Dying Hard on Hardlight Station: Anthology Edition

WE DID IT! Hardlight is back… with a Vengeance!
5 months ago – Fri, Apr 03, 2026 at 08:37:58 PM

Hi everyone,

Let me just take a minute to say… 

WOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

We did it!!! 

Thank you so much for being part of this record-breaking campaign. Personal records, but still ;-). This was a hell of a ride, and my favourite part was the good vibes and positive buzz I saw in the comments and across social media while it was all happening. I am truly thankful to have such a fun and supportive community built around my adventures.

Also, congratulations on unlocking the audio logs in the literal final minutes. That was a close call, but I am pumped that Golden, myself, and a few talented friends will get to return to the mics to create a whole slew of new audio aids to augment your Hardlight playthroughs and make the sector just a little more real and horrifying for your players.

What’s Next

More details on each of these milestones will come as we reach them, but in the coming weeks you can expect:

One to Two Weeks

The Pledge Manager opens. You will be able to confirm your address, add any add-ons you may want, and pick up the Hardlight Anthology Adventure Preview PDF.

The Late Pledge store will also open at this time for anyone who just missed takeoff.

Next Steps

Once the Pledge Manager is underway, I will get to work on the station section, with finishing touches coming in over the next few months. The goal is to complete the draft by the end of June and send it to Jarrett for editing.

I will continue to update you on progress and developments along the way. Expect monthly behind-the-scenes check-in as things move forward.

On your end, if you bring the adventures to the table, share your stories. I would love to hear how things go. I will also likely create a typo-catcher and feedback document for the keen-eyed among you who want to report any errors you spot. This is always helpful, since you can catch things that I, Jarrett, and my other proofreaders (my wife - though she is good) might miss before we go to print.

That is all for this short and sweet update. Time to celebrate, everyone. So get out there, get comfy, and heck, play some Mothership!

All the best, and with enormous gratitude,

Dave

Week 4: Rapidly Approaching the Final 48 Hours
5 months ago – Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 09:48:14 PM

Warning, warning, massive event horizon approaching. The final 48 hours of the Dying Hard on Hardlight Station: Anthology Edition campaign are almost here.

Unbelievably, we are nearly at the finish line, and what a long way we have come since leaving our home port at the start of the month. With over a hundred new crewmembers since the last update, I am confident we will crack that 2,000 backer goal in the next one. So today, let me dig into a little more of what is coming.

Fleet Guide Cross Collab

I am excited to announce that for our next round of ships we will have another guest collaboration, this time with two familiar faces: Chris Airiau and Josh Domanski, who will be contributing a series of shuttlecraft for your crews to escape sticky situations, make rough landings planetside, or simply go for a pleasure cruise around the Hardlight Sector.

They will be pulling inspiration from their new adventure Paramour, launching in less than two days for Orbital Blues Month on BackerKit. A moody heist module set in the rundown remnants of an outlaw city. If the contents of Paramour live up to its fantastic, evocative cover art, I am in. I will be there on day one to check out the big reveal, and you can join me by signing up here.

Backer Exclusive Adventure Collection Update

Speaking of exciting things happening in the coming weeks, I thought I would chime in with an update about the exclusive backer adventure PDF you will all be receiving after the campaign closes.

More details to come, but in short, once the pledge manager opens to collect your addresses and confirm your backer info, you will have access to the Backer Exclusive Hardlight Anthology Adventure Collection.

I have been working behind the scenes with Vil and Golden to get everything ready, and I am excited to share that every art piece for the ten included adventures should be ready for launch, so you can see the full technicolour vision of the alien worlds, abandoned hulks, and corporate hideouts we have in store for you.

Furthermore, Golden informs me that the PDF itself will come in at over 180 pages, including:

• All ten adventures (other than the rewritten version of the original Hardlight Station, coming later this year)
• The pre-campaign preview content
• The new Interstellar Opportunities Temp Agency (IOTA)

I designed IOTA as an easy framework to get your crews playing through the many adventures the book has to offer in a fun, easy to manage, campaign you can dive into with little preamble. Crews head over to the Agency, sign up as contractors, and gain access to increasingly challenging and lucrative jobs as they complete missions and gain clout and experience.

Just a few short weeks after the campaign closes, the pledge manager will launch and the eager among you can get playing now without having to wait for the hardcovers to hit the printer. That means your crew could be running Hardlight just weeks from now.

Next Stop: Final 48 Hours

That is all for this update. Do not forget to keep spreading the word and building excitement as we fall into the gravity well of the final 48 hours. Here is to cracking 2,000 backers and beyond.

See you on the other side,

Dave

Hardlight Anthology Week 3 Update: Unlocking, and Never Stopping
5 months ago – Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 03:02:16 PM

With week 3 nearly dusted, we are approaching the final leg of the campaign, and man oh man we've come a long way. Let's dive in to see where we've been and where we are heading in the home stretch. 

200K GOAL REACHED!

Unbelievably, we've surpassed the 200k mark, not only making Dying Hard on Hardlight Station: Anthology Edition Magnum Galaxy's biggest project ever but also the Mothership 3rd party scene's second most funded project behind the excellent Hull Breach. That is amazing and I couldn't have done it without you all so thanks for making history with me. And! WE ARE STILL GOING! 

So what do we get for hitting that big 200K milestone? 

The Record Keeper: Ribbon Book Mark Unlocked! 

Produced by Panda from high quality materials and modern methods, every copy of the Hardlight Anthology will now include both durable, functional and aesthetically awesome smyth-sewn bindings, as well as a built in cloth ribbon book mark to keep your exact page at the table or between reading sessions at home.

Now I just need to decide what colour to make the ribbon and cloth binding. What are your thoughts? Since people loved engaging with last week's poll so much, I'll suggest a few colours and you can vote for your favourite. 

Speaking of Polls... 

Nightmare on Somerset is the winner of the "most excited for" adventure poll from last week. 

I'm not at all biased I swear, but I am stoked so many of you are excited for my daylight-horror depth crawl: Nightmare on Somerset. I really enjoyed writing and playtesting this one, and love that I got to bring in some of my major inspirations, including big doses of Alex Garland's Annihilation, and Emmy Allen's seminal Gardens of Ynn. There's also a little DNA from the horrific film Midsommar as well as the Lovecraftian classic At the Mountains of Madness. Plus, Nightmare on Somerset is one of the handful of anthology adventures featuring otherworldly alien intelligences and creatures. 

So, this is where we've been. Now you may be asking: "What's Next?"

New Stretch Goal: Expanding the Fleet Pt. 2

Keen eyed observers may have already noticed, but I'm adding on one more Fleet Guide PDF with two additional ships. And, since people have been asking, I am planning to make physical copies of the pamphlets available as post campaign add-ons. I'm thinking $5 if you want the print version of each as I'd love to make it an easy add for those interested. 

Also, since we are late in the game here, I will admit to having one last big thing planned for the Fleet Guide should the campaign really knock it out of the park between now and our final hours. But! Let's make sure we crack that 2000 backer number first and see where we land shall we? 

Alright, that wraps this week's update. Thanks for following along thus far and here's to a strong finish. As always, questions, comments, pure expressions of excitement? Leave them in the comments and I'll get back to you asap. 

See you next week, 

Dave

Friday Update: 190k and Rising!
5 months ago – Fri, Mar 13, 2026 at 06:57:13 AM

Yippee-ki-yay, Mothershippers,

We’re rolling into our second weekend and I couldn’t be happier with the amazing progress we’ve made. At $190k, this is Magnum Galaxy Games’ most funded project ever by a long shot, and we’re not even halfway through the campaign!

Thank You!

We’ve had a ton of great support along the way, and I’d like to take a moment to thank all of you who have joined the ride so far and shared this campaign with friends and in your communities to help spread it far and wide

I’d also like to thank Sean and Alan at Tuesday Knight Games for featuring us in their latest newsletter, and Egg Embry over at EN World for including the campaign in the latest EN World crowdfunding roundup. It’s awesome to see this project finding homes with stalwarts like EN World as well as newer communities.

Stretch Goals: Past, Present... and Future?!

With the wind at our backs, we are rapidly approaching the $200k mark where we unlock the ribbon bookmark, the third of our book upgrades, and boosting every copy of the Anthology from deluxe to premium.

And we aren’t done yet. Because out there, at the dark edge of the horizon, something looms. Something huge, grand, and terrifying. An old enemy, or ancient friend, ready to resurface, bigger, louder, more horrific, and more... immersive than ever before.

Adventure Collection PDF Poll

I also want to remind everyone who has backed so far that when the Pledge Manager opens shortly after the campaign closes, all ten original adventures will be available to download.

Vil is currently wrapping art for Chris Airiau’s warzone extraction mission “Perihelion Crossfire” before moving on to the final adventure to be illustrated: Haig Morrison’s catch-’em-all interplanetary scavenger hunt “The Planets of Dr. Gennero.”

With the adventures arriving in just a few short weeks, tell me: Which one are you most excited about?Share your thoughts in the poll below!
 

That’s all for this week. If you have been following along but have not backed yet, now is a great time to jump and help us crack 200k before the weekend is out. For those of you already aboard, don’t forget to share the campaign on your favourite social media channels to spread the word and push us toward the next milestone.

Wishing you all a happy Friday and a wonderful weekend,

Dave Kenny
Magnum Galaxy Games

PS. If you want to check out a great Mothership podcast, with a little conversation about this very project from two of its writers, head over to the latest episode of Ansible Uplink, where Chris Airiau and Reece Carter review the Mothership adventures, On Axionic Wings, and fan favourite, There is a Goblin Loose on Icarus Station and chat a little Hardlight along the way.

Week One Update: unlocked goals and awesome momentum moving ahead!
5 months ago – Sun, Mar 08, 2026 at 03:32:06 PM

Hello Everyone! 

We've made amazing progress week one at over 170k and nearly 1400 new residents aboard the station. To celebrate an excellent first week I'm here to share some fun campaign news, let's dive in!

Project We Love!

Here’s a fun one: for the first time, a Magnum Galaxy Games project has been selected for “Project We Love” status by Kickstarter!

A fun step that acknowledges what all of you already knew, of course. I’m flattered, and glad we’ve got this accolade to help build momentum as we move into the middle part of the campaign. The more people hear about this project, the better we can keep the upgrades coming.

Stretch Goals Unlocked!

Speaking of which, we've unlocked two new goals just since Wednesday.

That means every Hardlight character sheet will feature a spot for The Operator. Built for life in Sector 1365 but flexible like the core Mothership classes, players can decide whether to craft them as an NCID spy, a back-alley fixer for the highest bidder, or something in between. With skills in combat, rimwise, and optional specializations, they're yours to tweak. I’m thinking the trauma response will be all about saving yourself from danger by endangering another. Should make for juicy results at the table…

We’ve also unlocked the first expansion to the Fleet Guide. And this one is special because, as I’m proud to announce, we’re doing it as a crossover with another cool project live right now.

Legitimate Salvage Collab!

I connected with the Legitimate Salvage gang over our shared love of Vil’s art. The timing is perfect because I’ve recently been getting back into tactical miniature wargaming, reviving my love of Games Workshops' Necromunda. I’ve been too busy working on Hardlight to get my own gang table ready, but I’m itching to dive back in so it is cool to be bringing the worlds of Hardlight Station and tactical wargames together.

With that in mind, WIRD, the creator of Legitimate Salvage, and I have collaborated to create a tactical incursion included in the new Legitmate Salvage scenario book. Your crew is tasked with breaking into Hardlight’s HealthTek facility to seize a sample of the Tau Sigma Substance. Set at the same time as Blackshield’s invasion, resitance is fierce and the action chaotic.

Meanwhile, we’ve also co-designed a new ship for the Fleet Guide: a mercenary cruiser, packed with desperate mercs the players can scrap with, sick on their enemies, or hire for a score.

If you’re a fan of small-group tactical miniature wargames, or just gritty, grotty sci-fi art, make sure to check out the cool stuff happening over at Legitimate Salvage. I’m planning to prep and paint up a squad as soon as I can.

What's Next?!

We are rapidy approaching the next big book upgrade: adding a cloth marker ribbon to every copy of the book. And after that, well, where we're going, let's just say, we don't need roads (wrong movie franchise but, hey, if its good, its good). 

That's all for this one, here's to an exciting week ahead!

- Dave

PS. I have to point out my favourite Bluesky from launch week. Yes, this needs to be an appendix entry. And yes, I’ve already been brainstorming cozy downtime activities to fill a D10 table.