Shroudwake: Awaken to Destiny, Evolve into Legend!

Millennia ago, the skies tore open. Storms rolled like a judgment across the horizon, and a strange mist engulfed the world; not to destroy it, but to rewrite it. That mist did not fade into history. It left a lingering pressure in the bones of the world, a living aftershock that still shapes every forest, ruin, river, and road.

In Shroudwake, the wondrous is not a distant legend. It is part of the everyday. Forests can stir with sentience. Rivers can feel older than life. Creatures do not simply live in the wilds, they change with them, twisting into myth and nightmare, then changing again. The familiar becomes unrecognizable, and the impossible becomes routine.

And people changed too. Humanity fractured into something broader, stranger, and more enduring: elves, dwarves, dryads, and other beings shaped by adaptation, survival, and the world’s relentless evolution.

Shadowmancer Studios latest TTRPG Shroudwake

What is Shroudwake?

Shroudwake is a mutation-driven fantasy tabletop roleplaying game where your character is shaped by a world still in motion. The setting is scarred and wondrous at the same time, and the game’s core theme is identity under pressure: who are you when life itself refuses to stay still?

You play adventurers marked by mutations, powerful changes that grant extraordinary capabilities, and sometimes terrifying limitations. Those mutations are not just a rules layer, they are the engine that binds setting, story, and character growth together. Shroudwake was built to feel like a world where evolution is not a backstory detail, it is the lived reality of every journey.

What makes Shroudwake unique?

Shadowmancer Studios is not just about releasing games; it’s about building a community. The studio has announced several upcoming events designed to bring players together and celebrate their shared passion.

• Character creation is ongoing: In many games, character creation is a single moment before the story begins. In Shroudwake, it’s a recurring experience, because your evolution never really stops. As you progress, you gain new mutations and make new choices, and those choices are shaped by what you actually survived at the table, not just what you imagined in a vacuum. The result is a character that keeps unfolding instead of settling into a loop.

  
  

• Mutation is both mechanic and narrative: Mutation in Shroudwake is not “flavor on top.” It is the reason the world looks the way it does, and it is the reason your character plays the way they do. Mutations explain the setting’s most iconic questions, including why elves, dwarves, and even dragons exist here at all. As you evolve, mutation becomes your identity, your toolkit, your risk, and your story arc all at once.

  
  

• Cooperative play is intentionally incentivized: Shroudwake is designed around the idea that the heart of a tabletop RPG is the heroic party, a group of players accomplishing something together. That means the game tries to avoid incentives that push players away from teamwork. Adventures are structured as Writs, and Writs don’t just deliver story, they help drive progression and keep the focus on shared objectives and the experience of the journey, rather than rewarding behavior that can sabotage the plot or the party.

• Failure is a story engine: Shroudwake is built to let stories unfold. Success is not required for the session to matter, and the game embraces the idea that an adventure can end in different “end conditions.” Maybe the villain escapes. Maybe the mystery is only partially solved. Maybe the party wins, but the world pays a price. Instead of breaking the story, these outcomes create momentum, consequences, and a strong “what happens next?” energy.

• Death is not the end of the story: In Shroudwake, death carries weight, but it is not always a hard stop. A death event can become a threshold, a moment of profound transformation that reshapes what your character becomes next. That means every encounter carries real tension, because failure can produce permanent change, but it also means your story can take unexpected turns instead of simply ending.

• A living world and a living canon Shroudwake is being built with community contribution in mind. The long-term vision includes crowd-sourcing parts of the lore and direction of the game, and encouraging aspiring writers to contribute to canon and get paid for their work. The goal is a world that grows with its players, without losing the integrity of the core vision that makes it distinct.

  
  

Each one of these themes are a blog post in and of itself…and we intend to do just that so stay tuned!

Drawn to ancient power, the heroes reach for discovery, unaware that something in the dark is already watching.

Who is Shroudwake for?

Shroudwake is for players who want a fantasy world that feels alive, strange, and full of discovery; familiar on the surface, but vastly different in how it looks, feels, and evolves in play.

It’s for groups who want the game to encourage cooperation in practical ways, and for tables that like stories with consequences, where outcomes can bend, twist, and keep moving instead of collapsing into a reset.

And it’s especially for players who love variety; the people who enjoy character options, creative problem-solving, and using powers in innovative ways to create solutions that feel earned and memorable.

Join the playtest!

Shroudwake is in active playtesting, and this is the phase where early players can have real impact. If you want to help shape the game, get new releases as they drop, and be part of the community that helps decide where the world goes next, sign up through the playtest portal at shadowmancerstudios.com.