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 Mission Briefs: Khitomer Accords for Star Trek Adventures, a collection of ten short missions for a Klingon crew set during the major galactic pivot point at the tail end of the Motion Picture era and not long before the Next Generation era and participate in the events that turned the Klingons from bitter enemies into stalwart allies to the Federation.
Green Ronin released Valiant Adventures RPG Quickstart as an introduction to the upcoming Mutants & Masterminds officially licensed for the Valiant Comics world. The quickstart contains a streamlined version of the rules, six pre-generated characters, a starter adventure, reference sheets, and more.
Kobold Press has a preview of their upcoming Valiant Game Master’s Guide giving us a look at the table of contents plus ten pages of the “Homebrewer’s Toolbox” chapter.
Three Wild Embers released the 171-page core rules for STRONG RPG, a simple but detailed system with a freeform character creation system that lets you customize precisely the character you want without the limitations of classes while maintaining balance among character options.
One thing about Pathfinder is that magic items are expected rewards as you play with game balance based on having certain items at certain levels. If you prefer to keep enchanted items rare and exotic, Mathfinder has the optional Automatic Spell Progression that gives you the bonuses you’re expected to have via items like wands, staves, and scrolls for your casting characters.
The CY Wrestling Federation Championship Belt is up for grabs with thousands watching in the stands and millions from home around the world, and you’ve earned your spot on the card with Welcome to the Rumble, a CY_BORG pro wrestling adventure.
LPJ Design has a small rules system to help you expand on your adventures with a little Bureaucracy of Red Tape for the Everyday Heroes system. Whether you need to delay the PCs for a few hours (or a few weeks) or just want to add some annoyance to their prep time, the party must either navigate the maze of paperwork, forms, and permits of the corporate or government world or take a rocket launcher to the gordian knot to get back to the action.
It’s 1893 and the great detective Sherlock Holmes is no more, having plummeted over Reichenbach Falls with his nemesis Professor Moriarty. That doesn’t mean that London is crime-free though, so someone must take up the mantle of Sherlock’s Heirs from Roberto Fernández-Regueira. Designed to be played at the tabletop, virtually through video calls, or even text messages or Discord chats, this game places you in the roles of rookie cops and/or Baker Street Irregulars seeking to bring justice to the victims of the most sinister criminals. Also available in Spanish.
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, Aaron Smith released the low-level adventure Mistaken Identity and a Banquet which draws the party into the intrigue and mystery of the floating city of The Citadel of Ice and Steel.
It’s already become a joke that the Sword Coast is the “Remembered Realms” with the rest of Faerûn seemingly the Forgotten Realms, but Heleen and Andrew Durston seek to remedy that with A Forgotten Realms Gazetteer: Lurien detailing the halfling-centric areas with their surrounding towns and features.
It can be difficult enough to come up with suitable insults in a fantasy world when playing a normal character like a fighter or rogue. It’s even more difficult when playing a spellcaster. Don’t worry though, Josiah Bakker is here to help with Sorcery & Sarcasm: Arcane Insults for the Intellectually Advanced with over 100 witty insults for wizards, spellcasters, and other high-Intelligence characters.
The first Lightning Round this week features gamemaster/DM resources like monsters, maps, random generators, and more. All products are Free or pay-what-you-want with the suggested price in parentheses.
The second Lightning Round features player resources like classes, subclasses, backgrounds, feats, races/species, and more. All products are Free or pay what you want with the suggested price in parentheses.
This rare third Lightning Round is all from a single creator, onepagerules, who published multiple collections of VTT tokens under the Full Army Bundle series. All of these products are available for free.
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’ve been holding off on Pathfinder 2nd Edition, the release of the new updated core rulebooks makes a great time to jump on and Roll20 wants to help by bundling the new Player Core and GM Core together for the VTT. Note: This bundle is labeled under the rules system of “Pathfinder 1e” for some reason, but it is for the new updated core rulebooks for Pathfinder 2e.
GrimPress released the map collection The Haunted with a selection of 50 fantasy maps with a gothic horror theme in three quality levels (70dpi, 150dpi, and 300dpi) in both gridded and non-gridded versions ready to use on your virtual tabletop of choice or print out and bring to the gaming table.
Creator Nathan Russell has decided to celebrate his birthday by putting everything he’s published on sale in the Nathan’s Birthday Bundle. Get the cyberpunk Neon City Overdrive and supplements, the roguish sci-fi Star Scoundrels, the anime mecha battle game Gunframe, several Dungeon Blitz adventures, and more!
Charity Bundles and Sales
Legendary game designer and artist Jannell Jaquays passed away this week following a struggle with Guillain-Barré syndrome. A GoFundMe that was set up during her recovery is still active seeking to raise money to help with her medical costs and other final expenses.
There is also a memorial game jam for Jannell Jaquays on Itch.io currently accepting submissions. The goal is to create a megadungeon with each contributor designing a single page map of a level and a single page key for that level that will be combined into one huge dungeon to explore with unique challenges to overcome. Submissions are open until February 1, 2024. They’re also looking for volunteer editors, illustrators, and graphic designers to complete the project.
The Solo but Not Alone 4 bundle is available on Itch.io featuring over 100 solo RPGs. From traditional games of fantasy, science fiction, and superheroes to “no trademarks were harmed” versions of Pokemon, Blade Runner, and more to the mundate like orientation at a corporate job and the perils of home ownership to the more esoteric where you watch human events from the POV of a slime and selling books to animals. There’s also a help spreadsheet to keep track of all the games and filter by genre, age-appropriateness, and content.
Over on Bundle of Holding, Black Scrolls Games has the Black Scrolls Modular Map-Tiles Bundle featuring maps from Hungarian artist Antal Kéninger. The maps come in printable PDF files and JPG and PNG format to import on your favorite VTT. The four map sets in the base level alone are enough for a huge 5.5 gigabyte download so be ready with the hard drive space even before the City Collection adds on an additional seven more tile sets for a total of 11.
Pelgrane Press released the Dying Earth bundle based on the works of fantasy author Jack Vance (yes, where we get the term “Vancian Magic” from). The Essentials Collection includes the core rulebook The Dying Earth along with seven other sourcebooks, setting books, and player option books. The Compleat Collection finishes out the entire library of books for the Dying Earth RPG with ten more sourcebooks, adventures, setting books, and more.
Monkeyblood has a bundle for the fantasy OSR setting Midderlands from designer and cartographer Glynn Seal. Designed for sandbox play using your favorite OSR system such as Old-School Essentials or Swords & Wizardry), the late medieval/early renaissance setting is inspired both by Seal’s home in the Midlands of the UK and from original fantasy locations. The Starter Collection features the setting book and its expansion plus the book for the City of Great Lunden, while the Bonus Collection adds on seven more books expanding the setting with more locations and cultures detailed.
Over on Humble Bundle, HarperCollins has a bundle that isn’t directly a roleplaying game bundle but I think will be of interest to many RPG fans: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld with 38 books from the master of satirical fantasy, Sir Terry Pratchett. The base level features the first three novels published in the Discworld setting adds on six more while the top tier features 38 novels, just three shy of the entire series (just missing the final two novels, Raising Steam and The Shepherd’s Crown plus for some reason The Last Hero). The downside? You can only access the books through the Kobo app which might not be compatible with some devices, and it’s only available in the United States. But if that’s not an issue for you, this is a great chance to pick up some of the best fantasy fiction ever written.
Chaosium has a library of Lovecraftian horror books in the Call of Cthulhu Bundle. The base level includes the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set along with the Doors to Darkness collection of five introductory adventures, Petersen’s Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors, and the Call of Cthulhu The Coloring Book. The second tier adds on six more books including the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook to expand rules options from the Starter Set, and the top tier adds 15 more books including the Call of Cthulhu Investigator Handbook to round out the core rules, alternate setting books Pulp Cthulhu, Cthulhu Dark Ages, and the French Revolution setting Reign of Terror, and more adventures, bestiaries, settings, and more.
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 Mission Briefs: Khitomer Accords for Star Trek Adventures, a collection of ten short missions for a Klingon crew set during the major galactic pivot point at the tail end of the Motion Picture era and not long before the Next Generation era and participate in the events that turned the Klingons from bitter enemies into stalwart allies to the Federation.
- Price: Free
Green Ronin released Valiant Adventures RPG Quickstart as an introduction to the upcoming Mutants & Masterminds officially licensed for the Valiant Comics world. The quickstart contains a streamlined version of the rules, six pre-generated characters, a starter adventure, reference sheets, and more.
- Price: Free
Kobold Press has a preview of their upcoming Valiant Game Master’s Guide giving us a look at the table of contents plus ten pages of the “Homebrewer’s Toolbox” chapter.
- Price: Free
Three Wild Embers released the 171-page core rules for STRONG RPG, a simple but detailed system with a freeform character creation system that lets you customize precisely the character you want without the limitations of classes while maintaining balance among character options.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $3.99)
One thing about Pathfinder is that magic items are expected rewards as you play with game balance based on having certain items at certain levels. If you prefer to keep enchanted items rare and exotic, Mathfinder has the optional Automatic Spell Progression that gives you the bonuses you’re expected to have via items like wands, staves, and scrolls for your casting characters.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $2.00)
The CY Wrestling Federation Championship Belt is up for grabs with thousands watching in the stands and millions from home around the world, and you’ve earned your spot on the card with Welcome to the Rumble, a CY_BORG pro wrestling adventure.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
LPJ Design has a small rules system to help you expand on your adventures with a little Bureaucracy of Red Tape for the Everyday Heroes system. Whether you need to delay the PCs for a few hours (or a few weeks) or just want to add some annoyance to their prep time, the party must either navigate the maze of paperwork, forms, and permits of the corporate or government world or take a rocket launcher to the gordian knot to get back to the action.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
It’s 1893 and the great detective Sherlock Holmes is no more, having plummeted over Reichenbach Falls with his nemesis Professor Moriarty. That doesn’t mean that London is crime-free though, so someone must take up the mantle of Sherlock’s Heirs from Roberto Fernández-Regueira. Designed to be played at the tabletop, virtually through video calls, or even text messages or Discord chats, this game places you in the roles of rookie cops and/or Baker Street Irregulars seeking to bring justice to the victims of the most sinister criminals. Also available in Spanish.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, Aaron Smith released the low-level adventure Mistaken Identity and a Banquet which draws the party into the intrigue and mystery of the floating city of The Citadel of Ice and Steel.
- Price: Free
It’s already become a joke that the Sword Coast is the “Remembered Realms” with the rest of Faerûn seemingly the Forgotten Realms, but Heleen and Andrew Durston seek to remedy that with A Forgotten Realms Gazetteer: Lurien detailing the halfling-centric areas with their surrounding towns and features.
- Price: Free
It can be difficult enough to come up with suitable insults in a fantasy world when playing a normal character like a fighter or rogue. It’s even more difficult when playing a spellcaster. Don’t worry though, Josiah Bakker is here to help with Sorcery & Sarcasm: Arcane Insults for the Intellectually Advanced with over 100 witty insults for wizards, spellcasters, and other high-Intelligence characters.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
The first Lightning Round this week features gamemaster/DM resources like monsters, maps, random generators, and more. All products are Free or pay-what-you-want with the suggested price in parentheses.
- Paper Mini Mind Flayers (2d printable stand-up pawns) from Owlbear Designers ($1.00)
- Dangerous Streets Vol. 1 (Cyberpunk themed maps) from Victor Mestre Perez (Free)
- Drow Dwelling Pack 2 (VTT tokens and terrain) from ForgottenAdventures ($4.99)
- Spell Spool (5e magic item) from Zakariah ($0.00)
- Wilden Protector (5e CR12 monster) from Gryphon Games (Free)
- Remnants of the Lost Valley (5e setting location) from David Goreham ($5.00)
- Diggerby Hill (5e setting location) from Benjamin Xiaofang Hurley ($1.50)
The second Lightning Round features player resources like classes, subclasses, backgrounds, feats, races/species, and more. All products are Free or pay what you want with the suggested price in parentheses.
- The Bully (5e Rogue subclass) from Garret May ($0.99)
- Bloodweaver (5e full class) from Josiah Bakker ($1.00)
- 5e Revised Feats (5e revised feats) from Elly ($0.95)
- Way of the Island Breeze (5e Monk subclass) from Garrett May ($0.99)
- Green Dragon Dual Origin (5e Race/Species) from Chronicles of Lost Tomes ($0.00)
- Relic Seeker (5e Rogue subclass) from Fabian Avelin ($1.64)
- Bandit (5e Background) from Quest Weaver Media (Free)
- Fame Domain (5e Cleric subclass) from Garrett May ($0.99)
This rare third Lightning Round is all from a single creator, onepagerules, who published multiple collections of VTT tokens under the Full Army Bundle series. All of these products are available for free.
- Duchies of Vinci
- Robot Legions
- Change Daemons
- Plague Daemons
- Saurians
- Lust Daemons
- Beastmen
- War Daemons
- Jackals
- Mummified Undead
- Eternal Dynasty
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’ve been holding off on Pathfinder 2nd Edition, the release of the new updated core rulebooks makes a great time to jump on and Roll20 wants to help by bundling the new Player Core and GM Core together for the VTT. Note: This bundle is labeled under the rules system of “Pathfinder 1e” for some reason, but it is for the new updated core rulebooks for Pathfinder 2e.
- Price: $49.99 (17% off)
GrimPress released the map collection The Haunted with a selection of 50 fantasy maps with a gothic horror theme in three quality levels (70dpi, 150dpi, and 300dpi) in both gridded and non-gridded versions ready to use on your virtual tabletop of choice or print out and bring to the gaming table.
- Price: $19.99 (50% off)
Creator Nathan Russell has decided to celebrate his birthday by putting everything he’s published on sale in the Nathan’s Birthday Bundle. Get the cyberpunk Neon City Overdrive and supplements, the roguish sci-fi Star Scoundrels, the anime mecha battle game Gunframe, several Dungeon Blitz adventures, and more!
- Price: $23.83 (52% off)
- End date: January 24, 2024
Charity Bundles and Sales
Legendary game designer and artist Jannell Jaquays passed away this week following a struggle with Guillain-Barré syndrome. A GoFundMe that was set up during her recovery is still active seeking to raise money to help with her medical costs and other final expenses.
- Charity: Medical bills and final expenses for Jannell Jaquays
There is also a memorial game jam for Jannell Jaquays on Itch.io currently accepting submissions. The goal is to create a megadungeon with each contributor designing a single page map of a level and a single page key for that level that will be combined into one huge dungeon to explore with unique challenges to overcome. Submissions are open until February 1, 2024. They’re also looking for volunteer editors, illustrators, and graphic designers to complete the project.
- Submissions due by February 1, 2024
- Proceeds will be split into a Crowdfundr campaign for pre-orders of the physical copy with all profits going to Janell Jaquays’ family and profits from sales after going to Trans Lifeline
The Solo but Not Alone 4 bundle is available on Itch.io featuring over 100 solo RPGs. From traditional games of fantasy, science fiction, and superheroes to “no trademarks were harmed” versions of Pokemon, Blade Runner, and more to the mundate like orientation at a corporate job and the perils of home ownership to the more esoteric where you watch human events from the POV of a slime and selling books to animals. There’s also a help spreadsheet to keep track of all the games and filter by genre, age-appropriateness, and content.
- Price: $10.00 (97% off)
- Charity: Take This mental health resources (All proceeds)
- End Date: March 9, 2024
Over on Bundle of Holding, Black Scrolls Games has the Black Scrolls Modular Map-Tiles Bundle featuring maps from Hungarian artist Antal Kéninger. The maps come in printable PDF files and JPG and PNG format to import on your favorite VTT. The four map sets in the base level alone are enough for a huge 5.5 gigabyte download so be ready with the hard drive space even before the City Collection adds on an additional seven more tile sets for a total of 11.
- Price: $7.95 (77% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- Charity: Diana Jones Award Emerging Designer Program (10%)
- End Date: January 31, 2024
Pelgrane Press released the Dying Earth bundle based on the works of fantasy author Jack Vance (yes, where we get the term “Vancian Magic” from). The Essentials Collection includes the core rulebook The Dying Earth along with seven other sourcebooks, setting books, and player option books. The Compleat Collection finishes out the entire library of books for the Dying Earth RPG with ten more sourcebooks, adventures, setting books, and more.
- Price: $19.95 (83% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- Charity: Cancer Research UK (10%)
- End Date: January 25, 2024
Monkeyblood has a bundle for the fantasy OSR setting Midderlands from designer and cartographer Glynn Seal. Designed for sandbox play using your favorite OSR system such as Old-School Essentials or Swords & Wizardry), the late medieval/early renaissance setting is inspired both by Seal’s home in the Midlands of the UK and from original fantasy locations. The Starter Collection features the setting book and its expansion plus the book for the City of Great Lunden, while the Bonus Collection adds on seven more books expanding the setting with more locations and cultures detailed.
- Price: $14.95 (75% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- Charity: British Heart Foundation and McMillan Cancer Support (10%)
- End Date: January 25, 2024
Over on Humble Bundle, HarperCollins has a bundle that isn’t directly a roleplaying game bundle but I think will be of interest to many RPG fans: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld with 38 books from the master of satirical fantasy, Sir Terry Pratchett. The base level features the first three novels published in the Discworld setting adds on six more while the top tier features 38 novels, just three shy of the entire series (just missing the final two novels, Raising Steam and The Shepherd’s Crown plus for some reason The Last Hero). The downside? You can only access the books through the Kobo app which might not be compatible with some devices, and it’s only available in the United States. But if that’s not an issue for you, this is a great chance to pick up some of the best fantasy fiction ever written.
- Price: $1/$10/$18 (96% off at top tier)
- Charity: Room to Read (user-defined, default 5%)
- End Date: February 1, 2024
Chaosium has a library of Lovecraftian horror books in the Call of Cthulhu Bundle. The base level includes the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set along with the Doors to Darkness collection of five introductory adventures, Petersen’s Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors, and the Call of Cthulhu The Coloring Book. The second tier adds on six more books including the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook to expand rules options from the Starter Set, and the top tier adds 15 more books including the Call of Cthulhu Investigator Handbook to round out the core rules, alternate setting books Pulp Cthulhu, Cthulhu Dark Ages, and the French Revolution setting Reign of Terror, and more adventures, bestiaries, settings, and more.
- Price: $1/$15/$25 (94% off at top tier)
- Charity: World Wildlife Fund (user-defined, default 5%)
- End Date: January 27, 2024
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.
