Rodney Thompson 6/15/25 Rodney Thompson 6/15/25

Neon City Outlaws Successfully Funds!

I’m pleased to announce that not only did Neon City Outlaws reach its funding goal on Kickstarter, but also exceeded it, unlocking several stretch goals along the way. Now begins the long process of production, but a heartfelt thank you goes out to everyone who supported the Kickstarter and made this game happen!

Rodney Thompson 5/13/25 Rodney Thompson 5/13/25

Neon City Outlaws Kickstarter Campaign is Live

Now live on Kickstarter, Neon City Outlaws is crowdfunding! The core game, the Administrator’s Screen, the Deluxe Edition and its exclusive slipcase, and more are available as rewards! Please help bring this project to life by backing it and spreading the word to other people who might be interested.

Rodney Thompson 1/13/25 Rodney Thompson 1/13/25

Neon City Outlaws Playtesting Begins Soon

In the next couple of weeks I'm going to be kicking off a community playtest for Neon City Outlaws, to kick the tires on the new designs and get more eyes on the game. If you're interested in running a one-shot playtest, sign up!

Rodney Thompson 10/9/24 Rodney Thompson 10/9/24

Sign Up to be Notified

Both Dusk City Outlaws and Spectaculars will be reprinted in early 2025, and the best way to stay in the loop on the reprints, as well as new games from Scratchpad Publishing, is to sign up for our new email list. If you’re at all interested in the upcoming reprints or new projects, this email list will be the first place announcements are posted, giving you a head start on everyone else!

Rodney Thompson 6/6/24 Rodney Thompson 6/6/24

Spectaculars is 74% Off All Summer

We’re hoping you’re going to have a spectacular summer, so we’ve deeply discounted the Spectaculars box set for the Spectaculars Summer Sale! Marked down to just $19.99, there has never been a better time to try out the Spectaculars RPG, creating your own comic book universe as you play through the four included campaigns, over 50 sessions worth of stories! Visit the Scratchpad Publishing store to grab a copy before the sale ends!

Rodney Thompson 1/25/23 Rodney Thompson 1/25/23

100AC System Discord Dice Bot Updated

The 100AC System Dice Bot for use in Discord has been updated with some improved readibility and a more colorful interface. If you’ve already added the dice bot to your server, you will get these changes automatically. If you’re looking to play one of the 100AC System games online, but haven’t yet added the bot to your Discord server, you can add the 100AC System Dice bot to your server and start playing online right away!

Rodney Thompson 7/19/22 Rodney Thompson 7/19/22

100AC System Dice Bot for Discord

Online play is more important than ever for tabletop roleplaying games, and while Scratchpad Publishing will always be excited to create games that support quick, off-the-shelf play around a table, we also know that many of you have been looking for more tools to help you play Dusk City Outlaws and Spectaculars online. You can now add a 100AC System Dice bot to your Discord server, which uses a series a simple commands to let you roll the percentile dice, advantage dice, and challenge dice used by these two systems.

“Just a quick heads-up: I coded this dice bot myself, and it’s my first Discord bot (and first time scripting in Python, for that matter). There’s a high likelihood that you’ll run into some bugs when using it. Sorry about that! If you do, you can visit the Contact section of this site and send me a message and I’ll try to correct the bugs as quickly as possible. Thanks for your patience!”

— Rodney Thompson, Owner

The commands for this dice bot are simple. With the !roll command, you can roll basic percentile dice. By adding certain arguments to your chat message, you can further modify the roll:

adding -t ## (where ## is your chance of success on the roll) will automatically determine success or failure
adding a, aa, aaa, or aaaa to the message adds that many advantage dice to the roll; you can also use #a, where # is replaced by the number of advantage dice you wish to roll
adding c, cc, ccc, or cccc to the message adds that many challenge dice to the roll; you can also use #c, where # is replaced by the number of challenge dice you wish to roll
adding -p will remove the percentile die roll, instead only rolling any advantage or challenge dice you included
You can add any of the above arguments in any combination to make a roll include exactly the dice you need

An example of the 100AC System Dice Bot in Action

If you ever need to see these commands in Discord, the !help command will cause the bot to print the basics of these commands for you.

You will need server manager permissions to add the 100AC System Dice Bot to your Discord server. If you don’t have your own Discord server, but want to see how it works, you can join the Scratchpad Publishing Discord server and experiment with the bot there.

Click here to add the 100AC-Dice bot to your server now!

Rodney Thompson 4/13/21 Rodney Thompson 4/13/21

Print-on-Demand Spectaculars Setting Books

Now available in print through DriveThruRPG’s Print on Demand service: additional Spectaculars setting books! If you’ve been wanting to create another setting or run multiple campaigns in different settings, this book contains all of the content of the Setting Book included in the Spectaculars core game, formatted to standard Letter paper size and printed on paper that is easy to write on. Grab one, two, or a few today!

Rodney Thompson 4/13/21 Rodney Thompson 4/13/21

Form-Fillable PDFs for Spectaculars

With many people making the shift to online play, form-fillable PDFs make the transition much easier. Several of the Spectaculars PDFs have been updated with form-fillable versions, including the Setting Book from the core game, the free Teams & Heroes pack, the free Villains & Minions pack, and the free Hero Progress sheet! Download these updated PDF packs today from DriveThruRPG to get the new form-fillable sheets!

Rodney Thompson 1/21/21 Rodney Thompson 1/21/21

Spectaculars 40% Off

In the hopes that you’ll have a Spectacular 2021, from now through the end of February 2021 the Spectaculars core game box set is available at 40% off when purchased through our online store. This month-and-a-little-more-long discount is to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the release of Spectaculars, as well as the launch of our new online store. Thanks for your support!

Rodney Thompson 1/21/21 Rodney Thompson 1/21/21

New Online Store Now Active

After a brief pause, Scratchpad Publishing products are now available for sale online once more! We have added a brand-new Shopify storefront, which contains all currently-available Scratchpad Publishing products. Be sure to check out the store, as we have also added several discounts and bundles for our products.

Rodney Thompson 1/4/21 Rodney Thompson 1/4/21

Online Sales Temporarily Disabled

For a short period, you will not be able to purchase physical copies of Scratchpad Publishing products through our website. The company that warehouses our games, and handles our online sales, is moving to a new inventory system, and for a short time our online sales must be disabled. This issue should be resolved, with products once again available for purchase, very soon. In the meantime, you can still purchase copies of our games through Indie Press Revolution.

Rodney Thompson 7/20/20 Rodney Thompson 7/20/20

Warehouse Move

Over the next few weeks, Scratchpad Publishing products will be unavailable for sale through our website as our warehousing company moves our stock to a new warehouse. In the meantime, you may place orders through Indie Press Revolution for both the Dusk City Outlaws and Spectaculars core game box sets, and through Campaign Coins for the Dusk City Outlaws metal tokens and Spectaculars metal tokens.

Rodney Thompson 6/3/20 Rodney Thompson 6/3/20

Dusk City Outlaws & Spectaculars on Tabletop Simulator

Now available on Tabletop Simulator for free through Steam Workshop: official conversions for both Dusk City Outlaws and Spectaculars. If you have been looking for a way to play the Scratchpad Publishing games online, these TTS modules represent the first steps toward providing official online environments for play. If you own Tabletop Simulator on Steam, you can subscribe to these workshop modules to gain access to custom game setups that include high resolution components derived directly from the printer files for each game. A copy of either game (either physically, or in PDF format) is still required to play.

Rodney Thompson 3/1/20 Rodney Thompson 3/1/20

Scratchpad Publishing Discord Server

To help fans of Spectaculars, Dusk City Outlaws, and any other, future 100AC System Games find a place to congregate, I’ve created a Scratchpad Publishing Discord server. If you are a Discord user, please feel free to join the server and get involved in the conversation!

Rodney Thompson 3/1/20 Rodney Thompson 3/1/20

Spectaculars Now Available for Sale

I am very pleased to announce that fulfillment of the Spectaculars Kickstarter is complete, and physical copies of the core game box set are now available for general sale. You can purchase a copy of Spectaculars directly through this website, or through your local game store if they are an Indie Press Revolution customer. Now, get out there and start making your own comic book universe!

Rodney Thompson 1/22/20 Rodney Thompson 1/22/20

Spectaculars Digital Creator Pack Now Available

Now available for free on DriveThruRPG, the Digital Creator Pack for Spectaculars gives you everything you need to produce new material using the graphic design and iconography of the actual game. Packed with icons, backgrounds, and publishing templates, the Digital Creator Pack includes a free license to produce and distribute material in digital format for free.

Got an idea for a Spectaculars series that you want to put out there for other people to play? Want to create your own hero, villain, and minion archetypes? Add new powers, identities, or team roles? Create a deck of complications tailored for your specific campaign? This package gives you access to digital files used in the creation of the Spectaculars game, making it easier to produce new material that looks just like the contents of the boxed set.

The digital creator pack includes:

Digital files for all artwork and icons used in the game
Digital files for all page backgrounds in the game
Adobe InDesign templates for the game rulebook (in both square and Web Supplement letter format), setting book, power cards, identity cards, complication cards, team role cards, initiative cards, series pads, and hero progress sheets.
License to create and distribute for free Spectaculars content of your own creation

This package is perfect for anyone looking to create materials that look like they came from the base game, for use at your gaming table, or for sharing with other member of the Spectaculars player community.

Featured

Spectaculars on Tabletop Simulator

Tabletop Simulator provides a physics-based 3D digital environment for playing board games and roleplaying games. You can download a free game setup for Spectaculars that provides the game materials needed to facilitate online play, including cards, dice, resistance trackers, hero and team sheets, and tokens. A copy of Spectaculars (either in physical form, or PDF form) is still required to play. Click here to learn more about this free Steam Workshop module for Tabletop Simulator.

Digital Creator Pack

Team & Hero Sheets

This product collects all of the Team sheets and Hero Archetype sheets included in the four series pads packaged with the Spectaculars Core Game. These sheets are intended to supplement those included in the series pads, allowing multiple heroes and teams to use the same archetypes. Print as many copies of these sheets as you need for creating heroes and teams for your Spectaculars campaign! Click here to download for free!

Villain & Minion Sheets

This product collects all of the Villain (regular, Minor, and Major) sheets and Minion sheets included in the four series pads packaged with the Spectaculars Core Game. These sheets are intended to supplement those included in the series pads, allowing the Narrator to create multiple enemies using the same villain or minion sheets. Print as many copies of these sheets as you need for creating villains and minions for your Spectaculars campaign! Click here to download for free!

Rodney Thompson 5/31/19 Rodney Thompson 5/31/19

Spectaculars Core Game PDFs Now Available

Scratchpad Publishing is pleased to announce that the PDFs for the Spectaculars Core Game are now available for sale from DriveThruRPG! Including PDF copies of all printed components that will be included in the box set, the release of these PDFs represents a major milestone in the Spectaculars production process. All Kickstarter backers and people who preordered through PledgeManager should have already received e-mails from DrivethruRPG containing links to redeem for their copies of the PDFs. If you did not, please use the contact form on this page to get in touch.

Rodney Thompson 5/1/19 Rodney Thompson 5/1/19

Dusk City Outlaws Nominated for Origins Award

It is with great honor that Scratchpad Publishing announces that Dusk City Outlaws, the first independent game by creator Rodney Thompson, has been nominated for the 2019 Origins Awards! It is a great achievement for the game, and truly a privilege to be considered alongside other excellent nominees for the Origins Awards, the winners of which will be announced at the Origins Game Fair in June.

Rodney previously won the Origins Award in 2013 for the Lords of Waterdeep boardgame (along with co-creator Peter Lee), and this is the first nomination for a Scratchpad Publishing game.

Rodney Thompson 1/2/19 Rodney Thompson 1/2/19

Spectaculars PledgeManager Now Live

The Spectaculars PledgeManager is now live! If you backed the game on Kickstarter, check your e-mail for an invitation to log in. If you missed the Kickstarter and are looking to pre-order the game at the discounted pre-order price), you can visit the PledgeManager and place your order now!

What if I don't see the email yet?

Check your spam folder. If you use Gmail, sometimes your invite will go to your "Promotions" tab. If you still can't find it, search your inbox for "PledgeManager"

If that doesn't work:

Click - https://scratchpad-publishing.pledgemanager.com/projects/spectaculars/
Click "Request New Invite"
Enter your email address (the one you pledged with)
Wait at least 10 minutes - then go to your email, open the invite, and click the giant button to confirm all your goodies

And if that doesn't work, check the FAQ page @ https://scratchpad-publishing.pledgemanager.com/projects/spectaculars/ and submit a support request.

There's something wrong with my pledge!

That's not impossible. If you notice something is awry, you can submit a support request at https://scratchpad-publishing.pledgemanager.com/projects/spectaculars/ or send us a message directly to contact@scratchpadpublishing.com and we'll look at it for you.

What if I need to change my address?

As long as your items have not been shipped, you can always change your address. Just simply log back in to PledgeManager and make the appropriate change. However, if you change your country, additional shipping costs may apply.

If I have a friend who missed the project, can they still join?

You can share this link to your friends and they can pre-order too: https://scratchpad-publishing.pledgemanager.com/projects/spectaculars/participate/?ref=backer