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. Hopefully you’ll spot a game or two of interest!
All of the below were released in PDF between 1st-7th October 2022.
Core Rulebook
By Andrews McMeel Publishing
Blackbirds is a dark fantasy tabletop role-playing game. Powered by Zweihander RPG.
The gods failed us. The powerful betrayed us. Rise to meet your fate.
Twelve years of war have ravaged the kingdoms of Erebos, where the great battle that would decide the fate of all has been waged. . .and lost. Now, the lights of civilization are going out. Swells of refugees have taken to the roads, desperate to find homes far from all the suffering. New constellations twinkle in the vault of the night, only to disappear if scrutinized for too long. Creatures of long-forgotten folklore once again stalk the countryside. It is a time of ill omens and unlikely heroes.
BLACKBIRDS RPG is set in a dark fantasy world where a cabal of power-hungry Oligarchs has stolen godhood. Their horrific act rent the fabric of reality, allowing corrupt magic to undermine the world’s natural order. And, soon, the Oligarchs themselves will return to the mortal plane and remake it as they desire.
Core Rulebook
By Taylor Seely-Wright
THE PLAGUE is a Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG about a industrial fantasy world where group of doctors, scientists and occultists struggle to stop an apocalyptic plague from wiping out all life. They have nine missions to accomplish this goal before all is lost.
In this game you’ll work to help the common folk while dealing with corrupt governments, greedy criminals, dogmatic churches and occult scientists. Will you succeed in defeating the supernatural Plague that actively works against you? What are you willing to do to accomplish your goals when the fate of humanity is at stake?
Broken Compass Setting & Adventure
By CMON
Broken Compass is an Adventure Role-Playing Game inspired by the great movies and games of the genre, from the Mummy all the way to Uncharted, passing through Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider.
Voyages Extraordinaires will provide you everything you need to go on great Adventures following Jules Verne greatest novels. Includes additional rules for Expedition, Inventions and Extraordinary Creatures, as well as a ready-to-play On Demand Season.
Adventurers in Broken Compass are men and women of action, traveling the World to face the Challenges of great cities and wild, unwelcoming lands alike. Adventurers risk their lives every day, driven by their will to discover, learn or obtain something priceless to them.
Broken Compass is based on the highly cinematographic Fortune System: a set of game mechanics that use small pools of six-sided dice to determine the outcome of any task that might entail risks or end in accidents. To succeed, you don’t need to roll high totals. Your aim is to roll two-, three-, and four-of-a-kind results, which become Successes.
Core Rulebook
By Need Games
FABULA ULTIMA is a Tabletop Roleplaying Game inspired by Japanese-style console RPGs, or JRPGs. In Fabula Ultima, you and your friends will tell epic stories of would-be heroes and fearsome villains, set in fantasy worlds brimming with magic, wondrous locations, and uniquely bizarre monsters!
- Create your own setting together: with three different styles as reference, your group can freely shape the world as they wish, including powerful kingdoms, small villages, major historical events, and the people who inhabit these lands.
- A simple and intuitive ruleset that evokes both gameplay and atmospheres from the most beloved JRPGs, all while encouraging players to proactively set goals and influence the story: no choice is without consequence!
- A Bestiary filled with monsters, demons, beasts, and more: from simple encounters to deadly bosses, our heroes will face many challenges!
- Fifteen Classes to mix and match in order to create your favorite heroes: inspired by videogames, this modular growth system lets you design deep and unique characters. Choose your group type and embark on great adventures!
- Everything the Game Master needs to set the scene and accompany the group through marvelous, larger-than-life adventures! Advice, guidelines, and all the tools required to bring the heroes’ dark mirrors on stage… the Villains!
- 360 full-color pages, beautifully illustrated by professional artists from all over the world.
Beowulf: Age of Heroes Adventure Anthology
By Handiwork Games
This title collects all of the so-far published BEOWULF Age of Heroes adventures, and adds new material to each one including opening poems, flow charts, pronunciation guides, and GM advice.
The six adventures included are:
Horror at Herrogate
Word reaches our Hero that the remote fishing settlement of Herrogate, and the treasure seat of its lord Thorfinn, are plagued by a dreadful dréag. But is all quite as it seems?
Written by Marco Rafalà (The One Ring RPG, Star Trek Adventures, Lex Arcana), Horror at Herrogate is suitable for Heroes of level 3 to 4.
The Witches and The Wyrm
The snake will not die, and time does not turn properly. Three witches summon the Hero to a mysterious otherworldly land to conquer the defiant serpent.
Written by Jon Hodgson (Creative director of The One Ring 1e, and co-creator of BEOWULF Age of Heroes). This adventure is suitable for Heroes of levels 3-4.
Seven Stones
Seven Stones takes us to a desperate settlement, living in terror of a dreadful monster. The village lies on a rocky peninsula blasted by frigid winds, and here, people have lived in fear of the Stoor Wurm for generations.
Written by Elaine Lithgow (Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Wrath & Glory), Seven Stones is suitable for Heroes of level 4 to 5.
The Elfshot
Giorsala’s hall stands empty; her warriors’ gear still in their racks; children’s toys scattered on the playfield. All the people are gone but still it feels like something is watching you…
Written by Jacob Rodgers (Adventures in Middle-earth, Ruins of Symbaroum, The One Ring 2e, co-creator of BEOWULF Age of Heroes), The Elfshot is suitable for Heroes of level 4 to 5.
Ear of Stone
Hreodan an ideal location for sailors to resupply and trade, earning the island’s meadhall the nickname of Wayfarer’s Rest. Or so it was, until Hreodan’s guardian turned against it.
Written by KC Shi (Soulbound, Uncaged, Unbreakable), Ear of Stone is suitable for a Hero of levels 5-6.
The Triple Serpent
Our Hero sails to Ireland at the end of the Age of Heroes, and must attempt to unravel the mystery of the horrific serpent and who is behind its pitiless attacks on a community.
Written by Gareth Ryder Hanrahan, (The Black Iron Legacy Series, Dracula Dossiers, Darkening of Mirkwood) The Triple Serpent is suitable for a Hero of levels 6-7.
The Trials of the Twin Seas is full of ideas for your 5e games, but is best played with BEOWULF Age of Heroes rulebook, which is packed full of classes, weapons, monsters and new rules for duet play in this mythic setting.
Each adventure is fully illustrated in full colour, with maps, battle maps and more.
5E Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
By N. Antoniou
A flaming arrow whizzes through the cold dawn air and a war cry goes up followed by dozens of others. The war painted Orcs come rushing from the cover of the woods and set upon the small outpost. Rushing from your slumber, you grab your weapons and prepare to meet them.
5E Dungeons & Dragons Supplement
By CZRPG
The Red Woods is a 5e supplement which aims to help you save prep time and impress your players.
This product offers you a ready-to-use location, which you can drop in any setting, along with detailed encounters that can become an daventure. All of this supported by maps, to complement your game without the need to prepare.
The Red Woods is a peaceful and beautfil forest filled with red maple and redbud trees, hidden from most of the world via an illusion magic. The nearby common folk visit the woods yearly as part of the Crimson Festival, in which they bring offering to the fey people who live in the grove: the faersona. But the woods now face the menace of the Sharpclaws, evil druids who took the forest to themselves. Can the party help the fey take their home back?
Here’s a summary of what you get in this product:
- 19-pages PDF gorgeously laid out with amazing artwork
- 1 location with lore
- 3 detailed encounters that can become an adventure (4-6h of gameplay)
- 2 new stat block
- 1 custom artwork
- 3 battlemaps with ~41 versions (night, rain, etc)
- 1 regional map
- 1 new Druid subclass: Circle of the Sharpclaw
D100 Arctic Encounters & Events
System Agnostic Supplement
By Christian Blair
Need a table of random encounters for your arctic/polar setting? You got it!
A complete chart table of 100 random encounters and events themed around cold regions! Ranging in both complexity and challenge, from basic combat encounters to possible adventure hooks.
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 