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SPOILER ALERT - Throne of Thorns Actual Play

Text-only Version

It has been 10 years since Symbaroum opened its arms to welcome English-speaking gamers into its warm, corruption-oozing embrace. In celebration of this joyous occasion, you are invited to contribute to the creation and release of an updated game line, including three revised core books and two ample setting expansions – one that builds on the main game setting (Davokar & Ambria), and one that introduces a new, thrilling scenery, both familiar and horribly different.

The main aim of the revisions is to make rules, lore, and setting information more accessible, bringing together and rearranging material scattered over the current line of game books. We will also take the opportunity to tweak some aspects of the rules and add support for character creation and development, though without altering the game’s basic mechanics. This is not a new edition, but an improved and expanded version of the existing one – a fresh start, that we hope you will help us bring into being!

City States of Vendilyn – A Ravaged Realm

Introduces a brand-new campaign setting for your Symbaroum game, intended to be the scenery for a series of upcoming adventure modules and, of course, for your very own homebrew scenarios. Key features:

Armarat and Beyond – Introduces the city of Armarat, the haven where many survivors reside, and also covers what lies beyond the its borders, described from a player-faceing, in-game perspective.

Characters and Rules – Presents four new occupations (Astromancer, Radical Alchemist, Harvester, and Mercenary), followed by rules for Morphosis (a strange disease afflicting the land), Radical Alchemy, and the mystical tradition Astromancy.

Gamemaster’s Section – Spells out the true history of the Vendilyn Realm, reveals secrets and introduces adventure setups. It also provides special rules, guidelines and roll tables for creating, staging and managing wilderness expeditions in the region.

Creature Codex Addendum – The new creature category Wyrhtans is described, together with more than a dozen monstrous traits and a long list of monsters and adversaries specific for the region, including the Moth Queen, Behemoth and Apex Ruptor.

Black Like Silver – An adventure designed to introduce the players to the city of Armarat, the new rules, key conflicts, and what lies beyond the borders of the haven. Comes with pre-made player characters.

The Core Rulebook

The all-in-one core rulebook for Symbaroum provides all you need to bring the game to the table – an introduction to the setting, game rules, character creation, a tutorial adventure, and lots of guidelines, tips and building blocks for running and designing adventures.

Compared to the current one, it has been restructured and supplemented with material from primarily the Advanced Player’s Guide. Some notable changes or additions to the core book include:

- An overall restructuring of the content, to make it more accessible and easy to navigate.
- A progression table for every occupation, providing support for creating and maintaining a balanced group of characters.
- Expert Abilities, only accessible to those who match certain ability-related requirements.
- All new art for archetypes and occupations, created by lead artist Martin Grip.
- Simple rules, guidelines and roll-tables for creating, staging and managing wilderness expeditions.
- A more practical statblock design, spelling out all secondary attributes and making it more clear which skills the GM must keep track of.
- Some abilities and powers have been adjusted to achieve better balance between character builds, including Berserker, Bend Will, and Maltransformation.

Gamemaster’s Guide

The Gamemaster’s Guide provides advanced tips, guidelines, and rules for developing and customizing your Symbaroum game, and is also brimming with resources such as mystical artifacts, powerful ceremonies, plot hooks, lore and setting inspiration. Key features:

Important Locations – Presents additional information about key settlements, and the Underworld, Yonderworld and Spirit World.

Setting & Adventure Design – Offers advanced tips and guidance on the design of game settings, adventure campaigns, game modes, balanced combat encounters, and challenges for heroic characters.

Optional Rules – Introduces a long list of optional rules, regarding everything from distance categories and hit locations, through monster trophies and pact making, to reclaiming bolts and arrows.

Epic Expeditions – Proposes more advanced rules for staging and executing expeditions into Davokar forest, followed by rules for domain management, pitched battles, social scheming, and more.

Ceremonial Magic – Describes a forbidden type of magic mainly used by NPCs, which risk bringing about destruction and corruption if the player characters do not intervene.

Enhanced Rewards – Offers guidelines on how to reward different player and character types, and presents close to thirty mystical artifacts, all of which come with a suggested adventure setup.

Davokar Creature Codex

As the main game setting is about to get a sibling, the award-winning Symbaroum Monster Codex is granted a new name. Other than that, the content and design will remain much the same – aside from the inclusion of some additional creatures and, of course, all statblocks being replaced by the new, more practical design. Key Features:  

Hordes of the Eternal Night – Includes thirty beautifully illustrated creatures, described in detail, with lots of lore and individual adventure setups

Adversaries – Presents more than forty types of people, with short descriptions and statblocks, including Templars, artifact crafters, goblin warriors, and noble brats.

Monsters – Covers about as many, similarly described, beasts and monstrosities sorted into different environments, including Blight-born Fairies, the Brimstone Oak, and the terrifying Wraith Owls.

Monster Rules – A listing of all monstrous traits coupled with guidelines on creating homebrew monsters and adversaries for your Symbaroum game.

Oh, and the Andrik…

Davokar & Ambria – Darkness Rising

The book compiles lore and setting material from various sources into a comprehensive expansion of Symbaroum’s main campaign setting, the Davokar region. It builds on the information presented in the Gamemaster’s Guide, offers character creation options specific for the region, and rounds off with a long list of detailed adventure locations. Key Features: 

Thistle Hold, Yndaros & Karvosti – Details the history, establishments and personalities of the region’s key settlements. Includes ten entries previously only available in the 5E conversion. 

Gamemaster's Section – Offers a thorough account of the region’s early history, followed by a deep dive below the surface of the key settlements, tendering 18 historical secrets and 34 plot hooks.

Character Creation Options – Introduces options reserved for the Davokar region, as for instance the folks Abducted Human, Troll and Undead, and the mystical traditions Staff Magic and Troll Singing.

Adventure Landscapes – Seven fully fledged adventure locations set in the great forest and other wilderness areas, complete with conflicts, events, maps and colorful non-player characters.

Vendilyn Gamemaster’s Screen

If unlocked as a stretch goal, we will produce a landscape-oriented, three-piece GM’s Screen, specifically designed for play in the Vendilyn Realm. You can select it as an addon to pledge levels including physical rewards, but it is also included in the Astromancer, Anniversary Astromancer, and Chancellor bundles.

The Cloth Map

As a separate add-on or included in the Chancellor’s Bundle, you can get Francesca Baerald’s beautiful map of the Vendilyn Realm as a high-quality cloth map in format 100 x 78 cm (40 x 30 inches).

The Anniversary Editions

To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Symbaroum, this campaign offers special limited editions of the three core books: the Core Rulebook, the Gamemaster’s Guide, and the Davokar Creature Codex. These Anniversary Editions will have faux leather deluxe covers with foil printing and, if unlocked as a stretch goal, we will add book ribbon markers. The Anniversary Editions are produced specifically for this Kickstarter and will not be printed again – true collector’s items not to be missed!

Virtual Tabletops

Playing tabletop roleplaying games online is growing increasingly popular. In this campaign, full content modules for the amazing Foundry platform can be selected as addons. This is true for all five books featured in the Anniversary Kickstarter, and in some cases (the Core Rulebook, Gamemaster’s Guide, and Davokar Creature Codex) at a greatly discounted price.

NOTE: we will not remove any of the previously released modules from the Foundry Platform, for the sake of groups who have ongoing campaigns or are otherwise happy with the current modules.

Add-Ons

Enhance your pledge with additional items included in this campaign, such as the Gamemaster’s Screen or extra copies of the hardcover books. You can also take the opportunity to add copies of other Free League titles.

When you select a pledge level, you will be presented with the add-ons you can select. All addons will ship together with the rest of your rewards from this Kickstarter. If you want to get these items immediately, you’ll find most of them in our webshop. Please note that addons can incur additional shipping fees, paid in the pledge manager after the Kickstarter ends.

On Symbaroum

“The game that inspired me most this year.”– Tabletop Gaming magazine

“The simple system and rich setting, thick with dark and evocative imagery, makes this a worthy consideration for new and experienced gamers alike.” – GeekNative

“All in all, this is a stunning piece of work. It has all the sophistication of 13th Age, the mechanical beauty of Dungeon World, and the dark attractiveness of Warhammer Fantasy in a comprehensive and elegant game." – Medium 

Symbaroum is an acclaimed fantasy tabletop RPG known for its dark and gritty world. First released in Swedish in 2014 and later translated into English for a worldwide release in 2016, the game has since grown into a line spanning more than a dozen hardcover books, along with supporting products such as card sets and maps. It supports a wide range of play styles, from action-heavy adventures and intrigue-driven stories to one-shot scenarios and long-form campaigns. Its flagship six-part campaign, The Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns, has helped define the setting for longtime fans.