Close
Close
Please choose which option you would like to add to your cart.
Advanced Search

The SkeletonsClick to magnify
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.drivethrurpg.com/pdf_previews/177596-sample.pdf

The Skeletons

ADD TO WISHLIST >
Selected Option:

THE SKELETONS is meditative structured freeform game for 1-6 players. You'll need a few hours and a private space.

Years fly by like dead leaves. Everything is darkness. Everything is silence. You stand vigilant before the sarcophagus without thought or breath-such is your compulsion. You do not remember your name and still you watch. The flesh has fallen off your bones and still you watch.

And then one day there is light and motion and you weigh your bearded axe and raise your shield, lusting for the fray, eager to measure your skill against these tomb-robbing children so full of blood. You’ll never be alive again, but in this moment-in the chaos between violation and destruction-you truly live, and you remember what you once were, and you taste the sun.

The Skeletons flips the script on the classic dungeon crawl— here you play not the intruders, but the guardians, cursed to spend all of eternity defending a tomb. As time passes, both the tomb and its guardians will change. Ferocious battles are fought and won, and the skeletons slowly remember who and what they once were. Melancholy, introspective and spanning epochs, The Skeletons is unlike anything you’ve ever played.

What's Included?

The printed edition is a 60 page, 6x9 booklet game that includes the rules for the basic game as well as variant settings by Jason Morningstar and Sara Williamson. It includes the digital edition for the same price.

The digital edition is a 17 page, letter-sized PDF of the rules and an additional 9 page PDF for the character sheets, each loaded with unique, interconnecting questions whose answers will be revealed in play.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (7)
Discussions (8)
Customer avatar
Dennis S June 05, 2022 2:37 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi. Just purchased this and based on the comments below, I expected the PDF to be 60 pages in length. However, between the rules and the character sheets, the PDF clocks in at about a third of that page count. Can I get some clarification on this? Thank you.
Reply
Customer avatar
Steve S June 05, 2022 4:08 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
The print edition and the digital edition have the same contents, but the layout is different (6x9 versus 8.5x11) so the page count varies between them. I hope that helps clarify things!
Customer avatar
Angelo A March 14, 2019 5:11 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Simply beautiful. An experience my friends and I will remember for a long time. Thank you!
Customer avatar
Nicholas P January 14, 2019 3:08 am UTC
If I purchase the PDF for $10, is it the same exact content as the printed version?
Reply
Customer avatar
Steve S January 14, 2019 5:36 am UTC
PUBLISHER
The digital edition (including the rules and characters sheets) is the exact same content as the print edition. If you buy the print edition, you get the PDFs as well at no additional cost.
Customer avatar
zackery W May 28, 2018 11:53 am UTC
So if i just buy the PDF I dont get the content of the 60 page book?
Customer avatar
Stephen B March 31, 2016 3:12 pm UTC
Is there any chance of a pdf+pod version? I'd love to buy this for a friend... okay, I really want two print copies!... but books are much nicer to give as gifts than pdf links. Cheers.
Reply
Customer avatar
Steve S April 01, 2016 2:09 am UTC
PUBLISHER
I'm afraid the POD version wouldn't be very exciting- the PDF is formatted for letter-sized printing and is too short for a book. We'll consider some more elaborate print editions for the future, however!
Reply
Customer avatar
Steve S August 15, 2017 3:36 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
It looks like I was wrong last year! We've now released the print edition of the game, and I hope you get the chance to enjoy it.
Customer avatar
Jason M March 19, 2016 3:04 pm UTC
Guillaume, thanks for asking that question. The Skeletons doesn't have any real randomness in it, and the outcomes are fixed, so you resolve fights just like everything else - by talking it over and deciding what's best and most interesting, or by asking one person at the table to do that for you (you can rotate this role from scene to scene if you like). Your friends' creativity will surprise you! This approach takes some getting used to but is a very fun way to play, I promise! --Jason
Customer avatar
guillaume T March 19, 2016 2:11 am UTC
PURCHASER
I bought the game and found the concept amazing.
But apart from the optional rule to roll 1d6 to choose what is going to happen, how do you take care of fights in this game?
(I am a beginner in free form rpgs, and used to rolling dice when fights arise)
Customer avatar
Christopher H March 16, 2016 7:11 am UTC
PURCHASER
Can I just say 'yes'? We are going to try this later in the week, but this is exactly what has been missing from my life. This is amazing.
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Mithral seller
Author(s)
Artist(s)
Pages
60
ISBN
978-0-9883909-9-7
Publisher Stock #
BPG030
File Size:
10.46 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Last Updated:
March 31, 2019
This title was added to our catalog on March 15, 2016.