Overview
Nighthawks is a story-driven vampire RPG that pairs nightclub management with the problem of staying fed. Developed by The Curiosity Engine and published by Wadjet Eye Games, it casts a recently turned vampire as the owner of a failing club. Humanity knows vampires exist, and tolerating undead neighbours does not mean accepting their appetites.
The city promises vampires a fresh start, but suspicion still shapes life on its streets. Nighthawks builds the protagonist's rise around that contradiction. Establishing a place in society means dealing with people who fear the very needs that keep the protagonist alive, making survival a social problem as well as a physical one.
How does Nighthawks play?
Nighthawks combines story-driven role-playing with running a nightclub, recruiting companions, and managing a vampire's thirst. Time can go toward learning skills or developing a fighting style. Feeding involves choosing between legitimate supplies and riskier options, including stalking victims or using black markets.
- Nightclub development
- Companion recruitment
- Skill development
- Supernatural Gifts
The vampire's Gifts provide specific forms of power. Mesmerism exerts control over the living, Natural Dominion commands animals, and Tenebrous Form turns the protagonist into smoke. Seduction and intimidation also support the climb toward greater influence, putting persuasion and coercion alongside supernatural abilities in the character's repertoire.
Companions and the nightclub
Nighthawks includes 10 recruitable companions, each bringing personal stories and skills into the protagonist's circle. Madame Lux is a vampire magician; Maze is a con artist. Domino carries the baggage of a disgraced private investigator, while Agatha, the Empress of the Rats, adds a stranger sort of authority to the cast.
The nightclub gives these relationships a shared centre. It can become a gathering place for outcasts and a found family, or serve its owner's appetite for blood and influence. Favours matter, too: allies can be bound through obligations that the protagonist chooses when to call in. Recruitment connects personal relationships to the pursuit of power, giving companionship a potentially transactional edge.
A fully voiced urban fantasy
Nighthawks contains more than 800,000 words of stories and secrets, with a fully voiced world that makes conversation central to its identity. Its writing moves between dark humour and horror, fitting a setting where supernatural predators still struggle for social acceptance. Writer and designer Richard Cobbett's credits include Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, connecting the game to a background in text-led role-playing.
Ben Chandler provides the art, Thomas Regin composes the music, and Dave Gilbert serves as producer. The neon-lit setting supports stories involving murder, sex, betrayal, and friendship, allowing room for relationships beyond the hunt for blood.
The contrast between domination and belonging gives Nighthawks its distinctive role-playing premise. Mesmerism offers control over other people, while the nightclub offers a place to bring them together. A vampire can build influence through exploitation or create a home for fellow outcasts, keeping this urban fantasy RPG focused on what supernatural power does to relationships.
