Evil Hat Announces The ‘Tomb Raider’ RPG Is Cancelled, Citing Creative Differences
For adventuring fans, the promise of a Tomb Raider RPG has been broken—again. Creative differences have been blamed, but not all hope is lost.
Tabletop RPG publisher Evil Hat announced last Friday that it had stopped work on the Tomb Raider RPG project. Evil Hat’s Tomb Raider RPG was announced a little over a year ago, in February of 2024. It was tentatively titled Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth. But now, the company is shifting plans, citing “creative differences.”
Tomb Raider RPG Cancelled – Not the First Time That’s Happened
Licensed RPGs are always a tricky thing. Not only do you have to make a fun RPG engine, you also have to deal with the various departments involved in getting something approved. It’s not just the creative side of things, either. Branding and legal often get involved much more than anyone else would like. By the time you have a finished product it will have passed through many hands.
It’s honestly a miracle anything gets made. But Tomb Raider, specifically, has a long, troubled history in the tabletop RPG world. Back in 2021 (if that year ever happened), for the franchise’s 25th anniversary, you might recall Square Enix also announced a Tomb Raider tabletop RPG was in the works. And that was a full three years before Evil Hat’s initial announcement.
And looking at the two different games, it seems like they have very little in common. For instance, the Evil Hat game seemed to lean on a very teamwork-focused dynamic. It uses some classic PbtA framework language:
“In this officially licensed tabletop RPG you play members of the Truth Seekers: contemporaries of Lara Croft who strive to reveal long-hidden knowledge and thwart those who would steal and exploit artifacts for their own gains. It is a game of action, exploration, and self-discovery. Face perilous challenges and tough choices as you learn what it takes to be a hero.
Your group will collectively create their Team using one of the Team Playbooks and then build individual Team members choosing from the Crafter, Scholar, Hunter, Companion, Legacy, Changed, and Reclaimer. One player, the Keeper of Truths, describes the dynamic and compelling world around the Team as they all make the connections which bring the adventure to life.“
Meanwhile, the 2021 game, was designed with more of a focus on getting out there and solving puzzles and being swept up in the action that was true to the “franchise roots”:
“Players will explore ancient sites to discover information and artifacts – guided by the campaign’s Raid Master. Campaigns will focus on knowledge, language, and investigative skills in addition to action-oriented skills to keep it true to the franchise roots.“
As part of the 2021 announcement, there were plans for a core rulebook and a series of adventures due out as a holiday gift. The game then quietly released in 2023 to little fanfare. Only the first chapter of a planned series of adventures was ever released, Tomb Raider: Mark of the Phoenix. You can still download it for free.
Creative Differences Ensue, But It’s Not The End For Tomb Raider RPG
All of that to say, it seems like Square-Enix has had difficulty getting the Tomb Raider RPG the way they want it. There are a lot of reasons for that, but apparently, some version of a Tomb Raider RPG has been “in-development” since 2007. Which is absolutely wild. But it helps shed some light on the project. Licensed RPGs have a long history in the tabletop industry, and run the gamut from great to abysmal. One of gaming’s most prestigious awards is a fragment from a copy of a licensed RPG that was so bad all copies were ordered destroyed.
Evil Hat, to its credit, doesn’t plan to let the work the designers have done wither on the vine. In its announcement, Evil Hat revealed that it has plans to retool the project. That’s sp the hard work the team put into it ultimately has a chance to see the light of day:
“Sad news: we are canceling the Tomb Raider RPG project. Due to creative differences we couldn’t get our vision to gel with the licensor’s, so we’ve chosen to part ways.
The stellar team designing this game put their hearts into aking this an exciting dynamic RPG of adventure and exploration.
We’re proud of the work they’ve done and we plan to retool the project as a standalone game with a fresh, original setting. You haven’t seen the last of it.
That announcement may be the absolute least ominous way anyone has ever used the phrase “you haven’t seen the last of”. Usually that’s reserved for slowly sinking vessels with megalomaniacs vowing to get revenge as they dip out of sight, to an uncertain demise. But here, we will get to see a new RPG with a fresh new setting at some point.
Evil Hat is certainly no stranger to creating its own unique settings – that’s something the company is known for. In its purview, you’ll find the likes of Thirsty Sword Lesbiands, Blades in the Dark, Monster of the Week, Apocalypse Keys, and plenty more. So, fingers crossed that we get a fun new look—just keep yours eyes peeled. We’ll have more on the story as it develops!
While one tomb closes, another opens!
