F is for Faceless Horde
Approximate time to read: 4 minutes. I saw a small black aperture, felt a ghoulish wind of ice, and smelled the charnel bowels of a putrescent […]
Symbaroum
E is for the Ever Realm
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. Ambra sits on the north coast, less than 100 miles from the north-western fringe of Davokar, where the trees literally […]
D is for Despair and Dismay
Approximate time to read: 4 minutes. The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of […]
C is for Collector of Faces
Approximate time to read: 4 minutes. A new world of redness and darkness, A horrible coma call’d living The false, hollow phantoms of beauty That cloak […]
No Unpleasant Surprises
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. Newcomers to any game have a lot of questions to ask and I hope those who already play those games can […]
What’s a Scene?
Approximate time to read: 2 minutes. The basis of an adventure in Symbaroum, a Scene stands as a means to determine the ‘value’ of an adventure […]
Le Pacte De Fer
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. I can hardly believe that I have been reading, playing and gamemastering Symbaroum for more than a year and running […]
Quick Arrow Reclamation
Approximate time to read: 4 minutes. The Symbaroum Advanced Player’s Guide (APG) includes a whole selection of optional mechanics in the Alternative Rules section. Some will work for […]
Theme Reveal for April
Approximate time to read: 2 minutes. I missed the Theme Reveal day for the A-to-Z Challenge, which was Monday, 20th March. However, I can easily make […]
Casting Checks
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. Someone put forward the following question on Reddit around the use of Mystical Powers in Symbaroum. Hey guys. Quick question […]
Advanced Player’s Handbook
Approximate time to read: 2 minutes. The diehard English-speaking fans of Symbaroum have been translating the Spelarens Handbok since Day 1. Somehow, this volume of Swedish gaming goodness […]
A-to-Z Challenge 2017
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. I hope to have the planning wherewithal to participate in the A-to-Z Challenge this year – as I did in […]
Mystical Dozen
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. I am happy to add a new gathering of Mystical Treasures to the Symbaroum Resources page, contributed by Candacis (and […]
Archaeology Today
Approximate time to read: 5 minutes. The Monte Cook Games setting/system Numenera describes a truly ancient Earth where nine great civilisations have risen and fallen over […]
Monstrous Traits
Approximate time to read: 8 minutes. Should Monstrous Traits be more generic? I had that strange thought the other day while looking through some of the […]
Symbaroum Resources
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. Following a discussion on Slack, I offer up the services of The Iron Pact as a clearing house for links to […]
Davokar Persists
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. If you don’t have quite enough places to chat about Symbaroum, it would be well worth your time downloading (or […]
Care With Names
Approximate time to read: 5 minutes. I ran an extended game of The Wheel of Misfortune yesterday, using the rules for The Symbaroum Funnel. This created […]
The Cow and the Recharge
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. I will be running Symbaroum at Concrete Cow for the morning session (10am) in Milton Keynes, 10th September 2016. The […]
Who You Know
Approximate time to read: 6 minutes. While the Contacts Trait appears in the Symbaroum Core Book as a Trait, generally associated with the player’s choice of […]
Favor and Disfavor
Approximate time to read: 5 minutes. Symbaroum has a simple system for handling the challenges presented to characters. When challenged directly, players roll against one of […]
This and That
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. The session of Symbaroum I ran over the weekend, for Free RPG Day at Fanboy 3, was unashamedly lighter and less […]
Wrath of the Warden – Day 2
Approximate time to read: 2 minutes. I almost feel I have always been reading and playing Symbaroum. I find it a bit hard to believe that […]
The Wrath of the Warden
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. Today at 19:00 Central European Time, the Järnringen team will be kicking off their fundraiser for Thistle Hold – Wrath […]
Somewhat Friendly
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. I have had a request for Printer Friendly versions of the Symbaroum Reference Sheets. I have done what I can, but […]
May Pact Update
Approximate time to read: 2 minutes. A brief update on The Iron Pact and Symbaroum. I have been REALLY busy over the last month with another […]
The Iron Pact on Patreon
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. After posting more than 80 articles and more than 62,000 words of content, I have realised that I can […]
Heirlooms and Legacies
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. The Player’s Handbook offers the option to enhance your starting equipment with an Heirloom. Essentially, you can choose a weapon […]
Z is for Zeal
Approximate time to read: 8 minutes. The A-to-Z Challenge offered an opportunity to show me just how engaged I could become with a game or setting. […]
Y is for Yes, and…
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. Not advice specific to Symbaroum and not to be used without care and consideration, but I have found in running […]
W is for the Watch
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. The Queen’s Watch serves a purpose as close to general policing as to be the ideal real-world comparison, but really […]
U is for Undead
Approximate time to read: 6 minutes. Death is not an option. Or, at least, sometimes you don’t want it to be something thrust upon a player […]
L is for Lindaros
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. I feel like the timeline might serve as a theme for a couple of days, because while just a small […]
K is for Korinthia’s Captivity
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. When I first picked up Symbaroum and started reading it, I started from the back of the book. I worked […]
I is for Iron Pact
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. The true nature of the Iron Pact, its extent and true purpose, remains elusive, an idea at best steeped in […]
H is for Hardship
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. Those who fail in their service to the Queen quickly find that their punishment means hard work rather than time […]
G is for Goyl
Approximate time to read: 2 minutes. Out of what crypt they crawl, I cannot tell, But every night I see those stony things, Jet black, horned, […]
F is for Forest
Approximate time to read: 2 minutes. The tracks and trails of Bright Davokar offer a balance of plenty and peril. The traveller or treasure-seeker in these […]
D is for Dungenesis
Approximate time to read: 4 minutes. Davokar exists as a reaction by the environment to the damage inflicted upon it. The forest would exist if the […]
A is for Attributes
Approximate time to read: 4 minutes. The eight individual Attributes make up the core of Symbaroum’s mechanics. When you challenge yourself or face a challenge you complete a […]
The Entombed
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. When I describe the conditions in Alberetor after the war against the enemy, I make reference to radiation and comparison […]
The Entombed – Draft
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. The roiling, trembling earth lurched and sputtered like a graveyard cough, a wave of dirt and bone surging upward and […]
The Right Balance
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. If you check out the comments for the Two Characters More post, you will see Isak and me having a […]
Two Characters More
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. After spending the weekend running a game of Symbaroum at Go Play Leeds and trying out Lestra/o as a playable […]
Sear and Loathing
Approximate time to read: 5 minutes. When I ran my Symbaroum session at the weekend, the players had a chance to learn a little of the […]
One-Shot Symbaroum
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. One-shot quick-start games matter a lot. If you can sit down and run something with only 15 minutes of warm-up […]
Symbaroum at GoPlayLeeds
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes. The Gnarls got the short end of the straw again! I ran some measure of the Titan Wake adventure at […]
More Symbaroum Encounters
Approximate time to read: 1 minutes. Short and simple encounters can be a life saver in a session. Whether you’re running the game on the fly […]
