Crowblade RPG: Old-School Danger, Uncompromised

What is Crowblade

A classic world-exploration and dungeon-crawling RPG built for earned victories, real danger, and shared excitement at the table.

Adventure in a land that does not scale to you. Enemies don’t adjust. Each decision carries weight. 

• Combat is fast, lethal, and easy to run
• Locations, NPCs, and threats existed long before the party arrives
• A persistent world that remembers your deeds

The Long Cost of Safety

Over time, many RPGs have shifted toward careful balance. Encounters are designed to be beaten. Outcomes are soft. Failure is rare.

• When danger is reduced, tension fades
• When survival is assumed, victory loses its force

 Crowblade begins with a different premise:  You want grit. You want risk.

 We built a world that does not protect you.

How the Game Supports GMs

We've been at tables where victory was guaranteed. We've watched tension drain from rooms when players realized they couldn't fail. So we built Crowblade on a different principle: Real stakes create real stories.

Crowblade guides the game master to act as a fair and honest referee, by design. Instead of adjusting outcomes behind the screen, GMs:

• Give parties what they need to make meaningful choices
• Let dice and decisions stand
• Track how your actions change the world
• Allow consequences to unfold naturally

As a player, nothing is hidden to protect you.
That honesty creates danger.
Danger makes the table lean forward.

When the Danger is Real

You'll cross untamed mountains, delve into unmarked tombs, and face enemies that won’t wait for you to be ready. 

And something shifts at the table.

Players stop asking "What does my character do?" and start asking "What do we know, as a party?" Conversations get quiet before combat.

Victories feel earned, not awarded. Losses sting—but the session matters.

You're not just playing a game. You're surviving a world that remembers.

A Land Untamed

Adventure in a sandbox setting where each region on the hand-inked map reveals new lore, haunting encounters, grievous dungeons, and brazen NPCs.

The Bones of Barrowlight campaign will point you toward many hidden corners of Ulreland, As It Now Stands, aboveground and below. But how your journey unfolds—that falls to you. 

No two campaigns the same. A wide open land to explore.

Your New Character

How will you begin?

• As a Crowblade, an unranked soldier from the provinces, and member of a martial brotherhood dedicated to the sword
• As an Outlander, a wanderer in the wilds, and adherent to the mystic magic of healing, illusion, and enchantment
• As an Outlaw, a stranger to the customs of the Realm, and aspirant to the dark magic of fire, shadow, and necromancy

Each Path of Fate can branch in many directions. With 50+ Disciplines, 15 Ranks, 15 Skills, and 78+ Spells.

A Huge World Map

Our massive hand-inked map. Over 5 feet high. An elder land of honor and blood.

• Plan expeditions to known strongholds and ruins
• Enter sealed tombs, isolated villages, and whispering forests
• Travel stone roads, cart tracks, and game trails
• Discover disputed notes and watermarks beneath old ink
• Adventure in a sprawling land that remembers
• Unmarked regions revealed in due time

The Art

When we saw the art Sandro Freitas is making for this project, it sharpened our vision for the rain-soaked shores of Ulreland as much as our original inspiration: Old-Irish/Old-English folklore and the Gormenghast novels.

It's a joy to work with real artists on a fantasy project. The felt difference between real art and algorithm-produced art is immediate and lasting.

Watch Alexsandro's work take shape:

The Core Rulebook

300+ pages. The complete Core Rules + the Bones of Barrowlight campaign.

• The Paths of Fate: A branching class system. 5+ class Species, 50+ Disciplines, 15 Core Skills
• Dangerous 3-rune magic: Battlecasting and Runecasting
• Quick, lethal combat with devastating critical hits
• A sweeping campaign filled with old places that existed long before the players arrive. 40+ major destinations. Dungeons, castles, fully-appointed cities, towns, and villages, and 200+ keyed locations.

Atrocities, Beasts, & Undead

Crowblade Custom DIce

Combat in Crowblade is fast, lethal, and intuitive. Combat rolls are composed from dice pools that reflect your current training. Wounds matter. Victory is rarely free.

Magic is older and less obedient. You'll roll three ancient runes—Jun, Thet, and Yor—to compose spells in the moment, bending the shape of feral magic toward your will. Greater mastery brings greater control, but the wild power is never fully tamed.

Honor binds it all together. Your actions shape how the world sees you, opening some doors and sealing others. Some allies trust only the righteous. Others deal only with the damned. The path you walk determines which powers answer when you call.

A Complete New TTRPG

Crowblade is for dedicated players and GMs who crave danger and consequence in a new rules-light RPG.  Foes are terrifying, combat is unsolved, and magic is feral. It's old-school depth paired with:

• Nimble, brutal combat that resolves fast and leaves scars
• A distinctive three-rune framework for dangerous magic
• A path-based advancement system shaped by honor

Hand-inked art.  Premium papers and cardstocks. A complete standalone tabletop RPG set in an eerie, weathered world.

So it Begins

Your party is gathered at the Northern outland village of Ryescrith, high in the Galt Mountains. Where you adventure from there is up to you.

Aid one faction and others close their doors. Ignore a village's plea for help and find it in ashes when you return.

Preview PDFs

Notes from the Tomb of St. Crennilus
A Firsthand Account of the Third Descent

• From the personal journal of Brother Jonric Vane
• The pages contain dungeon observations, rough maps, and the final recorded notes before the expedition was lost

View the recovered document

Select pages from the Core Rulebook & Bones of Barrowlight campaign including:

• Species of Ulreland
• Combat example
• Battlecasting example
• World Map with many locations revealed
• Exploring Ulreland's Towns & Villages
• Exploring Ulreland's Dungeons
• Paths of Fate
• Design philosophy

View the Core Rulebook preview

Pledge Tiers

Add-Ons

Every deliverable in the Crowblade campaign will be available in our Pledge Manager. 

So if you want to add an extra Core Rulebook, set of custom dice, huge world map of Ulreland, character sheet pad, or anything else—it's easy.

Shipping

Shipping is not included in your pledge. You'll pay shipping after the campaign, based on your location.

We use a bulk shipping service for discounts whenever possible.

What it Means to Back Crowblade

The team worked for a year prior to launch to ensure that Crowblade's core mechanics were complete and playtested: Fast, lethal combat, feral magic, and consequence-driven play. 

Over the next year, we'll complete the weathered, kaleidoscopic frontier of Ulreland. Unmarked ruins, rival factions, towns that remember your deeds, dungeons that existed long before you arrived. A setting dense enough to support years of play. 

This campaign funds that excavation. You're backing the creation of a new world designed for depth and real danger. 

What's Done:

• Character Creation & Advancement
• Skills & Disciplines
• Combat & Movement mechanics
• Three-rune Spellcasting system
• World map of Ulreland
• World aesthetic and graphic design 
• And importantly, the depth system we’ll use to complete each of Ulreland’s locations

What this means:  We understand what each village, town, city, tomb, and castle needs to be complete. We know how Rumors, Quests, NPCs, and Factions tie the world and the Bones of Barrowlight campaign together. The remaining work is to develop location content, and place it in our existing structure.

For example, each destination on the World Map of Ulreland has:

• General description, what you perceive when you arrive
• Overhead map of locations
• Description by location, e.g., The Crooked Chimney Inn, etc.
• NPCs: Stats and motivations
• Quests and Rumors
• Villages have 7-8 locations, Towns have 15-20, Old Ulreth has 30+ 
• Castles, Dungeons, and Tombs are variable, some can be explored in a single session, others are massive and will take many sessions to explore
• 'Returning To' Section: When you leave a location and come back, residents remember your deeds and change their behavior

The village of Ryescrith, tucked high in the Galt Mountains, is the campaign opener. Click here to meet its odd residents, gather rumors, take on quests, and experience the depth of a Crowblade location.

 What's Ahead:

• 40+ villages, cities, towns, tombs, and castles with tangled histories
• Factions and Quests
• A bestiary of dark threats
• Dungeons designed to be survived, not cleared
• Tools and tables for GMs to expand the world

Backers will see monthly updates as the world of Ulreland takes shape. You're backing the exploration of a dark new frontier.