Extra Shift is an expansion for Paranormal Freelancing, a tabletop RPG based on the LUMEN system where you take on the role of the mercenaries and assistants of supernatural beings like vampires, witches, and cambions. It provides a host of new options.
Being a vampire is hard. Not only do you need to feed yourself night to night, but you need to play politics with others of your kind, push and pull for territory, deal with the machinations of the other supernatural creatures out there, and put up a front in the modern mortal world so people don’t suspect anything. Other creatures don’t have it any easier, from witches needing ingredients to ghuls needing sustenance. None of them can do it all alone.
Enter the Freelancer.
Paranormal Freelancing is a game by the Far Horizons Cooperative, an action-oriented urban fantasy tabletop RPG about characters called "Freelancers" who act as the right hands of sorcerous beings likes witches, warlocks, vampires, and more. Their patrons, as they're called, don't have the time or energy to deal with every little problem on their own, so they need mortals to send out to get things done for them. It doesn't hurt to have a little plausible deniability, either.
Of course, the players don't represent the dregs of recruitment; no, they're the seasoned renfields and acolytes who know what they're doing and what they're getting into, and their masters don't want to lose them. So they get enchantments, repeatable spells, magical objects, and stolen weaponry to use while hunting down a patron's rivals.
Extra Shift brings new options to the players and Narrator alike. Choose from countless weapons, spells, and upgrades, while using a new mapping system to track your patron's territory grabs and long-term projects shaping the city. They probably have its best interests in mind, don't worry.
You can find the original game on DrivethruRPG, but if you don't have it yet, you can get it for cheaper than normal alongside its new supplement in development here!
LUMEN is a simple system by Gila RPGs that focuses on a core gameplay loop of action and looting. Paranormal Freelancing takes that as a base, but expands and details it to make it easy to use for both newer players and for existing gamers coming from other systems. It revolves around three Attributes, health and essence, a set of powers called blessings and spells, and equipment like weapons and armor (enchanted and otherwise).
Character creation is thus quick and simple, paired too with a robust advancement system that lets you gain benefits both from gathering components in the field for your patron's experiments and naturally grow more powerful on your own alongside them. It allows for both one-shot games with custom sheets or longer term campaigns taking over the city one block at a time. Extra Shift's new systems make both a more complex, with Territory maps and alternative loadouts.
Hardship: As always, we offer a Hardship tier to allow marginalized gamers and those going through a tough time to support us and get the PDF for a fair bit cheaper than it will be on release day. No means-testing here, honor system only!
Minion (Companion PDF): The basic tier that gets you a copy of the companion PDF, Extra Shift, and credit in that book. Should be out before the Holidays!
Hireling (PDF Combo): This tier gets you a combination of both the base game's PDF and Extra Shift, at a price lower than they'd be separately. It comes with credit in the latter as well.
Security (Print on Demand): This is a quick and simple campaign, so printing is being handled with DrivethruRPG's print-on-demand system. This will get you a printed copy of Extra Shift through them, but this doesn't include the printing and shipping costs, which get paid through their system. You'll also get a copy of both PDFs.
Sub-Commander (Name): For those who want to help others out a bit, you'll get everything in Security, as well as put a Community Copy in the pot for someone else to claim. In addition, not only do you get credit in the book, but can give us the name of a character, item, or whatever else that we'll insert somewhere in Extra Shift for you.
Left-Hand (Weapon): You get everything up to Security, as well as adding three Community Copies to the pot. But you'll also get to submit a magical weapon of some kind you want to see show up among our new options in Extra Shift. Nothing copyrighted, of course, it has to be your own idea.
Right-Hand (Nemesis): You get the Security benefits, add 5 Community Copies to our collection for others, and in addition you can help us design an example "Nemesis" - one of the rival sorcerers or supernatural creatures the Freelancers might have to team up against to take down. This one will appear in Extra Shift.
Power Behind the Throne (Unique): As our "big backer" option, you get everything listed above, essentially, and in addition you can come up with something else you want to see in Extra Shift. Have some ideas for spells or blessings, or perhaps even an additional type of Patron?
Add-Ons
PDF Bundle: A bundle of PDFs from our contributors' past games, at a reduced price compared to normal. This includes Paved in Blood, and Eldritch Defenders.
Community Copies: Want to help people out by more than your reward already includes? These cheaper copies provide PDF versions of the game to those who can't afford it.
Paranormal Freelancing Print-on-Demand: Want a cheaper copy of the Print-on-Demand of the base book? This will let you get it alongside the companion, and if you add this and we do a combined version, you'll get that as an option.
Our basic funding goal helps pay for the writer, artist, editor, and proofreader at a basic level, but it's a purposefully conservative amount. If we meet our goal and get past it, we have other rewards planned:
$4,000: Combined Print-on-Demand. We'll put together a combined version of the Print-on-Demand with both the base book and Extra Shift combined into one convenient package.
$10,000: Extra Shift will contain new Patrons and a more complex system for allies and Nemeses.
If we get above that point, we'll add new goals as we go!
Social Media Goal
If we get over 100 Reposts on the initial announcement message on either Twitter and Bluesky, we'll add in "Umbral" Patrons even if we don't hit the 10k stretch goal.
The Far Horizons Cooperative is 100% creator owned & profit shared. People first, equitable money distribution, creator ownership and making kick ass games. Cool games are class warfare.
Some of our past works include:
The Short Games Digests and Anthologies, where dozens of different game developers have come together to create countless different tabletop games all in one place.
Brinkwood, a Forged in the Dark roleplaying game about building a rebellion that will overthrow the blood-soaked vampires that oppress and dominate your world.
The Far Horizons Guides, system agnostic resources to add cults, heists, or mysterious locations of varied sorts to any game, with more in the works.
Throwback games like Friendship Effort Victory which give unique systems for playing out 90's and 2000's nostalgia (in this case, Shonen Anime).
And our current Thousand Burning Stars series, where we take in small game designers and give them a chance to make their ideas shine! There are around a half dozen games and counting!
