I first read The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson back in the mid-2010s, and since then I've theorized how I would play the Knight Radiant in my TTRPG campaigns. An idea of how Shardblades would function or how best to make them spring this was not just an updated familiar. Luckily, I can leave this tedious task behind thanks to the release of the official Cosmere RPG, which after VERY successful crowdfunding campaignwas released. I can finally play my Windrunner character with my spren partner Malbifina (Mel for short) and take on the Wasteland.
Developed Brotherhood games Working closely with Brandon Sanderson himself, Cosmere's initial RPG offerings focus solely on Roshar and the Stormlight Archive book system with three offerings: Stormlight's Guide (Player's Guide), Stormlight's Guide to the World (Dungeon Master's Guide), and Stonewalkers (a standalone campaign you can play through). For those unfamiliar with Cosmere or Sanderson's work, Cosmere is a large, galaxy-spanning, increasingly interconnected series of (mostly) epic fantasy novels by Brandon Sanderson. Consists of many worlds, each with its own unique and skillfully crafted magical system, one of which is Roshar, home of Stormlight (magical lightning), spren (manifestations of various emotions and feelings), Knights Radiant (super paladins) and millennia of war. We have detailed reading guideso to know more and get a clearer picture, I suggest you go there and have a look.
Cosmere uses a D20 based system, looks like something out of D&D or Pathfinder, where you'll use a 20-sided die for various skill checks, and other dice will be used to perform other tasks (such as dealing damage). The action economy will also feel familiar, with major actions during combat falling into Action, Reaction, or Free Action territories, with actions requiring one to three from your pool per turn. Typically on your turn a player has two or three action points to use, with more powerful actions requiring multiple action points. Thanks to the clever use of icons to indicate the different types and amounts of points required to complete an action, the entire process is quite novel, player-friendly and quick to understand. But just because aspects may seem familiar doesn't mean Cosmere RPG isn't doing anything new.
Considering that this system was developed in part by Brandon Sanderson, a man capable of writing an inhuman number of books in a short period of time, it's no surprise that storytelling and plot also play a large role in the actual mechanics of the Cosmere RPG. A special d6 called a “Plot Die” is not used for every check, but is instead reserved for those moments that the DM deems critical to the plot and the story they tell. Moments where the stakes can be raised, providing unforeseen opportunities that impact the story, or giving you an “Opportunity,” which is a special resource that can be spent. On the other hand, rolling a plot die instead could result in complicating your plan, perhaps forcing you to get in the way of an ally at a crucial moment, or making another mistake that leads to failure.
This interweaving of storytelling and story development also influences character creation and development, resulting in a more open and flexible system that I particularly enjoyed. First of all, you choose your human or singer ancestry (and yes, you can mess around with singer forms), which will help determine what areas of the world or knowledge you specialize in. As a human, you can choose which region you're from, giving you an advantage when testing themes, legends, houses, and language, for example, that would make sense for your character. By choosing your ancestry, you begin to flesh out who they are.
Instead of choosing a specific class like Warrior or Druid, players choose a heroic path like Hunter, Leader or Agent, each of which has its own unique skill tree and specialization lines that you can dive into. There are six basic heroic paths available in the Stormlight Handbook (Agent, Envoy, Hunter, Leader, Scholar, and Warrior), each with three specializations and each with a special keystone talent that helps set each path apart from the others. When you level up, you're not leveling up the class, but rather your character itself. This means that if you want, you can continue the path you've already chosen and unlock new Talents (path abilities) if you want, or you can freely choose a new path to begin a downward journey that makes sense for where your character ends up at the moment. No need to deal with complex rules for multiple classes or different health dice, nothing like that. This makes the idea of creating a complex and multifaceted character more accessible and stimulating, and simply speeds up the leveling process.
However, once you reach level two, things get really exciting because if you want, you can start your Shining Path of your choice, and yes, they are all here: Stonewards, Bondsmiths, Windrunners, Skybreakers, Dustbringers, Edgedancers, Truthwatchers, Lightweavers, Elsecallers and Willshapers. Each Shining Path will give you your own spren that you can come up with, access to the Waves associated with that Shining, and of course, the expenditure of Stormlight and Investiture. If you've read the Stormlight books, let's be honest with ourselves, being Knight Shining That's a big plus for us about these books, but if you haven't read them, consider these orders to be super paladins. Each order has access to some pretty amazing abilities, a bit familiar, and eventually you can even hire squires to work with you. And just like the Heroic Paths, each Radiant Path has three talent trees that you can dive into, with two of them focused on a specific surge, Abrasion and Divide, such as with the Dustbringers, and then a path that improves your bond with the spren, allowing you to swear further Paragons as a Knight Radiant. Yes, it's amazing, and yes, since I got these books I've made more spren friends than I'd like to admit. Come to me, Uncreated One!
To better define your character, you will also define a goal for it, something that drives the character in what it does, which will lead you to create goals for it to strive for. The goal could be something as simple as getting revenge on someone to something more nebulous like finding new ways to heal others, but you also need to come up with obstacles or character flaws that you'll have to contend with as you pursue your goal. Perhaps in your quest to find new ways to heal others, your character may be blinded by some of the harm done while trying to prove a hypothesis, or you may want to test ideas that may not be entirely safe. Bringing this component of goals and obstacles to the forefront not only helps GMs plan and tailor adventures for individual characters, but also forces players to think more about the characters they play as people rather than just a character sheet. I've found that more role-playing in TTRPGs is always a good thing.
While I may enjoy the Cosmere RPG mechanics as a fan of Sanderson's books, I would venture to say that I may enjoy these RPG books more because of the detail they reveal and how they delve deeper into the world of Roshar and Cosmere as a whole. Since you can play as a member of any of the Knights Radiant orders, I enjoyed looking at the descriptions and breakdowns of not only the different ideals, but also their corresponding Bursts (i.e. the special abilities of a particular order). Reading these books, especially the World Guide, gave me a better understanding of the cultures and visual identities of the peoples of Roshar.
Brandon stated that the material in these guides will be considered canon with the events in his books, and so the team took great care to consult and confirm with their knowledge keepers that everything was appropriate. For readers who may not have finished Wind and truththe latest Stormlight Archive entry released in December 2024, beware of spoilers.
Oddly enough, the wealth of information presented in these books also really brought to my attention something that Cosmere RPG doesn't give me a chance to play around with and act out, and that's where the vast majority of my complaints lie. Let's take for example Messengerslegendary heroes who held back the evil forces of Odium between devastations. Beings around whom entire religions of Roshar were built and whose influence is felt in almost every aspect of lore. The books have good sections talking about them, with great illustrations, but the role-playing game is completely lacking in detail for people who might want to try playing alone.
As someone who usually occupies the “perpetual GM” chair, I'm shocked that none of the books give me the basic blocks of statistics. Why are there no rules and statistics for Blades of Honor? Taking it even further, the fact that the rules don't give me details about major atrocities like the various Unmades or even the Odium, Cultivation or Honor shards just drives me nuts. To a lesser extent, I wish these first books had given us at least a little hint of what fans can expect in terms of how other magic systems might work, or what direction they want to go in. The Ghostblood Enforce enemy has Burning Tin, which only serves as a buff and doesn't offer much insight into how burning metals will differ from using Stormlight. I understand that each of the worlds will eventually get their own tomes of goodness that dive deep into these things, but could we get a little, tiny hint of how Allomancy or AonDor might work?
In addition to the physical books that will be available to the masses in November, Cosmere is seeing relatively frequent updates and additional extras being added to the Virtual Tabletop service. Not only can you get digital versions of all the books right now, allowing you to create your own characters and play games, CosmereRPGNexus.com there are also scenarios you can run that provide you with details and rules for creating your own higher level enemies to fight. However, if you prefer to only have the PDFs, you can purchase them all from the website Driving through RPGtoo much.
For die-hard Sanderson fans, even if you have no desire to play a TTRPG, these books, especially the World Guide, are a must-buy just for the knowledge and information they provide about Roshar. As TTRPG books they are quite good, but the items and enemies lack options, especially compared to other fantasy RPGs. As a longtime TTRPG player and Cosmere lover, I find it surprising that some of what was left out left me a little disappointed. To me it just sounds like “just wait for the second issue of Roshar.”
Cosmere RPG physical books will be released on November 12th, with digital versions available for purchase now. DriveThruRPG or almost on Demiplane.
