Although I plan to write quests (scenarios) for Children of the Wyrd, my Scottish Pictish ttrpg, the core rulebook will contain a large number of random tables to support a ‘procedurally generated’ gameplay experience. This is in part inspired by Shawn Tomkin’s Ironsworn, a superlative game (which takes place in a similar setting) that features […]
Whilst waiting for the train, I often do mental brainstorms in my mind. What if‘s that imagine various genres, styles and subjects to consider turning into tabletop games or scenarios. Most are forgotten about once the train arrives. This week, one stuck. A low-magic grimdark system and setting based on the Dark Ages Pictish tribes […]
In my urban horror ttrpg The Trinity Code, the concept of the campaign came first. The game is set in the modern ‘real’ world, albeit with the same tone of heightened magical realism and covert conspiracies that the likes of John Wick and The X-Files have. And whilst the genre may be horror, it doesn’t […]
A couple of years ago, before embarking on my Call Of Cthulhu scenario-writing journey and before designing The Aether Throne, I wrote about 80% of a Powered By The Apocalypse system and setting called The Trinity Code. Inspired by the likes of Supernatural and The X-Files (and therefore Monster of the Week), I am thinking […]
One of the most important parts of The Aether Throne is the list of professions that players can choose when creating their adventurers. These range from fortune hunters to inventors; mystics to skyship pilots. Each profession has a starting set of skills they are trained in, as well as a starting ability that sets them […]
An excerpt from the ‘introduction’ section of my ttrpg-in-progress: There are many different settings for tabletop roleplaying games. Some feature brave adventurers in a fantasy world filled with monsters and magic, others cast players as space-faring voyagers amongst the stars of a far-flung future. It’s fair to say if you can imagine a world, there’s […]
Now that I have the combat rules for The Aether Throne more or less complete in a draft format, I am considering if they stand up to solo/GM-less play. To run combats in this mode, enemies need some kind of AI/automata rules. I’ve seen these work well in the boardgame space (with the likes of […]
An essay on The Aether Court, by Professor Bartholomew Horatio Cottingley, 1898 Even in these enlightened times, there are some amongst us who still believe in magic. Truth be told, such beliefs are not misguided. Since Emma Forrester first drew back the veil almost two decades ago, the existence of aether — and those beings […]
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 […]