All Categories

Halloween Horror RPG Sale

10/8/2019

In the spirit of Halloween, Spectrum Games is offering huge discounts on our horror core rulebooks, both in PDF and print formats. Click the names below to purchase!

MACABRE TALES
This dominoes-based roleplaying game faithfully emulates the stories written by H.P. Lovecraft.

SLASHER FLICK: The Director's Cut
This roleplaying game recreates the tropes and conventions of the "psycho killer" films we've all come to know and love.

STORIES FROM THE GRAVE
Anthology horror is the focus of this roleplaying game, from the 1950s horror comics to spine-tingling TV shows.

Urban Manhunt match report on Skirmish Wargames

10/2/2019

The amazing folks at Skirmish Wargames have posted a really fun match report for Urban Manhunt. Cherck out their website here.

First Look at Urban Manhunt on "Beaufort Tabletop Gaming" YouTube Channel

9/20/2019

The folks over on the Beaufort Tabletop Gaming channel on YouTube posted a First Look at Urban Manhunt, so check it out. And don't forget to hit the Like and Subscribe buttons to show them support, as they tend to support independent game companies such as Spectrum Games. Let's give some of the love back, okay? Channels such as this and the Battlehammer help keep our doors open.

[Urban Manhunt] Huge Core Rulebook Sale!

9/19/2019

Click the image to get in on the savings!

[Urban Manhunt] Overview of the Campaign System

8/10/2019

We wanted to give you a peek at how the campaign system for Urban Manhunt will work.

About The Campaign System
One-off games of Urban Manhunt are a blast. But each game is completely on its own island with no ramifications for the games that follow. For those looking for a more immersive experience wherein you play out the career of your hunters, we offer you the campaign system.

In the campaign system, you take on the role of a manager on the indie circuit. That’s right—a manager. You will acquire a stable of hunters and guide them to the pros and onward from there to fame and fortune. Hopefully, one of them will one day make it to the Great Hunt and emerge a champion! Or maybe they’ll fall flat on their proverbial faces. Such uncertainties make campaign games enthralling.

The campaign rules work best if you have at least four players, though you can get by with as few as two.

The Three Stages
There are three stages to the campaign system:

Stage One: Preparation
Before the campaign begins, you and the other players must sit down and work out some details.

The first part of this involves creating game stats for each player’s manager. Like hunters, managers have Attributes (Negotiation, Connections, Training and Marketing), Special Rules and Momentum Options. As a beginning manager, the stats will be modest at this point, but they will improve over time as you get more experience under your belt.

Next up, you and the other players will have to create a pool of hunters. By default, hunters are created randomly, though there is an optional system for creating them in a similar fashion to how they are created in the standard game.

With the hunter pool created, you and the other players are ready to start drafting them into your stables. This means negotiating with the hunters you want and trying to outbid other players for their services.

Once each player has three hunters in their respective stables, you’re ready to move on to Stage Two.

Stage Two: The Indie Circuit
During this stage, the hunters will play a series of matches against each other in an attempt to make money, improve their abilities and attract the attention of the NUML. You will keep track of each hunter’s individual scores from their matches, as well as their combined totals. At the end of the season, the highest-scoring hunter of each stable will be accepted into the NUML… but there’s one final match between those hunters. How well the hunters do in this match will determine the perks they receive going into the big leagues.

Between each of the indie matches, managers will potentially have a random event affect them. Perhaps a nasty rumor causes them some trouble, one of their hunters hurts their ankle while working out, a respected coach offers to help train their hunters, a bit of extra cash comes their way or a gear manufacturer offers a great deal on a new weapon.

Furthermore, each manager and hunter will be allowed to engage in a “Between Match Activity”. Managers might try to gain a sponsor, negotiate for more money, make connections, or even sabotage other managers or hunters. Meanwhile, hunters might hit the gym, pass out flyers for their next match, spend time partying or do an autograph signing.

Stage Three: The NUML
Upon reaching the NUML, the hunters will receive upgrades to their stats and gear before embarking on their pro careers. The competition here is a bit stiffer at this point and the iconic hunters are thrown into the mix.

The overall play structure remains the same as in the indie circuit for the most part. That is, the hunters play a match, engage in activities and then play another match… and so on. New options will be available to reflect that they are no longer small-time hunters playing for peanuts.

Later in the season, though, things start to diverge from what the managers and hunters have experienced thus far in their careers. If the players’ hunters scored high enough during the season, they will find themselves in the hunt-offs (a series of four 1-on-1 matches), in which the four winners take part in the biggest match of the year: the Great Hunt! The hunter who wins it is the champion for that season. It’s entirely possible that only some or even none of the players’ hunters make it to the hunt-offs… and that’s okay. There’s always next season!

Speaking of the next season, you can keep going in Stage Three as long as you and your players wish, playing out multiple seasons.

[Urban Manhunt] 2049 Midseason Report from The Dirtsheet

7/23/2019

Everyone's favorite "off the grid" independently published fanzine lets fans know how the 2049 is shaping up. Download the free PDF here and stay abreast of what's happening in the sport we all know and love!

People Playing Spectrum Games!

7/23/2019

Recently, our games have been played on two different YouTube channels.

The folks at The Battlehammer played a refresher game of Urban Manhunt, using iconic hunters. Armed with firsthand experience with the game, they published another video in which they create their own hunters. Those two hunters will be featured in yet another video soon.

Meanwhile over on the Babies with Knives YouTube channel, our own Norbert Franz teaches the hosts about character creation in Capes, Cowls & Villains Foul. This is followed up by a video in which CC&VF author, Barak Blackburn, runs the first installment of a CC&VF game for them.

Christmas in July!

7/19/2019

All Spectrum Games products are included in DriveThruRPG's annual "Christmas in July" Sale. Get a 25% discount today! Game lines include:

• Urban Manhunt: the Miniatures Game
• Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3
• On the Air
• Retrostar
• Slasher Flick
• Capes, Cowls & Villains Foul
• Stories from the Grave
• The Big Crime
• Macabre Tales

Check it out here!

Biff! Bam! Kapow!

7/4/2019

BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! Is the campy 1960s superhero television show RPG… and it’s coming soon from Spectrum Games.

Get ready to enter a world in which the heroes hit so hard, sound effect words suddenly appear in the air... a world in which your heroes will fight their way through the henchmen of zany, over-the-top theme villains and eventually find themselves caught in elaborate death traps while the narrator ponders their fate!

Every aspect of the genre will be faithfully emulated in BIFF! BAM! KAPOW!, from rewarding heroes for finding preposterous solutions to problems to having a limited budget to work with when crafting each episode’s story. No stone has been left unturned.

The game emphasizes minimal prep time and fast-playing mechanics that allow you to wrap up fight scenes is mere minutes. Heroes and villains can be created quickly, despite having unlimited options at your disposal.

You’ll find yourself immersed in “The Hoot Owl”, the TV-series-that-never-was, complete with a backstory, episode details, and a collection of heroes, allies and foes. It offers you and your group an easy way to jump right into the Dutch angled action! And if you would rather go the DIY route, there’s plenty of support for creating your own series!

BIFF! BAM! KAPOW! Will be available as a PDF and as a physical digest-sized book. The release date is TBD.

The Urban Manhunt Difference

6/20/2019