#Cosmere RPG

[elbenherzart]

"Ryshadium" Painted for Cosmere RPG by Brotherwise Games ADs: Johnny O'Neil / Katie Payne I was so excited when I got approached by Johnny to paint an illustration for the Stormlight archive RPG. It's one of my favourite book of all time! :)

[marvelousmagicalaura]

(Art by Arthur Mósca for Brotherwise Games)

NOBODY HERE IS TALKING ABOUT CANON PRE INQUISITOR MARSH ART?!?!

[lamaery]

Art for the Stormlight RPG World Guide for Kholinar, the Warcamps and Herdaz.

They kickstarter is going midblowingly well and by now not only the no° 1 RPG kickstarter of all times but maaaaybe it'll even get to be the most successful board games kickstarter... 👀 (this fandom really never ceases to amaze!) 55 Hours still to go. The kickstarter ends on Thursday night (Or Friday morning if you are in Europe). So if you are interested you can still join (and add late pledges later 😉) There is also this lovely chat I had with Argent not too long ago, if you want to listen to us (well mostly me) enthusiastically rant about world building and making art for the Cosmere RPG for way too long. 😅 (But you can see some of the progress that went into some of these pieces here.)

[dealunart]

Cultures of Roshar for the Stormlight RPG (aka Cosmere RPG) by Brotherwise Games (Link to the kickstarter here)

ADs: Johnny O'Neal and Katie Payne

I haven't had much to post on socials lately so I haven't been very active but now I can finally show some of the things I've been up to, starting with this! Can't believe it's already been a whole year since I painted these.

[libralita]

fashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashionfashion

[stormlight-drafter]

Was reading through the Cosmere RPG preview and found some interesting lore bits in the Safety chapter. Maybe these things were already known (I haven't read the novellas) but there were some I wasn't aware of.

"Asexuality. All populations on Roshar, regardless of species and culture, include a spectrum of asexual people. Herdazians have a long tradition of valuing people who aren’t interested in sex or producing offspring. Singers, excluding when in mate form, are not expected to show any interest in sex."

I don't think I've ever seen Asexuality specifically called out like this, instead of it just being a footnote in Sexuality sections. Good on Brotherwise. The Singer thing was pretty obvious from Venli's chapters, but I didn't know that about Herdazians. Loving all the lore I'm learning about them from the rpg. Absolutely the most based ethnicity on Roshar.

"Discrimination Based on Eye Shade. The spectrum of eye colors for humans on Roshar is different from our own. Both darkeyes and lighteyes can have violet, blue, green, yellow, gray, or brown eyes."

Full list of possible eye colors. Though idk I'd probably just let my players have red, orange, or pink eyes if they really wanted it, why not. This section didn't mention if it's possible to have a medium shade that makes people confused on whether you count as darkeyes or lighteyes, but I'd assume so.

"Gender Identity. Breathing in Stormlight over time passively heals Radiants to their true genders."

I did know this, but it's nice to have it spelled out instead of buried in a novella.

"Gender Roles. Vorinism is one of many ideologies that impose strict gender roles on followers. Will your game include details such as female safehands, male illiteracy, and so on? Is being an ardent the only way for gender nonconforming characters to avoid social persecution?"

That was something I was wondering about, how Vorinism handles trans and non-binary identities. I'd assume "poorly" but I was curious if there were any quirks, considering it's pretty mild about same sex relationships. I don't know if the trans character talks about their life pre-transition or not, but this passage kind of implies that being an ardent is the only way for non-binary people to feel safe, but I'm not sure if it's just addressing the obvious assumption or actually stating its canon.

"Mental Illness. The Stormlight Archive features many characters with mental illnesses. While some might correlate mental illness with becoming a Knight Radiant, they would be missing the point."

Lol "please don't force your fanon on other people."

[trans-truthwatcher]

I am unwell

[kayumi-art]

Cosmere RPG commission work

[grievingauthor]

Getting a jump on this new meme format

[loud-n]

What's up with Roshar's Money and Why is Sapphire so Valuable

I recently started my reread of Stormlight Archive to prepare for book 5, and coincidentally, this happened at roughly the same time the cosmere rpg started kickstarting. So, reading TWoK and the beta rules of the rpg at the same time, a few things happened to come together. For one, the rpg had this table:

I thought this was very interesting. I hadn't ever seen anything like this (though, checking coppermind, a similar chart has been available since an interview in 2018 that I wasn't aware of). It's a nice way for me to contextualize just how much money Shallan throws around at the beginning of TWoK (for example, based on remarks from Yalb in chapter 3, we know that a week's wages for a sailor is roughly one ruby mark/firemark, or 10 diamond marks/clearmarks), and while it seems like it might be simplified for gameplay purposes, it's also broadly consistent with the other sources.

So I kept reading until I got to this line:

"Emeralds were the most valuable, for they could be used by soulcasters to create food." (The Way of Kings ch. 3, pg. 72 on the trade paperback)

This line lays out explicitly that the soulcasting traits of a gem are the primary way (or at least a very significant one) that these values were assigned. This makes a lot of sense: the ability to soulcast food is the key component that allows Roshar the kind of military structures it has, and would provide an extremely valuable way to compensate for issues with harvests that might come with Roshar's 'temperamental' weather patterns.

(some major oathbringer spoilers below the cut)

I then wanted to know how this translates to the other types of gem. Many of these make a lot of sense: amethyst can be used to soulcast metal, which is important and difficult to obtain on roshar (coppermind notes that this may also be the only way to get aluminum on Roshar); ruby, smokestone, and zircon are all used as part of infrastructure for food preparation and waste management (and rubies seem especially common in the fabrials we've seen); garnet, heliodor, and topaz all provide less vital (though still useful) and less valuable materials; and diamond can be used to soulcast quartz, glass, and crystal, none of which are particularly valuable (especially given easy access to even light with stormlight and danger from highstorms making windows difficult and less valuable).

However, one gem caught my eye here.

Why is sapphire so valuable?

Sapphire's soulcasting can produce translucent gas or air, which seems a bit redundant with smokestone, a stone we know is regularly used. To my knowledge, we don't see any characters ever use soulcasting powered by a sapphire (please correct me if I'm wrong, I may be forgetting or confusing an instance with smokestone). So unless there's something we're missing or something to come, it doesn't seem like sapphire's value is because it is especially useful in soulcasting.

If this isn't the case, I can think of three possible explanations for why sapphire is worth so much:

Sapphire is less common. We know that obtaining emerald is a major part of the Rosharan economy and a significant reason for the continued occupation of the shattered plains at the start of the series. This might also be the case for sapphire: greatshells with sapphire gemhearts may be less common or more difficult to farm, making sapphire more scarce and thus more valuable.

Sapphire is especially useful in fabrials. So far, we've only seen one fabrial using sapphire that I can remember: the soul-harvesting dagger used to kill Jezrien (Oathbringer ch. 121). Even this may not be a specific trait of all sapphires, but rather due to the fact that sapphires are associated with Jezrien and the windrunners. I think it's possible and maybe even likely that sapphires are the gems used in half-shards, since none of the examples ever specify what gem is used and Taravangian states that the spren within could have graced a knight radiant (Oathbringer ch. 100) - possibly an honorspren trapped within a sapphire. This may also have been Taravangian lying, though.

The value is somehow associated with Jezrien and the Windrunners. This one seems the most far-fetched to me: at the start of the series, the knights radiant are not viewed especially fondly, and I doubt the Windrunners would have enough staying power to change the value of a gem. The idea that it may be association with Jezrien seems to me to have more merit; Jezrien seems to generally be elevated to a point beyond the other heralds.

Based on the information we have, I think that my second proposal has the highest chance of being at least partially correct. Association with Jezrien seems far-fetched, sapphire being especially scarce seems like something too far off course to get significant confirmation of in-text, and fabrials are one of the elements of the world still being developed in universe that we also don't have a lot of extra information about.

If any of this is going to be answered, I honestly think it might come through the rpg: the first wave of releases will include a world guide with canon information that might shed some light on these elements less important to the actual story, and the rules will also detail a lot of information about fabrials that could answer my questions about half-shards. Until then, though, I'm just going to have to sit here and wonder (and keep a special eye out for mentions of sapphire on my reread for anything I missed).

[saturninegambit]

My friend has pre ordered the cosmere RPG and I will be unbearable when we start playing that

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Tukari Mercenary by Artur Mosca

[tawny-amber]

Szeth-son-son-Vallano wore white on the day he was to kill a king

Model by Brotherwise Games

[diceof20]

I would like to congratulate my DND party. Tonight, they beat the first boss of the campaign after much blood sweat and tears! It was my first time running a boss fight in the system and it served as a great stress test. It’s been a wild trip, and I love y’all for it.

@icarus-the-oathsworn

@discountedtincans

@sunshinecried

[jochi-the-veristithaylen-baker]

To be honest, the Kickstarter of The Cosmere RPG is simultaneously overwhelming and underwhelming, and also waaaay too expensive for me to buy into in any way.

I guess I'll just wait a year or two and glean the world-building-information from coppermind the old fashioned self-spoilering way.

[icarus-the-oathsworn]

A few design changes and changes of my art style over a few months of playing this character in my parties Stormlight ttrpg game. He’s a kandra artifabrian with a focus on weaponry.(yes he has a gun arm)