Master sprens, become a knight radiant and master the plot dice in the new release that will set the stage for the Cosmere RPG.
Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere setting consumed the imaginations of thousands of people last year when Brotherwise Games’ campaign to launch its new RPG successfully raised more than $15 million dollars on Kickstarter; a staggering number for a tabletop roleplaying campaign to date. Many fans have been waiting with bated breath for the release. And now the first bookset of the series, focusing on Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives series, are officially out.
Here’s what you need to know about the Stormlight RPG.
Backers and fans will be receiving multiple books in this first release for the new fantasy-themed TTRPG. The Stormlight Handbook, Stormlight World Guide, and the Stonewalkers adventure are the first three releases for the series. The Handbook provides character creation rules, guidance for how to operate in the world, and the rules for gameplay. The World Guide expands on the lore of Roshar by gathering the original lore into a single source and expanding on the established lore as well with NPC stats. Finally, Stonewalkers is an adventure that will take players from levels 1 to 8 in a campaign penned by Sanderson himself. There is also a one-shot available as well as a “session zero” that provides a unique in-story approach to developing a character.
Cosmere’s rules draw heavy inspiration from Fifth Edition D&D, Pathfinder, and Blades in the Dark. The character sheets and stats will feel noticeably similar to players from your standard fantasy game, relying on d20 rolls, six core stats, a plethora of skills, and more. The action economy in combat is a 3-action system akin to that used by Pathfinder Second Edition. And the game actively encourages the use of Endeavors, which resemble the heist-based system that Blades in the Dark developed at its initial launch.
One of the standout features is the “Plot Dice”, a new mechanic available to DMs to help ‘up the stakes’ of an event. The plot dice is a D6 that the storyteller in Cosmere can ask a player to roll in order to “up the stakes” of a scenario. If they roll a 1 or 2, they might create a “complication” that makes events significantly harder through negative side effects on players (such as narrative choices or making rolls harder.) If they roll a 5 or a 6, they can give allies an advantage, recover focus (the game’s magical/mental currency), or turn a hit into a crit. It’s a unique element that adds additional tension to gameplay.
Player creation feels equally similar. Players can choose to be either humans or “Singers,” the indigenous and iconic people who bear red carapaces over their bodies and are able to change their forms in response to “Sprens” (fragments of magic in the setting that reflect various aspects of a person’s identity or magic) or highstorms. Players then choose one of the many cultures from Roshar to live in as well as their “Path,” the heroic leveling system that the player adopts that reflects their growth. Players can become a roguish agent, a diplomatic envoy, a skilled hunter, an iconic leader, an informed scholar, or a powerful warrior. Each comes with their own string of talents that help inform their build as well as specialties.
There are also options for becoming Knights Radiant, warriors who bond with a spren, join one of nine specific orders, and use the Stormlight as a form of magic within the setting dependent on the ten fundamental forces of the universe.
The books are written in a way that do not require the players to have read Sanderson’s original novels, since it is not set in the exact time period as The Stormlight Archives. It’s a well-fleshed out introduction to the Cosmere RPG universe and appears like it will serve players well as they get into it. Stonewalkers appears to be an introduction to the universe, where players will learn about a number of the key locations within Roshar, hunt for an important blade, and hopefully return it to its owner at a moment that could have significant implications for the history of the realm.
The Cosmere RPG books will be available for backers and the general public starting on July 23. The physical books are expected to be available in September, barring any delays. The second wave of books, which release in 2026 and focus on the Mistborn novels, will be released in a second round of events.
Brotherwise Games provided early copies of the Cosmere RPG for The Fandomentals to review for coverage.
Images Courtesy of Brotherwise Games
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