You will know what no
player must ever know
Your players unearth ruins without knowing what they once were. You do. The Game Master's Book hands you the other side of the screen: the true History of the Cycles, the map of the deep Cosmos, and everything you need to launch your campaign on night one.
From Running Vestiges to the Deep Cosmos, by way of the Crown-World, Places and Cities and Magic Items. 5e and 3.5 editions included.
Your players will see a map. You will see what sleeps beneath it.
The other side of the screen,
part by part
The Crown-World
The master map, regions and cities of the realm
Khar-Vel
A black gate barred with a stroke of gold
The Suture Point
A Scar closed around a Vestige
The Bastion of the Seven Locks
HQ of the Watchers of the Mute Threshold
Nyméria
Ready-to-play cities, district by district
9 Remnants
+ 19 crafted items, with the Echo mechanic
Encounters
Creatures of the ruins and the Layers
The Deep Cosmos
Strata, Layers and Thresholds, mapped
What you bring back
always has an opinion
Two families of items, and your players tell them apart within one session: what the living still know how to make, and what a dead Cycle refuses to let go.
A blade with opinions
What you bring back does not simply let itself be carried.
The Threshold Ring
A Remnant, and the Echo that comes with it.
Crafted items
What today's artisans still know how to make: safe, expensive, predictable. And mute. The book details nineteen of them.
The Remnants
Nine objects inherited from vanished Cycles, one per great Cycle, that no living hand knows how to make. You do not buy them: you find them, you fight over them, you endure them.
The Echo
What sets a Remnant apart from a merely powerful item: it answers back. Each one drags the Resonance of the Cycle that saw it born, and that Resonance claims its due.
At your table
The loot moment changes nature. Instead of the “I equip it” reflex, your players look at each other and hesitate: who carries it? Do we sell it, and to whom? Do we put it back where we found it?
Your first session
is already written
A Routine Contract, the starter scenario included, gathers three to five level 1 characters over one or two sessions. A mundane contract, a first Vestige, and a party that climbs back up with a question bigger than the job.
“The League does not pay for heroes. It pays for people who come back with notes.”
Rector Sélène Vorne, to every new party
Going further as a game master
The Monstrous Bestiary supplies the 50 original creatures to set against your table; the Nyméria sourcebook describes the starting city district by district, with its NPCs and a full scenario; and The Hand That Counts, free, lets you test the game tonight without buying anything.
Frequently asked questions from game masters
What exactly is in the Game Master's Book?
194 pages in eight parts: running Vestiges with mystery as the engine of play, the History of the World, the Crown-World, Places and Cities, the Deep Cosmos, the Vestiges, Magic Items and Launching the Game. Inside are sixteen mapped cities, nine Remnants, nineteen crafted items and a complete starter scenario. 5e and 3.5 editions included in the Complete Bundle.
What is the Echo, and why does it change a game?
The Echo is what sets a Remnant apart from a merely powerful item: it answers back. Each Remnant drags the Resonance of the Cycle that saw it born, and that Resonance claims its due with use. At the table, the loot moment stops being a bookkeeping line and becomes a scene: who carries it, do we sell it, do we put it back where we found it?
Does running Vestiges take a lot of prep?
No: the book opens on a whole part devoted to running the game and closes on a ready-to-play starter scenario. Cities are described district by district, places arrive with their tensions, and the Bestiary's creatures drop onto the table as they are. You can launch your first session the same evening.
Can my players read the Game Master's Book?
Better not: it contains the true History of the Cycles and the secrets the line stages, what the Player's Book deliberately leaves in shadow. The pages of this site, on the other hand, are spoiler-free: your players can browse them freely.
Is there a scenario to start a campaign?
Yes, two: A Routine Contract, the starter scenario included in the Game Master's Book, for 3 to 5 level 1 characters, and its direct sequel The Hand That Counts, free to download. The Nyméria sourcebook adds a third complete scenario and enough material for an entire city campaign.