Magpie Games has opened a massive archive of its critically acclaimed catalogue on Bundle of Holding. The Magpie Apocalypse Megabundle collects 25 tabletop roleplaying games and supplements, all driven by the narrative-forward Powered by the Apocalypse engine. Running until Tuesday, 21 April, the offer spans an enormous variety of genres, from the record-breaking Avatar Legends to the brutal Mexican drug wars of Cartel.
The collection highlights the sheer mechanical versatility of the Apocalypse Engine. Originally developed by Meguey and Vincent Baker, the system eschews traditional character classes, hit points, and initiative trackers. Instead, it relies on playbook archetypes and a 2d6 resolution mechanic where every dice roll drives the story forward, often introducing complications even on a success.
Starter Collection – $17.95
For $17.95 (retail value $139), players receive the base tier of DRM-free digital rulebooks. This collection provides the core rules for several distinct settings.
- Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set
- Root: The Roleplaying Game
- Masks: A New Generation
- Bluebeard’s Bride
- Pasión de las Pasiones
- Epyllion: A Dragon Epic
- Undying
- Crossroads Carnival (Ashcan Edition)
- Passing (Ashcan Edition)
Bonus Collection
Those who pay more than the threshold price (currently around $39.96) level up to receive an additional 15 titles worth $283.
- Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game (The complete 306-page core rulebook)
- Avatar Legends Guides (Republic City, Uncle Iroh’s Adventure Guide, and Wan Shi Tong’s Adventure Guide)
- Cartel (The complete rulebook for Mexican narcofiction)
- Root RPG Supplements (Clearing Booklet and Travelers & Outsiders)
- Masks Supplements (Halcyon City Herald, Secrets of AEGIS, and Unbound)
- Bluebeard’s Bride Sourcebooks (Book of Lore, Book of Mirrors, Book of Rooms, Booklet of Keepsakes, and the Tarot of Servants Companion)
- Epyllion Supplement (Encyclopedia Draconica)
Magpie Games has built a reputation for tailoring the Apocalypse Engine to highly specific emotional and cinematic experiences. Rather than offering a generic ruleset, each game in this bundle rewrites the core mechanics to enforce its particular genre.
In Masks: A New Generation, players take on the roles of teenage superheroes. The mechanics do not measure physical strength; they measure how the characters view themselves and how adult mentors influence their volatile identities. Bluebeard’s Bride delivers investigative feminine horror, in which players collaboratively control different aspects of a single woman’s psyche as she explores a nightmarish mansion.
Pasión de las Pasiones perfectly captures the escalating melodrama of scandalous telenovelas, providing rules for dramatic reveals and cheating death. Meanwhile, Root translates the beloved board game into a tabletop roleplaying game about woodland insurgency, where vagabond animals navigate a brutal war between the Marquise de Cat and the Eyrie Dynasties.
The crown jewel for many will be the inclusion of the Avatar Legends line. Funded by the largest roleplaying game Kickstarter campaign in history, the game allows players to master the elements and navigate the complex politics of the Four Nations across five different historical eras.
This comprehensive library of narrative roleplaying games closes at midnight Pacific time on Tuesday, 21 April.
