designed, I was stunned by looking at the way it was all done. The fluid way of advancing characters is what I believe to be one of the best progression systems, ensuring that characters are able to gain skills in any level that they see fit to ensure their character vision. At the same time, each path makes it to where they have their own defined specialties but does not constrict players from any skills they desire. The magic system would, in DnD's term, would be a warlock's dream and presents a great way of the give and take system that we know, but put into a magic system with real power and consequences. The magic alone gives you a multitude of options to empower your blackbird, with as much variety as character creation itself. The d100 fate system has always been my favorite style so I may be biased, but its similarities to the refined Zweihander rules are extremely appealing and, in my opinion, extremely simple to understand. It has enough complexity to allow some very cool and interesting tactics such as aiming for body parts and tripping them up, while still not being too overwhelming. To top all of the amazing rules off, the setting brings the idea of "what if the gods are dead and there were new evil ones" but are done so amazingly well. Each one of these kind of false gods(oligarchs) have different fascinations and really get into that. One is a control freak, another wishes to be idolized and another is obsessed with beauty. But all of the themes done aren't repetitive nor boring and instead having a beautifully morbid twist to reflect everything about the oligarch. My favorite aspect are the Aes, the elves in this setting but are actually alien raiders made of pure magic whose mother god has died, breaking their hive mind. And don't even get me on the striga, who I immediately loved and wanted to either run or fight against. Overall this book will AT THE VERY LEAST satisfy your new rpg itch. But truth be told, if you love a good dark fantasy adventure, this will become one of your favorites just like me!

This is my first Zweihander System game, but I've played quite a bit of it's ancestor system Warhammer. Overall, the system feels streamlined and much more user friendly than that earlier system. The magic system is very "flavorful" but might feel too complicated for some tables.

The world Lore really does a great job of evoking a world where things have just gone seriously wrong and places the player characters into the job of trying to "fix" it...or, at least alleviate some of the worst things happening. From the background material, to the race descriptions and history to the descriptions of towns and cities, everything is reinforcing the central idea that the players, as some of the few still connected to Fate, must be the ones to try and restore at least some of what was lost and oppose the Oligarchs responsible.

Overall, the game is presented will and has beautiful art through out. I do wish that chapters had more bookmarks in the PDF as it isn't necessarily easy to find information when it is needed. Perhaps that will come with more experience with the system, but it doesn't help now.

TL;DR - Great Setting, Great Art, Moderate to High Complexity

EDIT: 1/31/23 - After having played the game for some time now and participating in the Discord forum, I'd reduced my rating from 4 to 2 mainly due to missing and poorly edited rules. There are many issues which have required clarifications and, to date, there is no published errata, making finding these fixes problematic. Additionally, the PDF has virtually no hyperlinking or bookmarks, making it difficult to use.

I still love the setting, but I won't be playing any further Blackbird games once this current run ends.

A beautiful example of top-tier worldbuilding, with enthralling text and sensible rules.

An amazing product, who I have followed since it popped up as a twitter account sprouting ominous texts from the meandering squire.

I highly recommend it for anyone curious about venturing into OTR, and who adore themes of the occult, dying worlds, and gritty heroes slaughtering they way to success!

Blackbirds sets a new future standard for rpg tabletop creation. From the fast paced and simplified core rules to the phenomenal aproach in tone, what can I say other than that this is a drop dead gorgeous dark masterpiece? All I want from the creators is more expansions for this setting.

If you're looking for something extrememly flavourful for that dark fantasy inspired fantasy campaign you've had stuck in your head ever since you read through Berserk or watched the 1997 anime, this is just pure perfection.

Blackbirds is a comprehensive single book reconstruction of Zweihander, putting it into a wonderfully realised setting where the Fates are dead, and gods were replaced by power-hungry humans. It drips with Occult ideas and somehow follows them up spectacularly. As much as I enjoy seeing H.P.L. references in the concept of cosmic horrors existing as parts of larger unknowable world in your fantasy, this is the best example of being inspired by it, but doing your own thing. You won't find offbrand Cthulhu and his tentacly friends, instead the cosmic horrors found in the pages of Blackbirds are all too human and yet so far beyond what you'd understand as human, it works both to provide the Gamemaster (Fateweaver) with ideas and concept to work with when developing the story for their players, but also works as a well written and designed reimagining of Cosmic Horror as implanted into a fantasy setting (that's where I got the Berserk comparison).

I could talk flowery words about this game for a while, but ultimately once you read it, it's easy to pick up and run for relative newcomers to the hobby with simple and understandable mechanics that are heavily based on the setting and its inner workings, so finally I'll leave with this, if you ever wanted to play a Warlock in DnD 5e and was dissapointed with the lack of mechanics or reasons to seek out or talk to your patron (Because same, that was me until now) this game scratches the itch for a really weird (comparable to Shadow of the Demon Lord) and gruesome magic based all around making yourself a servant to a higher magical power that demands things back for your ability to cast spells, and it demands them when it can.

Try it out, you'll definitely find something to your liking!

I just started running this so I'm still getting my sea legs but I think it may be my favorite setting in recent memory. The very premise of the inciting incident (gods slain and their thrones usurped by the worst of us) invokes a lot of thought. I'm the type of person who likes reading source books for fun so this might just be me but I am in love with the world which is very detailed lovingly across the 681 pages that makes up this massive tome. 5 stars, would recommend, even if you're more of a rules light aficionado -- I think there's plenty in this book for everyone to engage with.

Blackbirds is a magnificently conceived and well-crafted offering to the world of dark fantasy TTRPGs.

Here we step into a richly detailed world in which the gods are dead, the Oligarchs who killed them have ascended beyond but vowed to return, and the resulting power struggles have sent its inhabitants hurtling through a period of tremendous strife, through which the very fabric of the world has been torn asunder and permeated with Odic, magical power. In the wake of this tumult, for both weal and woe, the fates of all have been left at the mercy of the Oligarchs and their vassals, as well as prey to the influences of unfathomable cosmic forces and uncanny Outsider entities whose designs and schemes remain tantalizingly inscrutable even while the effects of their actions are exquisitely and often horrifically palpable. It is within this warp and weft of fate’s weird metamorphosis that your characters gather up the frayed threads of its weavings to make their mark upon the world with threads of their own.

Our characters are woven from such Ancestries as the truly alien, fae-like Aes (akin to Elves), the equally strange but more world-bound elementals, the Daimn (Dwarves), the poignantly fate-forsaken Jötunnkin, the uncanny Nephilim whose bloodlines are bound up in debts to eldritch Outsiders and suffused with sorcerous powers, and the divine-bereft, but fate-favored, Humans. These harrowed beings choose (and are saddled with) the Boons and Banes of their lineages as you progress through your character generation, selecting options from a dazzling array of intriguing possibilities of Skills, Talents, and Techniques to suit and synergize with the Attribute allocation of the concepts you have selected and created for your Blackbird. The Paths (akin to the familiar categories of Classes from standard fare TTRPGS) available to them are likewise richly inspiring: The Path of Bow and Blade (Martial), The Path of Charm and Manipulation (Social), The Path of Craft and Expertise (Healers, Sages, Artisans), The Path of Od and Ritual (Magic), and the Path of Shadow and Subterfuge (Rogues and the like). The culmination of the character generation process is constituted by a marvelously cryptic First Threading, and Dooming, an in character and actual play based terminus through which the final fleshing out of the player characters is collaboratively carried forward, and by which the Fateweaver (Game Master) gleans useful information to facilitate preparations for future sessions, as well as setting the tone for the stories which shall immediately unfold in the first Tapestry. This unique finishing touch to character generation introduces one of the major themes of the game in the form of Fate, aiding in party cohesion and introducing the fundamentals of the innovative and role-play inspiring Alignment system, which truly drives both interesting conflicts and decisions within each player character as well as offering some notions about how those player characters will interface with various elements of the external setting.

In addition to a wonderful Patronage system which reinforces the theme of interweaving the characters with the world and its other denizens, spurring countless story ideas and in character interactions, to say nothing of adding yet more meat to the bones of the characters themselves, the magic system of Theurgy also hinges upon Patronage, in this case with the aforementioned Outsiders and their cryptic Courts, and with whom Odic, or magic practitioners must bargain carefully to receive and wield their powers, the Vitiations and other assorted pact-based abilities. Along the way, in either case, characters are deeply embroiled in the vicissitudes of Fate and the stories which will emerge thereby.

The perennial concerns which many TTRPG players have with learning any new system are adequately attenuated by a book which is meticulously crafted and laid out in concise and easy to follow terms. The system’s mechanics feel robust and complex without becoming burdensome or difficult to grasp, bestowing nuances for build possibilities and the necessary mechanical manifestations of character concepts without feeling cumbersome or overly complicated. All the while each step of the process one takes in learning to grasp this game’s system spurs roleplay and story ideas in such a way that one is literally teeming with material that will surely be satisfying to play out at the gaming table.

A final word on the artwork is due to the astoundingly diverse array of pictures and the talented contributors to this project, for while these richly illustrated and immersively atmospheric images sprawl throughout the book in many different styles, the entire opus as a whole feels piercingly cohesive, even transfixing aesthetically, where one genuinely feels present within the depictions of the stark characters, the riveting monsters and mysterious beings, as well as the devastatingly arresting environments.

Blackbirds has achieved something truly incomparable in the TTRPG market with respects to not only the chosen genres of their game, but as a game more generally. I cannot recommend it enough, and I look forward to the torments my group shall enjoy as we tread and thread our ways through the wyrd weavings of Fate.

A Beautifully Dark & Grotesque Addition to My Bookshelf

As a fan of dark fantasy and grimdark fantasy literature and media, Blackbirds is the TTRPG of my dreams. A crunchy game with gritty mechanics and tons of options for character customization (which is very helpful, considering one is bound to need some backup characters to fall back on), this game evokes memories of Kentaro Miura's BERSERK series and Glen Cook's Chronicles of the Black Company. Also full of horrifically beautiful art and fantastically written short stories that really offer an evocative look into the world of Erebos that makes me incredibly excited to play in it, while never wanting to step foot in it.

As far quality of the book itself, I am very impressed! Glossy pages, three bookmarks (which will be very helpful in a tome with a near 700 page count), a sturdy and stunningly beautiful cover, this purchase was 1000% worth every penny. Excited to see what Ryan Verniere and the crew at Andrews McMeel Publishing have in store for the future of Blackbirds!

Pros:

+Setting: The setting is great, its full of story hooks and lure to go around. Top Teir.

+System: Easy to learn and play, character building is great with a lot of player options.

+Magic System: Magic comes at a cost and I love that demon dating sim part

+Art: All the art in this book is by far some of the best I seen in RPGs.

The book itself has so much love put into it.

Cons:

-Layout: Some of the layouts of where things are is a bit confusing at times, i love all the setting and lore in one or two chapters vs all over.

-Missing Info: There are some things I wish was in this book that I feel like should been added, like languages.

-Errors: Wish the book got a few more passes, as you will run into some errors.

This is by far one of my top systems now, I cant wait to see more of the setting and world.

For all intents and purposes, this is an apocalyptic setting. Not post-apocalypse. No, it is happening right now. In progress. The gods are dead and their replacements are still getting their bearings and flexing their divine muscles. The world is in chaos and nobody understands just how bad things are going to get. The best hope is in the regular people who have gained a shard of destiny from the slain Fates.

It is really compelling stuff. The rest of the setting is jam-packed with fresh and innovative takes on a lot of common fantasy tropes. The art is as disturbing as the concepts. I love it to death. That said, the lore about the world is scattered throughout the book and you have to assemble it like a puzzle. I've read through it twice just to make sense of it. I feel it would really have benefitted from a succinct but detailed chapter on the world as a whole. Two cities are detailed, but the rest of the world is only hinted at so there can be a lack of context. Similarly, some content just isn't there (e.g. there are rules for how many languages you know but no list of languages or rules for gaining new ones). I feel like another editing pass from fresh eyes would have benefitted them.

The system is based on Zweihander but is a leaner implementation. Overall, I think it does a fine job. The ancestries, in particular, are rich and compelling. The Talents and Techniques are a neat mechanic and the Extinguish abilities of the latter make for awesome gaming moments. I also very much like how curses hijack Techniques, replacing them with new and disturbing abilities. The Patronage system is a good way to tie the characters to the world and its inhabitants and gets the focus away from counting coin. The Alignment system is the only bit whose adaption is lacking. Without Zweihander's core Corruption mechanic backing it up, the implementation is arbitrary and there is insufficient guidance on how to manage it when you are running the game.

Flaws aside, I still heartily recommend the book. It is a unique mix of fantasy and horror and I can't wait for future additions to the setting.

This really feels like something special, and I look forward to what the future holds for both the setting and future game books, as well as Mr. Verniere and the rest of the team behind the book. The writing is top notch both in the world building and fiction aspects, while also having some interesting system mechanics in store, especially with how the game handles it's magic.

As to the game/world itself, the world has been plunged into chaos and the gods murdered so that a cabal of mortals could take their power for themselves, no matter what the cost is to the rest of the world and its peoples. The player characters are gifted a last chance by the dying gods to try to avert the doom of the world, by using the power of fate itself. The world brings to mind the work of Kentaro Miura's Berserk series (openly so, with quotes and homages at times within the book), as well as the work of Michael Moorcock with his Elric stories. The world is being dragged towards death, and what little hope it has rests in the players' hands.

I would highly recommend giving this book a shot. Reading through the text was a delight and I eagerly await what comes next.

I Kickstarted this campaign book back in October 2021, and I have been utterly impressed with this system and setting. The World of Erebos is a nightmare scenario where the apocalypse has come and past. The Gods are Dead and the Oligarchs have replaced them in their vainglorious pursuit of godhood and immortality. Violent outcomes, subtle role play, and tragic glories are interwoven in the pattern of the game. Creatures roam the lands that are utterly nightmarish and unique takes on classic tropes.If you are ready to take the next step after cutting your teeth on D&D, this game is for those who want more darkness in their gaming. You will not be disappointed.

I jumped on the Blackbird hype train early on and I do think, that the system as well as the world featured in blackbirds are well defined. Me and my friends played two oneshots of Blackbirds and it was fun. All of us had a great time but we prefer ZH afterall. However, this is not just a rating for the mechanics and the books content but also it's presentation in general.

I must admit, when I got the book and scrolled through the pages, I was a bit disappointed by the Layout and overall structure. The art itself looks amazing really. The composition on the other hand, feels a bit off. The pages do not feature decorated side borders and are kept clean and simple. The highly detailed artwork does not blend into that so well especially without blending out edges or anything. While the book features amazing pages where art is actually interacting with the text, enhancing reading the experience, some parts of it do seem like a MS office project anyone could do which I am not a huge fan of in a fantasy setting.

Individually the art of Blackbirds is great, but artstyles differ within chapters which I'm also not a huge fan of. Compared to Zweihänder where every piece of art was kept in the same style, blackbirds features a kind of oil painting artstyle (which I love) next so cartoonish art and then some of the pages actually do have borders with a great design but only for one chapter and some text boxes and pictures (pages 260-264) just overlap this border which makes me think why put it in if it overlaps anyway.

In conclusion, Blackbirds is a great pen and paper game while the book has it's flaws. It all comes down to personal preference and I do think, that all of the artworks look amazinh. They just don't always look great on the page they are presented on.