Aether Adrift RPG for Savage Worlds

Aether Adrift Test Flight 1.1 Update
4 months ago – Wed, Apr 15, 2026 at 07:55:42 PM

Greetings again, Voyagers!

We've been working on polishing up the Test Flight edition of Aether Adrift since the last time you heard from us. If you've redeemed your PDF on Drive Thru RPG you should have already received a message about the update. We're getting ready to send the book to our editor, and once that process is complete we'll be back with version 1.2

Print On Demand Copies

The plan was to make PoD copies available to backers as soon as possible, but upon finding so many issues with Test Flight 1.0, we decided it would be best to wait until we get the book back from our editor.

Change Log

Below is a mostly complete list of changes from Aether Adrift Test Flight 1.0 to 1.1

Aether Adrift Test Flight 1.1

Book-Wide

• Replaced all references to the Throwing skill to Athletics.
• Formatting corrections to align with english writing standards and the Savage Worlds style guide.
• Renamed the Nanotech skill to Shaping to differentiate it from the concept of nanotech. Changed all mentions of Nanotech skill rolls to Shaping.

Welcome to Venteras

• Rewrote the introductory text to be more informative
• Added a small map of southeast Elisi with small location descriptions.
• Added a timeline of events for both Earth and Venteras.
• Changed the mikwa name for the planet from Lun’qawasa to Qawasa’lun

New Setting Rules

• Clarified that Barter and Trade is not optional.
• Clarified that the simplified Ammo rules only come into play if your group has fired a ranged weapon during an encounter.

Situational Rules

• Replaced Cold and Extreme Cold with Temperature to codify all 5 temperature bands (Extreme Cold, Cold, Comfy, Heat, Extreme Heat)
• Clarified that Suffocation is an alternate variation of the Drowning rules.

Creating a Voyager

• Renamed Ukusuka to Kukankwa
• Alphabetized uncommon ancestries
• Moved new skills between hindrances and edges to match the layout of Savage Worlds
• Added Hindrance, Edge, Skill, and Ancestry summaries to the end of the chapter.

Hindrances

• Astro Astrophy’s effect clarified
• Cultural Obsession’s effects clarified
• Errant Obsession updated with a Major version that allows the GM to change the character’s obsession.
• Lone Wolf’s effect altered to forbid asking for help directly instead of asking for help at all.
• Marcotte Syndrome changed to allow non-humans to take it.
• Pack Rat’s effect clarified
• Slug Butt altered to include a +1 bonus to track the character since they’re dragging tail all the time.

Edges

• Ipukusin Evolution – Added the effect of removing Subservient, and refunding the Advance if the character had already spent an Advance removing Subservient.
• Beloved Belonging – Character Creation removed as a requirement
• Precursor Inheritance – Requirement changed to ‘Venteras Native’
• Advanced Demoralize – Changed name to ‘Menacing Aura’ to make it clear that it is not part of the Demoralize tree.
• Advanced bodyguard – Removed and its effects rolled into Improved bodyguard.
• Improved Distraction – Language clarified
• Emergency Shutdown – Added a 1-round cooldown for the Amp to be restarted.
• Quick Switch – Codified the action as a limited free action.

Ancestries

• NANA – Added the ability for the NANAs to change size as an action
• Ukusin – Name changed to Kukankwa, capacity of pouch further clarified.

Archetypes

• Fixed duplicate edges on Fulgori Chef
• Added archetypes for Kukankwa, NANA and Ukusin

Goods & Gear

Modifying Gear

• Alphabetized and organized Parts list.
• Removed references to Demolition Gauntlet
• Added Poison Gland to the list of parts.
• Added a note at the end suggesting that players shouldn’t feel limited by the list of parts.
• Scratch Guns
• Alphabetized and organized upgrades.

Guide to Planet Venteras

• Added Infodoc pages for the Kukankwa (Ukusuka), NANA, and Ukusin.
• Added an infodoc page for the Precursors.

Fulgori Infodoc

Added imperial and rebel flag/badge symbols and their meanings.

Controlling Nanotech

• Chapter name changed to Shaping Nanotech.
• Added Powers Summaries to the end of the chapter.

Cloak

• Changed language to apply the -4/-6 penalty to all sight-based actions taken against the cloaked creature.

Denial

• Added ‘Small’ as an option to reduce the size of the cloud.

Characters and Creatures

• Changed ‘Biomes’ to ‘Habitat’ in creature entries.
• Abbreviated biome names to 2 the first 2 letters.
• Corrected Moko’chi’s weight to 2 Tons from 2000 Tons.
• Renamed Ukusuka to Kukankwa
• Added poison variants of the Yawa’kichwappa and yawakluru to fill space

Running An Adventure

• Added a section addressing potential bad actors in relation to the robot’s Robot Code of Ethics, and the ukusin’s Subservient hindrances.
• That's all for now, Voyagers!

PDF rewards have been sent out!
6 months ago – Thu, Feb 05, 2026 at 02:20:08 AM

Greetings, Voyagers!

We've just sent out the PDF rewards for all Explorer tier and higher backers. You should receive an email with a redemption link from DriveThruRPG.

If you didn't receive your email, please reach out to us and we'll try to get you sorted out!

That's all for now, Voyagers!

Preparing to Lock Orders and Launch the PDF!
7 months ago – Wed, Jan 07, 2026 at 03:52:07 PM

Greetings again, Voyagers!

Before I start rambling:

We Are Locking Orders On January 31st

We are planning to lock orders and charge cards on Backerkit on January 31st, no sooner than 11:59 PM Central Time. If you want to get any more add-ons make sure you add them in by that date. We will NOT be charging shipping yet.

Preparing for PDF Launch

Aether Adrift is now feature complete. The only thing left to do is add a little more art in, and finish up what art is already there. That means we're all systems go for the early access PDF launch.

PDF Launch?

PDF Launch. In order to avoid blowing a ton of cash printing a physical book full of errors, we're going to do a PDF only 'soft launch' of the book in its feature-complete but art-incomplete state. 

Why launch in early access?

Three main reasons...

Reason the First: There are lots of things in tabletop RPGs that can't be caught until the game is out in the wild. Aether Adrift needs the kind of play testing that can only be done completely out of our hands, to find rules that don't work together or work a little too well together; to find places where the lore seems inadequate or the mechanics don't feel right in practice; to stress test the game in a way that only uncaged ttrpg players can.

Reason the Second: The book has SO MUCH art in it, and the soft launch will give us time to finish the art at our own pace while ALSO giving the game some time to breathe. If the book sells well, it will also give us additional padding in case printing costs increase, or to hire guest artists to make some of the more tricky images shine.

Reason the Third: We can focus on the other physical goods (the posters, dice, cards, etc) without the specter of the book looming so large over us.

How is this going to work?

We'll put the game up for sale on DriveThruRPG. All Explorer+ backers will get a free copy of the PDF as well as a voucher to buy a Print-on-Demand copy of the book at-cost featuring a sketched version of the cover.

(At-cost means that you only pay the cost to have the book printed and shipped to you, with no extra mark-up. so, instead of paying ~$40 or what have you, you'll pay more like $10 or $15)

Will Voyagers get the finished print book?

Of course! When the book is finalized, all Voyager+ backers will get their final full color book as planned. The Print-On-Demand option is purely there for people who want to play the game now but prefer a physical version.

Notice for Backer-Kit Pre-Orderers!!

If you missed the kickstarter and instead backed via Pre-Order on BackerKit, we have no way of sending you a survey to collect information. If your DriveThruRPG email is different from your Backerkit email, please contact us so we can send the PDF to the right DriveThruRPG account!

So what's next?

In the next month or so, we'll drop the book on DriveThruRPG and get you your codes. Once we have that in motion, we'll post another update alerting everyone to the fact and instructing you all to check your inboxes if you haven't already.

Print-on-Demand copies will become available shortly afterward as we'll need to order and approve proofs before we can sell them.

Further after that we'll start sending out surveys for finalizing poster designs and everything else that needs worked on.

That's all for now, Voyagers!

Ignore this Update
7 months ago – Sun, Dec 28, 2025 at 03:38:03 PM

Apologies, Voyagers!

I put out an update and then realized that I needed to add more very important information to it. Kickstarter's Update deletion system is being weird, so if it fails to delete, this will remain as an empty space.

Aether Adrift Playtest Book 1.5 is live! (Repost)
9 months ago – Mon, Oct 27, 2025 at 06:35:34 PM

After months of hard work, version 1.5 of the Aether Adrift playtest book is ready.

Sorry for the repost, for some reason the preview image and link didn't upload when I posted the update.

Incomplete Changelog:

Book-Wide

• Writing tightened up for clarity and brevity.
• More art added.
• Nanotech users are no longer called Nanotechnicians, they are now called Particle Shapers (Shapers for short). 

Creating a Voyager

• Compressed Amp Element edges into one edge that you can take 3 times.

Guide to Planet Venteras

• Added a rough draft of the current Mikwa lexicon.

Secrets of the Empire

• Moved the imperial enemies to the Creatures and Characters chapter.

Secrets of the Precursors

• Added more precursor lore and cleaned up the technology section.
• Moved the precursor enemies to the Creatures and Characters chapter.
• Added more hybrid gear to justify the sections existence

Creatures and Characters

• Fully illustrated all Beasts and Plants.
• Moved precursor and Fulgori enemies from the secrets of chapter to this chapter.

Shaping an Island

• Tightened up the formatting and writing to be cleaner and clearer.
• Changed the biomes section so that Speed, Temperature and Foraging are represented by symbols.
• Cleaned up the dungeon section, reduced the amount of examples, and organized them by challenge type instead of theme.

What's Next?

I'm going to be taking the next month off of working on Aether. I hit it really hard and I don't want to burn out.

After that, I'd like to take another look at the item crafting and modification rules, to see if they can be rewritten for greater clarity and purpose. The Empire lore needs to be finalized. The mikwa lexicon needs to be cleaned up.

Beyond those, all that really needs to be done is to put more art in until it feels like there aren't any more unsightly holes. You should expect another update about our plans for the PDF soft launch in the next couple months.