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What’s a work-in-progress ttrpg system without a good old-fashioned example of play …? Four friends have gathered around a table to play The Aether Throne.  Sam is the games master (GM). They have a good understanding of the rules, and are using a pre-written mission that they will run for the players. Sam will tell […]

The Aether Court are god-like race of otherworldly entities who have begun to take a more active interest in humanity. Scientific advances threaten to blur the lines between the unknowable mysteries of the Aether and the laws of the universe, piercing the veil that the Aether Court previously moved behind, unknown and unseen by all […]

Although I still have a huge amount to do in terms of translating the rules for The Aether Throne from my head into clear, concise words, I am frequently turning my mind to the worldbuilding of the setting. Now, this is a pulp hi-octane style of game. I don’t need (nor do I want) to […]

The intro pack for The Aether Throne, a tabletop roleplaying game of pulp steampunk adventure has now been released. The pack contains: The rules and character sheet are available on DriveThruRPG here. Or if you subscribe to my email newsletter, I’ll send you links to download them absolutely FREE! Work is now underway on the […]

I am now deep in the detail of the mechanics for The Aether Throne and am in the particular depths of combat. I started off not wanting to use grid-based combat, inspired by the narrative theatre-of-the-mind style encounters in Powered by the Apocalypse games. However, as my design has developed (and been influenced by the […]

I’ll soon be releasing the ‘taster set’ with its solo adventure and single pregen. After that will come the ‘quickstart’, which will feature more detailed rules for group play, including the use of low-level aether invocations and scientific gadgets. The quickstart will also include at least 3 more pre-gens, of which this is the first. […]

After a solo playtest and some refinements, this is the latest version of the pregen ‘adventurer log sheet‘ for The Aether Throne. This, together with the intro rules and the solo online tutorial adventure, will form part of the ‘taster set’ for the game and setting. Amazingly, someone in the industry whose work I have […]

The Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro OGL1.1 furore has caused an understandable stir amongst the ttrpg creator community, from established third party publishers like Kobold Press to indie creators self-publishing on DriveThruRPG. The official license and details thereof have still to be released, but by all accounts it’s not great news for creators, particularly […]

As previously mentioned, I am close to finishing my ‘starter set’ version of The Aether Throne, my steampunk ttrpg system and setting. Now, I’m considering the ‘backlog items’ – the rules, sections and other material I want to produce for the full game, which is going to take a lot longer to put together, but […]

I’m making good progress on my ‘starter set’ for The Aether Throne, my steampunk ttrpg system. It will consist of 3-4 pages of basic rules, an online Twine ‘tutorial adventure’ and a pregenerated adventurer for players to run through the scenario and familiarise themselves with the mechanics and setting. The Twine adventure is about 60% […]

I’m a big fan of ttrpg starter sets. Although they are often gateway drugs to the never-ending world of rulebooks, expansions, scenarios and accessories, some of them are marvellous self-contained worlds of adventure that represent great value and give players an idea of what to expect from the full game. I’m adopting the starter set […]

The Aether Throne uses just one die to resolve all actions and outcomes. A twenty-sided die (a d20 for short) governs all the fickle fortunes and fates of adventurers as they attempt to overcome obstacles, hazards, situations and foes in their path.  At its simplest, an adventurer rolls the d20 and adds modifiers to the […]