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Xas Irkalla

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Beneath grey skies of falling ashes, corpse-like denizens beckon for scraps of flesh, kneeling in filth and ecstasy before their slumbering god-kings. Wasteland tribes fight against the armies that come to take them as cattle. Witches are hunted and bred to serve as psychic slaves to sorcerers at war, and things of nightmare are birthed from the cracks in the earth, where reality is twisted into surreal labyrinths of intersecting worlds. This is the world of Xas Irkalla.

Artwork by James Vail

An original roleplaying game of dark fantasy and survival horror in the satanic afterlife; written, designed, and illustrated by James Vail

Spotify playlist curated by the author

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Reviews (8)
Discussions (9)
Customer avatar
Mark S October 02, 2024 5:01 pm UTC
Can this be adapted or are there rules included for solo play?
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Customer avatar
James V October 05, 2024 4:15 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
With the rolls being player-facing, they should be easily adapted for solo play, and there are some solo rules for Strain Basic (which is the system Xas Irkalla uses) that can be found on the net as an example.
Customer avatar
Alain T April 01, 2024 6:09 pm UTC
So, in this system one can succeed, partly succeed or else complete disaster; no simple failure ?
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Customer avatar
James V May 12, 2024 6:46 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Correct. You could of course consider that disaster is simply a failure with a different name, but it is meant to encourage that something should happen from failure. If there is a skill test being simply checked for a pass/fail then that'd most likely fall under character knowledge, perception, or something along those lines, which is not supported by this system, as those should be decided by the GM anyway.
Customer avatar
Mantas B September 27, 2022 8:07 pm UTC
Hello, I have a question regarding the resting, project and progress system and the internal logic behind them. The rules state that during resting a player can gain 1 Progress on a personal project. I assume that resting takes around 12 to 24 hours. However, Progress 5 and up take weeks and more time. By that logic, 7 rests would be enough to make a Progress 7 project, which should take months. What is the internal logic behind this? Would a character need to take a years-long rest for a Progress 9 Project? If yes, why wouldn't the injuries on the character heal? How does the progress system work exactly? I hope I explained my question clearly.

Thank you.
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Customer avatar
James V September 27, 2022 10:34 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
The original rules were separated out between working on Projects and Recovering. Recovering (injuries and stress) was allowed once per day, and Projects were allowed once per time frame. Both Projects and Recovering used the same mechanic, so they were combined into the Resting mechanic, but unfortunately the distinction was lost somewhere in the editing process. The time frames given in the book are from the earlier version, where if the project were to take months, you would make a roll for it that represents several weeks of working on it. If the project were to take days, the roll would represent several days of working on it. Ultimately, the mechanic is only there to see if something bad happens during any given time frame, which is why there's no explicit time listed for how long a rest takes. Hopefully that clears it up a bit, but let me know if not, I can try to explain further.
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Customer avatar
Mantas B September 28, 2022 8:51 am UTC
Thank you for your quick reply. While it is clearer now and I do get the gist of it, some questions remain. I will try to describe them to the best of my ability:

1. Let's say, hypothetically, my players are working on a Progress 10 project. Does it mean that they would have to take 10 rests, each one decades long, to complete it?

2. Let's say, my players are working on a project that takes more than a few days, and they are working in safe area with access to some food and water. My players would nitpick the reasoning why their wounds do not heal, provided their characters have access to aforementioned resources. Is it because they are working on a project and not resting completely? Is it because they are working and getting wounded in the process of working, which cancels out the healing and recovery via gameplay mechanics? Is it because of the miserable nature of Irkalla that prevents healing of wounds unless the player characters actively participate in it?

Thanks.
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Customer avatar
James V September 28, 2022 3:05 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hypothetically a progress 10 project would indeed have rests that represent several years, not necessarily decades each rest, as that would make it at least a century long project. This is the type of project that would be done later in the game, when players have established a settlement and already learned how to use each endling's life they are given. Note that even though the grimoires say progress 10, I would definitely allow that to take place over several days, at the very least the first one, it's important to let the players experience this fairly early to establish a goal for them to attain (becoming an architect).

As for healing, I'd say use the original rules that allow recovery once per day, and consider that you don't need to roll the dice every time the players are resting, it's a tool to use when you want to. So if the players are working on a project for a couple days, you could roll once for the project, and then have the players recover each night of rest they get during that time...See more
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Customer avatar
Mantas B September 28, 2022 4:54 pm UTC
Now I understand, thank you. I was trying to look at it as one single mechanics-first cohesive system (if you do a, then you can always do b, c, or d) that happens every time the PCs are resting, instead of a toolkit, that should be applied on case-by-case basis.
Customer avatar
Christopher C August 13, 2022 1:43 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi there. Is there currently anywhere where you can get this in print?
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Customer avatar
James V August 15, 2022 6:12 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Currently it is out of print. I was working on a revised edition, but that has become more of a 2nd edition for a future date. For now, I'm considering making a print on demand version.
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Customer avatar
James V September 09, 2022 4:45 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Print on demand is now available
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Customer avatar
Christopher C September 23, 2022 1:40 am UTC
PURCHASER
Awesome! Thanks for letting me know!
Customer avatar
David W J January 07, 2022 2:02 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi, the pdf for strain and Xas Irkalla is getting large horizontal black bars on every page of the pdf.
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Customer avatar
Nicholas S April 19, 2022 4:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I have the same problem. It's made it unreadable.
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Customer avatar
James V April 21, 2022 2:53 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I've just updated the PDF to be the same file that is available on other websites, which should resolve this. Please let me know if there are any other issues.
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Customer avatar
Ch@rle$ D April 27, 2022 4:01 am UTC
PURCHASER
I’ve downloaded the updated file and am experiencing the same problem. Large black and grey bars obscure the text on almost every page.
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Customer avatar
James V April 28, 2022 3:24 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I've now removed the watermark, since that seems to be the only difference between the version on this site and others. Hopefully that solves it.
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Customer avatar
Ch@rle$ D April 30, 2022 3:49 am UTC
PURCHASER
Unfortunately, the bars are still visible. It’s strange, cause I’ve experienced no issues with the pdf until recently.
Either way, thank you for looking into this problem. It’s greatly appreciated.
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Customer avatar
Scott H May 02, 2022 6:30 pm UTC
PEGASUS DIGITAL STAFF
Hi all, we are unable to reproduce this issue. If this is affecting you, could you please take a screenshot or three of the problem and email it to publisherservice@onebookshelf.com so we can get it fixed? Please also include your browser and OS, and what software and version of PDF viewer you are using. Thanks!
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Customer avatar
George M July 05, 2022 7:57 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Having same issue with the PDF here, with a notable caveat: the file will open with no bars or format issues in the PDF reader built into Firefox for Mac and in Microsoft Edge for Mac (and in the built in reader in the DriveThru app), but every other PDF reader I have shows big horizontal black bars that make the text unreadable- they seem random, with some pages clear, while others have multiple bars. Images appear to be cut and then compressed on either side of the bars. The bars show up on pages of mostly text too- there's nothing visual I can see that might trigger them. On PDF page 3, with the Descent of Ishtar quote, the ghost figure is getting compressed, tho there is no bar visible. The bar pattern in the doc does remain consistent across different PDF readers I tested with.


I've gotten a LOT of PDFs through DriveThru, and this is the first one I've found with issues (I and others have had certain Warlock zine PDFs from Kobold Press show the same kind of issue, but they never wrote...See more
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Customer avatar
James V July 11, 2022 8:19 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you all for the feedback - with all of the information provided OneBookShelf was able to provide a solution for this today. If you were experiencing this problem, please download the newest PDF dated 07-11-2022.
Customer avatar
Jeff M October 27, 2020 7:09 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Tricks or treat, thank you for the gift.
Customer avatar
Jeremy H May 27, 2020 9:06 am UTC
PURCHASER
Whoa... just grabbed this as a Deal Of The Day. I would love to get it printed at a local shop. I wonder, would the author remove the watermark?
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Customer avatar
James V May 27, 2020 3:57 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Send an email to atramentisgames@gmail.com and we can work something out
Customer avatar
Michael Y April 28, 2020 12:00 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Very well-done product! I am very happy with my purchase and this game is so different than what I normally play, that I am excited again to DM. I enjoyed very much reading this game and the author put lots of effort into creating a quality game.
Customer avatar
David W J November 17, 2019 6:56 am UTC
PURCHASER
This game doesn’t exist on Roll20, can I use the strain character sheet instead?
Reply
Customer avatar
James V November 18, 2019 1:20 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Yes, the Strain character sheet works with Xas Irkalla.
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 Recent History
Product Information
Platinum seller
Author(s)
Artist(s)
Pages
167
ISBN
978-0-9986746-2-9
File Size:
26.71 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

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File Last Updated:
July 11, 2022
This title was added to our catalog on April 24, 2018.