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Trespasser is a d20-based roleplaying game about common folk becoming adventurers amid the ruins of their fallen land. It is designed for player-driven, sandbox-style campaigns of base building, survival, dungeon crawling, and perilous tactical combat.

Players take on the roles of trespassers, those who have rejected the lives of squalor and fear they've been handed by the powers that rule their world. It is their mission to explore dungeons, slay monsters, and use their power and treasure to build a prosperous haven in defiance of their wicked Overlords.

Inspirations: D&D 4E, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Darkest Dungeon, Dark Souls, Divinity: Original Sin II, Strike! RPG, The Black Hack, Cairn, 13th Age, Shadow of the Demon Lord

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modern tactical combat

Combat is designed for player engagement, emphasizing party coordination and emergent tactical situations.

  • A unique initiative system speeds things up and gives players partial control over the flow of the battle.
  • peril system announces how aggressive the enemies will be each round, giving players a chance to strategize.
  • An active armor system turns your armor and magic items into a toolbox of valuable effects instead of bonuses you set and forget about.
  • tenacity system lets players keep fighting at the edge of death instead of twiddling their thumbs until the battle is over.
  • wide variety of combat abilities alter the battlefield, leaving behind clouds of smoke and lasting obstacles.
  • morale system ends fights quickly so the party can skip the clean-up.
  • A retreat system lets enemies be dangerous, but gives players control of whether to a press a fight toward its end or cut and run (but not for free, of course).

procedural gameplay

Trespasser offers a unified procedural experience that builds tension and makes the passage of time meaningful. Rather than vacillate between crunchy combat and hand-wavey everything else, play flows naturally between four frames, each governed by its own procedure: combat, dungeon exploration, travel, and haven management. Each procedure uses a system of actions and rounds on increasingly larger time scales. Together, they encourage an old-school gameplay loop of expeditions, mounting tension, and venturing back to safety for downtime and basebuilding.

Though each relates to the others, procedures are largely modular, meaning you can remove the elements you don't like without breaking the whole machine, or swap the parts you like into a different system with minimal hassle. Sculpt the type of game that you want to play. 

engaging base building

The characters will quickly establish their haven, a shared asset and refuge from the threats of their fallen realm. Though it will start as little more than a campground, their haven will grow into a prosperous settlement throughout the campaign, an engine that can provide useful services, supplies and equipment for the party with minimal bookkeeping. Random arrival and event tables illustrate the world and ensure that the haven only becomes more interesting, colorful, and relevant as the campaign proceeds. In time, players can create their own strongholds in and around the haven to unlock permanent bonuses.

emergent characters

You don't get to choose where you came from, but you do get to choose who you become. Start with a semi-random character and sculpt them in the course of play. Select a calling that represents the adventurer you aspire to become and choose adventuring crafts to define your skill set, arriving at a unique concept over time. Grow into a thief that harnesses blood magic, a knight that commands the power of the storm, or a diabolist that fights with a blade alongside their demon.

what's included

Playtest Version v2 includes the following:

  • A complete ruleset ruleset for running open-world, sandbox style games of base building, survival, dungeon crawling, and tactical combat.
  • Character sheets and other materials.
  • Table reference document and five premade characters.
  • The Laughing Hound, a sample First Day adventure.

donate

Please consider throwing a few bucks my way if you are able; every little bit helps keep the project going! Any money you contribute will be fully invested back into the game. That will happen in the form of more original art, professional layout, and VTT support, all of which I want to pay people for. Trespasser does not and will never have AI-generated art.

community

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Leave a comment below or join the Trespasser RPG Discord. Thank you so much for checking out my fantasy heartbreaker! :)

patreon

Shortly after the launch of v2, I plan to launch a Patreon, where I'll be creating more content for the game on a regular basis, including enemies, dungeons, and more. Patreon revenue will also be fully invested back into the project and help pave the way for an eventual print run.


Updated 6 days ago
StatusIn development
CategoryPhysical game
Release date Feb 22, 2022
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(52 total ratings)
Authortundalus
GenreRole Playing
TagsClasses, Co-op, Fantasy, pen-and-paper, Tabletop, Tactical, Tactical RPG, Tabletop role-playing game
Average sessionA few hours
LanguagesEnglish

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

Trespasser v2.0.3 47 MB

Development log

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Comments

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(+2)

"Dark fantasy D&D 4e" has me obsessed; right up my alley. I've been running 4e weekly for over a year now, and this addresses a lot of the little stumbling blocks I've experienced with it.

I love what this game is offering. I've been reading through the pdf over the last few days, and my friend and I tried it out on a whim today, which admittedly was not the best way to see the game in motion for the first time, but I definitely could see myself playing and running more of this.

One major mechanical question that came up: a character can only attempt one deed per turn, but the Wait action ends your turn and lets you take a second turn in the late phase of the combat round. Does that mean you can use a deed in the early phase, Wait, then use another deed during your secondary turn in the late phase? My instinct was that wasn't the intended interaction, but as-written that does seem like a valid strategy.

Thank you for checking out the game and for pointing this out- that definitely needs a clarification! Rules as intended, you are only meant to attempt one deed per turn; the Wait action is meant to let you put your turn 'on hold' and then finish it in the late phase, not grant you another turn- the language of that action is currently misleading! I'll try to catch it in the next update.

(+1)

Makes sense! Thanks for the response!

(+1)

Hello. I've been reading the book and I must honestly say it is the first OSR game I'm excited to play. Our monday gaming group may in fact play the new 2.0 edition as our next campaign in week after next. I'm hoping to play Earth Craft using Conjurer, since messing with obstacles and breaking them for a blast sounds very fun, and terrain manipulation is good control thing.


I would however like to mention that at few places the calling names are wrong. On Page 88 the table lists "magician" instead of "conjuror", and page 109 has "improve core features as a brigand" despite the calling being marauder. These are very minor things, but I figured I mention them in case such may be of help.

Hello! There is a patch coming tomorrow that will address a lot of the typos and inconsistencies, so I recommend you redownload the PDFs after that! 

Thanks very much for checking it out, and I hope you and your group enjoy it! 

Huge fan of the original, excited to see all the new changes!


Are the interior artists credited anywhere, or is this all just good stock art?

(+2)

Aaron Lawrance is responsible for the cover art and some interior pieces (the Marauder, the knight at the start of the Callings chapter). The rest is public domain art.

(+2)

Some pieces are my edits or variations on public domain pieces. AI was not used in any capacity. 

I'll join the others here in celebrating 2.0, really glad to see an update - and it's huge, too!

(+1)

Hey! I wanted to ask a question about the first day. When the players are controlling multiple characters, are you supposed to bring all those characters into combat when it occurs?

That seems to be the intent, just making sure I don't accidentally run a combat that's way more complex than it's supposed to be.

Hi, there are actually a couple pages about running the First Day that I forgot to put back in. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I will add them to the document in the next hotfix!

In general, if players are running multiple characters, they do bring all of them into combat and control all of them. Level ones can only make weapon attacks and take default actions, so it gives everyone a chance to practice using the fundamentals of the game before the other layers of complexity kick in. 

(+3)

This is the first TTRPG thing I've ever bought. I love this idea. And this line, "You don't get to choose where you came from, but you do get to choose who you become." As a person who changed their careers, from journalist/photographer to truck driver/logistics, I get this line.

Kudos to you- I've also moved between career paths before, and I've worked in logistics too! I'm glad the game spoke to you, and thank you for the post!

(+1)

Just found out about this, and I'm loving it! Nice work!
I might've found a typo on page 8:

(Don't be afraid to try and 'win' at this game: after all, your character is trying to 'win' by staying alive and going after when they want.)

Thank you! There will be a small hot fix tomorrow to address the typos, so you may need to redownload your PDF :)

Drat I forgot this one XD

Congrats on 2.0!

Thank you! Long time coming, feels good to share it. 

(+1)

Amazing work, tundalus. Congrats for the 2.0 release.

(+1)

I wrote a review of Trespasser. Played in a ~30 session campaign of it last year. 

TL;DR is that it's a fun game! I recommend it if you want a tactical fantasy RPG. 

Link to review:

https://boxman214.bearblog.dev/a-review-of-the-trespasser-ttrpg/

(+1)

Thank you so much for your review! I really appreciate your feedback and hope you will get a chance to check out the new version, coming soon!

(+1)

Also, the cage of talking firebats on a stick is amazing 🔥 sounds like a fun campaign 

(+1)

this looks incredible, I love the idea of a game that straddles two of my favorite (and seemingly contradictory) styles of play!

(+2)

Contradictory, definitely! Two great tastes that go questionably together. It's a wacky experiment and I never expected it to find an audience, but I'm happy to learn there are others like me! New version is coming soon, keep an eye out :) 

(+2)

!!

(+1)

Hey tundalus! I saw you mentioned an update coming a few posts back. Is there any update on that? The excitement is killing me!

(+4)

Yeah actually my life situation changed big time over the summer, and I've had time to work on it steadily. Playtest Version 2.0 will be a big overhaul of core systems. It will retain use of the d20, but attributes, skills, fatigue, effort and other derived stats are all being retooled. There are full procedural rules now for governing the four timeframes of play (combat, dungeon exploration, travel/camping, and stronghold turns). The combat system has been reworked in a number of important ways, too, with a three-action system to clarify and simplify turns, a new peril system to create escalating tension in combat, reworked conditions to speed the game up, and a lot more. 

I'm most excited for the introduction of Sparks and Shadows, effects that illustrate check successes and failures to give players and the Judge more narrative control and variability than simple pass/fail or success/great success/crit success. It's a simple system, but elegant, and the people I've tried it with like it a lot. 

In general, the game is moving away from "Old School/New School Smashed Together," and more toward a "Old School Playstyle/New School Mechanics" arrangement, dispensing with a lot of nostalgic but ultimately ineffective nods to the past (like score/modifier, for example).

(+1)

This sounds dope @tundalus! Looking forward to it.

(+1)

This sounds incredible, I truly can't wait. You got an idea of a timeframe of when we can expect this goodness? Or is it still to far off to make such judgements?

(+4)

By the end of the year, hopefully! So I can say merry Tres-mas in my post.

(+1)

Just stumbled across this and I'm loving everything about it so far, hope to play it very soon! Would love to see a full release. c:

(+1)

This was a very pleasant surprise to find, and it's gonna be our go-to for an upcoming campaign; wish you luck with that next update

(+4)

Hi! Is the game no longer under development? It looks really awesome I'd love to see it finished, just wondering what's been happening since we haven't gotten an update in a year!

(+2)

Seconded!

(+10)

Hello! Sorry for the late reply. Yes the game is still being worked on, though I do operate on ADHD time. 😁 All the recent events tactical ttrpg world have lit a fire in me to get the next update out soon, and it will be a big one!

(1 edit) (+4)

Looks really quite cool. Upon reading it further it would be great if there was an expansion covering solo or co-op.

(+1)

Hi,

In the peasant generator, the lineages provide some bonuses to stats. However, in the book, I can't find these bonuses listed anywhere. Do lineages actually provide bonuses?

(+1)

They don't, the bonuses were removed in 1.2

(+3)

This looks like an awesome game.  Any idea when you will have the monster entries complete, or at least the formula for creating your own monsters?

(+3)

Hi! Monster creation guidelines will be added in the next update, v1.21, coming very soon! There will also be a few more monsters added  

hiya! had one more question on the rules of this game:


Can peasants take opportunity attacks or use manuevers?

(+1)

Hi Morgan! Thanks for asking- peasants can do both of those things! The new versions mentions maneuvers but fails to specify the opportunity attacks, so thanks for bringing that to my attention!

(+1)

really love this game!! the combat and rules seem so clean, and the vibes are so great! a mix of old school gritty with new school streamlined design :D


one question - for actions with Melee/Conjury, do they require BOTH a conjury item and a melee weapon? Or just one of them? Saw a few in the Blood and Earth themes like thay.

(+1)

Thanks for asking and for checking out the game! :) To use an action, you must be wielding an implement with a matching keyword. So Melee/Conjury actions could be used as either a melee action with a melee weapon, or a conjury action with a conjury weapon. To improve clarity, the language is being revised in the next version to "Melee or Conjury."

(+2)

Really solid

(+2)

Great!

(+3)

Looking solid so far.  I really like the alignment system.  Don't recall seeing anything quite like it.  So much more nuanced than straight good and evil

Deleted 2 years ago
(+2)

Great project!

(+1)

Thank you! There's still a long way to go, but I'm getting lots of great feedback.

(+1)

I'm really liking the rules, eager to try this with my party. One piece of feedback I'd like to give is that the font used for headers looks awesomely stylish but is also hard to read, so looking quickly for a header is not very easy.

i get what you mean- the PDFs are bookmarked if that helps at all!

(+2)

This game looks incredible, and I can't wait to play it. The only thing I could see that might be an issue with this game in terms of how my table does things is the initiative system. I usually like games that alternate sides instead of having all units on a side go in a single phase. But that's really just a small nitpick, because I think this is a great ruleset for getting some of the OSR-inspired dungeon crawler vibe into a streamlined tactical experience. 

thank you so much! maybe you can homebrew your own initiative system. it would be a little tricky, because the structure of the combat round ties into a couple other systems, like Peril, but I bet you could make it work. If you do, I'd love to see it!

(+2)

This is a great looking ruleset. Layout is really clean too. Would love to see a VTT implementation down the road. Good work.

Thanks for giving it a look- yeah VTT is something I have no experience with, but I'm eager to learn, it seems like a must for a game like this!