Picture a city where the dead don’t just haunt the streets—they power the sky. In Blades '68, the latest expansion for Blades in the Dark, the eternal night of Duskvol has been replaced by a psychedelic, oversaturated dome of light. The blood-soaked gothic underworld of the original game has been repurposed into a 1960s dystopia, where plasmovision sets flicker in every home, autopods glide through neon-lit streets, and a massive energy array—fed by the remains of the dead—keeps the supernatural horrors at bay (mostly).
This isn’t a soft reboot. It’s a deliberate tonal shift, inspired by the contrast between Arkane’s Dishonored* and Deathloop. Where the original Blades in the Dark thrived in the grimy, post-apocalyptic underbelly of Duskvol, Blades '68 leans into the vibrant excess of the 1960s—think Disco Elysium’s introspective chaos, but before the world collapsed entirely.
The expansion introduces four new playbooks: Radicals, Swingers, Intellectuals, and Paranomalists, each offering fresh perspectives on the city’s criminal underworld. Veterans, Operatives, and even souls trapped in robotic bodies join the roster, expanding the game’s already diverse cast of fixers and outcasts.
Behind the scenes, designer Tim Denee framed the project as a response to the fragility of the original setting. ‘The real-world 60s were colorful, optimistic in some ways,’ he explained, ‘so I wanted to build something that felt like a natural evolution—even if the foundations were still the same.’ The result is a world where the blood sea remains, but technology has smoothed over its edges. The B.L.U.E. array, an artificial sky, bathes the city in an unnatural glow, while the disposal of human bodies fuels the energy grid—a dark twist on Soylent Green’s themes.
The Kickstarter campaign has already surpassed its $30,000 goal, raising over $228,000 in early backing. Early supporters will receive a free, in-progress PDF of the supplement ahead of its official release in August 2026.
For fans of Blades in the Dark*, this isn’t just another setting—it’s a full reinvention. The core mechanics remain, but the atmosphere is unmistakably different: a world where the dead don’t just linger in the shadows, they light up the sky.
