Hammer & Scythe

Description

The world is dead. And the Syphon killed it. But in the ruins of a world reduced to ash, humanity perseveres. The fortunate few, in the golden palaces of the Cities on High, lavished in luxury and sequestered from the world of the dead and dying. Below, the wretched, the infected, cling to short, miserable lives, subsisting on the crumbs of food and drops of water they are afforded. But in the world after the end, the dead so far outnumber the living. So it's the dead that work the fields to drag meager crops from barren soil. It's the dead that tirelessly toil in the great factories and feed the furnaces. It's the dead that march to war when strangers arrive at these shores and threaten the Cities' prosperity. And that's where you come in. Because someone has got to raise the dead and oversee their endless vigil. And you, you have it. The Black Gift of Necromancy. ___________________________________________________________________ Hello and welcome to Hammer & Scythe! What's that, you ask?It's a fully original dark fantasy / post apocalyptic / horror tabletop roleplaying system about playing Necromancers and raising the dead so the living few can survive. It's also a game about being stuck in middle managment, in a deeply unjust system. So what's in here?This release contains: Pdfs of the 80-page Core Rulebook, the 70-page Storyteller's Folio, a form-fillable character sheet, and the 25-page introductory adventure Crossing the Bar. Across those books, you'll find:- 45+ different Traits to customize your Necromancer- 60+ different Undead Creations to raise for a variety of purposes, from the tiny Creeping Hand to the mighty Shifting Fortress, from a humble Worker Horde to the Endless Army that blankets the countryside.- 100+ different Segments to build Encounters from, to let the Necromancers face anything from frightened children to the primordial breath of the Syphon plague itself.And also:Original art from Hodag RPG and Bramante, as well as public domain art from Arthur Rackham and others.3 original short stories (by me) to bring the setting to (un)life. So! If you'd like to play a Necromancer (and one that can actually assemble hordes that shake the earth and the heavens, not just summon 1d3 skeletons now and again), if you would like to face the crushing weight of moral responsibility and survival in a dying post-apocalypse, or if you like games where your wit and improv skills and your tactical mastery are all equally challenged, good news, I've got just the game for you! Featuring such game design fancies as: - as rules-lite as I can make it (the character sheet fits on a coaster if your handwriting is neat enough); Each Necromancer is represented by four Statistics: Life, Death, Anima and Purpose- a reason to use the full set of D&D dice you bought - go and find where that d12 went- tactical Encounters that require you to think about the problem (and that do not require your Storyteller to scavenge the depths of Pinterest for maps)- as much emphasis on social interaction and your Necromancer's emotional and moral well-being as there is on killing stuff- mechanics to gamify what it means to try and make a difference in a world that is cruel, unjust, and indifferent - and the (dark) powers to make a difference And in Crossing the Bar, an introduction into the world of Hammer & Scythe, that sees the PCs face off against starving monsters and petty beaurocrats, and venture to a valley where visions of past and future blend together as easily as life and death. (Including 4 fully built and fleshed out (hah) Necromancers, so you can jump right in!) [All 100% AI free, now and forever] this was all made by one neurodivergent queer woman q.q _____________________________________________________________ Future plans: (Beyond any fixes and clarifications that I'm sure will be necessary, and that I'm sure I'll spot the second I open the PDF post-release), in no particular order (unless people start bugging me about one of these things more than the other): - The GMless version of Crossing the Bar (yes, the system as is already lets you build encounters that do not require a Storyteller to run) - GMless rule primer - a server of some kind, once a halfway ethical discord successor emerges or some other way to do FAQ and suggestions- A longer and more high-level campaign, working titled "The Living Deadlights"- More Art. If this does well enough, I'd love to commission some more art for this- And of course, more Traits, Creations and Segments

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