So what's the deal with this Deathbringer thingie?

[Matrix Sorcica]

It's $3.99 for 4 pages on DriveThruRPG, it gets raving reviews and is the most anticipated rpg of 2026.

And I know nothing about it.

What makes it special? What's the story? Help me get on the hype!

 

[Retreater]

I don't think it's the same thing. The PDF on DriveThru was released in 2022 and seems to be a house-rules pamphlet for 5E. The one still in development that "won" the most anticipated RPG of 2026 is based on Shadowdark. Professor DM threw out the original idea of making his own system last year and decided to partner with Shadowdark as a rules hack.

And it's special because Professor DM is a YouTube personality. He and the publisher (Roll for Combat) specifically advertised to get people to vote on ENWorld, so much of the interest was artificially generated by people who had never heard of these boards in an attempt to ramp up excitement (and money) for their crowdfunding.

Between you and me, it's a rules hack for Shadowdark and nothing especially noteworthy.

 

[Fenris-77]

So if he needs $3.99 for four pages I don't need to read it.

 

[mamba]

What makes it special? What's the story? Help me get on the hype!

not sure you want to get on the hype after knowing what it is, but here goes… it is based on Shadowdark, goes up to level 20 and generally dials things up a notch, both lethality and hero actions.

This should be a decent short overview

and the homepage

https://kickstarter.deathbringer.com/

ironically I think I am more interested in the adventures mentioned…

 

[Morrus]

It's $3.99 for 4 pages on DriveThruRPG, it gets raving reviews and is the most anticipated rpg of 2026.

And I know nothing about it.

What makes it special? What's the story? Help me get on the hype!

That's from the same creator, and has the same name, but isn't the one that was voted most anticipated in 2026, which is a hardcover Shadowdark mod produced in conjunction with Roll For Combat.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Just took a look at it. Initial impressions:

• It sort of reminds me of Five Torches Deep in terms of stripping things down to the bare essentials, which in general I like. (I was a big fan of FTD, too, except that there was never any additional content for it and I LIKE BUYING STUFF. Then Shadowdark appeared...)
• However, the self-imposed constraint of the tri-fold is overly contrived because the resulting layout is smushed and the print is too small, and the result is probably too sparse.
• Although I like simplicity, the magic "system" (perhaps "sentence" would be a better word) strikes me as too simple. Likewise "use any OSR or 5e spell you like" feels like punting on one of the harder parts of game design.