Pentagruel
A downloadable zine
Pentagruel is a rules-light fantasy battle game featuring accessible rules, a quick play-time, and the ability to field any miniatures in thine collection; from the loftiest lord to the lowliest leech!
In order to play thou must have in thine arsenal some six-sided dice, miniatures for thee and thine companions, a ruler, a surface to play on and someone to play with. Terrain is optional but recommended.
Within this 12-page zine thou will find:
- An accessible and easy-to-learn ruleset
- Three optional game-modes, Gruel, Mincemeat & Pentangle
- A universal list-building system, containing 10 Fighter Types, 15 pieces of Equipment, 38 Traits and 24 Spells
- Tables for creating Scenarios and Campaigns
- Some rather dubious collage imagery...
Pentagruel also has a soundtrack available for download! All music was created by the incredibly talented YKNS, who has managed to capture the wonder and peril that comes with pitching a fantasy battle! Audio from Excalibur (1981) and The Lord of the Rings (1978) has also been interspersed throughout the soundtrack for good measure.
In terms of downloads, Pentagruel Singles and Pentagruel Spreads are designed for looking at on a screen. Pentagruel Print has been set-up for easy printing on just three sheets of paper (double-sided, flip on short-edge, staple in the middle!). Pentagruel Roster Sheets contains a double Roster sheet for tracking thine Host.
Pentagruel Soundtrack (MP3) and Pentagruel Soundtrack (WAV) contain the same audio, just in different file formats. They are both zip files so will need to be extracted on your computer or phone to be listened to, burned to a CD or copied to your MP3 player.
I would like to thank everyone who has clicked on, downloaded, read, and even played any of the previous iterations of Pentagruel! I would specifically like to thank Megatron for reminding me what miniatures games are all about.
Of course thanks also go out to YKNS who has provided such a stand-out work of fantasy music. I would not have been able to make a game like this without help from friends and family : )
Pentagruel is and always will be free for thee to download (including the soundtrack)! If you would like to create any supplements for Pentagruel, in the spirit of the game I would ask that you make your work available for free and easy to print off at home! I used the Proxie Flash Sheets a lot while cutting and sticking this game together, itβs a good starting point if youβre not too sure!
May thine sword be ever sharp, and thine cunning ever sharper!
Download
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Exclusive content
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Pink Zine & CD
If you don't (or can't) print a copy of Pentagruel at home/work/school/library, and want a CD of the soundtrack to go with it, consider grabbing one here <|: )
The zine is printed on recycled pink Steinbeis paper, the CD was burned on my computer. Don't forget to type in your address so I know where to post your stuff to!
If you're ordering outside the UK, please tip Β£5 to cover shipping! <|: o
Development log
- Pentagruel: Final Edition is here!9 days ago
- Pentagruel Revised Edition and Soundtrack are here!Feb 27, 2026
- Pentagruel Revised Edition Play-testJan 31, 2026
- Quick Rules Revision!Jul 31, 2025
- Pentagruel is here at last!Jul 11, 2025
Comments
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This is rad as heck, and it's absolutely ticking so many boxes for me for how light but versatile this thing looks, and just how much soul there is in it. I could absolutely see myself using this for a whole heap of things, including maybe even using it to run a full-on roleplaying game scenario with some small additions.
5/5, no notes, coolest thing I've found on this site.
Thank you so much for your comment, it's honestly made my week <|: )
I'm glad you like the look of Pentagruel, let me know how it goes when you get it to the tabletop!
Excited to read this revised edition! While listening to the soundtrack of course!
I hope you enjoy both! : )
Scifi/scifantasy supplement is almost done, just gotta do explosives and new scenario and campaign tables.
I can't wait to see it!
Now, I'm a massive science-fantasy enthusiast. Heavy Metal, 40K, Wizards(bakshi), my jam. I was sitting here thinking how to convert this to something along those lines, and I realized, 90% of the stuff I need is already there with some simple reskinning, just need to add some upgrades and fighter stats, adjust scenario and campaign tables a bit, and yeah that's it. Probably won't publish these tweaks, and if I do it'll be a plaintext doc, but most of what I need is here. Banger game, gonna try it out solo with a personal method.
This would be amazing! Please do! I have played Pentagruel as a sci-fi game, fielding most of my force with Muskets, snipers with Bow & Arrows and then a tank as an Ogre Chariot!
When I first started working on Pentagruel, I planned to title it Mincemeat, with a sci-fi variant called Meatgrinder. I didn't get round to it in the end, but from my notes the main things that would need rules for that Pentagruel doesn't currently allow for are explosives and vehicles.
I can't wait to see what you come up with! If you do put together any specific solo rules please share those as well, I've had a few people recommend adding a solo variant, but as I've never played any solo wargaming I wouldn't know where to begin!
One click led to another and someone I landed in Pentagruel. So glad I did; Haven't played it but I am absolutely in love with it.
Making my own magic cards has been in my mind for a few days after the algorithm brought me to hothead collective's work. Hope you don't mind Jamzilla, I printed Pentagruel and the hothead collective's sheets for an alternate roster sheet. Adding it to my account here for everyone interested.
Weekend is almost over for me and I can't wait to game Pentagruel next weekend. Thanks for reading this!
edit: what's the best way to reach out to you? I'm interested in getting a few prints of your work to add to my office wall. Similar to what this YouTube video!
Thank you so much for all the kind words! Making DIY magic cards was one of the main motivators for making Pentagruel, Hotheads' sheets are so inspiring!
This alternate roster sheet is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing, it's so sick!!! I hope you have a good game next weekend! If there's anything you feel is missing/off about the game please let me know, I'm currently putting together a Revised Edition along with a few other things, so any feedback is likely to be put into that!
The only real ways to reach out to me are here on itch through comments, or over on discord. I'm @jamzillarpg on Discord, feel free to message! Those prints I sent to the Dungeon Dive were leftovers from a zine fair I tabled at, I'd be able to print a couple more off though : )
As promised, here's my battle report. First time I bring my game notes public so, I would love to read your feedback on it.
I went solo this time as I caught a pretty bad cold that I didn't want to pass onto my friends. I did had a few questions, but writing this battle report, I answered them on my own - must be the darn cold. Overall, simple and straightforward rules. Thanks for sharing them, Jamzilla.
Just read through it! It's amazing! Thank you so much for typing it up, and hopefully you enjoy the Revised Edition of Pentagruel when it's finished! Good gaming, hopefully the wizard will get his revenge next time!
Just finished a first game with the 7 year old, much fun was had by all! Started with a 60 point warband for a quick skirmish, game moved along nicely, looking forward to trying different scenarios, the grot is already pouring over old White Dwarf's looking for inspiration.
Only thing I felt it missed was any rules at all for cover (unless I missed something!), but that was easily rectified by house ruling counts as having a shield when behind cover.
All in all, cracking little game, thank you for making this available!
That's amazing! I'm glad you both enjoyed it, and those retro White Dwarfs are filled with so much cool stuff!
You didn't miss any rules regarding cover, I didn't put any in - while writing I couldn't think of anything that didn't slow down shooting more than I wanted it to, your solution of having it count as a shield is perfect! I've been keeping all of the notes and feedback that people have messaged me with since releasing the 'finished' game, once I have enough I'll put together a Revised Edition, and this mechanic for Cover is definitely something I'll add in if you're happy for me to!
Thank you as well for spending time to leave a comment, it's really appreciated : )
This fucking RULES!!
Building up my army of vampire giants as we speak!!
I can't wait to see them! π§
This looks so great!!
Wouldn't look half as great without your guys collage cheat sheets! Thanks for putting them out and for the comment : )
My partner and I played this last night and had a blast!
That's amazing, I'm glad you both had fun! And thank you for leaving a comment!
If there are any suggestions or changes in the game you have I'd love to hear them, as I'm slowly but surely working on a revised version of the game : )
Oh, there was something! Do creatures with more life essentially get free hits against creatures that have less?
For example, we played it to where if a 2 life attacker meleed a unit with 1 life, the target would would always take at least one hit, since the attacker's second roll can't be contested.
I intended it that unopposed combat rolls were ignored and don't inflict damage - having more lives means you're more likely to win as you're rolling more dice and likely tobget a higher roll compared to someone rolling one. I'll try and make this clearer in the next revision of the rules, thank you for the feedback :)
Gotcha! Thanks a bunch, looking forward to the future of Pentagruel c:
This looks really cool and I am glad to see you released an aschcan edition because it encourages me to do the same with one of my games - it is indeed much better to release a project that is in fact ready rather than keep it on hold for years just because you know it could be a bit better if you have more time to work on it (a situation, that may never come in the future). :)
Thank you for your comment, I'm glad you like the look of the game so far :)
I'm definitely gonna start doing more Ashcans for games I have 'ready' but not 'finished', I don't get too much free time for working on zines and games either so doing finetuning/balancing on a game just isn't an option unless I want to release a game every year (or longer!)
I'm looking forward to seeing what you put out next, Ashcan or otherwise!
Pentagruel rips!!!
Thank you so much man! I hope you have fun with it!
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