Shhhhhh!

Happy Halloween! It's a perfect time to introduce the first expansion book developed for Realm of Runes, the Tome of Whispers! Throughout the creation process for the core rules, there has always been some ideas that have been interesting, but are either too weird or too complicated to belong in the base rulebook. These sorts of concepts have found their home in the Tome of Whispers instead. This second book has an advantage in that its rules and concepts can assume a level of familiarity with the base rules that the core rules simply cannot. Although the same design principles pervade the Tome, many of its features add the sort of complexity that can take some getting used to.

This is where the a-la-carte structure of Realm of Runes really shines. Everything in the Tome of Whispers can be added into the game on an individual, case-by-case basis. Your group can start with just a couple of the additions that feel the most comfortable, leaving the rest until you're ready for them. And, because much of the Tome of Whispers has been developed in parallel with the core rules themselves, the expansion rules are designed to fit like a true extension of the system, rather than as something tacked on without consideration for how it affects the overall balance of the game.

But what's in the Tome of Whispers? It's an eclectic mix. There are several new ancestries, including base ancestries, hybrid ancestries, and a secret new type of composite ancestry which can stack with both of the other kinds! There's also several new classes of all types, magic and martial. Although none of the classes in the core rules require you to have a "pet," since animal companions are optional even for classes which stereotypically have them, two of the classes in the Tome are dedicated "pet" classes for which the player's little buddy is a core feature. All of the classes in the Tome are also set up with the Dedication Multiclassing options used in the core rules, allowing even pre-existing characters to add some flair from the Tome without requiring brand new characters to do so.

There are also a whole slew of variant game modes and mechanics. Some of these mechanics make combat more interesting and/or challenging. Some stretch the game rules to a larger scale, bringing army and naval combat into focus while maintaining care to ensure character abilities remain both relevant and important. Others are entire overhauls to the base assumptions of Realm of Runes, facilitating drastically different game experiences like low magic or horror! Finally, there are strange new items and spells to explore!

We'll dive more deeply into each of these facets of the Tome of Whispers more in future installments, since there's a lot to talk about with each one. In the mean time, however, next week we'll take a close look at one of the major updates for the Menagerie, so stay tuned!