Updates

If you're just finding this or are just checking up after a while, here's the latest info:

The game did not crowdfund successfully, but it's getting made anyway. Version 0.9 will be available on Itch.io from January 10th 2026 until it raises enough money to pay for copy editing, sensitivity reading, and initial print run costs. The 1.0 version WILL NOT require a separate purchase; it will just be an update to the early access. The exact plan for physical copies is TBD.

Get it here:
https://spellbookgaming.itch.io/bite-the-hand

Well, this is not the message I wanted to be typing today, but here we are. It looks like we aren't going to make the funding goal for Bite the Hand. To all those who did pledge, and especially to those who went above and beyond to help me do promotion, you have my deepest thanks for believing in my little game! And don’t worry, BackerKit doesn't charge anyone’s cards for failed campaigns, so you’re keeping your money. I’m still gathering my bearings after this crazy month, but I’m sure you all have the question, “what now?”

SHORT ANSWER: The game is still going to get made, just with different art and likely a different release date with digital coming first in early 2026. Follow us on any of the below platforms to keep up with the game:

Discord: https://discord.gg/m73w9Fbhfa 

Itch: https://spellbookgaming.itch.io/ 

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/spellbookgaming.bsky.social 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_uRH2ssgVQ2cCxthcTETsw

EDIT: Get the game on Itch: https://spellbookgaming.itch.io/bite-the-hand

I’m still working out the finer details, but crucially, the game will still definitely get made. In all the ways that really matter, the game already is made, it just needed art and editing. I’ll still get it to you soon, it’s just going to look a little different than I had imagined. 

First, a moment for the other members of the team, who are really the ones who will be impacted by this. All of the money that was supposed to have been gathered by this campaign was going to go to them, so if any game developers are reading out there and are looking for an artist, a copy editor, or a sensitivity reader, I cannot recommend them enough, and I know they’re free for work in the coming months. Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to work with them another time, but for now, they’re all yours.

Manuel Lavalle, artist: https://unamart.com/ 

Jordan Boschman, editor and game developer: https://www.atypicalfaux.com/ 

Laura Briskin-Limehouse, editor and sensitivity reader: https://www.laurabwrites.com/ 

Zach Hazard Vaupen, alternate cover artist: https://emo-sludge.com/ 

So, the game. As I said the dust is still settling so I don’t have all of the details worked out just yet, but I am still going to get it out there. My current loose plan is to spend some time reformatting a few things through December, and then have a digital version out for public release in early 2026, probably January. This would be a V0.9 version with all of the intended updates, just minus the professional copy editing and such. I’d put it up on Itch for $10, which would be a cheaper “early access” price that’ll go up by a few bucks when we hit v1.0. During this time, you in the community would have a fully playable version of the game to enjoy, with all the bells and whistles other than a physical copy. Once it generates enough money for me to hire Jordan and Laura (or some other editors if they’re super busy), I’ll have them do their work, and then prepare a physical version for release. The V1.0 will just be an update to the v0.9, so there’d be no need for a second purchase upon release, and I’ll see if I can do discount codes for physical copies as a thanks for early buyers (though no promises there). For my game dev friends who know me personally, feel free to offer tips, but I’m feeling okay about this plan.

What about art? Unfortunately, that’s the biggest expense. It makes sense, it’s hard work, and you definitely get what you pay for if you cheap out on it. I very likely won’t be able to afford Manuel’s time, so again, if you’re reading this and you have a thing you need illustrated, please hire him. 

Let’s not bury the lede: I still won’t use AI. AI is stupid, and if you use it for creative tasks you’re stupid. I’m most likely going to create the illustrations myself in much the same way that I did for Proxy Error, by modifying real stock photos with good old fashioned image editing techniques, and possibly a fun piece of software called Dither Boy. I don’t think it’ll be as good as what Manuel would’ve made for us, but I’m gonna take my time with it and do my best to deliver you something stylish and cool. I will most likely also use the “additional content” from the $9000 stretch goal to fill in a few spots I had planned to have full page art, so that helps too.

Why not just try crowdfunding again in the spring or something? Well, that might work, but to be perfectly honest with you all, I hated doing this. This was not fun. Running a crowdfunding campaign without the benefit of the following of an established IP is extremely stressful. Plus, I don't think I could handle the hypothetical embarrassment of failing twice. Even if we had met our goal, I don’t think I’d be doing this again for any future projects (unless the YouTube channel really pops off someday, or it’s a collaboration with another designer/company). The entire culture of crowdfunding seems alien and unhealthy to me, but I suppose that’s a longer discussion for another time, I’m rambling.

But, ultimately, this is better for you. The game will be available (at least digitally), much sooner than it would have been, so you can get started playing sooner. I’ll be quiet through December with the holidays, but you’ll hear from me again soon. Like I said at the top, follow Spellbook Gaming on all platforms so you don’t miss it when V0.9 becomes available.


On a more personal note, if you’ve followed me on YouTube for a while, you might have heard me mention that I’ve been unemployed off and on for nearly three years now. It’s been rough at times, but it is probably why I had time to write a whole game. Well, I just found out literally yesterday that I’ve been hired for a real full time job! It’s a very bittersweet moment with it coinciding with the failure of this crowdfunding campaign, quite the emotional rollercoaster to say the least, but this does mean some of my own money can contribute to making this game a reality too. Plus, it gives me something to be happy about despite the outcome here.

It’s a bumpy road, but it’s going vaguely in the right direction still, and I thank you for walking it with me,

-Alex Vigna

P.S. – We’re doing an actual play of Mythic Bastionland starting in January, watch it maybe:

https://youtu.be/QBGTE5n3Uwg 

It’s the final deep dive! There’s about five days left to fund, and it’s looking tight, so please help me out in my final-hours push over the course of the next few days! The campaign closes at 9:00 PM EST on Wednesday December 3rd.

In the meantime, the deep dive. I had whined several times that the last poll was tied, and while several of you did indeed add more votes to the poll, you annoyingly kept it tied lol. So, I am forced to choose between Combat and The One-Shot Module, and I choose the one-shot, because frankly it’s more interesting. 

Statistically, if you’re reading these, then you’ve played a TTRPG before, and probably Mothership. In short, it’s fast, deadly, OSR-adjacent combat. It’s good, it’s deeper than that, but more interesting than the rules of combat are the scenarios in which combat happens, one of which is the one-shot module that’ll appear in the back of the core rulebook, Malpractice. Take a peek, and then we’ll talk more.

For the sake of any players reading this, I’ve gone ahead and censored some of the information that only Wardens should know going in. There’s also a second page that lists out all the major NPCs, and describes their motives and behaviors. That page also has nicer looking version of this map, again with some info removed for players:

So, what’s the deal here? Basically, I wanted to satisfy a few points to make this the right kind of module to include in the book:

Let’s explore those points, starting with how to write small and get big results. For players of Mothership, this is nothing strange. That game is famous for its many one-shot modules that fit into a simple tri-fold pamphlet, so I figured condensing things down to a single spread in a zine shouldn’t be terribly difficult. Still, it’s easier said than done. I wrote it initially in a google doc, and then when I pasted it into InDesign it needed a lot of cutting to fit nicely. This is where genre tropes are very handy. I don’t need to spend a sentence describing the little details of the nightclub; I can just say “a nightclub” and because 99.99% of people who play this game will already be fans of other cyberpunk properties, they have a mental image of the inside of the club. It’ll be a slightly different image for everyone, but that’s part of the fun of TTRPGs.

On the second point, I wanted to make this an extremely open-ended module. In theory, this will be a lot of people’s first impression of the game, and if there were no use for a specific ability (say hacking or stealth), that would feel bad for players who picked certain options. So, the module presents the players with a variety of obstacles, and doesn’t give DMs single concrete solutions. The core question of “how do we get the target off of the balcony and out of the club” can be answered in many ways, and at the very least, you can certainly try just about anything.

Which brings me to my point about this being a sort of teaching tool. I want new players and new GMs to understand that this game is meant to encourage creativity. The mission is designed like a level from a Hitman video game, with a variety of NPCs moving around and doing their own thing until the players show up to interfere. The GM needs to understand all of the characters, and how they ought to react to the curveballs the players throw. With a confident and experienced group of gamers this little module could be knocked out in an hour, but the scenario is purposely short to allow newer players a chance to take their time and find their legs. I want people to take the lessons learned from this encounter and bring them forward as they play further campaigns with creative players and open-minded Wardens. Also, while BTH is a theater of the mind game, the included map will hopefully help wardens think about the way a space’s layout can make for interesting encounters.

On the thematic side, I think the writing speaks for itself on all those points. Not much more I can say in polite company. If you’d like to really get the full spoilers, you can watch/listen to an actual play of it here and here.

Happy to answer any further questions, but I think that about covers it! Time is running out here, so a reminder to share the game around the net, and consider upgrading your pledge to bump our numbers a bit.

The time really flew by, but the winner of the third deep dive poll is Stress & Panic! Remember to vote in the poll for the final deep dive at the bottom of this post, and if you’re getting this in your emails and haven’t pledged yet, come on over!

And now, Panic! In the TTRPG. For the Mothership players out there, a lot of this will be familiar, so bear with me while I explain it to the new folks, and stick around to spot the differences.

Much like sanity in Call of Cthulhu or humanity in Cyberpunk RED, the Panic Engine uses something called Stress. Rather than counting down from some sort of “normal” mental state, Stress counts up. Stress builds. Personally, I love this because it feels more accurate to real life. During my most stressful times, it definitely felt more like something building up and getting ready to burst, rather than some part of me reducing away from some hypothetical “normal”. But I digress.

Panic Engine PCs gain a point of Stress whenever something really bad happens to them, usually as a result of a failed die roll or encountering something traumatic out in the world. In Bite the Hand specifically, PCs gain 1 Stress each time they critically fail any roll, any time they fail a Mind save (which if you’ve played Mothership is basically Fear and Sanity rolled into one), and as the result of a few specific effects. If folks feel like that’s not stressful enough, then the rulebook does offer a house rule to give it out more often.

So that’s how you gain Stress, but what does it actually do? It’s just sitting there, piling up, looming but not doing anything. What could possibly go wrong if I walk around with 17 Stress? Am I still talking about games?

Stress results in actual harm to your PC in two main ways:

What’s Panic? Panic happens any time your character rolls a critical failure on a check, and occasionally in other extremely upsetting situations at a GM’s discretion. When this happens, you roll a d20, and then consult the Panic table to find out what your character’s fracturing mental state has resulted in. If the number on your d20 is higher than your current Stress, then the effect doesn’t happen. Thus, keeping your character’s stress low is a good way to avoid the worst possible effects of Panic, which can get you killed. 

This part works pretty much the same as in Mothership, but Bite the Hand comes with a new table of effects with more cyberpunk flavor! I’ll let you preview the first 10 here, and we’ll save the worst ones for release. (The beta has somewhat similar effects, if you want to get a rough idea.)

Of course, you can totally just get rid of most of your Stress by resting a few times, so it’s not really a big deal right? There’s no way I’m gonna build up 10 or 20 Stress just from rare crit fails between two rests right? Well, not exactly.

As was mentioned in the first deep dive, each new cybernetic you install adds to your character’s minimum Stress. Since cybernetics are mandatory, there’s an absolute floor of 2 minimum Stress, and that number is only going to go up as your characters face tougher challenges and purchase upgrades to face them. A few new robot body parts later, and you’re walking around with like 8 minimum Stress, now four times as likely to Panic.

If you’re a Mothership player and just want the TL;DR of how it’s different, here’s that:

And I think that about sums it all up! As always, hit me with questions in the comments, and vote in the attached poll for the final topic! We’re just under two weeks out from the end of the campaign, so bother your friends to come help us if you haven’t already, and have a good day.

While not as much of a landslide as the first poll, I'm calling the second deep dive vote early as well! Scroll down to the bottom of this post to vote on the next topic. If you're reading this in your email inbox and you haven't backed the game yet, we're a little over halfway funded and could really use your help, so come on over!

So, hacking is the winner, let’s talk about it. This dive admittedly won’t be quite as deep on the mechanical side. It’s more vibes, but they’re cool hacker-y vibes. Here’s the entire set of rules for hacking in the most up to date version of the book:

As you can see, it’s not the longest block of hacking rules in the biz by a longshot. You just kind of do whatever you want with it, but that’s entirely by design, and not at all unprecedented in TTRPG design. It might seem like a little bit of a cop out at a glance, but it works very well at the table. Let’s explore it.

In non-futuristic genres, this style of mechanic would be called “soft magic”. To explain that, we first have to know what “hard magic” systems are. This is the type of magic that many of you will be familiar with from systems like D&D or Pathfinder, where there’s a big list of very specific spells. They do exactly what they say they do in their paragraph-long descriptions, and leave only a little bit of room for creative uses. This is fine for what those games are, but they can get to be a lot to keep track of, and many players can be put off by the sheer volume of text. We all know a traditional fantasy player who never plays a spellcaster because of the reading homework it’d require.

Instead of this approach, many systems opt for “soft magic”, where characters don’t know any specific spells, but simply state “I would like to use magic to solve this problem”. There is typically a list of example effects, but those aren’t usually the only things you can do, and creativity is encouraged. There is then sometimes a list of consequences for failure, though other times “you fail and waste your turn/time” is enough. Typically there is also a specific limit placed on direct damage amounts, but not usually on other types of harm. The open nature of this style does mean that your mileage as a mage player may vary depending on the judgement of your GM, but that still happens even in games with dense rulebooks.

Anyway, why am I yapping about magic in this post about a sci-fi game? Well, in the wise words of Arthur C. Clarke, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Thus, when designing advanced fictional technology for a game, the overall mechanics design process is pretty much the same as designing spells. The only other TTRPGs I’ve played where hacking was front-and-center were Cyberpunk RED and Lancer. I knew I didn’t want to pull from their hacking rules for BTH, since they’re so long they’d be over half of our little zine rulebook. Knowing I needed something smaller, I looked to the plethora of other fantasy games using softer magic systems, and settled on a version of that approach. 

Ultimately, I want you to be able to do most of the things that V can do in Cyberpunk 2077, without requiring players to have a list of all of those things memorized, or requiring any specific genre knowledge. I also didn’t want hackers to only fall into the “guy in the chair” archetype, so I limited the range of standard hacking to about 30 meters, forcing them to actually get out there with the rest of the party. The job of the chair jockey is better served by NPCs when the plot demands it.

The fantasy of the Technician class is very similar to that of a wizard or sorcerer. Anyone can pick up a hackdeck (magic wand) and start uploading viruses (casting spells), but Technicians do it best. To balance how useful this is, the actual ability of hacking to directly kill enemies is pretty weak at just 1d5 damage. It has its time and place, able to bypass armor and do double damage to most robots, but it’s still worse than most guns. Additionally, GMs have the ability to throw in a few completely analog challenges, such as non-electronic locks on doors, to prevent hacking being the answer to every problem. The advantage and disadvantage system then gives the warden the simple tool that they need to simulate easy/hard firewalls by just dialing the difficulty up and down. Like any other skill in Panic Engine games, the warden should only call for rolls in situations where failure would be interesting.

As a game developer, going for the soft magic approach requires a lot of trust in your audience. When you cast fireball in D&D, there’s rarely a discussion; everything in the circle takes a bunch of damage and we move on. With BTH’s hacking, there’s a bit of negotiation that can occur. A player might ask, “can I hack all the guards at once and blind them?”, and it’s up to the warden to tone down those big requests without just crushing the suggestion altogether. A good warden might say this player could blind one guard to create an opening, spend a few minutes crafting a virus that can blind all of the guards but only for one round, or hack something else in the room to create a more mundane distraction. A good player will accept these compromises as reasonable suggestions that keep their power in line with the non-hacker PCs. It might sound like a big ask, but if you’ve got a rad group of friends, the creativity and badassery you’ll come up with will be more memorable than any list of pre-built spells anyone could possibly write.

And that’s hacking! Ask me questions in the comments, vote in the poll below for the next deep dive, and keep boosting the game on social media and sharing with your friends so we can get funded!