DISCLAIMER: The book contains some depictions of scantily clad anime girls, blood & gore - nothing too explicit, but not all-ages either.

***

MANCER is a tabletop RPG about:

ANTEDILUVIAN ADVENTURES

Delve into the world of Vestige, an post-apocalypse fantasy setting blending a myriad of influences from mythology, world religions & conspiracy theories. 

You play as a Mancer, a mage from one of the surviving mortal realms on Vestige after the Great Flood. Set forth into the primordial chaos of the deluge, where divine corpses lie rich for the plunder. 

Carve these ancient bones into your wands; drain their ichor to create elixirs; skin them to make your robes.  But take care, NMEs - Non-Mortal Entities like dragons & demons - skulk through the Flood, hungering for sport & blood.

MAGIC & TACTICS

MANCER's game system is built as a fusion of two tabletop RPG systems: the Year Zero Engine for roleplay & character creation, & Lancer for its combat & progression. The core dice system is a d6 die pool system, where results of 6 count as successes, damage, criticals, etc.

From the Year Zero Engine: create a lineup of stats for your Mancer called Aptitudes, determining your skills along the way. Use Potentials to guide roleplay & Links to track friendships, rivalries & romances. 

From Lancer: sink your teeth into tactical magic-based combat. Obtain new Regalia - state-of-the-art arcane bodysuits & armour - along with new spells & abilities (in short, it's Lancer with witches). 

Even magic itself is controlled by monopoly & you must turn to one of the great Trueblood Houses - the most ancient Mancer bloodlines - for access to powerful resources and spells. 

FEATURES

• 100+ pages of content (with more to come).
• Six playable races: Human, Elf, Drakeling, Fiendling, Homunculus & Wight.
  
• 9 Mancer archetypes: Magus, Sorcerer, Hierophant, Psychic, Druid, Alchymer, Ravener, Witch & Mantler.
• Earn & don Regalia: magical suits made from divine viscera.
• Customise your Regalia with a modular gear system, from numismatic holy weapons to engraved sigils & of course, lots of spells (upcoming).
• Detailed lore about the setting of Vestige - cultures to create character backgrounds in, cities to visit and named figures to interact with.
• An artbook section featuring numerous illustrations and sketches to immerse you into the setting of Vestige to stir ideas for your game

>>ITCHFUNDING

Itchfunding is an alternative to typical crowdfunding methods like Kickstarter and is more flexible and less stressful for creators. Unlike Kickstarter, there's no hard endpoint for the campaign or risk the funding will fail. The campaign remains open and the book remains in development until the funding goals are met.

You aren't funding a final product (though you will get a release PDF if you fund the game), but you're funding the development and progress of MANCER. If you can't afford it yet, feel free to grab a community copy when it's available as support! New free copies will come out often, which hopefully can build a community to sustain MANCER's development till completion.

MANCER is in active development. Your purchase gets you the in-development PDF version of MANCER and any and all future updates. Any payments you make go toward improving the book with art and content. This development version is cheaper, with the final product expected to be $20 at release.

When each funding goal is hit, the PDF will be updated to match. More funding goals will be added as they are met and I get a better sense for what more the game needs, such as art and layout.

$1,000 - Base Systems

These funds will go into completing the base release content, namely:

• Expanded options from each of the eight Houses, which are the main supplier of items, spells & Regalia in the game (equivalent of Lancer's manufacturers).
• One complete Regalia (the equivalent of Lancer's mechs) from each House, numbering eight starting Regalia.

BEYOND: Full 1st Edition release

• More Regalia from each House to greater flesh out player options & the immersion into the game's systems & world. I aim for around 16-24 completed Regalia for the base game: each with its own spells, sigils, weapons, etc.
• More completed illustrations for races, archetypes, House emblems, etc.
• Detailed GMing section + more world NPCs & enemies.

FAQ

Is this related to Our Spell Is Steel?

MANCER is an evolution/development on the setting for Our Spell Is Steel (OSIS), combined with the setting of the (warning: NSFW) Project WAND visual novel series. For all intents and purposes, it's the 2nd Edition of OSIS.

Do I need to play OSIS or Project WAND to understand MANCER?

No. MANCER's setting is nearly identical to OSIS + WAND, but with a lot of lore reshuffled and adjusted so I could expand on it more. OSIS still has lots of cool art and a dope magic system, so I still recommend it if you're into the whole anime magecore dark fantasy aesthetic. And if you like steamy yuri, WAND is definitely for you.

How similar is this to Lancer?

Combat uses Lancer as its main foundation, but changes a lot of different concepts & terminology to suit human-sized combatants. Combat rules are largely the same - the main differences lie in character builds, weapon mechanics, inventory/mount management, etc. The Beta PDF has dedicated sidebars explaining these differences for Lancer players to have an easier time adapting to these changes.