RUN:MURDER.EXE is a24-page zine for theCY_BORG RPG.

Inside, you’ll find

• 20 new city events
• 20 new pieces of cybertech
• 10 New guns
• and 3 new foes

RUN:MURDER.EXE is an independent production by Philip Reed and is not affiliated with Stockholm Kartell. It is published under the CY_BORG Third Party License. CY_BORG IS ©2022 STOCKHOLM KARTELL.

RUN:MURDER.EXE © 2026 Philip Reed, all rights reserved. Edited by Lex Morgan.
Weapon illustrations used under license from Shutterstock.com. All other illustrations by Philip Reed created using Procreate with an Apple Pencil on an iPad Pro and using photographic and visual references from Adobe Stock by Andrey Kiselev, breakermaximus, Digital Storm, grandeduc, LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS, roman3d, and Warpedgalerie. Line art was then pulled into Photoshop where it was composited with various graphics and then further modifier by the Dithertone Pro Photoshop plugin by Doran Supply. (Which is a pretty sweet plugin and worth checking out if you work with Photoshop.)

It begins quietly. A missing trader. A shrine repurposed. A symbol scratched where none recall it being before. Then the changes spread - villages fall silent, patrols vanish, and whispers of a “new truth” take hold in every land they touch. The cult does not conquer - it absorbs. Its followers speak with one voice, act with one will, and expand with unnerving patience. Those who resist are not slain… but remade. Now the borders of Karnaxos blur beneath its influence. No army has halted it. No ruler understands it. You step into a world already changing, where every ally may already belong to something greater - and every delay feeds its growth.

Arash-Kelum is not a fixed place, but a spreading domain of influence - villages, ruins, and strongholds subtly transformed under the cult’s presence. At its heart lies the Veiled Nexus of Thar-Eshul, a hidden sanctum said to anchor the cult’s unity. Where the cult spreads, the land alters. Symbols etched into stone pulse faintly at dusk. Fires burn without smoke. Voices echo even in silence. Entire settlements become eerily ordered, their people moving with shared purpose. Paths into Arash-Kelum are easy to find - but difficult to leave unchanged.

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HOW TO PLAY

In this Solo Adventure you assume the role of an adventurer in a Bronze Age Fantasy setting where kingdoms rise and crumble beneath obsidian skies, and where warlords, sorcerers, and wandering heroes carve their names into the annals of Karnaxos. You will require the Warborn of Karnaxos Core Rulebook (CRB) and any expansions you wish to incorporate. The story you experience is your own. The actions you choose depend on who and what you encounter, and how you elect to interact. Keep a record of your journey, tracking outcomes and branching consequences. Your decisions become the voice of the unseen Storyteller. The world of Karnaxos stirs to life through your interpretation, your vision, and your courage. This template provides structure, direction, narrative density, and motivational clarity, ensuring you always know what drives the hero, what threatens them, and what lies beyond the next torchlit corner.

Long before the Age of Iron, when kings spoke with gods and the stars were named in blood, there rose a monument upon the plains of Ashkarûm. It was a ziggurat of black-bronze stone, its steps carved with the victories of a forgotten empire. Priests whispered that beneath its summit lay a gate - not of this world, but of something older, something patient. Then came the Flood Without Rain. The rivers swelled. The earth split. In a single night, Ashkarûm sank beneath dark waters, its people swallowed, its god-scribes silenced. The monument endured - but only its highest crown remained above the mire, a jagged silhouette against a choking sky. Now, centuries later, the waters have begun to recede. From distant lands, heroes converge - drawn by prophecy, greed, vengeance, or dreams they cannot explain. The ziggurat calls to them. And beneath its drowning stones, something stirs once more. Not dead. Not sleeping. Waiting.

The Ziggurat of Ashkarûm rises from a basin of blackened marsh and stagnant water. Its lower tiers remain submerged, cloaked in silt and tangled reeds. Cracked stairways descend into murky depths, while upper terraces lie exposed - slick with algae and etched with half-erased sigils. Massive statues line the approach: faceless, eroded, yet still watching. At the summit stands a shattered sanctum, its bronze doors torn open long ago. Beyond lies a spiralling descent into the heart of the monument - a place where air grows thin, light falters, and the stone itself seems to breathe. Whispers echo where no voice speaks. And deep below, something ancient presses against the boundaries of its prison.

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HOW TO PLAY

In this Solo Adventure you assume the role of an adventurer in a Bronze Age Fantasy setting where kingdoms rise and crumble beneath obsidian skies, and where warlords, sorcerers, and wandering heroes carve their names into the annals of Karnaxos. You will require the Warborn of Karnaxos Core Rulebook (CRB) and any expansions you wish to incorporate. The story you experience is your own. The actions you choose depend on who and what you encounter, and how you elect to interact. Keep a record of your journey, tracking outcomes and branching consequences. Your decisions become the voice of the unseen Storyteller. The world of Karnaxos stirs to life through your interpretation, your vision, and your courage. This template provides structure, direction, narrative density, and motivational clarity, ensuring you always know what drives the hero, what threatens them, and what lies beyond the next torchlit corner.

100 Hedge Knights & Wandering NPCs

For Medieval Road Adventure RPGs (A Song of Ice and Fire, OSR, and similar games)

Your roads are populated. Your players have already forgotten everyone on them.

A guard waves the party through. An innkeeper offers a room. A merchant grumbles about bandits on the eastern road.

Functional. Forgettable. Gone before the dice cool down.

The real problem is not laziness. It is raw material. When your players ride through a village gate or stop at a roadside fire, you need a person — not a type. You need someone with a name, a reason to be here, and a secret that makes them matter. You need that person in ten seconds, while tracking initiative, three ongoing plot threads, and the player who keeps asking what the weather is doing.

Where is the hedge knight who swore an impossible vow he refuses to explain? The toll warden reporting to three masters simultaneously? The midwife who has attended every noble birth in four counties and written none of what she knows in any document anyone has found? These people exist on the roads your players are riding. They simply never appear at the right moment because you have to invent them from nothing, mid-session, under pressure.

This book gives you 100 roadside characters built for immediate use.

• ✓ A name and a physical detail sharp enough to sketch in one sentence
• ✓ A motivation that makes them act, not just react
• ✓ A secret that rewards players who look closer
• ✓ A roleplay hook ready to run in any direction the table chooses
• ✓ No setting-specific lore — drop them into any medieval campaign

No prep required. Open any page. Read for ten seconds. Use immediately.

Examples from the book

@The Keeper of Veldmoor's Debt | He rides a bony grey mare along the king's road, wearing a surcoat faded to an unidentifiable color. He offers escort services for three copper pieces but insists on calling it a retainer. He carries a sealed letter never delivered, addressed to a lord who died a decade ago.

@The Mistress of Dunford's Wayhouse | She runs the cleanest inn on the road and charges honest prices. She is warm, capable, and reads every letter left unattended in the common room. She reports certain travelers to certain parties before dawn. She has done this for eleven years and sleeps without difficulty.

Compatible with any medieval fantasy RPG. No setting-specific content. All scenarios are original and in the public domain.

Stop populating your roads with furniture. Give your players someone worth remembering.

This pack is a system-agnostic drop-in desert caravan region including multiple battlemaps, travel encounters, escort missions, investigation hooks, roleplay opportunities, terrain rules, and a quick-start DM setup guide. Designed for minimal preparation, with enough information for a brand new DM, and is scalable for different party levels, alignments, and play styles.

This toolkit and battlemap pack can be placed into almost any campaign world where a desert trade route, mountain pass, or caravan road might exist between two settlements. The region can be used for a single encounter, a travel session, a caravan escort mission, an investigation scenario, or multiple sessions in a small sandbox region.

The included battlemaps are provided in black-and-white color-your-own versions, fully colored versions, grid and hex versions, and printer-friendly margin versions for tabletop play, and no-margin versions for droping into your virtual play game. 

Included files: 

• 8 Battlemaps (black & white color-your-own style, pre-colored, grid and hex with two scale options, and with and without margins versions):
• 14-page Adventure Toolkit in PDF format.
• 14-page Adventure Toolkit in Word document format.
• Separate file (for easier printing) of the 2 Minute DM GM Guide (from the toolkit)
• One combined PDF containing ALL of these files in one document including the cover page for this listing, 8 battlemaps, DM Guide page, and the entire 14 page toolkit file. 

This is my second battlemap with companion guide release. If you have any feedback, leave me a message and it might help me with my future releases. Thanks! 

DM Essentials #109: 10 Halfling Commoner Encounters

In most games, the farmer, the baker, the carter are just scenery. They stand in the background while adventurers do the important work. They are the ones who need saving, not the ones who save.

But a halfling who has worked the same soil for decades, who knows the weather, the seasons, and the price of a bushel of potatoes—they are not scenery. They are the heart of the village. They are the quiet hands that keep the shire alive. They will shelter a fugitive, hide a stolen child, or stand in front of a bully with nothing but a shovel and a prayer. They are not warriors. But they are stubborn, and they will fight when the shire is threatened.

DM Essentials #109 gives you ten ways to make halfling commoners feel like the quiet backbone of their community. They are not quest-givers. They are the ones who stayed, who labour, and who will surprise you with their courage.

What's Inside?

The Commoner's World (Short Essay): Who they are, how they work, and why they are the last line of defence.

10 Encounters in the Fields and Cottages: Each one gives you a situation, the truth behind it, and a way for the players to respond.

- The Missing Stores – Someone is stealing from the winter stores. The thief is a desperate parent.
- The Vagrant – A commoner shelters a homeless traveller. The traveller is fleeing an abusive master.
- The Crop Blight – A field of dying plants. Hard work, not heroics, will save the harvest.
- The Debt Collector – A corrupt agent inflates a debt. The commoner needs proof.
- The Lost Child – A child runs into the woods. They ran away from abuse. The commoner knows.
- The Stranger's Wound – A deserter hides in a commoner's home. The commoner risks everything.
- The Well – Poisoned water, false accusations. A dead animal, not a feud.
- The Fire – A barn burns. Arson, not accident. Find the culprit.
- The Eviction – An illegal tax. A commoner leads the resistance, afraid and alone.
- The Harvest – An invitation to work the fields. Sweat, share bread, earn trust.

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

Who This Is For:

- DMs who want villages to feel alive and resilient, not just a backdrop
- Players who think farmers are pushovers until one picks up a shovel and stands in front of a bully
- Anyone who understands that the person who feeds the village is the most important person in it

ENTER THE ARCVERSE

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

The wheat is golden. The hearth is warm. The commoner is watching. Will you work beside them—or will you be another stranger passing through?

DM Essentials #108: 10 Halfling Kin-Keeper Encounters

In most games, halflings are cheerful, generous, and free of drama. They share meals, tell stories, and welcome strangers. Family is a comfort, not a battlefield.

But every halfling family has one: the relative who watches the silver, calculates the inheritance, and schemes to improve the family's standing. They are not evil—they are obsessed with status, property, and the appearance of respectability. They will lie, cheat, and manipulate to get what they want. They remember every slight, every unpaid debt, every whispered insult. Funerals are opportunities to claim heirlooms. Weddings are business deals. They are dangerous because they smile while they scheme.

DM Essentials #108 gives you ten ways to make halfling kin-keepers feel sharp, calculating, and quietly ruthless. They are not villains—they are neighbours. But they will ruin your reputation without a second thought.

What's Inside?

The Kin-Keeper's World (Short Essay): Who they are, what they want, and why family is politics.

10 Encounters in the Parlour and the Funeral Hall: Each one gives you a situation, the truth behind it, and a way for the players to respond.

- The Disputed Will – The named heir is a stranger. The kin-keeper needs the party to lie.
- The Missing Silver – A family heirloom, stolen. The kin-keeper took it themselves and framed a cousin.
- The Wedding Alliance – A marriage negotiated like a merger. The party is asked to witness.
- The Secret Debt – A grandmother's loan, inflated with interest. The debt passes to blood.
- The Rival Branch – Returnees claim a share of the farm. The kin-keeper wants the party to spy on them.
- The Adoption – A name and a place in the family—for a price. Loyalty expected.
- The Poisoned Ear – Whispered rumours, false accusations. The kin-keeper uses the party as a weapon.
- The Funeral – Loud grief, dry eyes. The kin-keeper wants to be named executor.
- The Black Sheep – An exile returns with proof of injustice. The kin-keeper arranged it.
- The Apology – The kin-keeper started a feud. Now they want the party to fix it quietly.

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

Who This Is For:

- DMs who want halfling society to have sharp edges
- Players who think family is safe until they meet a relative who sees them as a competitor
- Anyone who understands that the sweetest smile can hide the coldest calculation

ENTER THE ARCVERSE

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

They watch the will. They count the silver. They remember every debt. And they never forgive. Will you help them—or become their next target?

This volume of Traveller Vehicles contains nine new walker designs, all created for combat.

While walker vehicles suffer from undue complexity, their rough-terrain capability is only exceeded by flying vehicles, and under some environmental conditions, the walker is superior.

This volume contains the follwing walkers, along with a deck plan for the final one.|

Armed Utlilty Frame
Genshir Scout Unit
Gunhilde Gun Walker
Jaeger All-Terrain Hunter
Solomani A10 Gun Walker
Harpy Hybrid Walker/Grav Mech
Matador Medium Mech
Kraken Orbital Defence Cannon
Armadillo Multipede APC
Armadillo Deck Plan

The volume also includes three new pieces of walker equipment, and an illustration and details for the TL13 Perseus-class IBD-1201 Battledress.

The Heroes Forever Handbook 2nd Edition is the next in the line of rapidly expanded support books for the Heroes Forever 2nd Edition RPG. The 2nd Edition of the handbook expands on the first, bringing a standard book trim size (as opposed to the comic trim of the first edition) and incorporates character kits and other materials from additional 1st edition sourcebooks to make the 2nd Edition Handbook an even greater resource for getting your Heroes Forever characters hitting the ground running (or maybe flying...).

Become one of the Kits: Nymph, Aurea, Satyr, Firelord, Ice Maiden, Brick, Nephilim, Gorgon, Werewolf, Vampire or Sorcerer. Welcome to the New York Citybook. See the Freedom Alliance and their opposite, the Comptrollers. New "other" Hero and Villain teams, gangs and vigilantes. Get your first look at the Heroes Forever and lean what is happening in the rest of the world.

Banners Over Crownhold is a narrative wargame that focuses on the story and the action.

Players are not bogged down in hundreds of pages of rules to just run an attack. The rules

are sleek and simple but don’t sacrifice on the thrill of battle. The end game varies from

game to game to keep it fresh. Campaigns vary from Rescue the Queen to Capture the Flag

to Castle Raid to many other scenarios. If you want lighter rules but more action and story

then this is the game for you.

This is a custom character sheet I designed for use with games like White Box fantasy medieval adventure game, and the like.

It is a no-nonsense, quick-to-the-point, easy-to-use character sheet. Enjoy!

SKJALDBORG is a stunt list forged in the gritty, relentless reality of the Viking Age. This supplement focuses on warriors who survive through sheer grit rather than tales of invincible power. Built on the themes of the bloody shield wall and the crushing spray of the whale-road, these stunts are designed for characters standing unyielding in the heart of the slaughter.

Inside, you will find a curated selection of stunts categorized for ease of use at the table. Each stunt features a sequence of tags (Frequency, Cost, Action Type, Mechanical Effect, and Skill) to summarize mechanics instantly, keeping the action fast and the narrative flowing.

What’s Inside:

• Combat Stunts: From the devastating "Dane Axe Cleave" to the terrifying "Blood Eagle’s Shadow."
• Survival & Exploration: Navigate the treacherous "Whale-Road" or track rivals through "Blood on the Snow."
• Leadership & Honor: Command loyalty with "Aura of the Jarl" or bind your fate with an "Oath on the Arm-Ring."
• Seamless Integration: Designed specifically for Fate Condensed and compatible with Fate Core.

Don’t just survive the winter, conquer it. Stand with your kin, lock your shields, and let the skalds sing of your glory.