Welcome back to the Role Playing Games PDF Spotlights column, where we look at some of the PDF’s that have been released in the past week that have caught my eye.
All of the below were released in PDF between 5th-11th March 2022.
Core Rulebook
By Andrew Dowell
A small town, with one big secret.
Welcome to Twin Falls.
Population of 102,865 (Living). For a long time now things just haven’t been right in your town. Sometimes it’s a strange disgusting smell, or maybe just the light outside looks weird. But whatever it is, it keeps you awake at night.
You started asking questions to your parents and teachers, but you got one-to-many odd looks. Friends didn’t want to hang out with you anymore. They just didn’t see it.
Your parents believed you were getting mixed up with the wrong sort of kids or playing too many video games. Maybe it’s both, but probably not.
But, It’s not every day you see a ghost on the school bus.
Ghost club is a light RPG game about investigating haunted houses, finding clues about the ghosts, and then summoning the big bad for a final banishing show-down. Set against the backdrop of a small town somewhere in America, if you’re a fan of the supernatural, you’re going to love playing investigations set in this mysterious and spooky town.
This adventure game is designed to be a bit scary, a little silly, and a lot of fun. It’s designed with simple mechanisms to encourage gameplay for a wide age group that won’t require a lot of background reading and will be suitable as a gateway game into more advanced roleplaying games. This core book will focus on building imaginative storytelling whilst acting as an introduction to team collaboration, developing social skills, and solving puzzles. It’s about having fun and taking it all with a pinch of salt… or maybe a holy catapult.
The system is made for 2-5 players, one of which being the narrator and rule master. This person will be called the ‘GM’, which is an abbreviation for Ghost Master. All other players will take on the character roles of the story protagonists. We will call them ‘The kids’. Use one of the premade characters, or make your own. Join a gang, and you’re all set to start investigating spooky houses.
Comets & Cockpits: Geographica Adelphis
A 5e Junker Space Fantasy Setting
By Daylight Publications
What is Junker Space Fantasy?
So let’s break down these two separate genres as they are quite different — beginning with space fantasy. The genre of space fantasy is usually categorized by several items: the inclusion of some sort of “mythic quest,” a young pupil and aged master, a kind of knightly order or analog, and a dark force or power which the pupil and master must fight against. The most clear example of this is George Lucas’ Star Wars or something like the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s. Whether it is in the far future or far past, there is this fantastical quality to the science fiction story that grants it that moniker of space fantasy. To coin a phrase, “magic space wizards” is a perfect description of what space fantasy is at its core.
Now the junker element. Films like Mad Max or Waterworld would count as junker films as they are post-apocalyptic or occurring during the apocalypse and place an emphasis on a junky, rusty, rough and tumble kind of aesthetic. Fury Road does perhaps the best job of exemplifying this genre, followed by video games like Borderlands or Destiny, both of which have those rough-around-the-edges kind of quality to them that lend well to the junker aesthetic.
So junker space fantasy… how the hell does that work?
Junker space fantasy plays on the visual inspiration of the junker theme but has the mythic and fantastical elements of the space fantasy. The plethora of worlds and the biotechnological nature of the planet of Adelphos are designed to feel like a hybrid of scientific engineering and magic or perhaps a kind of union of one overtaking the other. A young speeder pilot who built his suit from scrap metal under the tutelage of an old battlesmith who is fighting against the expansion of a shadowy empire is an example of a union between those two genres.
Whether it is forming a guild to clown around the stars while exploring alien ruins; blasting huge monsters aside with a rune-powered gun; working in the hold of an old treasure galleon on your scrappy speeder; or performing powerful cosmagic in the depths of a black hole being opened in the middle of the county capital surrounded by xeno-necromancers — Comets & Cockpits invites you to strap on your armor, grab your saddle and coneslinger, gather some other junkers and make the deep dive into wild and zany space fantasy that we present for your 5e table.
From the Journal of Ironbashk, Space Goblin Warlock and Junker Extraordinaire
Hello there, junkers! Welcome to Adelphos, and in turn welcome to Haven! Arlo Runewright is the usual greeting committee, but he got tangled up taking care of some stuff in the Map Room with Tessin and Edmora, so he put me in charge! Dangerous choice! Anyhow, it is my job to welcome ya ta our little nook in the universe. Well, technically it ain’t little, since Adelphos is 39 billion square kilometers — but that is beside the point! I am here to tell ya argon from apples, so here is the dealio: there are three important rules to surviving in Haven.
First rule — ya are gonna see a lotta strange shit around, go figure! Ya are on our ancestral homeworld, something we ain’t seen in a couple millennia, SURPRISE! So the more you learn to go with the flow, the lot better this whole “acclimating” process is gonna go.
Second rule — do not drink the blue water. Don’t give me the crock of “Oh, Ironbashk, water is blue!” No it ain’t dumbass, water is clear! I mean do not drink for the areas where you see a lurid blue spill of some kind of gunk. Means dire tardigrades have been there and gotten their rune goo everywhere.
Third rule — throw everything ya know out the window. Ya would think with rule number one that would be self explanatory. WRONG! Shit don’t work here like it does back on yar normie homeworld, punks. Magic, monsters, money — all different in Haven.
And the fourth rule — fruk ya, I am adding a fourth one — trust yar gut. Sure, there are times that ya can use yar head and logic yart way outta some shit ya might have landed in. But here in Haven and on Adelphos, ain’t got time for that shit. Eat or be eaten, shot or be shot, live or unlive.
We are visitors here on this rock – our ancestors might have lived here thousands of years ago, but it outgrew us while we was gone. Our fancy tech and magicks and speeders and whatnot ain’t jack against a planet that SURVIVED A TITAN EXPLODING HERSELF. So keep that in mind when ya are out and about. Oh, and here is this, some sorta guidebook that Arlo threw together on the planet and Haven. I added my own notes, of course.
Good luck! Ya gonna need it!
Call of Cthulhu Scenario
By Gaxx Worx (Luke Gygax)
More than just a party, its an adventure! Join Admiral Gygax, the Gygax family and friends at a party where you must navigate through the Excelsior hotel, recovering lost artifacts of inestimable wealth and incredible power. Have you the social skills to avoid the many pitfalls such a journey presents? Only one way to find (buy this!).
5E Dungeons & Dragons Supplement
By Kobold Press
Enter a Portal to the Unknown!
Darkly fantastic material for the world’s first RPG!
Within these dusty pages, uncover the secrets of the world—indeed, of the branches of the multiverse! Collected here are entire lost volumes of esoteric truths: the Warlock Grimoire 3. Inside, find revelations and testimonials on monsters, magic, locales, and lore for fantasy adventures:
- The life and times of the noble bearfolk, their Bear Maiden and their honey axes
- Mysteries of the quizzical ravenfolk, steeped in magic and myth
- Dangerous secrets kept by the druids, from dark trinkets to hidden circles
- Weird and quirky truths, from the Astral moons to the odd weather of the Wastes
- Details and history of the village of Redtower, ever in the shadow of the Scarlet Citadel
- Wondrous and mysterious locales of the Southlands, where adventure is abundant
- Sites of legend, their secrets uncovered, from the interplanar Stross Library to Terminus Island at the very edge of the world
- Mind-bending options for dungeons and new perspectives on their design and integration
- Rumors of the Dragon Empire and insights into just what the dragons are hiding
- Plus new subclasses, backgrounds, spells, magic items, monsters,
Warlock Grimoire 3 presents all the content from issues 20–28 of Warlock and also includes the Warlock Guide to the Planes, answering secrets of the multiverse—and raising many more. Uncover dark truths about the Midgard campaign setting or for worlds of your own creation!
5E Core Rulebook & Setting
By FeralGamesInc
In the game, you can now play as Tactical Police Units, Special Forces, law Enforcement, ICO Ghosts, PMCs and more.
The 5e rules have been adapted to fit the modern military setting.
- New rules regarding weapons, including calibres and attachments
- New Class rules with level features including new skill proficiencies
- No subclasses now you choose the Feature you wish your operator to have from a list meaning more diversity amongst characters of the same class.
- Rules for safe houses and supply drops
- New rules for requisitioning equipment
- New rules for using Inspiration
- All the rules you need to play in a single book
You can choose from 23 different background countries and 94 different specialist law enforcement and military units making this the biggest Ghost Ops yet.
Ghost Ops was initially inspired by Tom Clancy’s books and games produced by Ubisoft, but having knowledge of either of these influences is not needed to play. However, understanding how Special Forces and Special Law Enforcement agencies operate will be beneficial.
For Handlers, we live in a world if Inspiration for missions to tax your players. Turn on the news, or read a newspaper, to discover a myriad of objectives, plots, and ideas for exciting and dangerous adventures. So be they taking down Mexican Drug Cartels, to face the threat of Rogue Nations and highly funded Terrorist organisations.
You do not need the Players Handbook, DMs Guide or Monster Manual to play Ghost Ops.
Cypher System Sourcebook
By Monte Cook Games
Unlock even more of the Ninth World and expand your campaign!
Most people of the Ninth World live isolated lives. Surrounded by the wild and mysterious unknown, few people in the Steadfast—and even fewer in the Beyond—venture, in their entire lives, more than a few miles from the place of their birth. And they’re happy that way.
But not you. Your dreams extend beyond the horizon. Tales of great wonders and even greater dangers are not cautionary to you—they’re lures, drawing you ever outward to discovery and adventure. The secrets of the prior worlds beckon. But the vast distances, and the dangers they hold, are a daunting barrier. Until now!
Break the Horizon adds mobility to your Numenera campaign. With it you can traverse the vast distances of the Ninth World, finding adventure, encounters, and treasures along the way. This book contains:
- New mounts, commonplace vehicles, numenera vehicles, and cyphers and artifacts that aid in travel. Plus, a comprehensive index of all travel options from every Numenera product to date.
- New travel-related equipment PCs can purchase, salvage, or craft.
- New creatures and NPCs to encounter along the way.
- Travel-themed GM intrusions, plus an expansive chapter on hazards and encounters: pepper them into any adventure or travel interlude, or use them as seeds for entire new adventures.
- The Safe Wayfarer Travel Guide, full of useful in-world advice from seasoned Ninth World travelers.
- Plus two full adventures that can be integrated into the PCs’ travels or used at their destinations
Systemless Sourcebook
By Lore Wise Games
Love and romance, moral dilemmas, social conflicts, disagreements, intrigue, and drama. Turn your adventures and campaigns into drama masterpieces with a whole new dimension of detail and emotional depth. Introduce the element of life’s challenges that any adventurer or NPC can get entangled in, and engage your players like never before.
Presented here are 100 unique social events that are focused on the troubles of every day life and narrative-building roleplay. This list will help you introduce drama and intrigue into your campaigns in a more nuanced and believable way.
This is an essential tool and reference that a GM will be able to use over and over again.
- 1d100 social challenges and flavorful events for memorable roleplaying situations
- Supernatural / magic references are kept to a bare minimum – gives you full control of the tone of your game
- Almost exclusively non-combat content – keep using your favorite random encounter tables
- Includes 12 additional support tables for excellent variation and further inspiration
- Perfect for slice of life, OSR, historical and medieval fantasy games
- System Agnostic – use with your favorite RPGs
- Black & white – printer friendly layout
- Bookmarked PDF
Tables Included
- 1d100 Social Events
- 1d20 Family Members
- 1d20 Upper Class Workers
- 1d20 Lower Class Workers
- 1d20 Persons
- 1d20 Motivations
- 1d20 Properties
- 1d20 Weaknesses
- 1d20 Personal Problems
- 1d20 Personalities
- 1d20 Behaviors
- 1d20 Secrets
- 1d20 Occasions
5E Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
By Menagerie Press
An original level 5-7 adventure made for D&D 5e.
Lord-Regent Lopon rules the Kells through subtle manipulation, keeping the nobles at each other’s throats. Should the nobles realize Lopon’s duplicity, they would cast down this tyrant. Recently, several prominent aristocrats have turned up dead, and fingers point in all directions.
Systemless Sourcebook
By Architects of the Deep
Have you ever been stuck trying to design a location for your party to encounter? This book will help you do just that. These pages are full of 20 tables that will help you create unique cities and towns for your party to visit.
Want to make a random city? Just roll the dice.
There are also a couple of example cities included here that you can use for your next game night!
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition Sourcebook
By Wizards of the Coast
“Here are the legends and lore needed to recreate the heroic quests in the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS world of fantasy” Now you can add the grandeur of epic quests to your game. This book provides the Dungeon Master with details of heroes, gods, and monsters from myth, fiction, and legend for use in creating an AD&D fantasy world.
Please note: Some of the links in the post above may be “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item the author of this post will receive an affiliate commission.
Voices From The Pulpit 