Black Armada's Advent Adventures

Make time for your creative self this Christmas

Give the gift of a whimsical, creative, festive season with Black Armada's Advent Adventures – the solo journaling games wrapped in an advent calendar. 25 delightful doors opening up endless possibilities! 

This is a traditional advent calendar with a gaming twist. Open a new door every day to discover a prompt for a solo journaling game.

Carve out a little daily time, just for you. Write, draw, record something in response to the prompt and craft an entire story by Christmas Day! 

The original and only solo journaling game inside a traditional advent calendar.

Each calendar has a beautiful image on the front. Behind each door is a journaling prompt to inspire and guide you in telling your own story. On the back of the game are light, simple rules explaining how to play. 
 
Both games and calendars are fully designed and playtested and the art is complete. As soon as the campaign closes the files are going straight to the printers. 
 
July may seem early for a Christmas campaign, but by doing it now we can ensure the calendars are printed and shipped to you in plenty of time for the start of the advent season! 

With two calendars to choose from you can follow the path of an unlikely hero, or find yourself at the centre of a dark Christmas horror story.

Early bird available!

Backers who pledge in the first 48 hours* will get a free copy of Sleigh w/me, the rules-light madcap Christmas party game. Santa has lost his sleigh, and you've got to pilot it back to him!

You don't need to pick a particular reward tier to get the early bird reward, but folks who pledge without selecting a reward are excluded.

* Protip: we will base this on what day our pledge manager thinks you pledged, rounding in the direction of generosity. This probably means anyone who pledges before midnight on Thursday 23rd will get a copy.

Are you Team Adventure or Team Abomination?

In Advent of Adventure, a dragon invades the North Pole, making its nest atop a pile of undelivered presents. You are the only one of Santa's elves to evade capture. You've got 25 days to save Christmas!

If you prefer things darker, try our folk horror game Advent of Abomination. Your character is spending the Christmas season alone in a remote forest cabin. Well... almost alone.

The campaign is launching soon for early November delivery. This is a perfect gift to kick off the festive season.

Advent of Adventure

This Christmas Eve, a Dragon invades the North Pole. Luckily one brave elf evades capture... YOU are Santa’s only hope to save Christmas! 

In this family-friendly, cozy tale, use your imagination to create Santa’s workshop, thwart the Dragon’s terrible plans and make a big play to save the day.

Imagine Die Hard or Home Alone, but the main character is an elf!

An awesome, alternative advent calendar for kids, and a wonderful, whimsical solo game for grown-up adventurers. 
 
And if you want it darker... 

If you enjoy a good Christmas ghost story or horror tale, try Advent of Abomination. 

Your character is spending the Christmas season alone in a remote forest cabin. This spooky, atmospheric game gets you exploring the dark heart of horror in the festive season.

The best gift this Christmas... surviving the nightmare! 

Are you Team Adventure or Team Abomination? 

The story of Black Armada's Advent Adventures

A few Christmases ago Black Armada released the first version of Advent of Abomination, made with badly photoshopped art but the same quirky story.

Josh and Becky did a short print run with a local print shop and then hand cut every single little door with just a craft knife, a self-healing mat and a lot of blisters. Despite selling out, Becky swore she would never, ever do that again. 

So here we are crowdfunding for a print run and the use of a clever machine to cut all the doors out for us. 

Rewards and add-ons

The reward tiers are shown below in a table, indicating which items are included in each reward tier.

The items/add-ons

You can buy each item as an add-on if you prefer, but many of the reward tiers offer discounts compared to doing so.

Advent of Adventure calendar (£15 as an add-on). A printed A4 advent calendar where you play a Christmas elf trying to save Santa from a naughty dragon and its minions. Each door hides a prompt that you use to create your story. The game rules are on the back.

Advent of Abomination (£15 as an add-on). A printed A4 advent calendar where you play someone who has gone away to an isolated cabin in the woods for Christmas. Each door hides a prompt that you use to create your story. The game rules are on the back.

Digital (PDF) games (£5 each as an add-on). Each game also has a PDF version. This is a bookmarked PDF document containing the game rules and all the prompts in order. Simply click a new bookmark each day to see a new prompt.

Art prints (£12 as an add-on). There are two art prints available, one for each calendar. Each art print is A4 and shows just the illustration from the calendar (without logo) so that you can keep a copy after you have finished playing the game.

Colouring sheets (£3 as an add-on). There are two colouring sheets available, one for each calendar. Each colouring sheet is A4, showing a line art version of the calendar illustration for you to colour in.

Stickers (£6 as an add-on). There are two sticker sheets available, one for each calendar. Each sticker sheet is A5, containing 9-10 stickers of creatures and characters from the calendar.

Christmas card with creative prompt (not available as an add-on). A Christmas card from Josh and Becky, with a date on the envelope. Open the card on the date shown and you will see an extra, hand-written prompt for the game of your choice (Advent of Adventure or Advent of Abomination).

Meet the team

Josh Fox (he/him) is the award-winning designer of Ex Tenebris, Lovecraftesque, Last Fleet, Flotsam: Adrift Amongst The Stars and countless smaller games. He is also the business end of Black Armada Games and editor and cast member on the Black Armada Tales AP podcast.
 
Bluesky: @armadajosh 

Bri (she/her) is the illustrator for Advent of Adventure. Bri is a digital artist and streamer working out of the Twin Cities. Bri is the artist and co-owner of Bright Bard games; her eye for all things vibrant and beautiful is evident every time she puts pen to pad. You can find her posting regularly on Instagram and Bluesky, or streaming art, games, and goblins Tuesdays and Thursdays on Twitch.  

Harrie (they/them) is the illustrator for Advent of Abomination. Harrie is a non-binary artist from Norwich, UK. Their artwork explores identity, gender nonconformity and mental health through the lens of mythology and fairytale themed illustrations. Under Leith Illustration, Harrie creates digital character designs and other artworks for independent RPG companies and individuals who wish to see their ideas brought to life. To view their portfolio and shop visit www.leithillustration.com 

Becky Annison (she/her) is an award-winning game designer of Lovecraftesque and Wreck This Deck, the marketing half of Black Armada Games and a cast member on the Black Armada Tales AP podcast. She is specifically not hand cutting the little doors in the advent calendar this time.  
Bluesky: @beckyannison 

shipping, taxes and fulfilment

Shipping, tax and tariffs is a fraught subject and it can get kind of technical, but here's what we're doing about it: 

Shipping: We don't make any profit on shipping the product to you. We charge shipping when we're ready to fulfil, so that the rate is fair and accurate. Our current estimate of shipping charges is:

• UK: £6.50
• EU: £7-£9* (plus duty and VAT)
• USA: $11-14*
• Canada: £10
• Aus/NZ: £13-14*
• Rest of world: £10-15*

* Depending on exact location

UK VAT: All UK taxes are included in the reward tier price.

US Tariffs: Currently we expect these to be around 10%, and as long as this number doesn't change, there will be no additional cost to you - we will pay for this out of the funds raised by the campaign.

We will be sending a large block of stock to our partners in the US to distribute locally, meaning that it won't be caught by the new $80 charges for small packages.

Of course tariff policy is currently rapidly evolving. We will let you know swiftly if anything changes.

EU taxes and duties: We will charge EU taxes, together with shipping, after the campaign. The product will be sent to you with VAT already paid, meaning you won't be charged VAT upon receipt.

Please note that because of new EU rules, there will be a 3 Euro customs duty to pay on each individual type of item - which means an individual calendar will cost 3 Euros, but a craft pack will cost 12 Euros in duty. We are looking at ways to reduce this cost but, if you are worried about it, we would suggest pledging for a calendar-only tier; there will be the chance to upgrade later on. We hope to handle any customs charges in the same way as VAT, i.e. charge it to you with shipping, so you pay nothing when your items arrive.

Statement on generative AI

Hell no!
 
We believe that art is essentially a human-made thing. We and our artists have not knowingly used generative AI in the creation of the game or the art. ‘Knowingly’ because certain commonly used software packages keep slipping GenAI into their products and whilst we try and catch it and remove it, we can’t guarantee it.