The Game

You and your friends play the outcast Children of the Beast, and with your cursed blood you will consume sources of dark power, commune with wild creatures, and ultimately reclaim your lost humanity.

Children of the Beast is a tabletop rpg that uses an app, a book, or both, whichever you prefer. The app allows you to play an open-world adventure without spending hours preparing, takes the math out of combats, and teaches the game so you don't need to read hundreds of pages. The goal is to reduce how much you need to keep track of so you can focus on the story.

If that doesn't suit you, we're also offering a book with the ruleset and character creation so you can play the game however you're most comfortable with.

We want you to roll dice, play with fancy miniatures, and enjoy the company of your friends without sacrificing a deep, intricate game. The included open-world adventure in the app introduces you to this place we have spent over five years making.

The App

The app is divided into four main sections: Character Creation, the Adventure, the Rulebook, and the Stage.

Character Creation
Create your monster hunter with an automated character creation system. It walks you through step-by-step while providing all your character options visually in front of you.

Adventures
Trek through the wilds of the Warrens in this open-world adventure, searching for the source of the corruption. Explore the depths of the game with no preparation required.

Rulebook
This wiki-like system allows you to easily look up rules or discover the deeper lore of the game.

The Stage
The main play area of the game. When a character is loaded they are placed on the Stage, where you can look at their digital character sheet, manage their inventories, and even level them up. The Stage also helps facilitate combat between characters, keeping track of their abilities, health, and conditions.

Features

• Play in an open-world adventure that can be run with no preparation required
• Explore a living, crawling landscape filled with the delightfully strange
• Piece together your role in the world with a flexible system of many disciplines instead of a rigid class system
• Help develop your character's personality by choosing from a collection of short stories
• Use an app that teaches you how to play and streamlines complex rules and abilities
• Hunt beasts with a visual damage system that tracks wounds to individual body parts
  

The History

Nexus Shift Games is a small studio that began its life in the small town of San Luis Obispo, CA. At first, the game was considered more of a personal project, but then grew irresponsibly in size as we outstandingly failed our first kickstarter.

That was a wake-up call. We were confident in the core of our game, but we needed to find what was truly special about the project. We scaled down and began focusing on its heart, spending over 3 years afterwards refining what we had.

It's been a long journey, and we've met and lost many friends on the way, but we believe we have finally created something worth sharing. This project has changed a lot in our lives. We're now loving our home in Seattle spending time with other game developers, meeting fans at conventions and game stores, and seeing the smiles of those who play the game for the first time. We hope you end up loving Children of the Beast as much as we do.

The Team

Nicholas Kitts (Writer/Game Designer)
A man filled with many thoughts. He's been writing and designing games since childhood, and hopes to god he doesn't have to stop. Loves dragons, Dostoevsky, and monsters of many stripes.

Alex Chester (Graphic/UX Designer)
An artist who loves to get his goblin hands all over any medium he can dabble in, from painting pixel art to needle felting. The LGBT community is very important to him, along with dragons and his two pet cats, Crash and Pixel.

Jake Garcia (Programmer)
A fine programmer with a loving heart. Surprisingly experienced in line-dancing, he loves singing, being a big ol' nerd, and sure maybe dragons.

We would also like to thank all those who have contributed to the game in the past:
Jacob Smith, Tani Pettit, Tayler McCreery, Jake West, LeJon McGowan, Chris Casil, Bridget Winn, Xianguang Yan, Garrett Summers, Alex Ying, Anthony Wheat, Eric Pettit, Michelle Neumann, Eddie Mendoza, Cylight Studios, Matthew Winslow, and Ryan van Dongen.

ZIP File

Download the .zip of all our press images here

Monsters

Characters

App

Logos