Bite The Hand is a cyberpunk TTRPG built on Mothership's Panic Engine. The Core Rulebook contains all the information both players and game masters will need. It features a catalogue of cybernetics, weapons, NPCs, and all the rules you need to play.
Digital render of the book. Character illustration by Manuel "Unam" Lavalle. Graphic design by Alexander Vigna.
"A faster, angrier cyberpunk RPG that puts corporate overlords in the crosshairs."
—Dave Thaumavore
"I thoroughly enjoyed running it."
—Mark Della-Croce, Lore Link
"I got to rob a store, fire a railgun, and died from blowing up that railgun. Would recommend."
—Kamala Arroyo, Author, We Dig Giant Robots
"Character creation was fast and went very smoothly. We went from two players never having opened the book to being completely ready in about an hour."
—Bryon Kershaw, Spirits and Monsters of Old Seattle
"I was able to get a sneak peek of this early on, and loved it! I can’t wait to get this book in my hands and to the table."
"I love cyberpunk in principle, but have had several experiences that I did not enjoy specifically because it was overwhelming... With this, there's no question, it's pretty straightforward how to figure out your success. Love it."
Bite the Hand is a lightweight TTRPG for telling stories of rebellion and vengeance in gritty, dark, future cities, by using Mothership’s Panic Engine to bring a touch of horror to the cyberpunk genre. With over 40 types of cybernetics, over 50 items like weapons and armor, and several pages of GM tools, the Bite the Hand core rulebook contains everything you’ll need to experience tense cyberpunk action at your tables.
The city is harsh and unforgiving. This isn’t a power fantasy where armies of grunts are cut down with ease. No, it’s a brutal game where victories will be suspenseful, bloody, and not guaranteed.
Like Mothership and other Panic Engine games, Bite the Hand is a lightweight, theater-of-the-mind system. The core rulebook contains all the information both players and game masters will need. It features a big catalogue of cybernetics, weapons, NPCs, downtime mechanics, and all the rules and advice you need to play. There's even a simple one-shot included in the back of the book, ready to run!
Join us over on the Spellbook Gaming Community Discord while you wait for the game to be finished, and tell us about your characters, adventures, and ideas!
Three player classes: The sneaky Rogue, the tough Soldier, and the crafty Technician
38 unique types of cybernetics to modify your characters with
Over 50 weapons, armor types, vehicles, and other items to kick ass with
A full suite of rules for combat, wounds, downtime, stealth, hacking, a “wanted” system called Heat, and a modified version of the Stress and Panic systems from Mothership
Several pages of Warden (Game Master) advice and tools, including how to build a campaign, worldbuilding guidance, eight NPC stat templates, and tips for making engaging homebrew and solid house rules
A one-shot module featuring a mission to take down a CEO trying to defy nature and become immortal
So all in all, what's going to be in the final book? The 48-page zine will be jam-packed with:
4 player classes, including the new Turncoat, a former corporate employee who has turned on their old masters
A d100 table of signature styles to personalize your PCs
A total of 44 types of cybernetics, with an entirely rearranged upgrade tree
Dozens of items, weapons, armor types, and vehicles
A full suite of lightweight rules for stat checks and saves, stealth, social manipulation, hacking, environmental hazards, downtime, medical care, and of course high-intensity combat
A modified version of the Stress and Panic systems you know and love from Mothership, complete with a fully custom Panic table
A wanted system called Heat and debt mechanics that feed into each other
Several pages of Warden advice, helpful to both total newbies and Panic Engine veterans
Cyberpunk genre guidance, including worldbuilding advice and a list of inspirational media
A full page of house rules and homebrew advice to help you make Bite the Hand your perfect game
13 easily modifiable NPCs for Wardens to populate their worlds and challenge their players
An all-new one-shot module, featuring an open-ended encounter that's sure to play out differently for each party
A handy quick-reference “cheat sheet” for the most important rules on the back cover
Refreshed formatting, to improve the overall experience of reading the book
Around twenty original illustrations by the very talented Manuel “Unam” Lavalle!
Layout sample render, design and text not finalized.
All Bite the Hand PCs can be sorted into one of four classes. This is who you'll be playing as:
Rogue
Street urchins. Thieves. Assassins. Spies. Journalists. You’re a crafty sort who prefers to get things done in a somewhat indirect manner. When s*** does hit the fan, you attack with finesse, skill, and trickery rather than brute force and high firepower. Maybe you have a serious code and goals, or maybe you’re just trying to get your slice of the pie.
Base cybernetics: Sound Dampeners
Soldier
Army. Navy. Space Force. Mercenaries. Police. One way or another, you spent some time fighting someone else’s war. Maybe months, maybe years. They outfitted you with some nasty stuff to make you better at killing and worse at dying. Eventually your service ended, whether you retired, were discharged, or went AWOL. Now you’re fighting in the only war that matters to you: the class war.
Base cybernetics: Combat Implants
Technician
Scientists. Engineers. Machinists. Doctors. Hackers. Machines make the world go ‘round, and you know how all the gears fit together. The line between machine and human is blurred, and you know your way around both. When things need fixing, everyone looks to you. When things need to be broken, you know where their weak points are, in the material world and in cyberspace.
Base cybernetics: Integrated Hackdeck
Turncoat
Secretaries. Middle managers. Accountants. Recruiters. PR. You were all about the bottom line, until one day it no longer included you. Maybe you quit quietly, or maybe you’re a whistleblower. Now you’re unemployed, a pariah from the system you once upheld. You’re a good talker, and you can apply the skills you picked up in your past life of lies and manipulation to your new cause. You’ll show them who’s nonessential.
All amounts in USD. Shipping on physical items will be added in the pledge manager and is not included in the listed amounts below. Digital rewards will arrive sooner than physical ones. See the fine print further down.
$1 - Fan Tier
Back BTH at this tier if you don't want any direct rewards but still want to receive our development updates, or if you plan to upgrade your pledge later via the pledge manager. Entitles you to one (1) crisp high five should we ever meet.
$10 - Digital Tier
Back with at least $10 USD to receive a digital copy of the final version of BTH! It'll cost a few bucks more after the campaign, so this is a great deal!
$25 - Physical + Digital Tier
Back with at least $25 USD to receive both the physical and digital versions of the BTH book. The digital version will arrive as soon as it's ready, while the physical version will likely take a few more weeks to print and ship.
$50 - Deluxe Tier
Back with at least $50 USD to receive everything previously listed, PLUS a sticker and a bookmark featuring artwork from the Bite the Hand rulebook, PLUS a PDF of Proxy Error, a 50-page Mothership module by the same author so you have something to play while you wait!
$500 - Executive Producer Tier
Wow, that's a lot of money! Back at this level to receive everything in the Deluxe edition, PLUS four extra copies of the physical rulebook to share with your friends, PLUS your name in the credits. Additionally, backers at this level will be entitled to a custom one-shot for them and up to 4 friends (a max party size of 5) GMed by Alex Vigna, the author of the game! Limited to 3 backers. See Pledge Levels page for more information.
+$20 - Extra Physical Copy
You can add a second copy of the book to any physical order! Useful for international buyers trying to save on shipping, or for GMs who want a second copy to pass around the table to their players.
The $6,500 budget will be used to cover the costs of art, editing, printing, and other incidental expenses such as ISBN registration and mailing supplies. Any additional money beyond the final stretch goal will be used to fund future projects, to produce additional retail copies of Bite the Hand, for advertising and other incidental business expenses, and to keep the roof over my head.
$7,500 - Tips!
I'm already planning to give the artists and editors a great rate, but with this I can give them what they really deserve. Tipping culture is silly, but it's the world we live in, and I want to reward these very talented people. You receive nothing other than a warm fuzzy feeling.
$9,000 - Additional Content!
We'll make the BTH rulebook a little longer! To avoid the scope of this project creeping out of control, here's exactly what we plan on adding in the 4 additional pages this would create. No more, no less.
A d20 table of character connection questions that players can ask each other to flesh out the relationships within the party
A two-page example of play, with a bit more artwork of the scenario depicted in the example
One more page of full artwork (trust me, it'll be sick)
$11,000 - Limited Edition Cover Art!
The cover art of all the zines going to the Physical or higher tier backers will be replaced with an alternate full-page illustration by Zach Hazard Vaupen, whose work many of you will recognize from the Mothership core rulebooks, Another Bug Hunt, and Liminal Horror! Once printed, this version of the book will neverbe printed again, giving all of you lovely people extreme nerd cred for having the rarest version of the book. The PDF version will remain unchanged, and further reprintings will use the standard edition cover.
// ADDITI0NAL FILES ENCRYPT3D //
// UNL0CK ALL AVA1LABLE STRETCH GO4LS TO ACCE5S //
There will be a FREE 3 or 4 page PDF conversion guide made available on our website/Itch page at the same time that Bite the Hand itself becomes available to the public. With this, you'll be able to jump right into playing BTH as soon as it's out by just grabbing something from your pile of Mothership zines! Not every module will translate easily, but the ones where robots or humans are the villains should work pretty well. Plus, it could be fun to fight an alien monster as a party of cyborgs! In particular, a few of the modules from this year's Mothership Month will translate nicely, since they have some cyberpunk flavoring already.
I've attached a screenshot of the WIP's first page as a preview, but here's a list of the additional sections on the following pages:
Converting checks and saves
Converting NPC stat blocks
Converting player characters
Instructions to run android PCs (effectively a free extra player class)
Conversions for items
Reverse conversion tips for using BTH items/mechanics in Mothership.
Dave asks me some very deep questions about Bite the Hand, and about my thoughts on game design and the cyberpunk genre. I ramble on for probably too long.
A livestreamed custom one-shot where Alex gets to be a player for once, as his party of disgruntled employees attempts a heist and discovers a dark secret.
A playthrough of the one-shot from the back of the book that goes surprisingly smoothly, until it very suddenly doesn't. The dice giveth, and the dice taketh away.
Any additional news outlets, blogs, reviewers, or actual play producers who would like to cover/play Bite the Hand should reach out to [email protected].
Writing, Game Design, Layout, and whatever else needs doing: Alexander Vigna
Hi, hello! This is me, the guy writing all this. Please, call me Alex. You may already know me from my actual play series Roll for Distraction, over on the Spellbook Gaming channel, where we've played campaigns in several systems. I'm not great at autobiographies, but trust me when I say that I wrote a pretty damn good game, actually. If you don't believe me, you can scroll back up and check out the beta. No blind trust here. I'm just a guy who used to make D&D homebrews who really liked playing Mothership and Cyberpunk 2077 at the same time and had an idea.
Illustrator: Manuel “Unam” Lavalle
Manuel is an illustrator and concept artist with over 15 years of experience specializing in fantasy art, excited to break into sci-fi. Born in Argentina, he draws inspiration from his global perspective to create imaginative, boundary-pushing visuals that tell compelling stories. His past work includes illustration for books, tabletop games, video games, and series.
Editor: Jordan Boschman
A tabletop game editor and writer, Jordan is also the creator of the Mothership modules Fear of a Daily Planet, The Stone-Flesh Gift, and So You’ve Been Chump-Dumped, as well as several digital RPG releases under his imprint of ATypicalFaux. He has edited RPGs like Dragonbond, Dirtbags!, Deify, Eldritch Century, Don’t Die, and the upcoming Fomoria in addition to board games like World Order, the Hegemony expansions, Dragonbond: Lords of Vaala, Eternitium, and others.
Sensitivity Reader: Laura Briskin-Limehouse
Laura is a tabletop role-playing games and speculative fiction editor and writer. When not editing or writing, they play (and play-test) role-playing games on the Technical Difficulties Gaming Podcast, listen to podcasts, play Euro-style board games, and read books. Laura will minimize the book's potentially offensive language, especially with regard to the disability community since the game deals with topics of cybernetics/prosthetics and mental health.
Digital render of the book. Character illustration by Manuel "Unam" Lavalle. Graphic design by Alexander Vigna.
The updates to the book are very nearly complete as of this writing, so I don't anticipate any particular challenges or delays beyond those created by manufacturing and shipping times. The timeframes below represent an ideal schedule, but I will post updates if we run into any delays.
12/03/2025: Crowdfunding campaign closes
Digital copies of Proxy Error will also be distributed to $50+ backers within a week
February 2026: Art and editing are finished, print production begins
March 2026: Digital BTH copies are distributed to all $10+ backers, shipping of physical copies to $25+ backers begins
Late March or early April 2026: BTH becomes publicly available digitally and at retailers
Shipping & Fulfillment
Digital fulfillment will be handled on BackerKit with no additional fees, and digital items will be sent to backers shortly after they are finalized.
Physical fulfillment will be handled by myself. Any taxes or other such fees will be the responsibility of the backer in all cases except for US sales tax, which will be applied as required at the time of checkout. Shipping and handling will be charged post-campaign via BackerKit's Pledge Manager and will be weight and distance based. I will seek to keep costs reasonable while also ensuring packages are safely delivered with tracking.
United States
Current shipping & handling estimate: USPS Mail ~$8*
All other countries
Current shipping & handling estimate: USPS International Mail ~$10–$30*
Taxes and other such fees will be the responsibility of the backer! Please keep this in mind before pledging!
*All estimates are subject to change based on shipping rates far beyond my control. International shipping is particularly difficult to estimate in today's political climate. Shipping will be higher for Executive Producer backers, since there's multiple books.
Bookmarks and Stickers
The image of the bookmark on the Pledge Levels page is a placeholder. One side will feature the BTH logo on a yellow background (similar to the section header images above), and the other side will feature a piece of art from the final version of the book. It will be 6 inches long.
The image of the stickers on the Pledge Levels page and the banner at the top are technically placeholders, but the final versions will look about the same. One will feature a full-body version of the character from the book's cover, and will be approximately 4 - 4.5 inches long. The other will feature the BTH logo and be approximately 3-3.5 inches long. The exact shape and proportions of the white borders may be slightly different than pictured.
AI STATEMENT: Bite the Hand's art will be made by a real human artist, and its words will be written and edited but real human writers and editors. No generative AI, large language model, or similar technology was used or will be used in the creation of any part of any version of Bite the Hand. Art is made by and for humans.
This product is based on the Mothership® Sci-Fi Horror Role Playing Game, published by Tuesday Knight Games. MOTHERSHIP® and the Panic Engine are registered trademarks of Tuesday Knight Games. All rights reserved. For additional information, visit www.tuesdayknightgames.com or contact [email protected].
