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SHRINES – A Dark Pilgrimage RPG

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Overview

SHRINES – A Dark Pilgrimage RPG is a classless dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying game about dangerous pilgrimages through wounded worlds. It combines tactical D6-pool combat, exploration, escalating threats and character growth through Domains with a strong focus on consequence, discovery and gaining knowledge. Description SHRINES – A Dark Pilgrimage RPG is a dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying game in which the players take the roles of the Marked, pilgrims bound to mysterious Shrines and sent into regions scarred by ancient wounds, broken beliefs and hostile forces. The game combines tactical combat with exploration and narrative decision-making while keeping bookkeeping deliberately light. Its core system uses pools of six-sided dice, with characters defined without traditional classes. Instead, they develop through their qualities, talents, maneuvers, equipment and Domains - powerful influences that shape abilities, vulnerabilities and interactions with the world. Shrines form the anchors of every pilgrimage. They provide safety, progression and a place to return to, because death is not the end. When a pilgrimage fails, the Marked may return to their bound Shrine, but failure still carries consequences. Lost Essence, Burden and an increasingly dangerous world ensure that reformation never makes defeat meaningless. Exploration is built around regions, locations and Instances rather than long quest lists. Players uncover Lore, discover competing factions and decide how deeply they are willing to involve themselves in conflicts that rarely offer a simple distinction between good and evil. At the same time, Regional Escalation causes the world to react to the actions and failures of the Marked, making prolonged expeditions increasingly dangerous. SHRINES is designed around the idea of fair cruelty: the world is harsh, combat can be deadly and mistakes matter, but danger is meant to be readable and consequences understandable rather than arbitrary. The game can be played with a group or as a solo pilgrimage. Its free introductory series, SHRINES: INITIATION, guides players step by step through the core ideas of the system across four connected episodes, gradually introducing exploration, combat, navigation, escalation and the consequences of failure. It leads directly into FIRST FRAGMENT, the upcoming Quickstart release, which expands SHRINES into a broader playable region with additional rules, characters, locations, monsters and a complete pilgrimage to undertake.

Key features

Dark Pilgrimage Structure

Adventures are built as dangerous pilgrimages through wounded regions, with Shrines acting as anchors, refuges and points of reformation.

Classless Character Growth

The Marked are not bound to traditional classes. Mastery deepens what they have learned, while Becoming can transform the direction of their development. Together, both systems create asymmetric progression with a wide range of possible paths, combinations and specializations.

Tactical D6-Pool Combat

Fast, readable combat built around D6 dice pools, two main actions, reactive maneuvers and escalating pressure instead of heavy bookkeeping.

Reformation Instead of Permadeath

Death can end a battle, but not necessarily the pilgrimage. The Marked return to their bound Shrine while loss, Trauma and abandoned Essence ensure that failure still matters.

Domains Shape the World

Domains influence characters, creatures, equipment, damage and supernatural effects without relying on a rigid universal type chart.

Escalation Makes the World React

Combat and regional escalation steadily increase pressure, allowing enemies, locations and entire regions to respond to the actions and failures of the Marked.

Lore Fragments Matter

Lore is more than background information. Discovering Lore Fragments reveals the history and conflicts of a region, reduces escalating pressure, ease your burden and can unlock options that would otherwise remain unavailable.