Free League is taking its grim Swedish dark fantasy RPG Symbaroum back to the workbench for its 10th birthday, with a Kickstarter launching on 19 May 2026 that promises a tidier core, fresh art, and a brand-new campaign setting. Anyone who has tried to recommend Symbaroum to a new group will know why this matters. Mattias Johnsson Haake and Mattias Lilja's haunted-forest RPG, first published in Swedish in 2014 and English in 2016, has always been gorgeous and atmospheric, but spread across four core books it could be a faff to point newcomers at.
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Find events near youFor the uninitiated, Symbaroum is a low-magic, d20-based RPG where adventurers pick over the ruins of a fallen empire deep inside the haunted forest of Davokar. Linger too long, push too hard, and your character starts collecting Corruption, the game's signature mechanic that turns greedy heroes into the very monsters they came to fight.
The revised edition collapses the original line into three hardcovers: a Core Rulebook with rules and an intro adventure, a Gamemaster's Guide for running campaigns, and the Davokar Creature Codex. Martin Grip, whose work has defined the look of Symbaroum since day one, is contributing new character art alongside Gustaf Ekelund.
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See how it worksAlongside the rebuild, Free League is launching a new campaign setting: City States of Vendilyn: A Ravaged Realm. Players survive in a kingdom torn apart by the elves of Duskwood, which sounds about right for a game where the forest itself is usually the villain.
Symbaroum has built a quiet but devoted following over the decade, including a 5E conversion (Ruins of Symbaroum) and the Symbar: Mother of Darkness campaign. If you've eyed the boxed sets in your local game shop and bounced off the page count, the new core feels designed to tempt you back. Game masters considering a horror-tinged dark fantasy campaign might want to wait for May before picking up the old books.
The Kickstarter launches on 19 May 2026.
Sources: Bell of Lost Souls | ICv2 | Free League
