The Black Company RPG Now Open for Playtesting

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Arc Dream Publishing, creator of the popular horror TTRPG Delta Green, has officially opened public playtesting for its newest project, The Black Company RPG. Based on the iconic military-fantasy novels by author Glen Cook, the new game seeks to capture the blood, guts and questionable morals of one of literature’s most infamous mercenary outfits.

Notably, the game was first announced back in 2024 but we haven’t heard much about it until now. Below we break down the current state of the game, how you can join the playtest and why the Black Company books remain so influential 40 years after they were first published.

What Is the Black Company RPG?

The Black Company RPG is an upcoming rules-light tabletop roleplaying from Arc Dream Publishing, which is being designed by veteran developers (and Arc Dream co-founders) Shane Ivey and Dennis Detwiller The game is based on The Black Company novels by Glen Cook, which takes place in a grimdark fantasy world. Like its source material, the game focuses on gritty realism, with players taking on the role of morally flexible mercenaries trapped between powerful sorcerer tyrants and the horrors of war.

Mechanically, the system uses a single percentile roll (d100) for all tests and places dice-rolling in the hands of the players, with little to no rolling from the GM. Notably, characters don’t have hit points and instead track two key attributes: Damage (injuries which have immediate effects) and Stress (which tracking your emotional limits before you break).

Players can create their own Soldier (shaped by Feats, Flaws, Motives and Backgrounds) or can choose to play as iconic characters from the books, such as Croaker, One-Eye and Goblin. Campaigns will follow the Company through its famous tours of duty, including the wars waged in service to the Empire of the Lady and her terrifying sorcerers, the Ten Who Were Taken.

Notably, the game was first announced by Arc Dreams Publishing back in April 2024, and in addition to the license has secured the full involvement of Glen Cook, who is not actively involved in any game design, but is serving as an advisor on the content itself.

What Is the Black Company RPG Playtest?

Arc Dream’s public playtest runs from December 1st, 2025 to February 1st, 2026 and includes a 10-page playtest rulebook, six pre-generated characters, a ready-to-run starter scenario entitled The Summer of Riots, and a one-page map of the city of Beryl which supports the adventure.

GMs and players can then submit their feedback through an online survey (with a link included in the materials), which will be used to shape the final version of the game. Future test phases will be rolled out later in 2026 and will include additional character creation options, as well as rules governing sorcery and mass combat.

What are the Black Company novels about?

The Black Company is a series of dark fantasy novels written by American author Glen Cook that are often credited with inspiring the gritty, morally gray works of authors like Joe Abercrombie and Steven Erikson. The books follow an elite mercenary outfit (the titular Black Company) as they serve in a wartorn empire ruled by the Lady, an immortal sorceress, and her twisted cadre of undead sorcerers, the Ten Who Were Taken.

Unlike typical epic fantasy books which chronicle noble heroes and powerful figures, the story focuses on the lowborn grunts in the trenches, with much of the narration provided by Croaker, the Company’s medic and Annalist. His journals chronicle brutal battles, political intrigues, rebel uprisings and the ever-shifting loyalties of powerful wizards who wield magic like atomic weapons. Members of the Company are portrayed as cynical professionals whose only goal is to stay alive, protect their comrades and make sense of a world where “good” and “evil” mean almost nothing.

The series consists of 12 novels (along with almost a dozen related short stories) that were published between 1984 and 2018. Over the years, the books have grown in popularity and been considered for other mediums, including tabletop roleplaying games. In fact, in 2004, Green Ronin Publishing released a Black Company Campaign Setting, which used the D20 system first popularized in from Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. Notably, that particular product was co-written by Shane Ivey, who over 20 years later is now working on the new RPG version for Arc Dream.

In 2017, it was also announced that a Black Company TV show was in development for the CW Network, which was reportedly going to be produced by David S. Goyer (of The Dark Knight fame) with Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Eliza Dushku in talks to also produce and play the part of The Lady. The project, however, eventually fell apart, although it does show just how popular it’s become.

Final Thoughts

With an award-winning publisher and design team behind it, plus a unique literary franchise to draw on, the Black Company RPG has a ton of potential. And with this first playtest now available, fans will soon found if it lives up to that potential and enters the Annals of TTRPG history.

You can learn more and download the playtest materials now on the Arc Dream website.