Do I need to know any history to play this game?
No! You really don’t. The game books include lots of (short) useful sections on real-world history. We also encourage Chroniclers (GMs) to use resources such as Wikipedia for finding basic historical facts when writing outlines for your own quests. That said, this is ultimately a fantasy game: while we tried to stick to real-world history up to the year 1360, when the Abandonment of Death occurs, the current year in the game is 1390. A lot has changed over 30 years of mutant-zombie apocalypse! So no, you don’t need to know anything specific to play the game, just that it is set on an alternate-timeline earth in the late Middle Ages.
Last updated: September 20, 2025 09:58
How dark is Danse Macabre, content-wise? Is Danse Macabre kid-friendly?
We try to keep our games appropriate for young teens and up (14+, as a rule of thumb). There is quite a lot of body horror, but nothing you wouldn’t see at the movies. There are no sexually explicit situations. The darkest elements of the game are philosophical: living forever may sound great, but what happens if immortality means losing your body and mind, becoming a “demoniac?” Is death good, natural, something to celebrate? What is the appropriate way for people to work together in the face of an apocalypse? How do people from different cultures and religions work together to help each other live better lives? These are the big, possibly controversial elements of the game. The body horror—while striking and beautifully weird—is not going to truly disturb teen and adult readers. We think smart teens who dig dark fantasy will love this game, period.
Last updated: September 20, 2025 09:58
How does Danse Macabre compare to Stillfleet and Blister Critters?
All of the Grit System games use the same basic concepts: characters’ scores are represented by different dice, which players roll when they make checks (try to undertake difficult actions). And all characters have pools of grit (GRT) that can be “burned” or used up to “boost” or add bonuses to rolls. Danse Macabre has only 4 scores, however: vitality, finesse, insight, and fervor. And combat in Danse Macabre is much deadlier, with an appropriate score being added to the weapon’s damage die. (So a character with a d8 in finesse using a large sword with two hands rolls a d8 for the score PLUS a d10 for the sword to determine damage.) Otherwise, characters are much less powerful in Danse Macabre, as they are real medieval humans, not space marines or cartoons. Characters in Danse Macabre tend to have powers that offer small bonuses on rolls or help with survival skills such as foraging. Their “Weird” powers are maleficia—mutations earned after dying and returning to life, changed…
Last updated: September 20, 2025 09:58
How historically accurate is Danse Macabre?
The game’s primary creator, lead editor, and consulting historian, and the guest authors of the Guide chapters, all have different levels of academic historical bona fides and cultural connections to the settings described in the game books. We have made every effort to fact check statements about the medieval world up to the year 1360, when real-life history and the game’s history diverge. We have also worked with our consulting historian, and with a native Arabic speaker, on refining the accuracy of the Greek, Latin, and Arabic in the text. That all said, it is possible we have characterized occasional facts about medieval life in ways that a professional historian who devotes their life to the study of a given region during this time period would disagree with. We ask the forgiveness of this hypothetical reader and emphasize that this is a fantasy game inspired by history, not a history textbook. We welcome suggested corrections before the final printing. Please DM Wythe if you have specific questions or suggestions.
Last updated: September 20, 2025 09:58
Is Danse Macabre an “OSR” game?
Trick question! There is not one settled definition of the OSR. In the sense that Danse Macabre was inspired by old-school games such as Cairn, the game’s dark-fantasy illustrations are black-and-white, the game focuses on simulating realistic and brutal medieval combat, and the game offers simple rules: yes, it is firmly in the “old-school” tradition. In the sense that Danse Macabre doesn’t use d20s, doesn’t ask you to track “xp” points, doesn’t include “magic,” doesn’t feature “orcs” or “goblins”: no, it is more like a “new-school” game. You, the reader, can decide for yourself. We will continue to use terms like “OSR-adjacent” or “brutal OSR combat” to describe aspects of the game.
Last updated: September 20, 2025 09:58
When will I learn about shipping costs? What is your timeline?
TL;DR: it is basically impossible to predict shipping costs, so we will let you know closer to shipping, hopefully in early spring of 2026. Slightly longer answer—our timeline is… ☉ End of 2025 – Send files to our amazing manufacturing partner, Boda Games. ☉ Winter 2026 – Printing and proofing. We begin to work out shipping details with our wonderful distributor, Studio 2, to try to get you the lowest shipping fee possible. ☉ Early spring 2026 – We update you on printing and shipping. If all goes well—with many forces beyond our control—the books will be printed, and we will have secured a reasonable post-holiday-season shipping cost to pass you, so we can start to close the loop and ship out rewards. Best case, the books ship from China to the U.S. ☉ Late spring/early summer 2026 – Best-case scenario for shipping to you. ☉ Late summer 2026. – Realistic scenario for shipping to you, given any delays.
Last updated: September 20, 2025 09:58
Which books should I get?
Players: pick up the paired core books, the Danse Macabre Rulebook and Guide to the Abandoned World. These include all of the rules plus plenty of Abandoned regions to explore. ☉ GMs: don’t miss out on Unsunken! It’s not just a campaign setting; it’s a campaign of interlocking quests, tales of the Left Bank against the Right, of the Université struggling to survive against the mad young king and the scheming great dukes. Plus, more rules and encounters!
Last updated: October 03, 2025 17:58
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