Stormlight Archive RPG will allow players to join Knights Radiant and use Surgebinding powers
Game system includes “plot die”.
New details about the upcoming tabletop roleplaying game based on the Stormlight Archive book series have been revealed at this week’s Dragonsteel Convention.
The Stormlight Archive is a series of books written by Brandon Sanderson – also the author behind the Mistborn series – that are set within the writer’s Cosmere universe. Beginning with The Way of Kings in 2011, the now four-book series takes place on the planet of Roshar on which creatures from a different plane, known as Spren, will sometimes bond with people to give them extraordinary abilities.
Throughout the course of the series the narrative perspective will shift between different characters, each one offering their own unique opinions and ideas on the complicated social, political and cultural structure of the world. As the franchise progresses, characters’ beliefs and value systems are challenged and tested – as what they know about their world continues to grow.
Revealed last year, the Stormlight Roleplaying Game takes inspiration from the book series and enables players to create their own characters and narratives within the setting. New details regarding the upcoming TRPG were unveiled at Dragonsteel Con, including how its gameplay system will work. (Thanks Polygon.)
The fantasy tabletop RPG will use a d20 system – meaning that players will roll a d20 die and add or minus any modifiers onto the result – that will feature a “plot die,” that will be added whenever the player character is attempting anything particularly dangerous, risky or if the situation has high potential for drama. The result of this die will affect the outcome of the character’s action or reaction in a way that will either open up new opportunities or create complications.
New details about character creation were also revealed to include the ability for players to take multiple classes and use a magic system that will have them passing “surgebinding skill tests,” to perform their magical feats.
When creating their tabletop RPG characters, players can have them join one of the 10 Orders of Knights Radiant from the Stormlight Archive series, which are dictated by the different types of Spren people can become bonded to - such as Honorspren or Crypticspren – and therefore, the abilities they’ll have. Other potential factions players will be able to join include the Artifabrians, Assassins and even Shardbearers.
The co-creators behind the Stormlight RPG include Johnny O’Neal - creative director of the title’s publisher, Brotherwise Games – Andrew Fischer, who has previously designed for the likes of Descent: Journeys in the Dark and Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth, Legend of the Five Rings’ Lydia Suen and Anthony Joyce-Rivera. As well as the Stormlight RPG, Brotherwise Games is also set to publish a deckbulding game based on Sanderson’s Mistborn book series next year.
A crowdfunding campaign for the Stormlight RPG is set to be launched on Kickstarter sometime next year – with a digital release set for 2024 and a hardcover release planned for 2025.