Skip to main content
Kal Arath book cover
Indie Active
Kal Arath logo

Kal Arath

Sword-and-sandal OSR fantasy adventure RPG by Castle Grief. 2d6 mechanics, exploding damage, classless characters. Plays solo, co-op, or with a GM.

Players 1+ Length 30 min–open Cost $5 PDF Minis Mini-Agnostic

"My current favorite solo TTRPG. I love the combat and the tables in the book specifically."

The Hobbinomicon Take

What is Kal Arath

Kal Arath is a Old School Revival fantasy adventure RPG by Castle Grief. The setting is a savage steppe (also called The Kyrg by northern barbarians) where demon lords demand sacrifice and pit-fighters can become kings. It’s basically Conan distilled into hexcrawl shape.

The system uses 2d6 core resolution, classless character progression, player-facing rolls, and exploding damage dice. Combat is fast and extremely deadly. The whole game is one self-contained booklet of rules, setting, and tables, built for solo, co-op, or group play. You can also lift just the setting and procedural gameplay onto any other fantasy TTRPG you prefer.

How to start

  1. Buy the $5 PDF at the Castle Grief itch page. 56 pages, completely self-contained.
  2. Roll a character. Classless, 2d6, takes a few minutes.
  3. Drop into the steppe. The book has the procedural tools to run a session out of the box.

If you fall in love with it, the supplements (Valley of the Black Ziggurat, Lords of the Pit, Twin Sun Sutra) are $5 each on the same itch page. Print copies of the core book and supplements are available through Castle Grief’s Shopify store.

The Hobbinomicon take

Currently playing my first campaign in Kal Arath solo and absolutely loving it. One of my favorite combat systems I have played.

Watch the full campaign in episode order: Kal Arath playlist on YouTube.

From the Hobbinomicon