Clowns
Clowns is here to upend everything with sinister grins, maniacal laughter, and a whole lot of nightmare fuel. Looking to add some twisted chaos to your roleplaying setting? This sourcebook is grounded in The Simple Approach and is built to drop into any roleplaying game you’re already running. You don’t need to rewrite the rules or learn a new system—just insert these clowns into your world and watch the madness unfold.
This isn’t about some circus sideshow gimmick. These evil clowns are unsettling forces of chaos that can turn a simple story into a dark, character-driven spiral of horror. We’re talking about serious nightmare material: twisted, malevolent beings that manipulate fear, distort reality, and bring terror wherever they go. And because clowns is all about storytelling, these clowns aren’t just bad guys you smack down in a dungeon or run from in a haunted house—they’re here to mess with your characters’ heads, their morals, and their sanity.
In this dark sourcebook, you’ll find the tools to make every encounter with an evil clown a unique, story-driven experience. Every twisted smile, every maniacal laugh can change the course of your adventure. Your players will have to navigate chaos, face their worst fears, and make decisions that could make or break their characters. If you’ve ever wanted to inject real psychological tension into your fantasy roleplaying, this is it.
The best part? It’s system-agnostic, so it works no matter what rules you’re using. And because it's built on the The Simple Approach, you don’t need to wrestle with complicated mechanics or roll charts for everything. The focus is on imagination, collaboration, and agency—the core elements that make roleplaying memorable. Your players get to shape their own story, face their own nightmares, and decide what happens next.
Whether you want to introduce an evil jester as a major antagonist or just toss in some creepy clowns for an unsettling side quest, clowns gives you everything you need. There are clown archetypes, unique abilities, factions, and even some dark magic items to mess with your characters. You’ve got adventure hooks, random encounter ideas, and twisted clown-themed supporting characters ready to step into your campaign.
So if you’re a fan of roleplaying who’s looking to push your storytelling in new directions, clowns is perfect for you. It’s fresh enough to feel new but familiar enough to slot right into the games you’re already running.
A Universal Sourcebook
You don’t need it to play any of our games using The Simple Approach, but it’s here to spice things up if you want. It’s also written to be functionally system-agnostic, so feel free to throw its elements into any other roleplaying system your choice.
If you’re looking to use it with a different roleplaying system, don’t worry. There are notes at the end to help with conversion, and if you’re need more advice in translating material between systems, grab the Lightspress Handbook,available wherever you found this book.
Navigating This Book
Inside this book you’ll find:
The Origins of Evil Clowns: Dive into the twisted history and cultural evolution of clowns, exploring how they became symbols of chaos and terror throughout time.
Clown Archetypes: A breakdown of various types of evil clowns, from the Jester of Madness to the Trickster Demon, each with their own unique style of torment.
Traits & Tactics: Discover the dark abilities and combat tactics these clowns use to terrorize their victims, focusing on fear, illusions, and psychological warfare.
Clown Factions: An overview of the groups and societies that clowns form, including the Carnival of Despair and the Painted Court, and how they spread chaos in your world.
Cozy Fantasy: Tips on integrating evil clowns into a cozy fantasy setting, blending unsettling chaos with otherwise peaceful narratives.
Crime & Mystery: How to use clowns in a crime and mystery setting, where they leave a trail of bizarre crimes and cryptic clues to baffle investigators.
Dark Academia: Explore how clowns can twist the world of academia, using knowledge and power to corrupt and control those seeking enlightenment.
Espionage: Evil clowns in the world of spies and secrecy—perfect for infiltration and manipulation, where their chaos becomes a weapon in the shadows.
Heroic Fantasy: Incorporate clowns into traditional fantasy, where they manipulate kingdoms and play dark, deadly games with heroes.
Magical Realism: Bring clowns into a magical realism setting, where their influence warps the fabric of reality in strange, unsettling ways.
Modern Horror: Tips for integrating clowns into a modern horror setting, exploiting contemporary fears and adding layers of psychological terror.
Romance: Explore how clowns can disrupt love and relationships, using manipulation, deception, and chaos to create tension and heartbreak.
Space Opera: Clowns in space—how they twist intergalactic politics, disrupt advanced civilizations, and play deadly games on a cosmic scale.
Steampunk: Add clowns to your steampunk world, where their mechanical inventions and twisted performances wreak havoc in a clockwork society.
Clown-Themed Artifacts: A collection of cursed and sinister clown artifacts that can be used to sow chaos and madness in any setting.
Supporting Characters: Not every clown is evil. Here’s a list of supporting characters like the Reformed Clown or the Clown Hunter to add complexity to your story.
When the Laughter Stops: A final note on balancing the horror and absurdity of clowns, ensuring players are left with a mix of fear and satisfaction.
Reference: A comprehensive guide to the essential resources, literature, and films that inspired and expanded the concept of the evil clown in various settings.
The Simple Approach
To understand this book, you need to know the context in which it was written and the philosophy that runs through it. At its core, The Simple Approach emphasizes the elements that truly matter in roleplaying: narrative depth, character complexity, and player agency. While plenty of systems are still obsessed with combat, loot, and grinding, we know roleplaying can be so much more. This system is all about immersive storytelling, meaningful choices, and characters you actually care about. Whether you're uncovering hidden secrets, solving a gripping mystery, or exploring the complexities of romance, The Simple Approach offers a fresh take on traditional genres like fantasy, science fiction, and horror, along with modern and underserved ones like crime & mystery, cottagecore fantasy, dark academia, magical realism, romance, and espionage.
Narrative-Based Mechanics
At the heart of The Simple Approach are narrative-based mechanics that are easy to learn and designed to grow with you as you play. They let you tweak what’s here and add things we haven’t thought of yet. The journaling system replaces those one-size-fits-none character sheets, giving gamemasters a flexible tool for organizing worldbuilding, adventure design, and session notes and players ample room to allow their character to grow. Every character, setting, and adventure becomes a unique creation shaped by your choices.
Seamless Integration and Flexibility
Clowns isn’t a standalone roleplaying experience. You can blend it seamlessly with other Lightspress publications to create one-of-a-kind stories and settings or bring elements from other systems into your Lightspress game. If you want to use our material with your favorite system or setting, go for it. The conversion notes in the Lightspress Handbook give you the flexibility to play how you want.
Our Philosophy
We believe the true essence of roleplaying happens around the table, where creativity and collaboration come alive. It’s not about a book, a brand, or a company. It’s about the people playing together, creating something special. Our focus on cooperation, interaction, and investigation ensures that every session is more than just a game; it’s a journey filled with compelling adventures and meaningful connections. We stand by our belief that the heart of roleplaying is found in shared experiences and stories crafted by the players. This philosophy drives everything in The Simple Approach and underpins our commitment to delivering content that champions the true spirit of roleplaying, free from superficial constraints.
Commitment to Creative Freedom
This philosophy also guides our belief that creators should own their work and not be beholden to licensing terms that only benefit fickle corporations. We draw inspiration from historical, mythological, and literary sources, tapping into our shared heritage to fuel creative exploration. We maintain full copyright ownership, ensuring that our work stays independent and true to our vision. Using style guides to keep a cohesive voice and narrative structure, we deliver exceptional content free from external influences, preserving the integrity and creative standards of our work.
Accessible and Affordable Roleplaying
We’re committed to keeping our games affordable so that more people can enjoy them. Our focus isn’t on producing overstuffed, expensive books filled with art to collect dust on a shelf. We’re here to create material meant to be played, not displayed. You won’t find us chasing awards or turning our games into glorified coffee-table books. Our goal is to facilitate roleplaying, pure and simple, keeping the price points low so you can focus on the game, not your wallet.
Stay Connected and Join Us
If you’re tired of the same old grind and ready to try something that actually respects your input, then The Simple Approach is calling your name. We’re not just offering a game. We’re inviting you to join a movement, a way of playing that values your time, creativity, and agency.
109 pages. PDF and epub files included.
Clowns is here to upend everything with sinister grins, maniacal laughter, and a whole lot of nightmare fuel. Looking to add some twisted chaos to your roleplaying setting? This sourcebook is grounded in The Simple Approach and is built to drop into any roleplaying game you’re already running. You don’t need to rewrite the rules or learn a new system—just insert these clowns into your world and watch the madness unfold.
This isn’t about some circus sideshow gimmick. These evil clowns are unsettling forces of chaos that can turn a simple story into a dark, character-driven spiral of horror. We’re talking about serious nightmare material: twisted, malevolent beings that manipulate fear, distort reality, and bring terror wherever they go. And because clowns is all about storytelling, these clowns aren’t just bad guys you smack down in a dungeon or run from in a haunted house—they’re here to mess with your characters’ heads, their morals, and their sanity.
In this dark sourcebook, you’ll find the tools to make every encounter with an evil clown a unique, story-driven experience. Every twisted smile, every maniacal laugh can change the course of your adventure. Your players will have to navigate chaos, face their worst fears, and make decisions that could make or break their characters. If you’ve ever wanted to inject real psychological tension into your fantasy roleplaying, this is it.
The best part? It’s system-agnostic, so it works no matter what rules you’re using. And because it's built on the The Simple Approach, you don’t need to wrestle with complicated mechanics or roll charts for everything. The focus is on imagination, collaboration, and agency—the core elements that make roleplaying memorable. Your players get to shape their own story, face their own nightmares, and decide what happens next.
Whether you want to introduce an evil jester as a major antagonist or just toss in some creepy clowns for an unsettling side quest, clowns gives you everything you need. There are clown archetypes, unique abilities, factions, and even some dark magic items to mess with your characters. You’ve got adventure hooks, random encounter ideas, and twisted clown-themed supporting characters ready to step into your campaign.
So if you’re a fan of roleplaying who’s looking to push your storytelling in new directions, clowns is perfect for you. It’s fresh enough to feel new but familiar enough to slot right into the games you’re already running.
A Universal Sourcebook
You don’t need it to play any of our games using The Simple Approach, but it’s here to spice things up if you want. It’s also written to be functionally system-agnostic, so feel free to throw its elements into any other roleplaying system your choice.
If you’re looking to use it with a different roleplaying system, don’t worry. There are notes at the end to help with conversion, and if you’re need more advice in translating material between systems, grab the Lightspress Handbook,available wherever you found this book.
Navigating This Book
Inside this book you’ll find:
The Origins of Evil Clowns: Dive into the twisted history and cultural evolution of clowns, exploring how they became symbols of chaos and terror throughout time.
Clown Archetypes: A breakdown of various types of evil clowns, from the Jester of Madness to the Trickster Demon, each with their own unique style of torment.
Traits & Tactics: Discover the dark abilities and combat tactics these clowns use to terrorize their victims, focusing on fear, illusions, and psychological warfare.
Clown Factions: An overview of the groups and societies that clowns form, including the Carnival of Despair and the Painted Court, and how they spread chaos in your world.
Cozy Fantasy: Tips on integrating evil clowns into a cozy fantasy setting, blending unsettling chaos with otherwise peaceful narratives.
Crime & Mystery: How to use clowns in a crime and mystery setting, where they leave a trail of bizarre crimes and cryptic clues to baffle investigators.
Dark Academia: Explore how clowns can twist the world of academia, using knowledge and power to corrupt and control those seeking enlightenment.
Espionage: Evil clowns in the world of spies and secrecy—perfect for infiltration and manipulation, where their chaos becomes a weapon in the shadows.
Heroic Fantasy: Incorporate clowns into traditional fantasy, where they manipulate kingdoms and play dark, deadly games with heroes.
Magical Realism: Bring clowns into a magical realism setting, where their influence warps the fabric of reality in strange, unsettling ways.
Modern Horror: Tips for integrating clowns into a modern horror setting, exploiting contemporary fears and adding layers of psychological terror.
Romance: Explore how clowns can disrupt love and relationships, using manipulation, deception, and chaos to create tension and heartbreak.
Space Opera: Clowns in space—how they twist intergalactic politics, disrupt advanced civilizations, and play deadly games on a cosmic scale.
Steampunk: Add clowns to your steampunk world, where their mechanical inventions and twisted performances wreak havoc in a clockwork society.
Clown-Themed Artifacts: A collection of cursed and sinister clown artifacts that can be used to sow chaos and madness in any setting.
Supporting Characters: Not every clown is evil. Here’s a list of supporting characters like the Reformed Clown or the Clown Hunter to add complexity to your story.
When the Laughter Stops: A final note on balancing the horror and absurdity of clowns, ensuring players are left with a mix of fear and satisfaction.
Reference: A comprehensive guide to the essential resources, literature, and films that inspired and expanded the concept of the evil clown in various settings.
The Simple Approach
To understand this book, you need to know the context in which it was written and the philosophy that runs through it. At its core, The Simple Approach emphasizes the elements that truly matter in roleplaying: narrative depth, character complexity, and player agency. While plenty of systems are still obsessed with combat, loot, and grinding, we know roleplaying can be so much more. This system is all about immersive storytelling, meaningful choices, and characters you actually care about. Whether you're uncovering hidden secrets, solving a gripping mystery, or exploring the complexities of romance, The Simple Approach offers a fresh take on traditional genres like fantasy, science fiction, and horror, along with modern and underserved ones like crime & mystery, cottagecore fantasy, dark academia, magical realism, romance, and espionage.
Narrative-Based Mechanics
At the heart of The Simple Approach are narrative-based mechanics that are easy to learn and designed to grow with you as you play. They let you tweak what’s here and add things we haven’t thought of yet. The journaling system replaces those one-size-fits-none character sheets, giving gamemasters a flexible tool for organizing worldbuilding, adventure design, and session notes and players ample room to allow their character to grow. Every character, setting, and adventure becomes a unique creation shaped by your choices.
Seamless Integration and Flexibility
Clowns isn’t a standalone roleplaying experience. You can blend it seamlessly with other Lightspress publications to create one-of-a-kind stories and settings or bring elements from other systems into your Lightspress game. If you want to use our material with your favorite system or setting, go for it. The conversion notes in the Lightspress Handbook give you the flexibility to play how you want.
Our Philosophy
We believe the true essence of roleplaying happens around the table, where creativity and collaboration come alive. It’s not about a book, a brand, or a company. It’s about the people playing together, creating something special. Our focus on cooperation, interaction, and investigation ensures that every session is more than just a game; it’s a journey filled with compelling adventures and meaningful connections. We stand by our belief that the heart of roleplaying is found in shared experiences and stories crafted by the players. This philosophy drives everything in The Simple Approach and underpins our commitment to delivering content that champions the true spirit of roleplaying, free from superficial constraints.
Commitment to Creative Freedom
This philosophy also guides our belief that creators should own their work and not be beholden to licensing terms that only benefit fickle corporations. We draw inspiration from historical, mythological, and literary sources, tapping into our shared heritage to fuel creative exploration. We maintain full copyright ownership, ensuring that our work stays independent and true to our vision. Using style guides to keep a cohesive voice and narrative structure, we deliver exceptional content free from external influences, preserving the integrity and creative standards of our work.
Accessible and Affordable Roleplaying
We’re committed to keeping our games affordable so that more people can enjoy them. Our focus isn’t on producing overstuffed, expensive books filled with art to collect dust on a shelf. We’re here to create material meant to be played, not displayed. You won’t find us chasing awards or turning our games into glorified coffee-table books. Our goal is to facilitate roleplaying, pure and simple, keeping the price points low so you can focus on the game, not your wallet.
Stay Connected and Join Us
If you’re tired of the same old grind and ready to try something that actually respects your input, then The Simple Approach is calling your name. We’re not just offering a game. We’re inviting you to join a movement, a way of playing that values your time, creativity, and agency.
109 pages. PDF and epub files included.
Clowns is here to upend everything with sinister grins, maniacal laughter, and a whole lot of nightmare fuel. Looking to add some twisted chaos to your roleplaying setting? This sourcebook is grounded in The Simple Approach and is built to drop into any roleplaying game you’re already running. You don’t need to rewrite the rules or learn a new system—just insert these clowns into your world and watch the madness unfold.
This isn’t about some circus sideshow gimmick. These evil clowns are unsettling forces of chaos that can turn a simple story into a dark, character-driven spiral of horror. We’re talking about serious nightmare material: twisted, malevolent beings that manipulate fear, distort reality, and bring terror wherever they go. And because clowns is all about storytelling, these clowns aren’t just bad guys you smack down in a dungeon or run from in a haunted house—they’re here to mess with your characters’ heads, their morals, and their sanity.
In this dark sourcebook, you’ll find the tools to make every encounter with an evil clown a unique, story-driven experience. Every twisted smile, every maniacal laugh can change the course of your adventure. Your players will have to navigate chaos, face their worst fears, and make decisions that could make or break their characters. If you’ve ever wanted to inject real psychological tension into your fantasy roleplaying, this is it.
The best part? It’s system-agnostic, so it works no matter what rules you’re using. And because it's built on the The Simple Approach, you don’t need to wrestle with complicated mechanics or roll charts for everything. The focus is on imagination, collaboration, and agency—the core elements that make roleplaying memorable. Your players get to shape their own story, face their own nightmares, and decide what happens next.
Whether you want to introduce an evil jester as a major antagonist or just toss in some creepy clowns for an unsettling side quest, clowns gives you everything you need. There are clown archetypes, unique abilities, factions, and even some dark magic items to mess with your characters. You’ve got adventure hooks, random encounter ideas, and twisted clown-themed supporting characters ready to step into your campaign.
So if you’re a fan of roleplaying who’s looking to push your storytelling in new directions, clowns is perfect for you. It’s fresh enough to feel new but familiar enough to slot right into the games you’re already running.
A Universal Sourcebook
You don’t need it to play any of our games using The Simple Approach, but it’s here to spice things up if you want. It’s also written to be functionally system-agnostic, so feel free to throw its elements into any other roleplaying system your choice.
If you’re looking to use it with a different roleplaying system, don’t worry. There are notes at the end to help with conversion, and if you’re need more advice in translating material between systems, grab the Lightspress Handbook,available wherever you found this book.
Navigating This Book
Inside this book you’ll find:
The Origins of Evil Clowns: Dive into the twisted history and cultural evolution of clowns, exploring how they became symbols of chaos and terror throughout time.
Clown Archetypes: A breakdown of various types of evil clowns, from the Jester of Madness to the Trickster Demon, each with their own unique style of torment.
Traits & Tactics: Discover the dark abilities and combat tactics these clowns use to terrorize their victims, focusing on fear, illusions, and psychological warfare.
Clown Factions: An overview of the groups and societies that clowns form, including the Carnival of Despair and the Painted Court, and how they spread chaos in your world.
Cozy Fantasy: Tips on integrating evil clowns into a cozy fantasy setting, blending unsettling chaos with otherwise peaceful narratives.
Crime & Mystery: How to use clowns in a crime and mystery setting, where they leave a trail of bizarre crimes and cryptic clues to baffle investigators.
Dark Academia: Explore how clowns can twist the world of academia, using knowledge and power to corrupt and control those seeking enlightenment.
Espionage: Evil clowns in the world of spies and secrecy—perfect for infiltration and manipulation, where their chaos becomes a weapon in the shadows.
Heroic Fantasy: Incorporate clowns into traditional fantasy, where they manipulate kingdoms and play dark, deadly games with heroes.
Magical Realism: Bring clowns into a magical realism setting, where their influence warps the fabric of reality in strange, unsettling ways.
Modern Horror: Tips for integrating clowns into a modern horror setting, exploiting contemporary fears and adding layers of psychological terror.
Romance: Explore how clowns can disrupt love and relationships, using manipulation, deception, and chaos to create tension and heartbreak.
Space Opera: Clowns in space—how they twist intergalactic politics, disrupt advanced civilizations, and play deadly games on a cosmic scale.
Steampunk: Add clowns to your steampunk world, where their mechanical inventions and twisted performances wreak havoc in a clockwork society.
Clown-Themed Artifacts: A collection of cursed and sinister clown artifacts that can be used to sow chaos and madness in any setting.
Supporting Characters: Not every clown is evil. Here’s a list of supporting characters like the Reformed Clown or the Clown Hunter to add complexity to your story.
When the Laughter Stops: A final note on balancing the horror and absurdity of clowns, ensuring players are left with a mix of fear and satisfaction.
Reference: A comprehensive guide to the essential resources, literature, and films that inspired and expanded the concept of the evil clown in various settings.
The Simple Approach
To understand this book, you need to know the context in which it was written and the philosophy that runs through it. At its core, The Simple Approach emphasizes the elements that truly matter in roleplaying: narrative depth, character complexity, and player agency. While plenty of systems are still obsessed with combat, loot, and grinding, we know roleplaying can be so much more. This system is all about immersive storytelling, meaningful choices, and characters you actually care about. Whether you're uncovering hidden secrets, solving a gripping mystery, or exploring the complexities of romance, The Simple Approach offers a fresh take on traditional genres like fantasy, science fiction, and horror, along with modern and underserved ones like crime & mystery, cottagecore fantasy, dark academia, magical realism, romance, and espionage.
Narrative-Based Mechanics
At the heart of The Simple Approach are narrative-based mechanics that are easy to learn and designed to grow with you as you play. They let you tweak what’s here and add things we haven’t thought of yet. The journaling system replaces those one-size-fits-none character sheets, giving gamemasters a flexible tool for organizing worldbuilding, adventure design, and session notes and players ample room to allow their character to grow. Every character, setting, and adventure becomes a unique creation shaped by your choices.
Seamless Integration and Flexibility
Clowns isn’t a standalone roleplaying experience. You can blend it seamlessly with other Lightspress publications to create one-of-a-kind stories and settings or bring elements from other systems into your Lightspress game. If you want to use our material with your favorite system or setting, go for it. The conversion notes in the Lightspress Handbook give you the flexibility to play how you want.
Our Philosophy
We believe the true essence of roleplaying happens around the table, where creativity and collaboration come alive. It’s not about a book, a brand, or a company. It’s about the people playing together, creating something special. Our focus on cooperation, interaction, and investigation ensures that every session is more than just a game; it’s a journey filled with compelling adventures and meaningful connections. We stand by our belief that the heart of roleplaying is found in shared experiences and stories crafted by the players. This philosophy drives everything in The Simple Approach and underpins our commitment to delivering content that champions the true spirit of roleplaying, free from superficial constraints.
Commitment to Creative Freedom
This philosophy also guides our belief that creators should own their work and not be beholden to licensing terms that only benefit fickle corporations. We draw inspiration from historical, mythological, and literary sources, tapping into our shared heritage to fuel creative exploration. We maintain full copyright ownership, ensuring that our work stays independent and true to our vision. Using style guides to keep a cohesive voice and narrative structure, we deliver exceptional content free from external influences, preserving the integrity and creative standards of our work.
Accessible and Affordable Roleplaying
We’re committed to keeping our games affordable so that more people can enjoy them. Our focus isn’t on producing overstuffed, expensive books filled with art to collect dust on a shelf. We’re here to create material meant to be played, not displayed. You won’t find us chasing awards or turning our games into glorified coffee-table books. Our goal is to facilitate roleplaying, pure and simple, keeping the price points low so you can focus on the game, not your wallet.
Stay Connected and Join Us
If you’re tired of the same old grind and ready to try something that actually respects your input, then The Simple Approach is calling your name. We’re not just offering a game. We’re inviting you to join a movement, a way of playing that values your time, creativity, and agency.
109 pages. PDF and epub files included.