Lowland Festivals + Rust Wings Announcement

Cloud Empress Life & Death Backerkit

If you missed the Cloud Empress Life & Death Kickstarter, I’m working hard to get the Backerkit pledge manager up and running. Expect preorders to go live in early June at the latest!

Announcing Rust Wings: Wrench and Propeller Roleplaying

While I’m still focused on the current Cloud Empress Life & Death project, I’ve started the early stages of testing my next tabletop roleplaying game setting called Rust Wings: Wrench and Propeller Roleplaying!

After a widespread Robot Rebellion 50 years earlier, now the planet is overrun with abandoned mechanical crabs, robot monkeys, and rebellious automatons. Players form seaplane salvage crews exploring the Endless Ocean for valuable treasure and to uncover the past’s secrets. Seaplane crews must navigate collapsed massive moving structures while avoiding the Royal Navy, Sky Pirates, Pellet Corporation agents, and the remaining robotic inhabitants of the abandoned human cities.

Key inspirations include Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, Nier Automata, Mega Man 8/Mega Man Legends, One Piece, and Dragon Ball.

Think bright skies, big blue waters, pirates with hearts of gold, and dangerous mysteries to unravel.

How does Rust Wings work? I'm testing a hacked Mausritter ruleset to create adventure gameplay on the open waters that powers interesting sneaking, climbing, and chase sequences.

I’ll be playtesting Rust Wings at the Minneapolis gaming convention Convergence!

• Thursday, July 4th at 3:30 pm

• Friday, July 5th at 5 pm

If you’re at Convergence you can sign up at the gaming area. Expect more online playtesting opportunities in the next eight months! Make sure to follow this newsletter for future Rust Wings news, free content, and project updates.

Festivals in the Lowland Wastes

Now for our monthly Cloud Empress expansion! You can download all of the newsletter expansions here.

• Dance of the Dead. Even in Tack Town and the Living Land’s protected towers Winter’s cold fingers inflict cruel punishment on the vulnerable. Unable to bury their dead, costumed Farmerlings mournfully waltz the dead’s funeral urns to final resting places in Feeding Grounds after the morning frost ends, but before the Imago appear.

• Spring’s Kiss. Tradition holds a kiss must be given to the finder of Spring’s first crocus. Whether the kiss is filled with passionate tongues or merely given as a perfunctory peck on the cheek, whole villages feast and celebrate romance, sexuality, and partnerships in all their forms.

• Night of the Fishing Bowls. While Winter storms blanket the Earth day and night, Summer winds clear the Wastes’ sky. Upon the first visible full moon, villagers carry bowls of water to catch the moon’s reflection and so capture a year of good luck.

• Victory Day. Since the defeat of the Emperor’s Armada during the Tenth Expedition, folk in the Lowland Wastes construct paper mache effigies of Cloudling Barges and light them aflame or explode the ships with black powder to joyous childhood glee.

• Night of the Pumpkin Moon. When the early Fall moon turns orange, elders puff chalk smoke and regale villages with unnerving stories of Wanderlings, Torturers, and cursed travelers. Scared children are later pacified with hardened corncob dolls made from the harvest.

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What I’m Reading & Playing

• Sword and Citadel by Gene Wolfe (thanks to my Discord members for reminding me I never finished the series)

• One Piece by Eiichiro Oda

• Oz a fantasy roleplaying setting by Andrew Kolb

• Elden Ring by From Software (getting ready for that Summer expansion!)

That’s it for this month! What’s one thing you’d like to see in Rust Wings? Let me know in the comments!