A downloadable game

Buy Now$25.00 USD or more

A game of compelling heroes and easy to understand rules.

Perilous is a dungeon crawling RPG about braving the dark depths because the long forgotten magic of the ancients could mean the difference between life and death for the people you care about. It uses a simple 20 sided die, plain language, and tag based mechanics to make telling stories with your friends effortless.

Encounters feel more like puzzles than battles of attrition.

Fighting enemies and facing dangers in Perilous is about finding clever solutions to unique problems rather than whittling away hit points. Each challenge you come up against is a collection of short descriptions that cover anything from the defenses an enemy has to the hazardous terrain you have to worry about. When you can't solve a problem right away, start building up advantages and creating openings until you can!

Freeform character creation lets you create totally unique character ideas.

Making a character in Perilous is both fast and incredibly fun, all you have to do is select the three aspects that define your character. Choose from categories such as your skills, signature equipment, spells, and personality to quickly create an interesting character ready to explore the world. The freeform character creation allows you to mix and match just the right talents and magical abilities for exactly the character you have in mind!

StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(50 total ratings)
AuthorJordan Palmer
GenreRole Playing
Tagsd20, Fantasy, PbtA, tags, Tabletop role-playing game

Purchase

Buy Now$25.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $25 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Perilous RPG.pdf 44 MB
GM-Less Print & Play Cards 4 MB

Exclusive content

Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.

Community Copies

If you honestly can't afford a copy, but want to give the system a try, you can claim a copy that was donated by someone else.

Comments

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I just bought but I can't see the main think I was looking for, on the Kickstarter I can see cards with a question and multiple adjectives for the challenges to overcome which seem like a really good source of inspiration. The "Scene Deck - Print & Play" contains 28 beautiful pictures but without the question or any adjective. Would it be possible to get the printable cards as seen here:

Thank you for your help.

I just found a hardback copy online was looking for how to get the card deck for solo play. Is there a way to get a copy?

(+6)(-1)

The PDF could benefit from a revision. On one hand it's beautiful, nice layout, gorgeous art. On the other hand… no author attribution, no date, no artwork credits, not TOC, no bookmarks (NO BOOKMARKS!! Adding bookmarks is trivial and should be mandatory for any PDF longer than 4 pages). There are also several instances of "it's" that should be spelled "its". The "Video Explanation" paragraph is also weird and incomplete.

(+2)

This is a clever game! I feel like it could use some kind of character sheet though, just to keep track of all the different aspects and whether or not players have momentum/edge. Maybe all of this could be scribbled down on scratch paper for an in-person game but I feel like categorizing things together on a sheet is much cleaner. 

(+1)

Glad you like it! Character sheets are absolutely something we're planning on creating, but haven't gotten to yet. I'll try to dedicate some time over the next week or two and put one together. I'll keep you posted!

(+2)

Character sheets are a great idea. Is this still going to happen?

Yes, character sheets, please!

Is there anyway to purchase the deck already made? I sadly missed out on the kick starter by a year

(-1)

yep! Over on Gamefound you can add physical copies of anything, they're currently in production and can even ship them out with the Kickstarter copies

thank you!


Hi! It looks like the file was updated 3 days ago, does this version include all the community management rules mentioned in the KS update?


Just checking because there's no devlog and I noticed a familiar typo on the first line of page 26. Thanks!

(-1)

yep! They're split between the end of the player section and guide sections


As for typos, my editor is currently going through it, we also found some formatting errors for the aspect cards that we're fixing

Thanks! 

A couple of days ago, I saw the old kickstarter for this game, which links to Gamefound, and I decided to support it. 

But I haven't received anything through Gamefound. 

Later, I found this on itch.io, and I realize maybe I should have paid through here.  What should I do?

(+1)(-1)

Gamefound doesn't automatically send out emails or notifications. I check about once a week and manually import the Gamefound emails over to itch. I'll make sure to get that taken care so be on the lookout for an email from itch later on tonight 🙂

(+1)

Thanks!

I guess I was too impatient...

I'm excited about your game!

(-1)

no worries, haha, I'm sitting down to send it out now, should be in any minute

Got it, thanks!

(+1)

I'd love to hear more about how the mechanics pull the focus to problem solving instead of resource attrition. 

I find there are some things to explain.
For example, if you roll under 15 you lose momentum: when do you get it? XD

(-1)

You start all scenes with the momentum. You regain it whenever you roll 15 or more. I'll add some clarity for the next update dropping soon.

(+3)

Would be awesome to get 1-page layout version of the file in addition to the current spreads.

Second that, altough I've got no big problem with the current layout! ^^

I Second that too!

(-1)

I'll get that out in the next update that should be dropping soon 👍

Oh, cool! Thanks, mate!

(+2)

Can't wait to get my hands on the GM-less rules. Art or no I am excited to give it a spin.

(+3)

I'm waiting for the solo / Gm-less rules and how to use the deck. It seems to be a clever game.

(+1)(-1)

The artists are hard at work getting the deck finished up! I hope to have some fun news within the next month or so.

(+3)

First Impressions (of Perilous' First Draft): Loving what I'm seeing so far—particularly the game's simple yet robust mechanics and its gorgeous art. I can't wait to read through the co-op/GM-less play section when it's completed so I can try it out for myself!