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 […]
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. […]