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!
The core rules for Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game are available for free as Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This OSR system is inspired by and generally compatible with the Basic/Expert Dungeons & Dragons system from 1981.
Z-Coin released the 5e rules supplement Wild West adding expanded rules for guns including weapons from different eras like black powder, paper cartridges, and more modern ammo types.
Last week I talked about the Mork Borg class The Contender from WilsonianGames, but fans of the cyberpunk variant CY_BORG shouldn’t feel left out with Th3 C0nt3nd3r, a pugilist-turned-punk class.
Old School Role Playing is back once again with a new Cepheus Engine adventure A Tale of Two Planets where the crew runs across a pair of star-crossed lovers from feuding families who need their help to elope.
Speaking of sci-fi games, if you want to add a bit of podracing, swoop racing, or other futuristic racing to your games with system-neutral rules, Sharp Witt Games has Speed of Light including options for racing on planets and in space as well as daredevil stunting.
Galactic Funk Creations has a pair of offerings for Pirate Borg, starting with Training in the Borgs!, a rules supplement with optional character progression rules.
And the second rules supplement is Death in The Borgs, an optional death system that adds a “downed” status that forces your crewmates to rush to save their fellow pirates from death and the option to rise again as a Haunted Soul.
The games from the PocketQuest 2023 Game Jam are popping up on DriveThru this week from the theme “Not of this world”, and we’re going to start with God in a Corpse from TGS Games. This sci-fi game places players in the role of AI stuck in a shell that ranges from EVA suits to the cybernetics attached to the long-decayed corpses of humanity as you explore the wastes.
The next PocketQuest entry is a more traditional sci-fi game with Alex M’s Beyond the Stars, a rules-lite exploration game in a world that has been colonized by an advanced human civilization that no longer exists.
Of course there would be a space western with that PocketQuest prompt, and we get precisely that with Rogue Signal with the ragtag group of space adventures running across a signal from a hacker that may upend the Astralis Reach. This feels more like a quickstart but gives plenty of opportunity to jump off from the starting adventure into a full campaign.
Moon’s Haunted. Yes, Metal Ostrich Games made the meme into our final PocketQuest entry with Moon’s Haunted, an OSR-inspired classless RPG with rules for low gravity and managing oxygen as you play the crew of Apollo 13 who crash on the dark side of the moon…and you’re not alone.
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, we’re starting with a new fighter subclass from Chronicles of Lost Times with the Dreadnought. Set your shield on fire and turn it into a bashing weapon to turn your sword-and-board tank into a dual-wielding threat on any battlefield.
Useful for those looking for a more realistic Lost World setting or who just want more giant beasts running around their setting, Robert Thomson released Primal Beasts featuring stats for dinosaurs and Ice Age megafauna like mammoths and wooly rhinos.
Fans of Spelljammer will want to check out The Astral Menagerie - 10 Ship’s Companions for Spelljammers from Peter Leet and Dave Aspall. Find your new friend in the wilds and tame them or pick one up at a local exotic pet shop.
Also from Leet and Aspall is a solution to the problem of many of 5e’s magic weapons feeling a bit generic and not like the legendary, mythical weapons they should: Weapon Brands - Crafting Signature Magical Weapons. This system of brands can be mixed and matched into a total of over 80,000 unique combinations that add new abilities to weapons including options that are balanced to start at 1st level as an heirloom starting item that levels up its abilities as the character levels.
If you thought last week’s Honkland was the only goose-themed terror out there for 5e, Scott Bean released Honknado, which is the terror of a tornado combined with the chaotic menace of geese.
Gabriel Gro is back once again, this time to help out the Dr. Evils of the D&D world with sharks with freaking lasers on their heads in Laser Sharks.
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.
Itch.io has a mega bundle for the Queer Games Bundle 2023 featuring works by LGBTQ+ creators. The bundle features over 450 games and game products from almost 300 creators (and I’m pretty sure the number of games went up as I was writing this) all for the price of a single AAA video game title. On top of the video games, novels, short stories, interactive fiction, and game design assets, there are also several tabletop RPGs such as Glitter Hearts, Heart of the Forest, Rodents with Guitars, FIST: Ultra Edition, and a lot more with proceeds split between the creators.
Free League’s Summer Sale event is still going strong for another week with savings on The One Ring, Blade Runner The Roleplaiyng Game, ALIEN The Roleplaying Game, Tales from the Loop, and others including core rules, starter sets, boxed sets, sourcebooks, adventures, and more in their online store.
Fantasy Grounds has a big sale running alongside the Steam Sale featuring huge discounts on all licenses as well as for add-ons including Dungeons & Dragons 5e third party, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Starfinder, Cyberpunk RED, Savage Worlds, Traveller, Tales of the Demon Lord, Vampire: The Masquerade, Star Trek Adventures, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Vaesen, and a lot more
We have a ton of map bundles on DriveThruRPG this week starting off with Danger Vault’s Strange New Worlds Planetary Map Collection #1. While the title is very Star Trek and will likely make you think sci-fi, these maps will work just as well for fantasy campaigns as they’re overhead region maps of five different planetary regions.
Map Alchemists has a collection of post-apocalyptic maps with run-down urban and industrial landscapes and buildings plus a collection of tokens to use for terrain.
And if you want your post-apocalypse a bit more cyberpunk for those run-down and abandoned areas of your megacities, Animated Dungeon Maps has a collection of animated battlemaps in 1080p resolution and in full 4K resolution including metro stations, bridges, schools, collapsed buildings, supermarkets, and more.
Charity Bundles and Sales
Samurai Sheepdog put together an anthology product for designer Owen K.C. Stephens to assist in his battle against cancer, Like A Boss - A Book of Boss Encounters. This still-growing book includes boss-level legendary foes and setpiece encounters for Pathfinder 1st Edition, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, OSRIC, and Starfinder with more being added including a Cypher System encounter.
If that sounds good to you but you want more, Samurai Sheepdog also has the RPG Creator Relief Fund Bundle with 24 titles including the above Like A Boss plus books for Pathfinder 1st Edition, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Starfinder, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Cypher System, Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and OSRIC.
Over on Bundle of Holding, Fire Ruby Designs has the Warlock-Warpstar Bundle for those who want options between fantasy and science fiction. Both games are stand-alone and use the same career-based character creation system with 1d20+skill mechanic inspired by the early Games Workshop games and other British RPGs.
Ulisses Spiele has a mega bundle of the German fantasy game The Dark Eye. The game has been in continuous publication since 1984 and this English language edition has everything you need to begin exploring the world of Aventuria. The Player Collection includes The Dark Eye core rulebook along with five other sourcebooks while the Gamemaster Collection adds on the Aventuria Compendium, Aventurian Bestiary, and nine other adventures, sourcebooks, and resources.
Steamforge has the Epic Encounters bundle featuring a collection of 5e ready-to-run encounters. These encounters are ready to drop into any adventure with the ability to adjust difficulty based on party level. The base bundle features 8 Epic Encounters while the Bonus Collection adds on 10 additional PDFs, plus each purchase gets a discount code for 40% off a physical Epic Encounters set which includes physical minis and maps.
On Humble Bundle, the Ultimate RPG Guides Bundle has been extended for another week, featuring several useful reference and background books for roleplaying games. The base level features two books on mythology, Wizards and Women of Myth, while the second level adds on myth books Dragons and Vampires along with the reference book A Dictionary of Made-Up Languages and the guide book The Civilized Guide to Tabletop Gaming: Rules Every Gamer Must Live By, while the top level features a total of 22 books including the entire Ultimate RPG Guide series by James D’Amato with The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide, Gameplay Guide, and Game Master’s Worldbuilding Guide, the RPG joke book A Dragon Walks into a Bar, books on Viking, Celtic, and Greek mythology, both a cookbook and a mixology book, and a lot more.
The Black Library is back with the Chronicles from the Worlds of Warhammer 2023 Bundle. This bundle features fiction books from Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 with 27 books at the top tier from classic Warhammer Fantasy era books to Age of Sigmar and 40K offerings from Horus Heresy, Primarchs, Vampire Genevieve, and more.
The 3D Fantasy Miniatures Bundle features STL files for 3D printers for a wide collection of minis. The bundle features PCs, NPCs, monsters, terrain, siege equipment, buildings, furniture, set dressing, and more. There are even some meant for decorations for your home such as character busts and statues.
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!
The core rules for Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game are available for free as Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This OSR system is inspired by and generally compatible with the Basic/Expert Dungeons & Dragons system from 1981.
- Price: Free
Z-Coin released the 5e rules supplement Wild West adding expanded rules for guns including weapons from different eras like black powder, paper cartridges, and more modern ammo types.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $2.50)
Last week I talked about the Mork Borg class The Contender from WilsonianGames, but fans of the cyberpunk variant CY_BORG shouldn’t feel left out with Th3 C0nt3nd3r, a pugilist-turned-punk class.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Old School Role Playing is back once again with a new Cepheus Engine adventure A Tale of Two Planets where the crew runs across a pair of star-crossed lovers from feuding families who need their help to elope.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $3.00)
Speaking of sci-fi games, if you want to add a bit of podracing, swoop racing, or other futuristic racing to your games with system-neutral rules, Sharp Witt Games has Speed of Light including options for racing on planets and in space as well as daredevil stunting.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $8.00
Galactic Funk Creations has a pair of offerings for Pirate Borg, starting with Training in the Borgs!, a rules supplement with optional character progression rules.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
And the second rules supplement is Death in The Borgs, an optional death system that adds a “downed” status that forces your crewmates to rush to save their fellow pirates from death and the option to rise again as a Haunted Soul.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
The games from the PocketQuest 2023 Game Jam are popping up on DriveThru this week from the theme “Not of this world”, and we’re going to start with God in a Corpse from TGS Games. This sci-fi game places players in the role of AI stuck in a shell that ranges from EVA suits to the cybernetics attached to the long-decayed corpses of humanity as you explore the wastes.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
The next PocketQuest entry is a more traditional sci-fi game with Alex M’s Beyond the Stars, a rules-lite exploration game in a world that has been colonized by an advanced human civilization that no longer exists.
- Price: Free
Of course there would be a space western with that PocketQuest prompt, and we get precisely that with Rogue Signal with the ragtag group of space adventures running across a signal from a hacker that may upend the Astralis Reach. This feels more like a quickstart but gives plenty of opportunity to jump off from the starting adventure into a full campaign.
- Price: Free
Moon’s Haunted. Yes, Metal Ostrich Games made the meme into our final PocketQuest entry with Moon’s Haunted, an OSR-inspired classless RPG with rules for low gravity and managing oxygen as you play the crew of Apollo 13 who crash on the dark side of the moon…and you’re not alone.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $2.00)
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, we’re starting with a new fighter subclass from Chronicles of Lost Times with the Dreadnought. Set your shield on fire and turn it into a bashing weapon to turn your sword-and-board tank into a dual-wielding threat on any battlefield.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
Useful for those looking for a more realistic Lost World setting or who just want more giant beasts running around their setting, Robert Thomson released Primal Beasts featuring stats for dinosaurs and Ice Age megafauna like mammoths and wooly rhinos.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.99)
Fans of Spelljammer will want to check out The Astral Menagerie - 10 Ship’s Companions for Spelljammers from Peter Leet and Dave Aspall. Find your new friend in the wilds and tame them or pick one up at a local exotic pet shop.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.99)
Also from Leet and Aspall is a solution to the problem of many of 5e’s magic weapons feeling a bit generic and not like the legendary, mythical weapons they should: Weapon Brands - Crafting Signature Magical Weapons. This system of brands can be mixed and matched into a total of over 80,000 unique combinations that add new abilities to weapons including options that are balanced to start at 1st level as an heirloom starting item that levels up its abilities as the character levels.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.99)
If you thought last week’s Honkland was the only goose-themed terror out there for 5e, Scott Bean released Honknado, which is the terror of a tornado combined with the chaotic menace of geese.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Gabriel Gro is back once again, this time to help out the Dr. Evils of the D&D world with sharks with freaking lasers on their heads in Laser Sharks.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.49)
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.
Itch.io has a mega bundle for the Queer Games Bundle 2023 featuring works by LGBTQ+ creators. The bundle features over 450 games and game products from almost 300 creators (and I’m pretty sure the number of games went up as I was writing this) all for the price of a single AAA video game title. On top of the video games, novels, short stories, interactive fiction, and game design assets, there are also several tabletop RPGs such as Glitter Hearts, Heart of the Forest, Rodents with Guitars, FIST: Ultra Edition, and a lot more with proceeds split between the creators.
- Price: $60.00 (over 99% off)
- End Date: July 7, 2023
Free League’s Summer Sale event is still going strong for another week with savings on The One Ring, Blade Runner The Roleplaiyng Game, ALIEN The Roleplaying Game, Tales from the Loop, and others including core rules, starter sets, boxed sets, sourcebooks, adventures, and more in their online store.
- Price: Up to 50% off most titles
- End Date: July 5, 2023
Fantasy Grounds has a big sale running alongside the Steam Sale featuring huge discounts on all licenses as well as for add-ons including Dungeons & Dragons 5e third party, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Starfinder, Cyberpunk RED, Savage Worlds, Traveller, Tales of the Demon Lord, Vampire: The Masquerade, Star Trek Adventures, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Vaesen, and a lot more
- Price: 50% off standard license
- 30% off ultimate license
- Up to 50% off add-ons
- End Date: July 13, 2023
We have a ton of map bundles on DriveThruRPG this week starting off with Danger Vault’s Strange New Worlds Planetary Map Collection #1. While the title is very Star Trek and will likely make you think sci-fi, these maps will work just as well for fantasy campaigns as they’re overhead region maps of five different planetary regions.
- Price: $4.99 (23% off)
Map Alchemists has a collection of post-apocalyptic maps with run-down urban and industrial landscapes and buildings plus a collection of tokens to use for terrain.
- Price: $39.95 (39% off)
And if you want your post-apocalypse a bit more cyberpunk for those run-down and abandoned areas of your megacities, Animated Dungeon Maps has a collection of animated battlemaps in 1080p resolution and in full 4K resolution including metro stations, bridges, schools, collapsed buildings, supermarkets, and more.
- Price: $70.85 (35% off) for HD
- $98.30 (34% off) for 4K
Charity Bundles and Sales
Samurai Sheepdog put together an anthology product for designer Owen K.C. Stephens to assist in his battle against cancer, Like A Boss - A Book of Boss Encounters. This still-growing book includes boss-level legendary foes and setpiece encounters for Pathfinder 1st Edition, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, OSRIC, and Starfinder with more being added including a Cypher System encounter.
- Price: $14.95
- Charity: Owen K.C. Stephens medical expenses (all profits)
If that sounds good to you but you want more, Samurai Sheepdog also has the RPG Creator Relief Fund Bundle with 24 titles including the above Like A Boss plus books for Pathfinder 1st Edition, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Starfinder, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Cypher System, Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and OSRIC.
- Price: $24.95 (95% off)
- End Date: July 4, 2023
- Charity: Owen K.C. Stephens medical expenses and RPG Creator Relief Fund (all profits, split with the price of Like A Boss going to Owen and the rest to the RCRF)
Over on Bundle of Holding, Fire Ruby Designs has the Warlock-Warpstar Bundle for those who want options between fantasy and science fiction. Both games are stand-alone and use the same career-based character creation system with 1d20+skill mechanic inspired by the early Games Workshop games and other British RPGs.
- Price: $12.95 (80% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- End Date: July 16, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%
Ulisses Spiele has a mega bundle of the German fantasy game The Dark Eye. The game has been in continuous publication since 1984 and this English language edition has everything you need to begin exploring the world of Aventuria. The Player Collection includes The Dark Eye core rulebook along with five other sourcebooks while the Gamemaster Collection adds on the Aventuria Compendium, Aventurian Bestiary, and nine other adventures, sourcebooks, and resources.
- Price: $24.95 (76% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- End Date: July 10, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
Steamforge has the Epic Encounters bundle featuring a collection of 5e ready-to-run encounters. These encounters are ready to drop into any adventure with the ability to adjust difficulty based on party level. The base bundle features 8 Epic Encounters while the Bonus Collection adds on 10 additional PDFs, plus each purchase gets a discount code for 40% off a physical Epic Encounters set which includes physical minis and maps.
- Price: $7.95 (80% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- End Date: July 3, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
On Humble Bundle, the Ultimate RPG Guides Bundle has been extended for another week, featuring several useful reference and background books for roleplaying games. The base level features two books on mythology, Wizards and Women of Myth, while the second level adds on myth books Dragons and Vampires along with the reference book A Dictionary of Made-Up Languages and the guide book The Civilized Guide to Tabletop Gaming: Rules Every Gamer Must Live By, while the top level features a total of 22 books including the entire Ultimate RPG Guide series by James D’Amato with The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide, Gameplay Guide, and Game Master’s Worldbuilding Guide, the RPG joke book A Dragon Walks into a Bar, books on Viking, Celtic, and Greek mythology, both a cookbook and a mixology book, and a lot more.
- Price: $1/$10/$18 (93% off at the top tier)
- End Date: July 7, 2023
- Charity: Worldreader (user-defined, default 5%)
The Black Library is back with the Chronicles from the Worlds of Warhammer 2023 Bundle. This bundle features fiction books from Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 with 27 books at the top tier from classic Warhammer Fantasy era books to Age of Sigmar and 40K offerings from Horus Heresy, Primarchs, Vampire Genevieve, and more.
- Price: $1/$10/$18 (93% off at the top tier)
- End Date: July 20, 2023
- Charity: EveryLibrary Institute (user-defined, default 5%)
The 3D Fantasy Miniatures Bundle features STL files for 3D printers for a wide collection of minis. The bundle features PCs, NPCs, monsters, terrain, siege equipment, buildings, furniture, set dressing, and more. There are even some meant for decorations for your home such as character busts and statues.
- Price: $1/$15/$25 (98% off at top tier)
- End Date: July 6, 2023
- Charity: Make-a-Wish (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.
