Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound is Cubicle 7's heroic fantasy roleplaying game set in Games Workshop's Mortal Realms, released in 2020. Players are Soulbound: champions whose souls have been bound together into a Binding to fight Chaos, Death and Destruction on behalf of the gods. It uses a fast d6 dice pool system with shared Soulfire, a rising Doom track and campaign-scale consequences, and plays with three to five players and a GM.

It is best for Warhammer fans and groups who want powerful, mythic heroes, teamwork and big battles. It is a poor fit for tables who want gritty low fantasy and fragile starting characters (see Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay for that), or who dislike heavy setting lore.

What the game is

Age of Sigmar replaced the old Warhammer world with eight Mortal Realms: Azyr, Aqshy, Chamon, Ghur, Ghyran, Hysh, Shyish and Ulgu. After ages of war, Sigmar's armies and the mortal peoples are fighting back, while Nagash's Necroquake has unleashed the dead. Soulbound characters start near the top of this world as agents in a cosmic war. Geek Native's review sums it up: "the characters are heroes working directly for gods." The core book focuses on the Great Parch in Aqshy, with an overview of each realm.

Publication history and editions

• Core rulebook (2020): Cubicle 7's first RPG for the Age of Sigmar setting, about 350 pages, published under licence from Games Workshop. It is correctly tagged Licensed.
• Supplements: the line has grown with books including Champions of Order, Champions of Death, Champions of Destruction, Champions of Chaos, Steam and Steel, a Bestiary, Artefacts of Power and Era of the Beast, plus adventure books.
• Current availability: as of October 31, 2026, the core book is sold in print by Cubicle 7 and as a PDF on DriveThruRPG. Cubicle 7 also offers free player resources on its site.

What you need to play

You need the core rulebook, a handful of six-sided dice per player, character sheets and a GM. Miniatures are not required: combat uses broad zones, although optional rules support using miniatures. Familiarity with Age of Sigmar helps but is not necessary, as the book explains the setting.

Core rules and play structure

Characters have three core attributes, Body, Mind and Soul, and more than twenty skills. To act, you build a pool of six-sided dice from an attribute and skill. Tests are written as a Difficulty and Complexity, such as DN 4:2: each die showing 4 or more is a success, and you need at least two successes to pass. Geek Native called the system "simple but surprisingly flexible and effective."

Combat uses zones rather than measured movement. Mettle is a per-turn resource spent on extra actions and on some talents and miracles, which gives combat a tactical layer. Play is usually organised into adventures, with Endeavours between sessions for downtime activities.

Characters and advancement

The core book has five playable species (humans, Stormcast Eternals, aelves, duardin and Sylvaneth) and more than twenty archetypes, such as the Battlemage, Doomseeker, Knight-Questor, Aether-Khemist and Witch Aelf. Archetypes act as starting templates, and characters then spend experience to improve attributes, skills and talents. Characters begin very capable, and supplements add many more archetypes.

Signature mechanics

• Soulfire: a pool shared by the whole Binding, spent to reroll dice, regain Mettle or cheat death. A character can spend it against the group's wishes, but doing so raises Doom.
• Doom: a measure of how close the realms are to ruin. As Doom rises, bad events happen more often and some enemies grow stronger.
• Binding: the party is literally soul-bound, giving a built-in reason to cooperate.
• Endeavours: structured activities between adventures that drive longer campaigns.

What play feels like

Play feels epic and heroic. Characters are strong from the start and take on threats that would kill ordinary people, but combat is still dangerous: Geek Native's playtests often ended in near-wipes or one-sided fights. Soulfire and Doom make the party feel connected to each other and to the fate of the realms.

Running the game

The GM needs a working knowledge of the setting and should expect to adjust encounter difficulty, since the dice pools can make threat hard to judge. The book's Great Parch material gives a ready base for a campaign. Medium prep is typical: adventures and supplements help, but tailoring foes to a capable party takes thought, especially at higher experience.

Campaign fit

Soulbound is built for campaigns. Doom, Endeavours and character advancement all reward long play across the realms. It is less suited to quick one-shots because of character creation time and the lore load.

Reception and awards

Reviews have been broadly positive. Geek Native praised its layout, art and sidebars, called the index "as thorough as it could be," and said Soulbound "gets just about almost everything exactly right." Fantasy-Faction also reviewed it on release. Common cautions are the heavy lore, very capable starting characters, and combat getting more support than social play. We could not confirm any ENnie Award win for the core book.

Where it is strongest

• A huge, vivid setting brought to life at character scale.
• Fast, readable d6 pools.
• Soulfire and Doom tie the party together and to the world.
• Excellent production and a large supplement line.

Where it can frustrate groups

• Lots of lore to absorb.
• Encounter balance can be hard to judge.
• Social and investigation play get less support than combat.
• High-power characters do not suit gritty survival play.

Content and safety notes

Expect war, undead, Chaos corruption, gore and religious fanaticism, in line with Warhammer's tone. Discuss limits before play.

Best starting path

Read the core rules and the Great Parch chapter, use Cubicle 7's free player resources, and run a short adventure in the Great Parch. Add supplements once the group knows which factions it wants to play.

Research notes

Last checked October 31, 2026. Rules, species, archetypes and quotes are from the Geek Native review. Supplement titles and resources are from Cubicle 7 and the DriveThruRPG listing.

• Geek Native: Soulfire and Doom, a review of Soulbound (2020)
• Fantasy-Faction review (2020)
• Cubicle 7 Soulbound player resources
• Soulbound core rulebook on DriveThruRPG