the ossuary

There was a time when fantasy roleplaying games were sharp. Printed in black and white. Half-explained. Dangerous in the margins. Every new character class felt like it might break the game.

THE OSSUARY is a tabletop roleplaying game built to reset fantasy back to that moment.

Not toward nostalgia as comfort, but nostalgia as wonder.

This is a game about violence, memory, and consequence. Character classes don’t just give you abilities. They rewrite the rules.

This is not a class list. It is a set of experimental design mutations.

THE OSSUARY is not balanced. It is curated design.

In THE OSSUARY, classes are not balanced against each other. They are balanced against the campaign. Choosing a class is choosing what kind of damage you want the campaign to suffer.

OVERVIEW

This is a traditional fantasy roleplaying game with players, characters, a gamemaster, monsters, dungeons, and adventure. Gameplay involves a d20 for most actions, and damage dice. You already know how to play this game. The rules are short and the mechanics simple.

What makes it unique is how character classes are structured. Everything you need is on the character sheet. You can begin playing in minutes. The Ossuary adds a few structural innovations.. There are no levels. Advancement is built directly onto the character sheet. Just check off a new benefit each time you advance. Long-term injuries and consequences are tracked on the sheet, too. If you can cast spells, they are all on your sheet.

Sheet-level system design minimizes cognitive load and rules referencing. Essentially the game does all the work and you just play the game.

An Embalmer class might replace gold with body-parts as currency, or be equipped with chemicals other classes wouldn't know how to use. Towns react to corpse-theft. Resurrection changes the map. Character trepidation grows.

A RETURN TO TRANSFORMATIVE DESIGN

If you remember waiting for Dragon Magazine to see what new class would appear that month, you already understand the design philosophy behind THE OSSUARY. Back then, a new class didn’t “fit a role." It changed how the game worked. It forced the group to adapt or break. Letting a class into your campaign is a decision that permanently changes how the game is played.

THE OSSUARY IS BUILT ON THAT IDEA

• Each class introduces new subsystems, pressures, and campaign mutations 
• Each class shifts how violence, survival, or power functions
• Each class alters the tone of the entire campaign
• Letting a class exist is a choice the whole table must live with.
• The fighter-cleric-wizard paradigm is played out
• New options mean new context

A WORLD BUILT FROM DAMAGE

THE OSSUARY takes place in a brutal, decaying fantasy world shaped by endless war and moral collapse. This is not epic fantasy. This is aftermath fantasy.

• Wars no one remembers starting
• Factions rotting from the inside
• Sellblades, deserters, and broken leaders trying to survive what they’ve helped destroy

Your character is not defined by destiny, but by what they’ve done and what they can no longer undo.

CHARACTERS DEFINED BY SCARS

In THE OSSUARY, your character sheet tells a story, and you don’t grow stronger without becoming something worse.

MECHANICS THAT ENFORCE CONSEQUENCE

THE OSSUARY is fast and unforgiving. You already know how to play this game, but it's never been this fast. Combat is decisive and dangerous. Drama Points fuel desperate action but are earned through failure. Relationships are mechanical resources, not safety nets. Advancement always includes personalization and mechanical trade-offs.

COMPARTMENTALIZED

Once you learn how to play, you'll never need to reference the rules again. Everything the GM needs is in the monster book, and each character class is a self-contained PDF designed to be played for months from a single sheet of paper. You won't be carrying around 20 pounds of books. You can play from your phone, tablet, or crib notes. This game is designed to be used, not collected.

EASY TO READ PDF

I'm old. You might be old. I know how hard it is to read busy pages.

• Clean fonts.
• Clean layouts.
• Character sheets designed for actual play.

WHY CROWDFUND THE OSSUARY

THE OSSUARY is an independent project built without compromise.

Crowdfunding allows me to:

• Get the game into more hands.
• Fund more art.
• Develop a full lineup of dangerous, world-changing classes
• Pay artists and collaborators fairly
• Create character classes you want to see and play.

WHO THIS IS FOR 

This isn’t a game designed to please everyone. It’s designed to matter deeply to the people it’s for. THE OSSUARY is for players who:

• Miss when fantasy games felt risky and unfinished
• New players looking for a fast, playable game
• Want classes that reshape play, not optimize it
• Players who believe loss should matter as much as victory
• People who remember when opening a magazine could change how they played forever

There are no print books at the moment. THE OSSUARY is modular and expandable.

the rules. 16 pages of stripped down OSR-style rules in a system hereafter called Pridian. Several future games from post world games will use this ruleset, but never as minimal as OSSUARY.

the monsters. 16 pages of monsters. A starter bestiary. Future releases will expand in themed packs.

the setting. 16 pages of the land of bone. Written by Rob Manning and myself, with lore about the two main villains Lord Morvan, lich lord of the bone legion, and Queen Nekrot, devil bride of hunger and lament. You are welcome to use this ruleset with any game world however. You will find it that malleable.

the classes. Characters don’t live forever. Classes are designed to be swapped and experimented with mid-campaign. Each class is a standalone one-page ruleset. You can add or remove classes like modules, radically altering the campaign without rewriting the system. Swap a class, and the campaign mutates.The first packet includes six classes. The campaign is stable. The classes are not.

the future. Future PDFs will add:

• New character classes
• New monster packs
• Adventures expanding the world (if there is demand)

$5,000.  Three additional campaign-altering classes

$10,000. Undead bestiary + Land of the Dead subsystem. 16 pages.

$15,000. Three more reality-breaking classes