Fade to Black
You are not a hero. You are a Witness — an ordinary person pulled into an unraveling horror, fighting not for glory, but for survival.
Fade to Black is a psychological survival-horror tabletop RPG about fear, pressure, breaking points, and the cost of enduring what should never have followed you home.
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What is Fade to Black?
Fade to Black is a psychological survival-horror tabletop RPG where players become Witnesses — ordinary people thrust into a world where reality is unraveling around them. There are no heroes here, only flawed people trying to survive the unexplainable.
At the heart of the horror is Kyah Peak — a town shaped by disaster, memory, regret, and the things that refuse to stay buried. The Fade does not simply chase you. It watches, waits, and bends reality around what you fear.
How it plays
Fade to Black keeps the rules lean so the tension stays in the fiction. Rolls are quick, consequences escalate, and the system pushes hard on fear, momentum, and survival.
Stress is the pressure engine
Stress rises when you fail, overreach, or come face to face with the unnatural. Push too far and something gives — mechanically, emotionally, and narratively.
Progress leaves scars
Growth comes through Fragments tied to trauma, sacrifice, and survival. Advancement makes you stronger, but it also draws more attention from the Fade.
Small rolls, high stakes
Build a small d4 pool from a Trait, add a relevant Talent, and let the story push forward. Success helps. Failure changes the situation instead of stopping it.
Violence is desperate, not clean
Combat is fast, ugly, and built around reactions, linked actions, and knowing when to run. You can push for an edge — but that edge always comes with a price.
The Eight Witness Roles
Each role shapes how your Witness processes fear, how they respond to the Fade, and what drives their survival instincts.
You are not the chosen one. You are the prey.
Roles are not just a mechanical choice. They define what kind of pressure sharpens you, what kind of pressure breaks you, and how you carry fear through the story.
The Leader
Steadies the group and inspires hope, but the weight of responsibility slows their reflexes.
The Skeptic
Challenges the supernatural with logic, but refusal to believe can blind them to hidden dangers.
The Outsider
Notices what others miss and stays detached, but struggles to connect emotionally with the group.
The Caregiver
Offers comfort and healing, but aversion to conflict leaves them vulnerable under pressure.
The Investigator
Obsessed with solving the unknown, sharp-minded but slow to react when danger strikes.
The Protector
The group’s shield, quick to defend others, but often misses subtler threats by focusing on physical danger.
The Observer
Detects patterns and notices clues, but falters when brute force is required.
The Innocent
Brings light and hope to the group, but fear and naivety make them prone to panic.
In development
Fade to Black is still in active development, with public playtesting planned for October 2026. Until then, this page offers a first look at the game’s tone, core mechanics, and the materials already available to explore.
Playtest window
Public playtesting is planned for October 2026. Join the waitlist to hear when sessions, materials, and updates go live.
What you can explore now
Existing materials include cheat sheets, the Witness creation guide, character sheets, and the free Last Train Home one-shot for groups who want an early feel for the system.
What comes next
Fade to Black will continue expanding through new playtest materials, future releases, and Unit 616, the psychological horror actual play set in the Briarwood.
The Fade does not chase. It reacts.
Whether you run creature horror, psychological dread, or stranger things that should not exist, Fade to Black is built to let the world push back on what your Witness fears most.
Actual play podcast
Unit 616 expands Fade to Black beyond the tabletop page and into a featured psychological horror actual play release.
Unit 616
At the Briarwood, the walls are thin, the pipes groan, and the neighbors mostly keep to themselves. But when a woman screams at exactly 9:17 p.m., five residents—Fuocca, Richard, Reece, Ace, and Joseph—go looking for the source and find a door that should not exist.
Unit 616.
Fresh paint. No record. No reason it should be there.
They step inside. Then they’re back in their apartments. The clock reads 9:17. The scream happens again. In this psychological horror actual play, every loop pulls them deeper into a night that won’t end, a building that won’t let go, and a mystery that seems to be changing them with every return. The closer they get to the truth, the more the Briarwood seems determined to make them forget it was ever there at all.
Be there when Fade to Black opens its doors.
Fade to Black is still in development, with public playtesting planned for October 2026. Join the waitlist to follow updates, hear when the next materials go live, and keep up with Unit 616 as Halloween gets closer.