Progress Report March 2023
about 3 years ago – Sat, Mar 18, 2023 at 08:21:42 PM

Greetings Voyagers!

We've been hard at work on Aether Adrift these last few months, and we're well on our way to our playtest PDF release. Since it's been over a year since the Kickstarter conclude, I'll lay out what we've been working on, what we've finished, what we're working on, and what needs to get done before we're ready for our next phase

Aether Adrift Playtest PDF Progress

•  [▓▓▓░░░░░░░] Playtest Adventures 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░] Base Building Rules 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░] Encounter Table 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░] Gear Modification 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░] Terrain Generation 
•  [░░░░░░░░░░] Loot Tables 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░] Animal Companions 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░] Elisi Island Setting 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░] Bestiary 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░] Equipment 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░] Dungeon Generator 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░] Edges 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░] Archetypes 
•  [▓░░░░░░░░░] Backer Submissions 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓] Non-Humanoid Robot Stats 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓] Hindrances 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓] New Skills 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓] Vehicles 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓] Bartering System 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓] Crafting Rules 
•  [▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓] Nanotech Powers 

Playtest Adventures: We're aiming to have 5 pre-written adventures ready to play at initial launch. The Abandoned Mine, The Fulgori Munitions Factory, The Sunken Lab, Mystery of the Red Mist, and a yet-to-be-determined 5th precursor adventure will each run 1-3 sessions. Abandoned Mine, Sunken Lab, and Red Mist are essentially complete, but in need of rebalancing. Munitions Factory has been concepted out, but needs rules, and the unnamed adventure needs the most work.

Base Building Rules: The rules for building up a base of operations to return to are tentatively complete. We don't want an overly complex management system, but more of a hideout where the players can lick their wounds, store gear, build or repair new equipment or vehicles, and then set off again. 

Encounter Table: The encounter tables are largely complete, but need some tweaking, and possible conversion to use playing cards. As it stands, it is usable but not ideal.

Gear Modification: The gear modification rules allow you to tweak or enhance equipment by attaching things you find. You can increase or change the damage type of a weapon, make gear lighter and easier to use, make your armor keep you warm or cool, and other things. We need to add a few more options to the list before we're ready to call it complete.

Terrain Generation: The tools for generating your own islands are functional, but we need to add some more unique biomes before we can call it complete.

Loot Tables: We haven't begun making loot tables for the different areas and enemies yet. That will likely be the last thing we do, since it's reliant on so many things being finished.

Animal Companions: We're going to have a separate bestiary of animals to be used as companions for players with the Beast Master edge, instead of simply pulling from the bestiary, including some special robot animal companions brought along on the Albatross. We may also include some simple rules for building an animal companion from scratch.

Elisi Island Setting: The core book will be primarily focused around the island of Elisi, a temperate continent with abundant plant and animal life, and almost supernaturally fertile soil. The island itself will be a hex-crawl island wilderness with large amounts of open space between detailed points of interest. We have not started to detail the island proper yet, but we have a lot of flora and fauna ready to go.

Bestiary: We've got a small bestiary at the moment, but we're planning to expand it to include at least 5 unique creatures for each biome type (Forest, Plains, Desert, etc), as well as a number of precursor defense drones, hostile NPCs and war machines before we call this complete.

Equipment: The equipment lists for Mikwa, Fulgori, and Humans is pretty much complete, and even the Precursor equipment list is sizeable. We just need to give it a final read-through to make sure nothing is missing before we call it complete.

Dungeon Generator: The dungeon generator is a tool to quickly generate any kind of 'dungeon', be it a precursor facility, a fulgori base, or a cave system. We've been running into trouble trying to balance detail with ease of use. The dungeon generation rules are technically functional but not ideal.

Edges: We're almost done with the list of extra edges, we just need to add another couple of mikwa and fulgori specific edges, and add one or two legendary edges.

Archetypes: A list of 20 character archetypes that represent some common character types that would fit in well with the world of Aether Adrift. They're ready to play right out of the box, all you need to do is add Hindrances. The Novice rank versions of them are complete, and we're working on the Seasoned rank versions.

Backer Submissions: We have collected nearly all submission ideas from our Shaper backers, but have not started writing the rules for them yet.

Non-Humanoid Robot Stats: One of the things that was originally going to be a stretch goal, we decided to include them anyway. These rules allow you to play quadruped or avian robots. They are complete and ready for testing.

Hindrances: The list of new character flaws is complete and ready for testing.

New Skills: Aether Adrift adds 2 new skills and changes the way Common Knowledge works slightly. They are all complete and ready for testing.

Vehicles: at least 5 vehicles for each culture have been statted up and are ready for testing.

Bartering System: A bartering system based on the Wealth rules where you trade items and charm or threaten a merchant to get what you want is complete and ready for testing.

Crafting Rules: Ultra simple crafting rules based on the complexity and size of the thing you want to build are complete and ready for testing.

Nanotech Powers: The completely new system of customizeable science magic powers is complete and ready for testing.

What's Next?

Once we've finished this to-do list, we'll start to transfer rules from our Google Drive into a proper PDF to create the initial layout for the Play Test PDF. We'll distribute the playtest PDF to our backers and start dedicating time to regular play tests. Ideally our backers (that's you) will play the test game and give us feedback. We'll also be reaching out to actual-play podcasts and other outside Savage Worlds GMs to ask their assistance in testing. Once we collect playtest data, we'll adjust what needs adjustment then do another playtest pass.

More Artwork!

We'll leave you off with a few more pieces of finished artwork.

First we have the Awaq'willa, "web-weaver", a creature that lurks in dark places and waits to pounce on prey. It spins webs from spinerettes on its head that it holds between its forelimbs. When it pounces, it wraps its prey in webs so it can't escape, then devours it.

Next we have a Maway'chi, a winged snake that measures around 15 feet in length. Their wings enable them to whirl through the air like a majestic eastern dragon, then swoop down to bite their prey with a paralytic venom. Maway'chi like to sleep up high in hidden out-of-the-reach places. Many a voyager has accidentally surprised one and gotten an arm full of venom for their trouble.

Finally, we have the Maka'qarka. These cave-dwelling hexapodal lizards are frighteningly intelligent, able to creep around unseen in the darkness of their cave homes to ambush unwary prey by grasping their face with a hand on the end of its tail, muffling their cries for help while it drags them off to their doom. They are smart enough to watch a creature's face and pay attention to its sight lines, tossing rocks or making noise to cause a distraction to split up groups and strike.

That's all for now, Voyagers!

Voyager Command, Signing Out!

Happy Holidays from Demonskunk Studios!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Dec 25, 2022 at 07:44:22 PM

Happy Holidays, Voyagers!

We hope you're enjoying yourself in a safe and responsible way during  this 2022 holiday season. We don't have any big news for Aether Adrift yet, but work is proceeding. In the meantime, enjoy some fresh Aether Adrift artwork as a gift from Demonskunk Studios to you.

First we have the Allqu, this common beast can be found all over Elisi in a variety of colors and tusk arrangements. They are fierce beasts that hunt in packs. If only one allqu remains in a pack, it flies into a vengeful rage, making them particularly dangerous to hunt.

Next we have the Adralqu, a cousin of the allqu that has the curious ability to breathe fire. Adralqu are considerably more hardy and dangerous than allqu, but unlike allqu, adralqu are typically solitary hunters.

 Finally, we have a Sillurqu. Sillurqu are large herbivorous land crustaceans that can remain stationary for long periods of time - long enough for plant life to begin growing on their shells. They are generally non-aggressive, but if harmed, they doggedly pursue their attackers with murderous intent.

That's all for now, Voyagers!

Voyager Command, Signing out!

Robot Infodoc Release & Infodoc Updates
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 22, 2022 at 03:17:55 PM

Greetings, Voyagers!

We've finished organizing and combing through all of the species data on our google drive, and we've fully compiled the Robot Infodoc.

The robot infodoc is considerably shorter than the other 3 species docs because Robots don't have their own culture, holidays, or society, they exist within Human society. What the doc does detail is their purpose and place within human society, why they're built, and what they do. As with all the others, this document is not exhaustive, and it isn't fully set in stone. This document will likely continue to evolve and grow over the course of development as we flesh them out more.

We're hoping this document will greatly assist our Shaper backers who are interested in adding a robot character to the canon.

Robot Info Document

We have updated the Fulgori, Human, and Mikwa infodocs to include a model sheet in the Physical Description section, and we have updated the Fulgori, Human, and Mikwa Infodocs to include a Robots subheader in the Relations section, detailing what each race thinks of the Robots.

Updated Fulgori Info Document

Updated Human Info Document

Updated Mikwa Info Document

If you have any questions that aren't answered in the infodoc, we would be happy to answer them!

Join us on Discord!

That's all for now, Voyagers!

Min, signing out!

Human Infodoc Release
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 16, 2022 at 10:49:24 PM

Greetings, Voyagers!

We're nearly done tidying up the notes in our google drive, and we've fully compiled the Human Infodoc. This document contains all of the concrete details on the Humans on Elisi, their culture, and their biology. This document is not exhaustive, and it isn't fully set in stone, but it should give a solid insight into how the human colonists live. The document will likely continue to evolve and grow over the course of development as we flesh them out more.

We're hoping that this document will greatly assist our Shaper backers who are interested in adding a human character to the canon.

Human Info Document

If you have any questions that aren't answered in the infodoc, we would be happy to answer them!

The Robot infodoc will likely be much shorter, seeing as they don't have a culture unique from Humans.

Join us on Discord!

That's all for now, Voyagers!

Min, signing out!

Status Update 8/1/22
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 01, 2022 at 09:31:09 PM

Hello again, Voyagers.

It's been some time since you've heard from us, and for that I apologize. The first half of 2022 has been extremely busy, but sadly not in the way that we would have liked. I'll be explaining what exactly we've been up to, and the current state of the project in this update.

Progress Report 8/1/22

The Mikwa and Fulgori infodocs are complete (though changes and additions will likely be made as we go forward), the Human infodoc is about 50% complete.

Island generation, event table, nanotech rules, species stats, edges, hindrances, and equipment are ready to test up to Seasoned level play.

We still have a lot left to do, and we'll be putting together a proper roadmap once we've settled down a little more.

What have you been up to for 6 months?

In short: Freelance work. We managed to pull in about 11k in funding thanks to your generous contributions. We are extremely grateful, but as almost all of that is due to go toward taxes, and printing, and manufacturing costs, we simply can't afford to work on Aether full time. 

Sam and I have spent the better part of 4 months working on an uncommonly large freelance project to help pay for living expenses and food costs. That is on top of dealing with a lot of extremely stressful events in our personal lives. We're in a much stronger position now, but we must ask for your patience going forward.

What does this mean for Aether Adrift

It means our timetable is pushed back. With everything going on, having the project complete and ready for print by the beginning of 2023 is unlikely. We should ideally be feature complete by year's end, and be able to focus on playtesting and balancing.

This delay does bring forward some concerns, however. Global prices are soaring for a lot of things, and we're at the beginning of a paper shortage. Printing and shipping might become a serious issue for us in 2023. We're hoping that the industry stabilizes by the time we're ready for fulfillment but we have backup plans in place in case they don't.

What Happens Next?

Next we buckle down and finish the Human and Robot infodocs. We'll start reaching out to Shaper backers to try to nail down their additions. Once the infodocs are completed we'll be going to playtesting ideally by the end of the month.

What do you need from us?

24 backers need to complete their survey. There are several Shaper backers that we haven't heard from yet regarding their additions to the game world. If you are one of those, start considering what you want to add, we will be reaching out to you soon.

We aren't yet comfortable putting a hard cut-off date on the backer submissions, but we want them within the next couple of months ideally.

Can we see some concept art?

I was hoping you'd ask.

Here we have a few creature concepts. The bunny-like and raccoon-like creatures aren't defined yet, but the Wolddi is a stalwart canine companion favored by Fulgori as a watchdog, family pet, and even military hound. The Tukulqu is a different breed of canine favored by the mikwa as observant watchdogs that protect their fields and livestock from opportunist predators.

Here we have an early sketch of a fulgori city. They live in densely populated apartment blocks that have recreational space on the rooftops. In the center is a government building with a public park out front. A military display is being conducted under the watchful eye of Emperor Fulgor, or a statue of him anyhow.

This is one of the earliest pieces of concept art for Aether Adrift, showing off 4 potential 'character archetypes. A Vanguard is a close-range fighter that stands on the front lines and protects their allies with a sturdy shield. A Gunslinger is a mid-to-long range fighter that uses firearms to harry opponents from the back lines. A Demolitionist is a technical fighter that uses area-of-effect weapons to control the battlefield and disable clustered groups of foes. A Nanotechnician is a versatile character capable of performing many battlefield roles with powerful but limited nanotech abilities.

These sketches were made before the 'style' of Aether Adrift really materialized. The Voyagers were just called "Space Knights" at this point.

That's all for now, Voyagers!

Min, signing out!