The Beast Within is a multiplayer, narrative-focused tabletop roleplaying game where players play as humanoids with the ability to shift into were-beasts. Unleash your wrath upon your adversaries with dynamic abilities as a humanoid and as a beast. What will you choose: your humanity or the power of the beast within? 

Choose from a diverse collection of Humanoid and Beast Archetypes, each with its own unique abilities and skills. The Beast Within hosts 10 powerful Beast Archetype options! Play as a werewolf with the Canis archetype, a werebear with the Ursa archetype or even rare were-beasts like were-moles with the Talipds archetype! The game boasts both distinctive and eclectic character creation for your Therianthrope! 

A D-12 Dice System

The Beast Within utilizes the often overlooked die, the D-12 for its system. This D-12 dice system brings the potential for nail-biting, explosive combat, and increasing urgency and tempo for players with every action taken. The D-12 system offers a higher likelihood for critical success, failure, and the option to offer your players a devil’s bargain, to succeed for a price. 

Unleash Your Wrath!

Failure is not the end in The Beast Within. In fact, it is encouraged! Learn from your mistakes, and grow from that anger, disappointment and rage. Let that Wrath fuel your future endeavours. Whenever you fail, you gain Wrath, an expendable resource for players to use to gain narrative or mechanical boons. 

Your adversary has knocked you around too many times, channel that Wrath to see through their attacks and finally counterattack. A nemesis has fooled you with honey-soaked words for too long, but with your Wrath, you can finally catch a glimmer of weakness. Wrath is power…use it. 

Valiant Dorian | Otso SpiritBear (he/him) - Designer & Writer Valiant Dorian is a TTRPG AP Performer, GM, Writer and Twitch Variety Streamer. He is currently based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Valiant started playing TTRPGs in 2020 and joined the TTRPG Actual Play space in 2021, and since then he has fallen in love with TTRPGs and their capacity for resonant and captivating storytelling. He has written for Daylight Publications’ ‘Supers & Sorcery’ and produced his own homebrew content for D&D 5E. The Beast Within is his first ever TTRPG and is a love letter to every beautiful story of monsters and beasts he has cherished, growing up.

Max Daisy (he/they) - Designer & Artist Max is an illustrator, designer, and comics artist who resides in the Twin Cities, MN. Inspired by many formative books from his childhood, he aspires to create rich (and cool-looking!) characters and magical worlds through his work. Favorite subject matters include creative fantasy worldbuilding, monsters and animal people, and explorations of the many forms of queerness. Beast Within is one of a few games he has worked on and he is thrilled to be an artist on this project.

Griffin Nichols | BaronBoar (he/they) - Artist Griffin Nichols is a freelance illustrator and writer of the wildest xenofiction. Based in Aberdeen, Scotland, his highland homeland has been rich with inspiration for artwork and comics focusing on all breeds of animals and creatures. Griffin started his TTRPG journey in 2016 and has been obsessed with the monsters found within ever since. He has previously worked with BHP Press as an artist on the Dungeons on a Dime book, ‘In The Red’.

Call of the Wild! ($2)

Your name will appear in the credits section of The Beast Within! We are so grateful for your support!

Includes:

• Your name in the credits

Lend a Paw! ($10)

Pay it forward! You can add a community copy to your order using this reward. When you purchase a community copy, one PDF of the game is made available for someone who is not able to support the project monetarily. Community Copies will be available via Itch when the game goes live.

• Add on purchase for community copies

The Awakened Beast! ($15)

You will receive a downloadable PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook and your name in the credits!

Includes:

• PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook
• Name in Credits

The Beasts Unleashed! ($25)

You will receive a downloadable PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook, your name in the credits and a pack of pre-generated character sheets.

Includes:

• PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook
• Name in Credits
• Pack of pre-generated character sheets

The Night’s Howl ($50)

You will receive a downloadable PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook, your name in the credits and a pack of pre-generated character sheets and a special The Beast Within Trading Card with special artwork by Griffin Nichols. 

Includes:

• PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook 
• Name in Credits
• Pack of pre-generated character sheets
• The Beast Within Trading Card digital artwork

The Dark Horse ($100)

You will receive a downloadable PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook, your name in the credits, a pack of pre-generated character sheets, a special The Beast Within Trading Card with special artwork by Griffin Nichols, a fully written adventure and a small NPC handbook

Includes:

• PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook
• Name in Credits
• Pack of pre-generated character sheets
• The Beast Within Trading Card digital artwork
• The Beast Within NPC handbook
• A fully written adventure

The Lion’s Share ($150)

You will receive a downloadable PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook, your name in the credits, a pack of pre-generated character sheets, a special The Beast Within Trading Card with special artwork by Griffin Nichols, a small NPC handbook, a fully written adventure, and a small handbook of Adversary statblocks. 

Includes:

• PDF of The Beast Within Rulebook 
• Name in Credits
• Pack of pre-generated character sheets 
• The Beast Within Trading Card digital artwork
• The Beast Within NPC handbook
• A fully written adventure 
• The Beast Within Adversary Statblock handbooks  

The Uncaged Aeon ($200)

For your incredible generosity, Valiant Dorian will GM a one-shot for you and any 4 other party members! You will also receive PDF rulebooks for each member of your party! 

Includes:

• 5 PDFs of The Beast Within Rulebook (1 for each player)
• Name in Credits
• 5 packs of pre-generated character sheets (1 pack for each player)
• 5 The Beast Within Trading Cards digital artwork (1 card for each player)
• 5 The Beast Within NPC handbooks (1 NPC Handbook for each player)
• 5 fully written adventures (1 adventure for each player)
• 5 The Beast Within Adversary Statblock handbooks (1 Adversary Stablock handbook for each player)

 Subscriber Stretch Goals

Financial Stretch Goals

Design - $350

Layout - $150

Editing - $300

Art - $1000

Fees - $200

These are the platform fees for using Crowdfundr. You can choose to include the fee with your pledge, or this part of the budget will cover it. Any amount not used to cover fees goes right back into developing The Beast Within!

February to March

Fundraising! We’re Here! 

April to June 

Design and Production of The Beast Within. Included in this timeline are the requisite stages of playtesting to ensure a high quality playable game when it arrives in your hands!

June to July

Editing and any final amendments to the core game will be happening in this time period. 

August

Launch of "The State of The Beast Within" Livestream programming and the release of Designer Q&A Livestream

December

Target fulfilment and launch date for The Beast Within.

The Beast Within would not be possible without your enthusiasm, love, support and help. Every contribution towards this campaign helps improve The Beast Within's quality. If you're not able to support this project financially, please consider sharing it!

I also want to give a huge thank you to those who helped make this campaign possible: The Huetopia Discord server, the entire Transplanar cast, my wonderful TTRPG mutuals and most importantly Max and Griffin who are part of my team for standing with me and supporting my dreams!

It is important to acknowledge that projects such as these do have risks and challenges. The biggest risk or challenge is a delay in fulfilment, especially if playtesting reveals the need for substantial improvements to the game system. We are a small team but we will be working diligently to make sure all fulfilment happens in a timely and efficient manner and communicate all updates with transparency and integrity.