As you probably know if you’ve been following us on our social media or on this website, we announced a while back that we would be releasing a Blood and Doom Quickstart in February. Well… our plans have changed, as instead of a 150-page Quickstart, we’ll be publishing two (yes, two!) 250-page Primer Books, for a total of 500 free pages to get your hands on and play the game with your friends, share experiences and comments, and hopefully get warmed up for our Kickstarter launch on the 21st of March. Both books will still be released in February, as planned.
What’s Included
The first book is the Blood and Doom: Core Ruleset Primer, which includes the rules of the game and 4 fully playable Classes (and their 8 Archetypes) to make your Character with, plus some information on the other 5 Classes and 10 Archetypes. Of course, pre-generated Characters are also available should you want to get playing straight away. The book also includes an introduction to Athyr (Blood and Doom‘s setting) intended for players to get a feel of the world and what it means to adventure there.
The second book is the Blood and Doom: Doomsayer’s Codex Primer, which includes 2 starting adventures (Faces of Evil and The Seven Jewels of Azul-Ra). It also includes 2 of the game’s 12 cults, described in glorious detail, as well as guidelines on how to build your own adventures or campaigns and 100 pages of setting background, covering large parts of Athyr’s easternmost regions, Ethennia and Istha. As an added bonus, we’re giving you a host of Monster Stat Blocks.
The Faces of Evil adventure will introduce you to the trading outpost Ashar, where people have been vanishing mysteriously while the connection of the Temple of the Stars with the city’s patron deity, Aurelia, is inexplicably failing. The Characters are hired or otherwise motivated to investigate these freak events, which will lead them on a dark path towards answers perhaps best left unknown.
The second adventure, The Seven Jewels of Azul-Ra, sees the Characters get their hands on a treasure map leading them deep into the Jungles of Mararoka, where dinosaurs form a very real threat to adventurers and where two opposing factions inhabiting the region might seriously complicate the Characters’ quest.
And then there’s the cults…
The first cult you will be able to get to know is the Yiukashin. Its members believe that their Herald of Doom, Dhaos, was dispersed through space by the gods and who want to create three horribly blasphemous Receptacles to summon Dhaos to Athyr and absorb all living souls.
The second cult is the Sheddai. Its cultists believe that their Herald, Lanesh, will judge all humans unworthy and enslave them, with the Sheddai themselves becoming rulers of the world.
Both cult chapters include their history, their creed, their hierarchy, the monsters that serve them, spells and rituals they can cast, and best of all: fully fleshed-out ‘Doom Levels’, offering Doomsayers all they need to know about the plans of the cult, what will happen if they fail to achieve certain goals, and what the next stage of their grand plan will be should they succeed. This includes the cultists themselves becoming more powerful or gaining access to more spells and monsters to summon, as well as corrupting effects that can have devastating effects on the region the cult operates from.
What This Means For You
The two Blood and Doom Primer books are written by creator Ferruccio Argento and his team of award-winning writers: Jason Walters, Jason Durall, Michael Surbrook, Steven S. Long, and Dirk Vandereyken. Also, we’re proud to include ideas that were launched or shaped by the late Darren Watts, a great and exceptional human being who sadly passed away when 2023 hit. He will be sorely missed.
Both books will be in full, glorious color, and the PDFs will be made available through Drivethrurpg, this website, and other channels. If you’re a subscriber, we’ll send links to the PDFs to you automatically, before anyone else will be able to download them.
This is our gift to you, our fans. You’ve been remarkable, we’ve been loving talking to you at our booths during conventions, and sharing ideas with you has been a blessing. We thought you deserved a great preview of what our tabletop roleplaying game is about and this is what you’re getting.
To drive home our point, we’re also trusting you with an Open Game License – an OGL that will allow you to create Blood and Doom content, keep the copyright, and keep whatever earnings you make. We know there are some amazing (budding) designers among you and that’s why we’re adding the stipulation that the agreement is irrevocable. We trust you all to come up with some great stuff that will make us proud and keep us on our toes, forcing us to keep supplying you with the very best artwork, setting information, rules, adventures, miniatures, accessories, and supplements we are able to make.
Stay vigilant, brave adventurers, as Blood and Doom is almost upon us!
