Shallow Graves: Cult of the Moon Spider for Tombpunk RPG

Your pouch is empty, your wineskin is dry. Goremarrow demands an offering, and the Ever-Living Queen's tax collectors have started sniffing around again. 

TOMBPUNK is a lo-fi, high-action, rules-light, roleplaying game. Welcome to a world that will do its damnedest to kill you, full of tomb-raiding adventures, armored skeletons, dangerous cultists, unpredictable blunderbusses, and you, armed with a trusty old mace and a slightly rusty helmet you stole off a corpse.

About the Books

SHALLOW GRAVES is a new collection of six adventures, encounters, and tools for TOMBPUNK - an 80+ page, 5.5x8.5 full-color hardcover book featuring the following:

• CULT OF THE MOON SPIDER by Creative Wronging
• BRING OUT YOUR DEBTS by Richard August
• THE SALT PIT by Lester Burton
• TOMB OF Q'AN NAR by Alan Bahr
• GALLOWGHAST MANOR by Alan Bahr
• SACRED PLACES by Alan Bahr
• AN ASSORTMENT OF ASSHOLES by Kris McClanahan

We are also funding a new print run of Tombpunk: The Mausoleum Edition, a 132-page, 5.5x8.5 full-color hardcover book that contains all the rules you need to play the game!

• All of the rules you need to play
• Three major Class types
• Six rare classes
• Spell lists
• A full bestiary
• Chaos Magick!
• Dungeon Generator
• Three detailed locations
• Traps, Taxes, and Tips for sticking it to the man!
• Eight unique deities, cults, and gods
• Adventure seeds and solo rules

What is Tombpunk?

So, what the hell is Tombpunk: The Mausoleum Edition? Tombpunk was created by Alan Bahr to feel like old-school RPGs from the 70s & 80's with a bit of a modern design ethos tossed in there, given a good shake in a convenient skull bowl, and poured on the game table for play. This edition is the newest version, with updated rules, new classes, and more chaos.

Tombpunk is designed around four main focus points:

• Keep the rules quick, dirty, to the point, and deliberately incomplete.
• Don’t sweat rules for everything. Provide just enough rules to play.
• Keep the tone straightforward and conversational.
• Avoid the possibility of power creep.

Tombpunk operates on a quick and dirty RPG system, designed to play fast, get out of the way, and let you have lo-fi, high-action adventures. You can learn to play and start adventuring in minutes because the game is written by Alan Bahr to be as simple, conversational, and easy to understand as possible - Rules first, story later.

Three basic classes, roll under attributes, degrading resource mechanics, and rare classes (limited to one per playgroup), all combine to create a unique experience. 

But why did we capitalize on the -punk suffix you might ask?

Well, the game features a brutal and oppressive economic macro-game designed to keep adventurers down and out as their lords profit. It's a feudal, medieval, and oppressive dystopia, and the only way out is adventuring (so they tell you) or rising up and killing the lord. 

The art and design of this new edition, by Kris McClanahan, are inspired by classic genre artists like John Blanche, a poisoned stab from Sean Äaberg's psychedelic dagger, with the eldritch shadows of artists like Mike Mignola. He placed a particular focus on designing the pages to be striking, but immediately usable as well.

The New Adventures

SHALLOW GRAVES includes six new adventures for Tombpunk, each with new locations, enemies, encounters, and more.

In Cult of the Moon Spider, by Creative Wronging, the small fishing village of Lesolé is in shambles; Gobarries have been raiding all merchant caravans in & out of town, slaying any unfortunate bastard they can get their hands on, farmers are afraid to tend their fields, Gobarries have shot flaming arrows at fishermen trying to earn a living- now doomed to watery graves, and the Guard Captain has seemingly abandoned the town. Should Florimond’s Merchant rivals find out about Lesolé’s dire straits, it would ruin his chances at ascending the social ladder of Aguionne. That’s why he’s hired your sorry asses. Job is simple; get rid of the Gods-damned Gobarries by any means necessary & keep your mouths shut about it. I'm sure there's nothing more to it than that...

In THE SALT PIT by Lester Burton, the impoverished citizens of Sol have been relocated to the Salt Pit: an underground salt mine recently repurposed as a ghetto. To quell the tempers of its residents and instill fear in those who would rise against his self-appointed authority, a local crime lord has announced The Lottery. The “randomly selected” winners of The Lottery are promptly hunted by the residents of The Pit and must fight for their very survival, turning The Pit into a veritable death gauntlet. 

BRING OUT YOUR DEBTS by Richard August Turning up to hand over the biggest chunk of your earnings to your creditors isn’t ever fun. But you usually don’t expect it to turn into a fight for your life against cannibals. This particular creditor and his family decided there were better, and tastier, ways of getting their pound of flesh. They’re preparing a feast, and you’re going to be the main course. But if you survive, well… one less debt to worry about, eh?

AN ASSORTMENT OF ASSHOLES by Kris McClanahan Meet twenty hirelings, creatures, and miscreants that inhabit the Northern Provinces.

In the TOMB OF Q'AN NAR by Alan Bahr, you enter a small dungeon situated high in the Snowrazor Mountains, about half a days ride from the city of Lastvert, one of the northern most cities of Aquittany. Though the legends and stories of why it exists are lost, in reality, the Tomb is a resting place of a powerful eldritch horror that subsumed the shattered mind and body of an ancient sorcerer. That idiot. (This adventure was previously released as a digital adventure for the 1e version of Tombpunk in Grift & Grit. This is the first time it has appeared in print.)

GALLOWGHAST MANOR by Alan Bahr is a horror adventure set in the manor of a decrepit family with dark secrets... The adventure is ten pages long and includes 8 locations, adventure hooks, and new enemies. (This adventure was previously released as a digital-only adventure. This is the first time it has appeared in print.)

SACRED PLACES by Alan Bahr is a horror adventure set in a seemingly serene abbey... The adventure is ten pages long and includes 8 locations, adventure hooks, and new enemies. (This adventure was previously released as a digital-only adventure. This is the first time it has appeared in print.)

The Box Set

In addition to the hardcover and digital versions of the core game, you can also get the BLOODY CAIRN box set!  

The Bloody Cairn gets you the Core Tombpunk hardcover book, PDF, twelve metal coins, a Bloody Cairn-exclusive enamel pin, 10 printed character sheets, a metal bookmark, a 2-sided printed map, an embroidered patch, and the custom d12 dice. Over an $85 value. 

Add-Ons

You can add a plethora of loot-worthy items from the Add-On menu, including Stick Figures, Dice, Coins, POD copies, and more! Be sure to browse the options after selecting a reward level.

You can see an expanded look at all of the add-on options in the first project update HERE.

Media

Daniel at THE DUNGEON DIVE did a great first look at the box set! (You should subscribe to his channel - it's great)

Shipping costs will be collected after the project is complete via the pledge manager here on Kickstarter once we are closer to shipping and fulfillment. Estimated shipping costs for the book are:

• USA:$10
• CANADA:$25
• REST OF WORLD:$30-35

The Bloody Cairn Reward level estimated shipping costs are:

• USA:$12-14
• CANADA:$30-40
• REST OF WORLD:$35-60

Shipping has only gotten more expensive, unfortunately. If you are on a budget but still want the physical book, consider adding the At-Cost POD reward add-on and save a few coins. I will be fulfilling all of the rewards from my secret studio hideout in Pennsylvania.

We're putting PDF fulfillment duties into the capable hands of DriveThruRPG.

The core book is complete, so not long after Kickstarter delivers the funds, backers will receive the digital book from DriveThruRPG. The remaining digital rewards will follow when they are completed.

Print On Demand

What is At-Cost Print On Demand? 

Print On Demand through DriveThru is a great way to get a copy of the book on your own terms, directly from DriveThru. Rather than include this in any reward levels, both books are available in the add-on menu as POD versions.

Backers will receive the digital book and an at-cost code to print their books on DriveThruRPG. They can order the books they desire and get them shipped directly to them from DriveThru. Please keep in mind: backers will still need to pay for shipping costs and the at-cost price of the book.

Important note - Due to the color/black saturations in this book, most options have been deemed too rad for DriveThru. They will only be available in Premium Hardcover. Printing costs are estimated at around $17-21 for the Premium Hardcover.

We've hosted our products on DriveThruRPG for years now, and have only ever received excellent service and support. We're confident they can help us deliver a great book to all our POD backers.

NO AI Images

Absolutely no generative AI was used in the design or production of this project. Every piece of art was drawn by hand. (Excludes AI inherent in programs like spell-check and whatnot.)

Who are we?

OCTOPRESS PUBLISHING

Octopress Publishing is a new imprint from Deeply Dapper, focusing on creating a stable of creators, writers, artists, and layout designers that we can team up with each other to design and release unique, professional tabletop roleplaying games.

ALAN BAHR

He's this guy who makes games. Some have won awards, some are bestsellers, some never sell, and some are giant messes that barely work. But he loves making games and he's continually getting better at it.  Alan owns and operates Gallant Knight Games, which publish a variety of games and game systems, as well as provide services to other publishers to get their games to market. He's also been published by Osprey Games, Steamforged Games, as well as working and consulting on tabletop adaptations of bestselling novels and world-renowned IPs.