Shadows of a Dying Sun
A downloadable game
BAROQUE DYING EARTH FANTASY
Explore a world far past its prime, built upon the bones of history long forgotten
Shadows of a Dying Sun (or SoaDS) is a roleplaying game rules toolkit, written by Alan Bahr, set in a world on the brink of extinction, where fantasy, science fiction, magic, and faith all intermingle in a complex web of adventure. It’s explicitly designed for running dying earth genre fantasy, in modern frameworks influenced by narrative games, as well as classic adventure games.
Shadows of a Dying Sun is written with the following philosophies in mind:
- Death. Death is an ever-present threat for the adventurer, and as adventurers walk the Heron’s Path, they draw every closer to their inevitable demise. But approaching death can be freeing, and as such, you gain access to powerful new abilities and rules.
- Resource-management. As many rules as possible are resources that are in the characters’ control. This allows them to be aware of where various situations and conditions are, as well as make as fully an informed choice as they can.
- Guidelines, not absolutes. The rules in this book are designed to get you 90% of the way there. The last 10% happens at your table and makes your game truly unique. Expect to have to make rulings, not reference rules, and use the existing ideas in this book to leverage the new items you create.
- Weird, extravagant, dying cultures and civilizations. The cities and nations that still remain in the Shadow of the Dying Sun are the last remnants of baroque and ornate worlds. The world around you should feel alien and different
Shadows of a Dying Sun is inspired by KNAVE, along with various OSR, d20, and board games. The toolkit in this game is deliberately incomplete, designed to provoke you to define the setting and world of the Dying Sun as you play through it.
This 88-page book includes the game's core rules, solo play rules, a brief bestiary, character creation, and more.
You will need a variety of dice, notecards, and your copy of Shadows of a Dying Sun in order to play.
Physical editions are available here
Published by Gallant Knight Games
Written by Alan Bahr
Edited by Mark Parish
Art by Kattapulka and Perplexing Ruins (please check out their Patreons)
Layout by Robert Denton II
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Community Copy
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Development log
- Minor Errata & Typos Adjusted61 days ago
Comments
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Hello! The book is lovely! I was wondering if you had considered releasing a more print-at-home friendly pdf option with the background texture removed to save on ink? Thanks for including solo play options, I can't wait to try it soon!
Hey! At this time, there are no plans for a release like that.
No worries, thanks for the reply!
Saw this on sale and had to pick it up, loving the slow fading away and mystery of the setting and really intrigued by the resource management aspect and how strange and flavourful the spells feel. The Heron's Path system also immediately feels like it would be so interesting in a longer campaign, really excited to run this!
Thanks for the kind words! Hope you love it!
Nails the baroque, evocative tone of the "dying earth" genre perfectly.
I really enjoyed this game. I found the setting to be highly evocative; the text and illustrations made my mind wander and left me eager to try it out.
I loved the magic traditions, though I was a bit frustrated to see that most spells are focused on causing or healing damage. I felt the effects could be more creative.
I appreciated that the brief bestiary has its own flavor and doesn’t just adapt traditional creatures to the setting.
The system seemed quite interesting, although, just by reading, I have trouble imagining how material from other OSR/NSR games might be adapted to this one. It's something I need to experience in practice to fully assess.
Overall, very well done! Shadows of a Dying Sun is a very intriguing game, both in terms of setting and mechanics.
Is there any plan for a license for third-party creations?
Hey Bruno! We hadn’t discussed it, but we’re certainly open to it! We’ll look into it.
Regarding the magic, a fair critique. I (Alan) have been dabbling in some expansions, but we haven’t gotten there yet.
https://northernlightsfoundry.com/compatibility-resources/under-a-dying-sun/
Here you go!
on page 39 the art is a 1-for-1 depiction of an elden ring boss. just wanted to point that out in case of copyright.
Thanks for the heads-up! We’ll take a look (we used stock art, so we’ll get a solution in place).
your welcome, smaller projects than this have gotten into trouble over copyright so i just wanted to warn