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!
Journey Mountain Studios LLC has something that will be useful for any science fiction game, the Galaxy Builder Decks: Asteroid Pack. Over 100 poker-sized print-and-play cards with a different asteroid with stats for each one to quickly populate a star system.
Dog House Rules has a jumpstart adventure for their Savage Worlds setting Sidewinder Recoiled with an introduction to the setting, tournament rules, a preview of over 20 of the 100 new renown edges, and a lot more.
For most games, the end of the world is a motivating factor for adventure. The same is true for These Days Feel Different from Kaja Solska in a way, but it’s less “…and we must stop it!” and more “…so let’s go on a road trip before it all ends.”
If you need a 5e encounter in the bank to pull out in a pinch, Shenanigans Media has Purple Terror – One Page Encounter, a drop-in encounter with everything you need to challenge a party of 12th level characters in a dungeon including all stats and VTT-ready maps.
Three Wilds Embers wants to expand your 5e games with Blood Magic, Dire Pelts, and Riddletrees adding in a completely new magic system to the game that adds blood magic as an option for spellcasting classes. The 128-page book includes new rules, new items, new spells, stats for 100 NPC, and a lot more.
Lovecraft fans know the story of Innsmouth, but what happened after the story? What if the government attempted to raid the village and round up all the residents? What happened to those who escaped and fled? Xipe Totec Press’s Diaspora is a supplement for any Lovecraftian system with information for modern-day games with these escaped residents of Innsmouth including guidelines for use in Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, Fear Itself, Cthulhu Dark, and Delta Green.
If you’re ready to start a new campaign for the new year but not sure where to begin, Bleating Deacons Adventure Club has the 1st level 5e adventure Belligerent Ambition where the party must track a vengeful hobgoblin who attacked the village to the crypt that he plans to plunder.
Downsized Press has a new zine featuring a different classic style five-room dungeon for Old School Essentials. Issue 1 of Downsized Dungeons promises monsters, ghosts, and a ton of treasure at the end.
Masters of Evil also has an Old School Essentials adventure for you with The Sphinx, a 13 room dungeon with map, unique magic items, stat blocks for monsters, random dungeon events, and even hooks to lure your players into the desert sands.
Roan Studio released the wilderness scenario The Cry from Crows’ Kopple for Old School Essentials and other OSR systems. The players discover a rock formation in the middle of a barren landscape with something trapped inside.
Pickpocket Press is also helping out with this week’s spoiling of OSR fans for choice with Adventure Framework 68: Caverns of Shennog. The framework provides you with the tools you need to flesh out into a full adventure perfect for your campaign by taking the hard work out and providing you with monsters, maps, pregens, new magic items, travel events table, rumors, and more.
Explorer’s Guild Publishing has a new Kickstarter coming with a selection of side games to play in a tavern, and they’ve released a preview Tavern Games: Inn and Out. The same includes three new tavern games that you can play both in and out of character with options for the DM to join in as well.
Nostromo’s Reliquary released The Arcane Compendium, a resource of 13 tomes including mythical texts and real historical documents to expand the lore in your games.
Old School Role Playing has another adventure for the Cepheus Engine/Traveller with Escape from Usranob Station. The crew are being sent to the notorious prison station Usranob on obviously false charges, but that’s the start of their problems as a power outage was repaired in time to prevent life support failure but not soon enough to prevent orbital decay. The station will crash land on the frozen lifeless planet below in less than 24 hours, the administrators fled the station already with all the vehicles available, and the only staff left are the thuggish armed guards. Good luck!
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, you don’t have to play in a western setting to enjoy a good old-fashioned western showdown. Dan Kok released Wild West Showdowns, a rules system for 5e simulating the tension and drama of a standoff where everyone’s waiting for the one key moment to draw.
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.
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.
Starting on Itch.io, EN World user jdakeh has placed all their RPG content on sale in order to help with a grocery budget shortage. Grab a wide variety of microRPGs in different genres along with ready-to-play adventures and never be caught out for a quick pick-up game.
Modiphius has a flash sale with the Nuclear Winter Sale on Fallout: The Roleplaying Game and Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. Pick up the core rules, starter sets, miniatures, dice, caps, STL files to print your own Fallout miniatures and terrain for use either games, and a lot more including other licensed Bethesda titles like Dishonored.
On DriveThruRPG, Steven Colling released the Isle of Lore 2: RPG Item Icons bundle with over 200 cute sticker-style icons both in zip file to import to any VTT and a package already set up for Roll20 covering a wide variety of resources and equipment to mark on your map.
Earl of Fife Games has the New Year New Game Incredible Indie Bundle with ten different systems for you to test out this year ranging from OSR 1e and 2e retroclones, the contemporary setting Action Movie World, the core rules for Open Fantasy, and more.
Charity Bundles and Sales
Arcanum Studios, the TTRPG publishing company founded by ex-BioWare designer James Ohlen, released the Roll20 version of Arcanum Worlds Presents Chains of Asmodeus. The bundle includes 15 new monsters, 22 maps, new stat blocks for Asmodeus and a dozen other Archdevils, a new Item Corruption mechanic, more than 20 new Infernal Magic Items, one-click rollable tables for random encounters and events, a drag-and-drop art pack, and a full adventure running from Level 11 to Level 20.
Legendary game designer and artist Jannell Jaquays passed away last 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 mundane 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, Tin Star Games has the Relics bundle for the angelic modern urban fantasy game. You’re a fallen angel trapped on earth stuck in a cold war between the light and dark which has turned into an arms race with each side searching for the powerful relics scattered across the earth. This bundle features the core rulebook, the setting guide An Angel’s Guidde to Las Vegas, the adventure By Demons Driven, the sourcebook Treasures on Earth, and a print-and-play custom tarot deck for use with the tarot-based Fugue System.
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.
Over on Humble Bundle, Chaosium’s bundle for Call of Cthulhu has been extended! 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.
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.
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!
Journey Mountain Studios LLC has something that will be useful for any science fiction game, the Galaxy Builder Decks: Asteroid Pack. Over 100 poker-sized print-and-play cards with a different asteroid with stats for each one to quickly populate a star system.
- Price: Free
Dog House Rules has a jumpstart adventure for their Savage Worlds setting Sidewinder Recoiled with an introduction to the setting, tournament rules, a preview of over 20 of the 100 new renown edges, and a lot more.
- Price: Free
For most games, the end of the world is a motivating factor for adventure. The same is true for These Days Feel Different from Kaja Solska in a way, but it’s less “…and we must stop it!” and more “…so let’s go on a road trip before it all ends.”
- Price: Free
If you need a 5e encounter in the bank to pull out in a pinch, Shenanigans Media has Purple Terror – One Page Encounter, a drop-in encounter with everything you need to challenge a party of 12th level characters in a dungeon including all stats and VTT-ready maps.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Three Wilds Embers wants to expand your 5e games with Blood Magic, Dire Pelts, and Riddletrees adding in a completely new magic system to the game that adds blood magic as an option for spellcasting classes. The 128-page book includes new rules, new items, new spells, stats for 100 NPC, and a lot more.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $2.99)
Lovecraft fans know the story of Innsmouth, but what happened after the story? What if the government attempted to raid the village and round up all the residents? What happened to those who escaped and fled? Xipe Totec Press’s Diaspora is a supplement for any Lovecraftian system with information for modern-day games with these escaped residents of Innsmouth including guidelines for use in Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, Fear Itself, Cthulhu Dark, and Delta Green.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
If you’re ready to start a new campaign for the new year but not sure where to begin, Bleating Deacons Adventure Club has the 1st level 5e adventure Belligerent Ambition where the party must track a vengeful hobgoblin who attacked the village to the crypt that he plans to plunder.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Downsized Press has a new zine featuring a different classic style five-room dungeon for Old School Essentials. Issue 1 of Downsized Dungeons promises monsters, ghosts, and a ton of treasure at the end.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.99)
Masters of Evil also has an Old School Essentials adventure for you with The Sphinx, a 13 room dungeon with map, unique magic items, stat blocks for monsters, random dungeon events, and even hooks to lure your players into the desert sands.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Roan Studio released the wilderness scenario The Cry from Crows’ Kopple for Old School Essentials and other OSR systems. The players discover a rock formation in the middle of a barren landscape with something trapped inside.
- Price: Free
Pickpocket Press is also helping out with this week’s spoiling of OSR fans for choice with Adventure Framework 68: Caverns of Shennog. The framework provides you with the tools you need to flesh out into a full adventure perfect for your campaign by taking the hard work out and providing you with monsters, maps, pregens, new magic items, travel events table, rumors, and more.
- Price: Free
Explorer’s Guild Publishing has a new Kickstarter coming with a selection of side games to play in a tavern, and they’ve released a preview Tavern Games: Inn and Out. The same includes three new tavern games that you can play both in and out of character with options for the DM to join in as well.
- Price: Free
Nostromo’s Reliquary released The Arcane Compendium, a resource of 13 tomes including mythical texts and real historical documents to expand the lore in your games.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $5.00)
Old School Role Playing has another adventure for the Cepheus Engine/Traveller with Escape from Usranob Station. The crew are being sent to the notorious prison station Usranob on obviously false charges, but that’s the start of their problems as a power outage was repaired in time to prevent life support failure but not soon enough to prevent orbital decay. The station will crash land on the frozen lifeless planet below in less than 24 hours, the administrators fled the station already with all the vehicles available, and the only staff left are the thuggish armed guards. Good luck!
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $3.00)
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, you don’t have to play in a western setting to enjoy a good old-fashioned western showdown. Dan Kok released Wild West Showdowns, a rules system for 5e simulating the tension and drama of a standoff where everyone’s waiting for the one key moment to draw.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.99)
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.
- Striker – Book of One Shots Map Book (Sci-fi maps) from Zenith Games Foundry (Free)
- Dyson Style Dungeon Tiles (Fantasy map tiles) from Christian Eichhorn ($5.00)
- The Windstone Chronicles Presents: The Rest is Still Unwritten (Narrative fantasy adventure hooks) from UrbanSunrises ($2.99)
- Quicksilver Lion (5e monster CR6) from Gryphon Games (Free)
- Player’s Handbook Races Tokens (VTT character tokens) from Adela Quiles ($2.40)
- Prompt Challenge #3 (5e magic items) from BiscuitTinRPG ($2.00)
- Infinite Dungeons Bundle (Random dungeon generator) from Totem ($5.00)
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.
- Ritualist Class (Shadowdark class) from Pedro Ave ($1.00)
- Cyber-Luchador (CY_BORG class) from JKW ($1.00)
- The Knight (Shadowdark class) from Pendragons & Paperknights Pub ($1.00)
- Red Dragon Dual Origin (5e race/species) from Chronicles of Lost Tomes ($0.00)
- Bandit (5e background) from Quest Weaver Media (Free)
- The Dropout (5e Wizard subclass) from Garrett May ($0.99)
- The Apostate (5e Paladin subclass) from Dan Kok ($1.99)
- Amsodeus’ Corrupted Grimoire Book Five (5e spells) from Christopher Harnwell and Angela Spencer ($4.95)
- Path of the General (5e Barbarian subclass) from Garrett May ($0.99)
- The Oath of Fame (5e Paladin subclass) from Garrett May ($0.99)
- Necromancy (Dragonbane class and rules) from Dragon Cult Games (Free)
- Professor Montclaire’s Guide to the Mortuary Arts (5e backgrounds, fears, and spells) from T.L. Haynes ($3.80)
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.
Starting on Itch.io, EN World user jdakeh has placed all their RPG content on sale in order to help with a grocery budget shortage. Grab a wide variety of microRPGs in different genres along with ready-to-play adventures and never be caught out for a quick pick-up game.
- Price: 30% off
- End Date: March 19, 2024
Modiphius has a flash sale with the Nuclear Winter Sale on Fallout: The Roleplaying Game and Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. Pick up the core rules, starter sets, miniatures, dice, caps, STL files to print your own Fallout miniatures and terrain for use either games, and a lot more including other licensed Bethesda titles like Dishonored.
- Price: 33% off
- End Date: January 28, 2024 at midnight Pacific time FINAL DAY!
On DriveThruRPG, Steven Colling released the Isle of Lore 2: RPG Item Icons bundle with over 200 cute sticker-style icons both in zip file to import to any VTT and a package already set up for Roll20 covering a wide variety of resources and equipment to mark on your map.
- Price: $9.99 (50% off)
Earl of Fife Games has the New Year New Game Incredible Indie Bundle with ten different systems for you to test out this year ranging from OSR 1e and 2e retroclones, the contemporary setting Action Movie World, the core rules for Open Fantasy, and more.
- Price: $42.76 (49% off)
Charity Bundles and Sales
Arcanum Studios, the TTRPG publishing company founded by ex-BioWare designer James Ohlen, released the Roll20 version of Arcanum Worlds Presents Chains of Asmodeus. The bundle includes 15 new monsters, 22 maps, new stat blocks for Asmodeus and a dozen other Archdevils, a new Item Corruption mechanic, more than 20 new Infernal Magic Items, one-click rollable tables for random encounters and events, a drag-and-drop art pack, and a full adventure running from Level 11 to Level 20.
- Price: $29.99
- Also available in a bundle with the PDF for $49.99 (17% off) and the PDF and premium hardcover for $99.99 (26% off)
- Charity: Extra Life (100% of proceeds)
Legendary game designer and artist Jannell Jaquays passed away last 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 mundane 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, Tin Star Games has the Relics bundle for the angelic modern urban fantasy game. You’re a fallen angel trapped on earth stuck in a cold war between the light and dark which has turned into an arms race with each side searching for the powerful relics scattered across the earth. This bundle features the core rulebook, the setting guide An Angel’s Guidde to Las Vegas, the adventure By Demons Driven, the sourcebook Treasures on Earth, and a print-and-play custom tarot deck for use with the tarot-based Fugue System.
- Price: $14.95 (75% off)
- Charity: Diana Jones Award Emerging Designer Program (10%)
- End Date: February 13, 2024
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
Over on Humble Bundle, Chaosium’s bundle for Call of Cthulhu has been extended! 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: February 3, 2024
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
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.
