Following the massive success of Disney Lorcana,Disneyand publisher Ravensburger are setting their eyes on another genre, as it makes the jump from trading card games to tabletop RPGs with Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls.
Made by an all-women team, Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls combines board games and RPGs together as you take control of Disney and Pixar princesses to complete missions and save the Realm of Light.
Darkness Falls will let you pick from one of four different heroines: Moana’s Moana, Robin Hood’s Maid Marian, The Incredibles’ Violet, and Beauty and the Beast’s Belle. Alongside the four you play as, your adventures across the Realm of Light will include encounters with other “familiar counters, items, and creatures in diverse missions”.
Other than its existence and the cast of characters you may play as, we know remarkably little about Chronicles of Light. Designed to be more approachable for newcomers to the genre – with a particular goal of encouraging women to pick up their first TTRPG – it uses an illustrated game board to represent the world and characters you encounter.
This board is described as modular, presumably meaning you expand it out as your party of Disney heroines move from location to location. It also opens up the possibility for further expansions, adventures, or modules later down the line to build on Darkness Falls.
Ravensburger calls Chronicles of Light an “immersive adventure game” and as being “TTRPG-inspired”. Combined with the use of a game board and a beginner-friendly slant, it seems as though it’ll be a slightly more structured experience than the theatre-of-the-mind approach used in games like Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder.
There’s a lot we don’t know about Chronicles of Light, but what we do know suggests it’ll be more than just a Disney-ified take on D&D. Provided it can provide the same roleplaying potential of its competitors, while also using the board in interesting ways and guiding the experience better for newcomers, it could be a really interesting alternative for a genre that can be very intimidating to break into.
Release date and pricing for Chronicles of Light haven’t been revealed.
One interesting thing to note is the box labels this as the “Disney Edition” of Chronicles of Light, which means we might see a non-Disney version of it later down the line.
Ravensburger is already known for its regular collaborations with Disney. Last year saw it burst onto the trading card game scene with Disney Lorcana, which is gearing up to launch its third set,Into the Inklands, next month. Just last week, it also announced the newest wave of “expandalones” forDisney Villainous, which will introduce King Candy and Shere Khan to the asymmetric game.
