Hello Symbarians! As some of you may already have noticed, the roleplaying publishing powerhouse Free League have joined with Järnringen to take over publishing of Symbaroum. One nice benefit of having a major publisher is that they have pull with publishing platforms like DriveThruRPG – especially when they use that influence to boost their creative […]
Author: Master Xaras
Presenting: Rite of Passage
Merry Christmas, Ambrians! The midwinter solstice has passed, and now Prios’ glorious visage has been reborn to climb higher and higher in the sky. To celebrate, here’s a little present for you my friends! The promised reward for the first place in the Symbaroum Adventure Writing Contest was a professional layout by yours truly along […]
Adventure Writing Winners Announced!
Huge thanks to everyone who participated in this competition, and a well-deserved triumph to our winners! 1st Place: Rite of Passage by David South & Mitchell Wallace 2nd Place: The Swamp’s Song by Marco Pagnini 3rd Place: Born of Graves by Timothy Olenio If you want to discuss this competition, especially if you have some […]
Starting Position: The Patrons of the Beamon’s Grotto
“I’m here about a job” said the newcomer. The usual crowd at the Grotto stared at them in the doorway – faces grim, suspicious, annoyed, mocking. A few eyes glanced back at the surly Mr. Sargos at the counter. “Well don’t just stand there with the door open, all the luck is getting out!” “And […]
Symbaroum Adventure Writing Contest 2019: Ballads of Blackhawk
Come warm yourselves by the fire, friends. Share a meal with a fellow traveller, and I will sing you a song of adventure. It’s a story of a troupe much like yours. Some might call them heroes, but I leave that for you to decide – aren’t we all just human after all?” Gather round, […]
Monster Design – J. Baseline and the Cave Rays
The core system of Symbaroum proposes that monsters be evaluated on the basis of how many points of experience went into their construction. Personally I find that a lacking measure of actual difficulty. A monster with Terrify and Resolute 7 is much less dangerous than a monster with Terrify and Resolute 15, but on paper […]
Help! Mystics are ruining my plans! (Encounter Design Part 4)
Back when I wrote my guide to dealing with overpowered player characters, I had originally planned to get around to writing a separate post about managing the third overpowered archetype: the Controller. I touched on some of it in the article on keeping bad guys alive – but a few topics recently came up that […]
Alternate Combat: Brawls, Games, and Chases
Symbaroum is a game system that is weighted heavily towards fighting. You may not always run a combat-heavy game, but there are few avenues for character advancement that aren’t about becoming better at killing people. However, as I touched on in my previous Encounter Design article, there are ways to frame combat that allows your […]
Help! How do I design Scenes and Narrative Encounters? (Encounter Design Part 3)
A few days later, you arrive back at Thistle Hold. The fire of the lighthouse beacon burns bright and guides you home to the familiar stench and noise of civilisation. You approach the North Gate and one of the city guards steps forward. He asks you for the usual toll: One shilling per leg and […]
The Scalebridge Toll
This is a small travel adventure I ran for my players as they journeyed from Yndaros to Mergile. It features Mound the Ogre, a bandit leader mentioned in the Core Rulebook but never expanded on. Here I have provided stats for a version of the ogre bandit. The small adventure can easily fit into both […]