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. I’m playing catch-up a bit this week as I didn’t blog at all last week due to my birthday, so we’ll be getting two columns worth of New Release spotlights this week starting with our look at some of the PDF’s released between 7th May – 13th May 2022.
Affinity Setting Books – Torus / Conestoga / Paradise
5E Dungeons & Dragons Settings
By Dias Ex Machina Games
Three Realities. One Story.
Affinity represents a bold, innovative approach to tabletop role-playing – a trilogy of worlds presenting unique ideas and rules but sharing similar themes, names, and even a common menace.
Select one setting or shift between all three. While they complement one another, they are not dependent, with each game standing on its own.
Each volume of Affinity contains unique and exciting mechanics compatible with 5th Edition rules, including new races, classes, backgrounds, weapons, armor, vehicles, spells and monsters.
Torus
This slam of art-deco, steampunk, and post-apocalypse involves heroes traveling a weird-west fantasy world searching for treasures from a forgotten past. Machines rise from the ruins of a dead empire while unique individuals manifest the magical powers of “smoke”. For everyone else, they survive upon the millions of miles of railroads while exacting justice from a barrel of an enchanted gun.
Conestoga
Humans and aliens find themselves trapped upon a gargantuan alien ark. Abandoned and adrift, the residents are forced to explore the catacombs of the strange vessel, scavenging and crafting technology. Employing powered armor and emerging individuals possessing psionic abilities, factions battle for control over resources, technology, and the secrets of their new home.
Paradise
This semi-tradition fantasy is set within a full-scale geocentric model solar system. The god-like Aegis rule the other worlds from their perch within Abraxas, manipulating conflicts between kingdoms while forbidding both magic and machines. Heroes explore truly alien landscapes while harnessing the ability of alter reality through an ancient magical language.
Troika! Supplement
By Melsonian Arts Council
Academies of the Arcane is a role-playing book and the next official release for Troika! Numinous Edition. While it is intended to support Troika!, this new book is a comprehensive toolkit—it will work as well with any game where you might need magical schools, students possessing horrifying cosmic powers, and manipulative and petty faculty members. Within you will find robust tools to create your own magical school: locations, classes, staff and student body, as well as new tables for calamity and magical overload. How you choose to use these items to define your game’s tone and setting are entirely up to you—the book even includes advice for changing around the terminology, descriptions and structures to fit your preferred wizarding world!
- 36 new student character backgrounds—as many as the core Troika book!
- Over 90 new spells befitting a wizarding academy.
- 20+ enormous tables for generating school uniforms, school houses, teachers, locations, events, classes and more.
- 50 pieces of fabulous original art throughout!
Level Up: Gate Pass Gazette Issue #2
5E Dungeons & Dragons Supplement
By EN Publishing
The Gate Pass Gazette is the official monthly magazine for Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. Each month, this digital supplement comes crammed with new rules and resources for your game.
Avenging Archetypes
When fate has dealt the world a dire hand and everything is on the table, only the most capable warriors can be relied upon to save the day. Features the Charging Shield fighter, the Dodger adept, the Hawk-Eyed ranger, and the Mutant warlock archetypes. By Mike Myler.
Well-Equipped: Steampunk Gadgets and Gear
A collection of mundane and magical equipment with a Victorian feel, these items can be used either to supplement Adventures in ZEITGEIST or add some sepia-toned flair to any setting. By Peter N Martin.
Living at the Edge of Night
A set of gothic horror-themed character options for any campaign, featuring the Cursed and Haunted backgrounds and the Slayer destiny. By Rachel Williamson.
I Heard You Like Monsters
A collection of clever encounters featuring the work of the wizard Fengbald, monster maker to the rich and tyrannical. Features 3 monsters, each with a twist, to add interest to any adventure. By Ryan Nock.
Core Rulebook
By Nicholas Kory
It’s Space Opera meets the Golden Age of Piracy in this swashbuckling, high-flying, alien hunting roleplaying game! Create your starsailor, gather your crew, and craft your ship. Then, your Game Master will lead you on a journey through the Han’Arai Galaxy, and all of the adventure, danger, and mystery that comes with it!
The Astral Tides Roleplaying Game is the tabletop RPG adaptation of Nicholas Kory’s fiction series of the same name. The game takes players on a wild ride through a science-fantasy galaxy full of colorful alien species, strange magical powers, and all the loot you can carry.
With a strong focus on working together as a team, Astral Tides boasts mechanical benefits for building relationships with your fellow crew, assisting each other in difficult tasks, and even roleplaying with one another! Only by sticking together can any of you hope to make it out in the wide open void.
The Astral Tides RPG: Core Rules is set to provide Game Masters and players with everything they need to assemble their crew, craft their ship, and set sail for adventure in the stars of the Han’Arai Galaxy. The Core Rules features eight chapters, outlined as follows:
- Chapter One: The Basics covers the basic structure of the game, general terminology, and when and how dice are used.
- Chapter Two: The Crew is the largest chapter of the book. This chapter details the specific game elements that go into creating your very own crew member, from 6 different species to 11 different aspects to creating your own background and choosing a hallmark.
- Chapter Three: The Loot describes how weapons, gear, datapads, kits, and other important equipment are handled in this RPG system.
- Chapter Four: The Ship allows the crew to select one of three ship models, and then customize it’s attributes and features to create the vessel they will use to sail the Han’Arai Galaxy.
- Chapter Five: The Game delves deeper into the details of the game rules that were introduced in Chapter One. Hazards, Challenges, Vehicular Combat, Companions, Settlements, and more are outlined here.
- Chapter Six: The Galaxy covers the major historical events of the Han’Arai Galaxy, from the discovery of Superspace to the Nuani War.
- Chapter Seven: The Life runs you through the basics of life in the Han’Arai Galaxy – ranks and roles on a starship, currency, technology, armaments, transportation, and more.
- Chapter Eight: The Master helps guide game masters on preparing and running their games of The Astral Tides RPG, as well as giving GMs charts and tables to help them create new worlds, non-player characters, and ships.
- Chapter Nine: The Tools provides over 50 creatures, a handful of villains, a dozen ships, and all the rules and building blocks you need as a GM to create your own monsters that are perfectly balanced for your crew of player characters.
In addition to the core book, you’ll also get 20 Virtual Tabletop Tokens, Ship Deck Plans for three different models of vessel, a printable character sheet and a printable ship sheet. With this one purchase, you’ve got everything you need to gather your crew and start sailing the wide open black!
Mork Borg Adventure
By Melpomene Gaming
In Part 1 of 5 in the Pentagram Cycle of adventures for MÖRK BORG, the players are tasked with protecting the home of the Baron and Baroness Semachiah from a howling mob of upstarts roaming the streets of Grift. Before long, they will realize they are in completely over their heads. Cultists, Bloodhawks, secret island temples, wands channeling the Black Wind, loopy hippies, gnarly artifacts, zombified townsfolk, and the ability to loot your bosses’ house – and much more – await you.
From Beyond the Endless Sea is Melpomene Games’ second adventure (and first for MÖRK BORG), and is focused on solving a mystery, dealing with sorcerous foes, encountering strange and awful folks in Grift, and of course staying alive while pocketing plenty of silver. It does not contain any formal dungeonalthough there is an “anti-dungeon” to troll your players with dehydration rules, and there is plenty of combat potential with some unique monsters and other foes. Instead, this represents the first of five dark adventures in which we will face the players up against otherworldly plots involving some light investigation, and have the players confront a brutal ticking clock that ticks towards an unspeakable Catastrophe.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Supplement
By Cubicle 7 Entertainment
Along the Empire’s roads, the dead walk. Called from their slumber by a necromancer’s profane whispers, or buried where dark magic saturates the ground, these Undead march without rest, adding to their number with each hapless soul they cross. Whether such bands move with a purpose or wander aimlessly, they often find themselves the centre of folk tales. Many a terrified tavern audience has gathered around the fire to hear stories of wild hunts, ghostly processions, and corpse-laden carts come to carry away the unwary. Of these, one story has risen to prominence. If you wander through the fertile lands between the Grey Mountains and the Reikwald Forest, listen always for the sounds of creaking wheels and a tolling bell. Do not wait to ask the carriage for a lift. Hide. Cover your ears. And whatever you do, do not follow where the bell leads. The Night Parade are calling.
The Night Parade are a band of wandering Undead, drawn together by the ancient Liche, Old Jasper. Setting out from the Grey Mountains when both moons shine as crescents, he leads his charges through the Vorbergland, calling the dead to him wherever they go. There appears to be little rhyme or reason to the Night Parade’s journeys. Yet, each time they are sighted, their numbers are sure to grow.
Alongside full profiles for personalities such as Old Jasper and his Wight Lieutenants are templates to advance the basic Undead creatures found in the Warhammer Fantasy Rulebook, turning them into Liche Corpsemasters, Liche Lords, Wights, Wight Champions, and Mass Grave Dead, as well as templates to raise mounts as Undead steeds. The Night Parade also includes full rules and adventure hooks for including Corpse Carts in your games.
Codex – Starlight 2 (Issue #46)
RPG Magazine
By The Gauntlet
Temple of the Peerless Star This is a deluxe Trophy Gold incursion inspired by the original Temple of the Peerless Star. The original version was for Dungeon World, and was featured in the Discern Realities podcast and Codex – Starlight. We have revamped it and recontextualized everything for Trophy Gold. This is a narratively complex incursion, with lots of ways to explore and resolve it, and Trophy fans are going to love it.
Snipe Hunt Written by David LaFreniere. This is mechanically inspired by Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne, and is about a teenager who has taken a group of young kids out into the woods for a snipe hunt in order to protect them from some kind of calamity back in town. The game is inspired by movies like Red Dawn and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Bed, Breakfast, & Beyond This is a short, one-shot version of Brindlewood Bay about an elderly gay couple who run a bed & breakfast trying to figure out why guests keep disappearing from Room 3. It takes the basics of Brindlewood Bay and slims them down to tell this more compact, supernatural-focused story. And in the same way that Brindlewood Bay was a groundbreaking game for how it presented elderly women characters, so is this hack in how it depicts love between two elderly gay men. It was written by Alicia Furness and Chris Bissette.
Three Dozen MORE Signs the Stars are Right! A sequel to the miscellany originally found in Codex – Starlight.
Tiny Series Games Anthology
By Gallant Knight Games
Compiling all the 2021 TinyZines into a print format, this book collates the entire years worth of Gallant Knight Games’ e-zine into a convenient print format!
Containing new heritages, adventures, previews, optional mechanics, and more for a variety of Gallant Knight Games, you’ll get material for:
- Tiny Frontiers – Revised
- Tiny Dungeon: Second Edition
- Tiny Supers
- Tiny Wastelands
- Tiny Pirates
- Tiny Living Dead
- and more!
This product contains the content of TinyZines #33-#45, released in 2021.
Core Rulebook
By Loreshaper Games
Sarah,
It’s been a while since I wrote. There has been lots of shelling, but we’re safe down in the trenches.
It doesn’t look like anything’s going to change before the holidays. I know they said we’d be back by November, but we’re probably going to stay over the winter.
It’s nice in a way. We have plenty of firewood, so we aren’t getting cold.
The worst we had to deal with was Private Anderson’s pet rat getting into the potatoes.
The Game
The Empire Wants You is a game of juxtaposition. You have war overseas, and the peace (if disrupted) of the home-front.
Although not strictly based on any historic events, I drew most of my inspiration from Britain in the First World War.
It takes place in seasons—first on the home-front, then on the battlefield.
As each season passes, the war rages on and the characters you play must survive while taking care of each other from a distance.
The Magical Land of Yeld Supplement
By Atarashi Games
The Witch Hunter Job Guide is a new expansion for The Magical Land of Yeld, with everything you’ll need to commit yourself to Yeld’s most notorious Heroic Job. In this guide you’ll discover the history of the Old Kings and the secrets that were passed down to them from Yeld’s last Dragons. Learn about the crusades against the ancient and terrifying weapons of mass destruction that were Yeld’s Witches, and the equally destructive wars against the rogue Black Mages. Magic is a necessity of life in Yeld, but it is a power that always corrupts. The Witch Hunter stand ready to face that power, even if they fear they can never be its equal.
We’ve collected all the Witch Hunter specific content from the Yeld rulebook and reprinted it here, along with a selection of new Job Abilities, new Special Dice and new Treasures for you to collect! You’ll also find a brand new Mentor who is ready to instruct your young Witch Hunter and send them on a dangerous quest! This guide also includes advice for building and playing different types of Witch Hunters. Learn the secrets of the shadowy Masked Vigilante, the charismatic Faceless Saint and the magic crushing Spell Burner!
In the Witch Hunter Job Guide you’ll find:
– New background and art detailing the role of Witch Hunters in Yeld, the history of the King’s People and the terror that is the true Witches!
– Learn about Yeld’s most celebrated and notorious Witch Hunters. The secretive Candle Masks, the dread Abolisher Knights, the Legendary Sun King and the Witch Hunter who became Yeld’s first Vampire Hunter!
– Advice for different Witch Hunter Job builds and tactics for fights, including the shadowy Masked Vigilante, the charismatic Faceless Saint and the magic crushing Spell Burner!
– Introducing the Crucible, a new kind of conflict that allows Witch Hunters to call a trial and deliver justice!
– A selection of new craftable Witch Hunter Masks, giving the Witch Hunter new tools for resisting magic and fighting against spell casters.
– Traps, a new type of weapon that allows Witch Hunters (and other Jobs and Monsters) to control the fight by placing a variety of clever and deadly Traps on the Action Board!
– New Job Specific Special dice that give Witch Hunters new options!
– New Exotic Treasure to collect, including new Masks, Clubs, Daggers and Whips!
– A Witch Hunter Mastery Quest, complete with powerful new rewards!
– New art by Modest Medusa creator Jake Richmond
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 