Dying Hard on Hardlight Station: Anthology Edition

September Update: Fleet Guide Pamphlets Are Live
14 days ago – Fri, Sep 18, 2026 at 10:09:08 AM

Plenty of progress to report this month, and Golden and I have set the timeline for finishing the book. Let's dig in.

Fleet Guide pamphlets released!

Woohoo! So happy to have these in your hands. Download links went out this morning, both for the updated version of the original 48 bonus pamphlet as well as the both stretch goal pamphlets. If you haven't got them yet, have a look in your BackerKit pledge manager and they should be there. Here's the tutorial on accessing them if you need a refresher: https://help.backerkit.com/article/662-where-can-i-find-my-digital-downloads. If you still can't get at them, shoot me a message and I'll get you sorted out.

Hope you enjoy the new ships! Here's a little peak into Tony's design process for the final craft. 

Hardlight Station: the Events Index is complete

As I mentioned last month, I'm deep in the book's other massive section alongside the adventures: the station itself. To give you a sense of the scope of the expansion, the station section in the original zine was just shy of 2,000 words. The new version is at 13,000 and counting.

The big difference is that each major location now includes a key NPC with hooks, interactable tables: stores, mini-games, or job offerings, a faction tie-in, and content that weaves it through the layers of intrigue that suffuse the station. You've gotten a taste of these in The Docks and Interstellar Opportunities, and there are a whole lot more on their way.

And the spine of play connecting all of it, the Hardlight Station Events Index, is now complete.

With the Index, every time your crew visits the station, you roll on the events table to see what's changed aboard, what factions have advanced their agendas, and what new disasters have struck. This creates a station that feels alive and always changing as you move through your Hardlight campaign. The events also link many of the key locations, factions, and NPCs, so they give your players a gentle nudge to explore parts of the station they might not have poked at yet.

Each event has some kind of gameplay implication, and many can have direct effects, positive and negative, on how your players relieve Stress, purchase goods, acquire work, or get into trouble. For example, one week the station passes through the Roto meteor field. The cost of space travel spikes, but anyone who takes downtime gets to watch burning rocks put on a fireworks display across the void, relieving 1d5 Stress for their trouble. Relax, stay a while, and maybe explore a bit of the station while you're stuck on board for a few days.

I'm very excited to show this off to you all. Here's a look at the opening of the section.

What's Next?

I'm aiming to finish writing the station section by the end of September. As soon as it's done I'll hand it off to Golden, from there layout and art will leapfrog through this part of the book section by section.

While that's underway I'll be wrapping the final pieces: the sector atlas with the key planets and some hooks to grab your crews, the faction dossier covering the big players in Sector 1365 and what they're after, and the new version of Dying Hard on Hardlight Station. That last one isn't changing the adventure, because it's already exactly what I want. The rewrite just takes into account the much more detailed station material around it while keeping things streamlined.

As that work comes together, I'll put out an updated backer preview so those of you who are keen can dive right into your campaigns without waiting on the final book.

The Wreck of NSV Oizys

One more Fleet Guide thing. With the pamphlets done, Tony has signed on to round out the expanded add-on zine with a custom map for its exclusive adventure, The Wreck of NSV Oizys. The adventure itself is complete, it's just awaiting playtesting and Tony's art to bring it to life.

I experimented with this one, dropping most of the combat encounters in favour of a more puzzle-based approach which I hope you'll enjoy. I think it's going to evoke a different type of horror than the usual Alien style. A swamp-crawl, its a little more paranormal, exorcism-y, with a twist at the end to boot!

That's all for this monthly update. I'll be back at you in October, the most Mothership of all seasons.

Until then, enjoy the Fleet Guide pamphlets, try not to get your ship hijacked, and throw those  d100s until you land at least one critical success.

All the best,

Dave

August Update: Back in Action in 1365
about 2 months ago – Wed, Aug 12, 2026 at 04:40:13 PM

Hi everyone!

July was a short but productive month. I had a great vacation catching up with my old writing partner Haig and chatting about future collaborations. Also had some free time to imagine cool new ways to expand the Hardlight universe. But that's for another time. For now, I'm back at my desk and happy to be getting stuck into the Anthology once more.

So, what's been happening? 

First up, the Fleet Guide pamphlets are essentially done! Writing and layout are complete, and we're just waiting for Tony's final art pass before I post them for you all to download via Backerkit.

Speaking of Tony, here are some samples of his ship concepts and near-final illustrations. He's been keeping a design diary of the process along the way which he gave me permission to share a bit of with you. 

That is a taste of the process for one ship. With lots of conversation between each step. Looking good already I would say! The final phase Tony is completing now is an illustration pass to add texture, wear, and detail, to take the ship out of the realm of pure computer modelled image and make it look a little more "worn in" as it were. I'm excited to share the final form soon!

Here are glimpses of two other concepts from the guide. 

Which design is your favourite? Let me know in the poll below!

With the Fleet Guide pamphlets nearly wrapped, my attention is entirely on the Anthology itself. Work will continue on the main book over the next few months, and I'm hoping to start sharing some teasers from the completed Hardlight Station section material once Vil's art starts coming in.

For now, everything remains on schedule and I'm looking forward to sharing more next month.

All the best until then,

Dave

July Update: Stockholm 1365
3 months ago – Thu, Jul 02, 2026 at 02:44:22 AM

Hej everyone!

I'm writing this from Stockholm this morning, where my family and I are enjoying our first vacation since my son was born. Feeling refreshed after sleeping off a long day of travel. With my coffee in hand and a little buttered rugbrod it’s so far, so good. 

So, as we kick off our long-awaited break, I wanted to check in with a progress update. June was a productive month, with more writing complete and steady progress across the anthology, Decrypted, and the Fleet Guide. Here's where things stand as we head into July.

The Main Book

All edits are entered, along with a number of clarity and quality-of-life improvements. The sector section is now locked in, so my focus has shifted entirely to Hardlight Station itself. Once that's complete, it’ll be on to the faction guide and full star atlas. On the layout front, once the station is complete Golden will get started laying out that entire part of the book. So hopefully updated PDFs including all that content will be ready later this summer. 

Decrypted

While I work on the station, Golden has continued work on Decrypted and it is also nearing completion. It's going to be a fun blend of reworked content from the first two editions alongside brand new material, from in-universe ads and flyers to handwritten autopsy reports, blueprints, and maps scraped from NCID servers. 

A lot of fun stuff in here to both fuel Warden imaginations as well as hand directly out to players to immerse them deeper into the lore and grungy outer rim aesthetic of Hardlight Station. 

Fleet Guide

Writing for the Fleet Guide is nearly complete, including the brand new adventure The Wreck of NSV Oizys, a mud-soaked wreck recovery mission deep in an alien swamp. I was inspired by Michael Prescott's Trilemma Adventures for this one, though I couldn't quite keep myself to the 2-page format ;-). 

Looking Ahead

Once I'm back home it'll be straight back to the manuscript with work on completing the station taking priority. Everything remains on schedule for pre-production this fall. 

Until Next Time

Before I sign off, I wanted to say how much I've enjoyed hearing from those of you playing Magnum Galaxy Games adventures. Over on the Mothership Discord there's a great thread following one Warden's table through Awaiting the Burning Gods, and it's been a blast reading along. It's always fascinating to see where different groups take the same adventure.

Have any of you gotten the new anthology adventures to the table yet? If so, I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below or over on Discord.

That’s all for this month. I wish you all a wonderful July of breezy, summer night games, cool, refreshing drinks, and tasty snacks either salty, sweet, or both. 

Talk to you soon, 

Dave

June Update: Deep in the Ink
4 months ago – Tue, Jun 02, 2026 at 03:12:40 PM

Hi all!

Hope you are doing well as we transition from spring to summer. 

For me, this last month has been all about the shift from running the Kickstarter back into writing the book, which, as exciting as crowdfunding can be, is exactly where I'm happiest. So while the campaign may be over, the real work is only beginning. Let's take a look at what that means, shall we?

Managing the Pledge Manager and More

The first part of May was all about setting up the Pledge Manager and smoothing out the inevitable kinks. It was also when I received the first round of funds from Kickstarter, which means the team gets paid. A good day all around, though managing payments across an international team is a job in itself.

One of the highlights of the month was getting the Backer-Exclusive Anthology Adventure Preview into your hands. I've loved hearing the initial reactions and hope you've been having fun exploring the adventures so far.

I also want to thank everyone who contributed feedback. There are lots of great ideas, fixes, and suggestions in there, and I've already begun implementing many of them. One especially generous backer mentioned creating a fully marked-up version of the PDF and offered to share it. The feedback form is anonymous, so if that was you, please send me a message here on Kickstarter. I'd love to take a look.

Side note: One small issue affecting pre-order backers is that delivery of the preview files is not yet automated, so I've been manually adding them as orders come in. I've reached out to BackerKit to see if we can streamline that process moving forward.

Wading into the Black Pool of Creativity

With the initial wave of logistics largely behind me, I've been able to return to writing, which will be my primary focus through June.

Behind the scenes, Golden Achiever has also been hard at work on the updated edition of Decrypted. I'm really excited to show off both the improvements to the original material and some entirely new additions. Whether you're a fan of the original or a first-timer, I think you're going to enjoy what we've got in store.

Another area moving quickly right now is the Fleet Guide. I've completed 4 of the new stretch goal ships, which means only 1 collaborative vessel remains. Tony Tran has started work on the final batch of ship illustrations, and Golden has already begun laying out the pamphlets and zine.

I'm also planning the remaining bonus content for the Fleet Guide. If there's a tool, table, or reference you'd love to see included, let me know in the comments below. I'm always interested to hear what would help get your games to the table faster.

As for the Anthology itself, writing continues steadily and I hope to have some new content to share through the Pledge Manager by the end of the month. For now, let's just say there are new ships, new horrors, and a few other surprises emerging from the dark corners of Sector 1365.

Until Next Time

Alright, that wraps things up for this month.

Keep rolling dice, playing nice, and keeping Stress levels under control with your choice of vice ;-). 

Dave

May Update 2.0: Digital Files Ready to Download!
5 months ago – Fri, May 01, 2026 at 12:09:11 PM