The Scorched Banner

The Scorched Banner is a skirmish-focused fantasy TTRPG for 2 to 6 players, focused on gameplay that feels both heroic and tactical. You pick a faction based on their ideals, create a hero and together with your allies battle against equals - heroes and  monsters, demons and divinities.

The roleplaying part of the game keeps the narrative flow relatively rules-light. Each hero you make comes with a trait from their background and age, such as being able to know a lie when you hear it or see how magic flows around you. They also have a distinct skillset, like being good at barter or understanding curses. This leads to wildly different heroes, solving problems or creating new ones in ways distinct to only them.

If you have a group of friends that loves pushing minis or replaying a given combat to perfection, scenarios are for you. They are modular and come with different difficulty levels and victory conditions. Can you win any and all scenarios with the same heroes? Or do you prefer scheming and tailoring your party to achieve the perfect victory?

For people more invested in the story, each of these scenarios is but a part of something grander - a campaign. Your success in one battle will have lasting consequences throughout the remaining battles. With victories you gain loot, with defeat - experience.  While defeat is a strict mother, she does teach you.

What stays with you regardless of your preferred choice of gameplay is the hero you create. Choose one of 11 classes, divided into 6 roles, and pick between a veritable arsenal of weapons be they melee, ranged or magical. Each class has its own flow in combat and things they excel at. For example, Berserker thrives when fighting hordes of minions, taking less damage each time they are attacked. Meanwhile a Summoner focuses on commanding allies, and summoning fearsome and powerful creatures through their arcane powers.

Unlike many other systems, weapons in The Scorched Banner differ not only in the damage they deal, but also on their effects. Every single weapon comes with its own critical effect, ranging from the mundane "more damage, please!" to those that affect movement on inflict conditions on other units. 

Like any fantasy, TSB also has magic. Being a mage is synonymous to being a spell-weaver. Thus, instead of picking a single powerful spell, you chain multiple spell words, changing the spells shape, power or effects. Being an effective mage is no simple feat, but if you do master this art... Mountains themselves shall tremble in tune with your steps.

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In the Scorched Banner playtest you will find the following items:

• "The Scorched Banner v0_10" - The core rules for combat, roleplay, and running the game.
• "The Scorched Banner v0_10 - Reference Sheet.pdf" - A quick reference, containing basic rules, conditions and magical weapons.
• "The Scorched Banner v0_10 - RP Character Sheets (Clean)" - containing 7 pre-generated characters and an empty sheet for roleplaying.
• "The Scorched Banner v0_10 - Prefilled Character Sheets.pdf" - 7 pre-generated characters ready for roleplaying.
• "The Scorched Banner v0_10 - Faithguard Heroic Unit Sheets" - 11 pre-generated Rank 1 Hero sheets for Azure Faithguard.
• "The Scorched Banner v0_10 - Oathsworn Heroic Unit Sheets" -11 pre-generated Rank 1 Hero sheets for the Oathsworn .