You are a woodsman, a member of an ancient order tasked with protecting your village from the great and terrible monsters that stalk through this world. Taken into your training by your parents as a child, you’re the latest in a line of woodsmen spanning back to the dawn of the sect.
But unlike your storied predecessors, you failed.
You lowered your guard, broke your vigilance, and left your mother and father to pay for your mistakes at the cruel hands of a beast.
Of The Beast.
You vowed—to your sisters and brothers in the order, to the memory of your parents, to any of the gods willing to listen that you would track The Beast to the edge of the world to see it put to soil. That you would not stop until you had pulled the hateful spark of life from its chest and watched it dim in your hands.
No Mercy For Monsters is a solo GM-less journaling game about revenge, obsession, and the toxic co-dependency shared between rivals. It is a game where you will struggle under the weight of legacy, expectation, guilt, and past failures.
You take on the role of a woodsman, one who has failed the people depending on you and can only see the possibility of your absolution in the death of The Beast—an enemy that your existence has become defined by.
You live in a liminal space you call The Hunt, where only you and The Beast reside. You have seen and done terrible things to find them. Would gladly do more to draw them close enough to touch. You know that you will most likely fail, that you’ll be killed or corrupted before your vengeance can be secured.
This only ends with The Beast’s death or yours. You do not know which you fear more.
If you'd like to see/hear No Mercy For Monsters in action, check out the links below.
Rage Kage Games
The incomparable Kage of Rage Kage games (@ragekagegames) sat down and played through No Mercy For Monsters live on her Twitch. You can see the recording below, or read the results of her woodsman's journal directly if you just want to see how she experienced her time in The Hunt.
The incredible Dillin Apelyan (@Superdillin) featured No Mercy For Monsters on an episode of One Shot! You can listen to it at the link below and hear a very different take on the sorts of stories you can sculpt for your woodsman's hunt.
The glorious Kat the Lore Mistress did a playthrough of No Mercy For Monsters during her Solo Spotlight on Twitch. The VOD is below, so check it out and head over to her Twitch page to see all of the other Solo Spotlights and ZiMo streams she's been tackling.
From start to finish, every word and piece of art in No Mercy For Monsters has been conceptualized and powered entirely by human creativity and grit.
No part of No Mercy For Monsters includes anything that was or could be produced by AI.
Unplaytested Presents | Writing and Design
Unplaytested Presents is the experimental and small-bite TTRPG publishing arm of Jess Pendley and Keith Pendley that they use to create very light but very flavorful TTRPG experiences. Outside of their work with Unplaytested Presents, Jess and Keith create worlds for the Cypher System and beyond through Underground Oracle Publishing.
South African-based artist Tasca Skelton officially began her freelancing career as a digital artist with Underground Oracle Publishing in 2022 but has been honing her skills in digital art for over a decade. In addition to her work done with Underground Oracle Publishing, Tasca has created pieces for the Drakerion Loremaster TCG, and was an illustrator for a children’s book titled Mwinza and the Valley of the Clay Pots’by Alice Mwaka Claasen. When she is not absorbed in her art, Tasca loves writing up epic medieval worlds, the occasional knitting, cat petting, and getting lost in fantasy novels.
Canadian writer, artist, and designer Arcus "Qedhup" Masmeyer has been a professional designer for decades. Working with marketing and advertising companies alike, he has taken these skills and moved them into the world of TTRPGs. In addition to working with Underground Oracle Publishing, Arcus has worked with numerous other creators and companies and has been hard at work designing his own content with Voidhome. However, there's more to him than TTRPG's and design, as he spends much of his free time in the woodshop building with his hands.
All of the writing for this project is done and backers will receive the text-only version immediately upon completion. Art and layout are being handled by two pros (see above) who are already in process and we (Jess and Keith) have fulfilled other projects outside of this imprint in the past.
Obviously, life happens around the world and the production team, so there's a chance unforeseen events could occur to delay things. Even though we expect turnaround on the zines to be fairly quick, we've set the estimated PDF delivery for April and the print delivery to June to account for anything that might happen.
We'll fulfill the PDF and text-only versions of No Mercy For Monsters and the associated Add-ons through DrivethruRPG or Itch.io. After the project funds, you'll be able to choose your preferred option in the survey.
Shipping will becharged post-campaign in the Pledge Manager and will be region-dependent.
The following figures are based on estimates as of February 1st, 2025. International backers are responsible for customs and VAT.
At this time, we estimate US shipping to be $5-$10, CA shipping to be $11-25, UK shipping to be £3-£8, and international shipping to be between $12-$25.
We are incredibly lucky to partner with Ex Stasis Games to fulfill our UK shipping. They are legends in the arenas of producing fantastic games and getting them into backers' hands. (Check out their upcoming game, Disposable Bags of Meat, to see what I mean.)
At this time we cannot ship physical copies to the EU due to the new GPSR regulations. Digital copies of No Mercy For Monsters will be available everywhere, and we will send out updates to supporters when/if we do find a viable option to get physical copies there.
