The Sisters of the Dawn (SotD) is an easy-to-play, rules-light, story-driven framework where you and your friends play as a coven of witches - powerful spellcasters who are trying to save the world from a group of demon-worshipping cultists. These cultists are trying to open portals to a neighboring dimension to bring demonic entities to our world - and you've got to stop them.

Based on systems like GURPS-lite, RISUS, and Genesys, the focus with this game is on worldbuilding, group storytelling, and badass witches throwing fireballs (or acid balls, or ice spikes, or lasers, etc.) at demons, not rummaging through rulebooks or measuring line of sight with paper rulers.

I also know how hard it is to navigate long-term campaigns, so the three included adventures in the GM handbook are all designed to be one-shots played in a session each, with plenty of backbone for an extended campaign if the coven sees fit.

This BackerKit campaign will bring the base game to life, including: a player's guide, a GM's handbook, and a player sheet notepad, all sized at 5.5x8.5".

The only thing you'd need to have on your own is a handful of D6 (six-sided die), ideally with 5 for each player and the GM, but you can get by with even a single set. There miiiiight be a dice add-on later as well, so keep your eyes peeled on updates :D

EARLY BIRD - Back within the first 48 hours and get a free digital illustration pack of witch profiles you can use with your character sheets. 

RETURNING BACKERS - Hi friends! If you're back again, you'll get free Sister of the Dawn sigil stickers added to your order! 

The world of SotD is much like our own - after all, if magic users really walked amongst us, would we actually know about them if we weren't practitioners ourselves?

The Sisters of the Dawn are an ancient, global coven of witches. These women have been imbued with magical power, in exchange for a life-long pact to protect the Earth from the demonic entities, who live in a dimensional plane called the Abyssal Void. Run by seven demonic entities, the Abyssal Void overlaps our own world spatially, but only by opening extra-dimensional portals can beings of either dimension interact. 

The Order of the Dark Wheel, a demon-worshipping doomsday cult, has been trying to open portals to the Abyssal Void, and runs directly in opposition to the witches, summoning demons and literally raising Hell.

Oh, and I'd be remiss to forget to mention: EVERY WITCH GETS A FAMILIAR! 

That's right, not only do you have magic powers, but you also can have a talking cat. Or a talking bat. Or a talking spider. Or a talking whatever-animal-you-want (just make sure you have a backstory of how you're keeping it on the DL)! 

Besides the fun of throwing fireballs and fighting demons alongside your talking familiar, SotD has three distinct epochs, or time periods, in which your adventures can be set: Historical, Contemporary, and Post-Fall. The Game Master's (GM's) Handbook will include three adventures - one in each epoch. 

The Historical adventure is set in 1950's Red Hook, Brooklyn. Navigate patriarchy and mob rule as you investigate cult activity in the gangster-protected docks.

The Contemporary adventure is set in today's timeline, where cultists are infiltrating protests to try and bring down authoritarian rule. Identify, chase out, and crush agitators - as well as the malevolent entities commanding them.

The Post-Fall adventure is set in Jakarta, as one of the few remaining cities left standing. Protected by your coven, you'll have to protect the population and defeat an onslaught of vampiric demons, led by an ancient evil claiming to be a god. 

Of course, the GM Handbook has everything a GM needs to build adventures in any epoch. GMs are highly encouraged to build upon the world - if you'd like to publish your work, please read more on the license here. 

Gameplay is mainly collaborative, turn-based storytelling, facilitated by your Game Master (aka GM, likely the person organizing the game.) 

Your character is mostly free to act, say, and do what you want, with the main constraint being the epoch (aka timeline) that your adventure is based in.

Regardless of the epoch, you’ll likely be part of a Coven Strike Team - an elite group of seasoned witches who are seasoned combatants in the war against the demonic forces of the Order of the Dark Wheel. Your GM will likely pit your team against opponents both human and demon, and you’ll have to come up with ways to stop them - likely using magic.

Depending on the situation, you might need to get creative with how you dispatch your enemies. A corrupt politician on national news? Maybe not the best target for a fireball. A demon rampaging in an isolated area, however? Now's the time to start hurling ice storms, laser beams, and fireballs to your heart's content. 

In order to determine the success or failure of your use of magic, you may be asked by the GM to roll a number of six-sided dice (D6). You’ll usually want to roll as many as possible - the more die you roll, the higher the probability of success. 

How many dice you roll depends on the magical aspect(s) of your spell, and the complexity of the spell itself. Conjuring an ice spear is pretty simple, while manifesting a lightning storm over an entire town is going to be a bit more difficult. 

When you take damage, you'll have to decide between losing dice on future spell casting attempts, or taking a wound. Losing a die means that in spell battles you're less likely to win - but each wound is a gamble that increases the chance that a critical attack could end your character's life permanently. 

I know how hard it can be to maintain a consistent party, and how D&D campaigns can go on for years. I didn't want that to be the case here, so the adventures in the GM Handbook are meant for one to two play sessions, and combat usually goes much quicker, making this perfect for people new to TTRPGs, and those of us with lives that make it hard to get everyone together on a consistent basis. 

That said, you are highly encouraged to create (and even publish) your own adventures for the Sisters of the Dawn, just check out the terms here. To that end, if you'd like a forever campaign, or your coven wants more role-play and less combat, or if you just need a never-ending horde of demons, we've got some guides and tips in the GM handbook regarding building your own adventures in the world. 

There are both digital and print tiers of the game, since I want SotD to be accessible for first-time GMs and players.

The IRL/print edition bundle will get you a copy of the GM's Handbook as well as THREE copies of the Player's Guide to lend/gift to your players. These, along with the pad of character sheets, have been sized to half-letter size (5.5" x 8.5") so everything can easily be fit into a large purse/pocket/bag for transport to game night. 

There's also a combo bundle where you get both the PDFs and the IRL pack. If you need extra copies of the Player's Guide, there's the Battle Ready Bundle, where you'll get the PDFs and print versions, two extra copies of the Player's Guide, a Character Sheet Pad, and a copy of ALL unlocked stretch goals. 

Finally, you can also pledge to have a single play session GM'd by me over Zoom, where you'll get to play an adventure customized to your coven!

Regarding Add-Ons, pledge at any level and add on extra copies of the Player's Guide, the Character Sheet Pad, enamel pins, 11x17" art prints of the cover illustrations, or life coaching sessions with the All-Seeing Oracle.

We've got stretch goals! Once we hit our main goal, we can produce copies of the base game, but beyond that there's more cool stuff we can unlock by leveling up our funding! 

Remember, if you back at the Battle-Ready tier or higher, you'll get all unlocked stretch goals! 

Here's the estimated timeline of the campaign.

February 2 - Campaign launches
February 27 - Campaign closes + cards are charged
March 16 - Surveys go out
April 6 - Surveys close + production begins
May - Rewards ship* 

*If we get close to the hidden stretch goals, there are some things that may push production time longer, but we'll get to that when we get to that..

The Sisters of the Dawn is a game designed and illustrated by Rick Kitagawa (he/him/bog witch). Rick is the lead cultist of The Evil Pin Club,  which is a somewhat misleading name for a store that has enamel pins, short horror fiction, soft vinyl toys, and other monster-focused merch.

Rick is an author, visual artist, and game designer that is often inspired by monsters, horror films, and especially feminist characters and themes in all of the above.

He has launched seven successful enamel pin campaigns before, a soft vinyl toy campaign, and a tabletop card game, so he's brings years of product management knowledge, overseas manufacturing experience, and love of the macabre to this campaign.

When not in full-monster mode, Rick also coaches artists, executives, and leaders (including Fortune-50 executives), so he makes a pretty good Attendant for the All-Seeing Oracle.

You can find all of his social and art-related links here. Thanks!

The game has been playtested and is in the editing, layout, and illustration phase. I've also learned from Cult Crafter, and all the core rewards are being printed domestically from printers I trust, so no need to worry about tariffs or international shipping slowdowns. I'm also a one-human art, writing, design, layout, production, marketing, and shipping team, so when the day job gets crazy, I can slow down on production - please be patient. 

Of course, enamel pins and [mystery stretch goal] would require overseas manufacturing -  while this would push out the timing of shipping rewards, it would be a delay and not a deal-breaker to production. 

Lastly, I'm an outspoken POC living in America, so while I'm a US citizen by birth, I'm at a higher chance of being kidnapped by state-sponsored thugs. Barring extraordinary circumstances like that, or my apartment burning down in a wildfire, you'll get your game.