RPG Bundles, Freebies, and Sales News (May 8, 2022)

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

Starting off strong this week with an entire campaign setting, Xallital The Devouring Desert. This 34-page PDF on DM’s Guild features 6 new player races, new monsters and weapons, and a landscape based on the Moab Desert of Utah in the United States. Another interesting bit about this product is that it was a class project for a collection of college students who collaborated on the design.

• Price: $0.00

So there’s plenty out there about fallen paladins who fall from the grace of their deity, but what happens when a warlock breaks their pact with their patron? The Pactbreaker class by John Beardify provides us with a new class designed around the idea of breaking magical bonds as the former warlock has broken their own.

• Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.04)

Elyjah Mathis has a whopping 48-page PDF featuring a collection of player races for the campaign setting Wyldfang of anthropomorphic animals. For the furries at heart out there, this collection features a large list of anthro animal races and variations for each ready for your games.

• Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $10.00)

If the wildlife of your campaign setting isn’t quite dangerous enough, why not make the flora just as deadly with the Vampiric Flower by Francisco Dalcastagne Miguel? This 11-page PDF features four statblocks for new creatures along with tips on how they function in combat plus suggestions for loot and harvesting, a magical whip made from the roots, a new 2nd level transmutation spell, and a new infection.

• Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $4.50)

Fighting giant monsters is a staple of Dungeons & Dragons games but often lacked the depth and scale of battling something several stories tall. Liam Mackey hopes to change that with Fighting Gigantic Monsters, a collection of optional rules to make fighting the biggest (no pun intended) threats in your campaign more interesting with rules for targeting specific limbs to climbing onto a monster and more.

• Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)

For those looking to expand their Ravenloft games, Kristinn Kistmundsson brings us Secrets of the Mists, a 20-page sourcebook featuring new encounters, new monsters, new cursed magic items, and more options ready to add to Ravenloft or to any 5e campaign that needs a dose of gothic horror.

• Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)

​

Bundles and Sales

On Dungeon Masters Guild, Craig Mackie and Calvin Sky have Spring’s Subclass Bundle featuring a dozen books with ten new subclasses across all thirteen official classes, three new spells, three new NPCs, and two new feats.

• Price: $3.70 (53% off)

The Complete Psionic Bundle has four books packed with plenty of options to add psionics to your 5e games. A new Wizard psionics subclass, a new Oath for paladins using psionics to protect against extraplanar threats, a full independent Psion class, and the Psionic Handbook with even more subclasses and over 200 new psionic spells.

• Price: $6.95 (43% off)

Over on DriveThruRPG, the Seafood Games Patreon Maps & Adventures compilation from their offerings originally released in December 2021 is a massive collection of ready-to-use battlemaps. Each of the 28 maps is 40x30 squares and comes in two gridded versions – a home-printable A4 size that can be printed and assembled from standard printer paper and an A0 poster-sized printable map – and two ungridded versions ready for VTTs in 300 DPI high-resolution and more bandwidth-friendly 72 DPI.

• Price: $11.99 (87% off)

For fans of Mörk Borg who want to add some more squidginess and ick to their game, the Fish, Parasites, and Toads Bundle from Sorchi Games has three supplements focused on, well, sea creatures, amphibians, fungi, and parasites. A Piece of Rotten Fish is an adventure lasting 1-3 sessions plus a collection of new monsters, All Hail the Necrotoad and Fifteen Fungi on the Dead Man’s Chest is a pair of adventures in a single PDF, while Sacred Parasites is a book with parasites complete with a random table.

• Price: $7.95 (27% off)

The Fantasy and Science Fiction Languages Bundle by Ken Wickman adds depth to your settings with fleshed-out languages for different cultures like Elves, Fairies, Trolls, Orcs, Dragons, Dwarves, and, of course, several alien languages for sci-fi settings.

• Price: $19.98 (56% off)

Michael Brown has a pair of bundles for “2d6 SF Adventure” using the Cepheus Engine (which is the generic name for the system that powers Traveller). Each bundle features 10 new adventures taking you across the stars.

• Price: $5.99 each (50% off for Volume 13 and 40% off for Volume 14)

​

Charity Bundles and Sales

While there is currently an ongoing game jam to support reproductive rights organizations in the United States on Itchi.io, those games won’t be available until May 16. However, it’s anticipated to be yet another huge bundle once it releases so keep an eye here for when it’s available. If you’re a game designer and would like to participate, see the link above for details.


In the meantime, Dungeon Rogue has offered their game Fight for Rights on DriveThruRPG as a charity offering. Fight for Rights is a game about politics, debate, and education on important topics using the Breathless SRD from Fari RPGs, giving a tabletop gaming framework to research and learn about real-world political issues.

• Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $4.99)
• End Date: May 31, 2022
• Charity: Planned Parenthood Action Fund (all proceeds)

There are not one but two Shadowrun bundles on Bundle of Holding. The first, Shadowrun Sixth World Essentials gives you everything you need to get started in the newest edition of the cyberpunk fantasy RPG. The Shadowrun Sixth World Core Rules has everything you need to play along with two great primer sourcebooks for the setting, the Neo-Anarchist Streetpedia describing the history of the Shadowrun world and the media and culture book No Future talking about everyday life in the world of magic and machine. The Level-Up option adds on five new sourcebooks that add even more character options, cyberware, weapons, armor, vehicles, and more.

• Price: $17.95 (73% off) with variable cost Level-Up option
• End Date: May 23, 2022
• Charity: Direct Relief (10%)

The second bundle, Shadowrun Power Plays, brings you up to speed on what’s been going on in 2080 and 2081 with a collection of sourcebooks and adventures. Free Seattle is a collection of adventures about the political machinations behind the city of Seattle becoming an independent city-state (spoilers: a dragon may be involved), Collapsing Now gives the nitty gritty of shady power players of the Shadowrun world, and Power Plays goes into detail on the megacorporations that run the world. The Level-Up option adds Cutting Black describing the events of a major month-long blackout that caused massive fallout across the United Canadian American States, 30 Nights which is a string of adventures taking place during the blackout, Slip Streams continues the plot threads from Cutting Black and the dangerous magical phenomenon taking place, and Tales from the UCAS: Age of Rust explores different cities throughout the UCAS.

• Price: $14.95 (72% off) with variable cost Level-Up option
• End Date: May 23, 2022
• Charity: Direct Relief (10%)

There’s a couple of days left on the Hostile Bundle, which gives you everything you need for deep-space horror using the Cepheus Engine from Zozer Games inspired by Classic Traveller. The retro-future setting of the game is inspired by movies like Outland, Blade Runner, and Alien featuring claustrophobic space freighters and brutal industrial colonies. The base level includes the core rules, a referee screen, and the weapons guide Gunlocker. The Level-Up price adds on three guides to survival on hostile worlds, two bestiaries, two hardware and vehicle guides, and a campaign framework “well described by its title: Crew Expendable”.

• Price: $9.95 (78% off) with variable cost Level-Up option
• End Date: May 9, 2022
• Charity: Direct Relief (10%)

Humble Bundle’s Spring Sale is currently going on in the Humble Store with big discounts on a lot of TTRPG licensed video games including Cyberpunk 2077 for $29.99 (50% off), Pathfinder: Kingmaker for $8.99 (55% off), Solasta: Crown of the Magister for $15.99 (60% off), BattleTech for $9.99 (75% off), and the Shadowrun Trilogy of games available individually for 75% off (Shadowrun Returns for $3.74, Shadowrun Dragonfall Director’s Cut for $3.74, and Shadowrun: Hong Kong for $4.99) along with many other video games.

• Price: Varies (discounts from 20% to 92% off)
• End Date: May 23, 2022
• Charity: User determined in account settings (5% to 10%)

That’s all for this week! This is still an experiment so if you have any feedback, please leave a comment. If you know of any bundles or sales starting soon, please contact me on the EN World Discord 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, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.

 

[mediajedixman]

Solasta: Crown of the Magister is definitely worth the sale price.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Starting off strong this week with an entire campaign setting, Xallital The Devouring Desert. This 34-page PDF on DM’s Guild features 6 new player races, new monsters and weapons, and a landscape based on the Moab Desert of Utah in the United States. Another interesting bit about this product is that it was a class project for a collection of college students who collaborated on the design.

• Price: $0.00

Interested

Michael Brown has a pair of bundles for “2d6 SF Adventure” using the Cepheus Engine (which is the generic name for the system that powers Traveller). Each bundle features 10 new adventures taking you across the stars.

• Price: $5.99 each (50% off for Volume 13 and 40% off for Volume 14)

Interested

Thanks for posting these! I do read this - even if most of it isn't to my tastes or relevant to the games I like...

 

[Ghost2020]

Thanks for posting these! I do read this - even if most of it isn't to my tastes or relevant to the games I like...

Same here! Never know when one will find that hidden gem!

 

[Abstruse]

I try to be diverse in what I highlight. While something might not be for everyone out there, everything is hopefully for someone out there.

 

[Teneb]

Are the Shadowrun books worth picking up? I'm a D&D 5E player who's interested in getting a little more sci-fi in my diet, and the price certainly seems right.

 

[Abstruse]

Are the Shadowrun books worth picking up? I'm a D&D 5E player who's interested in getting a little more sci-fi in my diet, and the price certainly seems right.

I am a very biased source since I'm a huge Shadowrun fan, but if it's something you're interested in, this is the best deal you're likely to see for a while for the books. Some things to keep in mind if you're a D&D player who doesn't have experience with other systems:

1. Shadowrun is very tied to its setting. You may think that D&D seems focused on the Sword Coast, but Shadowrun takes place in the Shadowrun world. The mechanics are entirely tied to their setting and work under the assumption you're playing in that setting. If you want to do something else other than play in the Shadowrun world, it takes a lot of houseruling and handwaving of different aspects of the game.

2. Shadowrun plays very differently to D&D. It's not level-based and it's not class-based. There's not really such a thing as a "balanced encounter" in Shadowrun because you're just as likely to talk your way past it or sneak around it or come up with some wild plan as you are to get in a shootout. You also won't miss out on any rewards for doing it this way - "experience" (called karma in the game) is given out by accomplishing goals not by defeating encounters.

3. The rules system is very different. It's a d6 dice pool system. To accomplish anything from attacking to hacking to casting a spell to trying to con someone, it's all handled by the same basic mechanic: You roll a number of d6s equal to an Attribute and a Skill. For example, if you're shooting your gun and you have Agility 4 and Firearms 3, you're rolling 7 dice. For every 5 or 6 on the dice, you get one Hit. You are attempting to get as many Hits as possible as many times you'll need more than one to succeed at something, and frequently you're rolling while defending as well. The rules aren't hard once you get the hang of them, but it might take some time due to the very different mechanical systems involved.

4. Shadowrun has a lot of lore. Like a lot a lot. It's one of the reasons this bundle is such a good place to start as the Core Rulebook bundle features two nice introductory books to the lore of the setting. Neo-Anarchist Streetpedia gives a full timeline of all the major events that have happened in the world since the return of magic (along with in-universe comments section so various characters from the setting can chime in with their two cents about the subject), while No Future talks about the society and culture so you have a better idea of what the world is like to live in. Now you don't need to know all of that lore to play the game, but it does help a lot in understanding the setting.

Personally, I think $15 edit: $18 (sorry, mixed up the bundles) for the core rules and two books expanding the world is a great introduction to the game. I'd also recommend picking up the physical copy of the Shadowrun Beginner Box if you can find it since it has a more streamlined version of the rules (that way you can grasp the basics before diving into the deep end) and it comes with custom dice made specifically to be easy to read for the way the system works - 5s and 6s are a different color on the dice so you can spot them immediately and know how many Hits you have on a particular roll.

However, if all you're looking to do is add some sci-fi elements to your D&D game...it might not be for you. Even though it is a cyberpunk fantasy game, it's still very different from D&D in both tone and rules. To compare it to movies or TV, D&D is action/adventure, while Shadowrun is a heist movie. If you're looking for something more like "D&D in Space", Starfinder is a lot closer to the science fantasy genre, or you can wait for later this year when EN Publishing releases Voidrunner's Codex, which is a sourcebook for Level Up: Advanced 5e (and thus compatible with D&D 5e) focused entirely on science fiction so you can have just straight tradition sci-fi or mix in the fantasy elements from A5E or O5E.

 

[Teneb]

I am a very biased source since I'm a huge Shadowrun fan, but if it's something you're interested in, this is the best deal you're likely to see for a while for the books. Some things to keep in mind if you're a D&D player who doesn't have experience with other systems:

1. Shadowrun is very tied to its setting. You may think that D&D seems focused on the Sword Coast, but Shadowrun takes place in the Shadowrun world. The mechanics are entirely tied to their setting and work under the assumption you're playing in that setting. If you want to do something else other than play in the Shadowrun world, it takes a lot of houseruling and handwaving of different aspects of the game.

2. Shadowrun plays very differently to D&D. It's not level-based and it's not class-based. There's not really such a thing as a "balanced encounter" in Shadowrun because you're just as likely to talk your way past it or sneak around it or come up with some wild plan as you are to get in a shootout. You also won't miss out on any rewards for doing it this way - "experience" (called karma in the game) is given out by accomplishing goals not by defeating encounters.

3. The rules system is very different. It's a d6 dice pool system. To accomplish anything from attacking to hacking to casting a spell to trying to con someone, it's all handled by the same basic mechanic: You roll a number of d6s equal to an Attribute and a Skill. For example, if you're shooting your gun and you have Agility 4 and Firearms 3, you're rolling 7 dice. For every 5 or 6 on the dice, you get one Hit. You are attempting to get as many Hits as possible as many times you'll need more than one to succeed at something, and frequently you're rolling while defending as well. The rules aren't hard once you get the hang of them, but it might take some time due to the very different mechanical systems involved.

4. Shadowrun has a lot of lore. Like a lot a lot. It's one of the reasons this bundle is such a good place to start as the Core Rulebook bundle features two nice introductory books to the lore of the setting. Neo-Anarchist Streetpedia gives a full timeline of all the major events that have happened in the world since the return of magic (along with in-universe comments section so various characters from the setting can chime in with their two cents about the subject), while No Future talks about the society and culture so you have a better idea of what the world is like to live in. Now you don't need to know all of that lore to play the game, but it does help a lot in understanding the setting.

Personally, I think $15 edit: $18 (sorry, mixed up the bundles) for the core rules and two books expanding the world is a great introduction to the game. I'd also recommend picking up the physical copy of the Shadowrun Beginner Box if you can find it since it has a more streamlined version of the rules (that way you can grasp the basics before diving into the deep end) and it comes with custom dice made specifically to be easy to read for the way the system works - 5s and 6s are a different color on the dice so you can spot them immediately and know how many Hits you have on a particular roll.

However, if all you're looking to do is add some sci-fi elements to your D&D game...it might not be for you. Even though it is a cyberpunk fantasy game, it's still very different from D&D in both tone and rules. To compare it to movies or TV, D&D is action/adventure, while Shadowrun is a heist movie. If you're looking for something more like "D&D in Space", Starfinder is a lot closer to the science fantasy genre, or you can wait for later this year when EN Publishing releases Voidrunner's Codex, which is a sourcebook for Level Up: Advanced 5e (and thus compatible with D&D 5e) focused entirely on science fiction so you can have just straight tradition sci-fi or mix in the fantasy elements from A5E or O5E.

Wonderful, thank you for taking the time to make such an indepth response!