What we learned about the Cosmere RPG at Dragonsteel Nexus 2024 (Updated)

While at Dragonsteel Nexus 2024 I had the opportunity to attend a “State of the Cosmere RPG” panel where we learned a ton about what’s coming in 2025 for the Stormlight story line, and in 2026 for the Mistborn RPG. Below are some of the slides with notes and commentary on what I saw.

The panel consisted of:

The panel consisted of:

Johnny O'Neal, Creative Director
Lyla Fujiwara, Project Lead
Lydia Suen, Lead Writer
Katie Payne, Art Director
Ross Leiser, Designer
Meric Moir, Writer

I initially had the below copy. Johnny O'neal provided me the update on Reddit. Thanks Johnny!

The panel was led by Johnny O’neal, the president and co-founder of Brotherwise. Unfortunately, I missed the slide with the introductions for each and it's not listed online. Most were on the creative side for either design or writing, with others representing the system design. Unfortunately, a combination of LinkedIn and the registration page on Tabletop wasn’t enough for me to bridge the gap.

TL;DR

• Further confirmation of release dates: Stormlight Sept. 2025, Mistborn Sept. 2026.
• Shardbearer Warrior Path
• Willshaper Radiant Path
• Stats for Nightblood (to come)
• Stoneward page with Ideals
• Additional details for the Stonewalker Campaign
• Tons of info about the Mistborn campaign setting
• There is no level cap, gather all the powers in the Cosmere.

Cosmere RPG release dates

Consistent with previous announcements, the Stormlight adventure in the Cosmere RPG is set to release in September of 2025 with the Mistborn adventure being released around the same time in 2026. Later on they talked about adventures beyond these two, but nothing concrete yet. 

They did mention a few times that further success beyond the initial launch will help support additional campaign supplements, but they didn’t have any solid information to share yet.

Shardbearers and combat

We got some new information for the Warrior tree, with the addition of the Shardbearer path. Reading through the details, I love the focus on movement and knocking foes around. It feels very true to the cannon lore surrounding Shards, but doesn’t feel explicitly overpowered. 

It will be difficult for GMs to balance combat around players with these kinds of power, but the team seems confident. I got to take a quick peek (no pictures) at an alpha version of the game manual and talked briefly with Johnny about building encounters. He said things would be different vs. 5th edition and its something the team is working on. He also mentioned during the presentation that combat encounters are only designed to last 2 - 3 rounds.

Nightblood

No slides here, but they mentioned how the original plan for the campaign was to have players eventually take up and get to use Nightblood in combat.

The issue became the timing of the campaign - they couldn’t get the players to Nightblood in a natural way given the flow of the campaign and the relative time within the Stormlight cannon.

We will however, get stats and info about how Nightblood works so if GMs want to homebrew, they can.

Stonewards and ideals

I am not 100% sure if we’ve seen this page in its totality, but the team reiterated that we would be learning what each orders ideals are, excluding the 5th.

Reading through this page, they look to be very explicit about how they lay out the info. I am pumped to see the book in its final form.

Willshapers

I believe this is another set of completely new information. They have the full Radiant Path for the Willshapers. There is so much to dive into with these, I may end up writing more about them in the future. For now, I am just pumped to have more info on Elsegates.

Shadesmar encounter

The panel talked a bit about the creative process working with Dragonsteel and the creative team at Brotherwise, developing out canon artwork for the Cosmere. The team is putting a lot of love in to the design and I can't wait to see the completed product.

Stonewalker Adventure

We learned a lot about the first adventure for the Cosmere RPG. It sounds like we'll be going in to 2025 with details of the adventure mostly locked down. They didn't mention anything, but I hope this means we'll get more details or previews of the campaign once we get a bit closer.

Awesome is an understatement in this case, we learned about some machinations the party will be exposed to through this campaign setting, and knowing that it will be canonical gives us more detail than even the books do.

One of the most exciting parts of this particular slide is the confirmation that we will be seeing Rall Elorim, the City of Shadows, through the course of the books.

From what I can tell, here's a rough outline of how where we will be traveling:

1. Southern border of Alethkar. Given the art of Taln above, I'm wondering if we'll be helping escort Taln to the Shattered Plains.
2. The Shattered Plains, likely the war camps.
3. Rathalas, or at least what's left of it.
4. By ship, we'll travel west towards Greater Hexi and eventually in to Emul. This is where the Nightwatcher is, and it's been confirmed that we will be interacting with them.
5. From there we depart Emul on it's western coast and head for Rall Elorium (hype).
6. We end the adventure in Shinovar.

I am not 100% sure where we'll enter Shadesmar, but given that we'll be crossing the ocean on multiple occasions, there is a lot of practical opportunity to introduce that as a means of travel.

Given the title slide of the Stonewalkers adventure, the three Heralds we'll meet are Nale, Taln, and Pralla.

We'll also get some time with Axies the Collector, which is dope.

And as mentioned above, we'll get to meet the Nightwatcher. The team mentioned that they will include a list of Boon and Curse pairings.

They also suggested that we'll get our hands on the dagger used to kill Hearlds, but didn't give much context beyond.

Progress report

Not a ton to talk about here, other than the fact that all of the mini figures are completed. There are additional screenshots of those below, some we haven't seen before. They didn't have any of the unreleased minifigs at Nexus, but they did have the dice on sales. I got a set and they're great.

Mistborn RPG

We got a great first look at the Mistborn campaign and setting.

The campaign will (somehow) take place across both Eras of Mistborn. The book with contain 32 metallic arts, including everything we've seen minus the god metals. We get additional information about some of the Heroic paths avaliable.

Confirmation that you'll be able to play as a Kandra and a Koloss-blooded player type. This is especially exciting because we'll get a ton of information about the Kandra in the guidebook.

They also confirmed that we'll be able to use Hemalurgic spikes!

The team is excited about the technology and campaign setting for Era 2, and really what's not to love.

They shared some details and discuss how layering in the new weapons featured in Era 2 is a challenge, but they're working hard on balance.

Masterminds are meant to be the Kelsiers of the Cosmere, and can take on the role of planning the party's actions.

Early look at the Warrior tree, specifically the Gunner branch.

Combining notes on these slides: they talked a lot about the balance challenges for Mistborn, Mistings, and Twinborn. Leaning in to the cannon, Mistborn might be able to do a little bit of everything, but will take a long time to develop the mastery in the metallic arts that a Misting or Twinborn might.

They also talked about Soothing and Rioting mechanics. They didn't want players or GMs to misinterpret these conditions as "Mind Control", so they'll provide guidance on how to roll play and administer these as conditions in game.

What's next, Q&A, and other notes

The panel took an unofficial cheer poll to see which area they should explore next. Each campaign setting was met with approval, but there was the most excitement around Warbreaker. The panel mentioned that they're not in control of where we go next, that's for Brandon to decide, but they would pass the hype along.

Other random notes and things from the Q&A:

• The extra money from the kickstarter will allow the team to focus on high quality content for each release. More money = more resources.
• There is no level cap, gather all the powers in the Cosmere.
• There will be a guide for people who haven't read the books as well as some introductory campaign quests to help.
• They want players to have resources to both stay in cannon and destroy it.

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