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!
Noah Kastin released Neon Scissor Run, a game about trying to figure out what’s going on in the game in which you win at about the same time as when you figure out how the game world works. The game is built around metanarrative absurdity as you play normal people who have been attacked by villains and must figure out how to defeat them by figuring out what works in this world (even if it makes no sense in reality).
For something a little less dada, Kyler G. has Resistance is Futile!, a science fiction alien invasion roleplaying game where multiple alien races compete with humanity itself for control of Earth.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, and all those in between or none of the above, come right up and see the amazing sights waiting for you in Matthew Pfister’s Freakshows! This MORK BORG bestiary will show you creatures unlike those you’ve ever seen before and, what’s more, will expand with new offerings as the file is updated each month! (Note: This description works best if you keep the carnival barker voice in your head the entire time)
If you miss the prestige classes from previous editions of D&D, Hewie Enfield released Prestige – Prestige Classes for 5e to bring them back. This collection features ten prestige classes from the 3.5e SRD updated for 5e rules plus a brand new prestige class.
For the aspiring game designers and homebrewers out there, The Gorilla of Destiny has a guide to help you with crafting new spells with The Spell Writing Guide. The book uses an algorithmic generation method to write spells within any magic system and, while 5e is used as an example, it can be used with any system. The text also includes the spells from the 5e SRD rewritten to conform with the terminology used for this new design system.
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, we’re starting with a new set of optional rules from Howl Dgargon to add more depth to lockpicking. The system adds more nuance and consequences to lockpicking with random events that can happen from broken lockpicks to triggered alarms.
Speaking of alternate rules system, CypherCA has Subclass Roulette to allow you to mix and match features from different subclasses within your class to create a more customized character to fit your concept better.
Michael LeBossiere has a collection of 30 color maps for a variety of locations and landscapes with a commercial license included so long as they’re used in a derivative product (no just repackaging the maps and selling them) and you include a credit. Make sure to check the license for full details before using in a commercial product!
If you’d like a Spelljammer adventure suitable for convention play, Robbie Pleasant released The Ghost Ship’s Sting, a Tier 1 (optimized for APL 3) convention mission meant for a two-hour time slot that sends the party from the Rock of Bral to the edge of Realmspace oh behalf of a dohwar merchand and his mysterious client.
In the adventure Nothing Out of the Ordinary from Julian Kroes, the 5th level party has the fate of the village of Rustwater is in their hands as a simple quest to deal with a group of bandits becomes more than it seems and ends with a twist on the classic tale of good vs. evil.
If you’re looking for a new mini-game to add to downtime, Bas Klein has Cursed Tower, a card game using a standard deck of cards with variant rules (and cheating techniques) to play in taverns and other social settings.
We’ve got a nice selection of new species/races/subraces this week on DM’s Guild. As usual with these lightning rounds, all of these are free or pay what you want with the suggested price in brackets.
And we have several new subclasses as well.
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.
Kobold Press collected their amazing Kobold Guide series on tabletop roleplaying game design into the Kobold Guides Bundle 2023. The bundle includes the Complete KOBOLD Guide to Game Design 2nd Edition, two volumes of the KOBOLD Guide to Worldbuilding, the KOBOLD Guide to Board Game Design, and more for an invaluable resource for aspiring game designers or those who just want to improve running and playing games.
Fantasy Grounds has a sale on Fantasy Ground Unity licenses, upgrades, rulesets, titles, and more. Not only can you save on licenses, but there are some deep discounts on multiple editions of Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks, adventures, and sourcebooks plus deals on Cyberpunk RED, Star Trek Adventures, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Fallout RPG, Vaesen, and more including the EN Publishing Level Up: Advanced 5e introductory adventure Memories of Holdenshire.
Over on Roll20, there’s a sale on select Paizo products with newly lowered prices including the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Beginner Box, Core Rulebook, Bestiary, Advanced Player’s Guide, Secrets of Magic, and the Kingmaker Adventure Path.
Charity Bundles and Sales
Itch.io has another of their huge mega-bundles with the TTRPGs for Trans Rights in Florida bundle. The bundle has already raised over $160,000 at the time of writing and includes games like the Nebula Award winning Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Wanderhome, Visigoths Vs. Mall Goths, We Deal in Lead, and over 500 more titles plus off-site donations from Chaosium and Action Fiction plus the fundraiser has matching funds up to $500,000.
Prolific game designer Owen K.C. Stephens has put together a bundle on Bundle of Holding as a fundraiser for medical bills. The bundle features five Pathfinder 2nd Edition adventures including the full campaign The Skaldwood Blight Adventure Path that goes from Level 1 to Level 20.
Pinnacle Entertainment created the Jonathan M. Thompson Memorial Bundle benefiting the family of Thompson who passed away last month. This bundle collects about 150 game products (it’s really hard to estimate on DriveThru without losing count) from over 100 publishers including many titles for Savage Worlds such as sourcebooks, settings, adventures, bestiaries, accessories, tie-in fiction, and a lot more.
On Itch.io, Peach Garden Games along with over 100 other creators have put together the Solo but Not Alone 3 bundle with 149 single-player TTRPG titles ranging from introspective journaling exercises to intense hexcrawls supporting suicide prevention.
Over on Bundle of Holding, there are a pair of bundles for GURPS from Steve Jackson Games. The first is the GURPS 4e Combat Action bundle featuring the sourcebooks GURPS 4e Martial Arts, Tactical Shooting, Gun Fu, and three additional high-tech gun books. The Bonus Collection adds on five more action supplements, four more martial arts supplements, and Transhuman Space: Martial Arts 2100.
And the second bundle is the GURPS 4e Supers Bundle which, as you might guess, is about superheroes. The Starter Collection includes GURPS 4e Supers and GURPS 4e Powers while the Power-Up Collection adds on four GURPS Powers expansions and nine GURPS Power-Ups.
Over on Humble Bundle, the Warhammer 40,000 Dark Heresy, Black Crusade, and Only War bundle is back featuring at the top tier a total of 46 titles including the core rulebooks for all three games (including the second edition for Dark Heresy as well) plus sourcebooks, adventures, accessories, gameplay aids, and more.
The Maps Bonanza Bundle is back on Humble Bundle as well with a selection of tabletop RPG mapping software. There are four levels, the first featuring Modern Mapper and Age of Exploration for overland world maps for different time periods along with Dungeons & Floorplans for tactical scale maps. The second level adds on a one-year license for Campaign Cartographer 3+ and the sci-fi version Cosmographer 3 plus the add-ons Symbols: Cities of Schley and Source Maps: Cities. The third tier adds Fantasy World Mapper, Fantasy City Mapper, Science Fiction Mapper, and Age of Cthulhu. Finally, the top tier adds on a lifetime license for Campaign Cartographer 3+ (replacing the one-year license), Fractal Terrains 3+, and the resource bundles World Builder’s Compendium and Dungeons of Schley Symbol Set 4.
For those who want to catch up with the previous edition of Shadowrun, Catalyst Game Labs and Humble Bundle have the Shadowrun 5e Mega Bundle. The top tier of the bundle includes the Shadowrun 5th Edition Core Rulebook (that would be the 5th edition of the Shadowrun rules and not a version of Shadowrun made for 5e D20 System rules) along with the core sourcebooks (the rules expansion books for each major aspect of gameplay) Run & Gun for guns and combat, Street Grimoire for magic, Chrome Flesh for cyberware and other implants, Rigger 5.0 for vehicles and drones, Data Trails for hacking and decking, Howling Shadows for critters, and Run Faster for general player options along with 11 more books covering campaigns, player resources, setting sourcebooks, and more advanced rulebooks.
We’ve also got the Castles & Crusades Bundle from Troll Lord Games featuring a library of books for the retro-styled D20 fantasy RPG. The top tier of this bundle includes the Castles & Crusades 7th Edition core rulebook, the Monsters & Treasures GM reference book, the Codex Classicum player option expansion, and 34 more books and supplements.
While not exactly a roleplaying game product, the classic comic book series ElfQuest definitely shares much of its DNA with fantasy roleplaying. The bundle includes 13 volumes at the top tier with the entire 45-year run of the comics from the original issues all the way through to The Final Quest.
If you’ve ever considered doing your own YouTube videos, podcasts, or other edited content, you’ve likely gotten sticker shock at the cost of software to produce and edit audio and video. The King of Content Creator Bundle is a godsend, particularly for those looking for video editing software, as the second tier has Vegas Pro 18 Edit and the top-tier adds on Sound Forge Audio Studio 15, Music Maker Plus 2021, and a wide collection of samples and other templates.
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!
Noah Kastin released Neon Scissor Run, a game about trying to figure out what’s going on in the game in which you win at about the same time as when you figure out how the game world works. The game is built around metanarrative absurdity as you play normal people who have been attacked by villains and must figure out how to defeat them by figuring out what works in this world (even if it makes no sense in reality).
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.00)
For something a little less dada, Kyler G. has Resistance is Futile!, a science fiction alien invasion roleplaying game where multiple alien races compete with humanity itself for control of Earth.
- Price: Free
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, and all those in between or none of the above, come right up and see the amazing sights waiting for you in Matthew Pfister’s Freakshows! This MORK BORG bestiary will show you creatures unlike those you’ve ever seen before and, what’s more, will expand with new offerings as the file is updated each month! (Note: This description works best if you keep the carnival barker voice in your head the entire time)
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
If you miss the prestige classes from previous editions of D&D, Hewie Enfield released Prestige – Prestige Classes for 5e to bring them back. This collection features ten prestige classes from the 3.5e SRD updated for 5e rules plus a brand new prestige class.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $2.50)
For the aspiring game designers and homebrewers out there, The Gorilla of Destiny has a guide to help you with crafting new spells with The Spell Writing Guide. The book uses an algorithmic generation method to write spells within any magic system and, while 5e is used as an example, it can be used with any system. The text also includes the spells from the 5e SRD rewritten to conform with the terminology used for this new design system.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $9.99)
Over on Dungeonmasters Guild, we’re starting with a new set of optional rules from Howl Dgargon to add more depth to lockpicking. The system adds more nuance and consequences to lockpicking with random events that can happen from broken lockpicks to triggered alarms.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.00)
Speaking of alternate rules system, CypherCA has Subclass Roulette to allow you to mix and match features from different subclasses within your class to create a more customized character to fit your concept better.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.50)
Michael LeBossiere has a collection of 30 color maps for a variety of locations and landscapes with a commercial license included so long as they’re used in a derivative product (no just repackaging the maps and selling them) and you include a credit. Make sure to check the license for full details before using in a commercial product!
- Price: Free
If you’d like a Spelljammer adventure suitable for convention play, Robbie Pleasant released The Ghost Ship’s Sting, a Tier 1 (optimized for APL 3) convention mission meant for a two-hour time slot that sends the party from the Rock of Bral to the edge of Realmspace oh behalf of a dohwar merchand and his mysterious client.
- Price: Free
In the adventure Nothing Out of the Ordinary from Julian Kroes, the 5th level party has the fate of the village of Rustwater is in their hands as a simple quest to deal with a group of bandits becomes more than it seems and ends with a twist on the classic tale of good vs. evil.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $1.20)
If you’re looking for a new mini-game to add to downtime, Bas Klein has Cursed Tower, a card game using a standard deck of cards with variant rules (and cheating techniques) to play in taverns and other social settings.
- Price: Pay What You Want (Suggested: $0.76)
We’ve got a nice selection of new species/races/subraces this week on DM’s Guild. As usual with these lightning rounds, all of these are free or pay what you want with the suggested price in brackets.
- Furbab (Ferret) from Damian Paradiso (Free)
- Half-Oni from John Beardify ($2.14)
- Briar Bairns – A Cursed Race from Christos Mouyiannos ($1.00)
And we have several new subclasses as well.
- The Surgeon (Artificer subclass) from Leprous Harry (Free)
- Circle of the Wild Soul (Druid) from Roy Oscar Vegheim ($1.00)
- Path of the Platypus (Barbarian) from Gabriel Gro ($0.75)
- Way of the Hundred Hands (Monk) from Grimwood Press ($0.99)
- Way of the Fateweaver (Monk) from IamSposta ($2.00)
- School of All Things (Wizard) from Elijah Something ($2.00)
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.
Kobold Press collected their amazing Kobold Guide series on tabletop roleplaying game design into the Kobold Guides Bundle 2023. The bundle includes the Complete KOBOLD Guide to Game Design 2nd Edition, two volumes of the KOBOLD Guide to Worldbuilding, the KOBOLD Guide to Board Game Design, and more for an invaluable resource for aspiring game designers or those who just want to improve running and playing games.
- Price: $107.38 (27% off)
Fantasy Grounds has a sale on Fantasy Ground Unity licenses, upgrades, rulesets, titles, and more. Not only can you save on licenses, but there are some deep discounts on multiple editions of Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks, adventures, and sourcebooks plus deals on Cyberpunk RED, Star Trek Adventures, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Fallout RPG, Vaesen, and more including the EN Publishing Level Up: Advanced 5e introductory adventure Memories of Holdenshire.
- Price: Up to 25% off
- End Date: March 22, 2023
Over on Roll20, there’s a sale on select Paizo products with newly lowered prices including the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Beginner Box, Core Rulebook, Bestiary, Advanced Player’s Guide, Secrets of Magic, and the Kingmaker Adventure Path.
- Price: Up to 40% off
Charity Bundles and Sales
Itch.io has another of their huge mega-bundles with the TTRPGs for Trans Rights in Florida bundle. The bundle has already raised over $160,000 at the time of writing and includes games like the Nebula Award winning Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Wanderhome, Visigoths Vs. Mall Goths, We Deal in Lead, and over 500 more titles plus off-site donations from Chaosium and Action Fiction plus the fundraiser has matching funds up to $500,000.
- Price: $5.00 (over 99% off)
- Charity: Zebra Youth and Transinclusive Group (all proceeds)
- End Date: April 7, 2023
Prolific game designer Owen K.C. Stephens has put together a bundle on Bundle of Holding as a fundraiser for medical bills. The bundle features five Pathfinder 2nd Edition adventures including the full campaign The Skaldwood Blight Adventure Path that goes from Level 1 to Level 20.
- Price: $9.95
- Charity: Owen K.C. Stephens Medical Bills (all proceeds)
- End Date: March 22, 2023
Pinnacle Entertainment created the Jonathan M. Thompson Memorial Bundle benefiting the family of Thompson who passed away last month. This bundle collects about 150 game products (it’s really hard to estimate on DriveThru without losing count) from over 100 publishers including many titles for Savage Worlds such as sourcebooks, settings, adventures, bestiaries, accessories, tie-in fiction, and a lot more.
- Price: $25.00 (96% off)
- Charity: The family of Jonathan M. Thompson
On Itch.io, Peach Garden Games along with over 100 other creators have put together the Solo but Not Alone 3 bundle with 149 single-player TTRPG titles ranging from introspective journaling exercises to intense hexcrawls supporting suicide prevention.
- Price: $10.00 (over 99% off)
- End Date: March 31, 2023
- Charity: Jasper’s Game Day (all proceeds)
Over on Bundle of Holding, there are a pair of bundles for GURPS from Steve Jackson Games. The first is the GURPS 4e Combat Action bundle featuring the sourcebooks GURPS 4e Martial Arts, Tactical Shooting, Gun Fu, and three additional high-tech gun books. The Bonus Collection adds on five more action supplements, four more martial arts supplements, and Transhuman Space: Martial Arts 2100.
- Price: $17.95 (78% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- End Date: March 28, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
And the second bundle is the GURPS 4e Supers Bundle which, as you might guess, is about superheroes. The Starter Collection includes GURPS 4e Supers and GURPS 4e Powers while the Power-Up Collection adds on four GURPS Powers expansions and nine GURPS Power-Ups.
- Price: $9.95 (85% off) with variable-cost Level Up option
- End Date: March 28, 2023
- Charity: Direct Relief (10%)
Over on Humble Bundle, the Warhammer 40,000 Dark Heresy, Black Crusade, and Only War bundle is back featuring at the top tier a total of 46 titles including the core rulebooks for all three games (including the second edition for Dark Heresy as well) plus sourcebooks, adventures, accessories, gameplay aids, and more.
- Price $1/$15/$25 (97% off at top tier)
- End Date: April 6, 2023
- Charity: Children’s Health Ireland (user-defined, default 5%)
The Maps Bonanza Bundle is back on Humble Bundle as well with a selection of tabletop RPG mapping software. There are four levels, the first featuring Modern Mapper and Age of Exploration for overland world maps for different time periods along with Dungeons & Floorplans for tactical scale maps. The second level adds on a one-year license for Campaign Cartographer 3+ and the sci-fi version Cosmographer 3 plus the add-ons Symbols: Cities of Schley and Source Maps: Cities. The third tier adds Fantasy World Mapper, Fantasy City Mapper, Science Fiction Mapper, and Age of Cthulhu. Finally, the top tier adds on a lifetime license for Campaign Cartographer 3+ (replacing the one-year license), Fractal Terrains 3+, and the resource bundles World Builder’s Compendium and Dungeons of Schley Symbol Set 4.
- Price: $1/$25/variable/$30 (93% off at top tier)
- End Date: April 4, 2023
- Charity: Carbonfund.org Foundation and Oceana (user-defined, default 5%)
For those who want to catch up with the previous edition of Shadowrun, Catalyst Game Labs and Humble Bundle have the Shadowrun 5e Mega Bundle. The top tier of the bundle includes the Shadowrun 5th Edition Core Rulebook (that would be the 5th edition of the Shadowrun rules and not a version of Shadowrun made for 5e D20 System rules) along with the core sourcebooks (the rules expansion books for each major aspect of gameplay) Run & Gun for guns and combat, Street Grimoire for magic, Chrome Flesh for cyberware and other implants, Rigger 5.0 for vehicles and drones, Data Trails for hacking and decking, Howling Shadows for critters, and Run Faster for general player options along with 11 more books covering campaigns, player resources, setting sourcebooks, and more advanced rulebooks.
- Price: $1/$10/$18 (96% off at top tier)
- End Date: March 30, 2023
- Charity: Global FoodBanking Network (user-defined, default 5%)
We’ve also got the Castles & Crusades Bundle from Troll Lord Games featuring a library of books for the retro-styled D20 fantasy RPG. The top tier of this bundle includes the Castles & Crusades 7th Edition core rulebook, the Monsters & Treasures GM reference book, the Codex Classicum player option expansion, and 34 more books and supplements.
- Price: $1/$10/$18 (95% off at top tier)
- End Date: April 1, 2023
- Charity: Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (user-defined, default 5%)
While not exactly a roleplaying game product, the classic comic book series ElfQuest definitely shares much of its DNA with fantasy roleplaying. The bundle includes 13 volumes at the top tier with the entire 45-year run of the comics from the original issues all the way through to The Final Quest.
- Price: $1/$10/$18 (88% off at top tier)
- End Date: March 23, 2023
- Charity: Hero Initiative (user-defined, default 5%)
If you’ve ever considered doing your own YouTube videos, podcasts, or other edited content, you’ve likely gotten sticker shock at the cost of software to produce and edit audio and video. The King of Content Creator Bundle is a godsend, particularly for those looking for video editing software, as the second tier has Vegas Pro 18 Edit and the top-tier adds on Sound Forge Audio Studio 15, Music Maker Plus 2021, and a wide collection of samples and other templates.
- Price: $1/$25/variable (up to 97% off at top tier)
- End Date: April 6, 2023
- Charity: Malala Fund (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.
