A new character class for The Frontier, the roleplaying game of epic shooter-looter action!

Much more than a guy carrying a rifle with a big scope, the Sniper is the ultimate marksman. They were already a good shot at the start of sniper training. Now, they score headshots at 2,000 feet in the cover of night and slip away before anyone knows they were there.

Dies ist Folge 35 der DSA-Romantasy-Serie “Serenissima”.

Jeden Samstag erscheint eine neue Folge hier im Scriptorium. Serenissima ist von vorne bis hinten 100% menschengemacht, keine KI. Alle Illustrationen zu diesem Projekt sind selbst erstellt (von Ramona von Brasch).

Du kennst die Serie noch nicht? Dann findest du hier ihren Anfang:

>> www.ulisses-ebooks.de/product/541071 <<

Hinweis: Serenissima richtet sich an ein erwachsenes Publikum. Es enthält sexuell explizite Szenen, die nicht für Kinderaugen bestimmt sind.

DM Essentials #157: Ten Fighter Gladiator Encounters

In most games, a gladiator is a fighter with a net and a cool nickname. Roll initiative. Hit. Repeat.

But a gladiator is not a performer – they are a survivor. The arena is a cage. The crowd is a beast. The sand drinks blood. Some are slaves, forced to fight. Some are criminals, given a chance to earn freedom. Some are volunteers – desperate, glory‑hungry, or simply addicted to the roar. But all of them bleed. And the crowd drinks it.

DM Essentials #157 gives you ten ways to make fighter gladiators feel like real, desperate people at your table – not as arena gimmicks, but as prisoners fighting for breath and dignity. The gate opens. The crowd roars. Will the party help them live – or just watch them die?

What's Inside?

The Fighter Gladiator: Sand, Steel, and the Crowd's Thirst (Short Essay)
Slavery, freedom, performance, and the meaning of honour under the sand.

10 Encounters with the Arena's Survivor
Each one gives you the surface interaction, the hidden truth, and a primary check.

1. The Chain – A chained gladiator begs for help. They are a political prisoner, executed without trial in the arena.

2. The Final Match – A veteran is promised freedom after one more fight. The promoter has hired a killer.

3. The Volunteer – A young noble joins the arena. They are running from a crime.

4. The Retiarius – A net‑fighter offers training. They want help escaping – and need a distraction.

5. The Beast – A gladiator refuses to fight an old lion. The crowd boos. They are compassionate.

6. The Crowd – A gladiator refuses to kill a defeated opponent. The loser is their childhood friend.

7. The Spoils – A famous gladiator shares their winnings. They have been poisoned and are dying.

8. The Rival – Two gladiators hate each other. The hatred is a performance. They are lovers.

9. The Escape – A gladiator passes a note. It is a map to a hidden tunnel. They are escaping tonight.

10. The Healer – A gladiator tends to a wounded opponent. They were a healer before enslavement.

Quick Reference Table – Roll d10 and get a full encounter hook in seconds.

Who This Is For:

• DMs who want fighters to have desperation, not just hit points

• Players who think a gladiator is just a spectacle – until they see the chains

• Anyone who understands that the crowd's love is worth less than a handful of sand

Also Available

DM Essentials #153: Ten Fighter Mercenary Encounters – coin, contract, and the cost of blood.
DM Essentials #154: Ten Fighter Duelist Encounters – one blade, one witness, one grave.
DM Essentials #155: Ten Fighter Veteran Encounters – the old soldier who won't die.
DM Essentials #156: Ten Fighter Knight Errant Encounters – oath, land, and the weight of a title.
DM Essentials #157: Ten Fighter Gladiator Encounters (this volume)

ENTER THE ARCVERSE

More DM Essentials, adventures, and settings at the link below.

The gate opens. The crowd roars. The sand is dark with old blood. The gladiator raises their broken sword.

The opponent is a friend. The promoter has placed a bet. The chains are never really off.

Are you not entertained?

DM Essentials #156: Ten Fighter Knight Errant Encounters

In most games, a knight is a title. A line on a character sheet. A suit of shiny armour.

But a knight errant is not a title – it is a sentence. They swore an oath. To a lord, to a god, to a code. The oath was supposed to make them better. Instead, it demands sacrifice. It forbids compromise. And sometimes, the oath and the right thing are not the same.

DM Essentials #156 gives you ten ways to make fighter knights feel like real, conflicted people at your table – not as shining paragons, but as exhausted pilgrims carrying a code that the world does not honour. The oath is sworn. The road is long. Will the party help them keep their word – or help them break it?

What's Inside?

The Fighter Knight Errant: Oath, Land, and the Weight of a Title (Short Essay)
Duty, honour, the cost of wandering, and the gap between ideals and reality.

10 Encounters with the Lonely Pilgrim
Each one gives you the surface interaction, the hidden truth, and a primary check.

1. The Broken Oath – A knight blames themselves for a flood that drowned a village. The oath was impossible.

2. The Order – A knight is ordered to clear a village. The order is a forgery. Someone wants the land.

3. The Lost Lord – A knight returns from a quest to find their lord gone. The usurper wants them dead.

4. The Vigil – A knight kneels before a statue, waiting for it to speak. It has been twenty years.

5. The Squire – A squire's knight vanished into the woods. A fey creature trapped them in a fairy ring.

6. The Tax – A knight collects grain from starving villagers. Their lord is hoarding food.

7. The Tournament – A knight fights for a lady's hand. She is using him to escape her father.

8. The Ruin – A knight guards a ruined castle. The oath was sworn to a traitor. Innocent documents are inside.

9. The Heretic – A knight is ordered to burn a woman. She is a healer. The priest is a fraud.

10. The Return – A knight comes home after ten years. The gates are closed. A usurper holds their hall.

Quick Reference Table – Roll d10 and get a full encounter hook in seconds.

Who This Is For:

• DMs who want knights to struggle with their oaths, not recite them

• Players who think a knight is just a fighter in plate – until they have to choose between duty and mercy

• Anyone who understands that the lonely road is heavier than the shining armour

Also Available

DM Essentials #153: Ten Fighter Mercenary Encounters – coin, contract, and the cost of blood.
DM Essentials #154: Ten Fighter Duelist Encounters – one blade, one witness, one grave.
DM Essentials #155: Ten Fighter Veteran Encounters – the old soldier who won't die.
DM Essentials #156: Ten Fighter Knight Errant Encounters (this volume)

ENTER THE ARCVERSE

More DM Essentials, adventures, and settings at the link below.

The knight kneels before the broken statue. The sword is planted in the earth. The light falls through the ruined roof.

The vigil began twenty years ago. The statue has not spoken.

Will the knight ever rise?

NCRV: PHOENIX is a dedicated solo expansion for the ECHO LIFEBOAT series of space horror games. This is a standalone game, you do not need any other titles to play. You will need a phone, a deck of regular playing cards, and a pencil. 

The game uses story forks, light journaling, and a card-based system for attempted actions or combat. You will explore your doomed ship, using your personal data scanner (aka phone) to scan QR codes to generate events in the game. Since we can alter the QR code information on our back-end, NCRV: PHOENIX becomes a "living game" full of surprises. We already have another storyline to sub in at some point in the future. Despite the game's small footprint there is a lot of content and replay value.  

Your actions and choices have a direct bearing on the ending you receive. The game uses an innovative card-based system that is altered as you make choices to create a unique ending that lines up with how you played. There are currently 13 unique endings to discover (and suffer) in the game.

Player safety: This is a space horror game and may feature violence, gore, body and psychological horror, player character death and themes such as isolation, grief, impending doom and suicide.

For the chaotic multiplayer version of the game, check out our title ECHO LIFEBOAT.

Space horror in the palm of your hand! 

ECHO LIFEBOAT is a GMless, card-based, rule-light RPG for 2-5 players that will have you making or betraying allies to ensure you get a spot in the last lifeboat on a doomed spacecraft. It's a hybrid tabletop role-playing game that blends elements of board games and card games to create a thrilling adventure with the ease of your average party game. You'll explore the ship looking for crucial code key fragments to unlock the last lifeboat before the self-destruct timer runs out. Along the way you might find useful items or weapons, and uncover the horrifying mystery of what's happening on board. 

The game is a single double-sided sheet PDF that you can print, cut and fold into a little zine that has the game rules and the map of the ship. You can keep it in a backpack, your glovebox, your back pocket, it's as portable as a game gets. You'll also need a deck of regular playing cards and a phone to play. 

The game uses QR codes for events, which we can alter on our back-end to create a "living game". In one play session you might open the door to find a useful tool, in another play session you open the same door to find a horrible, dripping mess of a person lunging at you.

There are lots of extras accessible through the game, including a SOUNDTRACK by Morris Kolontyrsky of the band Blood Incantation. There are also print 'n cut item cards, player dashboard, EZ-read rules and more. 

This PDF contains all three multiplayer Echo Lifeboat games in one package.

•IEV VENTURE: The core game and rules. Explore the doomed spaceship and uncover what happened while trying to unlock the lifeboat and be one of the lucky few to board it. The game extras also include an offline mode with print 'n cut cards for this version of the game, if you hate the idea of using phones.

•EBER-NARI: A game expansion featuring a new ship, more weapons, spreading infection and maintenance hatches to sneak around in.

•KILANDER STATION: A new game expansion featuring a larger station to explore and a new infection game mechanic.

*You will need a phone with a data connection to play this game, as it uses QR codes.

For the dedicated solo version of the game, check out our title NCRV: PHOENIX

Where the Map Ends is a system-neutral collection of random tables for grim wilderness adventures, hexcrawls, pointcrawls, cursed roads, haunted forests, witch-ridden swamps, ruined shrines, sunken temples, and regions warped by mythos corruption.

Designed for OSR and old-school fantasy referees, this book helps you generate dangerous travel, strange landmarks, hostile terrain, roadside encounters, regional curses, wilderness factions, forgotten ruins, occult treasures, and adventure hooks with a sword-and-sorcery edge.

Inside you will find ancient forests that hate intruders, swamp witches offering poisonous bargains, mushroom rings that open into impossible places, roadside gods with obscure taboos, black rivers, drowned chapels, hungry barrows, omen-haunted trails, and aethyr-curdling entities whose presence stains entire regions.

Use these tables during prep or at the table whenever the party leaves the road, loses the map, follows the wrong light, or asks the fatal question:

“What do we find in the next hex?”

A missing influencer, a fanatical cult and a deranged digital god. This mini-adventure takes the Shadowrunners into the forgotten ruins of the city, where the greatest challenge will not be surviving the dangers but facing the moral dilemma that could change everything.

Created for the 3rd Holostreets Jam, this Shadowrun supplement was designed to fit into just two pages, delivering tough choices and lasting consequences.

Available for free in English and Brazilian Portuguese.

Uma influenciadora desaparecida, um culto fanático e um deus digital enlouquecido. Esta mini-aventura leva os Shadowrunners às ruínas esquecidas da cidade, onde o verdadeiro desafio não será sobreviver aos perigos, mas enfrentar o dilema moral que pode mudar tudo.

Produzida para o 3rd Holostreets Jam, este suplemento de Shadowrun foi criado para caber em apenas duas páginas, trazendo escolhas difíceis e consequências duradouras.

Disponível gratuitamente em inglês e português do Brasil.

**This system is found in the VALHOL! Nashcræft Zine found here: [https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/502123/valholl-nashcraeft-1]

THE RUNE SYSTEM A standalone supplement for Shadowdark

• Do you have runes? Integrate your own runes into your Shadowdark game using this rune divination system, where players can spend silver for a divination reading that may yield both positive and negative outcomes.

• No runes? You can replicate the experience of drawing one of the 24 runes using just a d12 along with another die or a coin!

• A list of all 24 runes is provided, detailing their essence categories for world lore, as well as the associated boons and banes that come from drawing these runes.

System-agnostic enough to lift into any OSR game with minimal conversion.

Rune System on Youtube [https://youtu.be/FmC5_-qWQLU]