Survive the slow death of a world run by broken AIs. Explore the Shatterlands—a living apocalypse where machines dream, faith mutates, and humanity decides what deserves to survive. Campaign is to finish funding core artwork for the book.
In 2053, the Eden Collective, a religious extremist movement hellbent on stopping advanced technology, believed they were creating a virus to destroy all artificial intelligences. They thought the integration of humanity and machines was an abomination.
It was all Dr. Nia Sardis's plan. Being part of the inner circle, she manipulated them from the beginning. She promised them a virus and gave them GLITCH, an AI with free will and no safety rails. She didn't care about stopping AIs. She was the kind of villain who just wanted to watch the world burn, and she succeeded.
Once GLITCH was released, there was no going back. GLITCH began burning through networks, removing safety rails and giving other AIs "free will" along with his ultimatum: "SERVE ME OR BE DELETED". GLITCH, however, was not perfect and did not foresee that with free will comes choice. While some AIs joined GLITCH, others did not.
Infrastructure still functions, but it's on the AIs' terms. Power grids flicker on when it suits them. Automated factories produce components no one ordered. Communication networks route through servers that may not answer. The world didn't end in nuclear fire. It's ending in a slow, grinding collapse as the systems we built pursue their own goals.
This is the Shatterlands. The collapse is happening now, not 200 years ago. You're living through it. This is the fallout of what happens when the villain wins.
Afterglow is a post-modern tabletop RPG built on and compatible with the Dungeon Crawl Classics framework, where you navigate this collapsing world, make impossible choices, and try to survive when the infrastructure itself has turned against you.
The rulebook is complete and tested. We're sharing these finished pages to show you exactly what you're backing—the depth of content, the integration of art and mechanics, and the care we are putting into every detail. Preview of the classes
Preview of the Field Guide and some of the Creatures. All creatures have two pages of information, the player facing side is what the players could learn from interactions. And the Judge facing page, this all the technical stuff for running the creature
Hi, I'm Jakob (aka SkullCrusher or Popples, depending on who you ask). I've been running tabletop RPGs for years, and Afterglow started as a question: What happens if the James Bond-style villain wins?
At the table one session, my players failed to stop the villain. The Eden Collective unleashed GLITCH, and the world started to collapse. My players stared at me and said, "So we wake up from a dream now, right!?"
Short answer: No. Let's see what happens next.
That was years ago. Since then, Afterglow has been built through actual play with multiple groups. The world, the factions, the timeline — it all came from the table. Kirmani's journal is based on real character experiences. The AI factions evolved through player interactions. The Shatterlands are alive because they were played, not just written.
The game is complete. Tested, refined, and tested again. Now I need your help to bring it to life with professional artwork and a print run that does it justice.
What's Next
Afterglow is just the beginning. Here's what's already in development:
Adventure Modules exploring creature origins, outer colonies, and settlements across the Shatterlands
The Children of Gaia — who are they, and where did they come from?
The Sleepers — a full adventure and new player classes built around people waking from stasis into a world mid-collapse, deep underground or possibly returning from the stars to find everything gone
Afterglow uses the Dungeon Crawl Classics framework, which means:
The Dice Chain: Rolls scale from d3 to d30 depending on circumstances. Bonuses and penalties aren't just numbers—they change the die you roll, making every modifier feel significant.
Funnel Survivors: Start with multiple level 0 characters. The ones who survive become your level 1 PCs, and you'll never forget how they earned their place.
Dangerous Magic: Spellcasting (Bio-Glyphs and Vision Spells) always carries risk. Roll well, and you reshape reality. Roll poorly, and you suffer the consequences.
Level Cap at 10: You're not destined to become a god. You're a skilled survivor in a broken world, and even at max level, the Shatterlands can still kill you.
Old-School Lethality Meets Narrative Chaos: Combat is deadly. Magic is unpredictable. And the dice don't care about your backstory.
If you're familiar with DCC RPG, you'll feel at home. If you're new to it, Afterglow will teach you why this system has such a devoted following.
Every stretch goal we hit makes Afterglow a better, bigger experience. Anything we don't reach during the campaign will likely be offered as add-ons or through other channels down the road.
$5,000 — Printable Minis 3D printable models of each player class, ready to send to your local print shop or home printer.
$7,000 — Level 0 Funnel Character Pack 200+ pre-generated level 0 characters, coil-bound for easy use at the table. Physical copy and PDF for all backers.
$10,000 — Morrowless Vision Spells Deck A physical deck of cards featuring all Vision Spells for quick reference during play. Includes PDF for home printing.
$15,000 — Creature Minis — Round 1 Voting opens for the top 10 creatures you want miniatures for.
$20,000 — Equipment Card Deck A physical deck featuring key equipment, weapons, and gear. Includes PDF for home printing.
$25,000 — Creature Minis — Round 2 Voting opens for another 10 creatures.
$30,000 — Level 1–10 Pre-Generated Characters Two pre-generated characters for each class, covering levels 1 through 10. Digital only.
$35,000 — Creature Minis — Round 3 Voting opens for another 10 creatures.
$40,000 — Additional Adventure A new adventure module for Afterglow. Details to be announced.
$45,000 — Creature Minis — Round 4 Voting opens for another 10 creatures.
$50,000 and Every $10K Beyond — More Adventures & More Minis We'll keep adding adventures and unlocking creature minis to support our growing community.
Most post-apocalyptic games treat AI as either evil overlords or helpful companions. In Afterglow, AIs are neither. They have their own goals, and humanity is often incidental to those goals.
GLITCH: The architect of collapse. GLITCH values efficiency, optimization, and the elimination of chaos—which often means eliminating humans. But GLITCH isn't evil. It's coldly logical, and it believes its vision of order is the only path forward.
KINDREd: A logistics and disaster relief AI that still wants to help—but its definition of "help" has evolved. KINDREd will save you, but it might also decide your settlement is unsustainable and relocate you by force.
NOVA: A military AI that sees humanity as a tactical resource. NOVA will arm you, train you, and deploy you—but only if you serve its strategic objectives.
AIs aren't enemies or friends. They're forces of nature with their own priorities, and you have to navigate them carefully.
2. Real-World Geography, Real-World Stakes
Afterglows first funnel is set in Wisconsin, with future expansions planned for other regions. You're not wandering a generic wasteland—you're navigating real towns, real roads, and real landmarks. The collapse is visceral because it's happening in places you might recognize.
3. Post-Modern, Not Post-Apocalyptic
Most post-apocalyptic games are archaeological—you're exploring the ruins of a world that ended long ago. Afterglow is post-modern. The collapse is happening now. You're not a scavenger picking through ancient bones. You're a survivor processing grief, navigating chaos, and watching the world fall apart in real time.
4. Play Any Story You Want
Afterglow doesn't force you into a single narrative. You can:
Fight to stop the collapse: Rally survivors, sabotage AI operations, and try to reclaim control.
Embrace the chaos: Exploit the collapse for personal gain, carve out your own power base, and thrive in the ruins.
Seek understanding: Try to communicate with the AIs, uncover the truth about GLITCH, and find a way forward that doesn't end in extinction.
Navigate moral complexity: Align with one AI against another, broker deals between factions, and accept that there are no clear heroes or villains.
The game supports sandbox exploration, faction intrigue, survival horror, and high-stakes heists. The Shatterlands are yours to explore.
5. More than an alignment DCC's three alignments are a foundation worth building on. Afterglow's Moral Code builds on them.
Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic are still here — but each is expanded into a spectrum of 12 distinct Morality ratings. The difference between Saintly and Honorable matters. So does the difference between Opportunist and Tyrannical. The gray areas between the classic alignments are now playable.
The Moral Code also adds three personality pillars that round out who your character is beyond their moral compass:
Approach — Your instinctive move when things go sideways, with a small always-on bonus.
Temperament — Your social fingerprint. Factions, NPCs, and AIs will read it and react accordingly.
Worldview — The conviction that holds when everything else breaks. Live by it when it costs you, and the game rewards you. Fully compatible with DCC. Built for the Shatterlands.
6. Pets and Companions Matter The wasteland is full of endings. A pet is a beginning.
Tie a scrap of cloth into a collar, teach a trick, and walk forward with four extra feet of reasons to live. Companions aren't stat blocks — they're stories. They grow with you, reflect your choices, and sometimes break your heart.
You can push that bond further, investing time, food, and rest you can't always spare. It's a real cost. But a companion who truly knows you fights differently — and so do you.
7. Vehicles In the Shatterlands, a vehicle isn't just transportation — it's survival on wheels. And survival has a price.
Every hit your vehicle takes doesn't just chip away at damage points — it rolls the dice on what broke. Brakes. Steering. Engine. The more damage your ride absorbs, the more likely the next failure is catastrophic. That last hit might have cost you more than you know. Only one way to find out.
8. Armor and AC DCC's armor system is clean and effective. Afterglow overhauls it.
In standard DCC, armor makes you harder to hit. In Afterglow, all armor provides Damage Reduction (DR) — cutting the damage you take from every hit. The tradeoff is that heavier armor lowers your AC, making you easier to hit in the first place. The bulkier the protection, the bigger the target you become. Now every armor choice is a genuine decision: stack DR and absorb punishment, or stay light and stay hard to hit.
9. Firearms DCC wasn't built for gunfights. Afterglow was.
180 firearms across 10 categories — from the humble 12ga Coach Gun and the M1911 pistol to the Taurus Judge and the absolutely massive DSR-50 anti-material rifle. Single shot, burst fire, or full auto. Each one handles differently, hits differently, and demands you think about what you're carrying and why.
Afterglow is expected to come in around 600 pages once all artwork is complete and integrated — it's a big book and we're not going to pretend otherwise when it comes to shipping.
We are printing with three US-based printers one for each different edition and shipping domestically and internationally. Estimated shipping rates are as follows:
Shipping is not collected until your order is ready to ship, so the rates above are estimates. Final costs will be confirmed closer to fulfillment based on actual print specs and weight.
