Yes, you can read the Kingsmark Player’s Handbook for Free

Kingsmark First Edition has arrived, and I am making an unusual decision about how I intend to distribute my tabletop role-playing games. Although the complete 556-page Player’s Handbook is available for purchase as a digital PDF, I also want people to be able to read it online for free. Furthermore, I welcome readers who wish to share authorized copies of the complete PDF with their friends, introduce it to their gaming groups, or distribute it through file-sharing networks. I am even comfortable with people seeding Kingsmark on The Pirate Bay. This is not an act of surrender to digital piracy, nor is it a temporary promotional giveaway. It reflects my conviction that the long-term success of Kingsmark depends upon something considerably more important than controlling every copy of a digital book: getting people to discover the game, learn its rules, and actually play it.

There is an unfortunate contradiction in the way tabletop role-playing games are sometimes marketed. Publishers naturally want to sell their books, and creating a substantial role-playing game requires considerable investments of time, labor, and money. Yet a tabletop RPG is fundamentally a social experience. A Player’s Handbook sitting unread on someone’s computer does not create an adventure, and a beautiful hardcover sitting unopened upon a bookshelf does not bring imaginary worlds to life. Games become meaningful when people gather around a table, whether physically or virtually, and begin creating stories together. They become communities when Game Masters introduce those games to new players, when experienced adventurers invite newcomers into their parties, and when enthusiastic participants begin organizing campaigns of their own. I believe a successful publishing strategy should encourage those activities rather than place unnecessary financial barriers between prospective players and the games they might enjoy.

Consider what happens when someone discovers Kingsmark for the first time. Perhaps that person has played Dungeons & Dragons for twenty years and is interested in exploring another approach to heroic fantasy. Perhaps a Game Master is dissatisfied with certain familiar mechanics and wants to examine the alternatives. Perhaps an adult who has never played a tabletop role-playing game is curious about the hobby. If the only way to discover whether Kingsmark is worth their attention is to purchase an unfamiliar book, some people will make that investment, but many others will simply continue searching. By making the complete Player’s Handbook available to read without charge, I remove that initial financial commitment. Prospective readers can examine the rules, investigate the Character Classes, study the combat and magic systems, and decide for themselves whether Kingsmark offers the kind of experience they want.

This matters especially because tabletop role-playing games depend upon Game Masters. One person who becomes enthusiastic about Kingsmark can potentially introduce the game to an entire group of players. Those players might share their experiences with friends, invite newcomers into future adventures, or eventually become Game Masters themselves. A single freely distributed rulebook could therefore introduce a dozen people to the world of Sylva without requiring twelve separate purchases. Over time, those individuals might organize campaigns, discuss character development, publish reviews, create adventures, or encourage others to explore the game. Not every reader will become a customer, and not every gaming group will purchase physical books. Nevertheless, the community that develops around an actively played game has a value that cannot be measured solely by the revenue generated from its initial digital downloads.

I also believe that prospective players deserve the opportunity to examine a complete game rather than being restricted to a handful of introductory pages. Free quickstart guides certainly have their place, but Kingsmark is a comprehensive heroic fantasy system, and its most interesting qualities emerge from the relationships between its different mechanics. The single-d12 resolution system, Attribute PRISMs, Action Point economy, Physical Wounds, Mental Trauma, spellcasting, and character development are intended to work together. A reader who only sees a simplified demonstration may never appreciate the depth of the complete experience. The Player’s Handbook contains 17 Character Classes, five Human Types, 12 Attributes, 24 Skills, approximately 108 example Actions, four ready-made playable characters, and an introductory dungeon mission. There is enough material to begin playing immediately, and I want people to have a genuine opportunity to explore it.

This philosophy becomes even more important when considering the complete Kingsmark publishing project. The Player’s Handbook is the first volume of a planned six-book core collection, accompanied by The Marketplace, The Spellbook, The Bestiary, The World Book, and The Tavern. Each volume addresses a particular aspect of heroic fantasy, from equipment and commerce to supernatural creatures, magical traditions, the civilizations of Sylva, and the art of Game Mastering. My intention is to produce attractive, full-color printed editions that people will enjoy owning, studying, and keeping within reach during their gaming sessions. Creating such books is an ambitious undertaking, and purchasing an entire six-volume collection could understandably represent a considerable expense for many households. I do not want someone’s ability to participate in Kingsmark to depend upon whether purchasing several large printed books fits comfortably into the family budget.

Physical books and digital editions serve different purposes, and I intend to embrace the advantages of both. A beautifully printed hardcover offers a tactile experience that digital files cannot reproduce. There is something satisfying about opening a substantial rulebook, examining detailed illustrations, turning through pages filled with fantastic creatures, and discovering an intriguing passage while preparing an adventure. Printed volumes can become treasured possessions, particularly when they are used for years and accumulate memories of the campaigns they helped create. Digital books, on the other hand, are convenient, portable, searchable, and relatively inexpensive to distribute. They can be consulted on a computer during an online session, carried on a tablet, or accessed by players who live thousands of miles from the nearest shop selling tabletop role-playing games. I want both formats to remain available, without insisting that everyone choose the same way to enjoy the game.

My broader publishing strategy is therefore to keep digital editions affordable and make free access an important part of the Kingsmark experience. Readers who want the convenience of purchasing an official PDF can do so, helping support the development of additional books and adventures. Those who prefer physical editions will eventually have the opportunity to purchase the printed volumes. People who cannot afford either option should still be welcome to read the material, learn the rules, and participate in the community. Supporting independent publishing is valuable, but financial circumstances differ enormously. Ten dollars may be an insignificant expense for one person and a meaningful sacrifice for another. When someone is struggling to purchase groceries, pay rent, support children, or meet other essential obligations, buying a tabletop role-playing game should not become another source of financial pressure.

This brings me to a subject that many publishers understandably find uncomfortable: digital piracy. The unauthorized copying and distribution of books, music, films, software, and games has existed for decades, and improvements in technology have made digital files exceptionally easy to reproduce and share. Publishers can invest considerable resources attempting to restrict copying, but those restrictions can also inconvenience legitimate customers. I have no interest in building the future of Kingsmark around an endless struggle to prevent people from obtaining digital copies. My goal is to create a game that people enjoy playing and a collection of books that people consider worth supporting. I believe my limited resources are better devoted to improving the game, producing additional material, and introducing new people to Sylva than attempting to pursue every freely shared copy of my work.

In fact, I am willing to go considerably further than merely accepting that copies will circulate. I welcome the noncommercial sharing of the complete, unaltered Kingsmark Player’s Handbook PDF that I authorize for free distribution. Send it to your friends. Share it with the members of your gaming group. Keep a copy for your own reference. If you participate in BitTorrent communities, you are welcome to help distribute the authorized file, including by seeding it on The Pirate Bay. I would rather have people enjoying the game through a freely shared copy than exclude them because they cannot afford to purchase it. This permission concerns sharing the original PDF free of charge; it does not authorize selling unauthorized editions, misrepresenting the work as someone else’s creation, or publishing modified copies as official Kingsmark products. I retain my copyright and commercial publishing rights while choosing to make the game accessible.

There is also an important difference between someone sharing a book with the permission of its creator and someone distributing material against the creator’s wishes. When I explicitly authorize the noncommercial redistribution of a Kingsmark PDF, that sharing is part of my publishing strategy. It is not an infringement of the permission I have granted. I am choosing to make the work available because I want more people to encounter it. Readers who wish to support my work can purchase official editions, recommend Kingsmark to friends, introduce it to their gaming groups, and help spread awareness of the project. Those who cannot contribute financially may still contribute something meaningful by participating in the community. I appreciate both forms of support, and I have no desire to make someone feel ashamed because they obtained an authorized free copy.

This approach is not without precedent. One of the most relevant examples comes from Posthuman Studios, the publisher of the science-fiction tabletop role-playing game Eclipse Phase. When the game first appeared in 2009, its creators adopted a Creative Commons licensing approach that permitted noncommercial sharing of their publications. They continued to sell printed books and digital PDFs while allowing readers to distribute the material freely, including through BitTorrent. Their reasoning was particularly relevant to independent publishing: an unfamiliar game faces the considerable challenge of attracting attention in a marketplace filled with established competitors. If people cannot discover the game, they cannot become players, customers, or supporters. Allowing the rules to circulate freely was one way to address that problem.

What makes Eclipse Phase especially interesting is that its publisher subsequently disclosed actual commercial results. In a retrospective published in 2011, Posthuman Studios reported selling 5,376 printed core rulebooks over approximately fourteen months and around 1,400 paid PDFs over roughly fifteen months, even as thousands of additional copies circulated freely. The publisher also reported more than 14,000 downloads associated with one torrent tracker. These figures do not establish precisely how many purchases resulted from free distribution, but they demonstrate that extensive authorized sharing did not prevent the game from generating substantial paid sales. Customers continued purchasing books even when free copies were readily available. For an independent publisher considering whether unrestricted access necessarily destroys commercial opportunity, that is a valuable example.

Other tabletop role-playing games have embraced related strategies. Shawn Tomkin made the complete original Ironsworn fantasy RPG available as a free digital download while offering physical editions and developing further commercial products. The later Ironsworn: Starforged crowdfunding campaign raised approximately $348,000 from more than 6,700 backers, demonstrating that a publishing line established around a freely accessible original game can attract substantial commercial support. Kevin Crawford’s Worlds Without Number provides another example, offering a comprehensive free edition alongside a commercial deluxe version with additional material. Cairn distributes complete digital game resources without charge while offering printed editions, and Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game has long emphasized freely accessible rules and low-cost printed books. These publishers have pursued different business objectives, but their examples demonstrate that charging every reader for access to the core rules is not the only viable approach to tabletop RPG publishing.

I am not suggesting that Kingsmark will automatically reproduce the commercial achievements of these games. Each publisher has its own history, audience, production expenses, and approach to distributing material. I am interested in the underlying principle: free access and commercial publishing are not mutually exclusive. A game may circulate widely without payment while some readers choose to support its creator through purchases. Indeed, people often purchase books for reasons that extend beyond obtaining the information printed inside them. They may want a handsome physical edition, prefer purchasing directly from the author, value convenient access to the most recent official release, or simply wish to help finance future work. I intend to give readers reasons to support Kingsmark voluntarily rather than make payment a prerequisite for discovering whether the game deserves their attention.

There are practical advantages to this approach for independent Game Masters as well. Someone interested in running Kingsmark can share the Player’s Handbook with prospective participants before an introductory session. Players can study the Character Classes, consider their options, and become familiar with the fundamental rules without requiring the Game Master to purchase additional copies on their behalf. An established group can examine Kingsmark together before deciding whether to begin a campaign. Gaming clubs and community organizers may also find that freely accessible material makes introducing tabletop role-playing easier. The fewer obstacles that stand between curiosity and participation, the greater the opportunity for an unfamiliar game to develop an active audience.

I also intend to introduce people to Kingsmark through free online adventures conducted in English for adults aged eighteen and older. These games provide an opportunity to experience the system directly, learn from an experienced Game Master, and explore Sylva alongside other players. For someone unfamiliar with tabletop role-playing games, participating in a real session can be considerably more illuminating than simply reading hundreds of pages of rules. For experienced players, it offers an opportunity to evaluate the game’s mechanics, tactical decisions, and approach to storytelling firsthand. I consider these sessions part of the same philosophy that motivates my distribution strategy: give people opportunities to experience Kingsmark, encourage them to participate, and allow their own experiences to determine whether they wish to become long-term supporters.

Ultimately, my ambition extends beyond selling a single Player’s Handbook. I want Kingsmark to develop into a substantial heroic fantasy gaming community, supported by a growing collection of books, adventures, reference materials, and other creative projects. I want to hear about the characters people create, the dangers their parties survive, the terrible mistakes they make, and the victories they achieve against seemingly impossible odds. I want Game Masters to explore the world of Sylva, develop their own adventures, and introduce my system to people who might otherwise never encounter it. Every new gaming group represents another opportunity for Kingsmark to become part of someone’s life, and that possibility matters whether the first copy of the handbook was purchased, borrowed, or freely downloaded.

None of this means I am indifferent to earning an income from my work. Kingsmark represents years of development, and producing additional books requires continued investment. When readers purchase an official digital edition, order a printed volume, or otherwise support the project financially, they help make further development possible. I am genuinely grateful for that support, particularly from those willing to invest in an independent game during its earliest days. My intention is to build a sustainable publishing venture whose success comes from producing material people value. I simply reject the idea that the opportunity to experience a tabletop role-playing game must always be limited to those who can afford to purchase it.

The complete Kingsmark: Player’s Handbook First Edition is available for $10 through Payhip and itch.io, and I am making the handbook available for free online reading as part of my commitment to accessible gaming. I also welcome the free, noncommercial distribution of the authorized, unaltered PDF. If you enjoy the game and can afford to support its development, purchasing an official edition is greatly appreciated. If you cannot afford it, please enjoy the free material and consider sharing Kingsmark with someone who might become your next adventuring companion. There is no expectation that every player must become a paying customer, and no reason for financial hardship to prevent someone from participating in an imaginative and rewarding hobby.

The world of Sylva contains kingdoms awaiting heroes, forgotten ruins concealing ancient secrets, dangerous Contracts promising extraordinary rewards, and countless stories that have yet to be told. Those opportunities should belong to the people willing to explore them, not exclusively to those with sufficient disposable income to purchase an entire collection of books. I would rather have a thousand people playing Kingsmark for free than a thousand people who have never heard of it. If providing the Player’s Handbook without charge helps more people discover the excitement of tabletop role-playing, gather their friends, and embark upon adventures of their own, then I consider that a worthy investment in the future of Kingsmark.

About The Author