Frequently Asked Questions

The Yellow Hand is an independent game publisher and a creative collective consisting of a handful writers and designers from all over the world. We currently have members from the USA, Sweden, Australia, Romania, and Japan. The Yellow Hand has been in business since 2023 and currently has just under 100 products available for sale.

The Yellow Hand currently sells all its products, both in digital form and as print-on-demand books, via the website DriveThruRPG.com. We also attend a select few conventions and sell our products there. In addition, you can find some of our products at Jetpack Comics in Rochester, NH.

The Threshold System is one of The Yellow Hand's proprietary role-playing game systems. It is used in our games Once Upon and Redacted. It is a narrative dice pool system that primarily uses d12s. The name comes from the concept of a minimum threshold that die rolls have to beat in order to score successes.

The Threshold System uses a d12 pool system where the level of your Competencies decide what your target number (Threshold) is for a success on each dice in the pool. The Threshold starts at an 11 but ticks down for each level of the Competency you use. 12s always count as 2 successes.

• The number of dice rolled in your pool is an Attribute score + 1 if you have a Prop helping you out. There are mechanics for adding more dice as well. Along with mechanics that grant pool rerolls.

• Instead of HP, Threshold uses a Problem system which increases the Threshold of each dice for each degree of Intensity the Problem has. 

• The Difficulty of a Test = the number of successes you need to roll in your pool.

• When in an Opposed Test, the reactive party rolls to set Difficulty and then the active party rolls the test.

• If a character rolls more Successes than the Difficulty of the Test, they generate Edits, a powerful metacurrency that allows for several uses that impact the dice rolls

The STAR System is one of The Yellow Hand's proprietary role-playing game systems. It is used in our games Draconicus and Tales of Menace & Mystery. It will also be used in our upcoming game Simulacrum. It is a rules-light task based system that primarily uses d10s. The name comes from character abilities being scored 1-3 stars, which indicates the number of dice rolled.

• The STAR system is in essence a mini dice-pool system where humans roll 1-3 d10s, trying to beat a Difficulty Rating of 1-10 in order to succeed with tasks. 

• Inexperienced or less naturally talented characters roll 1d10 whereas experienced characters roll 3d10, picking the highest result.

• The STAR system assigns a 1-3 star rating to Natural Abilities (Brawn, Grit, Knack, Wit, Hunch and Poise, which are also averaged into overarching Physique and Psyche scores). 

• The same 1-3 star rating is applied to Experience, where each 5 years of a professional experience earns a character one star. A one-star rating applies to all tasks in one particular profession, a two-star rating applies to a specific Capability (area of expertise), and a three-star rating applies to Specializations within a Capability.

• Dice are rolled to resolve tasks where the outcome is in doubt, to determine if the task is successful or not.

• Different levels of success apply: if none of the dice rolled beat the Difficulty Rating (DR), then the task has failed. If one of those dice also hits the Difficulty Rating, then the task is a Significant Failure. If one of the dice is a 1, then the task is a Critical Failure. Similarly, if at least one of the dice rolled beats the Difficulty Rating, the task is a success. IF one of those dice also hits the Difficulty Rating, then the task is a Significant Success. If one of the dice is a 10, then the task is a Critical Success. These success levels can be compared between characters, for example during combat.

• Tasks that are simply conducted to produce a lasting result of some kind are rolled using 1-3 dice, without a Difficulty Rating, and the highest die result is picked. This die result becomes the Quality Rating (QR) of the output of the task. This Quality Rating can then be used as a Difficulty Rating, to test the quality of the output, and see if it holds.

• Characters gain experience in 1-star increments, earning a star per finished adventure, which can be used to expand Experiences in a manner consistent with the character's actions during the adventure.

Draconicus is The Yellow Hand's first proprietary role-playing game. It is a fantasy game set in the world of Draconicus, using our proprietary STAR system. See here.

Sentience is The Yellow Hand's second proprietary role-playing game. It is a science-fiction game featuring sentient robots with awakening emotions, using a licensed version of Modiphius' 2d20 system. See here.

Once Upon is The Yellow Hand's third proprietary role-playing game. It is a fairytale game set in the world of Imaginara, using our proprietary Threshold system. See here.

Ashland is The Yellow Hand's fourth proprietary role-playing game. It is a post-apocalyptic game set in a world devastated by environmental disasters, using a licensed version of Modiphius' 2d20 system. See here.

Tales of Menace & Mystery is The Yellow Hand's fifth proprietary role-playing game. It is a pulp action game set in the 1930s, using our proprietary STAR system. See here.

Saucer Squadron is The Yellow Hand's first proprietary skirmish miniatures wargame, set in a 1950s world of alien conspiracies. Redacted is its sibling role-playing game, using our proprietary Threshold system. See here.

No, The Yellow Hand also produce licensed products for several other games, including Call of Cthulhu, Modiphius' 2d20 system, Monster of the Week, RuneQuest, and Mörk Borg.

Not at present. Our wide range of Call of Cthulhu products is currently available at DriveThruRPG.com via the Miskatonic Repository community content program. Several of our titles have become Electrum bestsellers, allowing us to offer them as print-on-demand through DriveThruRPG.com.

So far, we have released scenarios and one anthology set in the modern age, in the classic jazz age of the 1920s, in the two-fisted pulp era of the 1930s, and we are currently working on material for the 1880s Gaslight era. These scenarios are not interconnected, but possible for Keepers to fit into their respective game worlds.

So far, we have released scenarios and one anthology set in the modern age, in the classic jazz age of the 1920s, in the two-fisted pulp era of the 1930s, and we are currently working on material for the 1880s Gaslight era. These scenarios are not interconnected, but possible for Keepers to fit into their respective game worlds.

One of our scenarios, so far – The Threat of the Toxic Totem – is an adaptation of a 1930s adventure with the same name, originally written for our own action-packed TTRPG, Tales of Menace & Mystery. The Call of Cthulhu version serves as an introduction to the world of Tales of Menace & Mystery: a Call of Cthulhu setting perfect for adapting to the Pulp Cthulhu rules – or play as is.

The Yellow Hand is also currently working on a house campaign setting, starting with the upcoming book Lovecraft Legends & Lore, which will provide connective tissue for all of our future Call of Cthulhu products. It is in development and is slated for a Q1 2026 release.