I first read The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson back in the mid-2010s, and ever since I have theorycrafted how I would play a Knight Radiant in my TTRPG campaigns. Conceptualizing how shardblades would function or how best to make a spren that wasn’t just a reskinned familiar. Thankfully, I can put that tiring task behind me thanks to the release of the official Cosmere RPG, which, after a VERY successful crowdfunding campaign, has been released. At long last, I can role-play my Windrunner character with my spren partner, Malbifina (Mal for short), and stand against the Desolation.
Developed by Brotherwise Games in close collaboration with Brandon Sanderson himself, the initial offerings for the Cosmere RPG focus solely on Roshar and the systems of the Stormlight Archive books, with three offerings: The Stormlight Handbook (the Player’s Handbook), The Stormlight World Guide (the Dungeon Master’s Guide), and Stonewalkers (a standalone campaign you can play through). For those who aren’t familiar with the Cosmere or Sanderson’s work, the Cosmere is a large galaxy-spanning, progressively more interconnected series of (mostly) epic fantasy novels by Brandon Sanderson. Composed of multiple worlds, each with its own unique and cleverly crafted magic systems, one of which is Roshar, home to Stormlight (magic lightning), spren (manifestations of different emotions and feelings), the Knights Radiant (super paladins), and millennia of war. We have a comprehensive reading guide, so to find out more and get a better picture, I suggest you head there and take a look.
Cosmere utilizes a D20-based system, similar to something like D&D or Pathfinder, where you will use a 20-sided die to make various skill checks, with other dice used to fulfill other needs (such as dealing damage). The action economy will also feel familiar, with basic actions during combat falling into either Actions, Reactions, or Free Actions territories, with Actions requiring anywhere between one and three of your pool per turn. Generally, on your turn, a player will have two or three action points they can use, with more powerful Actions requiring multiple points to pull off. Thanks to its intelligent use of icons denoting the different types and how many points an action takes to use, the whole process is rather new player-friendly and quick to grasp. But just because aspects may feel familiar doesn’t mean that the Cosmere RPG doesn’t do anything new, however.
Considering this is a system that was designed in part by Brandon Sanderson, a man with the ability to write an inhuman amount of books in a short period of time, it shouldn’t be a surprise that narrative and story play a large part in the actual mechanics of the Cosmere RPG, too. A special d6, referred to as the “Plot Die”, isn’t used for every check and is instead reserved for those moments that the GM deems as moments critical to the plot and story they are telling. Moments where the stakes could be raised, granting unforeseen opportunities that impact the story or granting you an “Opportunity,” which is a special resource that can be spent. On the flip side, your roll of the plot die may instead cause a complication to arise in your plan, perhaps causing you to get in an ally’s way during a crucial moment, or another blunder that results in a failure.
This intertwining of narrative and story development also seeps into the character creation process and progression, resulting in a more open and flexible system that I found particularly enamored by. Before anything, you select your ancestry from either Human or Singer (and yes, you can mess around with Singer forms), which will help dictate what areas of the world or lore you specialize in. As a human, you can pick from what region you hail from, giving you an edge on checks on topics, legends, houses, and language, for example, that would make sense for your character to have. With your ancestry picked, you start fleshing out the sort of person they are.
Instead of picking a specific class like Warrior or Druid, players instead choose a Heroic Path, such as a Hunter, Leader, or Agent, each with its own unique skill tree and specialization lines that you can dive into. There are six base Heroic Paths (Agent, Envoy, Hunter, Leader, Scholar, and Warrior) available in the Stormlight Handbook, each with three specializations, and each has a special Key Talent that helps set each path apart from the others. When you level up, you aren’t leveling up a class but your character themself, meaning if you want you can continue down the path you have chosen already and unlocking new Talents (the abilities of the path) if you want, or you can freely choose a new path to start traveling down that makes sense for where your character finds themselves at that moment. No having to deal with complicated multi-class rules or different hit dice for health, none of that. It makes the idea of making a complicated and multi-faceted character more approachable and incentivized, and also just makes the leveling process quicker.
Once you hit level two, though, things really get exciting as, if you wish to, you are able to begin down a Radiant Path of your choice, and yes, all of them are here: Stonewards, Bondsmiths, Windrunners, Skybreakers, Dustbringers, Edgedancers, Truthwatchers, Lightweavers, Elsecallers, and Willshapers. Each Radiant Path will grant you a spren of your own you can come up with, access to that Radiant’s associated Surges, and of course, spending Stormlight and Investiture. If you have read the Stormlight books, then let’s be honest with ourselves, being a Knight Radiant is a big selling point of these books for us, but if you haven’t read them, think of these orders as super Paladins. Each order has access to pretty awesome powers, a little familiar, and eventually, you can even recruit squires to work with you. And just like the Heroic Paths, each Radiant Path features three talent trees you can dive into, with two focusing on a specific surge, Abrasion and Division, for example, with Dustbringers, and then a path that improves your bond with your spren, allowing you to swear further Ideals as a Knight Radiant. Yes, this is awesome, and yes, I have come up with more spren friends than I care to admit to since getting these books. Come at me, Unmade!
To help further define your character, you will also establish a purpose for them, something that drives the character in what they do, which will lead you to create goals for them to strive for. A goal may be something as simple as seeking revenge on someone to something more nebulous, such as finding new ways to heal others, but you are also required to come up with obstacles or character flaws that you have to contend with while striving for your goal. Perhaps in your pursuit of your goal to find new ways to heal others, your character could be blinded by some of the harm done in trying to confirm a hypothesis, or be willing to test ideas that may not be completely safe. Making this goal and obstacle component front-and-center not only helps the GM plan and tailor adventures to individual characters, but also makes the players think more about the characters they are playing as people and not just a character sheet. I’ve found that more role-playing is always a good thing in TTRPGs.
While I may enjoy the mechanics of the Cosmere RPG, as a fan of Sanderson’s books, I would dare say I may like these RPG books more for the details they reveal and how they dive deeper into the world of Roshar and Cosmere as a whole. Since you are able to play as a member of any of the orders of Knights Radiant, I loved looking through the descriptions and breakdowns of not only the various ideals, but also their respective Surges (i.e. the special abilities of a particular order). Reading through these books, especially the World Guide, gave me a better idea of the cultures and visual identity of the peoples of Roshar.
Brandon has stated that the material in these guides will be considered canon with the events in his books, and as such, a great amount of care has been taken by the team to consult and confirm with his lore keepers that everything fits. For readers who may not have finished Wind and Truth, the latest entry of the Stormlight Archive that was released in December 2024, you will want to be careful of spoilers.
In a strange way, the wealth of information these books present also really drew my attention to what the Cosmere RPG doesn’t give me to play around and roleplay with, and it’s here where a vast majority of my complaints reside. Take, for instance, the Heralds, legendary heroes that have held back the evil forces of Odium between desolations. Beings that entire religions on Roshar have been built up around, and whose influence is felt in nearly every facet of the lore. The books have nice sections talking about them, featuring gorgeous artwork, but the RPG is utterly lacking in details for folks that may want to try playing as one.
As someone who is typically in the “forever GM” chair, the fact that none of the books give me basic stat blocks for them is shocking to me. Why aren’t there rules or stats for the Honor Blades? Going even a step further, the fact that the rules don’t give me details for big bads like the various Unmade or even the shards of Odium, Cultivation, or Honor, just bum me out. To a lesser extent, I wish that these first books gave us at least a little tease on what fans may expect from how the other magic systems may operate or the direction they want to take with them. The Ghostblood Enforce enemy does feature “Burning Pewter” which only serves as a buff, and doesn’t give much of an idea on how burning metals will differ from using Stormlight. I realize that each of the worlds will eventually get their own tomes of goodness that dive deep into these things, but couldn’t we have gotten a small, itsy-bitsy tease of how allomancy or AonDor may work?
In addition to the physical books that will be available to the masses in November, Cosmere is seeing relatively frequent updates and additional supplemental materials being added to the Virtual Tabletop service. Not only are you able to snag digital versions of all the books right now, allowing you to build your characters and run games, CosmereRPGNexus.com also has scenarios that you can run and provide you with details and rules to create custom higher-tiered enemies to contend with. If you would prefer just having PDFs, though, you can purchase them all at Drive Thru RPG, too.
For diehard Sanderson fans, even if you have no desire to play a TTRPG, these books, particularly the World Guide, is a must-buy just for lore and the information it provides on Roshar. As TTRPG books, they do well enough, but the item and enemy offerings are lacking in terms of options, especially when compared to other fantasy RPGs. As both a longtime TTRPG player and lover of the Cosmere, it surprises me that some of what has been omitted has left me a bit disappointed. It just comes off as “just wait for the second Roshar set” to me.
The physical Cosmere RPG books will be released on November 12, with digital versions available for purchase now on DriveThruRPG or virtually on Demiplane.
