Free League Publishing have a million-dollar Kickstarter with The One Ring and while I doubt Ruins of Symbaroum will reach those giddy heights, it’s still flying. The campaign hit the £17,083 target in minutes, crossed the £100,000 line moments ago and has over 1,000 backers.
Symbaroum is a dark fantasy RPG that follows refugees trying to carve out a new life on the borders of a vast forest and on the remains of the ruined Symbaroum empire. You can see the latest totals or join in the campaign from the project page.
Symbaroum was published in 2016 and quickly helped cement Free League’s reputation as a publisher of note.
Ruins of Symbaroum requires you to already have a copy of Dungeons & Dragons 5e.
The rich and nuanced Symbaroum setting revolves around the Ambrians – a civilization that two decades ago were forced to flee their ancestral soil after a devastating war. Their new and promised land borders on the vast forest of Davokar, covering the remnants of the Empire of Symbaroum which fell into ruin hundreds of years ago. Brimming with natural resources and mythical treasures, the forest calls out to the Ambrians to be explored and plundered, but the road into its depths lays far from open. Not only are the shadows beneath the foliage fraught with danger, monsters and infectious Corruption; there are also the elves of the Iron Pact who have vowed to die to keep anyone from disturbing the ruins of old, warning that the ancient evil of Symbaroum stirs in its sleep.
The new Symbaroum Player’s Guide adds new rules appropriate to the mysterious dark setting, such as travelling and rests, social challenges and how Corruption is an ever-present threat to magic.
There are new origins as Symbaroum lets you play humans, elves, dwarves, changelings, ogres, goblins, trolls, and certain undead types.
These origins aren’t always cut from the same cloth as D&D-centric settings. Elves, as Free League point out, are a more common foe than orcs.
The setting also introduces classes for Captains, Hunters, Mystics, Scoundrels and Warriors.
The new Symbaroum Gamemaster Rules digs into ability checks, combat, time within the game and, of course, Symbaroum’s Shadow and Corruption.
GMs will get advice on building out the game world, creating appropriate adventures and landscapes for it, designing a chronicle (aka a campaign) and dealing with the magical items and artifacts characters might find within the ruins.
Symbaroum also offers optional rules as such underworld adventures, troupe play, ceremonial magic and pitches battles.
A Bestiary offers 27 original monsters, each with an illustration and variant stat-blocks and about 60 creatures. Symbaroum offers smaller categories for these creatures to look up Spiders or Winged Creatures, for example.
A pledge of SEK 248 (about £21) will get you The Ruins of Symbaroum Player’s Guide in PDF.
The standard edition hardback of the Player’s Guide costs SEK 348.
If you need all three books, then they’re available in PDF with a pledge of SEK 698 (about £60) and in hardback for SEK 998 (about £86).
A collector’s edition of all three hardbacks takes a pledge of SEK 2,498, and a retailer’s level is available.
Irrespective of which tier you go for, the books are expected to ship in February 2022.
Ruins of Symbaroum for 5e comes in at 13 heat in Geek Native’s Kickstarter tracker, with 62 points generated in total this week.
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