DSNX2025: Brotherwise Games Brings RPG Magic to the Cosmere

The Stormlight RPG Brings Roshar To Life

“A story doesn’t live until it is imagined.” If Hoid is right about that, then the Cosmere story has come to life in a big way with this year’s release of the Stormlight RPG. The powers of the Knights Radiant and the world of Roshar are at your fingertips in brand new ways, and if you haven’t seen these books yet, you are missing out.

I fell in love with TTRPGs because of Dungeons and Dragons, when my brother got the fourth edition handbooks for Christmas in the early 2010s. Illustrations of foul monsters and noble heroes and the promise of telling our own fantasy stories captivated us completely and nearly 15 years later I’ve played and run more games than I can remember.

In that time I’ve become an avid Sanderson evangelist, creating communities of Cosmere readers of my family and friends and I’ve found fellowship right here at Dragonsteel, where believe it or not, we are pretty big Brandon Sanderson fans.

A Living RPG

The crossroads of these passions is the Cosmere RPG, an ambitious “living RPG” that will grow as Brandon and Brotherwise work together to expand the rules, systems, and settings of the game to match the growing scale of Brandon’s books. The character options, worlds, and foes of the Cosmere are deep and crunchy, a good fit for RPG enthusiasts and serve as an exciting onboarding experience for people who love the Cosmere but are learning how to play TTRPGs for the first time.

Brotherwise brought lots more to show off at Nexus this year, including previews for next year's Mistborn RPG supplements, including a Mistborn Handbook, a Scadrial World Guide, and the Mistborn: Legacy adventure (a campaign split between both eras of Scadrian history). With everything from gunslinging class options to rules for Mistborn, mistings, ferrings, and Kandra, the Handbook is chock-full of excitement. I am particularly excited for my own RPG group to start worldhopping to mix and match Mistborn and Stormlight powers, which is something we are all eager to do. If you want to get your own copy of the Stormlight RPG books and you missed the crowdfunding campaign, your local Barnes and Noble should have the full selection. 

Two Eras of Adventure Await in the Mistborn RPG

Balancing the two eras of Mistborn’s world was a unique challenge for the game designers, though the solutions they found are elegant. Character options are marked with a specific “Era 2” tag in bright orange if they touch on gunpowder, cadmium, bendalloy, or any of the other conventions that were added after the original trilogy.

Mistborn: Legacy will explore these eras, with player actions in the past affecting the events of the future directly, culminating in a clash against the evil noble faction “The Gilded Few,” who also served as antagonists for the DSNX25 Convention Game. The tone of this book fits the dark times experienced on Scadrial, with horror and hemalurgy playing a significant role in the events of the adventure.

I’ll be keeping my eye out for more details about the Mistborn RPG as we approach the release in 2026, but the Stormlight books have only been on my shelf for a few weeks at this point. My players have only just started attracting the attention of spren, with our campaign kicking off just a few weeks ago. With the depth of character options and the many stories we have yet to tell, we have a lot to enjoy and to play with just from the Stormlight books.

Even outside of the Mistborn teasers, RPG fans can anticipate an Elantris expansion, a Warbreaker expansion, and a Worldhopper expansion to add options for characters and enemies outside of the Cosmere’s flagship franchises. There are no release windows for these yet, but after Mistborn we will still have a lot to look forward to.

More From Brotherwise

Roleplaying games aren’t Brotherwise’s only product though, with projects like the Mistborn Deckbuilding Game expanding the realm of gaming in the Cosmere. There is a “shuffle in” expansion coming to that card game, which will grow to include elements from The Well of Ascension. There is also a trick taking card game, something that plays a little like Hearts, but with unique decks and powers representing each of the Shards of Adonalsium. That game, the Shards of Creation, launches in May of next year.

Another upcoming launch is Stormlight: War for Roshar, a three hour war game that pits the forces of the coalition against the powers of Odium in the battle for Roshar. Brotherwise warned their audience: “Guys, this is the complicated one.” If the board game antics at your table are like mine, this strategy war game is sure to unite you and your allies while constantly risking a table flipping concession of defeat from your frustrated opposition. This one brings together the game design skills of John D. Clair (the designer of the Mistborn deckbuilding game and Unstoppable) and Brotherwise’s Hayden Dillard to blend the tactical depth of a war game with the approachability that Cosmere fans might look for from a tie-in game. 

For RPG players who love the Cosmere RPG mechanics and want to engage with the ruleset outside of Brandon’s worlds, they are developing a new setting and rulebook called Plotweaver, generalizing the rules to allow for roleplay and adventure in worlds beyond the Cosmere. Meric Moir leads this initiative, with early plans including sci-fi and fantasy settings that use the heroic paths and talents to create seamless experiences for worldhopping in other universes.  

Stick around here on the Cognitive Realm for more Cosmere roleplaying game fun, with upcoming articles about how to play and create characters and updates covering everything that comes next for fans. You can also check out Brotherwise's breakdown of Cosmere games on their YouTube channel.