What is Leopard Women of Venus? 

Leopard Women of Venus is a mechanism designed to inject delirious pulp sci-fi adventure into your tabletop RPG sessions. It is, in short, a setting book inspired by the works of legendary Golden Age comic book artist Fletcher Hanks, using the popular Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) rules system. It’s like a Flash Gordon fever dream.

In 2011 we (Leighton Connor and Josh Burnett) were inspired by a short Fletcher Hanks story in which the hero Space Smith encountered the terrifying Leopard Women of Venus. We asked ourselves questions like, “Why are there Leopard Women on Venus?” and “Who else lives on Venus?" From that we developed our setting, a grotesque alien world seething with malice and filled with exotic locales, bizarre cultures, and murderous monsters. We wrote the original version of Leopard Women of Venus for Hex Games, using the QAGS system.  

Years later, we realized that our feverish nightmare Venus would be a perfect match for Dungeon Crawl Classics. Like DCC, Leopard Women of Venus is heavily inspired by pulp fiction and foundational fantasy authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs; committed to instilling a mixture of awe, wonder, and horror; and extremely dangerous for Player Characters.

We got to work and converted the setting to DCC, adding in new character classes, spells, patrons, and monsters. We also saw plenty of opportunities to tweak and improve--we have expanded and updated everything, including the history of Venus and the relationships among the factions. We have also added a new organization, the Humanoid Coalition, that makes it easier to assemble a PC party.

Everything people loved from the original version is still here, polished and improved and adapted to our favorite fantasy role-playing adventure game. But now you’ll also find:

• The Leopard Woman class and their powerful augments
• Clear guidelines for how DCC character classes function on Venus
• Two patrons, Stardust the Super-Wizard and Fantomah, complete with spells
• A list of 100 Venusian occupations useful for creating 0-level characters
• A 0-level funnel, “Saucerful of Secrets”
• A 1st-level adventure, “The Mines of the Moglugs”
• Fantastical sci-fi gear and equipment
• Random tables to generate countless springboards for adventure
• The Magnificent Moglug Maker
• And much more!

The exciting new material in Leopard Women of Venus is usable whether you’re running a game in the savage jungles of Venus or plugging it into your own campaigns!

Want to see more? We put together a free preview zine that will give you a big juicy taste of LWoV. CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Format

The book will be released on DrivethruRPG digitally and via print-on-demand.  It will be a 7 x 10" graphic novel-sized softcover, coming in around 175 pages.

Please note that we are not shipping the POD books.  The costs associated with shipping are determined by DriveThruRPG.

The Setting

From a distance, Venus is a beautiful blue orb suspended in the inky void. But up close, Venus is a tropical hell-planet, its ecosystem mutated in grotesque and deadly fashion by the mysterious Compound-N. From the Quivering Blood Gnats to the Hideous Spider Priests, from the acid-dripping Venusian Fly-Traps to the carnivorous mushrooms, every living thing is bent on destroying human life.

Despite the odds, four human factions continue to survive on Venus. In addition to fending off the endlessly lethal flora and fauna, they must also keep watch for invaders from other worlds--Earth, Mars, and Bloodu--and the constant threat of betrayal by the other factions. 

Even the Leopard Women of Venus, with their flying saurians and comet-fire helmets, are hard pressed to defend against these threats. Human civilization exists on Venus now--but for how much longer? That’s for you and your gaming group to decide.

The Factions
Human civilization of Venus has splintered into four different factions. All are troubled, but the PCs have the chance to make things better.

•  Otram: The largest settlement on Venus, Otram is a fortress city ruled by a ruthless prophet-king. The people of Otram only value strength, glory, and powerful weapons.
•  The Caverns: Ruled by the unfeeling Science Robots, the people of the caverns have access to amazing technology but little personal freedom. They are defended by the planet’s mightiest warriors, the Leopard Women of Venus.
•  Palna: Superstitious scientists and apocalyptic theologians, the people of the mountain-city of Palna pray for the legendary super-wizard Stardust to rain his judgement down upon Venus.
•  Avrok: The people of Avrok live in loose tribes deep in the hellish jungles. They are hedonistic pseudo-shamans in a distressing relationship with Venus’s giant snakes.
•  The Humanoid Coalition: Founded by gonzo cartoon-journalist and lunatic prophet Forecastle J. MacBeth, the Humanoid Coalition is a cross-factional organization dedicated to preserving humanity on Venus and countering the coming apocalypse foreseen in MacBeth’s dreams.

Who Was Fletcher Hanks?

Fletcher Hanks produced bizarre stories in the earliest days of American comics. His work is boldly drawn, frequently ugly, and strangely compelling. Hanks only worked in comics from 1939 to 1941, but during this short time he created Stardust the Super Wizard, a terrifying superman from the stars; Space Smith, an outer space adventurer; Big Red, a lumberjack; Fantomah, the first super-powered comic book heroine; and more.

Fletcher Hanks died in obscurity, but he left behind some fascinating comic books. The original comics--issues of Fantastic, Fight, Jungle, and Planet--are extremely rare and require quite a bit of time and money to track down. Fortunately, stories by Hanks are available on the Internet, and in high-quality reprint collections such as Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All!: The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks, edited by Paul Karasik and published by Fantagraphics.

 What is the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG? 

Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) is a sword & sorcery role-playing game published by Goodman Games. Mechanically, DCC is based on the world’s most popular RPG, but the rules have been reforged—streamlined in some places, expanded in others, and injected with a wild and exciting imagination throughout.  The fantastical imagery and fast playstyle are designed to invoke the classic fantasy and science-fiction adventures tales of old. You’ll find the influences of Leiber, Moorcock, Howard, Vance, Brackett, and more throughout Dungeon Crawl Classics.

Find out more about Dungeon Crawl Classics at www.Goodman-Games.com.

Read Josh’s review of DCC from 2014 here.

The Team

Leopard Women of Venus is written by us, Joshua LH Burnett and Leighton Connor. We have been writing games for decades and are two of the co-creators of the ENnie Award-winning game Hobomancer. Josh wrote the ENnie Award-winning Hobomancer Companion and recently wrote and illustrated the OSR zines Crepuscular and Draugr & Draculas. Leighton is also the co-creator of the web comic The Electric Team and the author of the Ross Fulton, Occult Detective series of stories.

We have both done illustration work for a variety of projects, including the original Leopard Women of Venus, and we will be contributing artwork to the book. We’ve got experience and we’ll do some good stuff. But we don’t want this book to just be good, we want it to be PHENOMENAL. That’s why the money we raise will go toward hiring additional artists. And the artists we’ve lined up . . . seriously, these artists are great. The book will be lavishly illustrated, with luscious, mind-blowing drawings by some of the finest illustrators working today: 

• Erol Otus!
• Matt Kish!
• Bradley K. McDevitt!
• Evlyn Moreau!
• Diogo Nogueira!
• Juan Navarro!
• James V. West!

Those are just the beginning. When we hit our stretch goals, we’ll have even more art, including a piece by the great Stefan Poag!

Here are some samples of the artwork that has already been completed:  

We are committed to producing a beautiful, high-quality book that is free from any distracting errors. Your Kickstarter dollars will also allow us to hire experienced editors to help us polish the text and deliver the best book we can. We have recruited editors Fiona Geist and Steve Johnson, authors in their own right, both of whom have a wide range of editing experience. Fiona is best known for editing games such as Ultraviolet Grasslands and Pound of Flesh. Steve has edited books like Suicide’s Run, as well as games like the original QAGS version of Leopard Women of Venus.

Stretch Goals

$3000: We Did It! <FUNDED!>

• At $3000, this project funds and we are able to bring the exciting world of Leopard Women of Venus to the good people of Earth!

$3500: The Poag from Outer Space!

• When we reach $3500 we will be able to commission fan-favorite DCC artist Stefan Poag to create new art for Leopard Women of Venus.

$4000: Hunting Down a New Patron!

• At $4000 we will commission Anne Hunter (DIY & Dragons, Crawl-Thulhu) to write up a third patron, complete with spells!

$4500: Art-Mageddon It!

• When we hit $4500, we will commission our established artists to create even more exciting artwork for Leopard Women of Venus!

$5000: So Much Adventuring!

• At the $5000 mark, we’ll include a third adventure in the book, sending your second-level characters deep into the filthy heart of Otram!