History CrapsackWorld / TableTopGames

** '''Infernals''': If you piss off your patrons, you'll be possessed by one unless you reingratiate yourself with them by acting like a B-movie supervillain. You're slowly turning into a monster. And there are ''way'' less of you than anyone else, which means you can pretty much write off support unless what you're doing is incredibly important. And your ultimate goal is quite likely to be a deranged pipe dream hatched by a group of profoundly broken eldritch abominations who think it's possible to weasel-word your way into reality. And the best/worst part? It's quite possible to [[FaustianRebellion punch said plans in the face]], unlike Abyssals. Yes, that's right -- the people who are ''enslaved to demons'' have it better than their cousins. One of the foremost plots for a remotely heroic Abyssal is to "not be an Abyssal anymore".

** '''Terrestrials''': Your empire is crumbling, and the Great Houses would rather bicker amongst themselves and play politics than do something about it. The only reason your society worked at all has disappeared [[spoiler:and is in league with the personification of bastardry himself]]. Most of the Lunars and many of the Solars know that your Sidereal-aided betrayal ended the First Age, and have not taken this information at all well, and those that don't tend to come from areas under the heel of your empire and hate you for that anyway. And you're the bottom rung on the PowerLevels ladder.

** '''Solars''': Half the world, including about half its secret masters, wants you dead. The rest doesn't trust you. You have episodes of terrible impulse control whenever under stress, thanks to a past life's role in killing and/or imprisoning many of the creators of the world. The "secret masters" that are on your side see you mainly as a powerful but manipulable dupe to show up the secret masters that aren't. At least two different packs of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s would gladly see you corrupted into serving their goals and/or horribly dead. And you have a fair chance that someone with unfinished business regarding a previous life is out to get you.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Anathema}}'' the world is overpopulated to the point where humanity will destroy itself unless an aggressive culling program is put in place. The players have to murder millions of people or risk annihilation, but may suffer annihilation anyway, and have almost no memories of their life. Meanwhile, humans are being stalked and murdered by supernatural beings, from which there is no escape. Not that they know this, at least until they're face to face with one.

* ''TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2020'' shares the same description of Shadowrun above minus the fantasy part, with the world heading to an ecological meltdown and the stock market being described as walking in the razor's edge between prosperity --for some, that is and another meltdown this one economical. The worst places to live there include the Middle East --a nuked wasteland with the winds carrying rumors of Jihad, and South America --broken between military juntas, drug dealers, and the like.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Twilight 2000}}'', which is set in Europe after a limited nuclear war. If the players make it home to America they find that things aren't much better there, with the government split into "civgov" and "milgov", and both factions fighting a civil war against the "New America" religious survivalist nutcases. ''TabletopGame/TwentyThreeHundredAD'', set in the same universe three centuries later, reveals that the world eventually recovered.

* Both ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' and ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' are premised on this; they're worlds populated by [[FantasyKitchenSink various supernatural creepy crawlies]] who prey on humanity. The original setting even had these vastly powerful supernaturals as helpless to affect their various millennial {{Enforced Cold War}}s, while the new has the world filled with such mystery and decentralized supernaturals that extermination or redemption is hard to imagine. Being supernatural doesn't help, either; White Wolf likes to see if it can redefine BlessedWithSuck with every new installment.
** In the ''Old World of Darkness'' it's gotten so bad that one of the most powerful beings in the setting, who incidentally is mostly ''responsible'' for the world's sad state [[spoiler:since he "fathered" the entire vampire race in the first place]], has all but given up on changing the world.
*** One of the core games in the ''Old World of Darkness'' is ''[[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Werewolf: ]]'''[[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse The Apocalypse]]'''''.

** Over in the New, the God-Machine Chronicles establish that the world is run by a defective [[EldritchAbomination god-computer]] that is clumsily flailing at keeping the status quo, but isn't all that good at it.
** Also in the New, the magical conspiracy that controls large parts of the mortal world is run by literal living symbols of tyranny and oppression. And it's not like its members are fooling themselves about it either. At least the old [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Technocracy]] had plenty of [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned Extremists]]; here, it's stated that being a well-intentioned Seer of the Throne is ''all but impossible''.

** As for it's MorePopularSpinoff ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''... uh, [[CrapsackWorld/Warhammer40000 best see this page]].

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' is usually less severe than some of the examples above, but by definition, all its worlds in all its editions are Crapsack enough that they constantly need professional heroes maintaining constant vigilance just to keep a series of psychopaths, demons, or evil gods from annihilating that world in favor of something even worse.

* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': Leaders generally come in three flavors: insane, corrupt, and evil, with those who are none of the above and are actually good at their jobs generally having their work undone within a decade or two after their deaths. The ChurchMilitant manipulates governments into bombing each other into the Stone Age to strengthen their monopoly on technology. The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]] of the Clans, despite being obsessed with fighting and military prowess and having an average life expectancy of around 50, are ''less evil'' than the Inner Sphere governments much of the time (at least as long as nobody pays attention to how awful they treat [[KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect anyone who isn't a warrior]]). Everyday technology has scarcely advanced beyond the 20th century because technological research and development has been entirely focused into making new and better war machines. The international treaties against [[AtomicHate indiscriminate nuclear bombardment]] often weaken into optional international suggestions. "Cold wars" aren't. The known galaxy has been in a state of virtually constant war for almost a thousand years. TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt has happened ''at least'' four times in the setting's history and will likely happen many more times in the future. And if anything changes for the better the premise of the universe will end, so nothing ever will.\\
\\
However, the ''[=BattleTech=]'' universe could only truly be considered a Crapsack World during 2 time periods- the Succession Wars (when the game originally started), and the Jihad (storyline set to end in 2011). At no point did average technology levels fall below 23rd Century levels according to WordOfGod, and at present they're higher than they've ever been. Indiscriminate use of [=WMDs=] has been unheard of for more than 2 centuries, which was why most people were shocked when the [[AxCrazy Word Of Blake]] began tossing them around during the Jihad, and while incursions and the occasional full blown war still happen in the story line, most factions go out of their way to avoid attacking civilians-- when a planet is conquered, the typical effect is that there's a new flag flying in the town square and the taxes go to a different planet. Oppressive governments are actually the exception, not the rule. Then came the Dark Age, the HPG network is suddenly sabotaged, and off world communications have been crippled, now everyone is attacking everyone within reach. Some factions are on the offensive, and others are forced on the defensive.

* As for it's MorePopularSpinoff ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''... uh, [[CrapsackWorld/Warhammer40000 best see this page]].

* If the above example of ''TabletopGame/UnhallowedMetropolis'' didn't sound like much, then brace yourself for the following: Between the eternally warmongering, xenophobic and corrupt factions fighting for the remains of the galaxy ([[OurOrcsAreDifferent one of which literally exists]] for the sole purpose of killing and looting), the [[CorruptChurch poverty-ridden heresy-crushing Imperium of Man]] (whose [[ObstructiveBureaucrat bureaucracies]] and [[FeudalFuture feudal orders]] do spend a lot of their time figuratively and literally clashing and fighting each other), and the [[HyperSpaceIsAScaryPlace infernal nightmare]] of the Warp infested by the [[EldritchAbomination Ruinous Powers of Chaos]] and their [[TheLegionsOfHell ravenous insane Daemonic apostles]], life in the universe of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' [[WeHaveReserves really]], [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison really]], [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace really]], ''[[BlackAndGreyMorality really]], [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity really]], [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed really]]'', '''[[AbsoluteXenophobe really]], [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil really]], [[OmnicidalManiac REALLY]], [[CosmicHorrorStory REALLY]], [[OverlyLongGag REALLY]]''' '''''[[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] sucks HARDCORE'''''. [[BrutalHonesty Seriously]], it's to the point the universe of ''40K'' seems to be exclusively designed to invoke [[CosmicPlaything as much misery and suffering as inhumanly possible]] out of the universe's myriad denizens, and atrocious enough that ''a brand new word'' was invented to describe the sheer hopelessness of the setting, aptly named "{{Grimdark}}", and it is hands down THE BLEAKEST setting ever put to fiction, ''period''. Let's count the ways, shall we?
** To emphasize how unimaginably, mind-bogglingly, unapologetically, unthinkably, horrendously and abominably shitty life is in this universe, let's cover some of the biggest {{Wide Eyed Idealist}}s of the entire setting: The [[DarkMessiah Emperor of Mankind]], the [[LawfulGood Salamanders, Ultramarines]], [[ChaoticGood Space Wolves]] and [[WellIntentionedExtremist the Tau]] and what happened to them.
*** While undeniably heroic by ''40K'' standards, the former four are still [[FantasticRacism xenophobic]], [[KnightTemplar totalitarian]], ruthless fundamentalists who, despite their noble qualities of not [[WouldNotShootACivilian casually sacrificing civilians]], are still the atypical [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Space Nazis]] that the Imperium is infamous for. They launched a galaxy-wide military campaign to reunite humanity [[JoinOrDie by force]] and exterminate any aliens they found. The Space Marines, humanity's greatest warriors, are inventions by the Emperor, using [[ChildSoldiers children]] that get [[BioAugmentation stuffed with new organs]] and brainwashed into UndyingLoyalty, and if that's they survive the grueling training and transformations. The Space Marines precursors, Thunder Warriors? Wiped to the last men once they were no longer needed. One of the Horus Heresy novels even comments that the corrupt [[BigBad Horus]] guides the Great Crusade less ruthlessly than his father did. The aforementioned GodEmperor originally wanted to create a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Human-ruled superpower centered around science and progress]], but his idealism backfired upon him when he was betrayed by half of his own sons and now his soul is used as a living psychic beacon to navigate through Hell while [[AndIMustScream witnessing his Imperium degenerate into totalitarian ignorance and superstition]] where existing technology is considered almost magical, and where his own philosophy of scientific enlightenment is condemned as Heresy in his own name.
*** The Tau are fundamentally DirtyCommies - they will accept all cultures and races into their federation, but to spread their ideal of the Greater Good they will absorb and conquer any rival states through complete military force, and others who don't consent to their Greater Good are immediately subjected to genocide, slavery, concentration camps, death camps or brainwashing facilities straight out of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
*** And the worst part of it all? Most of this behavior is ''necessary'' in this universe. Yes, if you truly want to make the world a better place then "already totally destroyed", you have to become a fanatical extremist that would be a ByronicHero[=/=]DarkMessiah at best or a KnightTemplar at worst in ''any'' other setting, but here, it's the ''heroic'' way of doing things. [[BlackAndGreyMorality Yep, it's that kind of universe, folks.]]
** [[CosmicHorrorStory Really, you can't expect much else in a world]] where [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Faster Than Light Travel means literally going through Hell]] infested by Chaos Daemons willing to [[MindRape rape your mind and soul]] in countless different painful ways if you dare go in without protection, sanity checks, close-minded religious dogmatism and the use of said Emperor's living soul ([[PoweredByAForsakenChild powered by the agonizing deaths of psykers sacrificed for his life support]]) as a galaxy-spanning psychic lighthouse. ''And said Chaos Gods are the twisted excessive manifestations of our very own emotions.'' That Hell where all daemons are born? ''The souls of every human in the universe'' pass through there. Faith and the Emperor protects human souls passing through to prevent daemons from eating them. The god of Hope? ''A ManipulativeBastard even by 40k standards.'' If you're a good curious person? You get sent there ''sooner'' with the next pirate or bandit raid, rampaging monster or invading army. That said, the collective misery of the inhabitants of the real world manifests in the Warp as Gods, who then scheme to cause more chaos in the Real World, resulting in a vicious cycle of neverending melancholy both in and out.
** And thanks to an accident by the Eldar SpaceElves, [[FromBadToWorse that Hell has broken loose]]. The only reason why said Space Elves have it worse than humans is that the few remnants of them still living need to stave off their inevitable extinction for a ''bit'' longer, since for them dying instantly means absorption into a disgusting vortex of [[FateWorseThanDeath eternal torture, humiliation and rape]] by what is the living manifestation of every soul's suffering and sensation. It is completely necessary for them to make gut-wrenching sacrifices, including manipulating other civilizations into destroying each other (and in one case torturing other species' constantly as sacrifice to appease said god of pain), just so that they can save one of their own from their perpetual fate.
** On top of that, the Chaos Gods themselves? [[AlwaysABiggerFish They're dwarfed in scale completely by even Greater Older Ones]] that make Chaos shit themselves in terror, such as an ancient race of overpowered robotic zombie {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s created to harvest tasty souls to appease the addiction of their Star-Gods, and an intergalactic HiveMind of a constantly-evolving constantly-hungry HordeOfAlienLocusts that [[AdaptiveAbility adapt to anything used against it]] and [[ZergRush devour all biomass in its path to convert it into ever more of themselves]]. The only ones who have anything closest to happiness is a race of green [[OurOrcsAreDifferent psychic savages who kill and pillage]] everybody else and each other because it's built into their genetic code... [[BloodKnight and because it's fun]]. In this universe, being a kind, compassionate, and curious person ''will'' result in you getting {{Mind Rape}}d or literally tentacle-raped by a daemon, and tearing open a portal to hell roughly the size of your planet. "An open mind is like a fortress, with its gates unbarred and unguarded."
** The introduction at the start of all the Warhammer 40,000 novels is a pretty good summary of how crapsack the setting is:
---> "It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die. Yet Even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his warriors are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bioengineered super-warriors. Their comrade in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants - and worse. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods."
** How crapsack is 40K? Tzeentch, the utterly amoral Eldritch Abomination who plots countless schemes to bring endless misery to the universe ForTheEvulz, and is basically [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Nyarlathotep]] turned up to eleven, is the resident ''God of Hope'' of all things. While the [[PlagueMaster God of Disease and Decay]], Nurgle, comes off as AffablyEvil by comparison. The revelation that Nurgle is actually an agent of the EternalRecurrence who is acting out only because it's way past time that this galaxy died out and gave new civilizations a chance to rise from the ruins not only makes him ''more'' sympathetic, [[VillainHasAPoint it's hard not to see his point]] that it's time to wipe the slate clean. Except the only reason for his reason to exist is ''because he's acting out in the first place.''
*** ''[[ShootTheDog BLAM]]''
** Rather ironically, despite being the UrExample as far as Tabletop Crapsack Worlds go, it isn't ''all'' horrible. While totalitarian planets ruled by the Imperium are undoubtedly the norm, there are a decent amount of planets that are not only completely peaceful, but actually have a reasonably fair democracy in place: as long as you don't do anything that'll be considered heretical by the government, and as long as your planet doesn't become subject to a massive earth-shattering battle, the odds are very likely you'll live a happy, contented life. No, really; the very setting that's [[BuffySpeak Crapsacky]] enough to create the term "{{grimdark}}" ''actually warrants the possibility of living a perfectly normal and happy life.'' For all the sheer hopelessness of the 410th century, it's actually not ''too'' bad at some points.
*** The extreme majority of the Imperium's worlds, aptly named Imperial Worlds or Civilized Worlds, are basically utopian and those are the planets nearly all humans live on. The grimdark stuff happens in the underhives of Hive Worlds (which is the low/bottom levels of the arcologies) or on battlefields or on the generally rare tyrannies on a few Imperial Worlds (each world is nearly entirely self-governed). So, the odds of any human born into 40k actually experiencing anything remotely grimdark are actually extremely low. Far lower than on Earth, even, considering outside of the few First World countries you're probably going to wonder how anyone can live the way they do.
*** Even more interestingly, despite having the greatest deal of problems as far as species go, Humans actually got the long end of the stick regarding the afterlife. Yes, the souls of every human in the universe go to the [[{{Hell}} Warp]], and the only protection ''would'' be to worship the Emperor blindly, but even those who don't will only be present for a short period of time thanks to the middling warp presence humans have before [[CessationOfExistence dissipating completely, finally free of the suffering of the universe]]. Compared to what the Eldar [[FateWorseThanDeath have to deal with post-mortem for all eternity]], that actually isn't that bad of a deal.

*** While undeniably heroic by ''40K'' standards, the former four are still [[FantasticRacism xenophobic]], [[KnightTemplar totalitarian]], [[KillEmAll ruthless]] fundamentalists who, despite their noble qualities of not [[WouldNotShootACivilian casually sacrificing civilians]], are still the atypical [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Space Nazis]] that the Imperium is infamous for. They launched a galaxy-wide military campaign to reunite humanity [[JoinOrDie by force]] and exterminate any aliens they found. The Space Marines, humanity's greatest warriors, are inventions by the Emperor, using [[ChildSoldiers children]] that get [[BioAugmentation stuffed with new organs]] and brainwashed into UndyingLoyalty, and if that's they survive the grueling training and transformations. The Space Marines precursors, Thunder Warriors? Wiped to the last men once they were no longer needed. One of the Horus Heresy novels even comments that the corrupt [[BigBad Horus]] guides the Great Crusade less ruthlessly than his father did. The aforementioned GodEmperor originally wanted to create a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Human-ruled superpower centered around science and progress]], but his idealism backfired upon him when he was betrayed by half of his own sons and now his soul is used as a living psychic beacon to navigate through Hell while [[AndIMustScream witnessing his Imperium degenerate into totalitarian ignorance and superstition]] where existing technology is considered almost magical, and where his own philosophy of scientific enlightenment is condemned as Heresy in his own name.

** The ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' setting is basically what happens when you mix the Mythos with a modern ConspiracyKitchenSink. It itself comes off as [[UpToEleven even bleaker than vanilla CoC]].

* If the above example of ''TabletopGame/UnhallowedMetropolis'' didn't sound like much, then brace yourself for the following: Between the eternally warmongering, xenophobic and corrupt factions fighting for the remains of the galaxy ([[OurOrcsAreDifferent one of which literally exists]] for the sole purpose of killing and looting), the [[CorruptChurch poverty-ridden heresy-crushing Imperium of Man]] (whose [[ObstructiveBureaucrat bureaucracies]] and [[FeudalFuture feudal orders]] do spend a lot of their time figuratively and literally clashing and fighting each other), and the [[HyperSpaceIsAScaryPlace infernal nightmare]] of the Warp infested by the [[EldritchAbomination Ruinous Powers of Chaos]] and their [[TheLegionsOfHell ravenous insane Daemonic apostles]], life in the universe of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' [[WeHaveReserves really]], [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison really]], [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace really]], ''[[BlackAndGreyMorality really]], [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity really]], [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed really]]'', '''[[AbsoluteXenophobe really]], [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil really]], [[OmnicidalManiac REALLY]], [[CosmicHorrorStory REALLY]], [[OverlyLongGag REALLY]]''' '''''[[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] sucks [[UpToEleven HARDCORE]]'''''. [[BrutalHonesty Seriously]], it's to the point the universe of ''40K'' seems to be exclusively designed to invoke [[CosmicPlaything as much misery and suffering as inhumanly possible]] out of the universe's myriad denizens, and atrocious enough that ''a brand new word'' was invented to describe the sheer hopelessness of the setting, aptly named "{{Grimdark}}", and it is hands down THE BLEAKEST setting ever put to fiction, ''period''. Let's count the ways, shall we?

** How crapsack is 40K? Tzeentch, the utterly amoral Eldritch Abomination who plots countless schemes to bring endless misery to the universe ForTheEvulz, and is basically [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Nyarlathotep]] turned UpToEleven, is the resident ''God of Hope'' of all things. While the [[PlagueMaster God of Disease and Decay]], Nurgle, comes off as AffablyEvil by comparison. The revelation that Nurgle is actually an agent of the EternalRecurrence who is acting out only because it's way past time that this galaxy died out and gave new civilizations a chance to rise from the ruins not only makes him ''more'' sympathetic, [[VillainHasAPoint it's hard not to see his point]] that it's time to wipe the slate clean. Except the only reason for his reason to exist is ''because he's acting out in the first place.''

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' is an archetypal Crapsack World -- a world doomed to be destroyed by Chaos and its minions, themselves {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. The world is grim and dark, inhabited by uncaring Lizardmen, haughty and snobbish High Elves, insanely bloodlusty Dark Elves, sullen and xenophobic Wood Elves; nasty, brutish and violent humans who come in a variety of flavours: [[KnightTemplar Bretonnians]], Empire or just about any other kind of evil Human you can imagine; cannibal Halflings; grudgy, implacable and fatalistic Dwarves, boorish Goblins, bullyish Orcs, amoral and gluttonous Ogres, treacherous and wildly breeding Skaven ratmen, two types of Undead --Tomb Kings (mummies, skeletons and zombies) and Vampire Counts (your local Draculas) -- and, of course, the insane Chaos. Of course, a Crapsack World requires to be ruled by JerkassGods -- all the deities of the ''Warhammer'' world reflect the half-emptiness of the world itself. The End Times supplement takes this trope UpToEleven, culminating in [[spoiler: a third Warp Rift opening and the subsequent [[ApocalypseHow annihilation of the entire world by the Chaos Gods]]]].

* ''TabletopGame/{{Midnight}}'': The premise is essentially "What if [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Sauron]] won?" It's not pretty.
* In ''[[http://misspentyouthgame.com/ Misspent Youth]]'' by Robert Bohl, a game where you play a group of teenage anarchists out to change the world, the world is crapsack by design. There's a whole stage of the game where each Youthful Offender empowers The Authority with one way to mess with the world and their lives.

** Iomedae, the goddess of Justice, can be a ManipulativeBitch when it serves her purpose, and even Sarenrae, the goddess of healing and IncorruptiblePurePureness, is not above a little PayEvilUntoEvil. Caydan Cailean is a former alcoholic, womanizing mercenary who ascended to godhood on a drunken dare, and hasn't been sober since. Shelyn, the goddess of beauty, forbids her paladins from killing even the most vile villains, even to prevent more death, because a dead person cannot create things of beauty and a person who EatsBabies ForTheEvulz may make a HeelFaceTurn and take up glassblowing. Calistria is the Goddess of Lust and Revenge, has a wasp motif, and suffers from ChronicBackstabbingDisorder to the point where Asmodeus leaves when she is in the room. And these are considered good gods.
** There are also a bunch of entities running around who are on the same power level as gods, but have none of the gods' limitations. And none of them are good news.

However, the ''[=BattleTech=]'' universe could only truly be considered a CrapsackWorld during 2 time periods- the Succession Wars (when the game originally started), and the Jihad (storyline set to end in 2011). At no point did average technology levels fall below 23rd Century levels according to WordOfGod, and at present they're higher than they've ever been. Indiscriminate use of [=WMDs=] has been unheard of for more than 2 centuries, which was why most people were shocked when the [[AxCrazy Word Of Blake]] began tossing them around during the Jihad, and while incursions and the occasional full blown war still happen in the story line, most factions go out of their way to avoid attacking civilians-- when a planet is conquered, the typical effect is that there's a new flag flying in the town square and the taxes go to a different planet. Oppressive governments are actually the exception, not the rule. Then came the Dark Age, the HPG network is suddenly sabotaged, and off world communications have been crippled, now everyone is attacking everyone within reach. Some factions are on the offensive, and others are forced on the defensive.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'': The Demiplane of Dread often depicted as being a CrapsackWorld in early 2E products. This was back when it was meant for a "Weekend in Hell" campaign in which the [=PCs=] would be brought to the Demiplane by the Mists and their main goal was to escape. Later 2E products like the ''Domains of Dread'', and the 3E product line eased off of this and also went with the assumption that the players would be playing native heroes. So, to them the world would not seem so bad because it is all they know. It was outright a WorldHalfFull. You aren't going to stop the bigger evils unless the GM completely missed the point of GothicHorror and the setting, but you could make some lasting contributions and changes to local events, {{Hope Spot}}s did occasionally turn into chances to EarnYourHappyEnding, and... oh, wait, 4th Edition. Nevermind.%%What does "4th Edition. Nevermind" mean, exactly?
** ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' is a dimension-hopping setting which features angelic beings who sell arms to demons and devils to prolong a genocidal war, seven distinct infinite hells, seven heavens that consist of friendly fascism, an adaptation of the tests and suffering of Dante's Purgatorio, a DeathWorld of nature where sapient animals eat each other and you, the not-really-that-nice Norse mythology (complete with rampaging giants and einherar who forget that ''you'' don't get to come back for fighting for no reason), and a couple of decent places. The central city might as well be Charles Dickens meets Uptown Sinclair [[RecycledInSpace recycled in]] DungeonPunk. It is a mutable CrapSackWorld, however, and some of the bigger adventures featured an EarnYourHappyEnding or five and the chance to make it a WorldHalfFull.

* The incredibly terrible and thankfully unfinished game Racial Holy War is a CrapSackWorld on a meta level. From the point of view of the protagonists and the intended audience, it's a Crapsack since the dark races at the behest of their Jewish masters have essentially taken over the world. From the point of view of anyone else, it's a Crapsack in that it's a game where the inane views of white supremacists are true, in universe.

** Rather ironically, despite being the UrExample as far as Tabletop [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Worlds]] go, it isn't ''all'' horrible. While totalitarian planets ruled by the Imperium are undoubtedly the norm, there are a decent amount of planets that are not only completely peaceful, but actually have a reasonably fair democracy in place: as long as you don't do anything that'll be considered heretical by the government, and as long as your planet doesn't become subject to a massive earth-shattering battle, the odds are very likely you'll live a happy, contented life. No, really; the very setting that's [[BuffySpeak Crapsacky]] enough to create the term "{{grimdark}}" ''actually warrants the possibility of living a perfectly normal and happy life.'' For all the sheer hopelessness of the 410th century, it's actually not ''too'' bad at some points.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Mordheim}}''. It's a CrapsackWorld ''by Warhammer standards''. Basically, Mordheim was once the Empire's top WretchedHive until a wyrdstone comet smashed into it and obliterated it. The people who weren't killed by the blast went insane and murdered each other in a colossal psychotic orgy of violence. The whole place is seeped by dark energy and it might possibly be alive... ''and very malicious''. [[MindScrew You'll see all kinds of terrifying, weird, mind-bending shit there]]: blood, dismembered limbs, faeces, fleshy outgrowths coming out of the walls, giant glowing maggots crawling on the rooftops, carriages with the skinned bodies of the horses riding atop while the dead bodies of the previous human occupants kneel in the bridles at the front, and bodies hanging from the windows and rooftops with little indication as to whether they were [[CruelAndUnusualDeath alive]] or [[DeadGuyOnDisplay dead]] when they were put up there. Ghastly spirits haunt the abandoned houses and daemons and Chaos ogres roam the streets, killing everyone and everything they cross. Few survivors still live in the city and all of them are forever scarred both physically and mentally, and some of these wretches are so insane that they offer assistance to the vampires who come to the city in search of the comet's fragments for their foul necromantic designs, just to survive. And the undead are not all you have to deal with: the fabled Skaven are said to lurk in the shadows, picking wyrdstone and bones to gnaw on, then there's the [[KnightTemplar religious fanatics]] flocking to the city to "purge" it (which means killing everything within miles of the place and smashing the city down to the last brick), and last but certainly not least is the cult who operate from the pit in the centre of the city where the comet struck and worship [[EldritchAbomination some entity of horrific evil]] the impact has woken up. You even have to compete with your fellow lowlife mercenaries in cloak-and-dagger street combat to capture the wyrdstone for unscrupulous Imperial nobles because they offer you a quick buck in exchange for the stuff, for Sigmar only knows what reason. The city's only possible salvation lies in a handful of completely beleaguered and outnumbered women warrior monks operating out of their fortress over the river Stirn, trying to rescue whoever they can and keeping the wyrdstone out of the wrong hands. Welcome to [[VideoGame/MordheimCityOfTheDamned the city of the damned]], enjoy your stay.

* The term "Crapsack World" barely does justice to the setting of ''TabletopGame/UnhallowedMetropolis''. There's been 200 years of zombies, 196 years of restless ghosts, 177 years of flesh-eating ghouls, 161 years of Thropes, and 152 years of vampires. Entire countries and regions no longer exist in any meaningful sense of the word. Bizarre blighted wastelands are expanding throughout the world. The dominant power of the world is a new Victorian Britain with its social inequities and depravities turned up to 11. France is ruled by a mysterious king who is almost certainly not human, and what little information on its state escapes its borders suggests that terms like "unholy" and "unnatural" barely suffice to describe what's going on there. The air in London is so foul that going out without a gas mask or at least a damp cloth can lead to unconsciousness and death. Anarchists plague London, failing to realize that although there are very real social ills, dealing with them by dismantling the government entirely will just end up killing everyone still living in the UK. On top of all this, it's hinted that the ZombieApocalypse is actually the ''least'' of the world's problems -- that the world has become '''wrong''' on some deep, fundamental level, and the rise of the undead is just the most obvious symptom. And the heroes? The only people who can make a difference, make things better? They're suffering from physical, mental, or moral corruption -- as is anyone who ''isn't'' is doomed to inevitable death -- and they're likely to just get worse as they fight for humanity's future. This is ''not'' a nice setting. If this sounds a bit much, you may want to head for something happier and more optimistic, like ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' or the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness''.
* Between the eternally warmongering, xenophobic and corrupt factions fighting for the remains of the galaxy ([[OurOrcsAreDifferent one of which literally exists]] for the sole purpose of killing and looting), the [[CorruptChurch poverty-ridden heresy-crushing Imperium of Man]] (whose [[ObstructiveBureaucrat bureaucracies]] and [[FeudalFuture feudal orders]] do spend a lot of their time figuratively and literally fighting each other), and the [[HyperSpaceIsAScaryPlace infernal nightmare]] of the Warp infested by the [[EldritchAbomination Ruinous Powers of Chaos]] and their [[TheLegionsOfHell ravenous insane Daemonic apostles]], life in the universe of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' [[WeHaveReserves really]], [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison really]], [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace really]], ''[[BlackAndGreyMorality really]], [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity really]], [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed really]]'', '''[[AbsoluteXenophobe really]], [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil really]], [[OmnicidalManiac REALLY]], [[CosmicHorrorStory REALLY]], [[OverlyLongGag REALLY]]''' '''''[[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] sucks [[UpToEleven HARDCORE]]'''''. [[BrutalHonesty Seriously]], it's to the point the universe of ''40K'' seems to be exclusively designed to invoke [[CosmicPlaything as much misery and suffering as inhumanly possible]] out of the universe's myriad denizens, and atrocious enough that ''a brand new word'' was invented to describe the sheer hopelessness of the setting, aptly named "{{Grimdark}}", and it is hands down THE BLEAKEST setting ever put to fiction, ''period''. Let's count the ways, shall we?