Zweihänder

Zweihänder is a d100 dark fantasy TTRPG for groups who want low-born characters, dangerous fights and a slow, grinding campaign in a world that treats them badly. It suits players who liked the older Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay style of careers and percentile tests but want a game with its own setting assumptions and a free quickstart large enough to build every character option.

It is a poor fit for a table that wants quick setup, heroic power growth or light bookkeeping. Character creation runs through a long lifepath, combat tracks both Damage and Peril, and the core book is several hundred pages long. The current edition, Reforged, is sold as a PDF while the printed hardcover is still working its way to Kickstarter backers, so check what format you can actually get before planning around it.

What the game is

Zweihänder was designed by Daniel D. Fox and first published in 2017. The player characters are called survivors: ordinary people from a superstitious, class-bound late-medieval world who each came close to dying once and walked away changed. The game's own pitch is "zero to one" rather than zero to hero. Your survivors will not save the world, and the rules are built so that the world leaves marks on them instead.

The default play is a group campaign run by a Game Master. Sessions mix narrative scenes with structured intrigue, chase, travel and fight scenes, and the setting material leans on gothic horror, folk horror, plague, mercenary companies and religious fear of magic. The Reforged quickstart lists Berserk, The Witcher, Bloodborne, The Black Company, the Thirty Years' War and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay among its inspirations.

Publication history and editions

The first edition came out of a Kickstarter that raised $61,743 and was published by Grim & Perilous Studios in 2017. At Gen Con in 2018 it won two ENnie Awards: Gold for Best Game and Gold for Product of the Year, finishing ahead of Delta Green in both. Andrews McMeel Publishing took over publishing in 2019 with the Revised Core Rulebook, a Starter Kit, Main Gauche and a run of card decks and folios. Andrews McMeel wound down its games division a few years later, and Fox told Polygon that paper costs were a large part of the reason.

Fox then sold the rights to World of Game Design, which ran the Zweihänder Reforged Edition Kickstarter from March 12 to April 7, 2024 ($166,813 from 1,963 backers). Geek Native reports that Fox bought the rights back in October 2024 under his own label, SLLSWRD Games, while World of Game Design kept responsibility for printing and shipping the crowdfunded books. The Reforged core PDF went on sale on DriveThruRPG in May 2025. The physical books ran late: in May 2026 Fox publicly threatened legal action over the delays, and later that month he announced that World of Game Design would handle all printing, fulfilment and backer questions from then on (Geek Native). When this page was checked, the World of Game Design store still listed the hardcover as a preorder.

Reforged is described by its authors as a remaster rather than a clean break. It is backward compatible with the Andrews McMeel line and includes conversion notes, but it rewrites a lot: the Brush With Death and Scar rules, reworked ancestries and professions, Corruption that you can spend, and new tactical combat options.

What you need to play

• ZWEIHÄNDER RPG Reforged Edition: Core Rulebook (PDF, 571 pages, $29.99 on DriveThruRPG). It combines the player's handbook, GM guide, bestiary and a full adventure. The same PDF is sold on itch.io for $24.99.
• The free Reforged Quickstart, a 250-page PDF with the basic rules and the full character creation chapter: every player ancestry, profession, talent and piece of equipment.
• Percentile dice and a few d6 and d10. The game also uses Fortune and Misfortune coins, which can be any tokens.
• A Game Master willing to learn the Damage and Peril tracks and run a campaign.

The older Revised Core Rulebook (674 pages, $19.99 PDF) is still on sale. It is a complete game, but if you are starting fresh, Reforged is the edition the designer is supporting.

Adventures and supplements

The first-edition line is large: Main Gauche (more professions and rules), Flames of Freedom (a revolutionary-war setting built on the same engine), the Dark Astral chapbook, magic and monster card decks, GM screens and folios, plus a big community library of adventures and play aids on DriveThruRPG. For Reforged, the Kickstarter funded a GM screen, injury, affliction and spell cards (all already sold as PDFs) and a series of one-shot adventures for backers. Reforged also comes with a free third-party license modelled on the Mörk Borg and Dragonbane licenses, so independent writers can sell compatible material without paying a fee.

Digital tools and VTT support

The quickstart suggests Roll20 or Foundry Virtual Tabletop for remote play. An October 2025 backer update listed official Foundry and Roll20 versions of Reforged as still in production, and this check could not confirm that either has been released, so plan on community tools or a plain dice roller for now.

Core rules and play structure

Everything runs through a d100 roll-under Skill Test. You find the Primary Attribute behind the Skill, add 10% for each Skill Rank, apply a difficulty modifier (Easy +20%, Normal 0, Hard -20% and so on) and any penalty from your Peril track, then roll. Doubles are special: matching dice under your target are a Critical Success, and matching dice over it are a Critical Failure. A roll of 01 is always a Critical Success and 100 is always a Critical Failure. The GM can also call a Fail Forward test, where failing still gets you through but costs you Peril.

Harm comes on two tracks. Damage covers wounds and is measured against Damage Thresholds worked out from Brawn and armor. Peril covers fear, fatigue and stress against thresholds worked out from Willpower. Slide far enough down the Peril track and every Skill Test gets worse, and you start picking up Afflictions and permanent Scars. Sleep moves you back up the Peril track. Wounds heal much more slowly, and the book is blunt that there is no magic to reattach a lost arm.

Fortune and Misfortune coins act as a shared economy. Players spend Fortune Coins to re-roll a test, reduce Damage or Peril, or gain an extra Action Point. Each spent coin goes into the GM's Misfortune Pool, and when the GM spends one it goes back to the players.

Characters and advancement

Character creation is an 18-step lifepath: tier, ancestry, appearance, social class, Primary Attributes, upbringing, profession, Damage and Peril thresholds, age, a Brush With Death, a first Scar, a memento, a Tragic Flaw and an Inner Strength, Bonds with other survivors, talents and gear. Humans are the default, and the "Forgotten" ancestries include dwarves, elves, firbolgs, gargoyles, siabra, woodwose and others; the publisher counts 14 in the full book.

Advancement runs through more than 100 professions spread across three Tiers (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced). You earn Reward Points at the end of each session and spend them to unlock skills, bonuses and talents in your current profession, then move into a new one when you reach the next Tier. It is close to the career system of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which Fox names as the influence, and it gives you a lot of small, concrete choices over a campaign.

Signature mechanics

• Brush With Death and Scars. Every survivor starts with a near-death event and a Scar from it, and later Scars give a character at death's door a choice: die, or come back marked and changed.
• The Peril track. Mental and physical strain is a second health bar that drags down every skill.
• Corruption. In Reforged, Corruption works more like an infection than a moral score. You can draw on it to power spells and other desperate actions, and the more you use it the closer the character gets to becoming a villain.
• Risky magic. In the first edition, casting adds Chaos Dice that can make a spell backfire. Fox says Reforged keeps that danger, with failed casts able to swing a fight, and in the setting most people fear anyone who uses magic.
• Fortune and Misfortune. Every coin the players spend hands one to the GM.

What play feels like

A typical session spends a lot of time in talk, travel and investigation, with fights at the moments that matter. When a fight does start it is tense and slow. Each hit can move a target down the Damage track and trigger an injury, and two or three solid blows can take most humans out. Players learn to avoid fair fights, use terrain and allies, and spend Fortune carefully. Between sessions, the Reward Point spend and the profession choices give a steady sense of small progress, even when the characters are losing ground in the story.

Running the game

The GM carries a lot. You need to know the Damage and Peril rules well, track the Misfortune Pool, and judge when to call for a test. The core book has a full GM section, a bestiary and an adventure, so the material is there, but expect real prep for each session and a longer learning period than with most modern games. The quickstart tells GMs to ignore any rule they forget mid-game and look it up later, which is good advice with a book this size.

Campaign fit

Zweihänder is built for campaigns. The Tier system, Scars and Corruption all pay off over many sessions, and the game expects characters to change and sometimes to die. It can run one-shots with pregenerated survivors, but the lifepath is a big part of the appeal and takes a full session for a new group. Survivors die more often than in heroic fantasy, so it helps to have a plan for bringing in replacement characters.

Reception and awards

The 2018 ENnie Gold awards for Best Game and Product of the Year are the main honors. On DriveThruRPG the Revised Core Rulebook averages 4.4 from 506 ratings (348 five-star, 32 one-star) with 54 written reviews, the Reforged Core Rulebook averages 4.8 from 37 ratings, and the free Reforged Quickstart averages 4.6 from 58.

Reviewers tend to agree on the strengths and the costs. Eternity TTRPG scored it 76 out of 100, praising the lore and the amount of random-table support while calling character creation confusing and combat slow, with many steps per attack. Community threads often compare it directly with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and some players see the first edition as too close to that game. Reforged was written partly to move away from that. Fox's public disputes and the slow Kickstarter fulfilment have also put some people off.

Where it is strongest

• Gritty, deadly d100 fantasy with real consequences for injury and stress
• A lifepath that gives every character a history, a flaw and a reason to stay with the group
• More than 100 professions and a clear three-Tier path for a long campaign
• A free 250-page quickstart that covers all character creation
• A huge first-edition and community library that still works with Reforged

Where it can frustrate groups

• Combat resolution has many steps and can feel slow
• Character creation is long, and new players can get lost in it
• Low-powered, often-dying survivors will not suit groups that want to feel heroic
• The Reforged hardcover has been delayed for a long time, and print availability is uncertain
• The two editions on sale at once can confuse new buyers

Content and safety notes

The game deals with violence, mutilation, disease, prejudice, religious persecution and mental strain, and much of it is written to be uncomfortable. The Reforged quickstart includes a pause-the-scene safety tool and points to the separate Entreat the Darkness guide. Talk about limits before the first session, especially around torture, prejudice and body horror.

Best starting path

Download the free Reforged Quickstart and have each player build a survivor with it. If the lifepath and the d100 tests feel right, buy the Reforged Core Rulebook PDF for the GM rules, bestiary and adventure. Only pick up the Revised edition if you already own the first-edition supplements or find it cheaper in print.

Research notes

Last checked November 14, 2026. Sources:

• DriveThruRPG: Reforged Edition Core Rulebook
• DriveThruRPG: Reforged Edition Quickstart
• DriveThruRPG: Revised Core Rulebook
• itch.io: Reforged Edition Core Rulebook
• World of Game Design: Reforged hardcover preorder
• Kickstarter: Zweihänder Reforged Edition
• ENnie Awards: 2018 nominees and winners
• Wikipedia: Zweihänder (role-playing game)
• Polygon: Zweihander returns with a new edition (March 2024)
• EN World: interview with Daniel D. Fox (February 2024)
• Forbes: Zweihander Reforges Itself Into A Gothic Horror RPG (April 2024)
• Geek Native: Fox moves toward litigation over Kickstarter delays (May 2026)
• Geek Native: Reforged logistics handed to World of Game Design (May 2026)
• Eternity TTRPG: Zweihander RPG review