The Smoke is the greatest city in the world, the beating heart of an empire. It is filthy and sprawling like a burst pustule left open to weep besides the iron-grey sea. It does have a name, but only the nobs and learned-readers know it. Beneath slumbers The Midden – the interconnected passages of built-over streets, basements, tombs and hidden lairs where criminals lurk, beasts squat and lost wealth resides.

 An enterprising fellow with a sledgehammer can traverse in any direction they please – not that they’ll like what they find. It is rife with corpse-thieves, cellar-breakers and enterprising businessmen shunned in sunlit places. The rich of The Smoke honour their dead with elaborate crypts, whose morose edifices encroach ever further into the slums – the trap-smiths of The Smoke do fine business from their craft, and the fences keep the money flowing thanks to enterprising tomb robbers.

What is Swyvers?

Swyvers is a brand-new game built from the ground up to give you a grotty system for running a grotty game. Written by Luke Gearing, illustrated by David Hoskins.

Swyvers is a light-weight set of rules married to a full set of tools and tables for running a game in the chaotic sprawl of The Smoke, its many districts and The Midden. What a city it is — corrupt officials, looming war, rogue sorcerors, monsters below and nobs above. Violence rests as thick as the smog, nothing is sacred and it’s always bloody raining. 

Swyvers is a game about bastards. You and your gang of criminals scarper through heists and sewers, stalk through the filth of The Smoke and, if you’re lucky, you’ll make it out with a few extra shillings. The whole of this city is your filthy, sickly oyster.

Every group of Swyvers will have their very own Smoke. The GM starts a campaign by generating the city, starting from a core of districts: the Royal Gaol, the Palace, the Mayoral District and the Docks. From there they follow along Swyvers' generation tables to flesh out and, potentially, endlessly expand their rotten city. 

What's In The Book?

• Rules and lists of all the tools, weapons, lodgings, dodgy business investments, and hired goons any self-respecting Swyver should be familiar with.
• Rules for dogs of all cut and calibre.
• Death and dismemberment!
• How to have a proper funeral for your mates.
• 'Orrible diseases.
• Bloodsucking aristocrats.
• Accurate time keeping records.
• How to spend your spoils on carousing for XP.
• Getting into deep trouble for your wild nights out, including gambling debts, dogfighting, and jealous lovers.
• Take on apprentice Swyvers (Putterers), lead them on heists, and train them to take your place in the event of your inevitable sticky end.
• Fences: who they are and how they'll profit from your terrible life choices.
• Rules for bribes, leverage and blackmail!
• A system for attracting the attention of Knotland Yard, who will, over many sessions, form a case against you and put a stop to your wicked ways.
• A complete selection of terrible adversaries including agents of the church, ghouls, hussars, vampires, average humans, and bears.
• complete rules on generating your own city of 'The Smoke'
• A unique and innovative magic system. To cast a spell, put briefly, the caster plays Blackjack.
• A starting adventure! Rob the Lindsore Estate, uncover their ivy-choked secrets, Liberate their ancestral valuables, and maybe solve a few problems and make a few friends or enemies along the way.

The Team:

Written by Luke Gearing
Art by David Hoskins

includes PDF