Evil Hat

@evilhat.bsky.social

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Turning Passion into Great Games! Publisher of Fate, Monster of the Week, Blades in the Dark, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, and other games. www.evilhat.com

The cover of Thousand Arrows featuring an illustration of a female warrior wearing 16th century Japanese armor and carrying a musket. A sword is strapped to her belt and a Japanese fortress burning in the background. Caption: A role-playing game of samurai drama by James Mendez Hodes
A copy of AGON atop a green cloth. Various old coins are scattered behind it, along with a twisted cord and a long silver sword with a black handle.
On the left, an illustration of Rae Nedjadi with short curly black hair and horn-rim glasses, wearing a purple and pink striped robe. Next to that, the covers of the games in the Rae Nedjadi Recovery Bundle: Our Haunt, Apocalypse Keys, Doomsday Delights, Brindlewood Bay, Defy the Gods, Once More Into the Void, Blue Rose, Raccoon Sky Pirates, Glow, The Love Balloon, The Wildsea: Ships Gardens, Paragons, Gingerbread Kaiju, The Hunger in the Void, Space Post, Seers & Roebuck, For Coin & Blood, Dynasties & Demagogues, Party Beach Creature Feature, Heroic Maps - Villages (Summer), Quantum Entanglement, and Infestation at Devil's Glade.
The cover of Thousand Arrows featuring an illustration of a female warrior wearing 16th century Japanese armor and carrying a musket. A sword is strapped to her belt and a Japanese fortress burning in the background. Caption: A role-playing game of samurai drama by James Mendez Hodes
A photo of a sandy beach by a turquoise ocean. A red and white Santa bag sits on the beach filled with titles like Tachyon Squadron, Deathmatch Island, and Monster of the Week: Apocrypha. Sticking out of the sand are the covers of three other games: Monster of the Week, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, and Girl By Moonlight. Caption: It's Xmas in July at DriveThruRPG. Save up to 75%
A collage of all the products in the Monster of the Week Monstrous Bundle for Roll20: Monster of the Week core book, Tome of Mysteries, Codex of Worlds, Codex of Worlds: Apocrypha, Codex of Worlds: Modern Haunts, Hunter's Journal, Slayer's Survival Kit, and Mystic Marginalia.
On the left, an illustration of Rae Nedjadi with short curly black hair and horn-rim glasses, wearing a purple and pink striped robe. Next to that, the covers of the games in the Rae Nedjadi Recovery Bundle: Our Haunt, Apocalypse Keys, Doomsday Delights, Brindlewood Bay, Defy the Gods, Once More Into the Void, Blue Rose, Raccoon Sky Pirates, Glow, The Love Balloon, The Wildsea: Ships Gardens, Paragons, Gingerbread Kaiju, The Hunger in the Void, Space Post, Seers & Roebuck, For Coin & Blood, Dynasties & Demagogues, Party Beach Creature Feature, Heroic Maps - Villages (Summer), Quantum Entanglement, and Infestation at Devil's Glade.
A graphic showing a shield with the label Platinum Best Seller
A saturated illustration of a woman with long red hair wearing purple and gold, she wields a glowing rapier as she stands atop a misty, aqua-colored mountain. Overlaid next to her, the cover of Umdaar, where two warriors with plasma axes and cybernetic laser rifles square off against a floating tentacle creature that's shooting some sick-ass eyebeams.
For different heroic characters: A magical princess rendered in pink, a mech pilot rendered in blue, a girl in a grim fairytale garden rendered in green, and a figure in a white robe and black cloak with a wire spiraling out of his head. A purple woman rises behind him, her long hair flowing around the frame.
An ipad showing the cover of the PDF for Mystic Marginalia where two hunters fight off clockwork monstrosities on some alternate plane. In front of that, a mockup of the print-on-demand physical copy of the book with the same cover. Caption: Monster of the Week Mystic Marginalia. Digital PDF + Print. Available now on DriveThruRPG.
The cover of Mystic Marginalia showing two Hunters using psychic bolts and energy shields to fight off clockwork horrors in an alternate dimension. To the left of that, a page for The Abandoned playbook featuring a black and white illustration of a fey woman wearing a combat jacket, backpack, sling pouch, and cargo pants. Two hairy antennae jut forward from her head and she wields a slingshot. To the right of the cover, a page for The Elemental featuring a black-and-white illustration of a long-haired woman in a dress with a wide v-neck and covered in a pattern of swirls. She holds a finger to her chin as she contemplates a frozen cuckoo clock that rests in her left palm. Artwork by Juan Ochoa.
On the left, the cover for Mystic Marginalia showing two Hunters using psychic bolts and energy shields to fight off clockwork horrors in an alternate dimension. Next to that a black and white illustration of a severed tentacle with a sword resting on top of it. Caption: New Ways to Slay. Artwork by Juan Ochoa.
The cover of Mystic Marginalia showing two Hunters using psychic bolts and energy shields to fight off clockwork horrors in an alternate dimension. Next to that a spread showing a table with different entries for generating the preferred approach of minions. Below that is an illustration of a bearded man in a trenchcoat firing a wrist blaster that issues a huge bloom of energy as it detonates. Artwork by Juan Ochoa.
A graphic for the Gayming With Pride charity bundles. Over 90% off, with all proceeds supporting Outright International and Tabletop Gaymers. Available for a limited time at DriveThruRPG. Bundle #1 includes Girl By Moonlight and 26 other games. Bundle #2 includes Thirsty Sword Lesbians and 29 other titles.
An animated gif that scrolls through different combinations of Archetype and Bio-form: Ranger Arachnoid, Princess Werebeast, Summoner Necroid, Scoundrel Mutant, Elementalist Glowbot, Runekeeper, Dinosauroid, Daredevil Energy Being, Warrior Werebeast, Infiltrator Shapeshifter, and Sharpshooter Mutabeast.
A saturated illustration of a woman with long red hair wearing purple and gold, she wields a glowing rapier as she stands atop a misty, aqua-colored mountain. Overlaid next to her, the cover of Umdaar, along with a badge that says Gold Bestseller.
An illustration of a bare-shouldered human warrior with long hair, bulging muscles and cybernetic enhancements. He reaches out above a flowing river of blue plasma to retrieve a huge, floating sword that crackles with energy.
A spread of the Umdaar Region generator with advice for creating a region on the left and a set of tables on the right for creating a Freeland with different tables for Adjective, Noun, and Proper Name. Using this generator could create a result like "Gargantuan Island of Velidan"
A page from the sample adventures outlining the setting of Libratopolis, a Freeland city carved in a massive library and headed by the Grand Scholararch Nier. It includes a plot seed and describes the outskirts, library, gardens, research labs, and deep archives. On the right side of the page spread, Fate stats for two NPCs: Generel B3-TR4YZ0R, the righthand cyborg of the dread Blitzborg leader Rag-Nator. Plus stats for some flying Laser Drones.
An illustration of some long-lost ruins in a deep jungle. They are overgrown with vines and tall trees draped in moss.
The Banner sheet for the Rebels, with sections for Reputation (Foolish Dreamers, Urban Legends, Shady Grifters etc) Region (The Haunted Empire, The Lazerzone, The Council of Nightmares), Core Community (The Icequake Tundra, Hekaton States, Factoryona) and Base of Operations (The Caves of Chitin, The Workshop, The Cloud-Raptor) plus options for Local Contact and Local Villain.
A portion of the modular character sheet included with Umdaar showing the Sharpshooter Archetype (Important skills include Shoot, Stealth, Notice) and the Mutant Bio-form (Stunts include Extra Senses and Telekinesis). The sheet is designed to be cut in half so you can mix your chosen Archetype with the Bio-form you like.
The cover of Umdaar: Rebel Broadcast Edition featuring a colorful illustration of a warrior woman with four arms leaping into the air wielding a plasma axe. She dodges the bright eye blasts of a giant floating cyborg head festooned with metal tentacles like a medusa. Underneath the metal mask we see sickly gray flesh surrounding sharp and crooked teeth that form a screeching maw. In the foreground a man with dreadlocks and cybernetic implants fires a laser blaster at something out of frame. Art by Lorne Colt. Credited game designers: Dave Joria, Misha Bushyager, Mahar Mangahas, Pam Punzalan, Helena Real, Soup, and James Mendez Hodes.
A photo showing the various products collaged together on a red background: the overview map of Doskvol is unfolded alongside maps for each district, there's a copy of the Red Ledger notebook with ribbon bookmarks and stylized bright red Twin Daggers logos on the cover, a copy of Deep Cuts, and a deck of cards with custom faces and suits.
A colorful illustration of robotic knights atop cyborg raptirs. They wield long spears as they charge through some ancient ruins in a lush jungle. Artwork by Lorne Colt.
A monotone illustration in blue of a tall humanoid descending a spiraling set of stairs deep beneath the sea.
A colorful illustration of a warrior woman with four arms leaping into the air wielding a plasma axe. She dodges the bright eye blasts of a giant floating cyborg head festooned with metal tentacles like a medusa. Underneath the metal mask we see sickly gray flesh surrounding sharp and crooked teeth that form a screeching maw. In the foreground a man with dreadlocks and cybernetic implants fires a laser blaster at something out of frame. Art by Lorne Colt
On the right, a copy of Stewpot: Tales From A Fantasy Tavern. On the left, a page from the game titled A Distinguished Guest. The text reads: Someone important is in town, and they're almost here. The tavern has to be at its best for this guest. After all, they might leave a generous tip. Setup - Anyone can play. As a group figure out a few details about the important guest. Where do they come from? Have you heard of them before? One player plays the Guest. The other players take on the Challenges. Each Challenge tests one of your Tavern Ratings. Pictured is an elderly Asian woman in long green robes carrying an enormous set of packs strapped to her back. The stack is twice as tall as she is. A yellow bird is perched at the top while a lantern dangles high over the woman's head.
The cover of Scum and Villainy showing a pair of ships diving through a jump gate as purple and magenta clouds of cosmic gas swirl around them. Caption: May the Fourth. That's Today.
Rocket Club Multistage Anthology Four stories, four actual play networks With Danny Mendoza as the Guide A Silent Harvest Oakhaven. Spring, 1996. The cicadas are loud, but the people have gone quiet. Nerds With Dice twitch.tv/nerdswithdice Sundays 8pm Eastern April 12, 19, 26, May 3 Neon Crossfire The County Fair is ground zero for an alien war and Rocket Club is caught in the middle. Pocket Dragon Pub twitch.tv/thepocketdragonpub Saturday April 25 8pm Eastern A Fractured Sky The sky above The Town is wrong. And whatever's up there has started to land. Pantsless Tables twitch.tv/pantslesstables Tuesdays, Noon Eastern April 14, 21, 28 Radical Resonance Things are not as they seem and Rocket Club is at the center of it all. Streaming Rainbow twitch.tv/thestreamingrainbow Live Fridays, 8pm Eastern April 10, 24, May 8, 15, 22
Heroic champions battle dinosaurs and a floating cyborg head trailing a wreath of tentacles as blades clash and laser blasts fly on the cover of Umdaar. Planet of Swords, Super-Science, and Sorcery. Free Preview Edition. Written by Dave Joria, Misha Bushyager, Mahar Mangahas, Pam Punzalan, Helena Real, Soup, and James Mendez Hodes
Rocket Club Multistage Anthology Four stories, four actual play networks With Danny Mendoza as the Guide A Silent Harvest Oakhaven. Spring, 1996. The cicadas are loud, but the people have gone quiet. Nerds With Dice twitch.tv/nerdswithdice Sundays 8pm Eastern April 12, 19, 26, May 3 Neon Crossfire The County Fair is ground zero for an alien war and Rocket Club is caught in the middle. Pocket Dragon Pub twitch.tv/thepocketdragonpub Saturday April 25 8pm Eastern A Fractured Sky The sky above The Town is wrong. And whatever's up there has started to land. Pantsless Tables twitch.tv/pantslesstables Tuesdays, Noon Eastern April 14, 21, 28 Radical Resonance Things are not as they seem and Rocket Club is at the center of it all. Streaming Rainbow twitch.tv/thestreamingrainbow Live Fridays, 8pm Eastern April 10, 24, May 8, 15, 22
A screencap of Blades in the Dark on the Alchemy RPG virtual tabletop In the background a black and white illustration showing a Whisper encountering a ghost in an opera house. Over the top is the VTT interface with animated dice dropping onto the tabletop featuring the twin daggers logo on the 6s. The interface also features rolls for the crew members, links to districts, active players, and more.
A mockup of the four thick Designers & Dragons: Origins books adorned with colorful illustrations in gold and purple depicting dragons of various ages stalking and frolicking. Caption: Learn the history behind the adventure, preorder now.
The cover of Girl By Moonlight: A femme figure rendered in tones of purple and wearing a crown reaches up to touch a glowing white sphere of energy as circles and swirls of power burst from her finger tips. Overlaid on her flowing white dress, we see the ghostly outlines of her fellow heroes, featuring a swashbuckling woman with a sword at the forefront.
A map of the PAX East convention floor with a big arrow and a circle around the Indie Press Revolution booth which is number 12109 and located near the PAX Rising Showcase stage.
The cover of House of Bards with soldiers fighting in the background, a herald sounding a horn, and a bald, scheming bard clutching some very, very important papers. Maybe it's a map, maybe it's notes on who's sleeping with whom behind the scenes at the palace.
The cover of Knights of Invasion featuring a medieval knight on horseback running his lance into a 12-foot tall bug creature with a green carapace, glowing eyes, and a flaming energy mace for a fist. Good luck, buddy.
The cover of Wolf's Head. A group of bandits point bows and spring an ambush on a patrol of mail-clad troops with steel helms as they march through the woods.
A burly barbarian with a glowing power nodule on his back reaches for a huge broadsword that is floating in a sea of sparkling energy.
Cover of the Clockwinders World of Adventure where a fey sorceress with a third eye in the middle of her forehead and runes adorning her clothes smirk mischievously at a magical orrey as green flames radiate from her body.
A screencap of all our Pay What You Want Titles: Fate Core, Fate Condensed, Fate Accelerated, Fate System Toolkit, Secrets of Cats, Spirit of the Century, Masters of Umdaar, Aether Sea, Gods & Monsters, Ghost Planets, Save Game, Eagle Eyes, Sails Full of Stars, Nitrate City, Romance in the Air, Blood on the Trail, Morts, Deep Dark Blue, Red Planet, Fate Accelerated/Core Conversion Guide, Andromeda, Psychedemia, Nest, Grimoire, The 3 Rocketeers, Frontier Spirit, Loose Threads, Slip, The Ministry, Uranium Chef, House of Bards, Iron Street Combat, Arecibo, The Crisp Line, Straw Boss, Knights of Invasion, The Agency, War of Ashes, Weird World News, Wolf's Head, Good Neighbors, Under the Table, Prism, Til Dawn, Clockwinders, Ngen Mapy, Behind the Walls, Almbrecht After Dark, Spirit of the Season, So the Story Goes, On the Wall, The Way of the Pukona (English), La Via de las Pukona.
An illustration of The Swinger playbook. It depicts a woman with a bob haircut and bright pink sunglasses flashing a peace sign. Her dress is brown, pink and yellow. The playbook is described as "A wheeler and dealer - the life of the party. A sporty convertible is depicted in the background. Below it is a mockup of a copy of Blades '68.
A screencap of the BackerKit page for Blades '68. A red circle is around the funding amount ($501,826) number of backers (6,576) and minutes left (89). Above that in red, text in big bold red letters that reads Thank you!
Mockups of: The Blades '68 book featuring a colorful cover of 60s inspired charactes in concentric rings of black, blue, orange, and yellow. The Doskvol 968 City Map, featuring a 60s style render of "modern" Doskvol. The Player Gazette, with the illustration of a crew walking together shoulder to shoulder in a line. The Faction Deck, where each faction has its own "business card" and The Trouble Cards, designed to help you generate complications for your crew.
A colorful collage of the eight character playbooks in Blades '68. The robotic Hull, the shadowy Operative, the freewheeling Swinger, the taciturn Veteran, the zealous Militant, the freaky Paranormalist, the stoic Intellectual, and the hard-bitten Fixer.
The cover of Blades '68. Colorful characters inspired by the 1960s are illustrated in bright shades of blue, orange, and yellow. Caption: Final hours on BackerKit.
Mockups of the Limited Time Rewards for Blades '68: A fold-out City Map, Player Gazette, Faction Deck, Trouble Deck, Score Pad and a copy of the Blades '68 on an iPad.
The colorful cover of the Blades '68 book where the 68 has been crossed out and replaced with 69 in bright purple. Next to the that, the description for the $420k stretch goal which is FUNDED: Blades '69: The Sexual Revolution The 1960s were a time when the counterculture challenged establishment norms around sex, love, family, and a person's right to choose what happens to their own body. How does this conflict manifest in Doskvol? How does the Consensus exercise control through these dimensions of human experience, and what struggles and delightful deviancies does your group want to explore? Blades '69 is a combination of a worldbuilding exercise and safety tool to help you bring themes of both real-world and fantastical sexual liberation to your game."
A screenshot showing the quoted post has 69 reposts
A mockup of the Blades '69 book where the 69 has been crossed out and replaced with 69 in bright purple. Below that, the bio for April Kit Walsh which reads: April Kit Walsh writes games about feelings, vulnerability, and caring for one another, including Thirsty Sword Lesbians and End of the Line. She used to be a swordfighting ballerina, but claims those days are behind her; she has absolutely no idea who that masked heroine with the sword and the tutu might be. When not writing RPGs, April is a civil liberties attorney working to protect the rights of criminal defendants, activists, journalists, and everyone else impacted by the technologies of control or empowerment. Next to the bio, the description for the $420k stretch goal: Blades '69: The Sexual Revolution The 1960s were a time when the counterculture challenged establishment norms around sex, love, family, and a person's right to choose what happens to their own body. How does this conflict manifest in Doskvol? How does the Consensus exercise control through these dimensions of human experience, and what struggles and delightful deviancies does your group want to explore? Blades '69 is a combination of a worldbuilding exercise and safety tool to help you bring themes of both real-world and fantastical sexual liberation to your game.
At the top, an illustration from the cover of Blade's 68 for Blades in the Dark. Various 60s-inspired characters appear in concentric rings of grey, blue, orange, and yellow. This is followed by a manifesto of player advice. HOW TO PLAY HARD AND HAVE FUN IN '68 1. GO IN BOOTS AND ALL. The campaign will be shorter than you think. Make stuff happen now. Don't wait, pull the trigger. 2. DIG THE OTHER CHARACTERS. Dial in on the other player characters, pay attention to their narrative, and get your own character involved. Be their fan, or be their foil. 3. MAKE THE GM SWEAT. Think of the game like a physics toy, and push the levers you have as hard as you can, just to see what happens. Rattle the cage, jump out the window, don't look down. Move so fast the GM can't keep up. 4. SELL THE PUNCHES. Always choose the bigger reaction. Let your character be changed by the world and by other characters. Let them be upset, emotional, irrational. 5. FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT. If your character dies, they can come back as an echo. If they have to retire, you can always make a new character. The crew cannot be stopped. Act first and think later, make bad decisions, let the chips fall where they may. 6. LEARN TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE CONSEQUENCES. Most rolls are going to have consequences. Wouldn't it be boring to succeed all the time? Embrace consequences, and create consequences, then roll them up in a giant ball of chaos and surf on top. Following this manifesto is an illustration in monotone orange, yellow, and black of a muscle car jumping in front of a speeding tractor-trailer. A woman brandishing a pistol leans out the window of the muscle car and fires toward the truck.
A screencap of some of the titles on sale as part of the GM's Day Sale at DriveThruRPG: Monster of the Week, Tome of Mysteries, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Fate Space Toolkit, Stewpot: Dice Dungeons & Delicacies, Band of Blades, Modern Haunts, Fate Adversary Toolkit, Codex of Worlds, Girl By Moonlight, Fate Accessibility Toolkit, Venture City, Apocrypha, City of Red Waters, Slayer's Survival Kit, Apocalypse Keys, Fate of Cthulhu, and Stewpot
A mockup of the Rocket Club RPG by Em Hubbard showing three teenagers with rocket-powered gear running away from a trio of UFO that are emitting sinister light beams. In the background, a model rocket, a baseball, and an old CRT style TV sit on a desk. Caption: Playtesting now.
A triptych of iconic characters from Blades '68. The Veteran is a battered solider who's returned from the front. He wears a military jacket and has a machine gun slung over his shoulder. The Hound is a hard-bitten fixer who follows their instincts. A man in a trenchcoat with a bandage over his nose reaches into his pocket with one hand and casually grasps a revolver in the other. A basset hound sits next to him. The Intellectual is a brilliant engineer, scientist, and philosopher. A man in a nehru jacket sits in a large, spherical chair. He wears yellow tinted sunglasses and cradles a pipe thoughtfully.
A screenshot of an email from an ad agency to Evil Hat Marketing: Hey Evil Hat team, Promised this is the last time you’ll hear from me. We are wrapping up generating content on the house. The AI studio is starting to get fully booked with our paying clients, and I have strict orders to stop promoting this come the weekend. I figured Evil Hat might as well get some work out of us at no cost while you can. Want in before we close it up? Best, [redacted] And then our reply: Hi [redacted], We will never use AI for our games or for our marketing. It's toxic to our customer audience and it's an ethical violation of the hard work put in by the human artists we hire to illustrate our books and the human writers who design our games. In short, it's not "free work" it's theft. Feel free to take me off your mailing list. Hope you turn around your business model because frankly, your current approach sucks shit. -Tom
An illustration in brown, gray, and orange of a man wearing a suit and a trenchcoat, standing in an alley. He has one hand in the pocket of his suitcoat, the other grasps a snub-nosed revolver. His hair is tousled, a cigarette dangles from his lip and a white bandage covers his broken nose. He looks a little like Dennis Farina but also a little bit like Pedro Pascal. A long-eared bloodhound stands next to him, it just looks like a good boy. Caption: Hound. A hard-bitten fixer who follows their instincts.
A mockup of the Rocket Club RPG by Em Hubbard showing three teenagers with rocket-powered gear running away from a trio of UFO that are emitting sinister light beams. In the background, a model rocket, a baseball, and an old CRT style TV sit on a desk. Caption: Playtesting now.
Copies of the four issues of Zine by Moonlight, Girl by Moonlight, and the limited edition copy of Girl by Moonlight