Slayers Survival Kit and Hunter's Journal

Slayers Survival Kit and Hunter's Journal

Two new Monster of the Week books to equip your Hunters with everything they need.
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A monotone illustration in purple of a hunter gazing intently at something out of frame. Caption: Click here for the links and codes to download your text-complete prototype PDF!

Backers - Click here to download both books as full, text-complete Prototype PDFs. We're not going to make you wait for the new material these expansions offer. Back the campaign today, drop the rules onto your table tonight!

We have some exciting rewards lined up for this campaign! Pick up both books as Hardcovers ($75), Roll20 ($75)  or as PDF ($40).

Upgrade your play experience with the Hardcover + Premium Gear ($135) pledge or get the entire Monster of the Week line in hardcover PLUS the Premium Gear with our Complete Physical package ($250).

Not sure if you're ready to back? Download our free 84-page standalone preview here!
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Header: The Books accompanied by a black and white illustration of a human hand.

Supercharge your Monster of the Week sessions with a one-two punch of new playbooks, new story options, additional assets & threats, and more. The Hunter's Journal and Slayer's Survival Kit offer up 600 pages of new material for this bestselling game of supernatural mystery and kick-ass action!

A mockup of The Slayer's Survival Kit. The cover features a Hunter in a gray jumpsuit fires a raygun at a strange mechanical foe as a musician blasts magical notes on his electric guitar in the background. Caption: 9 new hunter playbooks, 9 new team playbooks, new Weird moves, new gear, assets, and more!


The Slayer's Survival Kit introduces nine new Hunter playbooks and an additional nine Team playbooks! Get ready to dive into adventure as The Action Scientist, The Celebrity, The Changeling, The Covenant, The Envoy, The Forged, The Host, The Interface, and The Visitor!

On the Team side of things, unite your group around a common theme with The Artifact Collectors, The Coven, The Escaped Experiments, The Good Monsters, The Medical Team, The Mundane Monstrosities, the Radio Station, The Research Lab, and Swipe to Slay!

But that's not all! The Slayer's Survival Kit also covers new flavors of Weird moves, new assets and allies, guidelines for using Big Magic and more!

A mockup of the Hunter's Journal. The cover features a collage of a diverse group of Hunters gathered together, gazing at the viewer. Caption: Tips and advice for all 33 official Hunter playbooks, New Story Ar option focuses the drama, new threats and mysteries for Keepers to deploy, Guidelines for designing your own Hunter stories!


The Hunter's Journal provides a toolkit to extend and enhance every playbook we've published for Monster of the Week -- including the nine new playbooks in the Slayer's Survival Kit!

The new Hunter Story mechanic helps Keepers personalize the story for each Hunter, giving them specific arcs and choices to build on that are tailored to each Hunter playbook. You'll also find new assets, new threats, and more within this 368-page beast of a supplement.

This book is loaded with narrative options, rules, and advice for players and Keepers alike, whether you're new to the game or ready to inject fresh ideas into your ongoing campaign.

Both books will be printed as digest-sized 6"x9" hardcovers with a matte color cover and black & white interiors.
Get them now as Hardcovers + PDF ($75), Roll20 + PDF ($75)  or as PDF + POD ($40).
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A header which says Reward Highlights alongside a black and white illustration of an open manhole cover with a strange zombie type creature staring up from its depths.

Mockups of the two hardcover books, plus PDF covers of the books and an illustration of a box marked "POD vis DriveThruRPG". The cover of the Hunter's Journal features a collage of a diverse group of Hunters gathered together, gazing at the viewer. On the cover of the Slayer's Survival Kit, a Hunter in a gray jumpsuit fires a raygun at a strange mechanical foe as a musician blasts magical notes on his electric guitar in the background. Caption: Hardcovers + PDFs. $75

The Slayer's Survival Kit clocks in at 232 pages. The Hunter's Journal covers every official Hunter playbook we've published (including those in the Slayer's Survival Kit) and comprises another 368 pages. Both books will be printed as digest-sized 6"x9" hardcovers with a matte color cover and black & white interiors.

Reserve your copies as Hardcovers + PDF ($75), Roll20 + PDF ($75)  or as PDF + POD ($40). Upgrade your play experience with the Hardcover + Premium Gear ($135) pledge or dive into the full Monster of the Week line with our Complete Physical package ($250).

A mockup of two metal d6s with numbers of the 1-5 side and a special slayer icon on the six face. The background is bright yellow

Made of solid zinc alloy and finished with antique silver plating, these 15mm six-siders have custom numerals on the 1-5 sides and a special slayer icon on the six face. No matter what Move you're making, you're always rolling +Cool!

These premium dice are featured in the Hardcover + Premium Gear ($135) pledge, the Complete Physical package ($250), or (in those countries where we ship) as an add-on for $10.

A mockup of the metal Hunter's coins featuring a Stability token (red on one side, blue on the other), triangular +1/-1 Modifier coins (again, red on one side, blue on the other), and hexagonal Hold coins with a skull-like visage on one side and a fanged octopoid on the other.

This deluxe set of seven zinc alloy tokens from Campaign Coins presents a visible (and tangible!) way to track your character's stability status, hold, and modifiers It includes:

  • One Stability token. The "hub of your character tracker, this six-pointed-star has different colored coatings on each side to tell people around the table whether your character is Stable, or Unstable and in need of swift assistance!
  • Three Modifier tokens. Each of these is V-shaped so that they slot onto the Stability token. Each side is colored differently (red for penalty, blue for bonus) to easily represent –1 or +1 modifier.
  • Three Hold tokens. These hex-shaped tokens represent "hold" currency for your hunter. While they don't sport a color coating, the sides depict different monsters so if you have two different kinds of hold you can differentiate your stacks The hex shape slots into the space between the top two or bottom two points of the Stability token.

These premium coins are featured in the Hardcover + Premium Gear ($135) pledge, the Complete Physical package ($250), or (in those countries where we ship) as an add-on for $20.

A mockup of the Investigator's notebook. On the left, a 3D render of the outside of the book which is a black notebook with an intricate demon skull and magic circle embossed in silver on the cover. On the right, a couple versions of the notebook laid open to show spreads with the dot-grid interior and templates for you to track your character's stats and make other notes. An illustration of a spiked club and a gaunt demon creature adorn some of the margins.

Track NPCs, clues, evidence, cryptids and more in this 160-page custom notebook.  This 6" x 9" flexi-bound journal features a smooth black faux-leather cover embellished with a silver-foil-stamped design. Two ribbon bookmarks will help you navigate the multiple sections we've laid out:

  • The character sections provide a structured way to stay on top of your Hunter's stats and history with their fellow team members. 
  • The Mystery sections give you space to assess the situation, gather clues & evidence, and develop your key approach in defeating the supernatural forces opposing you. 
  • A final reference section puts Hunter concepts, basic moves, and alternative Weird moves at your fingertips. 

Plus, there's plenty of room in this dot-grid notebook for your own notes, sketches, and other free-form observations. You also find evocative black & white art by Fernando Salvaterra through the margins. With its deft balance of style and functionality, the Investigator's Casebook provides a terrific way to organize every aspect of your Monster of the Week adventures!

Pick up the Investigator's Casebook in the Hardcover + Premium Gear ($135) pledge, the Complete Physical package ($250), or (in those countries where we ship) as an add-on for $30.

A mockup of a Roll20 browser window with a scene of a Hunter trying to interrupt an evil ritual. OPver that, a mockup of the covers for the Hunter's Journal and Slayer's Survival in both a square Roll20 format and in a rectangular PDF format. Also pictured: an illustration of a box marked "PoD via DriveThruRPG". Caption: Roll20 Bundle + PDFs. $75"

We put an extraordinary effort into making sure our Roll20 offerings give you the best VTT experience possible. In addition to art assets, character tokens, and handouts, the modules for the Hunter's Journal and Slayer's Survival Kit will offer the complete text of both books, fully searchable right there within Roll20. If you game solely on Roll20, this reward gives you everything you need.

You can find the Roll20 offerings (and the PDFs + POD files) as a standalone bundle ($75) or grab every Monster of the Week module for Roll20 in the Complete Digital Bundle ($150).
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A header with the word Shipping alongside a black & white illustration of a severed hand clutching a revolver.

First, a note: World events continue to disrupt shipping. Pricing and delivery schedules remain extremely volatile. Our intention is to deploy shipping options that minimize risk and expense for both ourselves and our backers. That means we will not be able to offer a shipping option during this campaign that will service everyone. We're frustrated by the situation, but if you do not live in a country we service, we outline some options below.

All shipping fees will be charged separately, AFTER the campaign, during pledge management. The prices below are estimates. Actual shipping prices will be determined after production is finished and we're gearing up to send out the books. Also, if you add-on additional physical copies of the game to your order, your shipping cost may increase. If you add any of the premium gear to your order, your shipping cost will definitely increase.

Estimated shipping costs (two books):

  • $10 USA; $15 if your order includes any of the premium gear
  • $27 UK, inclusion of non-book items will likely add in VAT costs
  • $35 Ireland, inclusion of non-book items will likely add in VAT costs
  • $37 New Zealand, although there may be other importation fees we aren't yet aware of
  • $37-41 Australia, depending on what we need to do to take care of import duties
  • $41 Canada including handling and border tax
  • $58 Norway depending on what we need to do to take care of VAT and duty costs up front; inclusion of non-book items will likely increase VAT costs considerably

Estimated taxes by country:

  • Canada — 15% GST charged on entire order’s contents
  • UK — 20% VAT charged on non-book portion of order, with probable proportional bump to shipping cost
  • Ireland — 23% VAT charged on non-book portion of order, with probable proportional bump to shipping cost
  • Norway — 25% VAT charged on non-book portion of order, with probable proportional bump to shipping cost; plus, has the highest base shipping cost we’ve seen to date

If you live in one of these countries, GST/VAT will add additional costs for you. These are taxes we MUST charge. We will incorporate them into the cost of shipping so that you get one charge rather than paying shipping once and then being forced to pay VAT when you go to pick up your items. This combined shipping + GST/VAT will be charged well after the campaign ends, close to the time of fulfillment.

If we do not offer shipping to your country you may consider:

  •  Backing at the PDF + POD tier. In prior campaigns, the POD version has been ready weeks or months before the physical books have been produced. If you place your POD order as soon as the codes are ready, it's very likely you'll have a physical book in your hands before our print run reaches your local game store.
  •  Waiting until the book reaches your local retailer (online or neighborhood). Our PDF guarantee means that any time you buy one of our books new in a physical form, you get the PDF for free.
  •  Backing at the Roll20 Compendium Bundle tier. We make sure our Compendium offerings on Roll20 contain all the text from the source game, we create customizable backgrounds, full sets of tokens and clocks, handouts, and more. If you use Roll20, there's an immense amount of functionality in our modules and it's an easy way to share the game with your entire group. This level also gets you the PDF and POD copies so it's really your best bet all around. 
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timeline

Our expected delivery date for all rewards: July 2025

We have a great team on this project. Evil Hat is an experienced RPG publisher. We've run over twenty successful crowdfunding campaigns and we've printed many roleplaying games in a variety of physical formats over the past few years.

This puts us in a fine position to take on the risks and challenges that will arise. Experience tells us that things don’t always go as planned.

Here's what we can anticipate as potential problems.

The Text: While Hunter's Journal and Slayer's Survival Kit are largely done aside from the artwork, it's possible backers will identify some glaring issue that we need to address before we take this fully to publication. That can add time, for sure.

Printing: We have a strong, established relationship with our printers. We’ve got them on tap to print the books in whatever quantity we end up needing. But printers can run into problems all the same: supply shortages, unexpected delays due to company holidays or industry events, shipping problems, printing errors, and so on. We’ve got the experience to stay atop those potential problems and the flexibility to pivot and address them promptly. In the event of defective product, we will send a replacement at no cost to you. We print our books in the USA so shipping time from the printer to our fulfillment center is both speedy and reliable.

Shipping: Packages get lost. We'll send replacements. Shipping can take longer than expected. We won't put the book on sale until all backer copies are shipped out. As noted in the Shipping section above, we regrettably can't offer delivery to every country as part of this campaign. We will release the book into retail distribution overseas  soon after the delivery of the campaign rewards and for most (if not all) fans in areas where we can't ship directly this will be your most affordable option.

Finances: Although various world events continue to throw curveballs into production and shipping, we're solidly profitable and well-positioned in 2025 and for the foreseeable future.

One final note: We often run two or three crowdfunding projects per year. Each one is a carefully planned process based on our 20+ successful campaigns in the past. We pride ourselves on fulfilling rewards quickly, but even so, different crowdfunding efforts can sometimes overlap. We have not had an issue tackling that. We make space for each campaign and work to ensure that resources are available to take each of our projects across the finish line. If, on the rare occasion something does go wrong, we're committed to being upfront and transparent about the issue and what we're going to do to fix it.

If there's any risk or challenge YOU can think of that we haven't mentioned here, please write in and ask. We love to answer questions, and we do our best to provide an unparalleled customer service experience whenever possible. We intend to impress you.
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Stretch Goals


Funded

At $50k the project is funded and we'll print the books!
Endpapers and Spot Gloss


Printed endpapers and spot gloss added to both Hunter's Journal and Slayer's Survival Kit
epub and mobi editions

We'll create ePub versions of both Hunter's Journal and Slayer's Survival Kit

ribbons for the investigator casebook
The Investigators Casebook will have ribbon bookmarks added.

Elemental Playbook (Michael)

New hunter playbook! The Elemental designed by Michael Sands. A transdimensional agent correcting cosmic errors—powerful, mysterious, and inhuman. Includes advice and hunter stories. Inspired by Sapphire & Steel.
Abandoned Playbook (Luke)

New hunter playbook! The Abandoned by Luke Green. A hunter who was left alone through tragedy, neglect, or other circumstance. Like Newt from Aliens or Little Orphan Annie.
Ensemble Team Rules + Passing the Torch Team Playbook (Marek)
New Rules! Ensemble Teams. Rules for campaigns that use team playbooks. The players create two hunters each from the start and choose which one tackles a given mystery. Good for focusing on the team theme.
PLUS New Team Playbook! Passing the Torch. A group of experienced but weary veterans and fresh young talents who learn from those veterans, with each player creating one of both. Pairs well with the Ensemble Team Rules.

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Marek lives in southern Poland and has been playing RPGs since he was twelve. He loves when games make people enjoy and care for the stories they create, so he does his best to write RPG materials with care, empathy, and an open heart. He publishes supplements for various horror games in Polish and English, including contributions to Tome of Mysteries and a series of mysteries called Monsters of Europe, released by GRAmel Books. His main personal project is Zgrozy, a series of Call of Cthulhu supplements aimed at refreshing the Lovecraftian canon by focusing on the struggle against indifference and the empathy towards human vulnerability. Marek has worked on the Polish editions of Grey Ranks, Monster of the Week and Monsterhearts 2, translating them and writing additional materials for Polish gamers. He also teaches game design at various Polish universities. This March, he starts teaching Narrative in Games as a guest lecturer at the University of Vienna.

A roleplayer of nearly 40 years and many games, I first encountered Monster of the Week while I was teaching English in Japan and it quickly became one of my favorite games. Urban fantasy is my jam, and I love the sublime mix of mechanics and narrative this game has. I previously adapted two of the mysteries from my first series, M-Com, for Tome of Mysteries, but never expected to find myself a co-author in a full supplement like this. The feeling is surreal and I hope my work her provides lots of enjoyment for everyone who picks it up and provides tools to tell your stories.
I've been playing roleplaying games for about 40 years now and tinkering/designing for most of that. Monster of the Week is Generic Games' big hit but there are a few others out and more on the way. My home is in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Juan is an illustrator living in Colombia, South America. He likes cooking for his partner, running games, and cats. You can see his woefully not-up-to-date portfolio at juanochoa.com

Mendez (he/him) is a writer, cultural consultant, and game designer. You might know his writing from articles like “Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth,” his consulting work from games like Magic: the Gathering and the Jackbox Party Packs, or his design work from Avatar Legends or Thousand Arrows.  He has an academic background in West African religion, Eastern classics, dance, and English literature. His interests include martial arts, hip hop, and collecting stuffed animals. He lives in the greater New York metropolitan area.
"Kurt Komoda was born and raised in New Jersey, the third son of two artist parents. After graduating high school in 1988, he flew for the U.S. Navy and hunted Russian submarines during the Cold War. Artistically, Kurt grew up in a household that was never short of pens and paper. Despite the objections and advice of their school teachers, the three Komoda brothers continued to draw, sculpt, and film weird and disturbing things and apparently have no intention of stopping. He worked at a commercial art studio in New York City for almost 15 years, doing full color storyboards, character design, animation, art for advertising, and a whole heap of other things, all of which would be almost completely unrecognizable as his. These days, he is 100% freelance, with a good portion of his work being illustrations and character design for table top role-playing games."
Fernando Salvaterra is a Brazilian illustrator in love with RPGs, fantasy cartography, random tables, strange secluded places and mysterious trinkets. He can be found hiding in plain sight on BlueSky.


Karen Twelves (she/her) is an editor and linguist, and has had the pleasure of working on such projects as Blades in the Dark, Fiasco, Dialect, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians. She is also the author of Improv for Gamers, a collection of theater exercises to help strengthen skills for gaming, GMing, and larping. Learn more about her at karentwelves.com and improvforgamers.com!
Lorne Colt is a nerd with a voracious appetite for information and a distinct love of character acting, world building, and random generators. They've worked for more than a decade as a general artist and animator, largely for rad indie projects and creators.
Phil has been playing RPGs since the 1980s, when as a 5 year old he thought he was very clever to name a talking duck PC "Donald". Like a lot of people who got into them young, he's written a few, but has only recently started doing so for publication. He has been publicly blamed for the existence of at least one urban fantasy series about hitch-hiking ghosts by the author. His other writing can be found at itch.io under the name unseenlibrarian.
Gabriella is an editor for Lesser Known Comics and a proofreader for Curious Corvid Publishing. When she’s not working, Gabriella can be found lost in a book or building worlds of her own in her notebooks. Fun fact: When she was a child, she wanted to be a knight. Although she still doesn’t own a sword, wielding a pen has served her just as well.
Poorna went to the TTRPG millner's and emerged with many, many hats. At the moment, she's wearing a fascinator that screams : writer. On occasion, she has been known to don an editorial top hat, a process management trilby, even a jaunty AP beret. She has a soft spot for bookish folx and bedlam. She also harbours an unrequited love for sleep - which she claims only fuels her desire to devour all the murder mysteries ever written.
Sadie Neat is a Toronto based writer and artist locked in an epic struggle against her own monster of the week (capitalism)
Sean is the Director of Projects for Evil Hat Productions, Steward of Big Bad Con, and co-author of AGON. He's done developmental editing for Blades in the Dark, Apocalypse Keys, and more. He started gaming at age 12 and he’s never stopped. Sean’s passion is bringing people together to play games, explore identity, build rapport, and learn.
Tom Lommel (he/him) Since 2015 Tom has helped Evil Hat shepherd games to market and represent the signature Evil Hat brand on social media. A life-long gamer, Tom is currently enjoying sessions of Fate of Cthulhu and Scum & Villainy.
Cris Viana is a Brazilian Graphic Designer specialized in Editorial Design and Typography. She has been in love with TTRPGs since high school, and now she works with it, layouting TTRPG books for Brazilian publishers and abroad! When she's not working, she plays Arabic percussion, drinks lots of tea, invents crazy makeup to use on RPG streams, and her Changeling Brazilian world-building is famous countrywide and has unofficially been named "Crisverse." You can find her online at www.crisvianastudio.com and on Twitter @crislv.
Fred is the President of Evil Hat, and does much of the company's book layouts and Roll20 character sheet code-work. Pursuing a life-long ambition to become a dinosaur, he works a little harder every day on his obsolescence so room can be made for new voices in the hobby. He's talked enough already. Bring on the big meteor already.
"Colonel Mustard: And are you the host?  Hanrahan: Me, sir? No, I'm just the humble business butler.  Colonel Mustard: And what exactly is it you do here?  Hanrahan: I buttle, sir."

Sophie Lagacé has been gaming for so long that she thinks of THAC0 as “that new-fangled acronym.” She likes playing, game-mastering, organizing, reviewing, tinkering with, and writing about tabletop games, especially role-playing games. She has written for several publishers and is currently the Digital Content Manager for Evil Hat Productions.



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