Skullcrusher - Dark Fantasy RPG

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What is Skullcrusher Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Game?

Skullcrusher is a tabletop roleplaying game, created out of the NSR or New School Revival.  Skullcrusher is an analogue pen and paper game, most often played around a kitchen table with 3-5 friends.  Skullcrusher requires dice, paper, writing utensils, this booklet, and most of all imagination.

While no prior roleplaying knowledge or experience is needed to play Skullcrusher, this game follows a direct lineage of similar games, including classic Dungeons & Dragons, Into the Odd, Cairn, and Maze Rats.  Collectively, the games in this lineage have been played for 50 years around hundreds of thousands of tables by millions of people.  Whether you are new to TTRPGs, or just trying your next favorite game, Skullcrusher welcomes you with open arms (and swords drawn). 

Specifically, Skullcrusher is a fantasy RPG with subgenres like low-fantasy, grimdark, sword and sandals, and pulp fantasy, all being mixed in for taste. If you’re looking for specific pop culture touchstones, like Conan the Barbarian and The Beastmaster as good starting points.

Why did I make Skullcrusher?

Skullcrusher RPG was created out of my desire to recapture the over-the-top, dark grim fantasy D&D sessions that I grew up playing with my friends in the 1990s.  I wanted a fun game to pick up and play these types of sessions that wouldn’t get bogged down by obtuse rulebooks, clunky or poorly aged mechanics, and combat sessions that take three hours to resolve.

For years, I’ve been a fan of games like Into The Odd by Chris McDowell, by David Black, Maze Rats by Ben Milton, and Cairn by Yokai Gal. I really loved the way that each of these games streamlined the rules, mechanics, procedures, and page counts into more manageable and more easily accessible undertaking for both newer players and players who don’t have a ton of time to relearn everything they know about RPGs to play a new game.

I also really love the way each of , and release their own material both privately and, more importantly, commercially via very liberal licensing agreements. Skullcrusher will also be released via creative commons, and it is my hope that others will take what I’ve done here and create something of their own too. 

In addition to the creative commons license, my hope is that Skullcrusher RPG becomes a true community project.  I am granting the rights to anyone willing to create content for this game, that they can create OFFICIAL Skullcrusher RPG content, not just third-party content.  There will be no “Created using or compatible logo.” If you want to make a Skullcrusher game, adventure, or supplement and call it official, have at it!  My only ask is that you do not use any AI art or writing in your projects. 

Currently, only the Player's Handbook Playtest doc is available to download.  However, the full Player's Handbook and Game Master's Guide will be added to this file as soon as they are ready!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bloatzines/skullcrusher-dark-fantasy-rolepl...