[Aether Tuesday] Aether Adrift Cover

What's this, we're back so soon? I did say we'd be doing regular updates, and that we were considering Tuesday, so why not start right away?

Today we're going to be showing off what will become the cover of Aether Adrift.

AetherAdriftCoverGradientsm2.png

This is still a bit of a work in progress, but I'll walk you through it.

On the bottom, we have a shot of the floating islands, with Elisi - the big island in the center - taking up the most space because that's where the core book will focus on lore-wise.

Standing at the center of the island is a group of characters that represents the players - one from each playable race. from right to left: Mikwa, Robot, Human and Fulgori. They're giants on the island because the player characters are heroes, larger than life, able to do things others cannot.

Above them, seemingly in space, is Emperor/King Fulgor, lording over them with a giant hand reaching down as if to grasp the island. He's even larger than the heroes, so far above them in power that he's practically a god, but they look up at him with defiant expressions because they won't bow to him, even with the might that he possesses.

The final version will be cropped in closer on the sides so that it fits on the portrait-oriented book. Let us know what you think of this in the comments below, and let us know if you'd like to hear anything specific about the setting next week!

See you next Aether Tuesday!

Min L. & Sam B.

Happy Holidays from Demonskunk Studios!

Haha, oh wow. It's been exactly one year since our last post here.

Sam and I have been hard at work on Aether Adrift since our last post. In the inbetween time, we've written two adventures, one designed for quick one-shot adventures and one designed for larger, multi-session affairs. We've pretty much finished a piece of cover art for the main book. We've been slowly solidifying the setting and the lore; and most importantly:

WE SECURED THE SAVAGE WORLDS LICENSE!

That means we have the go-ahead to publish our book now. that is the best possible holiday news we could have gotten!

Our new years resolution is going to be to start posting much more frequently on this blog, so we can keep everyone informed on the goings-on in Demonskunk Studios. Currently I'm thinking Tuesdays might be a good day for updates, but that remains to be determined.

In these updates, we'll be discussing anything from the current state of the game, to lore and background information, to content and mechanical reveals, so keep your eyes peeled!

I hope you all have a happy Holiday season, see you in the next update!

We've got a logo!

Time for my annual blog post!

Once again, I'm sorry for the long time between posts, but I have a good amount of stuff to talk about, starting with a new logo!

This is the official Aether Adrift logo, featuring the Albatross emblem behind gold lettering. Lemme know what you guys think!

Next, I've got some more finished art to share with you all!

Here we have a heavily armored lady helping a newly found survivor out of his drop pod. Where is she pointing? Isn't it obvious? TO ADVENTURE!

Here we have a heavily armored lady helping a newly found survivor out of his drop pod. Where is she pointing? Isn't it obvious? TO ADVENTURE!

 A beautiful environmental shot of a group of voyagers - 2 humans and 2 mikwa - set up camp in front of a precursor installation half buried in the landscape. This is also a candidate for the cover art!

 

A beautiful environmental shot of a group of voyagers - 2 humans and 2 mikwa - set up camp in front of a precursor installation half buried in the landscape. This is also a candidate for the cover art!

Sam and I have been busily working on fleshing out the world and mechanics of the game, and we're making some good progress. I'm not going to go into extensive detail here, but I'll give you a general rundown of what we're working on.

Fulgori Society

We're trying to flesh out how the non-military side of the Fulgori culture works - how they dress, what they do and what their stuff looks like. So far we've decided that even though they put a big focus on their military, that it won't be a huge part of their home lives. All Fulgori attend some degree of military training as part of their schooling, so that if the time calls for it they have a populace of fighters, with minimal civilians. Women and men are both equal in fulgori society - every capable citizen is valuable.

Weapon + Armor Modification

We're working on fleshing out and tidying up the initial rules for modifying weapons and armor using components found in the ruins dotting the island. This will take the form of adding special qualities to armor - such as resisting extreme temperatures or specific types of damage, and adding special damage types and qualities to weapons, such as swords that can set things on fire, or guns that fire toxic barbs that disable enemies.

Precursor Ruins

Arguably the most important thing on this list is the precursor ruins themselves. We're working on outlining the types of things you can find inside of them - enemies and items - and a system for randomly generating ruins so that no two facilities are identical, and your party will always be pleasantly surprised

That's all for today!

 

Sorry for the long silence...

But I have a fair bit to update everyone on.

We finally got in touch with Pinnacle, and they told us that we're well on our way to getting the license, we just need to show them a more finished set of setting rules and the finalized layout with more finished artwork.

Ideally we'll have the license and be on Kickstarter this year.

But, for your patience, I have a sneak preview (Well, I dunno if it's a sneak preview, on account of this being a public blog) of the book. It's still WIP, and it's far from finished, but I hope you all enjoy taking a look at it!

http://puu.sh/moNeA/22f1143c54.pdf

A lot of the art will likely end up being moved before the final version, it's just there to take up space right now, but I put them in mostly appropriate places.

I hope you're all as eager as I am to see this progress!

Aether Adrift

Well, the game has a working title of 'Aether Adrift', and I've got some more concept art to share with you!

Human

First we have a Human town. Most of the human settlements are constructed from prefabricated houses that were stored on the colony ship for use as temporary housing while the ship is converted into the first proper city. Because of this, a lot of the buildings look identical, and larger buildings are typically made of multiple pieces that are snapped together.

Their prefab houses provide a large degree of comfort - climate control, running water, and even television (Though the lack of a TV network means they can only watch the media that managed to land on the continent.) The windows on the prefabs can also be darkened for privacy. That round building is a military tent.

Human Town

Mikwa

The Mikwa live in towns with rather simple buildings clustered together in somewhat messy arrangements. They have large watchtowers that are used to keep an eye on the local fauna, and spot any Fulgori or other potential problems before they get too close. They don't have a whole lot of technology, but they do have lighting, fans and radios that are powered by outdoor generators.

They have a lot of farmland around the outskirts of the town where they grow a large amount of fruits and vegetables, and raise a small amount of livestock that are used mostly for working, and only sometimes for eating.

Mikwa Village

Fulgori

Lastly is the Fulgori - They tend to live in crowded, uniform buildings that hold a large amount of people in a relatively small area with minimal comfort. The main fulgori city perfectly embodies the totalitarian dictatorship of it's government. The city is tightly packed with quickly and cheaply made concrete buildings for both housing and industry, and the entire city has an unhealthy haze about it. The exception is the Government Building that houses the King and his favored individuals. The lawn outside of the government building is perfectly manicured, and the King's statue is a constant reminder of who is in charge, and who the people there owe their lives to.

Technologically, the Fulgori are leaps and bounds ahead of the Mikwa. They have motorized vehicles, firearms, mechanized infantry, and some things that were only possible because of the things the King has managed to dig out of the technologically advanced ruin the city was established next to.

Fulgori City

That's a small look into the lives of the different races on the continent, and how they live.

I'll be back with more details as I have them!

Sorry for the lack of communication

I'm... awful at keeping a blog.

So, a lot has been going on lately, mostly with the games.

Wayfarer RPG

Wayfarer is currently on hold - it's been put on the back burner because the project is huge, much too big to be our first game. On top of that, it's admittedly sort of my baby - I constantly worry that I'm going to mess things up, and panicking over every little thing trying to get the setting to feel like it makes sense, and that it's alive, ready to be explored, without feeling too generic.

Echo 6

Echo 6 was, until recently, the active project, but last week I decided that I need to take a small break from it - The game's system has sort of hit a rock wall, and I'm not quite ready to take on the task of tunneling around it yet, since it would mean large revisions to the core of the system, and a lot of scary changes, not to mention that writing your own game system for a first project is sort of... not a smart thing to do.

Writing a system from scratch is a LOT of work, especially when you haven't had a whole lot of experience doing this sort of thing. Balancing is a pain in the ass, and writing mechanics that scale well from early level to late level is even more of a pain. It's also classless, so we're having to deal with potentially overpowered builds due to certain combinations and... well, taking a break from it is sort of a good idea, I've had my nose buried in it for over a year now, and I could use a fresh view.

Rest assured, Neither of these games are dead, just sleeping.

So, that brings us to the present.

New Project

Currently, Sam and I are working on a game that uses the Savage Worlds system - it's a game we don't even currently have a project name for yet, but production is going surprisingly well. I've been super inspired to draw a bunch of concept work for it already, and we have a sort of plot and setting coming along really nicely.

The high concept of the story is that a human colony ship had a catastrophic accident en route to a potential world, leaving it crippled and possibly destroyed - the fate of the ship is uncertain. Players take the role of one of the members of the security team that escaped the ship in escape pods, and crash landed on a floating continent.

You'll have to work with the peaceful natives - the Mikwa - to figure out what happened to your ship and it's inhabitants, explore ruins and excavate the advanced technology hidden within them, and contend with the Fulgor Empire, who also want the technology you're after, and aren't willing to share.

The setting isn't super serious, and nearly everything in it looks super adorable. You'll have an arsenal of interesting and odd human made weapons ranging from laser guns, to chilling swords, to energy bombs, to the magic-like power of nanotech.

We're still working on it, so expect changes, but we're excited about this project, and we think you will be too!

Here's some concept work.