Meme-Free Zone

This is an offer of material for the RPG The Burning Wheel by Luke Crane. It's described as "the landmark indie RPG of dynamic characters and searing choice-driven stories."

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/BurningWheel

  

While I have no problems with indie rules systems, I'm not very keen on games that ask all of the players and referee to be familiar with the rules and avoid using "house rules" or simplifying things. I'm not playing pure fantasy games any more, so haven't gone into this one in any detail, but the general consensus I have on it from friends who have played it is that it's rules heavy and fairly complex, which really isn't my style of play. The price seems reasonable for the amount of material you get, more than 1000 pages, beyond that I recommend looking at reviews before making a decision about this one. There's a reasonable video review here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj30rzCgO5o

This is a "meta-fantasy RPG by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans of real-world people trapped inside a magical game." In other words, a bundle of material for an RPG based on a comic about people trapped in a computer RPG and forced to play through various archetypal situations.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/DIEtheRPG


  

I'm probably not the audience this is aimed at - it feels a bit too metaphorical for me, and I'm not a huge fan of games that pit characters against each other to this extent (with the exception of Paranoia, which makes it work by being extremely silly.) On the other hand it's fairly cheap and nicely presented, and might be just what some of you are looking for.

This is an offer of two bundles for Mongoose Traveller - one is a repeat, the other new (though based on a fairly old adventure).

MONGOOSE TRAVELLER EXPLORATIONS (from Nov 2022)
   https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2025Explorations

 

TRAVELLER ANCIENTS CAMPAIGN (new)
   https://bundleofholding.com/presents/TravAncients

  

The last time Traveller Explorations was on offer I said "OK - Traveller is probably the best-loved SF system out there, and the Mongoose version is VERY popular. You're getting a ton of stuff for your money. Need I say more? Unless you really dislike SF or the setting, or already have everything here, I'd recommend buying them."

I'm less sure about the Ancients Campaign - I was never a huge fan of the original Secrets of the Ancients, the plot was a bit linear and the eventual secret really wasn't incredibly exciting, and while it looks like there are some more plot threads to keep players busy they are definitely still going to need some nudges to keep them on the right track. Not all players LIKE long campaigns, and although this is relatively cheap it might be a good idea to sound people out before buying.

This is a new bundle of independently-produced material for the popular Forged in the Dark rules-set, also including Blades in the Dark, the game that originated the system. Blades... has been in several previous bundles, the others are new.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Forge3rd

  

The mood of these ranges from zany comic-book comedy to gritty crime realism, heroic and not so heroic fantasy, and far-futures cyberpunks and transhumans. If you like more than one of the genres it's worth buying the whole bundle, you'll save money.

This is the annual Bundle of Holding mixed bag of games from an assortment of companies to celebrate the USA's Thanksgiving Day.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Cornucopia2025

    

For some reason a lot of this year's choices deal with apocalypses, giant sea monsters, and various sorts of prejudice.

I'm never quite sure what to say about these mixed bundles since they don't fit into neat categories. Basically, you've got seven different RPGs ranging from horror to extreme silliness - I'm looking at you, Sentai and Sensibility - and if only one or two appeal to you, or you already have some of them, it may be a good idea to look at cherrypicking the ones you want. If you want more buying the bundle will probably be cheaper. 

This is an all-new bundle of Salvage Union, a game about post-apocalytic mech warriors trying to keep their machines running, from Leyline Press

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/SalvageUnion

  

This is a genre I'm not incredibly fond of, but it's made more interesting by there not being apparently limitless supplies of shiny new guns, missiles and mechs. Instead everything is collapsing, and a good set of tools and the knowledge of how to use them is probably worth more than any weapon. It might be good as a change of pace for mech fans, a "this is what's really going on as a background to the battles" dystopia. It's reasonably priced and I think it's worth a look.

At the request of (apparently) a lot of people who got Monday's Over the Edge 3E bundle, there's now an extra bundle, the third repeat of the Over the Edge 2nd Edition bundle from 2014. It contains more or less everything published for the classic weird conspiracy RPG Over the Edge, one of my favourites - and if you don't believe me, just ask Tiffany Trilobite!

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2025OTE2E

  


I wasn't on the mailing list for reviewing this stuff in 2014, but when it was repeated in 2017 I said "As may be obvious from my introduction, I like this game - it's strange, weird, and wonderful, and there really isn't anything like it that's anywhere near as good. I already own a lot of this in dead tree format, but I'll certainly be downloading everything I don't have. Considering the original prices this is extremely good value for money - but as usual I have to point out that I get this stuff free if I want it, if you don't your mileage may vary.

Strongly recommended!"

I should also mention that the last two times this was offered the books weren't added to buyers' Drivethru RPG account, because that part of the Bundle of Holding offers hadn't been set up yet. It has now, so buying the bundle will give you access to any updates etc. later offered via Drivethru, as well as making it easy to get them again if your files go blooey...

This is a bundle of the game Monarchies of Mau, about intelligent "uplifted" cats in a post-human world, from Onyx Path Publishing. It's compatible with an earlier game, Pugmire, about intelligent dogs, which I don't know at all, and includes Squeaks in the Dark, a compatible RPG about intelligent rats. All appear to be based on the OGL rules, e.g. D&D.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Monarchies

  

This isn't actually a genre that interests me much, but it looks like you're getting a fair amount for your money, and if you're interested it's probably worth a look.

This is a massive bundle of Cthulhu Mythos RPGs and settings from Cthulhu Reborn, a project to create a D100-based system based wholly on open rules sets and source material from Lovecraft which is definitively out of copyright - a lot of material in previous Mythos games has come from authors and works whose copyright status is unclear or definitely not available for free use. The basic offer is material set mainly in the 1920s, the extended offer includes multiple rules system and adventures in different eras from the past to the far future.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/CthulhuReborn

 

I think that this is an extremely good offer, which takes the Cthulhu Mythos back to its roots and provides everything needed to run, write (and possibly publish) your own adventures without having to worry too much about inadvertently falling foul of arcane copyright law. It's relatively cheap and contains several thousand pages of useful material, if you have any interest in role-playing in this genre it's well worth a look.

This is another horror bundle featuring Ghastly Affair, the "Gothic Game of Romantic Horror in the fevered age of Marie-Antoinette and Napoleon." 

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Ghastly

  

This one is quite interesting, although it does have its origins in systems that put numbers on everything - I'm a little boggled that these include stats for Death and for Lucifer. it's primarily focused on Gothic horror, but claims a lot of other things as inspiration including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, etc. - a list of fictional characters that might be inspirational puts Faith Lehane immediately after Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. It has quite a lot about weird science and weirder magic, horrible illnesses (including several that often get overlooked in RPGs, such as rabies), and period architecture - the last is there because a major theme of Gothic horror was strange crumbling manors and their denizens. While the military history of the era is mentioned in the timeline, it's mostly there as background, and this isn't the game you want if you want to re-enact Sharpe or Master and Commander. On the other hand, it would work very well for ideas like a Napoleonic-era version of The Beguiled and other war-adjacent dramas.

The bottom line is that you get a huge amount very cheaply, and it's full of ideas that could be useful for any game or fiction with similar themes. This is one I definitely recommend, but I should really add a disclaimer that I sometimes forget - I get to download this stuff free, if you don't your mileage may vary.