Welcome to Fade to Black
“You feel it first as a whisper at the edge of your mind—a fleeting echo too close to ignore. The hallway seems longer than you remember. The shadows shift when you aren’t looking. The light flickers, and the air grows heavy. Something is watching. Waiting. You’ve crossed the threshold now—into The Fade.”
No one truly knows what the Fade is. Some call it a veil stretched thin between reality and despair. Others believe it’s a predator, feeding off your fears, regrets, and secrets. Maybe it’s both. All that matters is this: once the Fade touches you, escape is not a promise—it’s a gamble.
In Fade to Black, you are not a hero. You’re a Witness—an ordinary person pulled into an unraveling horror, fighting not for glory but for survival. The Fade doesn’t summon monsters—it reflects them, twisting your weaknesses into the very terrors you face.
Every choice matters. Every roll tilts the balance. Every step pulls you deeper into a story where survival is uncertain—and costly.
All you need to play is a handful of d4 dice, your imagination, and the will to face the dark.
The light is dimming.
What will you do when the dark comes for you?
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 individuals fighting to survive the unexplainable.
At the heart of the horror is Kyah Peak—a fictional town in Washington state built specifically for Fade to Black. It isn’t a ghost that stalks you; it reflects you. The longer you stay, the more it twists to mirror your fears, regrets, and guilt.
Lurking behind it all is The Fade—a force that doesn’t chase its victims. It waits. It watches. It warps. It bends the rules of reality, slowly eroding your sense of what’s real and what isn’t.
In Fade to Black:
You are a Witness. You’re not special. You’re not chosen. You’re just a person trying to survive.
Explore and build your own horror story. Fade to Black is made to run any horror—from creature features to psychological dread to sci-fi horror and more.
Or explore the town of Kyah Peak. Written for Fade to Black, this Washington town reacts to your choices, your failures, and your fears.
Fear is a mechanic. With Stress and Breaking Points, every roll tightens the noose—pushing you further into the unknown.
Roll light, risk big. Build a small d4 dice pool from a Trait; relevant Talent adds +1. The Director sets the threshold.
Fade to Black isn’t about power fantasies. It’s about ordinary people under impossible pressure, the choices they make, and the consequences that follow—whether in Kyah Peak or anywhere the Fade takes hold.
How Does Fade to Black Play?
Survival is more than staying alive—it’s enduring what it costs to keep going.
As a Witness, you make hard choices under pressure while reality bends around you. Fade to Black uses a streamlined d4 system that keeps the story moving and the tension tight: you roll a small handful of d4s when the outcome is uncertain, read the result, and the fiction pushes forward—often at a price.
What play feels like:
Fast, focused rolls. You only roll when risk is real. Success moves you ahead; failure complicates things instead of stopping the story.
Pressure you can feel. Stress builds as fear, regret, and desperation close in. Hit a Breaking Point, and your choices have consequences you can’t ignore.
Push your luck. When it matters, you can reach deeper—grabbing an edge now in exchange for more Stress later.
Horror that adapts. Whether you’re in Kyah Peak or far beyond it, the Fade twists the world to your choices, habits, and weaknesses.
Short turns, sharp outcomes, rising stakes. Every decision pulls at a loose thread—you won’t know if you’re holding things together or unraveling them until it’s too late.
The Stress & Breaking Points System
Stress isn’t a timer. It’s a measure of how far your Witness is under strain—and how close they are to breaking.
Stress accumulates when you fail rolls, push your luck, or come face to face with something unnatural. It doesn’t just live on paper: every 3 points shifts the weight onto your Weakness, making rolls tied to that Weakness harder and limiting safe choices.
When Stress hits 12, you hit a Breaking Point. Your control snaps. Maybe you freeze. Maybe you lash out. Maybe your mind fractures. The scene twists around that moment—and the cost is real.
Breaking Points leave scars—emotional, psychological, or even signs of Fade corruption. They persist and shift how your Witness reacts in future scenes.
Reducing Stress isn’t passive. It comes through safety, support, rest, or deliberate choices. It’s a fight every time.
Stress is escalation—mechanical pressure that forces trade‑offs, sharp decisions, and gives weight to every turn. It doesn’t count you down. It pushes you off balance.
Survival isn’t about avoiding fear—it’s about controlling what it turns you into.
The Fragment Leveling System
Your character's progression is intrinsically linked to pivotal moments known as Fragments. These Fragments embody the scars—both physical and emotional—that accumulate through trauma, sacrifice, and moments of terrifying clarity. As your collection of Fragments grows, you'll unlock the ability to enhance traits, acquire Talents, or craft unique abilities. This system ensures each Witness feels deeply personal and distinct, guaranteeing no two players’ Witness feels the same.
Earn Fragments by surviving terrifying encounters, pushing through moments of fear, or making pivotal, character-defining choices.
Spend Fragments to grow—improve Traits, unlocking or improve your Talents, gain unique abilities, or even gain companions.
Hoard Fragments, and the danger escalates. Holding 4 or more draws the attention of The Fade—twisting the world, bending reality, and making you a target for horrors only you can see.
The more you grow, the heavier the weight becomes.
Roleplay and the Weight of Choice
The horrors of Fade to Black go beyond the supernatural—they cut into who you are.
Mementos, Flaws, Callings, and Dark Secrets shape your Witness, anchoring their personal struggles into the world’s shifting reality.
Vestiges of Light—earned through roleplay—allow you to boost rolls, lower Stress, or reveal hidden truths, rewarding emotional engagement as much as tactical thinking.
Your story doesn’t unfold in the dark—it shapes it.
Traits and Talents
Your character is defined by six core Traits:
Resolve — Your ability to endure, persevere, and stand firm.
Awareness — How sharply you notice threats, patterns, and details.
Reflexes — Your reaction speed and physical responsiveness.
Strength — The raw physical force you can exert.
Ingenuity — Your problem-solving, creativity, and technical skill.
Empathy — Your ability to understand, calm, or manipulate others.
18 Talents are the tied to these Traits— Talents like Evasion, Tinkering, Investigation, and Leadership—allowing you to tackle challenges with your own unique approach.
Actions are resolved with:
Basic Rolls — Standard actions with minimal risk.
Complex Rolls — Higher stakes, combining Talents and Traits.
Linked Rolls — Chained actions where success—or failure—builds on what came before.
Your Witness isn’t limited by what they can do—it’s about how they survive, and how far they’re willing to go.
Push Your Luck
Desperation forces bad choices.
When the odds are stacked against you, you can Push Your Luck—taking a gamble to boost your chances at success:
Add an extra d4 to any roll—giving you an edge when it matters most.
But every time you push, your Stress increases—turning a moment of triumph into a ticking time bomb.
Sometimes, the gamble pays off. Other times, you just pull yourself closer to the breaking point.
In Kyah Peak, survival often means risking it all.
Adaptive Combat System
Violence in Fade to Black is never clean—it’s fast, chaotic, and unforgiving.
Combat flows seamlessly from action into violence, using an Adaptive Combat System that moves through:
Threat Assessment: The Director frames the danger. What’s the threat? What hazards exist? What’s at stake? You decide: fight, hide, or run.
Reactions: Enemies move first, and that forces choices. Do you defend, dodge, push forward, or flee? If you act fast, you roll a Reaction (Trait + Talent). If not—your Witness Defense (WD) stands in.
Linked Actions: Want to act together? Plan it before either of you moves. One holds, then both resolve simultaneously. Use care—failure for one can ripple to both.
Weapons are rare. Improvised gear and sheer guile carry you forward. You won’t start armed—you’ll rely on whatever you can scavenge or craft.
Survival isn’t about overpowering your enemy—it’s about outsmarting them, and knowing when to run.
Kyah Peak and The Fade
Kyah Peak is not just haunted—it’s alive.
Nestled in the misty Pacific Northwest, Kyah Peak was once a bustling timber town, but now it’s a hollow shell—a place where the past lingers too long, and the future refuses to come.
The Lantern Festival—once a ritual meant to guide lost souls to rest—ended in disaster. An electrical storm killed many festival-goers, and the spirits meant to pass on were trapped instead. Now, the festival’s echo hangs over Kyah Peak, and the town’s streets warp into something darker the longer you stay.
But The Fade is more than a supernatural force—it’s a mirror. It doesn’t attack—it reacts. It bends the world around you based on your fears and regrets.
No one leaves Kyah Peak unchanged. Some never leave at all.
The Eight Witness Roles
“You are not the chosen one. You’re not the hero. You are the prey, The Fade is the Predator. And you’re just trying to survive.”
Your Witness Role shapes how your character processes fear, how they respond to The Fade, and what drives their survival instincts.
The Leader — Steadies the group and inspires hope, but the weight of responsibility slows their reflexes.
The Skeptic — Challenges the supernatural with logic, but their refusal to believe blinds 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 their aversion to conflict leaves them vulnerable.
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 only on physical dangers.
The Observer — Detects patterns and notices clues, but falters when brute force is required.
The Innocent — Brings light and hope to the group, but their fear and naivety make them prone to panic.
Each role isn’t just a mechanical choice — it’s a narrative lens.
Download & Playtest
Be part of Fade to Black’s ongoing evolution.
Downloads Available:
Quick Start Rules (Available Soon!)
Fade To Black Cheat Sheets (Download Here)
Witness Creation Guide (Download Here)
Character Sheets (Blank Sheets Download Here )
Playtest Kit (Get the beta rules and share your feedback. Contact us to be part of the playtest!)
Free One Shot - Try out Fade to Black with Last Train Home (Download Here)
