Acheron Games reveals Helluva System 2.0 with free Helluva Kingdom preview

Milanese publisher Acheron Games has released a free 48-page quickstart for Helluva Kingdom, an anarchic cartoon fantasy roleplaying game crowdfunding on BackerKit in November 2026. The digital preview arrived on DriveThruRPG on 6 October 2026, providing the first public implementation of the studio’s card-driven Helluva System 2.0.

The game serves as a direct thematic successor to the studio’s 1930s gangster title Helluva Town, trading mobster back-alleys for fractured fairytales and Saturday morning animation tropes. Rather than portraying legendary Chosen Ones, players take the role of expendable minions working for petty Dark Lords under the greedy reign of King Arthur Ducko I.

Helluva System 2.0 Card Mechanics

Instead of polyhedral dice, the game relies entirely on a standard 52-card poker deck. Every action resolves through a draw: the player states their intended approach, and the Animator sets a Difficulty target before two cards are drawn from the top of the player’s personal deck. Numbered cards score their printed face value, whilst Aces, Face cards, and Jokers count as 10 points each.

Final Result = Card 1 + Card 2 + Stat Score + Suit Bonuses (+1 per match)

Character competence hinges on four core Stats, each mapped to a traditional playing card suit:

• Touchy (Shields / Diamonds / Green): Physical strength, bodily endurance, and raw brawl capability.
• Feely (Potions / Hearts / Red): Dialogue, charm, deception, and personal empathy.
• Handy (Anvils / Clubs / Blue): Manual dexterity, sleight of hand, driving, and machinery.
• Woo-woo (Wands / Spades / Yellow): Innate magical power, reality manipulation, and spellcasting.

Matching a drawn card’s suit to the Stat being tested grants a flat +1 bonus per card. Jokers act as wild cards, allowing the player to select the suit freely. Drawn cards remain in a face-up discard pile until the entire deck runs dry, rewarding players who track high-value cards and anticipate upcoming draws.

Difficulty ratings follow four thresholds: Basic (10), Intermediate (15), High (20), and Madness (25). Card values and suit combinations also determine Degrees of Success:

• Triumphant Success: Pair of identical face cards, two face cards of matching colour, or any face card paired with a Joker. Delivers the intended goal plus narrative perks, bonus damage, or condition recovery.
• Partial Success: Total result falls short of the Difficulty, but contains matching numbered cards or two numbers of the same colour. The goal succeeds with a complication, such as suffering reciprocal damage.
• Epic Failure: The draw contains a Joker yet still fails to beat the target Difficulty, triggering escalated consequences or direct harm.

Health operates without hit point pools. Minions absorb physical blows in the form of “Bonks”. Taking sufficient Bonks knocks a character out entirely, causing temporary conditions such as “Tooned Out”, which restricts the player to drawing a single card on their next test.

Minion Anatomy and Grimoire Spellcasting

Player characters belong to five broad cartoon archetypes that dictate starting special abilities, known as Tricks:

• Folks: Humanoid characters of varied sizes and shapes.
• Grubbies: Loud, uncouth bruisers including goblins, orcs, and ogres.
• Beasties: Anthropomorphic predators, domestic animals, and insects.
• Tinies: Compact troublemakers such as gnomes, dwarves, and halflings.
• Eldies: Pretentious, long-lived elves with high social standing.

Magic is open-ended rather than slot-based. Any character carrying a Grimoire can attempt magic within its discipline, which includes Elemental, Transformation, Natural Summoning, Artificial Summoning, Necromancy, and Enchantment. The player describes the spell effect, and the Animator matches it to the difficulty scale, ranging from minor prestidigitation at Difficulty 0 to conjuring volcanoes or dragons at Difficulty 25.

The booklet includes Hunt for the Gawping Snitch, an introductory three-part adventure. Tasked with recovering a stolen winged eye belonging to King Ducko, the minion company tracks down rogue wizard Lenny Sopper in the shifting alleys of Duckolot before pursuing leads through the bureaucratic canopy of Elderwood and the gladiatorial arenas of OOOGRAAADOOOM.

Crowdfunding Scope and Production Notes

Acheron Games plans to fund physical editions of Helluva Kingdom on BackerKit this November. The upcoming campaign features a hardback Corebook, a custom illustrated poker deck, and Monsters, Minions & Misfits, a companion bestiary and artbook.

The transition to BackerKit marks a platform change for the Italian studio, which previously funded Brancalonia and Inferno via Kickstarter. The release calendar places the campaign immediately after the annual Lucca Comics & Games festival in Tuscany, Italy’s premier gaming event where domestic publishers showcase autumn titles before opening international retail and crowdfunding pledges.

To support the pre-launch window, Acheron has opened a €1 reservation mechanism that grants backers a gold foil card illustrated by Shawn Dickinson alongside physical pledge tiers.

Quick Links

• Download the Helluva Kingdom Quickstart on DriveThruRPG
• Follow the Campaign on BackerKit