Lowlife

Lowlife is a toolkit for old-school RPGs about delving into tunnels, trenches, and mines.

Inside, you'll find:

• Systems and consequences for caving, climbing, and tunneling. All the horrible ways you might explore—and die—down in the dark.
• Procedures for generating cave networks or making existing dungeons denser and more interconnected. If you want your underground spaces to be even more dangerous and maze-like, these tools are for you.
• Hazards, challenges, and dangers of the underground. From firedamp to the gutter lung, there are all manner of threats beneath the surface.
• Flora, fauna, and fungi of the rugged hills and caves. 20-odd monsters, plants, and mushrooms that you can add to your game.
• Items, both commonplace and rare, to use in the tunnels. Items like dynamite, air bladders, miner's nosebags, and singing holler-hammers.
• Bits of worldbuilding and aesthetic scattered throughout. Enough to help you catch the vibes, but nothing overwhelming or lore-demanding. 

Speaking of vibes, here's a playlist I made to help you get in the mood:

Lowlife is broadly compatible with any old-school RPG system. If your game features d20s, the six common stats, and a lot of backpacking, it'll fit in with no issues. If your system is a little more fringe, it might take a bit of hacking to get it all to work smoothly, but Lowlife includes guidelines and suggestions for hacking, too.

Physical copies will be available for sale soon—I'll be sure to update this page when that happens.

If you need a ready adventure to use these rules with, there's a pamphlet dungeon available here: Beneath Harlowe House.

36 pages, 8.5" x 5.5", three colors. Plaintext files included with download. Audio files available upon request (since it's like 1gb and itch doesn't like huge file sizes).

Physical copies are available at Spear Witch, Monkey's Paw, Rook's Press, LF OSR, ratti incantati, and more to come.