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!
G.A. Mitchell will start us out this week with The Barrow of Bhalagrim – JEM1, an OSR adventure for first level characters of Jrouneyman, Expert, Master. The party is sent to tackle a growing problem inside an ancient dwarf barrow as a malevolent creeping spirit has been seen to eat livestock at night.
If you’re fond of the Hero Point mechanic in Pathfinder but felt the implementation could be improved, Max Lysenko is here to help with Hero Points Variant Rules for Pathfinder 2nd Edition. These options help make the use of Hero Points feel more epic and give more abilities to tweak the circumstances of the adventure to your favor.
Level 1 2024 is a zine from 9th Level Games full of indie RPGs, this year’s volume themed around the idea of “Command Line” featuring 72 pages and well over a dozen different games about abandoned Discord servers, golems, hacking simulations, outer space pets, and more!
Ruggero ZC has a new one-page noir tabletop roleplaying game Carte Diem with a diceless, randomless system based around four cards and bluffing for task resolution as you play a group of crooks seeking that one final big heist.
Are you ready to join the revolution? Ndp Design hopes so with The Birth of the Resistance Age, a card-based RPG about political action where the party plays the Resistance against an oppressive dystopia flexible enough to work in any genre from fantasy to sci-fi to present day.
As I’ve said many times before, BattleTech is one of my favorite games and the game that got me into the hobby. But because it’s a bit niche and I grew up in a small town, it was difficult to find people to play with. I wish I had Circuit Sim 3K from GamesByFelix.com back then because it’s a set of solo play rules for BattleTech. All you need is the Classic BattleTech rules or introductory boxed set and this PDF to practice your tactics and test new strategies on your own.
Hero Level Games has the most monster-of-the-week adventure for Monster of the Week with the classic set up of Cabin in the Woods. Inspired by the meta-horror classic and the many films that it itself was inspired by, this challenges the group to survive the night as they’re attacked by…well, you’ll have to find out using the included tables to generate the Evil, NPCs, plot twists, and clues.
Over on Dungeonmaster’s Guild, Thomas and Rachel Kolar are back with the newest entry from their podcast Wonderful World of Darklords with a new Disney-inspired Domain of Dread The Grid where extradimensional constructs live within the computer.
Sewage Orc has a nice, cozy spot for you with the Orvly Bar and Pool - An Adventuring Hub for Low Level Campaigns which includes a description of the tavern, a list of all the staff including stat blocks and backgrounds, food and drink menu, VTT tokens and maps for the tavern and all the NPCs, and even an employment mechanic for party members who want to get a real, honest job during downtime.
Albenis has another take on the increasingly popular subgenre of supplements all about the fine dining options of a dungeon with Monstrous Feasts and Alchemy featuring several recipes for monstrous ingredients and their magical effects when consumed.
The first Lightning Round this week features gamemaster/DM resources like monsters, maps, random generators, one-page adventures, drop-in encounters, 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.
With the announcement of Alien The Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition, it’s a great time to pick up the first edition books which are all on sale on DriveThruRPG. Pick up all of the books available now along with the Roll20 VTT files at deep discounts.
Do you want maps? Paths to Adventure has some maps for you. Not just a few. Or a dozen. Or a hundred. No, the Paths to Adventure Master Map Bundle features more than 2000 hand-crafted maps and map variants ready for your favorite virtual tabletop covering almost any environment or setting you can think of.
If you’re looking for random tables, the Otherworldly Fantasy Tables Bundle from Chaos Gen is here for you with a trio of random table collections including encounters, trinkets, random plane generators, and more for OSR or any fantasy RPG.
Seafoot Games wants to help you speed along your game prep regardless of fantasy system with the GM’s Adventure Guide Bundle featuring 25 adventure kits ready for the Foundry VTT or other platforms each with maps, multiple adventures, plots, and more ready for you to slot in the appropriate NPC/monster stats and items for your preferred system.
Charity Bundles and Sales
Actor and author Anjali Bhimani will be the GM for the charity live stream The Puppy Roll coming on August 20. A dramatic trailer is available here which promises that “Paws Will Roll”, while the charity fundraiser page is on Tiltify. The cast includes Matt Mercer (Critical Role), Ashley Johnson (Critical Role), Aabria Iyengar (Dimension 20), Emily Swallow (The Mandalorian, Supernatural), and Maggie Robertson (Baldur’s Gate III, Resident Evil VIIIage). The rules will be “5e-lite’, but highly house ruled as the players will be taking on the roles of their pet dogs – Omar, Sully, Suvi, Norma Jean Meatballs, and Cricket respectively. The stream will go live on Anjiali’s YouTube channel starting at 6 PM Pacific (9 PM Eastern, 2 AM London) and run for about four hours, with the VOD available after the stream.
Over on Bundle of Holding, The World’s Largest Bundle from Alderac Entertainment may not quite be literal, but it does feature the Ultimate Toolbox with more than 1000 random tables, the campaign sourcebooks Empire, War, Mercenaries, Gods, Magic, and Relics, and the anthology books Adventure I-II. The bundle’s name, however, refers to what’s in the Bonus Collection with the legendary World’s Largest Dungeon featuring over 900 pages and 1600 encounters, World’s Largest City with over 700 pages and 16 poster maps of a massive fantasy urban sprawl, and the sourcebooks Dragons and Dungeons.
The Mongoose 2300AD 2E Bundle features the core rulebooks and setting information for Traveller 2300AD as humanity spreads among the stars in a gritty and sometimes brutal adventure to the frontiers. The Starter Collection includes the Traveller Core Rules (2022), 2300AD 2e, and 2300AD Tools for Frontier Living with everything you need to get started, while the Bonus Collection adds on the sourcebooks 2300AD Project Bayern, Ships of the Frontier, Vehicles of the Frontier, and Aerospace Engineers’ Handbook.
Over on Humble Bundle, the Star Trek Adventures 1st Edition Collection from Modiphius is a megabundle of almost every published book for the first edition of the Star Trek RPG, all cross-compatible with the recently released Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition. The first tier is a tease of the Starter Set and the introductory Lower Decks adventure Lurkers, but the second tier adds on both the standard and the Klingon Empire Core Rulebook, all three Division Supplements (Command, Sciences, and Operation), the Player’s Guide, both the Alpha Quadrant and Beta Quadrant sourcebooks and more. The top tier, however, includes every single book published for Star Trek Adventures so far including the Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign, Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook, crew packs and campaign guides for The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, The Animated Series, Enterprise, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, and Lower Decks, map tile sets, the Gamma Quadrant and Delta Quadrant sourcebooks, and the TTRPG exclusive campaign setting Shackleton Expanse.
The video game bundle Beamdog & Owlcat RPG Masters is of interest to TTRPG players as it includes licensed titles from some of the biggest TTRPGs out there. The base tier includes the Enhanced Editions of the D&D classics Planescape Torment and Icewind Dale, the next tier adds on the original first two Baldur’s Gate games plus Pathfinder: Kingmaker, the third tier adds on Neverwinter Nights and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, the fourth tier includes the season passes for both Pathfinder video games, while the top tier adds on the recently released Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader.
The Starfinder 2nd Edition Playtest Primer Bundle has a bit of a confusing name since there’s just the one Starfinder 2nd Edition playtest document. The rest of this bundle, however, is a great chance to fill out your Starfinder 1st Edition library with any books you may have missed out on and files for the Hero Lab character management software. The first tier includes all the playtest PDFs plus Hero Lab files for the playtest document and two Starfinder flip-mat sets. The second tier adds on Hero Lab files for the Starfinder 1e Core Rulebook, Alien Archive 1-4, and Pact Worlds plus the PDFs for all of the above and a vast collection of more flip mats. The third tier features PDFs and Hero Lab files for Near Space, Ports of Call, and Drift Crisis plus the Drift Hackers and Drift Crashers Adventure Paths. The top tier adds on the Starfinder First Edition: Drift Crisis hardcover book as a physical reward (shipping not included).
Free League is a lot more than just their licensed titles, and the Immersive RPG Bundle for Alchemy VTT wants to highlight that. Important update: Alchemy has notified buyers of this bundle and of the products independently that Free League is discontinuing the license for a download of the PDF. You have until August 21 to download any PDFs purchased through this bundle. You will still receive the full VTT files for use on the Alchemy virtual tabletop, but will not have access to PDFs for the books after that date.
Now back to our regularly scheduled bundle description: The base tier features core rules for Tales from the Loop, Mork Borg, Mutant Year Zero, Ruins of Symbaroum, and Coriolis for the Alchemy VTT, while the second tier adds on the core rules for Vaesen, Dragonbane, Twilight: 2000, Pirate Borg, and Forbidden Lands along with eleven sourcebooks and adventures, and the top tier features 24 more rules expansions, bestiaries, adventures, and more for the various included games.
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!
G.A. Mitchell will start us out this week with The Barrow of Bhalagrim – JEM1, an OSR adventure for first level characters of Jrouneyman, Expert, Master. The party is sent to tackle a growing problem inside an ancient dwarf barrow as a malevolent creeping spirit has been seen to eat livestock at night.
- Price: Free
If you’re fond of the Hero Point mechanic in Pathfinder but felt the implementation could be improved, Max Lysenko is here to help with Hero Points Variant Rules for Pathfinder 2nd Edition. These options help make the use of Hero Points feel more epic and give more abilities to tweak the circumstances of the adventure to your favor.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $5.00)
Level 1 2024 is a zine from 9th Level Games full of indie RPGs, this year’s volume themed around the idea of “Command Line” featuring 72 pages and well over a dozen different games about abandoned Discord servers, golems, hacking simulations, outer space pets, and more!
- Price: Free
Ruggero ZC has a new one-page noir tabletop roleplaying game Carte Diem with a diceless, randomless system based around four cards and bluffing for task resolution as you play a group of crooks seeking that one final big heist.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Are you ready to join the revolution? Ndp Design hopes so with The Birth of the Resistance Age, a card-based RPG about political action where the party plays the Resistance against an oppressive dystopia flexible enough to work in any genre from fantasy to sci-fi to present day.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $3.00)
As I’ve said many times before, BattleTech is one of my favorite games and the game that got me into the hobby. But because it’s a bit niche and I grew up in a small town, it was difficult to find people to play with. I wish I had Circuit Sim 3K from GamesByFelix.com back then because it’s a set of solo play rules for BattleTech. All you need is the Classic BattleTech rules or introductory boxed set and this PDF to practice your tactics and test new strategies on your own.
- Price: Free
Hero Level Games has the most monster-of-the-week adventure for Monster of the Week with the classic set up of Cabin in the Woods. Inspired by the meta-horror classic and the many films that it itself was inspired by, this challenges the group to survive the night as they’re attacked by…well, you’ll have to find out using the included tables to generate the Evil, NPCs, plot twists, and clues.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $3.00)
Over on Dungeonmaster’s Guild, Thomas and Rachel Kolar are back with the newest entry from their podcast Wonderful World of Darklords with a new Disney-inspired Domain of Dread The Grid where extradimensional constructs live within the computer.
- Price: Free
Sewage Orc has a nice, cozy spot for you with the Orvly Bar and Pool - An Adventuring Hub for Low Level Campaigns which includes a description of the tavern, a list of all the staff including stat blocks and backgrounds, food and drink menu, VTT tokens and maps for the tavern and all the NPCs, and even an employment mechanic for party members who want to get a real, honest job during downtime.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.99)
Albenis has another take on the increasingly popular subgenre of supplements all about the fine dining options of a dungeon with Monstrous Feasts and Alchemy featuring several recipes for monstrous ingredients and their magical effects when consumed.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $2.00)
The first Lightning Round this week features gamemaster/DM resources like monsters, maps, random generators, one-page adventures, drop-in encounters, and more. All products are Free or pay what you want with the suggested price in parentheses.
- Delvers & Doom – 100 Deadly Rooms (D&D/OSR random encounter table) from Daring Dwarf Games ($1.00)
- Starfinder 1e Iconic Kit Card Miniatures (3D printer STL files) from Ian Welton ($4.99)
- Orc Warriors (2D printable stand-up paper pawns) from WargamePaper ($1.00)
- Basic Dungeon Tiles (VTT-ready battlemap tiles) from Draw My Dungeon ($1.00)
- Immolant Swarm (5e CR9 monster) from Gryphon Games (Free)
- Beholder’s Bane (5e magic item) from JonnyDM (Free)
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.
- Draconic Knight (5e Fighter subclass) from The Bartender Tales ($0.50)
- Dryad (5e playable species) from Corvid Moon ($2.59)
- Paladin (Shadowdark class) from Paladin ($1.00)
- Shadow Dancer (Shadowdark class) from Nashcraft ($1.00)
- Null (5e Rogue subclass) from Patrick Evans ($1.00)
Bundles and Sales
Note: I have included end dates when listed for the following sales, but please be warned that those without published end dates may end suddenly so be sure to plan purchases accordingly.
With the announcement of Alien The Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition, it’s a great time to pick up the first edition books which are all on sale on DriveThruRPG. Pick up all of the books available now along with the Roll20 VTT files at deep discounts.
- Price: 50% off
- End Date: August 31, 2024
Do you want maps? Paths to Adventure has some maps for you. Not just a few. Or a dozen. Or a hundred. No, the Paths to Adventure Master Map Bundle features more than 2000 hand-crafted maps and map variants ready for your favorite virtual tabletop covering almost any environment or setting you can think of.
- Price: $49.95 ( 96% off)
If you’re looking for random tables, the Otherworldly Fantasy Tables Bundle from Chaos Gen is here for you with a trio of random table collections including encounters, trinkets, random plane generators, and more for OSR or any fantasy RPG.
- Price: $1.95 (35% off)
Seafoot Games wants to help you speed along your game prep regardless of fantasy system with the GM’s Adventure Guide Bundle featuring 25 adventure kits ready for the Foundry VTT or other platforms each with maps, multiple adventures, plots, and more ready for you to slot in the appropriate NPC/monster stats and items for your preferred system.
- Price: $39.00 (66% off)
Charity Bundles and Sales
Actor and author Anjali Bhimani will be the GM for the charity live stream The Puppy Roll coming on August 20. A dramatic trailer is available here which promises that “Paws Will Roll”, while the charity fundraiser page is on Tiltify. The cast includes Matt Mercer (Critical Role), Ashley Johnson (Critical Role), Aabria Iyengar (Dimension 20), Emily Swallow (The Mandalorian, Supernatural), and Maggie Robertson (Baldur’s Gate III, Resident Evil VIIIage). The rules will be “5e-lite’, but highly house ruled as the players will be taking on the roles of their pet dogs – Omar, Sully, Suvi, Norma Jean Meatballs, and Cricket respectively. The stream will go live on Anjiali’s YouTube channel starting at 6 PM Pacific (9 PM Eastern, 2 AM London) and run for about four hours, with the VOD available after the stream.
- Charity: Petco Love (all donations)
- End Date: August 20. 2024 (date of the stream)
Over on Bundle of Holding, The World’s Largest Bundle from Alderac Entertainment may not quite be literal, but it does feature the Ultimate Toolbox with more than 1000 random tables, the campaign sourcebooks Empire, War, Mercenaries, Gods, Magic, and Relics, and the anthology books Adventure I-II. The bundle’s name, however, refers to what’s in the Bonus Collection with the legendary World’s Largest Dungeon featuring over 900 pages and 1600 encounters, World’s Largest City with over 700 pages and 16 poster maps of a massive fantasy urban sprawl, and the sourcebooks Dragons and Dungeons.
- Price: $12.95 (91% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
- End Date: September 4, 2024
The Mongoose 2300AD 2E Bundle features the core rulebooks and setting information for Traveller 2300AD as humanity spreads among the stars in a gritty and sometimes brutal adventure to the frontiers. The Starter Collection includes the Traveller Core Rules (2022), 2300AD 2e, and 2300AD Tools for Frontier Living with everything you need to get started, while the Bonus Collection adds on the sourcebooks 2300AD Project Bayern, Ships of the Frontier, Vehicles of the Frontier, and Aerospace Engineers’ Handbook.
- Price: $14.95 (88% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
- End Date: September 2, 2024
Over on Humble Bundle, the Star Trek Adventures 1st Edition Collection from Modiphius is a megabundle of almost every published book for the first edition of the Star Trek RPG, all cross-compatible with the recently released Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition. The first tier is a tease of the Starter Set and the introductory Lower Decks adventure Lurkers, but the second tier adds on both the standard and the Klingon Empire Core Rulebook, all three Division Supplements (Command, Sciences, and Operation), the Player’s Guide, both the Alpha Quadrant and Beta Quadrant sourcebooks and more. The top tier, however, includes every single book published for Star Trek Adventures so far including the Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign, Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook, crew packs and campaign guides for The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, The Animated Series, Enterprise, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, and Lower Decks, map tile sets, the Gamma Quadrant and Delta Quadrant sourcebooks, and the TTRPG exclusive campaign setting Shackleton Expanse.
- Price: $1/$15/$25 (94% off at top tier)
- Charity: Girls Who Code (user-defined, default 5%)
- End Date: September 7, 2024
The video game bundle Beamdog & Owlcat RPG Masters is of interest to TTRPG players as it includes licensed titles from some of the biggest TTRPGs out there. The base tier includes the Enhanced Editions of the D&D classics Planescape Torment and Icewind Dale, the next tier adds on the original first two Baldur’s Gate games plus Pathfinder: Kingmaker, the third tier adds on Neverwinter Nights and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, the fourth tier includes the season passes for both Pathfinder video games, while the top tier adds on the recently released Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader.
- Price: $4/$7/$10/$15/$35 (90% off at top tier)
- Charity: Girls Make Games Scholarship Fund (user-defined, default 5%)
- End Date: September 4, 2024
The Starfinder 2nd Edition Playtest Primer Bundle has a bit of a confusing name since there’s just the one Starfinder 2nd Edition playtest document. The rest of this bundle, however, is a great chance to fill out your Starfinder 1st Edition library with any books you may have missed out on and files for the Hero Lab character management software. The first tier includes all the playtest PDFs plus Hero Lab files for the playtest document and two Starfinder flip-mat sets. The second tier adds on Hero Lab files for the Starfinder 1e Core Rulebook, Alien Archive 1-4, and Pact Worlds plus the PDFs for all of the above and a vast collection of more flip mats. The third tier features PDFs and Hero Lab files for Near Space, Ports of Call, and Drift Crisis plus the Drift Hackers and Drift Crashers Adventure Paths. The top tier adds on the Starfinder First Edition: Drift Crisis hardcover book as a physical reward (shipping not included).
- Price: $5/$15/$30/$40 (94% off at top tier)
- Charity: Girls Who Code (user-defined, default 5%)
- End Date: August 22, 2024
Free League is a lot more than just their licensed titles, and the Immersive RPG Bundle for Alchemy VTT wants to highlight that. Important update: Alchemy has notified buyers of this bundle and of the products independently that Free League is discontinuing the license for a download of the PDF. You have until August 21 to download any PDFs purchased through this bundle. You will still receive the full VTT files for use on the Alchemy virtual tabletop, but will not have access to PDFs for the books after that date.
Now back to our regularly scheduled bundle description: The base tier features core rules for Tales from the Loop, Mork Borg, Mutant Year Zero, Ruins of Symbaroum, and Coriolis for the Alchemy VTT, while the second tier adds on the core rules for Vaesen, Dragonbane, Twilight: 2000, Pirate Borg, and Forbidden Lands along with eleven sourcebooks and adventures, and the top tier features 24 more rules expansions, bestiaries, adventures, and more for the various included games.
- Price: $10/$25/$30 (97% off at top tier)
- Charity: Direct Relief (user-defined, default 5%)
- End Date: August 19, 2024 LAST DAY!!
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.
