Killing Claw (First Playtest Edition)

Now: the near future. Earth is dying. Climate change has devastated the globe. A series of conflicts- ideological, economic, military--over dwindling resources and arable land have radically shifted the tapestry of nations, drawing new borders and breaking the old. Real political power now lies not with governments, but with corporations, who feud to control the world’s dwindling supplies. The advent of cybernetic and genetic enhancement make these wars no less brutal or destructive. Meanwhile hundreds of millions of displaced people find refuge in floating sea cities, at the edge of irradiated zones, and in mile-deep urban slums. Desperate to prevent the inevitable, the East American Socialist Union diverts critical funding from its cold war with the neo-fascist United American Republic to a private enterprise: Quantra, a small particle research company. Its founder, Dr. Tobias Jaunt, is as ambitious as he is brilliant, and believes he has found a way to generate stable breaches in time. The EASU is hopeful that his technology can solve critical resource shortages, and give them an edge over the UAR. They grant Quantra the use of Nova Scotia, mostly abandoned and recently purchased from the Canadian government, for their experiments and almost unlimited funds.

After seven years of research and construction, Quantra completes work on a particle collider capable of generating a time breach buried beneath the surface of Nova Scotia. During the first test, all contact with the region is lost. Canadian and American observers report that the entire peninsula is surrounded by a filmy barrier that seems to stretch out and up into eternity. News of the accident spreads. An expedition is organized, although who does so and who takes part is unknown; dozens of nations, corporations, and individuals claim to have been the first to enter, and return from, the Nova Scotia Exclusion Zone. Most report having seen the same thing: a land turned from tundra to tropical jungle, the ruined facilities worn down by time and the elements, stalked by dinosaurs. Other report fields of molten rock, endless oceans, vast swathes of desert, and other, stranger sights. The conclusion is clear: whatever happened to Quantra’s collider has spliced Earth’s past, present, and future together. Nova Scotia has become unstuck in time.

The EASU is quick to declare the peninsula off-limits, designating it as the Nova Scotia Exclusion Zone. But without the military resources to place more than a small carrier group there, they may as well have rung a dinner bell. Every government and corporation wants a piece of the pie, and their strike teams descend on the place, with varying degrees of success. Independent teams of scavengers enter the Zone searching for the rare technology that could lift them out of poverty. Refugees flock to the place, searching for better lives in a different time; like those in Nova Scotia at the time of the accident, most are never seen again. Every so often, a dinosaur or two will escape the Zone and wreak havoc on the already beleaguered Canadian environment. And reports indicate that the Zone is expanding, slowly but surely, a few inches each year at an increasing rate… All the while the Zone beckons. Fortune and glory. Power and prestige. Maybe the answer to Earth’s problems really is in there: bottomless energy, limitless resources. Only one thing is certain: The war for the future has begun in the past.

My next RPG, Killing Claw, is a PvPvE exploration/extraction game about human (and near-human) adventurers and their mutant dinosaur opponents.  Players are organized into two or more Teams--each with four distinct classes and special mechanics--and compete against each other and NPC forces to survive in the mysterious Nova Scotia Exclusion Zone. Within the Zone, time has been fractured, and dino and human alike will face threats from Earth's past, present, and future--alongside still stranger foes...

This is the first public playtest edition! It's free (but every donation helps and will go towards the game's development). It features:
- Mostly complete, if untested, rules for play. Killing Claw features a simple d6 dice pooling system, customizable character classes, and simple (but deep) tactical combat that provides a structure for actions without being too granular or 'crunchy.' Currently, it lacks an outline for creating NPCs and tags for certain pieces of equipment, along with the more detailed version of the hexcrawl system. All of these features are still in development and will be included in the final playtest version once the core systems have been revised.
- Two complete Teams. The human (and android) Vultures scour the Zone for treasure and vital supplies to help beleaguered communities or for mere personal gain, while the legendary mutant dinosaurs of the Alphas seek to survive (or escape) the time-lost climes; 
- A small selection of cybernetic enhancements and mutations; 
- A character advancement and leveling system;
- A framework for typical missions and the hexcrawl mechanics therein;
- Original title artwork by Calliope Neurotoxins and a logo by B. Everett Dutton of CLAYMORE.

Once you've tested the game, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/rviihbFnu6UZ9SPM9. It's a Google Forms survey where you can share your feedback with me directly.

Thank you for playing!