r/cosmererpg

Hey gang! Like the title says, I'm going to be starting a Cosmere campaign really soon with some friends. I love having background music to set the tone, and have been starting to put together some options, but I want to get away from the beaten path a bit. While I'll definitely have plenty of stuff like classic orchestral soundtracks from movies, TV, and games, I want to mix in some stuff that feels less Euro-centric and more unique for Roshar. Anybody have any suggestions? I feel like there's a lot of untapped potential out there. Thanks for any suggestions!

Background: I am a fairly seasoned DM for D&D and have run a few scenarios of Call of Cthulu, but have never run a Stormlight campaign. I have read the original Mistborn trilogy and am almost finished with Rythm of War, so I am fairly familiar with the Cosmere.

I am about to run my first campaign of the Cosmere RPG with 5 PCs running a homebrew type campaign (wanted to steer clear of Stonewalkers due to it being wrapped up in the timeline of the book). I am not worried about the mechanics too much as it runs very similar to D&D mechanics minus the plot dice. I am a little confused about how the expertises and talents work...could someone explain it to me?

Also how do you all go about introducing radiants? Little confused about the trait for that, might have missed it in the handbook.

Thanks y'all

I am currently running Stonewalkers and one of my players befriended Liss and asked her for help training, so I decided to try and turn her into a patron. Does anyone have suggestions for what her goals might be, and for special features that she could have?

Yeah, I just finished the 13th session of a stonewalkers campaign as a player.

We're level 3 and our GM made us fight with Liss, a duelist shardbearer. I'm a GM to other tables, so I know that we're very under level for this fight.

I mean, it was going to be a rough fight, but feasible, no?

Yeah, my GM doubled her HP from 40 to 80, gave her +1 (+7 total) in her first attacks (then changed back to +6 later), made her have 18 in every defense, made her a boss (fast and slow turn) and invented traits for her.

Yep. We got destroyed, until he started to make dumb plays on purpose to give us a chance (like slapping us instead of using the shardblade).

My character got a permanent injury, there were at least 3 other injuries of 20+ days.

When I got downed, I just opened Death Stranding and started playing while half listening, clearly upset. FYI, this was going to be a big moment for my character, and I got downed in one hit and basically didn't play at all the whole session.

I was going to wait and talk with the GM 1 to 1 after the session, but by the end of it he kept repeating how bad he felt that I fell in one hit (and I mean repeatedly. at least 6 times he said this).

I decided to call him out and listed every single thing I noticed it was odd or strange on the sheet, and his response was always "but I just tweaked a little. that's the only thing a changed". every. fucking. change. yeah, got repetitive.

By the end of it, I said how I just didn't have any fun and that's ok, it was a bad session. He said "sorry, I guess I did it wrong".

It wasn't a cool, glorious victory. It was a massacre, then he let us get the win. Not earned at all. Given. Just what we want to feel in a heroic campaign, huh?

I'm still pretty upset, disappointed and disillusioned with the whole campaign.

Mind you, I'm just venting, this is fresh. I might feel different tomorrow. I might be too immature to see it from another angle today.

I would appreciate some advice, though. I like the other players a lot, but I just feel the GM doesn't make choices I would make very often. I don't want to quit the campaign for this, but shit, I would be lying if I said that didn't cross my mind.

Anyway, sorry about the long rant.

TL;DR: GM made us fight an overleveled fight and buffed the enemy even more. Didn't felt like a win at all. He let us do it and we got badly injured for it. The whole party was kind of bummed.

Last week we had our session zero and it went pretty well. Got the characters set up and briefly explained the overview of the world using the Welcome to Roshar book.

My crew is still fleshing out back stories this week and we will have session 1 on the 17th.

I have read through chapter 4 of the Stonewalkers adventure but started to reread chapter 1 to begin prep to run it. What are some GM tips for session prep for the Cosmere RPG and Stonewalkers?

Generally, for other RPGs, I like to read first time through and make highlights in the (PDF) then go back through and draft a rough outline of how I think the flow of events turns out.

I'm playing in a Stonewalkers campaign (as a PC) and the group is kind of struggling with the objectives.

We played something like 12 sessions, and since then, we just completed one group objective, and gained some points with some personal ones.

I suggested that we go over every objective of every PC at the end of the session, so we can see organically what progresses. But I don't know how this is going to work out.

That said, I'm a little worried about the recommendation the book gives of "at least one objective milestone for session". Are you guys following this advice from the book?

What if it's a big and long objective? The milestones take longer to be obtained? Or the speed is the same, but the objective is not completed, but broken down in others small objectives?

Do all objectives come with a reward?

Please, enlighten me. How are you guys handling the objectives at your tables?

The Plot Die greatly increases the GM's cognitive load because it requires additional improvisation in scenes where the GM is already improvising and managing multiple NPCs

At my tables, it often led to decision paralysis. Players would take turns suggesting opportunities and complications for the GM, who would eventually just say "no" because people kept proposing increasingly overpowered opportunities. Eventually, we gave up on using it that way and decided to use it mostly to restore Focus, or, on the other hand if we get complications, to lose Focus, which is honestly pretty boring

Several talents depend on the Plot Die, but my GM has started avoiding it because they've noticed that it slows combat down considerably. As a result, some talents feel heavily nerfed. They usually ask us to roll the Plot Die only once/twice per scene

I have mixed feelings about the Plot Die myself. I'd like to GM a campaign in the future but I simply suck at improvisation and I'm also afraid to see my players running in circles sugesting absurd opportunities just for me keep saying "no" over and over

I actually like my current GM's approach of using it sparingly in battles (where that are more things to manage), and more commongly in conversations and endeavors. However, I also don't want to unintentionally nerf Agents and other classes whose core features rely on it.

Does anyone have advice on how to strike a better balance?

My group finished Chapter 1 lazt night and absolutely blew through the boss in 2 round without taking any damage. What are you doing to adjust encounters for groups that handle combat a little too well?

Do I give my bosses deflect?

Can I pad their health?

Do I just add more minions to each encounter?

If an adversary isn't a minion do they follow the same principle for injury rolls as PCs before they die?

So while running, there was a chance for a character to grieve with a Singer NPC over their fallen family member. A lot of wild rolls even got them to the point where this didn't come to blows, but the player who was listening to them attune to loss, grieving over their fallen Sister, asked if they could some how grieve with them in solidarity. I said it would be a difficult insight roll to understand what would be appropriate for their cultural differences and the likes and we would raise the stakes on it since it could go so very wrong.

They then rolled an opportunity and a natural 20. I let them begin to hum along with the group as they grieved, joining in there song and for just a second, feel connected to the rest of those who are attuned and singing. I know they lack a Gemheart to be able to do something like that, but it felt so very right in the moment. Part of my reasoning was that they were holding into their Peakspren and it felt like they all could have some how been in that moment for just a second.

My question in general is. How would this continue to play into their character? They are almost assuredly going to swear their first ideal next session. It was an amazing roll and a fight for peace and understanding and I feel like it should mean something more in the larger scheme of things. Any suggestions?

Hello everyone!

I’ve been reading Sanderson’s Cosmere work lately and as an avid TTRPG player (and mostly forever-GM), I took advantage of a visit to my friendly local game store for Free RPG Day and got myself the Stormlight Starter Set!

After reading through the rules, it seems to be pretty crunchy and rules-heavy, especially when it comes to combat (so many conditions to remember, like 17 possible different actions per turn in addition to what your character themself can do, etc). I have my fair share of experience with D&D (which this compares to the most, at first glance) but I have realized in the last few years that I simply enjoy rules-light, narrative-focused systems a lot more.

Is the Cosmere RPG as crunchy as it seems at first glance?
I know what some of you are gonna say: well you can GM it with a focus on the story and adjudicate situation based on vibes to run it anyway, but how is character progression in relations to that (there’s not much on that in the starter set)? I would hate to have my style of GMing leaving players feeling like the things they got for their level-up is too situational/useless!

TLDR: I like rules-light, narrative-focused games the most, is the Cosmere RPG gonna be too crunchy and rules-heavy for me?

Edit: Thank you everybody for all your answers! Will definitely try Bridge Nine and see how it feels!

I’ve been reading Stonewalkers and I love the appearance of the first Everstorm. In the books at the battle of Narak it’s a monumental occasion and the rest of the world feels it but it feels lackluster in Stonewalkers. You fight some Skyeels and have to keep your ship from sinking. Anyone recommend how to liven it up, perhaps it occurs in the city and Parshmen start revolting or perhaps some of the Parshmen on the boat are inhabited by Fused?

Has anyone created a fillable template for custom adversaries? I'm making a companion for my table and I'd like to use something better than a word document if I can. Has anyone found a good source for this?

So, I'm going to start DMing Stonewalkers with my long time friends and usual TTRPG group.

They're 5 people, which will be coming to play as they can (at least I want two of them to be able to show up), using this campaign as a secondary one, while we wait until we can all reunite for our main campaign.

Anyway, as of now I have 4 of them with an already made character, still waiting for the fifth one as he's abroad right now. I kinda need some help figuring out where to give them their moments during the campaign, as I think I'll try to allow them to speak the words in heavy narrative moments for them.

This are their characters (don't try too hard at making sense in the canon):

-Palermo: An Alethi, who fought against the singers at the Shattered Plains, falling down the abyss. Everyone just thought he was dead for the next two years, but he was able to survive, growing close to chulls he found down there. That time alone made him go a little bit crazy, talking with the chulls, specially with his chull pet. The idea is for him to be turned into a Willshaper, of course. He'll start as a hunter.

-Dugbe: An lighteyes Alethi, who grew up with his friend Kalikó, a darkeyes Alethi, both dreaming about their desire about going to war and get a Shardblade for Kalikó, to try and turn him into a lighteye and live without social differences between them. However, one day Kalikó disappeared without a trace and Dugbe went to find his friend by his own. This player has shown an interest on being stealthy for this character, but hasn't even decided yet which class to start with.

My idea is to show Kalikó being a third ideal skybreaker or something like that, trying to apply the law to see the fall of the lighteyes system, and use it as an antagonist towards the group, showing a soft spot still for Dugbe, and ending his story with a redemption and probably a sacrifice.

-Ezergon: An Azish with a childhood filled by laws, obligations and whatnot by his parents. This player wants to be a skybreaker, and has told me he wants to play this character as someone who believes his law is above all else, while still trying to be good natured. My plan is to use his spren to give the character some kind of growth, you know, with all about the "Why your law is better than that of the kings? If you know someone is a killer, you think you have to kill that person, but what if a king firmly believes someone's a killer, yet you know that's not true?".

I think this character will be really good to go against someone like Kalikó. I think this player wants to be a warrior.

-Moevin: A singer that fought in the Shattered Plains for too long, until he found himself completely done with the violence, death, and all that. I'll probably give him a dead partner to use it as a catalyst for that decision. He's now a Chull Shepherd, who likes the quiet life that it gives. However, my plan was for Venli to threaten him, commanding him to go back to war if he didn't want to have his quiet little farm to be erased. He refused at first, but finally decided to act as an spy on the human side, going there on his gray form.

This player explicitly said to me that he doesn't want to know if he'll turn into a Radiant or not, if it comes, it comes. I think he'll start as a Hunter. I may try and make him an Edgedancer or something more supportive. I believe his relationship with Palermo could be so fun to see.

-The fifth player: probably something random, he's the only one besides me who has red the books, and he remembers them way clearer than me, as he's being found so recently. He likes being the chaos character at the table, which I thank sometimes and hate some others hahahaha.

With all of this already out of the way, does anybody have any recommendations about when or how to give them their own moments during Stonewalkers? I'll appreciate the help a lot, thanks in advance :)

Did I get that right?

• NPCs don't get to use the deadly trait as the players do.
• NPCs don't use the special shardblade injury table

The \"shardblade\" in the NPC sheet is mostly descriptive.

I mean, I totally get why they did it this way. It's no fun for your hero to be slaughered by a single nat 20 and an unlucky injury roll.

I just want to make sure I didn't lost anything.

That said, the high base damage + dangerous narrative is something to be afraid of, as a player.