Welcome to the Bundles, Freebies, and Sales News, the weekly column at EN World that helps make sure you don’t miss out on big tabletop RPG bundles, charity fundraisers, and sales from around the internet.
Freebies and Pay What You Want
Note: While “Pay What You Want” downloads are available for free, please support the creators if you are able!
Modiphius released the new Mission Briefs for Star Trek Adventures, a collection of ten adventure hooks titled Ancient Civilizations. This features ten short descriptions of adventures set in the TOS era (though it can be adapted for other time periods) centering on the remnants, ruins, and artifacts of societies and cultures that disappeared millennia ago and the god-like beings that are still around.
William Rotor released the Dyson Sphere roleplaying game this week, taking place millions of years in the future as humanity has constructed a solar-powered habitat that completely encloses the sun using a 2d6-based system. Rotor released four products this week, the core rules for the system which are for sale for $10.03 along with a free quickstart for the system, the gamemaster book Dyson Sphere Architect’s Guide also for free, and the adventure Replication as Pay What You Want.
Immersive Adventuring posted Dark Arts of Love, a 5e-compatible toolbox for gothic horror/romance settings and adventures. The book features 16 encounters managing a balance of combat, exploration, roleplay, and skill challenges, a high-resolution regional map of the setting of Julianus Academy (day and night versions), and 4 NPC outlines and portraits.
If you’ve ever wonder what a Guy Ritchie modern Lovecraftian game would look like, Don’t Let Them Take You Alive from Dangerous Worlds is here for you. Also described as “Scooby-Doo with guns”, this contemporary Cthulhu mythos RPG focuses on the pulp action elements with rules to play on either side of the apocalypse powered by an all-new d100 system.
And if you want more Scooby Doo without the adult shock elements, Raphael Lina has Nosy Kids, a game of children’s investigation and the adventures that take place in the nebulous world that exists between reality and a child’s imagination.
Want to let your inner monster loose? Then the Creatures RPG from Mimics & Monstrocities is here to let your chaotic energy free with an RPG inspired by the Gremlins films. The rules-lite system uses just a d6 and a d12 to determine exactly how much chaos and mayhem you can cause before sunrise.
For fans of Traveller, Old School Roleplaying has a new adventure Duplication for the Cepheus Engine. A scientist has reverse-engineered alien technology to allow for perfect cloning and just needs a little help getting specific individuals to replace.
For those looking for a new system to try with the current controversy in the news, Tragos Games has thrown their TL-N Core system into the mix as a GM-less RPG with an SRD licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International with a system based on the Brazilian RPG Tractatus Ludico-Narrativus.
Many have taken to Dungeons & Dragons in therapy and education, and Philip Viljoen has a guide to assist those looking to integrate tabletop RPGs into their treatment and curriculums with Dungeons & Dragons as a Therapeutic and Learning Tool. From the description on Dungeonmasters Guild:
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, Samuel Bouchard released Lost Pages of the Map Leper’s Grimoire, a collection of 27 bizarre spells for 5e.
Do you need a final Big Bad for your D&D game? Scott Bean – Dragon Rock Games has the Wraithscale, an undead dragon able to create and control the undead as a CR18 campaign-capping boss. Or for a more modest challenge for lower-level characters, you can grab the Hellspawn Razorback, a CR6 boar from Hell (literally).
Jani Hietikko released Magical Feats for Places of Power, a collection of six feats designed for use with the Places of Power: Expanded Spellcasting book also on DMs Guild but can also be used on their own as new character options.
An original introductory adventure, Shadows in a Seaside City by Jesse van der Vorst is a 15-page one-shot that can be plugged into any setting for 1st level characters, either working as a stand-alone adventure or ready to spin off into another published or original campaign. Set to run in 3-8 hours, this adventure is designed both for first-time DMs and first-time players to learn how to play the game while meeting pirates and saving a sailor from certain doom.
The Griffin Fredette Mega Bundle features an entire collection of almost 30 sourcebooks with new classes, races, spells, magic items, subclasses, toolkits, and more to expand your games.
And now for the first of our two rapid-fire sections this week, maps! You know the drill by now, all of these are either free or Pay What You Want with the suggested price in brackets.
And now we have a collection of classes and subclasses. Same rules as above, all are either free or Pay What You Want with the suggested price in brackets. And we’re starting out with a pirate-y theme with the first batch!
Bundles and Sales
Note: I have included end dates when listed for the following sales, but please be warned that those without published end dates may end suddenly so be sure to plan purchases accordingly.
If you hurry, you can grab a license for Fantasy Grounds for half off including the Standard License that allows hosting of games for other Standard License players or the Ultimate License which allows hosting games for free users.
It’s also time for the Humble Store Winter Sale with deep discounts on a lot of video games including those based on tabletop roleplaying games, including Cyberpunk 2077, Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun Dragonfall, BattleTech, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, the port of the arcade classic Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, and a lot more.
Tim Bannock has dropped prices on several of his OGL products (for some reason I’m not entirely sure why specifically OGL products, I guess there’s news or something) including the Astonishing Super Heroes Book 1: Basic Rules and several adventures for 5e, 1e, and B/X.
For those with 3D printers, Fishwife Games has a bundle of…oh god I lost count because it’s a LOT of STL files on DriveThruRPG. If you need terrain or creatures for a science fiction, near-future, or contemporary game, you’ll find something here for you (I notice that a lot of the designs have the art deco inspiration of Fallout as well).
And if that’s not enough, Fishwife Games also has other collections as well, all system-generic themed bundles of random generation tables for characters, locations, adventure hooks, and more.
Heroic Maps has a collection of maps I don’t see too often, spaceship interior maps. This bundle includes starfighter interiors for six different ship types in multiple formats for grid and gridless play.
And while we seem to be on a theme, Skirmisher Publishing has 10 issues of the Wisdom of the Wasteland mini-supplement featuring high-tech weapons and combat options for the OSR retroclone Mutant Future (based on the first edition of Gamma World) that can be easily adapted for any OGL system.
And over on Dungeonmasters Guild, there’s a trio of supplements under the Trinkets & Treasures line with separate books for Dragonlance, Spelljammer, and Ravenloft featuring new magic items and low-powered trinkets themed for those settings.
Charity Bundles and Sales
Over on Bundle of Holding, Handiwork Games collected together their 5e books based on the epic Beowulf. This RPG attempts to recreate the lone hero nature of the ancient epics with a duet play system for one player and one GM that allows control of various companions to fill roles or you can just adapt elements for your traditional 5e games with the core rules, four adventures, and an artbook.
If you want to get started with 13th Age from Pelgrane Press in anticipation of the new edition, Bundle of Holding has a bundle for you. This bundle includes the core rulebook, two bestiaries, the rules expansion 13 True Ways, two loot books, and the introductory adventure Crown of Axis while the bonus collection adds on ten more books and adventure collections.
Dan Coleman released a collection of adventures for 5e to bring your characters all the way from Level 1 to Level 20. The bundle includes the Low-Level and Mid-Level Adventure Packs plus the bonus adventure Bad Apples while the Bonus Collection adds on the High-Level Adventure Pack and the adventures Ebonclad and Pages from the Lost Grimoire.
The GDW 2300AD Bundle on Bundle of Holding features the original Game Designers’ Workshop sci-fi RPG 2300AD. The base level for this 80s classic includes the first edition core rules, two setting books, the ship expansion Ships of the French Arm, and four adventures. The Bonus Collection adds on the second edition core rules, two guidebooks, the 2300AD Colonial Atlas, the Kafer Sourcebook, and three adventures.
Humble Bundle and Kobold Press apparently set out the RPG Signal to put together the RPG Worlds Bundle featuring 52 titles from a wide variety of publishers. The base level features the core rules for Castles & Crusades along with an adventure, the 5e adventure City of Cats, the fantasy wild west RPG Tall Tales, and more with the second and third tiers adding even more OSR games and adventures, 5e supplements and campaigns, and original RPG systems ranging from fantasy to sci-fi to horror to the old west to 1920s gangsters.
Okay, it’s a video game bundle with no ties to TTRPGs, but I have to mention the Wadjet Eye Games Bundle of point-and-click adventure video games. The bundle includes highly-rated and award winning games like the urban fantasy Unavowed, the supernatural mystery Blackwell series, and the post-apocalyptic Shardlight, but I really want to highlight my personal favorite: Technobabylon. Set in a cyberpunk world where genetic engineering is common, the detective Charlie Regis, his partner Max Lao, and an internet addict Latha Sesame get caught up in a plot involving a the memory-stealing serial killer The Mindjacker, the city’s all-seeing AI CEL, and a conspiracy of the most powerful people in the city. It’s also so hilarious I’ve literally injured myself laughing.
That’s all for this week! If you know of any bundles or sales starting soon, please contact me on the EN World Discord, tag me on Mastodon, or send me a message here on EN World. Discount percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number and are based on the standard retail price provided by the site. Note: Links to Amazon, Humble Store, Humble Bundle, Fantasy Grounds, and/or DriveThruRPG may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
Freebies and Pay What You Want
Note: While “Pay What You Want” downloads are available for free, please support the creators if you are able!
Modiphius released the new Mission Briefs for Star Trek Adventures, a collection of ten adventure hooks titled Ancient Civilizations. This features ten short descriptions of adventures set in the TOS era (though it can be adapted for other time periods) centering on the remnants, ruins, and artifacts of societies and cultures that disappeared millennia ago and the god-like beings that are still around.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
William Rotor released the Dyson Sphere roleplaying game this week, taking place millions of years in the future as humanity has constructed a solar-powered habitat that completely encloses the sun using a 2d6-based system. Rotor released four products this week, the core rules for the system which are for sale for $10.03 along with a free quickstart for the system, the gamemaster book Dyson Sphere Architect’s Guide also for free, and the adventure Replication as Pay What You Want.
- Quickstart and Architect’s Guide: Free
- Replication Adventure: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $4.04…ha.)
- Core Rulebook: $10.03
Immersive Adventuring posted Dark Arts of Love, a 5e-compatible toolbox for gothic horror/romance settings and adventures. The book features 16 encounters managing a balance of combat, exploration, roleplay, and skill challenges, a high-resolution regional map of the setting of Julianus Academy (day and night versions), and 4 NPC outlines and portraits.
- Price: Free
If you’ve ever wonder what a Guy Ritchie modern Lovecraftian game would look like, Don’t Let Them Take You Alive from Dangerous Worlds is here for you. Also described as “Scooby-Doo with guns”, this contemporary Cthulhu mythos RPG focuses on the pulp action elements with rules to play on either side of the apocalypse powered by an all-new d100 system.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
And if you want more Scooby Doo without the adult shock elements, Raphael Lina has Nosy Kids, a game of children’s investigation and the adventures that take place in the nebulous world that exists between reality and a child’s imagination.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Want to let your inner monster loose? Then the Creatures RPG from Mimics & Monstrocities is here to let your chaotic energy free with an RPG inspired by the Gremlins films. The rules-lite system uses just a d6 and a d12 to determine exactly how much chaos and mayhem you can cause before sunrise.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.75)
For fans of Traveller, Old School Roleplaying has a new adventure Duplication for the Cepheus Engine. A scientist has reverse-engineered alien technology to allow for perfect cloning and just needs a little help getting specific individuals to replace.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $3.00)
For those looking for a new system to try with the current controversy in the news, Tragos Games has thrown their TL-N Core system into the mix as a GM-less RPG with an SRD licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International with a system based on the Brazilian RPG Tractatus Ludico-Narrativus.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $3.00)
Many have taken to Dungeons & Dragons in therapy and education, and Philip Viljoen has a guide to assist those looking to integrate tabletop RPGs into their treatment and curriculums with Dungeons & Dragons as a Therapeutic and Learning Tool. From the description on Dungeonmasters Guild:
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $2.99)
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, Samuel Bouchard released Lost Pages of the Map Leper’s Grimoire, a collection of 27 bizarre spells for 5e.
- Price: Free
Do you need a final Big Bad for your D&D game? Scott Bean – Dragon Rock Games has the Wraithscale, an undead dragon able to create and control the undead as a CR18 campaign-capping boss. Or for a more modest challenge for lower-level characters, you can grab the Hellspawn Razorback, a CR6 boar from Hell (literally).
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00) each
Jani Hietikko released Magical Feats for Places of Power, a collection of six feats designed for use with the Places of Power: Expanded Spellcasting book also on DMs Guild but can also be used on their own as new character options.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
An original introductory adventure, Shadows in a Seaside City by Jesse van der Vorst is a 15-page one-shot that can be plugged into any setting for 1st level characters, either working as a stand-alone adventure or ready to spin off into another published or original campaign. Set to run in 3-8 hours, this adventure is designed both for first-time DMs and first-time players to learn how to play the game while meeting pirates and saving a sailor from certain doom.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $2.00)
The Griffin Fredette Mega Bundle features an entire collection of almost 30 sourcebooks with new classes, races, spells, magic items, subclasses, toolkits, and more to expand your games.
- Price: Free
And now for the first of our two rapid-fire sections this week, maps! You know the drill by now, all of these are either free or Pay What You Want with the suggested price in brackets.
- Free Map Friday #180 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- Free Map Friday #181 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- Free Map Friday #182 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- Free Map Friday #183 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- Free Map Friday #184 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- Free Map Friday #185 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- Free Map Friday #186 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- Free Map Friday #187 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- Free Map Friday #188 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- Free Map Friday #189 from Paths to Adventure (Free)
- The Dead Pool Remix from The Savean Scripts (Free)
- Forgotten Temple from Cilipepas Choas ($1.00)
- Waterfront House from Sesiana ($0.00)
- Inn of the Last Home (based on the Dragonlance location) from Marcus Meredith ($0.99)
And now we have a collection of classes and subclasses. Same rules as above, all are either free or Pay What You Want with the suggested price in brackets. And we’re starting out with a pirate-y theme with the first batch!
- Privateer (Rogue) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- Oath of the Leviathans (Paladin) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- Waverider (Ranger) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- Terror of the Trench (Warlock) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- Way of the Crashing Wave (Monk) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- Cannoneer (Fighter) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- Path of the Jolly Roger (Barbarian) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- Oath of the Pirate Code (Paladin) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- Chaos Domain (Cleric) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- The Royalty (Warlock) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- School of Deep Magic (Wizard) from Damian Paradiso ($0.50)
- Phalanx Fighter (Fighter) from Dan Newton ($0.50)
- Circle of Calamity (Druid) from Dan Newton ($0.50)
- Fissure Domain (Cleric) from Dan Newton ($0.50)
- College of Hospitality (Bard) from Gryphon Games (Free)
- College of Zoology (Bard) from Gryphon Games (Free)
- The Warden (Ranger) from Jake Lynch ($2.99)
- The War Chanter (Barbarian) from Zachary Tounzen ($1.00)
Bundles and Sales
Note: I have included end dates when listed for the following sales, but please be warned that those without published end dates may end suddenly so be sure to plan purchases accordingly.
If you hurry, you can grab a license for Fantasy Grounds for half off including the Standard License that allows hosting of games for other Standard License players or the Ultimate License which allows hosting games for free users.
- Price: 50% off all Fantasy Ground licenses
- End Date: January 23, 2023 (that’s tomorrow so hurry!)
It’s also time for the Humble Store Winter Sale with deep discounts on a lot of video games including those based on tabletop roleplaying games, including Cyberpunk 2077, Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun Dragonfall, BattleTech, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, the port of the arcade classic Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, and a lot more.
- Price: 50-90% off
- End Date: February 7, 2023
Tim Bannock has dropped prices on several of his OGL products (for some reason I’m not entirely sure why specifically OGL products, I guess there’s news or something) including the Astonishing Super Heroes Book 1: Basic Rules and several adventures for 5e, 1e, and B/X.
- Price: 75% off
- End Date: January 31, 2023
For those with 3D printers, Fishwife Games has a bundle of…oh god I lost count because it’s a LOT of STL files on DriveThruRPG. If you need terrain or creatures for a science fiction, near-future, or contemporary game, you’ll find something here for you (I notice that a lot of the designs have the art deco inspiration of Fallout as well).
- Price: $83.31 (70% off)
And if that’s not enough, Fishwife Games also has other collections as well, all system-generic themed bundles of random generation tables for characters, locations, adventure hooks, and more.
- Fantasy: $43.66 (40% off) for 57 titles
- Sci-Fi/Space: $54.58 (60% off) for 119 titles
- Cyberpunk: $11.62 (35% off) for 18 titles
Heroic Maps has a collection of maps I don’t see too often, spaceship interior maps. This bundle includes starfighter interiors for six different ship types in multiple formats for grid and gridless play.
- Price: $19.96 (20% off)
And while we seem to be on a theme, Skirmisher Publishing has 10 issues of the Wisdom of the Wasteland mini-supplement featuring high-tech weapons and combat options for the OSR retroclone Mutant Future (based on the first edition of Gamma World) that can be easily adapted for any OGL system.
- Price: $5.99 (62% off)
And over on Dungeonmasters Guild, there’s a trio of supplements under the Trinkets & Treasures line with separate books for Dragonlance, Spelljammer, and Ravenloft featuring new magic items and low-powered trinkets themed for those settings.
- Price: $10.95 (26% off)
Charity Bundles and Sales
Over on Bundle of Holding, Handiwork Games collected together their 5e books based on the epic Beowulf. This RPG attempts to recreate the lone hero nature of the ancient epics with a duet play system for one player and one GM that allows control of various companions to fill roles or you can just adapt elements for your traditional 5e games with the core rules, four adventures, and an artbook.
- Price: $9.95 (77% off)
- End Date: February 5, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
If you want to get started with 13th Age from Pelgrane Press in anticipation of the new edition, Bundle of Holding has a bundle for you. This bundle includes the core rulebook, two bestiaries, the rules expansion 13 True Ways, two loot books, and the introductory adventure Crown of Axis while the bonus collection adds on ten more books and adventure collections.
- Price: $24.95 (84% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- End Date: January 26, 2023
- Charity: Diana Jones Award Emerging Designer Program (10%)
Dan Coleman released a collection of adventures for 5e to bring your characters all the way from Level 1 to Level 20. The bundle includes the Low-Level and Mid-Level Adventure Packs plus the bonus adventure Bad Apples while the Bonus Collection adds on the High-Level Adventure Pack and the adventures Ebonclad and Pages from the Lost Grimoire.
- Price: $7.95 (81% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- End Date: January 26, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
The GDW 2300AD Bundle on Bundle of Holding features the original Game Designers’ Workshop sci-fi RPG 2300AD. The base level for this 80s classic includes the first edition core rules, two setting books, the ship expansion Ships of the French Arm, and four adventures. The Bonus Collection adds on the second edition core rules, two guidebooks, the 2300AD Colonial Atlas, the Kafer Sourcebook, and three adventures.
- Price: $16.95 (81% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- End Date: January 24, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief
Humble Bundle and Kobold Press apparently set out the RPG Signal to put together the RPG Worlds Bundle featuring 52 titles from a wide variety of publishers. The base level features the core rules for Castles & Crusades along with an adventure, the 5e adventure City of Cats, the fantasy wild west RPG Tall Tales, and more with the second and third tiers adding even more OSR games and adventures, 5e supplements and campaigns, and original RPG systems ranging from fantasy to sci-fi to horror to the old west to 1920s gangsters.
- Price: $5/$15/$25 (97% off at top tier)
- End Date: February 11, 2023
- Charity: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (user-defined, default 5%)
Okay, it’s a video game bundle with no ties to TTRPGs, but I have to mention the Wadjet Eye Games Bundle of point-and-click adventure video games. The bundle includes highly-rated and award winning games like the urban fantasy Unavowed, the supernatural mystery Blackwell series, and the post-apocalyptic Shardlight, but I really want to highlight my personal favorite: Technobabylon. Set in a cyberpunk world where genetic engineering is common, the detective Charlie Regis, his partner Max Lao, and an internet addict Latha Sesame get caught up in a plot involving a the memory-stealing serial killer The Mindjacker, the city’s all-seeing AI CEL, and a conspiracy of the most powerful people in the city. It’s also so hilarious I’ve literally injured myself laughing.
- Price: $10 (92% off)
- End Date: February 1, 2023
- Charity: JDRF (user-defined, default 5%)
That’s all for this week! If you know of any bundles or sales starting soon, please contact me on the EN World Discord, tag me on Mastodon, or send me a message here on EN World. Discount percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number and are based on the standard retail price provided by the site. Note: Links to Amazon, Humble Store, Humble Bundle, Fantasy Grounds, and/or DriveThruRPG may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
