SoulMuppet Publishing has announced this week the upcoming Kickstarter for Mas As Hell, a new anti-capitalist TTRPG written by Evie Moriarty of Epigram Games, with illustrations by Per Norden, Scrap Princess and Alex Eckman-Lawn. The new game has players working as Radicals banding together to fight the literal demons of capitalism. It is aimed to be a method of organization and education and will begin crowdfunding in the first part of this year.
The only way to kill demons is to understand what quiet violence created them in the first place, work out how to solve that problem, and turn it into a weapon. You might kill a demon of moldy water with a purifier, a demon of poison-laced diet drugs with its own reflection, or a demon of bigotry with a pride flag. Unless you address the root cause of the problem, the wound in the world will continue to fester, and the demon will be reborn, free to wreak havoc. To defeat the demon truly, you need to make meaningful social change in your communities and help those around you.
Characters have three stats: Solidarity, Conspiracy and Militancy. When attempting actions, roll 2D6 and add the relevant stat. You succeed on a result of 9 or more. If you fail you can use Exertion to re-roll dice, at the cost of gaining Distress. Distress is a measure of how tired, stressed and downtrodden your character is, and the higher it gets the more risk there is of them Getting Hurt.
Characters are also part of several Communities which they can call upon for resources, information or assistance at the cost of reducing the Community’s Cohesion or introducing risk. Characters also have a Privilege, which is a benefit that comes with a downside but you can use as much as you like. Each Radical is also armed with a Token, an item infused with quasi-magical power that aids in the fight against capitalism. Squatter’s Keys open the locks and doors of any vacant property, a Face-Bloc obscures the identity, voice, fingerprints and DNA of anyone who wears it, or a Memory Cudgel removes the memories of those it hits.
SoulMuppet has said that Mad As Hell is intended to create a safe, lightly fictionalized environment for aspiring and current activists to become familiar with the methods used in community organization and direct action. “It helps provide a structure that mimics the real-world approaches to tackling injustice through a radical lens, and takes action against capitalism. We’re working with writers and sensitivity consultants heavily involved in leftist movements, too, which gives everything a strong anti-capitalist slant. This is a game of learning the tools of resistance, the strength of community and deciding that the horrors in this world are something you cannot accept.”
Mad as Hell is stated to be SoulMuppet’s most ambitious book yet in terms of construction and quality. It will feature a three-dimensional book cover by with artist Alex Eckman-Lawn, best known for his work with multi-layered handcut paper collages, utilizing a die-cut dust jacket and die-cut hardcover to “visualize and actualize” the Wounds in the World, the portals which demons crawl from. It will also come with the Radical’s Handbook, an in-world guide to demon hunting acts as both a player and character primer, with commentary from multiple in-world Radicals and art from Scrap Princess. The Handbook will be rendered in a different paper stock inside the hardcover itself, separating the Player and Game Master sections.
Written and developed by Evie Moriarty.
Cover designed by Alex Eckman-Lawn.
Internal illustrations by Per Norden and Scrap Princess.
Editing by Will Jobst.
Layout by Dai Shugars.
Sensitivity Reading from Basil Wright, Laurie O’Connel and Misha Panarin.
All backers within the first 48 hours will receive an exclusive Mad As Hell iron on patch, featuring the Mad As Hell logo in red font on black. You can follow along and get notified at the game’s launch by visiting its Kickstarter page.
Images via SoulMuppet Publishing
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