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!
So, you all meet in a tavern. No, seriously, this OSR-style roleplaying from Andy McDermott is called You All Meet in a Tavern, a title I have a soft spot for.
For another lightweight fantasy RPG, there’s Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings with an emphasis on non-combat elements, skill advancement, and an open magic system with possible miscasts.
And yet another new rules-lite system, the Pathwalker One Core Rules (no relation) is a setting-neutral RPG using a unique Path System for character creation and advancement.
And one more core rule system, the fantasy RPG Lost Roads of Lociam – Age of the Black Chaimara is a system using two ten-sided dice set in the world of Lociam with rules for travel, fighting, magic, prayer, riches, and more.
More goodies for OSR fans, Jeremy Reaban has The OSR Slayer, a character class made for OSR systems based on 1e or B/X rules that allows the character to smite foes with weapons or fists and choose to gain powers from the evil they oppose.
Born2BPlayer has a new adventure for Delta Green titled Azzurrina is Missing which sends the agents to find the daughter of a senator who has disappeared near Lincoln, Nebraska.
Superhero RPG fans, meet Ink!, a wisecracking webslinger with an immature and 4th-wall-breaking sense of humor (yes, Spider-man meets Deadpool) with stats for Guardians OSR, Icons, and Champions Now.
You know what Pathfinder 2nd Edition has been missing? Giant stompy robots. Thankfully Eldritch Osiris Games brought us Mechfinder: Unvierse of Mech and Magic with a preview of the upcoming full game.
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, Bas Klein released Stakes, a tavern card game to add some variety to downtime along with three new spells designed to cheat at card games.
Thomas and Rachel Kolar bring us a new Domain of Dread with The Queenswood featuring the Darklord Queen Narcissa inspired by the fairy tale Snow White.
As localization is a slow and expensive process, not all products are available in all languages. While not a full translation, Death House Turkce Betimlemeler from Mythical Merchant translates some of the location descriptions and flavor text from Curse of Strahd into Turkish (though you’ll still need the book for all game stats, encounters, treasure, or other materials).
Gabriel Gro shows up here often with his custom classes (and he’ll show up again in just a moment), but this week he also has a new species, Formians: Cosmic Insectoids. This conversion of the classic insectoid race from previous editions with five monster stat blocks and updated lore about formian society.
And he also has a new player race with Zodacians: The Zodiac Awakened. The Zodacians have twelve subspecies based on each of the twelve signs of the zodiac with unique abilities and powers for each along with full lore for the species.
Over on Storytellers Vault, Justin Blasdel has a new take on the Werewolf: The Apocalypse setting with the thought…what if Pentex took over? Utopia: The Living Nightmare is a large city setting where ten percent of the population are formor and the other nine wish they could be. New creation rules, a new Contamination trait, setting history, 4 new Mockery Breeds, and more rules for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition.
And our lightning round this week is a round-up of the new classes, subclasses, and variant classes available on Dungeonmasters Guild. 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.
Over on Itch.io, Gizmo is hosting a sale on Mörk Borg supplements with a bundle of 15 adventures, rules expansions, settings, tools, character options, and more. And while not precisely a charity bundle, it is for a good cause: Gizmo has a new dog whose birthday is next month and deserves treats.
Chaosium has once again gathered select entries from the Miskatonic Repository community content program for the Miskatonic May 2023 Bundle. This bundle features five adventures for Call of Cthulhu from varied settings such as Regency Era on the high seas, 1898 Kenya, and Jazz Age New Orleans along with the standard 1920s and modern-day.
The Cabinet of Curiosities released the CBR+PNK bundle, a rules-lite Forged in the Dark inspired cyberpunk RPG where you take on the role of a runner team doing One Last Job™. This bundle includes the core rules, the +Weird supplement to add magic to the setting, the rules expansion Cyberpunk Hunters, the adventure Mind the Gap, and the setting books Mona Rise Megalopolis and PRDTR.
The bundle for CBR+PNK is also available on Itch.io, and over 1900 free community copies at the time of writing of the core rules available thanks to the crowdfunding stretch goals for those who cannot afford the game at this time.
Earl of Fife Games released two bundles for the sci-fi game Mothership with different themes. The first, 2023 Mothership Blue Collar Sci-Fi Bundle, features optional rules, adventures, sourcebooks, expansions, locations, and more for exploring the corporate side of the sci-fi/horror game.
Meanwhile, the 2023 Mothership Xeno-Horror Bundle seeks to expand on the horror side of Mothership with new terrors lurking in the unknown of space with more adventures, sourcebooks, and supplements.
Charity Bundles and Sales
Itch.io has a new mega-bundle, the Türkiye & Syria Earthquake Relief Mega Bundle with over 200 video games, asset packs, tabletop RPGs, and more from a wide variety of independent creators.
Over on Bundle of Holding, Privateer Press has the Iron Kingdoms: Requiem bundle using the 5e rules set. This steam-powered sword and sorcery fantasy bundle includes the core rulebook, the Monsternomicon, GM’s Toolkit, and the adventures Legend of the Witchfire and An Echo in the Darkness while the bonus connection adds on the sourcebooks Borderlands and Beyond and The Borderlands Survival Guide plus three more adventures set in the Borderlands.
Before Shadowrun, before BattleTech, even before the original Star Trek RPG, FASA Corporation was known as a licensee producing supplements for the science fiction game Traveller. And now Bundle of Holding has collected many of their classic adventures and sourcebooks together in the FASA Traveller Bundle. The bundle includes six adventures along with maps of the ISCV King Richard and a Starport Hotel Complex, while the bonus collection adds on eight more starship plans, the Sky Raiders adventure trilogy, and the FCI Consumer Guide.
Liberi Gothica Games has a bundle featuring the tabletop fantasy game Fellowship. One player acts as the Overlord bent on world destruction while the other players form a coalition of heroes undertaking a perilous journey to save the day using rules based on the Apocalypse Engine. The starter collection features the base rulebook, Fellowship 2 – Inverse Fellowship, and a collection of alternative playbooks for Dungeon World while the Bonus Collection adds on Fellowship 3 – In Rebellion and Fellowship Book 4 – Generous Fellowship along with four more playbooks.
For GMs looking for a quick generator for plot ideas, Larcenous Designs has the GameMaster’s Apprentice, a line of idea-generator cards from Nathan Rockwood. The base level features all three 120-card decks in PDF format to print as sheets and as individual JPG images for use with VTTs and other card-creation software, while the bonus collection adds on a further five more decks.
On Humble Bundle, Paizo released the Starfinder Solidarity Bundle featuring a full library of Starfinder books. If you’ve never played the space fantasy spinoff of Pathfinder, the base level features the Starfinder Core Rulebook, Alien Archive, Player Character Folio, GM Screen, Beginner Box, and the first adventure in the We’re No Heroes adventure path. The top-tier level is a full library of 27 digital products plus two physical products, the hardcover of Alien Archive 2 and the reference cards Critical Hit Deck (shipping extra).
Catalyst Game Labs and Humble Bundle gathered together a library of classic BattleTech novels. Even the $1 level gets you four amazing books, the book that got me into BattleTech, Robert Thurston’s Way of the Clans plus the novel that started off the line, William H. Keith’s Decision at Thunder Rift along with a pair of novels by Robert N. Charrette, Heir to the Dragon and Wolves on the Border. The second $10 level adds on six more books from Michael A Stackpole, Loren L. Coleman, and more and the top tier $18 is an amazing deal for sixty novels in your choice of EPUB or MOBI format for easy reading on any ereader, tablet, phone, or computer.
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!
So, you all meet in a tavern. No, seriously, this OSR-style roleplaying from Andy McDermott is called You All Meet in a Tavern, a title I have a soft spot for.
- Price: Free
For another lightweight fantasy RPG, there’s Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings with an emphasis on non-combat elements, skill advancement, and an open magic system with possible miscasts.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
And yet another new rules-lite system, the Pathwalker One Core Rules (no relation) is a setting-neutral RPG using a unique Path System for character creation and advancement.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
And one more core rule system, the fantasy RPG Lost Roads of Lociam – Age of the Black Chaimara is a system using two ten-sided dice set in the world of Lociam with rules for travel, fighting, magic, prayer, riches, and more.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
- Also available as Print-on-Demand
More goodies for OSR fans, Jeremy Reaban has The OSR Slayer, a character class made for OSR systems based on 1e or B/X rules that allows the character to smite foes with weapons or fists and choose to gain powers from the evil they oppose.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Born2BPlayer has a new adventure for Delta Green titled Azzurrina is Missing which sends the agents to find the daughter of a senator who has disappeared near Lincoln, Nebraska.
- Price: Free
Superhero RPG fans, meet Ink!, a wisecracking webslinger with an immature and 4th-wall-breaking sense of humor (yes, Spider-man meets Deadpool) with stats for Guardians OSR, Icons, and Champions Now.
- Price: Free
You know what Pathfinder 2nd Edition has been missing? Giant stompy robots. Thankfully Eldritch Osiris Games brought us Mechfinder: Unvierse of Mech and Magic with a preview of the upcoming full game.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, Bas Klein released Stakes, a tavern card game to add some variety to downtime along with three new spells designed to cheat at card games.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.73)
Thomas and Rachel Kolar bring us a new Domain of Dread with The Queenswood featuring the Darklord Queen Narcissa inspired by the fairy tale Snow White.
- Price: Free
As localization is a slow and expensive process, not all products are available in all languages. While not a full translation, Death House Turkce Betimlemeler from Mythical Merchant translates some of the location descriptions and flavor text from Curse of Strahd into Turkish (though you’ll still need the book for all game stats, encounters, treasure, or other materials).
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
Gabriel Gro shows up here often with his custom classes (and he’ll show up again in just a moment), but this week he also has a new species, Formians: Cosmic Insectoids. This conversion of the classic insectoid race from previous editions with five monster stat blocks and updated lore about formian society.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $2.75)
And he also has a new player race with Zodacians: The Zodiac Awakened. The Zodacians have twelve subspecies based on each of the twelve signs of the zodiac with unique abilities and powers for each along with full lore for the species.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.99)
Over on Storytellers Vault, Justin Blasdel has a new take on the Werewolf: The Apocalypse setting with the thought…what if Pentex took over? Utopia: The Living Nightmare is a large city setting where ten percent of the population are formor and the other nine wish they could be. New creation rules, a new Contamination trait, setting history, 4 new Mockery Breeds, and more rules for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $5.00)
And our lightning round this week is a round-up of the new classes, subclasses, and variant classes available on Dungeonmasters Guild. All products are free or pay-what-you-want with the suggested price in parentheses.
- Gem Channeler (Artificer) from URGE TV ($1.99)
- Spirit Warrior (Monk) from Gabriel Gro (told you he’d be back) ($0.75)
- Soul Reaper (Warlock) from Gabriel Gro ($0.99)
- Spell Thief (Rogue) from Redwyrm, Redwyrmling ($1.00)
- Warlord (Barbarian) from Goob the Goblin ($1.00)
- Corruption Magic (Wizard) (Also with two backgrounds) from Teppo Perä ($4.99)
- Cretaceous Bloodline (Sorcerer) from Gabriel Gro ($0.99)
- College of Punk Rock (Bard) from Gabriel Gro ($0.75)
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.
Over on Itch.io, Gizmo is hosting a sale on Mörk Borg supplements with a bundle of 15 adventures, rules expansions, settings, tools, character options, and more. And while not precisely a charity bundle, it is for a good cause: Gizmo has a new dog whose birthday is next month and deserves treats.
- Price: £8.00 (85% off)
- End Date: May 31, 2023
Chaosium has once again gathered select entries from the Miskatonic Repository community content program for the Miskatonic May 2023 Bundle. This bundle features five adventures for Call of Cthulhu from varied settings such as Regency Era on the high seas, 1898 Kenya, and Jazz Age New Orleans along with the standard 1920s and modern-day.
- Price: $10.99 (52% off)
The Cabinet of Curiosities released the CBR+PNK bundle, a rules-lite Forged in the Dark inspired cyberpunk RPG where you take on the role of a runner team doing One Last Job™. This bundle includes the core rules, the +Weird supplement to add magic to the setting, the rules expansion Cyberpunk Hunters, the adventure Mind the Gap, and the setting books Mona Rise Megalopolis and PRDTR.
- Price: $20.00 (37% off)
The bundle for CBR+PNK is also available on Itch.io, and over 1900 free community copies at the time of writing of the core rules available thanks to the crowdfunding stretch goals for those who cannot afford the game at this time.
- Price: $19.90 (36% off)
- Free community copies available for those experiencing financial hardship, from the Global South, want to play the game on an emerging channel/podcast, and/or just want to try the game before committing to a purchase
Earl of Fife Games released two bundles for the sci-fi game Mothership with different themes. The first, 2023 Mothership Blue Collar Sci-Fi Bundle, features optional rules, adventures, sourcebooks, expansions, locations, and more for exploring the corporate side of the sci-fi/horror game.
- Price: $39.97 (45% off)
Meanwhile, the 2023 Mothership Xeno-Horror Bundle seeks to expand on the horror side of Mothership with new terrors lurking in the unknown of space with more adventures, sourcebooks, and supplements.
- Price: $42.74 (45% off)
Charity Bundles and Sales
Itch.io has a new mega-bundle, the Türkiye & Syria Earthquake Relief Mega Bundle with over 200 video games, asset packs, tabletop RPGs, and more from a wide variety of independent creators.
- Price: $10 (98% off)
- End Date: May 21, 2023
- Charity: Turkish Philanthropy Fund, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, White Helmets, Ahbap, and more (all proceeds)
Over on Bundle of Holding, Privateer Press has the Iron Kingdoms: Requiem bundle using the 5e rules set. This steam-powered sword and sorcery fantasy bundle includes the core rulebook, the Monsternomicon, GM’s Toolkit, and the adventures Legend of the Witchfire and An Echo in the Darkness while the bonus connection adds on the sourcebooks Borderlands and Beyond and The Borderlands Survival Guide plus three more adventures set in the Borderlands.
- Price: $14.95 (77% off) with variable-cost Level-Up option
- End Date: May 26, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
Before Shadowrun, before BattleTech, even before the original Star Trek RPG, FASA Corporation was known as a licensee producing supplements for the science fiction game Traveller. And now Bundle of Holding has collected many of their classic adventures and sourcebooks together in the FASA Traveller Bundle. The bundle includes six adventures along with maps of the ISCV King Richard and a Starport Hotel Complex, while the bonus collection adds on eight more starship plans, the Sky Raiders adventure trilogy, and the FCI Consumer Guide.
- Price: $9.95 (85% off) with variable-cost Level-Up option
- End Date: May 22, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
Liberi Gothica Games has a bundle featuring the tabletop fantasy game Fellowship. One player acts as the Overlord bent on world destruction while the other players form a coalition of heroes undertaking a perilous journey to save the day using rules based on the Apocalypse Engine. The starter collection features the base rulebook, Fellowship 2 – Inverse Fellowship, and a collection of alternative playbooks for Dungeon World while the Bonus Collection adds on Fellowship 3 – In Rebellion and Fellowship Book 4 – Generous Fellowship along with four more playbooks.
- Price: $9.95 (72% off) with variable-cost Level-Up option
- End Date: May 18, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
For GMs looking for a quick generator for plot ideas, Larcenous Designs has the GameMaster’s Apprentice, a line of idea-generator cards from Nathan Rockwood. The base level features all three 120-card decks in PDF format to print as sheets and as individual JPG images for use with VTTs and other card-creation software, while the bonus collection adds on a further five more decks.
- Price: $7.95 (74% off) with variable-cost Level-Up option
- End Date: May 16, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
On Humble Bundle, Paizo released the Starfinder Solidarity Bundle featuring a full library of Starfinder books. If you’ve never played the space fantasy spinoff of Pathfinder, the base level features the Starfinder Core Rulebook, Alien Archive, Player Character Folio, GM Screen, Beginner Box, and the first adventure in the We’re No Heroes adventure path. The top-tier level is a full library of 27 digital products plus two physical products, the hardcover of Alien Archive 2 and the reference cards Critical Hit Deck (shipping extra).
- Price: $5/$15/$25/$45 (89% off at top tier)
- End Date: June 1, 2023
- Charity: The Trevor Project (user-defined, default 5%)
Catalyst Game Labs and Humble Bundle gathered together a library of classic BattleTech novels. Even the $1 level gets you four amazing books, the book that got me into BattleTech, Robert Thurston’s Way of the Clans plus the novel that started off the line, William H. Keith’s Decision at Thunder Rift along with a pair of novels by Robert N. Charrette, Heir to the Dragon and Wolves on the Border. The second $10 level adds on six more books from Michael A Stackpole, Loren L. Coleman, and more and the top tier $18 is an amazing deal for sixty novels in your choice of EPUB or MOBI format for easy reading on any ereader, tablet, phone, or computer.
- Price: $1/$10/$18 (94% off at top tier)
- End Date: May 25, 2023
- Charity: The Global FoodBanking Network (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.
