Hey readers of The Dispatch!
If you’ve read the latest Outer Rim Uprising update, you might want to skip the first half of the newsletter and move to the part where we talk about The Lost Bay RPG.
Spaceships!
We have 4 days left before the end of the Outer Rim Uprising campaign, and a few super cool things to announce to you.
Let’s recap what happened in the last three weeks:
We love you, we’re over 1100% funded, that’s freaking unbelievable, thank you, thank you!
We’ve added a Warden Screen to the Guerilla Bundle tier and above. It’s illustrated by Evangeline Gallagher and recaps the essential info of the Campaign Handbook.
We’ve added a digital Character Keeper. Think of it as "one online doc to rule them all" and keep track of all your campaign info. It’ll be free and accessible to all tiers. It's designed by Josh Domanski.
We’ve added a new tier Full Digital Bundle. It contains all ORU adventures and supplements in PDF. We are big advocates of printed matter and zine nerds, but we understand that some members of the community would prefer a full digital reward, and we want to support that.
If you’ve backed any of the physical tiers (Insurgent Bundle and above) you still can access any of the add-ons: Character Sheet or Crew Patches. BTW if you backed early, but you’re not sure if you’re eligible to the first 48h bonus Crew Patches, shoot me a DM and I’ll check for you.
An Infinity of Ships
Remember the Campaign Handbook? It’s a zine available in the Guerilla Bundle and Uprising Bundle tiers (and above) that expands the implied Outer Rim setting and provides a series of frameworks to quickly start and run MoSh campaigns. I’m talking about this:
This big boi keeps growing. It’s going to be such a versatile tool, especially in conjunction with the Character Keeper and the Warden Screen (yes, shameless plug here). And today we're super excited to announce it will feature a rebel spaceship, designed in collaboration with the STATIONS and illustrated by Rob Turpin. The ship is called Button Masher and her crew belongs to the rebel faction Knob Adjustment, featured in both the Campaign Handbook and in Marco Serrano’s Professional Rebels supplement.
This below is the kind of space art Rob Turpin does.
If you are a tabletop RPG sci-fi nerd like me, you might wonder: but Iko, is this the crew behind the kickass ship generator toolkit An Infinity of Ships that is Kickstarting right now? You bet it is!
We are super excited to announce that we’re doing cross-lore with the team behind An Infinity of Ships. Button Masher will be featured both in the ORU Campaign Handbook and in An Infinity of Ships, expanding even more your gaming possibilities.
An Infinity of Ships is just fantastic. It’s a system agnostic toolkit to generate ships, techs, factions, and more. It’s packed with tables and generators, but comes also with predesigned ready to go ships, like our cross-lore Button Masher.
AIoS is system agnostic, and fully compatible with Mothership. It plugs in so well into your Outer Rim Uprising modules, particularly if you’ve pledged at the Guerilla Bundle level and above. You can use its ships to do faster than light travel with BLINK, to access and infiltrate off-world facilities with A Saboteur’s guide to Cidus II, or to explore the sector(s) featured in the Campaign Handbook (if you do so, beware of fractal worms). We’re talking about cross-project implied setting, here.
I’m familiar with the STATIONS’ work. They pour creativity and dedication in anything they do, and An Infinity of Ships has been an instant back for me. Look at those ships, aren't they stunning? Go back it here.
Actual plays
If you’re looking for something cool to watch for today, we have two new actual plays for you.
The Hunger in Achernar AP with The Weekly Scroll. A classical "Survive, Solve, Save" Mothership adventure. Warning: only the brave, and the lucky, will survive.
And for our French-speaking friends, Ils ne nous mettront pas en cage, or They won’t cage us by Tim Obermueller and Josh Domanski, wardened by Pierre-Philippe Renaud at Coup Critique, and played by Chris Airiau.
The Lost Bay Trifecta
Before we start: a few days ago it was my birthday, and for the occasion I added a bunch of (free) community copies of the The Lost Bay - First Look. There’s still a few left, go grab ‘em: https://the-lost-bay.itch.io/thelostbayrpg
Despite being mostly busy with Outer Rim Uprising and the other bundles being produced right now, I managed to make some significant progress on The Lost Bay RPG.
The Creator Toolkit first pass is almost done! It’s 90% written. It’s a WIP document, and like the First Look edition it’s going to be rewritten and heavily edited after the 2024 crowdfunding. Actually, most of the Creator Toolkit content will be absorbed into the Behind the Scenes booklet (more on this below) .
I played The Lost Bay as a player! I participated in a play by post game run by Verdant Core on The Lost Bay server, and I had a blast. Verdant Core is such a great GM, and the rest of the party was amazing as well. I played a Splinter called Sunday, and I smashed an evil robot with a half broken silver spoon, using my power Shatter (although I could have balanced the character better and make it more powerful). Lots of fun aside, it was a very instructive experience to be on the other side of the GM screen.
It made me reflect on a few core mechanics, and specifically how to recuperate the Weird (which is some energy characters use to activate their powers). I’d like for each character to have a unique way to recuperate Weird points, so I started working on a How do you recuperate Weird? table, similar to the How did you get the Weird? one.
Playing this one shot was the occasion to rework the online Character Keeper, which serves both as an online sheet, rules recap, and session notepad. If you play/run TLB and happen to use it, I’d love to hear your feedback. I’m looking to grow the Keeper, and I’d be happy to add things the community finds useful.
Get the Character Keeper here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TD3eiCT_t4VJnCFW4_oognpPRhWQXjRhlYa6VP0bYeY/edit?usp=sharing
OK, now let’s talk about serious business. You probably know that next year I’ll be crowdfunding The Lost Bay RPG. I’ve been working on the game for years and I’m super excited about this. I’ll be sharing more info about the team (which is stellar), and associated 3RD party designers (yes!) in a future update, but today I’d like to share the cover art of the first booklet.
If you’re a reader of The Dispatch, you might be familiar with the Firestarter illustration by Evangeline Gallagher. It’s going to be featured on the front cover of the User Manual (player handbook). Evangeline has drawn a back cover as well, and it’s just freaking good! Don’t mess with a Firestarter, you’ve been warned!
That’s for the first booklet. The other booklets will be Behind the scenes (GM tools) and Travel Guide (Setting and NPCs). In addition to those, you can expect a redux edition of UNIT DH-17 and The Swine, a new adventure featuring a nasty serial killer. Below is the back cover of The Swine as a little teaser.
I’ve started making a list of 80s and 90s subcultures. I think they could make cool factions of The Lost Bay. Help me out here. What are other iconic subcultures of the 80s/90s? Were you part of one? I’d love to learn about regional variations. Let me know in the comments if I’m forgetting something (someone).
Community support
I’d like to mention this initiative to collect funds for Jennell Jaquays’ medical expenses. Jennel Jaquays is a TTRPG designer that has inspired many folks in the indie scene (and beyond) and that has set foundational work for dungeon design. I wrote briefly about her work here https://thelostbaystudio.substack.com/p/dungeon23-roundup
JJ is in need of support to fund medical treatment. If you can, consider giving support, or sharing the link around you https://www.gofundme.com/f/jennell-jaquays-has-a-long-road-back
I got to go now, fall is upon us, and I need to gather mushrooms and chestnuts to feed the tribe
Have a lovely Sunday/day/week.
Iko
We had alto's, basically the catch all term for goths, punks, rockers, skaters, metalheads, grunge people (do they have a proper noun?).
Myself I'd probably called myself a punk, although I dressed mostly like the mid/late 90s skaters (but I didn't skate), listened to grunge, alternative rock and later to skate & ska punk.