Cosmere RPG Discussion

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

This topic is for discussing anything related to the Official Cosmere RPG, and all related materials. (like the Bridge 9 adventure, the Stonewalkers story, etc) There isn't likely to be a ton of chatter before the RPG releases, but this is the place to do so in the meantime. Later, once it releases, we may give the topic its own subforum to allow for more chatter, but we'll see when the time comes. 

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

This topic is for discussing anything related to the Official Cosmere RPG, and all related materials. (like the Bridge 9 adventure, the Stonewalkers story, etc) There isn't likely to be a ton of chatter before the RPG releases, but this is the place to do so in the meantime. Later, once it releases, we may give the topic its own subforum to allow for more chatter, but we'll see when the time comes. 

You rock, thank you. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

I thought I heard somewhere that the Cosmere RPG material, specifically Investiture uses, should be treated canonical for the books.

It this actually true, or another fanciful interpretation of my twisted psyche?

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

21 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

I thought I heard somewhere that the Cosmere RPG material, specifically Investiture uses, should be treated canonical for the books.

It this actually true, or another fanciful interpretation of my twisted psyche?

I do believe everything in the RPG material is to be considered canon, yes. (But don't quote me on that xD)

[RedBlue]

23 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

I thought I heard somewhere that the Cosmere RPG material, specifically Investiture uses, should be treated canonical for the books.

It this actually true, or another fanciful interpretation of my twisted psyche?

My understanding is that everything in the RPG is considered canon except for the dice-related stuff, stat-related stuff, and anything else with exact numbers. So, for example, the RPG will tell you exactly how many units of Investiture you need to fly a certain distance, but the exact number is not canonical.

[Argenti he/him]

13 hours ago, RedBlue said:

My understanding is that everything in the RPG is considered canon except for the dice-related stuff, stat-related stuff, and anything else with exact numbers. So, for example, the RPG will tell you exactly how many units of Investiture you need to fly a certain distance, but the exact number is not canonical.

And i'm also sure that, while it won't matter for a while, if the books and RPG conflict, the books trump the RPG.

[Jult]

I'm curious. Is anyone else out there already playing? I've got a group of 4 friends playing using the beta rules and Demiplane's beta character sheets. We started out with the Bridge 9 adventure and then continued with the same characters and some homebrew story from there.

[Trusk'our he/him]

2 hours ago, Jult said:

I'm curious. Is anyone else out there already playing? I've got a group of 4 friends playing using the beta rules and Demiplane's beta character sheets. We started out with the Bridge 9 adventure and then continued with the same characters and some homebrew story from there.

Not yet, but I hope to pre-order all three Scadrial books by the end of today.

Also, how is it? If you've played D&D, how does it compare?

[Jult]

On 4/25/2025 at 7:05 PM, Trusk'our said:

Not yet, but I hope to pre-order all three Scadrial books by the end of today.

Also, how is it? If you've played D&D, how does it compare?

It's very fun so far! I have a lot of D&D experience. Here's how I think they compare:

Note: the beta rules are very Roshar-specific. I imagine things will be genericized more in the official rules. 

Character creation: Instead of 'Classes', the Cosmere RPG uses 'Paths'. One really cool thing about Paths is that they're divided into two types 'Heroic Paths' and 'Radiant Paths'. Heroic Paths are things like 'Scholar' or 'Soldier' - normal person roles. You start with a level in one of the Heroic Paths and could just stay on that one path the whole time to become a crazy good Soldier. But eventually you'll get the option to multipath into one of the Radiant classes. I like this a lot compared to D&D's class system where I feel like you get very powerful very quickly. In this game, you have to walk before you can Windrun. 

Outside-of-combat:  this part of the experience is very similar to D&D. Instead of "Skill Checks", there are "Tests of Skill", but it's still rolling a D20 and adding a modifier based on your skills and proficiencies (although your main attributes are different from the 6 used in D&D and the skills that you can be proficient in are different as well). The special 'plot die' that the game includes does add a level of excitement compared to D&D. And there's a special resource called 'focus' that all characters get that can really help your players feel like they aren't entirely at the mercy of the dice. There are quite a few Path-specific skills that apply to conversations and NPC interactions that do a good job of encouraging player interaction and roleplay.

In-combat: This was the part that felt the most different from D&D to me. By a lot. We've only had a handful of combat instances so far in our campaign, and they were against low level enemies. But even in those simple fights, it felt very different from D&D. I think the combat probably has a higher learning curve than D&D's, but I also feel that (once everyone at the table has the hang of it) combat will be much more fast-paced and dramatic than D&D.

Overall, I think the game is great! For me, it feels like they used a lot of popular TTRPGs as a model and then improved upon them all. However, the one con that I can't get out of my head is that it does have a large barrier to entry for new players. I don't know that I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't read the books.. Unless you feel like giving several lectures on Realmatic Theory.

[ParaTulip fae/faer (declines as she/her)]

28 minutes ago, Jult said:

combat will be much more fast-paced and dramatic than D&D.

What other TTRPG would you compare it to? Are there wound penalties, shock, or critical injury tables? I tend to like games having one of those, since they make damage have interesting consequences instead of just grinding down HP.

[Jult]

5 minutes ago, ParaTulip said:

What other TTRPG would you compare it to? Are there wound penalties, shock, or critical injury tables? I tend to like games having one of those, since they make damage have interesting consequences instead of just grinding down HP.

The way Focus points work kind of reminds me of Blades in the Dark. And I can't help but think of Fate when I see the plot dice; although Fate uses them differently.

There are Injury tables. Just two as far as I recall (at least in the beta rules).

1. There's a physical one that you roll on whenever you hit 0HP (or if your GM decides you deserve an injury from some story event). Rolling high gives you a wound that lasts for a short time (a day is the minimum). Rolling low gives you a wound that lasts longer (or even permanently). When you roll on the injury table you subtract 5 from the roll for each of the existing injuries that you have. Rolling a negative 6 or lower just outright kills you so you really don't want to let injuries stack up.

2. There's also a spiritual one that I haven't had the opportunity to use yet. But it's primarily for things like Shardblade injuries. I think the main difference is that these can only be healed under special circumstances (i.e. some kind of Invested healing).

[Qianweilian He/him]

On 4/27/2025 at 1:12 AM, Jult said:

One really cool thing about Paths is that they're divided into two types 'Heroic Paths' and 'Radiant Paths'.

I suspect when we get the full rules including Scadrial and the others, we'll get something like 'Heroic/Normal Paths' and 'Invested Paths.'

[Jult]

40 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

I suspect when we get the full rules including Scadrial and the others, we'll get something like 'Heroic/Normal Paths' and 'Invested Paths.'

Most likely, yes. Or they'll maybe just add more groupings of Paths. So, you'd still have your base Heroic Path and then, in addition to a Radiant Path, you would also have options of Allomantic Paths, Feruchemical Paths, Hemalurgical Paths, Selish Paths, Nalthian Paths, etc.

Man... that's a lot of potential combinations.

 

[Qianweilian He/him]

Cosmere multiclassing sounds fun. Do we know if you can take multiple heroic or radiant paths?

Edited June 9, 2025 by Qianweilian

[Jult]

On 6/9/2025 at 10:32 AM, Qianweilian said:

Cosmere multiclassing sounds fun. Do we know if you can take multiple heroic or radiant paths?

You can. Whenever your character levels up, you receive 1 'Talent Point'. You can spend this point to advance in a Path that you've already taken or branch out into a new Path. As far as I know, there is no limit to this. I just messed around in Demiplane's character creator to see if they had any restrictions in the beta, and I was able to create a level 6 Horneater with 2 points in the Warrior path, 1 in Agent, 1 in Scholar, 1 in Windrunner, and 1 in Lightweaver. And it doesn't seem to have broken anything.

Side note, (and again this is more from me playing with the character creator than anything I see in the rulebook), there does appear to be a level cap of 50.

[RedBlue]

On 6/9/2025 at 3:32 PM, Qianweilian said:

Cosmere multiclassing sounds fun. Do we know if you can take multiple heroic or radiant paths?

From the look of the beta rules, multiclassing is encouraged and more powerful than in D&D.

Players are encouraged to progress on paths that are relevant to the skills they’ve been using during gameplay, and gaining levels on certain paths are conditional on meeting specific goals during gameplay (you have to attract a spren, bond it, and do the oaths thing for a Radiant path, for example).

[Jult]

On 6/13/2025 at 7:54 PM, RedBlue said:

From the look of the beta rules, multiclassing is encouraged and more powerful than in D&D.

Players are encouraged to progress on paths that are relevant to the skills they’ve been using during gameplay, and gaining levels on certain paths are conditional on meeting specific goals during gameplay (you have to attract a spren, bond it, and do the oaths thing for a Radiant path, for example).

Also worth noting: if the level cap is really 50 as I said above. Most (probably all, but I didn't check exhaustively) Paths only have 24 talents in them. So, you are essentially required to multipath (i.e. even if you've stubbornly stuck to only advancing your Soldier path with your first 24 points, your 25th Talent Point is going to have to go towards a new path).

[Erremin]

On 4/26/2025 at 1:05 AM, Trusk'our said:

Also, how is it? If you've played D&D, how does it compare?

I've played Bridge Nine, a custom oneshot and am now prepping a campaign. It compares pretty well to DnD, in that if you are familiar with DnD, it'll be easy to learn. I do think it handles a lot of things better, such as injuries, combat (I love the initiative system) and how things like endeavors are written out. A lot of things like that you could do in DnD, but that would require homebrew. 

I also love the paths, as they give much more flexibility (and probably replayability) than traditional classes do. 

[DSCrankshaw]

I know they've (my recollection includes Brandon himself) said that it's canon, including the Stonewalkers adventure being an accurate account of what happened to Taln's Honorblade, although the details of who was involved and exactly what they did being dependent on the players. That said, the gameplay mechanics shouldn't be taken as canon, but things like the Worldbook are supposed to be a good resource for non game players who wish to know about the Roshar.

[Jult]

Seeing as the digital release for the Stormlight Handbook, World Guide, and the Stonewalkers adventure is tomorrow, is there consensus on how to handle posting information from the game? I assume all plot-relevant details (like the entire Stonewalkers story) should be spoiler tagged. But we should also be learning a huge amount of information about the Radiant system.

For example, we'll likely learn:

• The Ideals for each type of Radiant (we've already seen previews for several)
• The unique resonance trait for each Order
• Previously unknown powers and abilities for the Orders that we're covered in the Novels

There's also likely to be interesting information in the World Guide about certain characters, locations, and creatures that aren't detailed in the novels.

I'm guessing these will all receive the Spoiler treatment when the game first launches. Will this Spoiler policy be subject to the same time constraints as the novels?

[Argenti he/him]

I feel like Stonewalkers (the story) should have a regular spoiler period, while the "lore" per se, from outside the story should have some sort of reduced period.

[Chaos he/him]

Guidance will be posted on this today, thanks for the reminder.

[Chaos he/him]

I've moved this topic to a new Brandon Games board. See 

 for spoiler details.

Stonewalkers will be consumed very slowly, so we are providing a space sequestered from the Stormlight board for discussion, and will be tagged basically forever. We may revise this as things proceed.

[Rinion]

Hello!

I got my retailer copies of the books and of course purchased one for myself. The system seem great so far and I cant wait to play my groups 2nd session this Saturday. I do have one glaring issue though. Travel speeds.

The handbooks only entry I can find on the subject is that Mounts and Vehicles have a listed travel speed, so it exists. Unfortunately the one page of Travel information stop there.

So what is the travel speed of a party on foot? Is it based off their average movement speed? like Hexploration in PF2e? Is it based on the pace they set for the day like dnd 5e?

What happens when you throw gravitation into the mix?  I have no idea. Wish I did but the base rules to fall back on just aren't there.

Anyway, I hope this is something we can get an official ruling on and not the tone of the system going forward.  The more clear concise rules a DM has to work with the better. Its easier to run games when you don't have to invent half the rules yourself.

 

I already kind of have a home-brew work around but again an official ruling would be awesome!

(on that note do Brother Wise cosmere RPG developers even participate here? boy I sure hope so as their own website has no forums)

 

Thanks for any feedback in advance!

Edited November 13, 2025 by Rinion

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

2 hours ago, Rinion said:

(on that note do Brother Wise cosmere RPG developers even participate here? boy I sure hope so as their own website has no forums)

 

I don't believe so, but I'd recommend checking out the Cosmere RPG discord. There are lots of experienced players/GMs there who might have better answers/advice for you