#hellpiercers

[prokopetz]

Me: *downloading a copy of the public playtest edition of Hellpiercers, a tactical combat tabletop RPG about an ascended transhumanity who've defeated the Angelic Host, murdered God, and are now in the process of storming Hell to achieve the liberation of every human soul*

itch.io's "other games like this" widget:

[sandypuggames]

in HELLPIERCERS, we represent the larger War of Infernal Liberation through a strategy phase called STRATCOM. This phase takes a ton of inspiration from map games, like A Quiet Year, as well as faction-focused TTRPGs like REIGN.

Each faction gets its own map to start with, and you will spend a lot of the game adding buildings, locations, traps, hazards, armies, convoys, and more to it in the same kind of collaborative-combative vibe as the rest of the game, with the GM trying to dominate Hell, push back your forces, and retake lost locations, and the players pushing up toward the final fortress of the enemy faction.

Each map is an abstraction, covering roughly a 800 mile stretch of territory that you'll grow into a complex visual log of The Last War.

First map is a representation of the SYNCRASIS faction's paleoproterozoic landscape, illustrated by the incredible @leafie-draws, and the second represents the industral-blasted nuclear wasteland of @leaftilde's AUTOPHYES faction, illustrated by the marquis of shadows, @jnbutlerart.

budget allowing I'd like to ship everyone two 11x17 trifolds with the maps printed, because Risk Legacy permanent changed my brain chemistry and i love the idea of physical maps covered in drawings and supply lines and armies and stuff.

How this side of the game plays out is very very much one of the more exciting elements of play, and I can't wait to see how you all engage with it. And remember, Hell is a prison. Break its bars.

[leafie-draws]

concept art of She Who Eats for HELLPIERCERS 🔥

[raul-volp2]

Ekhinos Field!

Ekhinos Field Territory for HELLPIERCERS tabletop rpg from Sandy Pug games, pixel art tile showing places where players can storm and destroy demon hordes!

I love to work on HELLPIERCERS pixels, they are always so inventive and cool to work, and I am very proud of this one. =)

[boltsj]

Finally got some time to do some more work on the HELLPIERCERS system for foundry. The range editor took less time to make than I was worried it would.

[moofahdrome]

In regard to your pin post, what games do you like to play? I'm always a sucker for hearing about other tabletops people enjoy.

Ooooooh thank you for asking!!! I'm a big sucker for easy to run character focused games like Thirsty Sword Lesbians or Masks: A New Generation, but I also love love love games with potential for really cool and creative combat like Eidolon: Become Your Best Self, Gubat Banwa, and LANCER.

My primary experience is with Powered by the Apocalypse games, but I'm looking to expand my horizons a bit in the future! Blades in the Dark is super cool, but other Forged in the Dark games appeal to me a lot, especially Brinkwood - The Blood of Tyrants, a super cool game about organizing a revolution against colonialist capitalist vampires.

There's really so many amazing games by queer indie creators out there - Apocalypse Keys recently had its full release, as did EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER the TTRPG! There's really something for everyone. I really need to play more Ryuutama for its lovely adventure vibes, Hard Wired Island for a return to true anticapitalist cyberpunk, as well as Flying Circus for amazingly accurate WWI-era plane action in a miyazaki-inspired setting! Other stuff I've had for a while but need to play are Monster Care Squad, Heart: The City Beneath, and Comrades, a Revolutionary RPG.

There's also plenty of nice, charming, slower paced games as well. Wanderhome is a beautiful pastoral journey game, where everyone comes together to heal a land and experience wonders. Our Traveling Home is inspired by Howl's Moving Castle and has everyone play a unique role as a queer found family. Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast just released, and it's an amazing episodic experience packed full of beautiful content!

One of my favorite game creators is Dinoberry Press, creator of fantastic titles like Justicar, What Waits Beneath, and GUN&SLINGER, a cool 2-3 player game where one person plays a magical gun and the other their haunted wielder. It's got a couple great extra modes of play, too, like SWORD&BEARER or MECH&PILOT !

And there's even more amazing games in development. Dinoberry's You're in Space and Everything's Fucked just funded, as did HELLPIERCERS: TACTICAL HARROWING ACTION. Guns Blazing and Wetrunners are really close to being funded, too, check them out! Some other great games that aren't fully complete but you can play right now are ICON, Bloodbeam Badlands, Red West, and In the Time of Monsters, all of which are some of the COOLEST things I have ever seen.

Feel free to ask more questions about any of these! I love talking about them and I'm thrilled to see interest in indie ttrpgs!!!

[questfriendspodcast]

What's the ideal XCOM TTRPG?

We got a question from @mistermustachiogmc, but for some reason Tumblr deleted it

The XCOM TTRPG discussion in the recent newsletter really interested me because the tactical gameplay is one thing that I would actually want from the XCOM experience. A little magicpunk TTRPG called Zafir does exactly that, and in fact, it's pretty Damn hard to actually die in that game. I think part of the reason for that is that it's really hard to create and get attached to characters that are gonna die very quickly. Even in something like Call of Cthulu, the death of the player characters is the end of the story, a climactic moment that sells the danger of what they're up against, while in something like XCOM, you're expected to keep burgeoning on, making new characters to throw at the enemy. People are more of a resource, and the most interesting thing a character could do in a system that almost guarantees their death is just not to die immediately.

I feel like my main response is to 👀 at the TTRPG they mentioned and maybe plug Hellpiercers by Sandy Pug Games? It’s extremely XCOM vibes except you are liberating hell and also communists. It also does not exist yet but I’m going to be obsessed when it does release. -Tom

I'm not surprised tactical gameplay is something you'd want in an XCOM TTRPG - it's a big selling point of the game, and I imagine it's something most players would want in any adaptation! The reason I'd cut it from my own TTRPG adaption is two-fold:

Like you said, it's tough to deal the relentless onslaught of death in a TTRPG setting. In XCOM, the way they avoid that is by having the player character and all other major characters stay safe in the command center. Unsurprisingly, the first XCOM game (to my knowledge) that has major characters as playable units is also the first one without permadeath.

Tactical combat in TTRPGs is very tough for me personally, in large part because I enjoy tactics video games. In XCOM, I'm getting to dictate the strategy of the entire squad, but in a TTPRG, I get to make my one decision and then have to wait 30 minutes for my next turn (NOTE: my opinion here is heavily skewed by my personal experiences playing TTRPGs). This is why the one tactical TTRPG experience I really want to try is playing a 1v1 Lancer Match against Tom, where each of us controls an entire squad.

For me, the solution to both of these problems is to make "the commander" the player character. The main issues with this solution are (1) keeping the personal connection to the units, and (2) making an experience that isn't just "XCOM with paper." For me, that means taking out the tactics to focus on unit creation, attachment, and death, but I know that's heavily skewed by my personal preferences. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! -Kyle

[sandypuggames]

HELL IS A PRISON - BREAK ITS BARS

HELLPIERCERS is a tactics TTRPG like no other. Gnostic-ascended demi-god Humanity has slain the false demiurge, reclaimed its divinity, and has set its communist sights against the last prison in existence - HELL 4E/Lancer inspired grid-combat paired with a rich and deep map game strategy layer bringing complex faction mechanics together ocean-deep customization options so that every Gnostic Warrior-Poet-God is utterly unique. The biggest Sandy Pug Games project yet, with art from @jnbutlerart and @leafie-draws, as well as pixel illustrations from @raul-volp2, HELLPIERCERS will be one of the most gloriously illustrated tomes in TTRPGs and we're on Kickstarter, right now.

Edit: Now fully funded and in our last 2 weeks!

[leafie-draws]

3 days left!! let’s GOOOOO!! 

dredged from the black soup of hell, coated in eldritch runes, holding the secrets to unlocking your gnosis…

// HELLPIERCERS PHYSICAL EDITION //

this cover sketch was plucked straight from the ichor soaked sketchbook of the marquis of shadows, to give you an early look at what to expect!

join the fight

thursday, march 9th

hell. will. fall.

[leafie-draws]

some spooky guys for HELLPIERCERS 🔥

[raul-volp2]

Working on the Paracletus Demon Faction for HELLPIERCERS ttrpg.

The Boss demon and it's minions, now I need to finish the 3 Minibosses.

[owlbear33]

oh yeah for sure, that's the way to do it, a swarm or a mass combat unit or whatever, that's also largely how exalted (3e) handles things

I think my point is to keep things balanced you need to give each player no more than 1 or two extra combat units to controll (besides their character)

in terms of our hypothetical necromancer that's a horde of zombies and Nilobth the Rotted their revenant lieutenant

mechanically speaking a swarm of mooks is more or less the same as a single more powerful ally (actual specific mechanics may differ)

actually no I'm not done, the problem with running a necromancer or other character with a great number of minions in dnd or another tactical strategy ttrpg is that sort of RPG, the combat is basically I skirmish wargame, it's just that one side (the gm) controls a whole Warband, and the other side (the players) are collaboratively controlling the other, each player controlling a single combatant, maybe 2 or 3, if the character has a pet, or a hireling or like single summons, and that's fine,

the problem is that when a minion controller character goes "Wait no, I want to controll a whole Warband" it totally unbalances things

and the way to fix that is to move away from games that treat combat as a tactical war game at least a bit or give every player a small warband or at least the option of having a small warband

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

y'know I feel like if Hellpiercers came out now it'd make fuckin' bank

like obviously i want them to take their time but

[bloodusedarch]

‘‘  what  a,  lovely  surprise  to  see  you  here.  ‘‘  tatia  said  as  she  raised  one  eyebrow.  she  couldn’t  get  used  by  the  fact  there  were  multiple  people  with  the  same  appearance  on  this  world.        IT  WAS  NOT  NATURAL.        it’s  a  curse,  she  had  to  life  with  it.  ‘‘  -                                      what’s  wrong,  katherine?  ‘‘

@hellpierced​ liked the starter call.

[rippermorality]

hellpierced said:' who said you could come in? '                 A MEME I DON’T REMEMBER BUT HERE.  

𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐘𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌. he stands by the door frame, watching her, the odd case when they are alone in the day, no prying eyes on them. “you don’t want me to come in, then? well, then, miss pierce. . .I must had misunderstood your looks outside.“ a quick glance, her presence alluring, dragging him along and he has no control over his actions as he followed her. “perhaps I’m just content to watch like this.“

[sandypuggames]

MORAX of the Broken Horn is the uncrowned leader of the EKKLESIA faction, a band of failed upstarts, forgotten princelings, and discarded cannon fodder who make their services available to anyone who promises them a sliver of power.

In HELLPIERCERS they make up a neutral faction that is always in play, with units that can be deployed by any of the other 8 core factions. This doubles the tactical depth of any armies roaster and opens up additional configurations and greater variety in combat. Morax is lovingly illustrated by the one and only @jnbutlerart.