HELLPIERCERS

TACTICAL HARROWING ACTION

By Sandy Pug Games

Public Preview Build

Edited: 2/23/2022

This document represents an early, partial, experimental edition of HELLPIERCERS. While it contains
sufficient rules to play and enjoy a handful of sessions of the game, its intent is to inform you and get you
excited for the possibilities this ruleset contains. There will be broken mechanics, overpowered items, and
unexplained aspects of the game that we have either intentionally left out of this document, or are under
active development. This document contains very little of the artwork, and lore, that we hope to expand
through crowdfunding. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
 Chapter 1
Introduction

The War In Heaven was won. The tyrannical Angelic Generals are dethroned, and the
galaxy-wide networks of sorceries that trapped souls within their net have been removed. A
united humanity, armed with the gnosis of their own self-divinity, claimed heaven through
violence, and have banished mortality forever.

Some heralded the end of the Tyranny of Heaven as something of a grand finale for humanity.
The reclamation of their gnosis, the liberation of their afterlife, and the global collective
community seemed to them the culmination of humanity's destiny. After all, when you’ve slain
God, what’s left?

Hell.

Even during the War In Heaven, scholars and philosophers debated the ramifications of the
truth humanity had uncovered. The irrefutable existence of a God, and its failures, the
cosmological systems of abuse, the ideological impacts of the Angelic Generals - and, of
course, the existence of Hell. If Heaven existed, even in its fallen, corrupted, and usurped state,
surely a Hell too, must exist.

Not so, argued many. The Heaven humans found was nothing like the afterlife imagined by their
precursors. Its inhabitants were ruinous beings, twisted and mutated away from any divinity,
living off of the siphoned godhood inherent in the souls they stole. This place did not imply an
opposite.

But ultimately, no one could escape the uncomfortable fact - Heaven’s halls were sparse. Barely
a hundred billion souls could be accounted for. Many must have been destroyed, or fashioned
into soldiers for the Angelic Generals, but fully half of all of humanity were gone. Where?

Hell.

Fifty years ago, in the center of a city on the Moon made of runed brass and arcane ritual; the
Council Of Socialist Gnostics perverted the magic of Heaven to tear the fabric of reality and
peer into The Pit for the first time. And they found humanities lost. Billions of souls lashed into a
nightmare of eternal torture and toil. Their soulforms twisted into beasts of burden, weapons,
building materials, and worse. The portal was snapped shut as soon as our darkest fears were
firmly confirmed. Hell is real, and almost every human to ever live was trapped there.

The truth was made known that evening, and the world wept. The Great Mourning took hold of
the world for a scant twelve days. Then humanity set itself to the task before it. The Second
Global Congress assembled in Ankara. Three million representatives of every union and
collective on Earth gathered in the same halls where their forebears had declared war on
Heaven. The vote was unanimous, humanity would liberate Hell.

Under this common goal, humanity prepared for war. For five long years we developed
technological marvels, trained our strongest and bravest and smartest to needle-point
sharpness, honed the new divinity in our hearts into blades of war, and kissed millions of loved
ones goodbye with the promise of eventual freedom. On July 13th, 2169, Humanity tore open
the universe, burst through the Christwound and rained fire on hell itself. The city of Dis fell in
less than an hour as it’s demonic forces – long dormant and unused to war – failed to rally in
defense. Humanity’s foothold secured, the hard work of liberating the most hostile place in the
multiverse was now underway.

Hell. Will. Fall.

Pre-Game

HELLPIERCERS is a tactics focused tabletop roleplaying game. If you’ve ever played video
games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Into The Breach, or Disgaea, you’ll know something of what to
expect here. Players will take on the role of an elite squadron Hellpiercers, incredibly powerful
soldiers in humanities war of infernal liberation. They will use a grid-based battle system to fight
tactical conflicts against demonic hordes, and the princes of Hell themselves. These battles will
reward them with resources to upgrade their home base in the city of Dis, which in turn will
unlock new classes, abilities, weapons, and mechanics to play with.

To play this game, you’ll need some friends, a few six sided dice, a few twenty sided dice, and
something to write on/with. You’ll also need the various play sheets that come with this game
(The map, the character sheets, etc). You’ll write on these to record your character’s abilities
and your progress through Hell. Unlike many tabletop roleplaying games, you’ll probably need
several character sheets each.

Gameplay is split between three major modes - STRATCOM, TACCOM, and Hangin’ Out.
STRATCOM is when you get a birds eye view of the conflict, invest your resources in
developing your forward base and squad, unlock new abilities and level up, and so on.
TACCOM happens when you get into conflict and takes place on a grid or battlemap. This is
where you’ll use all of your special abilities, weapons, and guile to defeat the demons. Hangin’
Out is the narrative mode of play that takes place between the other two – moments of
downtime back at base, defusing a bomb on a compromised transport, or navigating the
impossible labyrinths under Dis. Each of these modes of play have distinct rules that are much
simpler than it seems. We’ll get to them in a bit.
Assumptions
The world of HELLPIERCERS comes with a number of assumptions. These are statements and
ideas that the book holds as factually true within the context of the game’s world. These are not
ironclad laws that your game must follow, and we encourage you to imagine and build new
assumptions with your friends. Many of these ideas will be explored in greater detail through the
art and lore in this book, but if you want to get someone caught up with the status quo, this is a
good place to start;

● HELLPIERCERS takes place in a world somewhat similar to our own. People will refer to
the planet they live on as Earth, they identify as Humans, and most of the real world’s
geography, history, and culture exist within the history of HELLPIERCERS world
● Humanity is at the tail end of a Long Revolution. Oligarchs, kings, emperors, and CEOs
have become a thing of the past, but cultural reactionaries, logistics, and social conflict
hold back tomorrow’s Utopia, at least for now
● All economic activity has been reconfigured toward the objective betterment of Humanity.
Housing, food, water, clothes, and everything else needed for a happy, fulfilling life are
provided free wherever the global union of labourers can provide them.
● Several aspects of gnostic theology are provably true. Humanity exists within a pocket
universe created by an ignorant, cruel god known as the Demiurge. Each human
contains a crumb of divinity that can be harnessed into magic and power via gnosis
● Early pre-gnosis experiments in gnostic magic and FTL travel led to Humanity finding
Heaven, a hidden dimension just below ours populated by corrupt Angels who feast
upon the souls of the dead
● Humans, finding this cruel injustice untenable, waged war against Heaven, slew the
Demiurge, and in their victory discovered Gnostic Divinity, a tiny spark of the divine
embedded in each and every living being
● The cost of victory was the memory of every Human alive. This is an event sometimes
referred to as The Great Reset
● The War of Infernal Liberation (Or The War In Hell) began after Gnostic sorcerers
uncovered the existence of Hell, and a global congress voted to rescue Humanity’s
forsaken dead.
● The War In Hell began incredibly well for Humanity, and they have established a firm
beachhead in the ex-Demon capital of DIS
● Hell is ruled by a number of Demon Princes, who hold sway over a vast army of demonic
hordes. Each resides in their own kingdom, a finger branching off from the center of hell;
DIS
● These Princes are in constant conflict with each other which provides ample chance for
a unity Humanity to battle their superior weapons and numbers
● Demons mostly fight in massive hordes of dozens of foot troops, or in smaller numbers
of elite, powerful forces. The princes themselves rarely enter the battlefield except in dire
circumstances
● Humanity’s gains have slowed, and many fear a stalemate. Irregular warfare,
unconventional tactics, and rapid deployment of new technology are encouraged in
hopes of preventing a counter-offensive.
Starting A Game
Before you jump into a campaign of HELLPIERCERS, you’ll want to sit down with your friends
and discuss a few things - go over the assumptions, read the class list, and figure out where the
overlap of everyone’s comfort and desires is. In particular, players may want to read section x.,
x., or x. Before playing. Remember that everyone is likely to have a very different idea of what
this game is, even if they’ve read the same parts as you, and getting everyone on the same
page will make the game run much, much smoother. Consider asking the following questions:

● What interests you most about this game?

● What elements of the setting entice you?
● What aspects of the gameplay are you most excited for?
● When you imagine a HELLPIERCER, what do they look like? Are they celestial heroes
or Aliens-style marines?
● What does Hell itself look like?
● What level of blood, guts, and gore are you comfortable with?
● Does anyone have any triggers they feel might come up in this sort of game?

Remember at the end of the day these games are supposed to be fun, social events where you
and your friends create an atmosphere of creative, cooperative play. While the action and thrills
of slaying Hellknights will be exciting, and potentially explicitly gruesome, it should remain in the
realms of comfort for everyone present. Build the framework for that experience before you
begin playing, as its much, much harder to do afterwards.

On “The Table”
Throughout this document you will see frequent references to “The Table”, often in the context
of deciding how to proceed in moments where the rules as written may not be clear, or
situations they fail to cover entirely. This turn of phrase is referring to you and anyone else who
is actively playing the game with you. In HELLPIERCERS, the table as a group forms a
democratic, adhoc confederation that should frequently check in with each other, collaborate on
narrative, make rulings, and interpret this text.

Whenever the game calls for the table to make a decision, allow everyone with a position the
space, time, and attention to express it, and then discuss the varying opinions, positions, and
ideas as a group until consensus is reached. This ruling does not have to be final, and you may
employ this dictatorship of the player at any point the table deems desirable.
 Chapter 2

Building a HELLPIERCER
This section will describe the rules you need to know to build a character in HELLPIERCERS.
Try not to be too concerned with making “bad” choices, at the start of the game you’ll have a
pretty limited set of choices, and most any character will be viable. You might want to read
Chapter 3’s TACCOM If you’re the type that prefers to know how a system works before you
build your characters.

[Sidebar: A note on complexity; While HELLPIERCERS begins fairly simply, the game is
designed to include a lot of opt-in complexity. Upgrades will unlock entire systems such as
battlefield manipulation, special off-field abilities, new classes and weapons, and so on. The
idea behind this system is to allow players to decide if, how, and when they want to explore
mechanics beyond their comfort level.]

In HELLPIERCERS, characters are made up of three distinct elements, namely their Weapon,
their Armor, and their Class. Weapons determine the shape and effects of the character's
attacks, their Armor determines how they move, and their Class determines their special abilities
and general focus. Each of these three can be hot swapped whenever your character has a few
hours of prep time back at DIS. Combining these three elements and experimenting with
upgrades and customization options is a huge part of the fun of HELLPIERCERS, and finding
interesting synergies is vital to overcome the deadly Demonic Princes that stand between you
and the liberation of Humanity.

Weapons

A Weapon in HELLPIERCERS determines the specific shape and overall effects of your attacks.
They often provide a special attack or utility power that can be used instead of your basic attack.
A weapon's statblock will look like this;

[Rifle - The name of the weapon

Damage - The standard damage of the weapon when using a basic attack
Attack Range - The range and pattern of the weapon’s attack. This pattern can not be flipped,
rotated, shifted, or moved from the displayed graphic, but you can attack in any of the four
cardinal directions
Ability - This is the weapon's special ability. There are two kinds of weapon abilities, which we’ll
talk about a little more below.]

At the start of the game, you will only have four weapons unlocked. As you play the game and
construct new buildings in DIS, you will unlock more weapons with more complicated or
interesting effects, so be sure to try out new weapons as they become available.
Weapons also provide the Damage that your attacks do, represented by a flat value and a dice.
Your attacks will always do damage equal to the flat value plus the value on the dice rolled. This
is intended to represent the chaotic nature of demon-slaying warfare, where a lucky shot might
dome a Demon Lord, or barely chip their obsidian horns.

Each weapon is equipped with one of two types of special ability - Trigger abilities, and Action
abilities. Trigger abilities work automatically, usually activated by a specific kind of action or
situation and do not require an action to use. Action abilities are used actively as an action on
your turn. Weapon Abilities will say which type they are after the name of the ability.

Weapon List

Ten Thousand Year Reign Shattering Blade

Damage - 1+1D10
Attack Range -
Roaming Strikes (Trigger) - If your attack kills an enemy, you may move into that enemies space
and make one additional attack against an adjacent enemy

She Speaks The Language Of Kings

Damage - 3+1D10
Attack Range -
Covering Fire (Action) - Mark an enemy. Provided you do not move and you spend your action
attacking a Marked enemy, they are unable to move on their turn

Sethian Externalized Annihilation Chamber Cannon

Damage - 0+5D4
Attack Range -
Precise Chaos (Trigger) - After rolling, You may assign each of your Damage Dice to a separate
target within range. You may assign more than one die per target

Regrettable Precaution
Damage - 1+1d4

Attack Range -
Rapid Deployment (Trigger) - After firing, make one additional attack. If that attack kills an
enemy, make an additional attack.

Armor
Primarily Armor determines how your character moves around the battlefield. Armor provides
your character with a Speed stat, which determines the number of spaces you may move in a
given turn, and a unique method of moving that allows your character to navigate the battlefield
in some special way. Armor also provides characters with a special action, and some come with
Resistances, which halves the type of damage of incoming attacks of that element (e.g. Alex is
shot with a Thunder Strike from a Demon, but is wearing armor with the Lightning resistance,
they take 5 Damage instead of 10).

[MALAKBEL- Armor Name

Speed - Number of squares a character wearing this armor can move per turn
Movement - Special features of movement related to this armor
Resistances - Damage of this type is halved while wearing this armor
Special- The armor’s special ability]

At the start of the game you will have access to Malakbel, Kushiel, and Asmodel Armor. These
are simple and versatile options that should give you plenty of space to get used to the systems
in the game before you upgrade your home base and unlock new Armor.

Armor List

MALAKBEL
Speed - 6
Movement - Can move diagonally
Resistances - N/A
Formless - Move through an enemy unit or horde into a free space adjacent to them

KUSHIEL
Speed - 4
Movement - May interrupt Movement to make an attack action at any time
Resistances - N/A
Hasaphet’s Palm - When ending your movement, target an adjacent enemy and Push 1

ASMODEL
Speed - 4
Movement - Gain 1 Speed per turn as long as you move your entire Speed in a straight line
Resistances - N/A
Physical Edification - Convert all remaining Speed into direct damage single attack against an
adjacent enemy. This resets your charge movement

AETOS
Speed - 5
Movement - Can trade movement for changing elevation on a one to one basis.
Resistances - N/A
Divebomb - Lose all elevation and attack an enemy. Deal damage equal to the total elevation
lost
Class

Classes determine your initial abilities and grant one active and one passive skill, as well as
your HP value. Class abilities are designed to synergize with Gear and Weapons and provide
bonuses or abilities that compliment certain playstyles.

[HARPE- Class Name

HP- Number of hit points this class grants a character
Active Ability - Ability granted by the class which takes an action to use
Passive Ability - Ability granted by the class which can be used without spending an action]

An Active Ability is something you can do on your turn instead of a standard attack or weapon
ability. They tend to be usable once per turn, and usually will form the bread and butter of your
battlefield tactics. A passive ability is an always-active skill that either constantly provides some
special ability or buff, or is triggered automatically by specific conditions. Your HP Value is as it
sounds, the amount of damage your character can take before they're forced to retreat, or die.
Which happens is up to the player.

Class List

HARPE
30 HP
Active Ability - Melee At Range - Throw your melee weapon up to 6 Squares in any of the four
cardinal directions. Deal Weapon damage. Mark the tile it lands on. You must step on that tile
before you make another melee attack.
Passive Ability - Hoof It - You may move one additional square in any direction after, or before,
your movement

KOPIS
20HP
Active Ability - Mag Dump - Attack two monsters within range, deal standard Weapon Damage
to both. You may not attack on your next turn.
Passive Ability - Offhand Pistol - If you move on your turn, deal D4 damage to one Monster you
move past

SHARUR
20HP
Active Ability - Back Up - Push all enemies in weapon range 1 space. This can break hordes
Passive Ability - Emergency Auto Defenses - When you are brought down to 0HP, trigger your
Active Ability automatically

VARUNASTRA
15HP
Active Ability - Borrowing This - Attack using the damage and pattern of another weapon in
active use by your squad. The weapon must be another character's current primary.
Passive Ability - Gear check! - Ending your turn adjacent to another player grants them a free
weapon-swap action, if they wish.

HEPHAESTUS
20HP
Active Ability - Synesis Conversion - Deal 1D6 to an enemy within Range:1. If this attack kills
the enemy, instantly restore your equipment usage.
Passive Ability - Baseline Communism - As a free action, you may spend your equipment to
restore an allies equipment usage.

EPEUS
15HP
Active Ability - Bag of Tricks - As a full action, swap the Gear on your weapon or armor for
another unlocked Gear.
Passive Ability - You may select both a Weapon and a Armor Gear during STRATCOM

Gear
Gear is special equipment that bolts on to a HELLPIERCER’s weapon or Armor to enhance it in
some critical way, often by adding a Mod tag to an existing attack or movement pattern. To use
Gear, players must first construct the PRONOIA Arms Modification Protocol building. After
the building has been unlocked, players may choose one Gear from the list below whenever
they return to DIS to rearm.

Praxis Disruption Module (Weapon)

Adds the Breaker mod to a selected weapon. Enables targeting of individual creatures within a
horde.

Assisted Ascension Module (Armor)

Once per movement, the user may spend 1 speed to “hop” two spaces, allowing them to clear
an obstacle or move past an enemy without triggering Provoke.

Soter Assisted Defense System (Weapon)

Whenever you spend your entire turn attacking enemies without moving, create a cover tile
where your character is standing. This cover tile disappears whenever you move.

Expanded Aggression Rituals (Armor)

Use your action to extend your Provoke range to Range:2.
Equipment
Unlocked by developing the ANCILIA Tactical Production, Equipment is a single use item
selected during STRATCOM, and used during TACCOM. Equipment has various effects ranging
from special movement actions, to attacks, and other utility effects. Each character may select
one piece of Equipment, and its uses replenish after the party returns to DIS. Equipment may
also be used during any Narrative play, and is considered used just like if it was used during
tactical combat.

Once the ANCILIA Tactical Production building is completed, players have immediate access to
the following Equipment choices;

Transient Force Projection

Select a square within Range:3 of your current position. Make an attack as if you are on that
square. The square becomes Void afterwards.

Hylic Annihilation Corridor

Create a 1x5 box on the map. Enemies in this box take 1HP Damage at the end of their turn.
The box disappears after combat.

Promethean-Grade Hylic Rejection Field

Create three Cover tiles in three connected spaces with no other effects. These tiles remain until
the end of battle.

Thought-Guiding Redirection Circuits

Select a single enemy within Range:5 and use its attack against another enemy. Selecting a
Horde enemy Breaks. Any invalid or unsupported actions are either unsuccessful, or can be
adjudicated by the table.

Oblivion Induction Ritual Device

Within Range:5, create a Cross:2 pattern and deal 2d6 Damage to all creatures within.

Mods
Mods are trigger words that are attached to certain equipment and attacks that tell you what
special properties they have. These are always in effect, and trigger every time it’s relevant. For
Weapons, mods typically apply during attacks, and Armor mods are relevant when you’re being
attacked or moving. Enemies will often have Mods as part of their attacks or special abilities,
and the same rules apply there.

Piercing - Ignores cover

Breaker - Breaks Swarms
Tags
In addition to the above mechanical tools, every Character also picks three Tags at the start of
the game. These tags can be anything at all, and represent your character's backstory,
emotional state, unique traits, goals, hopes, dreams, nemesis’s, past lovers, political affiliations,
and so on. For the most part they have no real mechanical benefits outside of Hangin’ Out (See
Page.xx), but will help guide the story between conflicts by signaling to the table, the GM, and
yourself what’s important to your character’s personality, arc, and history.
Examples: Grizzled, Gruff, Naive, Hopeful, Faithful, True Comrade, Reactionary, Hedonist,
Demon Smasher, Keeper Of The Dragon-Truths, Revived Soul, Gnosis Addict, Storykeeper,
Tall, Polyamorous, Trans, Contemplative, Sure-Shot, Nemesis, Angel Slayer, Forgotten One,
Wedded During The Five Years Of Woe.
 Chapter 3
This section contains the rules to play HELLPIERCERS. It explains the three layers of
gameplay, and provides the foundation for rulesets and mechanics that will be expanded upon
in the character choices and advancements you make throughout play.

[Golden Rule sidebar: Certain Weapons, Armors, Abilities, Upgrades, and Gear can contradict
the rules written below. In these instances, the ability, weapon, armor, etc. takes precedence.]

Narrative Play
AKA; Hangin’ Out

Whenever a character is outside of combat, and their player isn’t engaged in the STRATCOM
layer, play defaults to Hangin’ Out. Hangin’ Out is a narrative focused mode of play designed to
support inter-character relations, conflicts, exploration, and so on. It’s the simplest layer in the
game.

Simply put, each player talks through what their characters do, and what they would like to
happen next. There are no turns in this mode of play, and play should mostly resemble a group
conversation about what is happening to the characters, and the spaces around them. The GM
may take control of the scene briefly to describe the outcome of an event, or the reaction of a
Non-Player Character, but each player also has the ability to do this as they like. You may want
to ask your group what aspects of the scenes they find themselves in most interests them, and
have them take responsibility for describing or acting through those elements.

For the purpose of Hangin’ Out, characters' mechanical complexity is vastly reduced from their
combat forms. HP does not apply, and the capabilities of weapons, gear, and classes should be
abstracted to the agreement of the table - for example, a CHARIOT wearing character may use
their momentum ability to break through a wall, or a HARPE character may use their sword skills
to cut food for a meal. When a task is attempted, it succeeds if it makes sense that it would, and
fails when it doesn’t. For times when the outcome is unclear, or divided, determine what
happens next through group consensus. Generally speaking, your characters are heroic, and
are likely to succeed at the things they try, but also consider that heroes tend to attract drama,
so even when success comes, try to come up with an interesting consequence or dramatic
reaction as well.

When the question of what happens next cannot be negotiated between the group - perhaps
there’s some ambiguity to how things would go down, or you prefer some tension and
randomness in your storytelling - simply have the acting player roll 2 six sided dice and add 1 to
the sum of the dice for every relevant Tag their character has. On a result of 6 or below, they fail
in the biggest way you can imagine, on a result of 7-9, they succeed with at least one major
drawback, and on a 10 or above they succeed above their estimations.
This system is very simple and loose, and probably resembles to most people a sort of
structured group pretend-play. That’s because it is. Ultimately the mechanical foundation for this
phase is entirely rooted in group negotiation and storytelling, and a desire to prevent any one
voice from dominating the story, or having undue responsibility placed on them.

TACCOM
AKA; Combat

TACCOM, or Combat, is the mode of play the game is most geared towards, and what most of
the games systems are designed around. TACCOM takes place on a grid, and involves player
characters engaging in direct battle against the forces of Hell. Players take turns moving their
characters, making attacks, and using special moves to defeat their opponents, while the GM
takes responsibility for the demons themselves, using their special abilities to vex and challenge
the players.

In Combat, player characters take up one square of the grid (where each square roughly equals
5 feet). On their turn, they may move up to their speed (i.e., a character with a Speed of 3 may
move 3 spaces on their turn), and perform one action. Players and Enemies alternate taking
turns, with the order entirely up to the table. When everybody has taken a turn, the round ends,
and the next one begins.

When Does Combat Begin

Combat begins when either the players or the GM decides that conflict is inevitable. Usually this
occurs almost as soon as players encounter the forces of hell, unwilling or unable to negotiate
as they are. It’s imaginable that players may find themselves fighting against seditious humans
or other people who stand against them, but as a general rule it's Humans vs Demons.

Types of Actions
Attack - Use your weapons attack and deal damage to all relevant targets

Weapon Ability - Use your weapon’s special ability

Active Ability - Use your classes special ability

Sprint - Move your Speed

Shove - Push an adjacent Size:1 character or enemy one space back

Use - Interact with an aspect of the environment (Operate a security terminal, inspect a broken
tool, unmake a demonic sigil, etc.)

Rez - Get a downed ally back on their feet. They instantly rejoin the fight and recover all HP
Weapon Swap - Unlocked by the CHOIC Spatial Manipulation Sigils building. Swaps between
your character’s two weapons

Movement
In addition to their Action, all characters are able to Move once per turn. Characters move
through spaces equal to their Speed, generally orthogonally (unless otherwise specified).

Regular movement through basic terrain is 1:1 with a character's Speed (moving into an
adjacent space ‘costs’ 1 Speed). You may not move through Impassable Terrain, or through
enemies. Moving through Uneasy Terrain counts as moving through two spaces. Moving to
higher elevations also counts as moving two spaces. These effects can stack.

Moving away from an enemy Provokes.

Effects
Many attacks and special abilities in HELLPIERCERS can inflict Effects. Effects are special
states that characters can be in that have lasting consequences, usually across several turns.
Effects are written like this; Slow:1, where the word denotes which Effect is triggered, and the
number denotes how many turns it lasts. Effects trigger at the beginning of an affected
character’s turn, and ticks down after its effects occur, or after a player ends their turn,
whichever happens first. When an Effect expires, it is removed from the character and its effects
stop triggering.

Slow - All movement costs are doubled

Haste - A character may make one additional Action on their turn
Poison - Character takes 1HP damage
Bleed - All attacks against this target deal an additional 1 Damage
Pin - Character is unable to move this turn

Free Actions
There are some actions that don't really affect the state of play - talking to each other, extra
flourishes on your actions, taking a quick look at the environment, etc. These sorts of actions
are Free and don’t use up a character’s Action for that round. Players may do as many Free
Actions as they like during their turn, and may even do some on an enemies turn, if the table
permits. As a full list of all possible Free Actions would be impossible, as a general rule anything
that does not either fit into the given list of standard actions on pg.xx, and which does not
change anything about the current state of the game (Character and Enemy position, Hitpoints,
map geometry, etc.) counts.

If Free Actions take over the combat, it may be worth deciding if you want to swap into Hangin’
Out and end the conflict.
Targeting and Range
In HELLPIERCERS, weapon choice determines not just your damage, but the exact attack
pattern your characters can project onto the battlefield. Every weapon will include a small
diagram displaying it’s own unique attack pattern. Your attacks target all valid targets within the
attack pattern. The attack pattern can not be rotated, expanded, tweaked, or adjusted from the
displayed pattern unless otherwise stated. Attacks can be made in any of the four cardinal
directions.

It’s impossible to miss a valid target in HELLPIERCERS, attacks automatically deal their
damage and activate their effects as long as a valid target is within their pattern.

Swarm Rules
Swarms are one of the primary kinds of enemy Hellpiercers face in their battle for infernal
liberation. They represent large hordes of demonic foes who band together to overwhelm their
opponents. Any enemy with the HORDE trait is capable of bonding together with other enemies
with the same name to create a Swarm. To do this, the individual demon must be adjacent to
another, and spend an action to Swarm. The individual demon ceases to exist, and a new
enemy consisting of both demons is created. A Swarm has a total HP equal to the number of
squares it takes up on the field multiplied by 10, and gains 10HP for every new Demon that joins
it.

Swarms retain the same special abilities and properties of their original forms, but all targeting is
limited to adjacent squares only. A Swarm ignores any elevation rules, but can not pass through
impassable terrain.

Swarm Movement functions differently from standard movement; a Swarm retains its original
demon’s Speed, but must move by rearranging itself. The Swarm may move one of its own
squares for every point of Speed it has. Each square of the Swarm must be adjacent to at least
one other square of the Swarm at all times, but otherwise, the Swarm may rearrange itself into
any shape.
Swarms can be interacted with much like any other enemy, with attacks targeting aspects of the
Swarm dealing damage to the group as a whole. Certain abilities will enable characters to
Break the swarm, by destroying individual squares. A Swarm Breaks whenever one of its
squares is no longer adjacent to another, or when a gap develops between two parts of the
Swarm. In this instance, two smaller Swarms are formed, each with 50% of the remaining HP of
the original Swarm. Swarms may rejoin at the cost of one action.

Swarm Attacks gain +1 additional Damage for any Swarm Squares adjacent to the attack's
target.

Edge Cases
Due to their unique movement mechanics, Swarms are immune to any effect, tag, or attack that
completely halts their movement. They otherwise count as a single enemy for all other
interactions.
For the purposes of elevation, whatever elevation the segment of the swarm directly targeted by
an attack’s pattern is considered the swarm's elevation for that attack. If players have multiple
choices, they may select which elevation counts for the purposes of the attack.

Cover
Terrain can be marked as Cover. When a unit takes damage while standing on these spaces,
reduce that damage by 1. This does not affect any attack with the Piercing tag.

Provoke
When adjacent enemy units move away from one another, they trigger Provoke. The moving
unit suffers a 1D6 attack against it before they move.

Terrain
There are 3 main kinds of Terrain in Hellpiercers; Standard, Uneasy, and Impassable. Standard
covers any basic kind of ground that confers no advantage or disadvantage. Movement over
this terrain costs a single point of Speed, and all units may traverse it without any problems.
Uneasy Terrain is anywhere your characters would have a hard time walking without stumbling
or taking their time. Thick mud, hellstreams, soulbrick, etc. Uneasy Terrain costs 2 Speed to
move into. Impassable Terrain is, as you may have guessed, impassable.

There are a number of special kinds of terrain that occasionally come up;

Cover - Units in this space gain the Cover effect, taking -1 Damage on any attacks targeting
them
Obstacle - Impassable, breaks Line of Sight, can be targeted by attacks. HP is written inside
the symbol, by default it breaks after one hit.

Advantageous - Advantageous tiles do nothing until interacted with by a relevant character

ability.
Void - Impassable, but units can be pushed into this. Causes instant death.

When battle begins, simply represent these types of terrain on the map using the following
symbols. You can also come up with your own terrain types and their symbols with your table.
 Impassable, Uneasy, Cover, Standard, Obstacle, Advantageous, Void

Interactables
Often, battles are more complicated than just having a few units on a map battling until one side
is completely dead. Characters may have to defend a choke point while they cut through a door,
or activate a self-destruct system in an infernal factory. They may have to lower draw-bridges,
disable security systems, or otherwise do something that causes something else to happen on
the map. For this, you’ll need to mark a tile as interactable.

Simply mark the interactable tile with a letter in the top left of the square. This indicates the tile
can be interacted with by spending one action while on that tile.

Stratcom
The final stage of HELLPIERCER’s mechanical pillars is STRATCOM. STRATCOM represents
the hard planning and strategy needed to sustain a battle in Hell. In this phase, players select
their objectives, spend their resources, upgrade their squad, pick loadouts, and manage the
movements and actions of the hell factions they’re facing.

STRATCOM typically takes place at the start or end of a given session. Whenever the player
characters return to Dis to rearm, reassess, and rest from their battles, STRATCOM can begin.

The Map
Each Demonic Warlord comes with their own map segment. This map segment is combined
with two other segments to create the full Campaign Map for your liberation of Hell. This map
depicts the bases, facilities, and other structures that make up that Demon Warlord’s physical
territory in Hell. These locations are not named or described beyond the image on the map, and
the table is encouraged to come up with their own interpretations of the buildings and formations
depicted as they battle their way through them. The map serves to provide the players and GM
with a birds-eye view of the battle in Hell, and to help visualize their stratergies through the
twisted landscape they’re liberating. As a part of STRATCOM, players and the GM are
encouraged to draw, write, or modify the map, or use minis, coins, tokens, and other markers to
depict troop movements, supply lines, demarcations, convoys, battle sites, and so on.

During the STRATCOM phase, players and the GM may use certain abilities and tools they
unlock through upgrades to manipulate the map, or simply have the repercussions of their
actions play out in front of them. The GM may also use this time to reveal hidden information,
show the visible effects of the Demon’s plans, draw counter attacks against player outposts, and
so on. Ultimately, while there are some mechanical tools available to manipulate the map, keep
in mind that it’s main purpose is as a storytelling device, and should be used in that way above
all else.

Mission Selection
Hellpiercers are not wayward marauders roaming the plains of hell in search of a good scrap,
they are not aimless wanderers looking to raid the coffins of the ancient dead; they are soldiers
in a war for uncountable human souls. Their outings have objectives, and serve a larger war
effort. This is where the Mission Selection comes in.

Before players head out into Hell’s vast wastes, they come together as a table and decide the
objectives of their next venture. Generally this should involve a fairly lengthy discussion
between everyone as to what’s happening next, what forces are most demanding of their
attention, what landmarks on the map seem most interesting or attractive, and so on. Once a
general strategy has been agreed, the players and GM alternate selecting a Mission Objective
from the table below. These objectives will make up the tactical meat of the next engagement
the Hellpiercers will find themselves in. Objectives have specific rewards and consequences
when completed successfully - remember that the consequences apply to the Faction targeted
by the op in the first place. If more than one faction was involved in the conflict, apply the
consequences to the one that makes the most sense, based on the consensus of the table.
 Objective Rewards

Assault A Hardened Target +1 Hellsteel, -1 Territory

Rescue +1 Brimstone, -1 Assets

Retrieve Intel +1 Hellsteel, -1 Subterfuge

Assassination +1 Soulfire, -1 Force

The objectives are purposefully vague, to allow the table to better work them into their own
unique storylines. All players are encouraged to come up with their own objectives, paired with
an appropriate reward, to better suit their games.

The inclusion of an objective requires its completion to be possible before the players next
return to DIS; if “Rescue” is selected as an objective, the GM must place someone to rescue
within the next series of TACCOM encounters, if Assassination is selected, a high ranking Devil
must be available to assassinate, and so on. This does not mean that success must be
guaranteed, or easy. The GM is perfectly within their rights to reveal additional complications, or
that the player’s squad is way over their heads. Failure should be a consistent risk regardless of
the objectives selected, but so too must success be always within the players grasp.

The table can select as many or as few objectives as they wish. The objectives are considered
selected when both the GM and the players pass instead of picking another.

[Sidebar: Creating Objectives

Objectives tend to grant +1 to a resource, and a -1 to a Faction Quality. Special objectives can
grant more than this, but I would recommend against awarding less unless you’re building some
kind of micro-goal system.]

Resources
Resources are the currency you spend to unlock new buildings within the STRATCOM phase.
They can be acquired either by completing objectives during missions, or collected from the
demons you defeat in battle. There are three types of resources; Hellsteel, Soulfire, and
Brimstone. These resources are abstractions, depicting things like liberated souls, morale,
physical territory gained, intel, new weapons, and research materials. Characters don’t literally
find a single Brimstone in the smoldering rubble of the Demonic Warlord’s Soul Fortress, unless
you prefer it that way.

Resources are shared between all players, and must be spent as a collective. Resources
gained during missions remain in the player’s control between sessions and only go away when
spent, or if a Defense mission is lost.
Base Building
HELLPIERCERS gates many mechanics and character upgrades, as well as new classes and
equipment, behind Base Building. The City of DIS fell during the opening volleys of this war, and
its citizens liberated from their soulcages. Humanity set to work reshaping the city from the
center of infernal torment into an advanced beachhead in their war against Hell. As your
characters gather resources from successful missions, they can spend them to construct new
buildings within DIS and unlock that building's effects.

Base Building can occur at any time during STRATCOM. Players must have all of the resources
needed to build a building, and the entire table must agree to the construction before it’s
finalized. The benefits of the building are immediately available to the entire table, and any new
mechanics it introduces should be read aloud by the table to ensure everyone understands the
new rules added to the game.

Buildings may be refunded, and their resources placed into another building, at any time. The
refund removes the character options and mechanics from the game immediately. Some
buildings have prerequisites, requiring a previous building to be constructed first. Players may
not refund any buildings that would invalidate other, already constructed, buildings.

ANCILIA Tactical Production

Cost: 1 Hellsteel
Unlocks the Equipment Slot for all classes [See page.xx] and unlocks the HEPHAESTUS class.

PRONOIA Arms Modification Protocols

Cost: 2 Hellsteel
Unlocks the Gear Slot slot for all classes [See page.xx] and unlocks the EPEUS class.

CHOIC Spatial Manipulation Sigils

Cost: 1 Brimstone
Unlocks a second weapon slot for all classes [See page.xx] and unlocks the VARUNASTRA
class.

Certain buildings have prerequisites. These are other buildings that must be constructed before
the chosen construction can be selected. In the example above you can see that constructing
the ANCILIA Tactical Production building allows the construction of the CHOIC Spatial
Manipulation Sigils, and the PRONOIA Arms Modification Protocols, while the APONIA
Expedited Enlightenment Process can be constructed at any time.
 Chapter 4

Missions
Before players head out into Hell to wage their war against the infernal, they must select their
objectives. We’ve discussed Objectives, and how they become Missions previously, but mostly
from the players perspective.

Using Objectives
Objectives serve a few different roles, the most obvious of which is they’re a way for the table to
signal to both the players and the GM what kind of session they can expect next. They’re
included to shift the responsibility for building encounters away from a single player and to a
wider table-led experience. Objectives diegetically give players a way to influence what sorts of
challenges they will face next, while still leaving the GM plenty of tactical freedom to fiddle over
the fine details. They also tie deeply into the unlock system, and let players pursue specific
development goals as they play through hell.

Most Missions (defined here and elsewhere as a single excursion into Hell, consisting of a
number of objectives, usually taking place within the same semi-self contained area) will be
made up of 2-4 separate Objectives, spread out over a few discreet encounters. These will
generally take up between 1 and 3 sessions for your team to complete, depending on what kind
of a group you have.

From a narrative perspective, objectives serve as a useful tool to communicate player intention,
and a helpful structure to plan both session and campaign level stories around. It’s a
requirement to include the features an objective requires to be completed, so if your table picks
“Sabotage, Assassination, Assault”, you’re going to be building a hardened location, containing
some vital resource or mechanism of war, defended by a powerful lieutent or leader figure. You
might even consider the objectives as storybeats and build interesting arcs out of them.
Consider which order the table might complete these objectives in, and how different the
experience is if they Sabotage, then Assault, then Assasinate vs Assassinating first.

On the campaign level, missions provide clear goals and consequences for their completion for
both sides of the table. The way objectives tie into our Qualities system gives you a direct
mechanical and narrative consequence for player success/failure, which should help you plan
out the next beat in the overarching war. Your demon faction loses their Subterfuge and must
resort to their Force, so more enemies show up in the next battle. The demon faction gains
territory in their last victory, so previously safe places or conquered demon outposts become
active once more, and so on.

On a practical level, here’s how we tend to see the Objectives playing out in their default state;
Assault A Hardened Target
Big brawl with the GM beginning in an entrenched position. Emplaced defenses such as turrets,
heavy cover, and interactables that open doors, bring down gates, that sort of thing. Great for
swarms.

Rescue
Moving and defensive style play, with players first finding, then leading, NPCs through hostile
territory. Constant harassment but never quite overwhelming, frequent retreats with success
less about completely wiping out the opposing force, and more about going from point A to point
B.

Retrieve Intel
Searching through multiple possible locations within a hotly contested area, with semi-frequent
defense stages, where players are either waiting on a countdown timer while under extreme
pressure, or having to balance damage output with spending actions on searching. Perfect
miniboss stages.

Assassination
Epic video game boss battles. Wide open arenas, supporting troops and a means of
replenishing minions. Obviously designed around faction bosses, but often a couple of
minibosses supporting another miniboss-level unit that you’ve added some extra HP or damage
to can be satisfying.

Special Objectives

Final Assault
Once a faction's Drive is at 0 the players may, during any following STRATCOM phase, select
Final Assault as their mission objective. This represents the HELLPIERCERS striking directly at
the Hell Prince’s final redoubt and, hopefully, destroying their faction completely for the rest of
the game. The exact nature of what a Final Assault is at the TACCOM level is left largely to the
GM, but there’s a few details that are likely to be true for all Final Assault missions;

● Final Assaults should be the most difficult engagements the players can expect to see
throughout the game.
● There should be a real and present threat of defeat.
● The Final Assault takes place in the Warlord’s ultimate fortress, and as such offers a
unique opportunity for the GM to throw everything they have at the players - special
enemies, environment hazards, defenses, off-map assists, and so on. Players want a
climax, hold nothing back.
● Final Assaults often work well when the villain is on the crux of achieving their final
goals. Ticking clocks, a fortress falling apart around everyone’s ears, doomsday
machines and last stands are the name of the game.
 ● Final Assaults always end in a climactic last battle against the Boss of a given faction.
Give your villain plenty of time and space to shine in this spotlight before they take a bow
and exit the game for good.

Choosing Enemies
Typically, there are two standard kinds of combat you’ll be building and playing with in
HELLPIERCERS - Combat against swarms, and boss battles. There’s oceans of friction
between these two core experiences that offer opportunities for interesting battles and combat
choice, but understanding that baseline assumption will get you off to a great start.

In HELLPIERCERS, there are three main enemy types. At the bottom of the ladder, you have
minions. These are low-HP, low-damage units who tend to pose a threat mostly through
numbers, or through a particular tactical edge-case they are designed to exploit. Individually,
these units will die in any given single action by a player character, and are even used as fodder
for some miniboss and boss level special abilities. With this in mind, you can see the supporting
role minions begin to take. They exist to harry the player, to annoy them with what little combat
ability they have, and to be squished quickly so the players can feel very cool about how
powerful they are. This changes when they become Hordes.

Hordes are a subset of minions, as an enemy type. Some minions have the HORDE trait, which
allows them to combine into a single creature. This gives them an enormous health boost, and
often grants new special abilities, as well as an increased damage output. This turns your two
minions, who both would go down in one turn, into a significant battlefield threat, one that
demands the player's attention. This also means that any time you have a couple of minions
with the HORDE trait deployed on the field, players have to treat them as a much larger
potential threat than they might otherwise.

You can probably already see how these things typically play together - frontline HORDE trait
enemies apply pressure, assisted by the more tactically niche minions, with the transformation
into a swarm something of a GM win-state players are trying to avoid.

What makes things a little more interesting is the Miniboss unit type.

Minibosses essentially downgraded Boss level creatures. They share many of the same
features, and tend to be designed around a single battlefield function or gimmick. They’re your
Hunters from Halo basically. These are units capable of going toe to toe with a player’s
character for a time, capable of surviving more than one round of damage, and able to throw out
enough damage or status effects to be a major threat to layers overall plans. Alone, they’re quite
boring, but when paired with a minion or two, or supporting a Boss creature, they add interesting
mechanical wrinkles to otherwise straightforward encounters.

Finally there’s the Bosses. While we’re presenting these as the head of their particular faction,
it's important not to make the mistake that they’re single-use enemies. Bosses should be a
relatively common sight, pulled out once every two or three missions or so. Narratively the
Demon Princes work well as recurring villains or like Dynasty Warriors generals, a very active
presence against the players, and a useful mouthpiece for whatever demonic plots and
overarching schemes you and your table are weaving. They can only really truely be killed
during a final assault.

Bosses are typically capable of soloing a full squad of players thanks to their overwhelming
attacks and their action economy. They also tend to have abilities that bring in additional
minions or minibosses to further shift the odds in their favor. You can look at bosses like the
anchor of that particular faction, designed to synergise with both minibosses and minions. Much
like with minions, they work best when paired with a miniboss or two.

Map Making
When making a map, the number one most important thing is to use it. HELLPIERCERS
includes a number of systems for both players and the GM to modify the space they do battle in.
These exist ultimately to avoid having the players stand in one place shooting demons until they
win. On a given turn, players should be wondering if their actions are better spent moving,
interacting with something, avoiding or rushing certain terrain types, or attempting to
outmaneuver their opponents, in addition to the more obvious question of “how much damage
can I do to this enemy?” To this end, here’s a number of basic tips to keep battles dynamic and
challenging for both sides of the table.

Enemies
In HELLPIERCERS, you tend to be dealing with more individual enemies than most tabletop
games. These enemies often group up into very large hordes with unique movement mechanics
that enable them to flow through space like a liquid. This presents a number of challenges, as
well as opportunities, to the GM designing the map.

Consider the average movement speed of a unit in HELLPIERCERS. Similar to player

characters, a standard enemy in HELLPIERCERS can move about 5 regular spaces in a given
turn. Given the large number of enemies, and this movement speed, it makes sense to think big
when you design your battlemaps. Wide open spaces with lots of room for enemies to
maneuver around the players, or extensive corridors with spacious side rooms to allow enemies
to outflank the party are both excellent choices, but mixing them together and considering the
type of experience can be critical. Typically, HELLPIERCERS are strongest in wide open spaces
with lots of room to move, while enemy forces excel in tight, enclosed spaces that limit player
movement and allow hordes to easily overwhelm player characters.

Importantly, the enemies you select for the engagement will shape the space significantly. If you
bring in enemies that need long corridors to charge down, you should include long corridors in
your map designs. If you’re fielding a boss unit who excels in wide open spaces or leverages a
particular terrain type, it's vital that you give that unit space to utilize its special abilities to the
fullest.
Terrain
There are seven different types of terrain in HELLPIERCERS, eight if you include elevation. It’s
assumed any given map will have at least a couple of these dotted around. Many units, both
player and enemy factions, have abilities that make use of various terrain types, and its
important to keep that in mind when designing battlemaps - much like the advice above, if you
place an enemy with a skill that requires a certain terrain type in a room, you’d better make sure
that terrain type appears somewhere in the room, otherwise what’s the point?

Terrain types are also incredibly effective at creating corridors, chokepoints, and other more
complex geometry in otherwise wide open spaces. These areas on the map are also excellent
opportunities to include terrain types and effects that you want to make sure characters interact
with. A well placed cover tile, or a row of uneasy tiles can create defensible positions, or
encourage players to push forward toward a safe zone. Conversely a pool of void, or creatively
placed obstacles creates spaces that force consideration and planning into player movement. In
many ways these types of terrain are just as much a threat as the enemies themselves, and
should be placed with the same level of care.

Elevation is a special sort of terrain, and grants pretty significant bonuses to players and
enemies that utilize it effectively. The way line of sight functions allows you to create trenches
where units can’t be seen or targetted, or create guard tower-type spaces where ranged units
can plink at approaching foes.

Eventually players will unlock the ability to make adjustments to maps and place their own
terrain. When and if they unlock this ability, designing the map becomes itself a sort of call and
response game between player and GM, and carefully considering the strategy of this minigame
is vital to creating engaging spaces collaboratively. Both sides of the table should take care not
to try and “beat” the other player at this game - rather, both sides should engage with the intent
to create interesting spaces for both sides. Consider placing a cover tile as less of a point in
your favor, and more like offering the opposing side an open ending question; How are you
going to deal with this? What fun can we have with this space?

Interactables
Even with interesting terrain and geography geared around the units in play, battlemaps can feel
static and uninteresting if the only thing that happens in them is two sides shooting each other
until one is dead. Interactables allow maps to change dynamically in the middle of a battle, and
offer tactical complications only limited to your own imagination.

Interactables can themselves become micro-objectives for either side within an engagement -
activate this drawbridge to cut off the horde’s attack, disable the security system to stop the
hellspawner, trigger the self destruct before the heroes can escape - as well as being ways to
complete the Mission Objectives through play. They instantly attract the player's attention, and
can easily be the focal point around which an entire battle will play out. By combining them with
interesting terrain, relevant enemies, and inventive geometry, you can create incredibly
engaging combat puzzles and exciting conflicts that test the table's tactical might.
Turns
In HELLPIERCERS, enemies act after every player character has taken their turn. Minions and
Minibosses by default get 1 turn per round, where they may move and use one of their abilities.
Faction Leaders, identified by the Boss tag, use a special, variable action system. This system
affords enemy Boss creatures with more, or fewer, actions depending on the number of players
present at the game.

Enemies always take their turn after the players have taken theirs. Players may take their turns
in any order they choose, and the GM may in turn activate any unit they please in any order
they desire. Once the GM has finished their turn and activated every enemy unit they wish, they
can declare their turn over, and play returns to the players side. This cycle repeats until every
unit on either side is defeated, the objectives for the scene are complete, if either side chooses
to retreat, or until both sides decide to break TACCOM for whatever other reason.

Only one enemy can be active at a time, and is considered active as soon as the GM declares
their first action, be that a move or an attack or otherwise. After the enemy has completed both
its movement and its action, or if the GM passes, the enemy is considered exhausted and can
not act again that turn unless under the effects of a specific ability.

Some enemy types operate the aforementioned special Variable Action System. These enemies
have an Actions: stat that defines how many actions for every additional player character that
initially begins TACCOM. For example, a Boss enemy with a 1/1 Actions stat gets 1 actions for
every 1 player character in the encounter. A ½ enemy gets 1 action for every 2 players, and so
on. This Action stat is calculated at the start of the encounter and is based on how many player
characters enter the encounter. If a player character is killed or otherwise removed from the
encounter, the number of Actions a boss gets on their turn does not change

AGNOSIA
Miniboss and Boss level enemies have a special status called AGNOSIA. When their HP
reaches a certain point, the boss enters AGNOSIA and triggers their AGNOSIA move. This is a
one time use ability meant to simulate one final desperate attack before the players overwhelm
the Demon. This move frequently triggers at the end of a player turn, and should be played out
immediately after the attack that deals this damage. For the purposes of initiative, an AGNOSIA
move is not considered one of the Demon’s turns. Damage received during a Demon’s turn still
triggers the AGNOSIA state, and any moves must be resolved before the Demon can complete
their turn.

Demon Factions
The demonic forces are not a single unified group. They are splintered into a dozen factions,
each led by a Demonic Warlord. These factions bicker, squabble, and wage open warfare
against one another in an eternal battle over control for the damned. Your arrival has thrown an
already chaotic miasma into a cataclysm that none of them were prepared for.
When you begin a game of HELLPIERCERS, you will select three Factions. These Factions
have access to unique units and abilities that the GM will leverage against players, as well as
special goals and drives to help create interesting and compelling narratives. Select the
Factions however you see fit, but make sure everyone at the table gets a say.

Factions are made up of two main aspects; their Drive, and their Qualities

Drive
Drives are a single sentence that tells you everything you need to know about the Faction as
succinctly as possible. A Drive can be just about anything, so long as it conveys the general
missions, goals, aesthetics, values, or aspirations of a given Faction and its ruler. Drives have a
value, beginning at 5, which is lowered by one every time the Faction loses two Quality points.
This value determines their access to special Demons and abilities as their forces are
consolidated, pushed back, and forced to deploy riskier, more deadly tactics to try and turn the
tide against the player characters.

Drives may fluctuate throughout play as a Demon gains or loses ground, attempts advanced
maneuvers, or tries to complete goals. Whenever a Faction regains two Quality points, their
Drive moves up. This can end up gating off more advanced creatures and abilities as the
players end up pushed onto their back feet. Drives can not be reduced below 1, and do not
count toward defeating a faction.

Narratively, Drives provide context and expectations for players by signaling clearly what a given
Faction is all about. They provide hooks for GMs to build strategies and long-term goals from, as
well as a foundation to return to when the story calls for it.

Qualities
Qualities are an abstraction of the Faction’s ability to act on the world around them. They
represent a Faction’s wealth, land, military force, technological research, brutality, subterfuge,
and so on. Instead of meticulously recording each individual asset a Faction has access to, we
crush them down to a single number.

Each Faction has the same four Qualities, and have between 1 and 5 “dots” in them. 1 Dot
represents a Quality that the Faction has largely ignored or only invested in nominally, while 5
represents centuries of focus, and an unimaginable level of resources invested.

Force
Force is probably the most obvious Quality to understand. It represents a Factions martial
powers; their logistics, fighting troops, supply lines, fortifications, and their ability to project might
across Hell. It covers the raw number of soldiers a Faction has access to, as well as their
training, weapons, equipment, access to magical powers, how strong their leaders are, and so
on.
1 - A small number of highly specialized small-squad tactics, or an ill-equipped, unruly mob
2 - Untrained, but well-equipped, or well-trained but poorly equipped ranks of troops
3 - A tactically diverse and well-armed militia, or an uncountable horde of untrained demons
4 - Balanced, Well-trained, Experienced, Confident, Honed, Organized, Well-Mastered. Pick 4.
5 - A terrifying army of experienced, trained, well-equipped troops with plenty of support, strong
leaders, and immensely powerful magics at their call.

Subterfuge
The art of the underhand, Subterfuge is a well respected and highly regarded skillset within the
forces of Hell. Demons are liars to a one, and even the most unsubtle devil revels in tricks,
misdirection, and betrayals. Their Subterfuge value is a representation of how successful they
are at these underhanded tactics, how many spies they have, how clever, patient, and lucky
they are.

1 - A handful of clever demons without much organization, plans, or connections. Grand plans,
poor execution, or vice versa.
2 - An organized squadron of amateurs and pathologic liars. Focused, but poorly trained, or
ill-equipped
3 - A larger organization of spies, thieves, liars, and counterfeiters pointed inward, to the
Demon’s own nation, or a couple of embedded wormtongues whispering in vulnerable ears.
4 - A vast network of low level informants, window-watchers, and turncoats, or a focused
division of diligent, well trained sabouters
5 - An ear at every door, a dagger to every throat. Double and triple agents across all of Hell,
legions of assassins, diplomats, and capitalists ready to make war against Truth.

Territory
While each Demonic Prince is represented by the same strip of land in the Campaign Map,
Territory covers more than just the physical space each of the Demonic Forces holds. It
represents the quality of their land, how well developed and utilized it is, how well protected and
exploited it is.

1 - A barren patch of volcanic dirt, devoid of resources, poorly developed, with little in the way of
defenses.
2 - A sad wall, one or two desperately held supply points, an overworked populace.
3 - Enough to survive without support, or thriving at great cost to their land.
4 - Well defended borders, or a strongly developed inner-state. Fortifications natural and
demonic protect vital industry.
5 - An infernal fortress nation, with stockpiles of resources to last centuries without trade.

Assets
Waging war against Humanity in defense of an eternal machine of subjugation and torture costs
a pretty penny! Assets covers how wealthy a Demon Nation is, and how rapidly they can
convert that wealth into resources for their war effort. It also covers how many magical artifacts,
powerful inventions, and ancient demonic weapons they have at their disposal.

1 - Scraps and broken hand-me-downs from other, more prosperous Demonic Nations. Flat
broke, with one pot to piss in for the entire faction.
2 - Modest wealth, enough to keep the lights on, or a single high-value item well beyond their
means. A magic weapon, a converted jewel, or a stockpile of a rare resource.
3 - Several income streams, secure ports of trade, a well-educated class of economic demons,
a library of low-grade magical artifacts and magic. Pick two.
4 - A center of commerce and power, or a well stocked armory of powerful spells and ancient
weapons.
5 - Underground vaults full of devastating, mysterious magical tools, coffers overflowing with
soulcoin, and a legion of geniuses adding to their supplies every day.

Raising and Lowering Qualities

Qualities are reflective of the ongoing war effort; as such, they shift, and change, and lowering
them to zero is a vital element of the player’s campaign to liberate Hell. Certain Objectives will
lower a Quality when completed successfully, and clever, creative, or bold player action may
lead a GM to lower a Quality without a mechanical lever necessitating it. Failing Objectives,
character deaths, and more can lead to a Quality raising, improving a Demon’s power and
control over the realms of Hell.

The ultimate goal of any HELLPIERCERS campaign is the defeat and destruction of the three
Demonic Overlords that rule Hell. This is done by first lowering at least two of their Qualities to
zero, then by engaging in a Final Assault.
FACTION: SYNCRASIS
A faction long thought dead, even the demons of Hell were surprised at its sudden and terrifying
revival.
DRIVE: CONQUER, DESTROY, RETURN TO TRADITION: 5
Qualities:
Force: 5
Subterfuge: 2
Territory: 3
Assets: 2

Units

ABIGOR THE ARCHO-TYRANNUS

The crowned amalgam of ancient, forgotten beings. The white flesh it wears is said to be the
remains of the previous king of this territory. Its shrill scream is known to shatter obsidian, and
crack the soul.
Tags: Boss
200HP Total - AGNOSIA 50HP
Scale:2
Speed: 8
Actions: ½

Attacks
1) Draw three 3x3 boxes on the map. The next time Abigor takes damage, each box deals
8 damage to any players within them. Abigor may have 5 active boxes at any one time,
and boxes disappear after they inflict damage.
2) Bleed any adjacent player characters, Pin:1 any one adjacent character, and summon 2
Horde-tagged minions within 2 spaces of Abigor
3) Charge:8, if Abigor collides with a player, deal remaining Charge+5 damage, Push:2 and
stop movement

AGNOSIA
Burst:3 for 5 Damage, Pin:1 all adjacent characters, and immediately enter AEGIS.

Special
At the start of their turn, Abigor may devour an adjacent minion to enter AEGIS State. In AEGIS
State, Abigor takes flight and gains +1 Speed, ignores any terrain restrictions, and is treated as
having Elevation +3. AEGIS ends when Abigor ends their turn.

The Horned One (“KERAS”)

A brutish beast, barely aware of the war it was bred for. Only its violent nature and lack of
control keeps its subordinates in line.
Tags: Miniboss
100HP Total - AGNOSIA 10HP
Scale:2
Speed: 4
Attacks
1) Charge:5, if Keras collides with a player, deal remaining Charge as damage and Push:2.
If a player collides with a wall after the Push, deal an additional 3 damage.
2) Burst:3 for 5 damage.

AGNOSIA
Deal all remaining HP as damage to the attacker. Unit dies immediately afterward.

Forgotten Claws (“KLEPTES”)

Smarter than they seem, Kleptes are used to track down escaped souls. Alone, they feign injury
and weakness, only revealing their true strength when it’s too late.
Tags: Horde
1HP Total
Scale:1
Speed: 5
Strike: Deal 2 Damage to an Adjacent creature
Special:
Pack Hunting - Forgotten Claw Swarms gain an additional 3 Speed.

Maneater (“XYLON”)
A bushel of enormous pre-jurassic trees. Their trunks are drastically more flexible than they
seem, allowing them to attack nearby foes.
Tags: Spawner, Immobile
50HP
Scale:1
Speed:0
Special:
Spawning - At the end of the round, Maneater gains a Charge. On the GM’s turn, they may
spend 1 charge to spawn a SYNCRASIS minion, or 5 to spawn a Miniboss.
Fighting Birth - When Maneater Spawns, deal 2 damage and Push:1 to all adjacent creatures.

STRATCOM Actions
Devolution: Pick a location on the map and place the Devolve Map Hazard.

Devolve Map Hazard

A unique map hazard. The land around this space begins to return to a Carboniferous-era
geography, with thick, impassable forests and incredibly active tectonic plate activity. For each
STRATCOM turn this hazard is present, advance along the track below, activating the effects of
each stage in turn. Clearing the hazard immediately ends all effects.
Stage 1: The ground becomes soft, and strange growth begins to block passage. Once, during
any TACCOM at this location, at any time during the GMs turn, place up to 10 Obstacle or
Uneasy tiles.

Stage 2: Beasts of a forgotten age rise from the cracks in the earth, and undergrowth make
movement perilous. In addition to the effects from Stage 1, all Spawner tagged creatures gain 1
speed, and gain an additional Charge per turn.

Stage 3: All light is blotted out, and all sound is deadened by the unstoppable growth of the
putrid forest. The faces of your friends and family mark the wood. Select a location close to this
one and mark it. It has all the effects of Stage 1.

Upgrades

Triassic Hebdomian Ritual

Ichor Cost: 1
Effect: Unlocks ABIGOR as a deployable unit

Cariniferal Sigil Research

Ichor Cost: 3
Effect: Unlocks usage of the TRANNUS SIGILS terrain type.
TRANNUS SIGILS - A special terrain type unique to the SYNCRASIS faction. Hidden until a unit
enters the space. When triggered, instantly deals 1 damage to the unit and halts all movement.

Geographical Rot
Ichor Cost: 2
Effect: Place the PELAGOIOS location

Unique Locations

MT ARARAT
A thundering volcano spewing molten soul-stuff and a thick blanket of ashen lives into the air.
Carries the screams of the lost for miles around.
Purpose: Foundry and soul disposal facility
Terrain: Craggy rock, blasted obsidian, and smoke-filled caverns
Defenses: Steep spires, fissures into the void
Build Time: []

PELAGOIOS (Required: Geographical Rot upgrade)

A rolling ocean-swamp of boiling sulfuric water. Populated by hyper-aware slave algae that
function as the SYNCRASIS’s information center
Purpose: Information control and spawning pits
Terrain: 700 degree waters, floating islands of thinking scum
Defenses: Megalodosis swarms, body-heat sensitive slaughter geysers
Build Time: [][][]

THE HIDDEN WORLD

A secret labyrinth of tunnels and caves, lit by an artificial sun built by infusing the Chicxulub
asteroid with the souls of its victims.
Purpose: Travel between locations, storage, living space
Terrain: Maze-like corridors, blackened stone, soft clay walls
Defenses: Hardened Garrison, mystifying layout.
Build Time: [][]
FACTION: Henosis
A faction of fungal horrors utterly subservient to their king.
Drive: Bring all under the yoke of Aamon’s spores 5
Qualities:
Force: 3
Subterfuge: 3
Territory: 5
Assets: 2

Units

AAMON THE ROT BLOSSOM

Scholars of Hell speculate Aamon may exist at the center of a vast network of fungal spores and
tendrils, ruling over their loamy masses through sheer force of will.
Tags: Boss
250HP Total - AGNOSIA 65HP
Scale:1
Speed: 8
Actions: ½

Attacks
When next to or moving near an adjacent wall, Aamon may launch off of it moving up to 10
spaces in a single direction. Any units along the line of Aamon’s movement take 3 damage
Attack within range 7. 5 damage. Deal an additional 2 damage to any player within 2 spaces of
the target.
Charge:8, if Aamon collides with a player, deal 5 damage, end movement and increase Aamon
Elevation by 1. Subsequent attacks may use this skill again, further increasing elevation. If a
turn passes without using this skill, Aamon returns to the ground.

AGNOSIA
Aamon ascends into the air and immediately makes an attack from Elevation 3. On the start of
its next turn, it returns to ground level. The turn after that, it ascends to Elevation 3 again before
any actions are taken. This pattern of moving from the ground to Elevation 3 on alternating turns
continues until Aamon is killed or the fight is over.

Special
When Aamon drops to the ground from Elevation 3 they deal 5 damage in Burst 3.

Allotriopragmó The Petty Tyrant

Tags: Miniboss: The knotted protruberances on its brow compel its followers to do its bidding.
Soldiers who resist are made a violent example to other would-be dissidents.
100HP Total - AGNOSIA 10HP
Scale:1
Speed: 6
Attacks
Range 8 damage five. If this attack’s target is surrounded by a swarm, the swarm may make an
immediate free attack against the same target.
3 damage. If a swarm is within 3 squares, this unit may command them to immediately move 4
spaces or their speed, whichever is lower.

AGNOSIA
Any units with the horde tag immediately move up to their speed to surround this unit. Each
swarm unit between the unit and any attackers provides Cover 1.

Pyrovolitís- The Cannoneers

These demons are well known for their tendency to throw each other bodily through the air.
Casualties stemming from this ritual are seen as no particular loss to them. Their rot will
blossom hundreds of sporecaps.
Tags: Horde
1HP Total
Scale:1
Speed: 4
Strike: Deal 2 Damage to an Adjacent creature
Special:
Demonic Ammunition: Make an attack at up to range 6, leaving one minion in a space adjacent
to the target.

Teknon Mýkēs- The Birth-Cap

Low to the ground and meters wide in diameter, this enormous fungal outgrowth always smells
of blood-soaked soil and sounds of wailing pain.
Tags: Spawner, Immobile
HP: 50
Scale: 1
Speed: 0
Special:
Spawning - At the end of the round, The Birth-Cap gains a Charge. On the GM’s turn, they may
spend 1 charge to spawn a Henosis minion, or 5 to spawn a Miniboss.
Heinous Stench: When the Birth-Cap Spawns, all units within 4 squares gain Poison3

STRATCOM Actions
Fungal Eruption: Tenders of fungal nodes cultivate and agitate them into a Hell-wide blooming of
spores. In the next TACCOM encounter, all unit powers which trigger commanding of other
HENOSIS units or portions of a Horde have their damage or speed increased by one as chosen
by the GM at the time of the action.
Veil Bombardment: PREREQUISITE: Night’s Veil Location Unlocked. HENOSIS forces call in an
airstrike using the Night’s Veil. During your next TACCOM Engagement you may deploy up to 3
blasts with area 3 and damage 4 over the course of the engagement.

Upgrades

Teknon Mýkēs
Ichor Cost: 1
Effect: Unlock the unit Teknon Mýkēs

Total Subjectification
Ichor Cost: 3
Effect: Non-minion HENOSIS units adjacent to HENOSIS swarms count as part of the swarm for
purposes of determining HP and movement ranges.

Rot Conflagrator
Ichor Cost: 2
Effect: Unlock the Rot Conflagrator Fortification

Unique Locations

Spore Farm
Purpose: Cultivating fungus to maintain the faction’s influence.
Terrain: Shadowy swamp lands
Defenses: Skullcap Beasts roam the perimeters
Build Time: []

The Lashing Thorns

Purpose: A long-range heavy kinetic weapon for evisceration of enemy forces.
Terrain: A blighted hilltop
Defenses: Cannoneer-guardians, spore-identification authentication system, deep and
regenerative roots
Build Time: [][]

Night’s Veil
Purpose: A mobile fortress from which both ballistic and sporific death can be rained down.
Terrain: Hell’s inky skies.
Defenses: Nigh-insurmountable height, camouflage in clouds
Build Time: [][][]

Necrophagic Facility
Purpose: To churn corpses into sustenance for the fungal network.
Terrain: An underground bunker nested in pulsing mycelium
Defenses: Blighted Steel foundations, thrashing mycelial nodes
Build Time: [][]

Unique Fortifications
Rot Conflagrator
Tags: Fortification, Ballistic, Manned
Hp:80
Speed 0
Attack:
Range 12 damage 4. Poison1.
Special:
Manned: The Rot Conflagrator must be operated by an adjacent unit. Use of the Rot
Conflagrator takes that unit’s action to operate.

FACTION: Metricos
A well oiled machine seeking power in their hierarchy.
DRIVE: A place for every demon & every demon in its place. 5
Qualities:
Force: 3
Subterfuge: 2
Territory: 4
Assets: 4

CAIM THE FIRST BLOODIED

Tags: Boss
200 HP (AGNOSIA 50 HP)
Scale: 1
Speed: 6
Actions: ½
Attacks
Parallel Integration: When adjacent to a swarm, CAIM can move to any square adjacent to that
swarm at no cost to its speed.
Commanding Swipe: Deal 5 to an adjacent enemy, and move your Swarm by its Speed.
Inspiring Presence: Push back any units within Scale 2 for 1 square. Any Demons pushed back
this way deal +1 damage on their next turn.
AGNOSIA
When CAIM hits AGNOSIA, immediately teleport to a free space adjacent to the nearest horde.
Reshape the horde into any shape, as long as the shape adheres to existing movement and
placement rules. The horde may overlay or collide with player characters already in play. After
placing the new horde, if any horde tiles collide with or overlay an existing player character,
Break, and deal 5 damage to the player character. Reshaping the horde ignores movement
penalties and elevation.
Special
If CAIM has not moved since their last attack, their next attack causes BLEED:1.

Sloth (“Mesi”)
Tags: Miniboss
100 HP (10)
Scale: 3
Speed: 6
Attacks
Suffer the Rats: Break an adjacent swarm tile, and deal 5 damage to an enemy in range.
Seize your Rewards: Switch places with an allied Demon with the Miniboss tag.
AGNOSIA
Sloth may transform into any other available miniboss from this or another faction, retaining the
same HP as before its transformation.

Forsaken Union (“ANEMOS”)

A cruel imitation of order
Tags: Horde
1 HP
Scale: 1
Speed: 6
Strike: Deal 2 damage to an adjacent creature.
Special
Flexible Working Conditions: When part of a swarm, Forsaken Union can Deal 2 damage to an
adjacent unit and move the swarm by 1.
Chapter 5
[This chapter covers the map game aspects of HELLPIERCERS, includes explanations of
pre-existing locations, mechanics for manipulating the map, and also covers GM-facing
mechanics for setting up, developing, and using new structures on their map]

A Word On GM Mechanics
Usually in TTRPGs, a GM has an exclusive power over the rest of the players. They alone, by
most rulesets, are allowed to bend and break the structure of the game to better facilitate the
unique adventures their party enjoys. They’re allowed to make new characters from whole cloth,
reveal cities and towns that only existed in their minds. Supply lines tend to only exist in the
abstract, and consequences only really matter if they’re interesting. HELLPIERCERS doesn’t
want to take that experience from you, rather the tools and rules that follow are designed to
ground that creative power in something a little more tangible.

Many meta-level mechanics, such as buildings, supply lines, special units, faction qualities etc.
function are designed with some amount of “filling in the blanks” expected from you and your
table. For example, while we label a certain subset of buildings as Productive, we don’t include
any kind of hard resource extraction and management rules, where such and such mine can
extract so many ounces of Hell Ore per day, to be used at a rate of x per unit at a nearby
weapons factory. That just doesn’t sound fun to us.

Instead, think of the following similar to roll tables, just a bit more complicated. They’re
mechanics designed to prompt you and your table, and leaves the consequences, implications,
and ramifications of the choices you make ultimately in your hands.

The dream is we have hit on a goldilocks zone, where the system generates enough interesting
numbers and mechanical levers to give you and your party the grounding and tactile fun of
playing within a reactive world, while staying out of your way enough that you’re not just playing
a very slow, very boring video game.

The War Journal

As you play HELLPIERCERS, the GM will be prompted to take secret notes. Sometimes they’ll
send a convoy somewhere secret, sometimes they’ll begin work on a long-term project that
spells disaster for the players when completed, and sometimes they’ll want to misdirect and
mess with players. Many of the GMs actions during the STRATCOM phase requires them to
create hidden information both for themselves, and for something the players can uncover
through their own espionage. To this end, GMs need a WAR JOURNAL.

A War Journal is simply a notebook you designate for this information. We recommend creating
three clear sections, one for each of the armies you command. If you’re the type of GM who
uses notebooks for their campaigns anyway, just mark a few pages at the back for this info. Lay
out the notes you make such that you can reveal any one of them without revealing all of them,
since players will be taking a peek now and then.

Locations
Locations are special places depicted on the STRATCOM map. These represent the
infrastructure and interesting places that exist within a Demon’s domain, and are frequently
central to the narratives and battles you’ll be building throughout your campaign. Each map
comes with a number of locations already present, and later you’ll unlock methods to add to the
map yourself.

Locations are presented using the following template.

Name:
Purpose:
Terrain:
Defenses:
Build Time:

Each of these headers tells you an important detail about the location that can be useful when
setting up TACCOM engagements, or expanding the narrative of your ongoing campaign. Think
of this like the Locations statbox.

Name
The name of the location. Demons tend to have a naming scheme for the buildings in their
territory, but you can refer to the tables in the Location Generator section if you need help
naming yours.

Purpose
What the building does. This can be anything from producing raw materials to housing a great
beast.

Terrain
What the land around the building is like. This is great for evocative set dressing, and can also
help you establish interesting battlefield features, like hazard tiles.

Defense
What kind of garrison is here. This is a good time to check your factions' Qualities and see what
you think they could spare. You can list the exact troops stationed here (2x MESI, 25x
ANEMOS), or you can write a general idea of what to expect (A small defensive force).
Build Times
Locations have varying build times, represented by boxes in the Location’s information. Every
time a new STRATCOM phase begins, mark an unmarked box on every location you currently
have under construction. When all the boxes are filled, place the Building on the map tile by
drawing it directly on to the map tile.

Drawing On The Map

Many players may feel they lack the ability to draw the incredible locations and buildings the
envision in their mind. Some players may feel like marking their map tiles is a destructive act
that ruins their game. This is totally understandable - in both cases, we recommend discussing
with the table to find a workable alternative. If you lack drawing abilities, you could ask an
artistically talented member of your party, or use simplistic symbols to represent them. If you
wish to keep your maps pristine, you may use tokens or make printed copies of the map tiles.

When you’re asked to place a new location on the map, use the above template to note it down
in your War Journal.

Location Types
As we previously discussed, each Demon in HELLPIERCERS comes with their own map, this
abstracted version of their territory comes with a few buildings and locations included by default.
As you play, you’ll unlock the ability to develop new structures and uncover new locations on the
map, and be given the opportunity to customize your map. When prompted, your additions will
usually fall under one of the following categories. Don’t worry, you’ll know which type when it
comes up.

Extractive
This building provides some kind of resource income. A mine that provides precious ores, a
dark forest of elder-boughs that provides haunted lumber, a sulfur swamp or a suffering farm.

Productive
A place where resources get turned into something useful. A factory is an obvious one, hellish
chemical plans, poison distilleries, mills, soulbrick works, and so on. Your weapon and vehicle
factories, as well as your monster pits.

Destructive
These buildings cause devastation all by themselves, sometimes producing something as a
secondary effect. Incredibly long-range weapons, machines that devastate the land, belch
noxious toxins into the air, or disrupt the fabric of reality itself.

Defensive
Walls, turrets, bunkers and barracks. These buildings are designed to protect important
landmarks or tactically useful locations.
Legendary
Dark caves, bizarre constructions, and twisted fortresses long since fallen to myth, even here in
Infernum. Used for housing ancient relics, magical weapons, terrifying monsters, and
unspeakable truths.

Each Demon army contains a list of the buildings they begin with, and a few suggestions for
buildings you can place yourself, when the time comes. Certain groups may be happier
dreaming up their own worlds of terrifying machines and their horrifying purposes - any time the
game tells you to draw a new building, feel free to make something up yourself rather than pick
from our suggestions.

GM Tools

Ichor
While players have access to three different resources, GMs only have to worry about one -
Ichor. Ichor is obtained by playing the game and defeating the heroes. GMs receive 1 Ichor for
each mission they rungain a, regardless of if they win or lose, and n additional 2 Ichor for every
hero they manage to defeat in the process. Ichor is awarded at the end of a mission during
STRATCOM, just like the player-facing resources.

Ichor can be spent on the GM Grid to unlock new abilities and develop Hell’s landscape during
the STRATCOM phase.

STRATCOM Actions
During STRATCOM, while the players are building their characters, upgrading their city, and
developing strategies, GMs have access to a number of actions of their own. During
STRATCOM, you may select one of the following options.

Deploy Convoy
Moving around the wastes of Hell is not easy. Simple journeys between landmarks require a
great investment in arms, scouts, and navigators if it’s to be successful. Once per STRATCOM,
you may deploy a convoy from one landmark to another. The location the convoy leaves from
should be marked, and you should write its destination down somewhere secret. Regardless of
distance, a convoy will arrive at the start of the second STRATCOM phase after it’s deployed.

There are a number of types of convoy, each with a different sort of escort and cargo. These
categories are hidden information, discovered only by player spy actions.

Upon successful completion, each type of Convoy allows the GM to take a specific action,
detailed below.
Supply
Moving a load of materials or finished products from its creation point to where it’ll be used.
Armed depending on the army’s Force quality; Force:1 might have a smattering of Minion-level
troops to spare for such journeys, while Force:5 armies will defend their resources with a full
force of Minibosses and Minions.

Upon completion, select one of the following actions;

● Fortify Stronghold
Holding strategic locations is critical to the success of Hell’s Armies in staving off the
forces of Dis. Walls may be fortified with soulsteel, new defensive weapons of war may
be placed in the hold, new traps to stymie invaders may be placed, and more.
Select a Fortification from the list on [Page.xx]

● Unit Drills
A strict regimen of training is implemented to increase the martial skill and coordination
of a specific detachment of demonic forces. Write which detachment is being trained in
your journal, where they are garrisoned, and select one buff from the options below;
Increase unit speed by +1
Increase damage of all attacks by 1
Add one of the following Effects to one attack - Pin, Bleed, Slow
Reveal this effect at the start of the next TACCOM phase at the relevant location.

● Research Project
The demon lord calls upon the brightest thaumaturgists, researchers, and blightcrafters
to construct a new building, develop a terrible new weapon, or deploy a devastating unit
to the field.
Select a Research Project from the list on [Page.xx]

Support
These convoys carry weapons, troops, slaves, and other support materials to and from
locations. Support convoys are the most valuable convoys a demon lord can send out, and
should be heavily defended with at least two minibosses and a full array of minions regardless
of that army's current Force value.

Upon completion, select one of the following actions

● Unit Drills
A strict regimen of training is implemented to increase the martial skill and coordination
of a specific detachment of demonic forces. Write which detachment is being trained in
your journal, where they are garrisoned, and select one buff from the options below;
Increase unit speed by +1
Increase damage of all attacks by 1
Add one of the following Effects to one attack - Pin, Bleed, Slow
 Reveal this effect at the start of the next TACCOM phase at the relevant location.

● Research Project
The demon lord calls upon the brightest thaumaturgists, researchers, and blightcrafters
to construct a new building, develop a terrible new weapon, or deploy a devastating unit
to the field.
Select a Research Project from the list on [Page.xx]

Diplomatic
A convoy carrying an important diplomat, vital commander, or other VIPs. These convoys are
one of the few that often move between other demon’s territory, and frequently carry Boss-level
opponents.

Upon completion, select one of the following actions;

● Research Project
The demon lord calls upon the brightest thaumaturgists, researchers, and blightcrafters
to construct a new building, develop a terrible new weapon, or deploy a devastating unit
to the field.
Select a Research Project from the list on [Page.xx]

● Infernal Mass
Warlocks, occultists, and ritual masters are brought together to perform THE RITUAL.
Write down where the ritual is being performed in your journal. Before the next TACCOM
phase at this location, roll on the table on [Page.xx] and deploy that unit into battle.

Decoy
Decoy convoys do nothing themselves. They will almost always have either zero defenses, or
an overwhelming force of minions, minibosses, and more. Their purpose is to mislead and
misdirect players, confuse them, and lead them into traps. From a GM’s perspective, Decoys
are an excellent way to deliver plot information, hint at upcoming assaults, play around with
NPCs, and so on. Imagine a battle ending with a minion coughing up blood and cackling as she
tells the players they’re already too late to prevent the construction of The World Eater Machine.

Establish New Hold

Select a Location from your factions unlocked Locations list, and pick a place on the map to
begin construction. Note down in your War Journal the name of the Location, its build time, and
its location.

Create Map Hazard

Select two locations on your map and build a map hazard between them from the list on [PAGE
.XX]. Mark the locations, build time, and name of the hazard in your War Journal.
Swap Quality Points
The Demon Lord of the faction enacts a series of demands, reforms, and strategic maneuvers.
Reduce the rating of one of the Lord’s faction Qualities by one point and raise another by one
point. These changes are enacted at the beginning of the STRATCOM Phase after this is
started. These numerical changes do not change the number of points needed for the players to
weaken the faction to begin their final assault. When you begin this action, note which Qualities
are being changed in your journal.

Faction Unique Actions

Factions have at least one unique STRATCOM action, accessible only by their forces. The
faction page will tell you how these work.

NOTE ON SECRET INFORMATION: Many of the GM actions require hidden information. You
may want to get a notepad ready for this before you begin play, and create three sections within
it for each of the Demon Armies you control. During play, many successful actions from the
players will give them a chance to look at your hidden information and make choices based on
it.
Preview Art Assets