MP1: The End of Known Space

We’re switching things up a bit with the monster manuals produced by our patreon project. The End of Known Space is our first collection of science fiction monsters for Dungeon World (and Adventures on Dungeon Planet). It’s our first monster planet!

The Maldoran system lies at the edge of the universe, a world full of corruption and danger. Take a safari on the planet or explore the cornucopia of pharmacological substances available there. Try your hand at mining the asteroid belt, investigating the abandoned moon base, or use the system as a launch point for an expedition into the elusive darkness that lies beyond the end of known space.

Like the MM series of monster manuals, The End of Known Space contains previously-released Monthly Monsters material that has been revised and expanded, with more illustrations and rpg content.

The End of Known Space is available in print and pdf from DriveThruRPG. The pdfs are halfletter digest size (5.5×8.5″) and 110 pages. One version has full-colour backgrounds behind the text while the other has black text on white pages, with the same illustrations. The print book is US trade size (6×9″), premium full colour, and 110 pages.

You can also buy the print book on its own from Lulu.

Battle Between the Worlds Actual Play

The Ogre Plays Games podcast has posted part 1 of an actual play of Battle Between the Worlds. It clocks in at about 90 minutes, and includes character creation and bonds and stuff at the beginning. Part 2, yet to be released, will include the exciting conclusion to the hijinks on Mars, and a short interview with myself.

Link:
Ogres Plays Games Episode 07: Battle Between the Worlds Part One!

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn video

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn blog post.

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn

Three years ago, my buddy Jackson Tegu asked me to write a stretch goal for his Second Skins kickstarter. Based on two of those skins, the Wyrm and the Unicorn of course, I had an idea: combine Jackson’s ideas with Adventures on Dungeon Planet and make a campaign supplement for Dungeon World. From the very beginning it was an overambitious rpg monstrosity, and then I decided to add one-shot rules. And now it’s finished.

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn is a science fantasy supplement for Dungeon World that combines the flavours of Adventures on Dungeon Planet and the characters from Jackson Tegu’s Monsterhearts expansion, the Second Skins, into 368 full colour digest-sized pages, with well over a hundred illustrations, including fantastic art by Chiara Di Francia, George Cotronis, Iolanda Zanfardino, Jakub Rebelka, James Fenner, Jon Cairns, Nate Marcel, and Taylor Winder.

Featuring six new Dungeon World character classes…

• Space Wurm, the most important person in the galaxy, bar none. And yet, there is more that lies outside your power than within it. Will you conquer the universe, or see it fall before your foes?
• Moonicorn, a rebel and a revolutionary. Those who despise your integrity are out there hunting for you. Can you make your dreams a reality, or will you have to watch it all come crashing down?
• The Lover, the third point of a romantic triangle with Space Wurm and Moonicorn. Is this what true love is, or just a fleeting dream?
• The Mogul, a master of industry. You’re not the boss of everything, but you’re the boss of your thing.
• The Other, a visitor from far away. Can you find a place in this new world, or will you just lose your heart again?
• The Spy, a double agent, a saboteur, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Does anyone knows where your true allegiance lies? Do you?

…and seven fronts, with four dangers each, for the GM to create the world and their antagonists from: aliens, cybernetics, the Imperial throne, interstellar travel, religion, the secret police, and the spice. Each game has three fronts that must be defeated in order to win. Who will reach their goal first and secure the future they are fighting for, Space Wurm or Moonicorn?

Space Wurm and Moonicorn are rivals, fighting over the future of galactic civilization. Will they let the universe crumble around them while they duke it out? Will they band together against the outside forces trying to ruin everything? Which one will betray the other first, in order to secure the future they believe in?

The other PCs move between them, choosing sides or not, trying to mediate and reach consensus, or feeding the flames so they can watch it all burn. But neither Space Wurm nor Moonicorn can succeed alone. In order to win, they need the support of the other PCs. What will they do to win their loyalty? What—and who—will they sacrifice in order to come out on top?

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn moves Dungeon World away from typical adventuring parties and us-against-the-dungeon situations, in favour of more intrigue, more politics, and more interpersonal conflict between the PCs. You’ll need your laser swords to defeat the alien invaders, but you’ll need something more to win over their hearts and minds. Each of the new character classes are there to promote narratives of interpersonal drama, political intrigue, and social change. They give the players reasons to experience the shifting allegiances of competing rivals, to win each other over and then turn against each other, again and again.

It’s still Dungeon World, just with an expanded pallette, and more dimensions to explore.

If you can’t commit to a long-term campaign, fear not! There are quick play rules for running one shot games of Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn, in the same style as Battle Between the Worlds. Quick play versions of the six Dungeon World character classes are joined by seven more classes: the Alien Queen, the Creature from the Ghoul Star, This Planet’s Messiah, the Serpent Princess, Space Ghost, the Star Vampire, and the Void Rat. Or use the characters from Battle Between the Worlds, these rules are fully compatible.

The print version is 6×9 US Trade size, for both hardcover and softcover.

The PDF is 5.5×8.5 digest size, and includes character sheets and a version of the book with black text on white pages for ease of printing.

Preview!

CLICK HERE to view a 53-page preview of the book, which includes the Table of Contents, the Space Wurm class, the introduction to the Interstellar Transport chapter and 2 of its dangers (Disease Control and Space Madness), as well as two dangers from other fronts chapters.

Purchase!

Buy it from DriveThruRPG at this link right here.
You can also buy a softcover version from Lulu, but because of their full-colour print costs, you will need a discount code to make it even close to price-competitive.

Battle Between the Worlds

Battle Between the Worlds is a set of rules for running one-shot Dungeon Planet adventures. You get new characters with truncated, personalized rules and a bunch of adventure situations to choose from. The GM still has to know how to run Dungeon World, but you can play using only this document.

The character sheets include illustrations by George Metzger, Juan Ochoa, Mike Jackson, and Nate Marcel.

Here is a link to the pdf on DriveThruRPG.

The print version is available from Lulu.

Vertiginous Infiltrators, a science fantasy monster

My Patreon project is producing more free monsters! This is a science fantasy monster. You can find it in pdf form with stats for Dungeon World and Labyrinth Lord on the Patreon site:
Dungeon World Vertiginous Infiltrators
Labyrinth Lord Vertiginous Infiltrators

Grown in vats by unlawful geneticists, the vertiginous
infiltrators are perfect copies of the Sargosyalan race, able to mimic
the mannerisms and behaviours of anyone they could observe.
They were deployed against the Sargosyalans and quickly took
over key positions within that race’s leadership. Not only did they
capture vital military resources for the Xalvorians, but the paranoia
these double agents created within the Sargosyalan ranks was a
setback they could never recover from. Within a few short decades,
a war that had rages and stalled for more than a century was over,
and no true Sargosyalan remained alive.

With their homeworld and all their colonies overrun by the
Xalvorian overlords, the vertiginous infiltrators are all that is left of
the Sargosyalans. Undying, they continue to serve their masters,
infiltrating the societies of other alien races—but no subsequent
success can compare to their original triumph over the beings they
were made to mimic.

Heliotropic Sky Devil

Considered by planetologists to be the pre-eminent apex predator on Maldorine VII, the Heliotropic Sky Devils feed off the various megafauna roaming its planet’s deathlands. But recently, the arrival of the Moon Marauders have thrown their lifestyle into jeopardy.

Sky Devil of Maldorine VII
Huge, Organized, Solitary.
20 HP, 1 Armour
Barbed tail (b[2d10]+3 damage, ignores armour)
Close, Reach, Forceful
Special Qualities: Hyperviolet-reflecting skin pigment, Multispectrum eyes, Wings.
The megafauna of Maldorine VII are partly comprised of metal, usually in the form of a chrome exterior, all the better to reflect the hyperviolet rays unique to the star Maldorine. The Sky Devil is the largest specimen of those creatures that have instead developed special skin pigments, but the lack of metal in its biology has not hindered it in any way. It is still the ruler of this world, able to rend apart steel and iron. Reigning supreme over all other predators, the Heliotropic Sky Devil languidly roams the skies of its deadly homeworld, endlessly searching for prey.
Instinct: To assert dominance.

• Call out to other Sky Devils.
• Detect a foe’s weaknesses with multispectrum eyesight.
• Grab a foe with its tongue.
• Swallow a foe.

If they prove to be too dangerous: Become confused, fail to understand.
If they submit and cower: Move on to other things.
When a Moon Marauder is detected: Summon other Sky Devils.

Using this monster: You can use this as a regular Dungeon World monster, but you can also use it as a gigantic, nigh-invulnerable beast if you treat is as a spaceship, using the rules in Adventures on Dungeon Planet. In that case, it can only be harmed by spaceships and other such vehicles, but not by humans or their laser pistols.

Art by Nathan Jones.
Text by Johnstone Metzger.

You can find more monsters, with more text and larger pictures, on Patreon.

Marauders from the Moon

Huge creatures that fly through both air and space, these cone-faced marauders were deposited upon the moon of Maldorine VII by aliens vast aeons ago. They lay in suspended animation until very recently, when they awoke and flew through the space between worlds to bring death and destruction to an infamously deadly planet.

Moon Marauder
Alien, Hoarder, Huge, Solitary.
12 HP, 1 Armour
Hyperplasmic blast (1d10 damage, 2 piercing)
Reach, Near, Corrosive, Messy
Special Qualities: Flying, Ray-Eater, Voidstalker.
The moon marauders now roam the skies above Maldorine VII’s deathlands, soaking up the various ultra-spectrum radiations. They produce waste in the form of a hyperplasmic liquid residue that they spew from the orifice on the front of their face. This residue is incredibly destructive to the planet, polluting the land and killing off the various terrifying megafauna and the flora they feed off of. Huge tracts of land are now smouldering wasteland, and certain forms of indigenous life have begun to turn against the marauders.
Instinct: To absorb ultraspectrum energies.

• Absorb an energy attack.
• Grab a foe in gigantic hands.
• Pollute a landscape.
• Take to the skies and fly through space.

When they are resistant to hyperplasma: Throw them into the Killer Sea.
When they block the ultraspectrum rays: Smash them!
When they prove to be dangerous: Retreat into space or the caverns of Maldorine VII’s Dark Zone.

Using this monster: You can use this as a regular Dungeon World monster, but you can also use it as a gigantic, nigh-invulnerable beast if you treat is as a spaceship, using the rules in Adventures on Dungeon Planet. In that case, it can only be harmed by spaceships and other such vehicles, but not by humans or their laser pistols.

Art by Nathan Jones.
Text by Johnstone Metzger.

You can find more monsters, with more text and larger pictures, on Patreon.

Adventures on Dungeon Planet moves to DriveThruRPG

Adventures on Dungeon Planet is now available from DriveThruRPG.

You can buy it in pdf and/or print right here.

The pdf now comes with all the character sheets, so you don’t have to come back here and get them. The book is printed on white paper and there may be thin white borders around some of the pictures because it does not have full bleed.

You can still buy the print version from Lulu. They print on creme paper and produce what I consider to be a superior book, although I can’t guarantee what they send to you is exactly the same as what they send to me. I care about the difference in quality, but enough other people told me it was not as big a deal as I thought that I decided to switch. Lulu’s storefront is terrible and DriveThruRPG’s is not. So there it is, and soon there will be more.