The Lost Citadel: 5e Heroes Against the Dead, at the End of the World

Seven decades ago, there were cities upon cities; kingdoms and nations, the remains of ancient empire. Cultures at war, cultures at trade. Races with varying degrees of alliance and distrust. Humans, elves, dwarves, and others; magic and monsters, rare but real. Regions of desolation, certainly, but also regions of plenty; forests, farmlands, and fields. And so it was for millennia, through two dynamic ages the lorekeepers and scribes called Ascensions.

Until the world ended. Most call it the Fall, but whatever term a given people choose to use, it marked the point where everything—everything—changed.

The Lost Citadel RPG for 5th edition, available now!

Art by Todd Lockwood

Today, we present The Lost Citadel Roleplaying Game, a supplement for Fifth Edition that takes you to Zileska, a world claimed by the undead—or simply the Dead, as they’re called in Redoubt, the last city in the world, where the survivors of the Dead’s rise, and of the corruption of magic, wall themselves away from the tide of the damned. But in the world of the Lost Citadel, anyone may rise again, as their own Woe, or spiritual corruption, reanimates their expired flesh.

Although it requires the DMG and PHB (the MM is also helpful), The Lost Citadel  is more than a bolt-on undead apocalypse setting for 5e. We present a tailor-made world and experience within the 5e engine, with its own distinct rules for character types, magic and more, including the following:

  • Original character races, and new takes on traditional races for 5e, from the flesh-eating ghul to elves whose souls have been ravaged by the fall of magic.
  • New and modified character classes for the world of Zileska, including the Penitent, whose powers eradicate corpse-animating Woe, the Sage who rediscovers secrets from the fallen world, and the Warrior Monk, a spiritual street fighter who abjures the internal magic of their ancestors for the pragmatic arts of war.
  • A new system for martial arts that allows practitioners to exploit opportunities in combat for devastating effects—and which goes beyond traditional fighting arts stereotypes. Confound your foes with the Beggar’s Crook style, or become the ultimate armored combatant by mastering the Jewelled Cannon.
  • The magic of Zileska, where practitioners must choose between slow, safe rituals, or swift spells that summon Woe, a pervasive force of corruption that rose with the Dead.
  • A detailed urban setting featuring numerous cultures, faiths, and customs which adventurers must navigate as carefully as any dungeon.
  • And of course, the Dead, from rotting Ramblers to the secret intelligences behind hordes and infiltrators.
  • New magic items, equipment and more—it’s a full color 304 page book. Take a look at the table of contents here.

The Lost Citadel is the offspring of a successful Kickstarter, and in turn is based on the successful shared world fiction project, also available through Green Ronin. You can get it at the Green Ronin Online Store or through DrivethruRPG now!

NOTE: While we are absolutely producing full color, traditionally printed hardcovers, due to COVID-19 industry issues (see this post) we cannot guarantee a specific printing or shipping date for physical editions of this book. Therefore, we’re only offering the PDF at this time.

Kickstarter Backers: Assuming your backer tier entitled you to it, you should have already received a pre-release link to download The Lost Citadel. If you can’t find it, contact custserv@greenronin.com.

THE TIME TRAVELER’S CODEX: ALL TIME, NO SPACE… (Ronin Roundtable)

It’s Monday, and we’ve got a lot of things going on we wanted to share, so we figured: “Why not host an impromptu live-stream?” So, we’re inviting you to join Green Ronin Publishing today at 2:00 pm Pacific/5:00 pm Eastern for a special test-run of our live-streaming capabilities, featuring Mutants & Masterminds Super-Dev Crystal Frasier and designer Steve Kenson! They’ll be streaming from our Facebook page, talking about all things Mutants & Masterminds, including the Astonishing Adventures line, its exciting new NetherWar adventure series, and the newly-released Time Traveler’s Codex. Barring any unforeseen technical challenges, they’ll take your questions, too! So come hang out with us as we dip our toes into the world of Facebook live streaming! See you at 2:00 pm Pacific/5:00 pm Eastern, today!



One of the weird truths in any publishing industry is that you often pay for text you can never fully use. The reality of publishing, especially anything highly visual like textbooks, manuals, and game books, is that graphic element of the book needs the text to stop in specific places or only take up so much room. You order your text hoping for a perfect fit, but all too often you need to trim all kinds of interesting tidbits to finally make your book fit. And while the Time Traveler’s Codex gave us access to the End and the Beginning and all ticks on the clock in between… we still ran out of space.

But all good things in time! The miracle of the internet means we no longer throw out babies in the trash, but instead package them up into a free bonus PDF for you to enjoy, whether you purchase the Time Traveler’s Codex or not! Obviously you’ll get a lot more utility out of the content provided if you have the sourcebook in hand, but when push comes to shove, this eclectic mélange of equipment and minions from up and down the timestream can find a home in just about any Mutants & Masterminds campaign. It includes some of my favorite bits, like the centaur and mermaid, that had to be cut from their respective eras—while fun, they’re far from historically accurate—as well as a few fun pieces of time travel gear that can expand your arsenal or provide a handy power boost to your favorite villain!

So download it and… take some time for yourself.

The Time Traveler’s Codex: BACK FOUR SECONDS! (Ronin Roundtable)



Fools!

You flipped through the sacred text of the Time Traveler’s Codex  and now you think yourself an equal of the Chronomaster?! You thought your petty time travel shenanigans were any match for true villainy? I was weaned on chronal energy, with all the timestream as my playground. They think time is a realm for heroes? But villainy is relentless! Unyielding! Immortal! Your paltry acts of goodness are waves crashing against a beach, thinking they achieve something by sweeping sand into the tides and ever unaware that mountains stand beyond their reach.

Every era across space and time has its villains, from ruthless Gladiators of the Roman Empire to the Cyber Ronin prowling the neon kingdoms of the cyberpunk dystopia, I have eager minions ready to throw themselves in harm’s way. Even outside of time, loyal chronozoids—the Time Elemental, the Temporal Weaver, even the Chrono Predator—bend to my will!

But by now you’ve bested my minions. You think yourself safe. But I’m only just beginning. Can you face not one but SIX diabolical villains, gathered from the far-flung corners of the omniverse?! The Future Perfectionist, a diabolical mastermind who will use your own powers to shape the future to fit her ideal; the Immortal Conqueror, a master of the crudest form of time travel who has waged war since time immemorial; the Living Gateway, a fiend unmoored in the timestream, able to gallivant anywhere beyond the reach of your finite law; the Temporal Wizard, a master of chronomancy who bends past and future into potent weapons and reshapes his own body with evolutionary trickery; or the terrifying Time-Hopping Tyrant, a warlord evolved beyond human concerns and bedecked in technology far beyond your petty, 21st-century understanding! But first you must survive my personal pet—a silicon soul, forged with only a single purpose: to wipe you and your pathetic cause from the history books! Behold, the eXterminator!

Download the eXterminator preview PDF now!