Player's Handbook · Chapter 1

Welcome to Abednego

Manual 0.2 · Early Access · for Abednego v207

Keep your game up to date. Abednego is in Early Access, so updates come often: new content, fixes and improvements to the GM. When a dot appears on the menu button (top left), open the menu and choose Get updates (it shows a New badge). Update before you start a session, every time.

What Abednego is

Abednego is a faded gold-rush town in regional Victoria, 1998: footy, pie shops, the local radio, and an uncatchable serial killer who has haunted it for over a decade. Peel it back and you find cults, secret societies, demons with grudges and power that could change the world. It's adult, violent and sexy, and proudly in the tradition of the envelope-pushing anime of the 80s and 90s: lurid, strange, funny when it wants to be, and never boring.

It's an open-world sandbox run by an AI Game Master on the Pathfinder 2e Remaster rules. That means real dice, real character sheets and three-action combat, in a town that keeps moving whether or not you follow the main story. Each start drops you into the story, but most of the game is meant to happen off the beaten path.

Game Starts

Sarah

Which one do I choose? Each start is its own story with its own protagonist, set in the same town and the same week.
Party Poopers (Angelusto, with his partner Blaze). Two cops answer a call to a squat in Brazen Square. This is a fast, dangerous opening into the main story, seen from the side of the law.
Kevin's Gnarly Night (Kevin). Sarah didn't turn up to lunch, and Kevin promised to find her. One long night, played half as an 80s horror comedy.
Her Kiss: Or an Outbound Train Leaving Through Blood and Ash (Sarah). The heart of the main story, from the inside. Start here if you want the campaign at its most intimate and its darkest.
Welcome to Abednego (America). A Sunday ride on the Vintage Talking Tram, narrated by the Mayor. You are one mysterious passenger.
A Tuesday in Lapidary Hill (Samantha). No hook at all: a morning at home, the paper on the step, and the whole town to do with as you please. The purest sandbox.
The Jailer's Daughter (Ruby Chan). A prequel one-shot set in 1996, two years before the campaign. Seven days, a call to a radio show, and a patient at Green Hill Asylum.
The Losers (Jared). Year 12, a dare, and the one teacher nobody crosses. A semi-self-contained side story with its own arc and a dungeon to crawl. It touches the main story without depending on it.

Slow down and explore

Knowledge is power in Abednego, and attention is rewarded. Read the room, talk to people, open the newspaper, listen to the radio and follow the odd detail. The players who get furthest are rarely the ones in the biggest hurry.

Manual updated Nov 10, 2026.

Pathfinder 2e

In late-1990s Abednego, a faded gold-mining town in regional Victoria, life clings to banal rhythms — footy, pie shops, polite nods, small talk about the weather. Yet beneath, older and stranger forces linger. For over a decade, an uncatchable serial killer has haunted the city. Women are found with faces carved into grotesque grinning masks. Despair tightens its grip. Peel back the layers and you may unearth truths far darker than the killer… and power that could change the world forever.

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CreatedMay 29, 2026

UpdatedNov 10, 2026

The monster is a saint. The saviors are sinners.

Abednego looks like any other dying regional town. It isn’t.

In 1998 rural Australia, an ancient war plays out in the shadows: a fallen archangel guides a serial killer as he squeezes faith from the town through terror, while the things you've only glimpsed in nightmares hunt the both of them down. The truth is older and darker than you've been told.

𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗬 𝗔𝗖𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗦

Abednego is in Early Access. It's a complete town and a working ruleset, and it's still growing. Here's what that means.

Wʜᴀᴛ's Iɴ

- 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐢𝐧: Each is its own story with its own protagonist, set in the same town:

- 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑃𝑜𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠: two cops, a takeaway, and a call to a squat in Brazen Square.

- 𝐾𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑛'𝑠 𝐺𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡: Sarah didn't come to lunch, and Kevin promised to find her.

- 𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝐾𝑖𝑠𝑠: 𝑂𝑟 𝑎𝑛 𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴𝑠ℎ: Sarah wakes up changed after a brush with death.

- 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐽𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝐷𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑟: 1996, two years earlier. A caller rings Radio Changeling about a patient at Green Hill Asylum.

- 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑠: Year 12, a dare, and the one teacher nobody crosses.

- 𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝐴𝑏𝑒𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑜: a Sunday ride on the Vintage Talking Tram, narrated by your Mayor.

-𝐴 𝑇𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝐿𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝐻𝑖𝑙𝑙: Just the town, a morning, and whatever you do with it... Or whatever it wants to do with you.

- 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 2𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑠, 𝑟𝑢𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑛 𝐴𝐼 𝐺𝑀. It uses three-action turns, real dice and real checks. There are 25 classes, 121 subclasses and 16 archetypes, all reskinned for 1998 regional Victoria.

- 𝐴 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑛. Shops, homes, factions, rumours and a calendar keep running whether or not you're on the main path. Most of the game is meant to happen off it.

Wʜᴀᴛ's Cᴏᴍɪɴɢ

- More starts, more of the town's underside, and more places to break into.

- Deeper side systems: people who come back to you, offers that find you, and a world that pushes when you stand still.

- The rest of the story. What you find in these starts is the beginning of it.

- Human-drawn art. Abednego is made by one person, and its art is AI-generated in a house style I direct. If the game earns, that money goes to commissioning human artists, starting with the characters.

Exᴘᴇᴄᴛ Rᴏᴜɢʜ Eᴅɢᴇs

The AI GM can still misread a rule, lose track of a clock or forget who's in the party. When it does, tell it so in play. It will correct itself, and you'll be helping me find the gaps.

This version of Abednego is also the third incarnation of the game and there is a goodly amount of legacy cruft and missing assets.

Fᴇᴇᴅʙᴀᴄᴋ

Join the Discord (https://discord.gg/qh54twXMs) and tell me what broke, what surprised you and what you want more of. Session snippets are gold.

18+. 𝑨𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕.

Author's note

ORC Notice This product is licensed under the ORC License held in the Library of Congress at TX 9-307-067 and available online at various locations including www.paizo.com/orclicense, www.azoralaw.com/orclicense, www.gencon.com/orclicense and others. All warranties are disclaimed as set forth therein.

Attribution This product is based on the following Licensed Material:

Pathfinder Player Core © 2023, Paizo Inc. Designed by Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland and Mark Seifter. Pathfinder Player Core 2 © 2024, Paizo Inc. Pathfinder GM Core © 2023, Paizo Inc. Pathfinder Monster Core © 2024, Paizo Inc. Pathfinder Howl of the Wild © 2024, Paizo Inc. Pathfinder Battlecry! © 2025, Paizo Inc. Pathfinder Impossible Magic © 2026, Paizo Inc. Authors: Joshua Birdsong and Logan Bonner. If you use any of this product's Licensed Material in your own published works, please credit: Abednego © 2026 Michael Audas.

Other Paizo sources Some rules material is also adapted from these Pathfinder Second Edition publications, © Paizo Inc.: Pathfinder Core Rulebook; Pathfinder Secrets of Magic; Pathfinder Book of the Dead; Pathfinder Dark Archive (and its remastered edition); Pathfinder War of Immortals; Pathfinder Lost Omens: Knights of Lastwall; Pathfinder Lost Omens: Firebrands; Pathfinder Adventure Path #149: Against the Scarlet Triad, #150: Broken Promises, #156: The Apocalypse Prophet, #167: Ready? Fight!, #168: King of the Mountain, #174: Shadows of the Ancients and #202: Severed at the Root; and Pathfinder Wake the Dead #3.

Reserved Material Reserved Material elements in this product include all elements designated as Reserved Material under the ORC License. These are: the name Abednego and all names of characters, places, organisations, deities and items original to this product; all story, plot, dialogue, lore, setting descriptions and fiction; the short stories and their audio adaptations; all artwork, maps, logos and cover images; and the trade dress of this product. Abednego's original characters, and its depictions of mythological and legendary figures, are Reserved Material, together with their descriptions, histories and artwork. These include Lilith, Gremory, Ereshkigal, Naamah, Agrat bat Mahlat, Eisheth Zenunim and Empusa. The traditional names themselves are not claimed.

Expressly Designated Licensed Material This product contains no Expressly Designated Licensed Material beyond the rules material already licensed under the ORC License.

Not affiliated. This product is not published, endorsed or specifically approved by Paizo Inc. Pathfinder is a trademark of Paizo Inc. It is used here only to identify the rules system, as the licence permits; see the note on "Pathfinder" below.

Third-party Craft packages Abednego is built on the Craft platform and uses these community packages. Thanks to their authors:

Koinonia: Shops & Establishments and Dungeon Maker, and the Paperdoll Inventory guides, whose lessons shaped how the character sheet tells worn gear from carried gear Giom: Don't Mind Me, from which the NPC Agency and Player Input Conventions instructions are adapted Farocinsky: The Subsystem Dispatcher Pattern, from which the [ID: DISPATCH] instruction is adapted NotAFox: Outfits for Craft Tools Images were made with AI image tools (Mage) and edited by the author. Audio adaptations use AI-generated voices from ElevenLabs.

Fiction This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to real institutions, is coincidental.

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