Thieves of the Tome Launches for ZineMonth

Turn the Books on your Shelf into a Raucous Spellbook Heist.

Thieves of the Tome Launches for ZineMonth
This is a community submitted press release.

First time publisher George Philbrick of First Pancake Studios, announces Thieves of the Tome, a TTRPG for 3-6 where players steal magical books from evil wizards. The zine has begun funding on Kickstarter and will run until February 28th as part of ZineMonth.

Thieves of the Tome is played with real books off your shelf. Dripping, acidpunk art and meta-fictional systems create a prismatic image of magic that lets you play in the worlds of your favorite books and channel the magic they contain.

"Any book is okay," says the free demo on itch. "Sci-fi, fantasy, even your grandma's book on knitting handbags. Each contains a world of magic."

The zine will be a full color 64 page A5 zine, with cover art by Tom Lowell, a punk album artist based out of Portland, ME.

A picture of the zine with the phrases "Play with Books" and 'Write Spells" hovering nearby, over a background of books.

Each player brings a book to the table, transforming it into a spellbook for another player to steal. This exchange results in catastrophic chaos, as themes and words drawn from the books overflow into the game world.

"I look at books through a new lens since playing this game, it's awesome," says Nick Breeman, a playtester of the open beta, "I just bought a book half because I thought it'd make good spells!"

The GM brings a book to set the game in. A GM planning sheet is combined with adventure-like "modules" to turn any book into a session plan. Since Thieves of the Tome is meant to be played as a zero-prep one-shot, the GM builds the adventure at the table while the players are writing spells or ahead of time.

“Two of my players were also regular GMs, and they both commented that they thought I had prepped the whole sequence of things that happened ahead of time, the relation between locations, etc, which is wild to me. They were surprised to hear it was all prepped on the spot,” says Slartifer, a GM playtester of TotT.
A stack of books including the shining, lord of the rings, and the hardware hacking handbook. Captioned: Every book a module.

This is the first TTRPG from First Pancake Studios, a new tabletop and video game studio founded by George and other new creators aimed at creating games that are unlike anything you've ever played.

Thieves of the Tome began as a 200 word RPG back in 2017, and has since been published on itch as an open beta. George said his goal was to create a game that used something tangible that you already had in your home.

"I had this idea about playing with real books: how could you turn a book on your shelf into a spellbook? Because books are already quite magical, right? They can conjure a world in your mind, why not extend that to the table?”

George is receiving mentorship and editing from two ZineMonth veterans. Chris O'Neill of 9th Level Games, known for his work on Mazes and Kobolds ate my Baby, is providing mentorship through the Unpub Tabletop Mentorship Program (which is an excellent program for aspiring creators by the way). Eric Swanson, known for his work on Goblinville Gazette and Rebel Crown, is editing the text and layout of the zine.

Thieves of the Tome is live on Kickstarter now and will run until February 28th at 11:59 pm EST