Murderbowl by Humperdink's Wares

Hey everyone! Two new writing releases in two days!

This release is by Humperdink's Wares and he's excited to talk about it so we'll hand it over to him (files are including at the bottom of the post):

IT’S HERE!!!

I’ve been working on this in some form or another for over 2 years! With the Six Nations and the Superbowl starting, AND the fact that my wife’s (and now my) team, the Kansas City Chiefs are in the Superbowl, I had to get something released!

Here it is: a simple ruleset for rugby-american football in D&D: Murderbowl! It works just like normal combat, but with an ulterior motive: scoring. As DMs you’ll find this very familiar, with just a few new player actions: Throw, Catch, Tackle, and Block.

Adventures & Campaign 

Murderbowl can bring a refreshing bit of levity to a long-running campaign, breaking the monotony of “go here, kill that”. Don’t get me wrong, you can still ‘kill the carrier’ (a rugby game we used to play in school), but the game encourages your players to get creative with their abilities. Fireball is suddenly useless while frightening, grappling, or outmaneuvering someone can win you the game. Lightning bolt is still clutch though and Haste is… well… a gamble!

Tailgating!

This supplement pairs up perfectly with the Tailgating setting - beer, games and scams! Available to Adventure+ tier patrons of Humperdink’s Wares :)

What’s in the Box?

Inside you’ll find:

• Basic rules to try out the game,
• Adventure hooks to use this in your campaign,
• A colosseum map by Cze and Peku with Murderbowl overlay,
• A beautifully arranged and illustrated PDF,
• Magic items from Loot Tavern,
• Some useful, original Murderbowl spells (mireball, shielding word, and switcheroo)!

Bonus Content

The PDFs in the description are the core rules but if you're enjoying Murderbowl and want more, you can get a bonus edition from Humperdink's Wares here.

The bonus edition contains:

• Creature tokens
• Advanced player actions like jink, read, and playbook.
• Rules for playing dirty.
• Environmental & crowd effects.
• Gamemode variants: bruisebowl, arenabowl, and souperbowl.
• ‘Star Player’ adventure hooks and stat blocks: Ronald Rump and Baron Dodgers.
• Additional free agents: tackler, berserker, and bulwark.
• New team: Bloodsmith Bowlers.
• Three more Murderbowl feats!

Help Improve It

I want your feedback! Seriously!

I can only test this so much and I need you guys to cheese the rules, find flaws, and pick apart my wording. It’s only by really trying to abuse what I’ve written that we can make this a polished and refined version.

So please, drop a comment on this post, on Discord, send me a direct message - just let me known what you find. If you write it, I’ll read it, and if it makes sense and doesn’t over-complicate it, I’ll implement it. Let’s work together on this!"

Collaborators

This was written and arranged by Humperdink’s Wares. 

Cze & Peku have graciously let us use their beautiful map (that's us!). 

Loot Tavern did loads of Illustration for this, providing magic items and the art for the Holy Avengers and Vorpal Vixens.