Titanbound - Climb and Slay Titans in Shadowdark RPG

Created by Torchlight Creative

Hunt, climb and slay colossal Titans in TITANBOUND, designed for use with Shadowdark RPG. New kaiju-slaying classes, magic, gear and ancestries will help you bring down the biggest monsters ever imagined! *Shipping Costs will be applied at a later date*

Latest Updates from Our Project:

🧾 Project Update: Survey Smoke Test + Next Beta Progress!
about 1 month ago – Thu, Jul 23, 2026 at 04:54:20 PM

Titan Hunters, Rally!

We have some updates from the climb.

First, the pledge manager smoke test is going out! That means about 5% of backers will receive their surveys in the next couple of days. We’ll use that small batch to make sure everything is working properly, all the options are showing up correctly, and the process is smooth before we send surveys to everyone else.

Once we confirm everything looks good, the rest of the surveys will go out, ideally next week.

And I'm happy to report… there are two surprises waiting for you in the surveys... hope you like them :)

I’ll give you all a chance to discover them on your own, but once folks have had a little time to poke around, I’ll post another update with additional details.

📚 Next Beta Update

Work on the next beta is going great and exhausting!

The “problem child” — hrm, Relic Hunter, hrm — turned out even better than I hoped. It ended up being a lot of work in the best possible way, and while our superstar graphic designer Matteo was getting it formatted, I charged through the work on the Planeshift Summoner. That class is now over with Matteo as well, which means the next beta is going to be a big one.

🏔️ What’s Coming in the Next Beta

The next beta will include all 12 Titanbound classes, plus all the major class support content that goes with them:
  • spells
  • weaves
  • threads
  • relics
  • summons
  • class tables
  • and all the extra tools needed to actually run them at the table

All told, this beta is going to clock in at around 200 pages.

It’s a huge chunk of the book, and I honestly can’t wait to hear what you all think. When we send it out, I’ll include a link to the Discord as well, so you can come tell us what’s working, what you love, what needs a tweak, and which class immediately caused trouble at your table.

Shall we have another class preview now?  We shall.

A Closer Look at the Planeshift Summoner

This class has gone through a lot of development, and I’m really happy with where it has landed. It’s not a traditional “pet class,” or even a normal summon class, where you stand safely in the back while another creature fights for you. Instead, the Planeshift Summoner does something much stranger: when you summon a creature, you switch physical places with it.

The creature appears in your mortal world, and you are pulled into the strange and endless realm (the Endless Wilds) it came from. For a few rounds, your party fights alongside the summon instead of you. Then, when the summon ends, you return, and it goes home (unless... well, see below).

You aren’t adding another full combatant to the party. You’re deciding what kind of presence the party needs right then. Do they need a protector? A predator? A scout? A chaotic little menace? The Summoner becomes a class about choosing the right creature for the moment.

The Four Starting Summon Types

At early levels, Planeshift Summoners choose from four summon categories: Guardian, Hunter, Scout, and Trickster. Each category fills a different role.

Guardian Summons
Guardian summons are called when the party needs protection more than raw power. These creatures are sturdy, loyal, and hard to move. They block passages, shield allies, punish enemies for getting too close, and help the party survive when things get dangerous. A Guardian might be a mastiff, a shield beetle, a porcupony, a stoneback tortoise, or something even stranger. They usually don’t hit as hard as Hunters, but they are much better at standing between your friends and danger.

Use a Guardian when you need to hold the line.

Hunter Summons
Hunter summons are predators. They are faster, more aggressive, and more dangerous than most other summons, but they are not built to protect the party. They chase, ambush, leap, bite, tear, and pursue. A Hunter can deal more damage than the Summoner normally could, but that power comes with risk. Hunters are easier to isolate, surround, or bring down. A Hunter might be a wolf, starfang, honey badger, rift leaper, moon stalker, great griffon, or rift drake.

Use a Hunter when something needs to die quickly.

Scout Summons

Scout summons are for movement, discovery, and survival. They fly, climb, swim, leap, track, spot hidden paths, hear danger coming, and help the party cross terrain that would otherwise be impossible. They are not strong combatants, but they can completely change how the party approaches a titan, ruin, cavern, or battlefield. A Scout might be an owl, fox, wayfinder hare, giant bat, cliffstrider gecko, mistwing manta, far-eye moth, cloud ray, or horizon drake.

Use a Scout when you need to find the way forward.

Trickster Summons

Trickster summons are agents of chaos. They distract, mislead, steal, confuse, hide, escape, and turn an enemy’s certainty against them. They don’t hit as hard as Hunters, don’t protect like Guardians, and don’t explore as reliably as Scouts, but they can create openings no other summon can. A Trickster might drop an enemy’s weapon, mimic someone’s face, vanish into shadow, create a false target, or force a foe into an embarrassing mistake at exactly the wrong moment.

Use a Trickster when the best plan is making sure your enemy’s plan falls apart.

Bonds Make It Personal
One of my favorite parts of the class is the Bond system. Summoned creatures are not disposable minions. They are beings from another plane who choose to answer your call. If a creature survives, contributes, and remains long enough, it can form a Bond with you.

Over time, a bonded creature can grow stronger, develop new traits, and become a recurring companion. But there’s a cost: if a bonded creature dies, it is gone forever. It's dead.

That means summoning is not just tactical. It’s emotional. You might start by calling “a Guardian,” but after enough adventures, that porcupony, shield beetle, or rift drake becomes yours. When you call, it answers.

Stranger Summons at Higher Levels
As the Summoner grows, more unusual options begin to open up. We’re currently building the class so the early game focuses on the four core summon types, while later levels unlock more specialized categories such as Mystic and Siege summons.

Mystics bring supernatural support, strange senses, wards, and healing. Siege summons are built for breaking objects, structures, vehicles, and terrain.

Turn to the Undead
There’s also a darker, optional path: calling not from the Endless Wilds, but from the Endless Depths, a plane of restless dead and forgotten things. This creates an Undead Summoner variant with a very different feel and a much more dangerous bargain.

The Planeshift Summoner has become one of the most distinct classes in Titanbound. It feels tactical, weird, dangerous, and very different from a standard fantasy summoner. Instead of commanding a pet or magical being from the back line, you’re opening a door between worlds, stepping through, and trusting that whatever comes through in your place will protect your friends until you return.

Thank you again for your excitement and  continued support. The surveys are moving, the beta is growing, and Titanbound keeps getting closer to your hands.

Onward and Upward,

Geoff

🎲 The Titan Dice Have Arrived! + Kobold Pilgrimage + Beta Progress + Relic Hunter Preview
2 months ago – Fri, Jun 26, 2026 at 07:52:04 AM

Titan Hunters, Rally!

Big news from the climb: product samples of the Titan dice have arrived! I've been involved in a lot of projects over the years, but this is my first time I've designed and produced one from top to bottom as a publisher... and to hold these in my hands is a really moving experience.  All thanks to you, so a big shout out to backers of Titanbound for making this real.



These things are BIG... exactly the kind of oversized, table-commanding dice you want to roll when a Titan is bearing down on the city and everyone is holding their breath.



And yes, if you reserved your free 55mm Titan d20, you chose wisely.



⚔️ Quick Shadowdark Shoutout: A Kobold Pilgrimage

Before we dive into our beta update, I want to give a quick shoutout to a great Shadowdark campaign entering its final days: A Kobold Pilgrimage: One-Hour One-Shots for Shadowdark and 5E

If you love fast, table-ready adventures, one-shot friendly design, and more Shadowdark goodness in your library, definitely give this one a look before it ends. It's got some really great art and tons of clever ideas to bring to the table when you're short on time.

📚 Beta Update: Taking a Little More Time

Now for the next Titanbound beta. We were hoping to get the next beta release out by now, but we’re taking a little more time with it. I won’t point fingers, but a certain hunter of relics ended up being a lot more work than expected... but in a good way, I promise.

We know you’re excited to see more, and trust me, we’re excited to show it. I'm working around the clock to get all these new classes tested and over to you! To attempt to make up for that, here's a peek at the trouble-causing-class.

🏺 Class Preview: The Relic Hunter

Since the Relic Hunter is partly responsible for the extra work, it only feels fair to give you a sneak preview at what makes this class so exciting.

The Relic Hunter is an intellectual adventurer: part scholar, part treasure-seeker, part battlefield improviser. They read ruins, decode ancient markings, recognize forgotten craftsmanship, and know that the “worthless trinket” everyone else ignored might be the thing that saves the party, because the big thing the Relic Hunter brings to Titanbound is Relic Magic.

Relics are ancient objects infused with power. They might be buried in Titan ruins, sealed in forgotten tombs, traded through black markets, hidden in monster lairs, or sitting in plain sight if you know what to look for. But relics aren’t permanent magic items you hoard forever. They are powerful, strange, disposable resources.

To use a relic, a character must first attune to it, learning how to wake the magic inside. Once attuned, the relic can be activated to unleash its effect, but every relic has a limited number of charges, and every risks burning it out, where it will crumble, crack, go inert, or otherwise become nothing more than another dead artifact of a forgotten age.

That’s where the fun begins. Since relics are meant to be used, burned out, and discarded, players get to experiment with a wide range of strange effects, tactical tricks, emergency saves, and wild combinations depending on what they’ve found and what they’re carrying. 

One delve might leave the Relic Hunter loaded with tools for movement and escape. Another might give them damage, defense, healing, or battlefield control. The class is built around that feeling of discovery: what did we find, what does it do, and when is the perfect moment to spend it?

At the table, this turns relics into a constant source of creativity and surprise. Do you save that ancient charm for later, or use it now to survive the fight? Do you attune to the item that helps the party climb, or the one that might turn the tide against a monster? 

Very fun and challenging to design, and creating the relics has been a blast.  Currently we're working with a list of 80 relics, and I've broken them down by effect below:

Damage & Offensive Relics: 18 relics (22.5%) - Blast, strike, poison, burn, pierce, curse, or otherwise hurt enemies. 
Defense & Survival Relics: 14 relics (17.5%) - Reduce damage, block attacks, survive falls, resist elements, avoid death. 
Movement  Relics: 12 relics (15%) - Climbing, leaping, flying short distances, escaping bonds, crossing gaps, titan-scale movement. 
Utility & Problem-Solving Relics: 14 relics (17.5%) - Open locks, reveal secrets, translate ancient marks, locate paths, manipulate objects, bypass obstacles. 
Healing Relics: 8 relics (10%) - Heal HP, remove conditions, restore ability damage, purge poison, stabilize allies. 
Control Relics: 8 relics (10%) - Slow enemies, trap targets, create barriers, alter terrain, force movement, disrupt attacks. 
Weird & Risky  Chaos Relics: 6 relics (7.5%) - Powerful but unpredictable relics with strange consequences, tradeoffs, or dramatic effects.

Relic Hunters can search for relics almost anywhere, and roll for random search results. Relics they can find in Bazaars, differ from ones they can find in Black Markets, Wilderness, and Crawls. Easy to use tables make playing the character incredibly easy, and our testers have had a blast discovering new ways to use all the ancient powers.

Onward and Upward,

Geoff

Climb Cleared! Wastrel Player Aid UNLOCKED! 🌹💀 One stretch goal to go!
3 months ago – Wed, Jun 03, 2026 at 07:26:06 PM

Titan Hunters, Rally!

You did it! You unlocked the next stretch goal, which means the Wastrel Player Aid PDF is officially UNLOCKED for backers! 🎉

This is a clean, table-ready handout with everything a player needs to roll up a Wastrel and start playing in minutes, perfect for quick starts, one-shots, and dropping a chaos-loving charmer into the party without slowing the game down.

And now…

🧗 One More Stretch Goal Left!!!

We’re down to the final climb: The Wastrel Luck Coin.



A beautiful, limited-edition coin featuring art by Bunni Daniel (Dungeon Damsel / Druskara).

On one side: a rose; on the other: a skull. It unlock at $69k!

And I suppose we should preview the class to give a taste of how the Luck Coin comes into play...

Class Spotlight: The Wastrel

Some heroes trust steel. Some trust gods.

The Wastrel trusts luck.

"Some women trust steel. Some trust gods. Me? I trust luck. Most of the time, it never fails.”                       
   - Vesper Crowe, Wastrel, moments before the ceiling collapsed

A gambler, scoundrel, charmer, cheat, poet, liar, lover, and pure walking chaos, the Wastrel is the kind of adventurer who should have died a dozen times already, but somehow keeps grinning through the dust and rubble.

This is a class built for players who love taking risks, making big dramatic choices, and turning terrible odds into unforgettable table moments.

At the heart of the Wastrel is their Luck Coin. Each session, the Wastrel gains a small pool of Luck Coins they can spend to tempt fate. Flip the coin and fortune either smiles or bites back. Win the flip, and you might turn a last chance roll into your advantage, cheat death, twist an enemy’s attack, or pull off something spectacular.

Lose the flip, and things get worse. Maybe much worse.

As the Wastrel levels up, they gain Lucky Breaks, strange gifts of fortune that make their coin flips even more dangerous and unpredictable. And a Wastrel who isn't satisfied when luck breaks their way can push their luck even further by doubling down for the chance at an even bigger reward (but can end up with an even more painful consequence).

The Wastrel is not careful. The Wastrel is not reliable. The Wastrel is the character who looks at a collapsing bridge, a charging monster, a bad plan, and one last coin in their hand and says: “This is gonna go my way, I can feel it.”

For players who want a class full of danger, charm, comedy, tragedy, and clutch moments, the Wastrel brings something fun to the table: a hero powered by bad decisions, impossible luck, and the thrill of the flip.

Thank you again, Titan Hunters. We’re so close to the final summit. Let’s bring that coin to life.

Onward and Upward,

Geoff

Progress Report, Next Beta Incoming, Late Pledges and a Cthulhu Kickstarter Shoutout
3 months ago – Wed, May 27, 2026 at 10:30:50 AM

Titan Hunters, Rally!

🧾 Late Pledges Are Open!

Quick reminder before anything else: late pledges are open right now. If you missed the campaign, want to upgrade, or have a friend who’d love Titanbound, this is the window to jump in and join the hunt.

🐙 Kickstarter shoutout: Heart of Cthulhu: 1912

In you were waiting to try Daggerheart until they had a Lovecraft setting, take a gander at Heart of Cthulhu: 1912! The team behind it is absolutely stacked; I’m lucky enough to know the design crew: they’re fantastic humans and seriously talented creators. If you like gorgeous presentation, sharp writing, and that “oh no… we should not open this door” energy, give it a look and toss them some love. Act now: there's only 24 hours left in the campaign!

📚 Titanbound Status: 120+ New Pages Near-Final

We’ve now got 120+ pages in near-final shape, meaning: tight text, layout underway, and the book is starting to feel real in the best way.

🧪 Next Beta: More Classes Moving Into Layout

We’re currently pushing the next pack of character classes from design & testing into layout. After one more internal pass (testing, proofing, tightening language... then tightening some more to get to that sweet & elegant Shadowdark layout) we’ll release them as the next Beta.

This next Beta will include the Elemental Weaver, and it’s one of the most ambitious classes we’ve tackled. It'll come with roughly 120 “Weaves” and “Threads,” which means it’s both a ton of content and a ton of balancing. We’re deep in the details to make sure it lands clean and plays smooth.

We’re being a little extra careful here because we want these classes to be as close to “final” as possible before they go public. We will appreciate any and all thoughts you all have about these classes, but we also don't want to outsource all of the playtesting to you fine folk.

Class Preview: The Elemental Weaver

While priests attain their magic from divine gifts and wizards from the arcane forces that bind the world together, Elemental Weavers use their wisdom to create magic from the building blocks of the universe itself. They weave one or more of the 10 known elements together to create a personal, evolving spell repertoire. Every element they learn reshapes the magic they already know, creating strange, powerful, and surprising combinations. 

As a Weaver, you start by mastering a single element (one of 10), then unlock new elements as you level. Each element comes with its own list of Weaves to choose from, but the real meat of the class is how the Weaver grows. Every time you master a new element, you not only gain Weaves from that element, but you also learn Threads from that element that “thread” themselves through previously learned Weaves. These threads grant your Weaves new powers and effects that permanently reshape and evolve your magic.

One Weaver’s fire-based Weaves might become a climbing tool or a battlefield control engine, while another’s becomes raw damage infliction. It’s a class built for players who love tinkering, discovering unexpected combos, and watching their character’s magic evolve in surprising directions over time. 

No two Elemental Weavers look the same at the table, but all employ a very easy to use Weave creation system, so there's no learning curve for players who are ready to try out this unique class. 

🗻 The Heart of the Book: First Titan, First City & Titan Combat Rules

We’re also just about done with the first Titan and the first City.

And here’s the plan: as the third public beta, we’re going to release those together, alongside the Titan climbing and fighting rules.

That’s the beating heart of Titanbound: the city, the threat, the climb, the fight. We want that first impression to hit like a thundering footfall.

Thanks again, Titan Hunters. More soon; no spam, just the good stuff as it locks into place.

And one last reminder: late pledges are still open, so if you want to jump in, upgrade, or nudge a fellow gamer into the hunt, now’s the time. Help us unlock some awesome post-campaign stretch goals!

Onward and Upward,
 
Geoff

Late Pledges Are Open! + Post-Campaign Stretch Goals Continue
4 months ago – Thu, Apr 23, 2026 at 05:53:04 PM

Titan Hunters, Rally!

The campaign may be over, but the climb continues...

We’re excited to announce that late pledges are now open! If you missed the campaign, want to upgrade your support, or know someone who meant to back Titanbound but ran out of time, this is your chance to jump in and join the hunt.

And because this project has outperformed our expectations at every turn… we’re doing exactly what we promised: We’re Forging Ahead with Post-Campaign Stretch Goals.

This means late backers can still help us unlock even more for Titanbound. We had too much momentum to stop now, and frankly… there are still a few treasures high up on the mountain I’d really love to bring to life.

🏔️ Post-campaign Climb #1: Wastrel Player Aid PDF

At $64,000, we’ll unlock the Wastrel Player Aid PDF for all backers.

This will be a clean, table-ready handout with everything a player needs to create a Wastrel and start playing in minutes so you can drop this silver-tongued disaster straight into the action.

Hand it to a player and say: “Congratulations. You’re the party's problem now.”

And then… the big one.

🏔️ Grand Finale Climb: Wastrel Luck Coin designed by Bunni Daniel

At $69,000, every physical backer will receive the Wastrel Luck Coin, a beautiful, limited-edition coin custom designed by Bunni Daniel of Dungeon Damsel / Druskara.

One side bears a rose; the other, a skull.

This coin is the perfect Wastrel artifact. Dramatic, stylish, a little dangerous, and far more fun than any ordinary d2. When it’s time to press your luck and drag the party out of a jam… especially one the Wastrel caused… this is the coin you’ll want in hand.

🌹💀 First Look: The Coin Design

We’re excited to debut a first look at Bunni Daniel’s coin design.
It’s gorgeous. It’s flavorful. It absolutely nails the Wastrel’s mix of elegance and doom.

Thank you again for making Titanbound what it is. The campaign may have ended, but the project is still growing, and with late pledges now open, there’s still time to climb higher.

If you know someone who missed the campaign, now’s the perfect time to send them our way.

Onward and Upward,

Geoff