Hit Point Press is currently crowdfunding their first original roleplaying game, SHIFT. The Ottawa-based publisher is probably best known for their D&D 5e supplements Big Bads, Humblewood, Heckna, and The Deck of Many Animated Spells. SHIFT marks a departure from ten years of D&D projects.

Written by Jordan Richer and Graeme Fotheringham, SHIFT promises a setting-agnostic system with a minimal ruleset that’s easy to pick up and play. The game’s core mechanic is a dice system that requires no math and turns the usual “make number go big” strategy a lot of games have on its head. In SHIFT, you actually want to roll a d4 as it offers you the highest chance of success. Rolling anything other than a 1, 2, or 3 is a failure. If you roll the highest number on your die, you have to “shift” it a dice size the next time you roll that trait, reducing your odds of success until you exhaust a d12.

What originally drew me to SHIFT was the Maelstrom setting in the Curse of the Albatross adventure Hit Point Press released with their 2022 playtest. I am a person who does not do setting agnostic. As someone who usually finds herself in the GM seat, I don’t want to have to build an entire world from nothing in order to run a game. That, to me, is the opposite of easy to pick up and play. And as a player, if I’m asked if I want to try a game, my first question is “what is the game about?” If a game doesn’t come with a setting that speaks to me, I immediately lose interest. Maelstrom really spoke to me.

The first thing my playtest group was told was that the ocean swallowed the sun. We were all immediately hooked. We encountered a ghost, fought eldritch tentacle dogs, argued over whether or not to kill an albatross (this is where I found out no one in my party knew killing an albatross brought sailors bad luck), and wrestled with whether or not to murder the last guardian of the lighthouse who was begging us to let him finally die. I have been impatiently waiting for Hit Point to release the full system because I so badly want more Maelstrom to play around in.

SHIFT’s Kickstarter is fully funded and they’ve smashed through a bunch of stretch goals, including an open gaming license so designers can make their own products using SHIFT and several World Sparks—more pre-written settings that you can use in your game. If Maelstrom isn’t your vibe and you’re like me and don’t want to have to make your own setting, one of the other World Sparks might be. Does your table want to be dragons in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world? Joseph Carriker’s Dragon-Knights of Ylgara is the World Spark for you. Or maybe you want a game of romance, rumors, and social intrigue? Alex Roberts’ recently unlocked World Spark, Regencia promises to give your table the Bridgerton experience.

The SHIFT team is currently working to unlock the stretch goal for Gail Simone’s superhero setting Second World. If you want to defend the city of Port Angel from supervillain schemes, you have until November 6 to fund it.

Website
www.rpgshift.com

Socials
Bluesky: @shiftrpg.bsky.social, @hitpointpress.bsky.social
Twitter: @SHIFTRPG, @hitpointpress
YouTube: Hit Point Press | SHIFT Playlist
Instagram: @hitpointpress
Facebook: Hit Point Press