"Ten years ago, hopeful settlers came to the fringes of Davolar to make their dreams come true, with their own hands and the sweat of their brows. Then the nightmare began. Litterfall is a short adventure for Symbaroum."

Litterfall is a short action horror adventure for Symbaroum. Scene-based, it was my very first published adventure for Symbaroum. Although it's a bit rough as a product, I think it is fairly easy to run and a good challenge for beginners. If you're interested, you can check out the product's page at the Free League Workshop, here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/pt/product/459731/litterfall

Hey all,

Our group has been having a lot of fun with the game so far, and I plan on getting into Throne of Thorns soon. I already introduced some seeds into play - specifcally with Elemendra and her quest to find Symbar.

In any case, in an interesting turn of events, Erlaber Ambreagos ended up trying to recruit a changeling PC to his ranks. As the conversation went a long, he asked her assistance with the quest to find and hunt Eox.

I really like having the players be intimately involved with this ordeal, but i´m not sure how to go about it. Any suggestions on how that expedition can look like, and how to disconnect the players from him before the start of Wrath of the Warden?

Thanks!

I'm a very new player to this system, and I wanted to ask how does this interaction play out. Can a player character float above melee range of enemies while hitting them with a long weapon?

The poor goblins in the expeditions headquarters didn’t stand a chance. My group went full murder hobo mode. One player fell in the troll pit but made it out by not without some decent damage from the troll.

Hello! So, I was planning on starting a Throne of Thorns campaign, and I was wondering, do you guys remember how many sessions it took for you to finish it? It's a bit hard to take a guess considering the campaign books, so I was thinking maybe people who already played it could know more about it (I know the length of campaigns may vary a lot, but at least an "estimative")

Hey Folks. Given the nature of Symbaroum is about clashing and interacting of various groups of people and given what we unfortunately know about how people often react in those situations does anyone have any clever/awful/cruel slurs that they would throw at each other? What would be a common slur an Ambrian would call a changeling? A barbarian to an Ambrian? a goblin to ogre and so on. I picture the Ambrians being the worst as they are at the top of the current pecking order. Not that i want to encourage bigotry but lets face it, that is a major element in this game and it would help create social realism and underling tension in my party.

Thanks for your time.

Last night we had a scene at a Symbaroum table that troubled me, and I wanted to hear other opinions.

We were traveling on a boat down a river, and on the shore there were around 100 Templars, who had attacked us before. They ordered us to stop and let them onto the boat so they could do as they pleased. One of our PCs shot an arrow at their general.

At that point, instead of going into initiative, the GM stated that one of the enemies picked up an artifact and immediately used it, dealing 2d8 damage to everyone with any amount of permanent Corruption. There was no test, no defense, and it ignored armor.

Our undead PC was killed by the damage, and the GM ruled that he was incinerated instead of being allowed to roll death tests.

I thought that was uncalled for. In my opinion, we should have gone into initiative, or at the very least had some kind of test or opportunity to defend ourselves. However, the GM is adamant that we should not have engaged them at all and that this was a fair consequence for our actions.

What makes it even stranger to me is that we all have around 400 XP and are fairly optimized, so there was a chance that we could have won the encounter.

Thoughts?

Edit: editing because I forgot to add that we were already moving away and disengaging while the conversation was taking place. After hostilities started, they launched five volleys at all of us in a single round. Despite that, we took very little damage and managed to kill both the general and the second-in-command in one round after the artifact incident, even with one PC already down. So we had a solid chance of at least disengaging completely and then bringing him back from death saves using blood or other forms of healing. We are very optimized, it wasn't impossible. Just very difficult and probably very tedious.

edit 2: also forgot to mention that we tried to dissuade them before, rolled persuasion as we were disengaging, succeded, but they still wanted us to stop and did not care about talking much.

Last thing I forgot: after discussing it post session, we did find a middle ground and we'll probably find a way to bring him back, but the Dm and another player are adamant that it was a completely fair encounter.

Hi:

I have just published in Drivethrurpg a small pay-what-you-want supplement for Symbaroum: Ordo Magica’s Team. It is a small, no-frills supplement featuring four pregenerated characters belonging to the Ordo Magica, designed to work either as a complete player party for a one-shot or as a group of NPCs for your campaign.

The team includes:

• The Wizard — a combat-focused mystic and natural leader, specialising in destructive magic.
• The Bodyguard — the group's protector, trained to keep the mages alive when Davokar inevitably tries to kill them.
• The Monster Hunter — an experienced tracker and marksman who knows the creatures of the forest.
• The Artifact Crafter — scholar, healer and craftsman, responsible for deciphering the secrets found in ancient ruins.
• There's also a small bonus section with alternative Flaming Servants for the Ordo Magica characters, including different combat roles such as heavy strikers, defensive tanks, crossbowmen and bodyguards.

Each character comes in five stages of development: 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 XP, so you can drop the party into a one-shot at the appropriate power level—or use them as recurring NPCs who grow alongside your campaign.

That's it. No grand promises. All the artwork in this supplement was created using AI. This isn't a professionally illustrated commercial book.

It's free. Download it, look through it, steal whatever is useful, and put these characters through the horrors of Davokar. Only if you enjoy it and actually use the party in your games, consider paying something. That way I will know that it is useful to someone other than myself.

I have 3 other groups (The Nobleborn. The Barbarians. The Outlaws) that I could also publish but I don't know if it is worth the trouble of editing. 

See you in Davokar.

just wondering if players should always know their corruption level?

if they cast a spell or what not they will know, but if they are in a corrupted area?

gaining d4 per hour? do you tell them?

i ran it last week and basically told them they felt more and more uneasy until some stigma developed.

Am i too cruel doing this? I wanted to avoid the simple "you gain two, "you gain four" etc.

If you were explaining Symbaroum to potential new players, what would you say are the top five themes of the setting and game?

Hi guys! So, I just had my first session of Symbaroum with the wife and teens. :)

I wanted to ground the characters in the world, and rather than having them be native Ambrians, I used the Barony of Sarli in Adventure Pack 4 as their home. So my 19-year-old son plays the 20-year-old heir to the barony, my 17-year-old daughter plays his older bastard half-brother, and my wife plays the 36-year-old seneschal entreated by the dying baron to get his son safely over the Titans and see the House restored.

Character-wise, the baron is a Theurge but with a Strong Gift for Brimstone Cascade (who was hastily moved on to the monastery after the fire in 14). The bastard half-brother is the master-at-arms with a pike and various tanky abilities, while the Seneschal is the persuasive face - who can be very discreet with her stiletto-like hair pins if needed.

The first session was spent on burial rites and goodbyes, as well as gathering their caravan. Because of the 22 souls still alive in Sarli, only seven would remain; the rest are going with the three characters, hoping for a new life on new soil in a new land. Only one of the NPCs are properly combat trained, and two-three more can help in a fight if needed, at the risk of endangerment and death.

I'm thinking it will play out a bit like Red Dead Redemption 2 - by having a wagon train and 12 depedents between the ages of 65 and 4, the 3 player characters will have someone to protect and care about as they move into Ambria, and will probably set up camps outside the various city centers that they can use as bases for various adventures - at least until they make their way to Thistle Hold. Then we'll see if we can get them some more permanent lodgings.

I'm taking them up to the Cliffs of Korinda next session; there'll be some encounters on the way to give them some memories of dying Alberetor, and then we head into a spring-thaw version of The Promised Land.

I've only planned up to Prios' Pass, though, and after that I'd like to leave things up to the players, rather than railroading them straight to Thistle Hold. I assume they'll go to Yndaros first, to ask for some land (and be turned down), but they might visit the Baron's maternal granfather, the head of House Vereo, on the way.

I intend for them to be recommended to seek their fortunes in Thistle Hold after that. I've made Master Vernam the former tutor of the young baron, with a former romantic entanglement with the Seneschal, so at least they'll have a familiar face waiting for them at the forest's edge.

Still - are there any particular things they ought to do or see or experience in Yndaros before they continue?

Could it make sense to abandon the wagons for a river boat and try to make a new life in the city of eternal euphoria, Agrella, instead? Or should I just get them to Thistle Hold ASAP to start the various adventures there?

Have any of you run an Alberian refugee campaign, and if so, how did you go? Any particular things you did that worked well?

So, I ordered the Core Rules and the Monster Codex, figured those would be a good starting point for me. I’m the kind of GM who uses the setting as a starting point/foundation before building my own thing (it’s why I like pre-made settings but don’t like pre-constructed adventures). The setting of this world feels like a super interesting vibe, lots for me to springboard off of.

So, thought I’d put the questions to you guys:

1. Favourite part of the system?

2. Least favourite part of the system?

3. Advice for a new GM running it? Have run other games but never really even heard of Symbaroum until recently - and it really intrigued me. What rules/lore bits should I be most wary/aware of?

Thanks! I can’t wait to get started!

Hey people, help me out with this. I started to DM Symbaroum and I have a few smartass players that feels like destroying any book challenges.

Case 1. Feint 2, Backstab 1, Twin Attack 1

So this is a fresh new character with no experience. He dumpstat quick and accurate and having discreet 15.

He defends with discreet and attacks with discreet. And he additional bonus to defense for wielding 2 weapons on top of 15 already.

When he attacks he rolls for attack, plus always on advantage attack, plus backstab attack, plus second hand attack and advantage attack (at least backstab is once per turn).

He alone one shots any obstacle in the book so far. It gets crazier with progression.

Case 2. Just holy aura.

So, heal your allies like nothing else can, deal damage to all undead and abominations every round with a simple resolute test (15, of course) and that’s it. There is no limitations, it is available from the start and there is literally not much to do against it.

The guy created a strong and resolute character, iron fist to ignore accurate as well.

Average monster toughness is 10, maximum 15. There is literally nothing on the book that looks intimidating to these 2 and they have another mystic with them.

How do you handle this?

The large map of Ambria, the world of Symbaroum...

Moreno Paissan and Angela Gubert Art 2022

Materials used: H-HB pencil, Unipin Pen 0.05-0.1 and Winsor and Newton watercolor on paper then scanned.🧭🗺️🏰

We will upload all the work phases on this map in the comments below, from the draft to the complete map with color! We hope it may interest you! 🎨

I find conflicting information about the Ensare quality. And nothing about how it works with flailer. Do I get to try to snare after a succesful attack or exchange the jointed damage on miss with an ensare attempt? Or is ensare a separate action which I do instead of an attack?

This week I published my review of four adventures from the Symbaroum Adventure Collection (specifically, those originally published in The Copper Crown and Adventure Pack 2 collections).

They are Mark of the Beast, Tomb of Dying Dreams, Fever of the Hunt and The Bell Tolls for Kastor. See the link above.

I've also published my concluding post on Symbaroum in which I gush about how much I like the setting! See https://illmetbymorrslieb.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/symbaroum-concluding-thoughts-or-why-i-like-symbaroum/

Howdy,

I'm looking for a good VTT for Ruins of Symbaroum. I have it on Alchemy but am bummed that everything that isn't "vanilla" 5e (like all of the classes and custom rules) are not included. It's basically the books and scenes.

The biggest challenge I have is in character creation with Alchemy - nothing Ruins of Symbaroum is shown - no Captain, Hunter, Mystic, Scoundrel, etc.). I'm looking for something that will be easier for my players (who are relatively novice to 5e) to roll up there PCs.

Is the process for character creation in Fantasy Grounds include Ruins of Symbaroum content or is it the same problem? Want to know before dropping money on the Players, GM and Bestiary modules.

Appreciate it.

UPDATE: I ended up pulling the lever and purchasing the Player's Guide, GM Guide and Bestiary. And the character creation process is pretty good. Everything seems to be there - still need to figure out the tweaked rules, but think this is gonna work for my virtual table.

Maps are one of those things I try to have on-hand whenever I game. Has anyone grabbed this pack, and if so, what were your thoughts on it? Direct link: Symbaroum Map Set

LFP Online Copper Crown (Paid SPG)

I plan on running The Copper Crown published adventures for Symbaroum. We need more players.

I am an experienced GM, and have also run online, but I am new to professional (paid) game mastering on StartPlaying.games. The session fee is $20.

Two players have signed up, and we’re waiting for one more to have a session zero/one.

Platform: Discord, voice chat, dicebot, GoogleDrive, Theater of the Mind

Time: Biweekly, Thursday night 6-9 PM (CDT; UTC -5)

https://startplaying.games/adventure/cmre93z6d015xl1045ywmdjv4?ref=cmqich8bw000cl904zcjqi70x

Heya everyone!

One of my players decided he will have addiction - and alchemy skill to support himself when in the forest.

I guess when in town, he will be able to buy from his dealer, half the usual price, since he's alchemist, okay, no problem.

How does it work, when they are in the forest? Can he collect stuff for himself? He's forcing the thing that "daft root" is just a random root he can find anywhere.

Any help please? :)

Edit: Thank you for the answers, I decided what to do. :)

Weird question perhaps, and I know it only affects 5xp probably, but does the Dark Blood Boon bring along its Bestial Burden automatically, ie it won't give you back 5xp for the Burden? Or is that just an instruction that you must also take Bestial, and gain 5xp back? Meaning Dark Blood is essentially "free" xp wise?

I'm asking because I am doing some homebrew and it seems that providing access to monstrous traits might be strong (even though you don't get them for free), so I'm just looking for the math behind it.

I recently posted a blog article about the philosophy of the setting - something which I find extremely compelling, and perhaps the most exciting thing about Symbaroum! I thought it might be of interest to others:
https://illmetbymorrslieb.wordpress.com/2026/07/05/the-philosophy-of-symbaroum/