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Welcome to Twilight Kingdoms!

It is a roleplaying game set in a fantasy world in decline. The great empire has fallen, scoured by a demonic threat that was foreseen, but ignored until it was too late. The world is mortally wounded and spiraling towards oblivion. It is a time of despair, but great challenges mean that great heroes rise to the occasion. The world is doomed, and there is no one left to pull it back from the brink but you. Prove the doomsayers wrong, and forge your kingdom in the twilight of the world.

Why should you choose Twilight Kingdoms over the other hundreds of D&D clones out there?


High Action This is a game about slaying monsters and prevailing against the forces of darkness, despite the odds being stacked against you. You are expected to be able to survive most fights, but you will die if you are foolish or unlucky. This is no OSR game where a single blow from an orc will fell you, but it also isn’t a game where everyone walks around with plot armor.


Smooth Tactical Combat Twilight Kingdoms is inspired by the tactically complex combat of games like 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, as well as computer games like Final Fantasy Tactics, XCOM, and Divinity: Original Sin. This game aims to capture the joy of the board-game-like combat of those games, while striving to keep the game from getting bogged down in bloated numbers and eking out every little bonus to maintain a fast and exciting pace.


Exploration and Social Scenes Twilight Kingdoms is a game of two halves. There is high octane tactical combat, but there are also ruins to explore and strange and wondrous creatures to talk to. Many of the games that inspired the tactical side of this game were notorious for neglecting systems not related to combat. Here they are given the same love and care, with inspiration from more narrativist games like Dungeon World.


Your Story Determines Your Abilities Your character’s skills and powers reflect the adventures that they have been on. A character who ventures to the Underdark will learn different things than a character who sails the Astral Sea in a spelljammer. The magic items you find and the knowledge that you gain will mean more than white-room character building.

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Twilight Kingdoms v0.8.1a.pdf 2 MB

Development log

Comments

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(+1)

While 4e is not my usual cup of tea RpG style, I have to say that you are doing a very fine job. It feels there's lot of study behind, the whole mechanic part seems pretty balanced and usable at the table. So, kudos from me!
I hope you'll keep polish it , and that you'll find a good artist to obtain a wonderful complete work.

PS: just a couple of personal preferences:

  • I'd change the STR and DEX stat names, to differentiate them more from D&D and other similar products, 'cause those stats are more encompassing. Maybe Power, Might or Energy instead of SRT, and maybe Agility or Deftness instead of DEX. 
  • about Enemy stat blocks, I prefer the whole set for the single Tier put "together". Maybe you can differentiate more with three colors associated to the tiers (cyan/green/yellow?) instead of T1 T2 T3. Ie:
    Soldier
    [T1: 2 2 1 1]  [T2: 3 3 2 1]  [T3: 4 4 2 2]  
(+1)

Thank you for the compliment! I'm currently working on another project right now to hone my skills, but I'm definitely going to come back to this to polish it further.

It's funny that you recommend that I rename STR and DEX, since originally they did have different names! And then someone told me "They're close enough to the D&D attributes that you should just name them STR and DEX to make things clearer." I guess that goes to show you can't please everybody.

That's a good suggestion regarding enemy stat blocks. I'll be sure to give them some love and separate them out on the next pass.

(+1)

Another thing, I noticed there is no archetype for the classic big dumb brute/thug/barbarian.  Warrior has too much mental acuity, monster too much cunning,

I suggest an Archetype Brute

Lore: You know of your tribe (if they are brutes like you) or of your unusual heritage (son of a god or whatever) but not much else.

With powers like
Growth spurt/Giant, your size is 2
You are a specialist/master  in  Prowess
You can roar intimidatingly +1 bonus to intimidate


Hooks
Considered Dangerous: you have trouble not getting into trouble with guards and innkeepers


(+1)

Last comment, it would be nice if it were divided into 'rolling up your character' in one section and all game mechanics in another

(+1)

Also it is not clear how to expose someone... I suppose one is exposed when out of soak?

(+1)

Correct. If you've ever played Divinity: Original Sin 2 it works like armor does in that game

How do you roll a basic roll? Just one dice? Maybe should mention what it is somewhere.

Ah, yeah. I thought I had spelled that out somewhere. A basic roll is just a single d6.

I figured it out easily but I suggest you add another case Greater than, less than, or equal to in the advantage vs disadvantage table