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Torchbearer Core Rules: A two-book set of revised, reformatted goodness.
This is all you need to play the game.
We have been hard at work on a new edition of Torchbearer for over three years now. Based on the feedback we received from you and from our own campaigns and demos since we launched in 2013, we wanted to make a couple of tweaks to the game. Well, those "couple of tweaks" rapidly spiraled into a massive revision.
Check it out:
* New format and layout! The game is now a two-book set: The Dungeoneer’s Handbook and The Scholar’s Guide
* Clarified, revised, refined and expanded rules from seven years of playtesting and feedback
You’re a scoundrel, a villain, a wastrel, a vagabond, a criminal, a sword-for-hire, a cutthroat.
Respectable people belong to guilds, the church or are born into nobility. Or barring all that, they’re salt of the earth and till the land for the rest of us.
Your problem is that you’re none of that. You’re a third child or worse. You can’t get into a guild—too many apprentices already. You’re sure as hell not nobility—even if you were, your older brothers and sisters have soaked up the inheritance. If you’re cursed with visions from the Immortals, the temples won’t take you in. You question their authority and subvert their power, so you are outcast like the rest of us.
And if you ever entertained romantic notions of home-steading, think again. You’d end up little more than a slave to a wealthy noble.
So there’s naught for you but to make your own way. There’s a certain freedom to it, but it’s a hard life. Cash flows out of your hands as easily as the blood from your wounds.
But at least it’s your life.
And if you’re lucky, smart and stubborn, you might come out on top. There’s a lot of lost loot out there for the finding. And salvage law is mercifully generous. You find it, it’s yours to spend, sell or keep.
A Roleplaying Game of Desperate Adventure
Torchbearer is a roleplaying game of desperate adventure. The expeditions you undertake are taxing on your body, your mind and your very nature. To survive, you must carefully manage your food, water and light resources. To excel, you must fight for what you believe in. To prosper, you must fill your bags with loot and treasure.
This triumvirate of competing needs creates a delicious tension unique to Torchbearer. Players are asked to weigh these forces in every decision they make. Some may seem easy or frivolous to start, but the deeper you become enmeshed in an adventure, the heavier and more costly each decision becomes.
The system is based on our award-winning Mouse Guard roleplaying game system. Using the same core rules, character builds and conflict system, we have created a grimmer, harsher world. One that can stand the test of time, providing you with years of adventures.
The Dungeoneer's Handbook
* 256 pages, digest-sized (5.5" x 8.5")! Hardcover, linen wrap, swanky end papers, nice paper!
* Revised character creation which includes tighter Nature question results
* Revised leveling costs
* 10 levels for all classes (up from 5), including revised benefits for levels 1-5
* New class: Theurge, a mad seer possessed by the immortals
* New arcane spell memorization system, The Memory Palace
* New divine magic system, The Immortal Burden
* New invocations and spells with revised, clarified format
A Scholar's Guide to Dangers Various and Sundry
* 320 pages, digest-sized (5.5" x 8.5")! Hardcover, linen wrap, swanky end papers, nice paper!
* New easy-to-process difficulty factors format throughout
* Revised skill format—much easier to parse
* Revised and clarified reward system
* Iconic monsters all in a revised, cleaner format
* New loot tables—with more treasure!
* New camp and town events (they're so good!)
* New demo adventure: Revised and updated Dread Crypt of Skogenby!
Eager to dive right in and create an adventurer? Download the introduction to the Dungeoneer's Handbook and our current character sheet.
Prefer to plot, plan and sketch maps? Download The Light Dims and Prepare Thyself chapters from the Scholar's Guide. We'd love to see the world you build.
Want a detailed overview of the system mechanics? Check out Luke's new currency cycle diagrams.
