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HELLSCAPES Corebook

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Living is hard, now that society has fallen. We used to complain that our lives were boring. These days, every moment is a struggle. Every meal is earned. Every breath is precious. Dangers roam the landscape, both human and worse. Few survive, and numbers dwindle. Those who manage to live long are legend, hardened heroes or monstrous villains. You are among them.

Your canteen, your weapon, your food: these are the most precious treasures in the world. But once you reach our level you might start wanting more, the whispered wonders yet to be uncovered. Secrets of old ready to come back into the harsh light of this fallen world. 

Will you plumb those depths and scour the wastelands for what we’ve lost? Will you band together with fellow survivors, watching each other’s backs in the treacherous night? Will you lend a blistered hand to rebuilding society in this hell of a world? Or will you break what is left of it, and remake it anew? 

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HELLSCAPES is the beaten and battered manual you need to run post-apocalyptic survival games. We’ve scavenged the noble bones of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, reworking its lightweight materials into twisted mechanics to serve our needs. We bastardize classes into those that suit the wastes, allowing for new and dangerous heroes to arise. We’ve repurposed the raw materials of Feats and Backgrounds to reflect the storylines of hardened scavengers. We recast Races into Origins, allowing you to customize tribes, mutations, and robotic enhancements to suit the hellish campaign settings you choose. 

Need a game where society collapses as the dead rise to consume the living? Want to see how you’d fare against the unblinking gaze of robotic overlords? Hope to lead the uprising of a human resistance against alien conquerors? We’ve got the system for you. 

HELLSCAPES includes all the post-apocalyptic baddies your DM needs to tear you limb from limb, leaving more food for those who remain. Just kidding, we’re sure you’ll make it tough guy. 

We’re building HELLSCAPES on the engine that drives our last Kickstarter, the highly successful HYPERLANES. There we showed that magical spells could be converted into a system of gambits, where skill and pluck can easily play out as powerful but limited abilities. Here we go further, inventing hundreds of new Gambits for deployment against barbaric raiders and hostile environments alike. 

Built lightweight and simple, gambits allow for creative uses beyond our own limited imaginings. This is where players flourish, bending raw Gambits to the needs of the moment in bursts of creativity. 

We’ve even made sure to include Gambits for use in daring vehicular chases. If you want hellish landscapes traversed by spike-mounted dune buggies and cargo trucks, we’ve got you covered. Since HYPERLANES was made to handle space flight, we’ve got this vehicles thing down pat. HELLSCAPES is all about action movie stunts and gasoline explosions.

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Reviews (6)
Discussions (18)
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Rickey W May 22, 2022 5:26 am UTC
I would like to know the same as David K before purchasing hard cover... has it gone thru a final edit to correct said issues mentioned below???
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John B May 08, 2023 3:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
No. The creator abandoned the project and the Kickstarter backers have not received everything that was promised to them. Admittedly they kind of low-balled their pledge levels, and should probably have set higher limits for what we were supposed to get, and I would even be cool if they asked for more funding as long as it got done. But the main creator of the project ghosted everyone and hasn't been seen on Kickstarter since May 2019. Note that the creator did not die in 2020 due to COVID or something, they just ghosted the project, as confirmed by the editor collaborating on the project in 2022 in a comments post. So, yeah, I do NOT recommend people buy the POD of this book, it is not finished, it never will be finished. It wasn't truly ready for POD, ever, and I assume that making POD available was just a cash grab for whoever set it up. Having said that, this PDF has some really great ideas in it, and is a pretty great Player's Handbook for a DM wanting to run a post-apocalypse "Mad Max" or "Fallout"...See more
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David K May 17, 2023 5:42 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks for the response, John B. It does have a lot of cool apocalyptic stuff in the book, I'm just disappointed that the creator never finished or at least gave it another update to clean some simple mistakes. I also agree with you, that they should remove the POD option from this as well. The reason I picked this up was because I read that Scrivened had good reviews for their Hyperlanes content online. I figured they would put equal amount of care into this smaller project post apocalyptic setting. Its a shame to hear that they ghosted everyone :(
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David K May 09, 2022 5:37 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Just had this book printed, POD. At first glance "not whole book yet" found a few typos already on some paragraphs. I also noticed on the Scavenger class table, under hacks at 10th and 17th level reads "Metamagic" instead of the words "Hacks". I enjoyed the content and liked the idea of gambits etc. Has this book been updated yet since discussed in 2018? Wish it was before I bought hardcover and PDF? Please let me know. No character sheet in this book, would be nice to include as one of the last pages. I am aware that the character sheet is also free on here separately. please let me know kindly.
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David W J January 10, 2020 8:36 am UTC
PURCHASER
The system that replaces magic kills this for me. I was hoping to have a 5E system that broke away from a list of spells that players can use to get out of situations instead of using their brains, but I guess that’s why 5 E is popular.
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Darryl J August 29, 2020 5:51 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Really have to disagree here, while the gambit system is a replacement for magic, characters learn mundane tricks and cool things any amazing hero could do. This very much is a no magic system. This is a system you could attach to a mundane modern world setting.

You could just cut gambits out and rely on skills and player creativity to come with cool actions, but that's not D&D. That's a different game. This book is written as an accompaniment to the D&D 5E PHB.
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Dennelle I C D April 15, 2019 7:26 am UTC
PURCHASER
Good day!

I don't know where else to ask this so here goes:

I recently bought this product with the intention of using it in my campaign setting. However, since I mostly play online and my players would need copies of the Classes, Backgrounds, etc.

Would it be possible for me to put said content in a wiki of sorts for my players to easily access the information? Or would this action lead to copyright infringement?
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Stacie W March 16, 2019 7:05 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Just wondering if this product has been updated with any errata before purchasing. I'd like to get it in print.
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Hayden M November 05, 2018 5:41 am UTC
PURCHASER
Also I'm more than willing to pitch some core class ideas to hellscapes as a sort of expansion, though It'll just be for fun for now though. They were originally going to be 5e home brews, but I'm considering modeling them to be used with your core book, solely because of how gambits work.

Have You considered starting a homebrew reddit page the same way Unearthed arcana has a homebrew reddit page?
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Hayden M November 05, 2018 5:37 am UTC
PURCHASER
is this compatible with hyper lanes, and I know the muscle and outlaw are almost the same as outcast and warrior, could I just tack an outlaw subclass onto a outcast character,

I'm assuming it would work, but you did rewrite gambits for the setting, as well as some class structures

Also speaking of just porting subclasses over from parent classes, If I was playing an eldritch knight in 5e dnd, and converted over to hyperlanes or hellscapes, could it still function as a viable subclass for the setting?
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Hayden M November 05, 2018 5:48 am UTC
PURCHASER
also How would I go about converting your Androids, robots, and cyborgs from hyperlanes over to hellscapes, especially the cyborg since it relies on a culture/biology race system rather than a race using the origin system?
Customer avatar
Derek H October 13, 2018 6:50 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Where is the designations of open content and product identity?

And there is no copyright information in the section 15 of the SRD.
Customer avatar
Brian L July 26, 2018 12:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
I was a kickstarter for this and I never received my PDF, have tried via the KS page and messages to find out how I get my copy. Just trying here in case the company sees this...?
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Kevin L September 29, 2018 3:41 am UTC
I am in the same boat. No communication at all from either the KS or direct emails
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Derek H May 19, 2018 7:28 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Still wondering if there is any rules for modifying technology.

And when might the POD be released?
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Todd S July 15, 2018 12:21 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I wouldn't hold my breath on the POD. It's been over two months since they last communicated on the Kickstarter page, and that last communication was that they were going to send out the physical rewards in a couple of weeks. Well, that never happened and they've been silent ever since. They were never very good about sending updates anyway, so there's a chance they'll still show back up at some point. I'm going to do what I suggested though and not hold my breath.
Customer avatar
Sascha K April 15, 2018 4:06 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello,
do you plan an errata, as there are Gambits (Unload, Coordinate and maybe other) missing and other errors?
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Customer avatar
RYAN C April 27, 2018 5:28 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Yep, we should real soon have an update to the file, with the index from the forthcoming POD version, and fixing a few problems.
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Nicholas K November 12, 2018 4:03 am UTC
PURCHASER
You're missing Smash Hit in the Gambit's list, Ryan.
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Zachary R April 17, 2020 8:59 pm UTC
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RN M April 06, 2018 6:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
Just finished thumbing through the PDF. Decent mechanics and a good translation of 5e's core game loop from fantasy to apocalyptic.

That being said, I do have some criticisms.
1a. There should be a copy of the character sheet in the book itself. I know you have a free download, but it's not the same.
1b. The character sheet needs another layer of polish. I find the best character sheets resemble an In-universe document. D&D's sheet gives an art deco scroll look, while Dark Heresy resembles a manuscript, and Shadowrun is futuristic looking. The Hellscapes character sheet squanders the awesome art direction of the book, and kinda looks bland. It also probably should have a bit more detail in gear, considering how much emphasis carry weight has.
2. There needs to be a GM Section. The book seems content on dropping tables GMs might need where-ever, meaning you'd need to remember to bookmark those pages if you wanted to run the game and do something on the fly. It uses the...See more
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Derek H April 05, 2018 7:16 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Are there rules for repairing and modifying technology?
Customer avatar
Devin P April 05, 2018 6:55 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello everyone, I'm very interested in this system but I see that there may have been some issues with downloading the PDF? I don't want to buy this if it is incomplete or inaccessible. Hopefully someone can respond to this soon. Also want to be sure there is no system errors or if this is a work in progress or not. Thanks!
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Brian C March 26, 2018 5:20 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I'm a $20 backer on kickstarter how do I link these accounts? I see other backers talking about how they have downloaded the book already.
Customer avatar
Jeremy G March 25, 2018 12:46 pm UTC
Is this going to be made available for print on demand?
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File Last Updated:
April 30, 2018
This title was added to our catalog on March 19, 2018.