u/questborne_studios

Ever since the first time trying kickstarter didn't work out, I have been trying to find new ways to expand and create within the world of Brass & Embers, and came to me right away was this idea for several short stories--including the letters describing the adventures of one unnamed traveler through the exciting places in the continent of Calderwick.

I've always thought it is so cool to experience the same universe through different media and different eyes, and I think being able to experience the struggles, hopes and insecurities of someone living through the tech revolution would be very immersive and give a very different experience than just reading about those people living though those experiences ( as in a traditional TTRPG book would).

The art above is human-made done by Altergate Studio. The City is Kellenfort, and the building sculpt in stone is one of the towers where one of the fully conscious automaton considered sacred and created by the Machinist (aka "god") live.

I'm using this stories to try and slowly build up my community on patreon, so I can continue getting support to commission more art, get collabs with others creators, and keep working on my game!

So anyway, I wanted so share a excerpt, and if you're interested to see more, please, follow us! I'm keeping the stories free until we can get a good community up :)

" I took a small merchant boat on River Edris who was willing to drop me off in the middle of nowhere, which meant a place I could see the first signs of desertification on my spyglass. The merchant, and a few other strays like myself she was carrying, gave me an odd look as I hopped off the boat marching toward the unknown. This has never stopped me once, and I can't imagine stopping me anytime in the future.

I still walked for about 5 hours until I reached the Desert proper with each step the air becoming hotter, the plants transforming into short and compact bushes or grasses. When I was surrounded by the desert itself, I inhaled deeply through my protective face covering, taking a moment to observe the sand dunes and taking in the vast extension of nothingness surrounding me on all sides.

You have never been to the sea have you, R? I know the two of them are polar opposites, but they are similar in that way. When you are in the middle of it and it extends on all sides, it feels endless. I just forgot the word, but I know you know it because you always know these things, but there's a word for people afraid of this openness, of this vastness. And I know there's people who feel small and useless and miserable and they compare their size and importance to something immense and vast but I could never really understand that. I feel great. I feel great because at this moment I am here and while I'm here I feel just like the desert: vast, endless, unstoppable, impossible to be contained or described. Every possibility in front of me extends infinitely in all directions. I just need to find them."

Part 2 of our traveler's exploration in the desert is when trouble finds him.

Here's the link to our patreon if you want to support us and help me make Brass & Embers a reality!

Hey everyone! I'm new here, but I wanted to share with you the world I've spent currently 2 years working on.

The idea came to me just when looking around us and seeing how much chaos new technologies are bringing, and how much uncertainty there is in the world ( bleak I know. It was the last semester of grad school) and how utterly isolating all of it feels. So that made me think of the industrial revolution, and of the gilded age, and of the victorian period, and steampunk... one thing let to another and my mind started to spin the concepts into a world. The world for my tabletop RPG Brass & Embers which is what I am sharing with you today!

Brass & Embers is a steampunk tabletop RPG set in a world which just underwent a great tech revolution 20 years ago when a new energy resource with wondrous new properties was discovered. This new discovery created the a new social class of the ultra rich propelled there by their advancements and early adoption of the tech, the tycoons, who threaten the nobility with their new unprecedented power and the Order of the Machinist, the main religion of the land who held the energy source as a sacred object.

While the major factions are locked in this power struggle, the mechanical monsters from the land become more aggressive and the miners who extract this new material--machnite--bring home with them a new disease that spreads in mysterious ways. The players are underdogs who suffered some kind of loss or great change during this new era and are trying to find a new sense of identity or forge a new way forward. Brass & Embers has 7 unique classes that are all strongly intertwined with its steampunk setting, and all carry innate conflicts and contradictions about what it means to be them in this new world.

That's the TLDR at least! Let me give you a quick description about the three faction leaders:

Ambrose Vexley: Kickstarted the tech revolution, creating a new social class of the ultra-wealthy. Believes new tech will close the gap between those with titles and those without.

Lady Octavia Elkford: Staunch anti-tech advocate from the nobility, known for her vast collection of exotic animals and apiculture. Believes that connecting with traditions allows society to prosper.

Elder Thassian: Youngest to achieve the rank of Clockwork Elder. Known for his powerful sermons and hands-on service to the community. Believes that interference in the Machinist’s creation is bringing forth the decline of humankind.

And Now Let me share art with you of them and one of the monsters from the book!

All the art for the project was made by the wonderful Altergate Studio! And if you liked the idea for my world, and would like play in a world like this, and heck even create part of it with me, it would be the world to me if you could support us! We're live right now and since it's our first time it has been hard to get people to notice us!

There's NO AI in the project. Everything is HUMAN MADE.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/questbornestudios/brass-and-embers-a-steampunk-rpg

When I was creating my own TTRPG Brass & Embers the intuitive and character-centric you create you character in Daggerheart inspired by design. I also want to create a game where you can create your character easily and start your adventure.

The combat thresholds was also inspired by Daggerheart. It keeps the numbers a bit smaller so even one point of damage feels meaningful.

And, yes, I started the development of my game before I knew about daggerheart ( I know! I also have the concept of Hope which is funny but it came after) but getting to read, play and experience daggerheart definitely helped sharpen my focus on what experiences I wanted to evoke in my players.

So now let me tell you about Brass & Embers! If you love daggerheart and it's extra focus on narrative, creativity and character development, I know for a fact I will love Brass & Embers!

I spent the last two years doing nothing but working on my TTRPG Brass & Embers and now it is finally up on kickstarter! I basically wanted to created it because I was tired of feeling so hopeless and powerless all the time, and I wanted to create a game where hope, community and rebellion were the central themes. Somewhere where we could push back against oppression and have our voice heard... so I created Brass & Embers! Where you can do just that in a steampunk world that just went through this huge tech revolution that completely turned the world upside down.

We have our own d6 system and in the game Hope is our HP, so if you keep receiving injury, sanity, notoriety or reserves damage those eventually take their toll on you and decrease your hope. We have 7 unique classes that I designed to have their own unique struggle with the new era of tech, for example:

the Knight was raised to nobility status because they caught the attention of a noble and swore fealty to them, so they have this struggle between their simple roots and their current higher station... their past, their present, and who they want to be. The Inventor was never seriously considered as a professional career until this new age of tech.

Before Inventor was believed to be a weird hobby one did in their spare time, but now after great and powerful changes were brought into society thanks to tech, inventor became respected as a true profession... even though the chances of one getting a rich patron to bank your research is abysmal. Yet even those Inventors that "made it" are chained by draconian contracts to their patrons, seen as a precious assets more than a person. And that's not even considering the impact of the things that have been created by them.

The Ironbound are people who were subjected to illegal experiments and gained superhuman strength and senses as a result... but sacrificing their place in society to do so. Ostracized, and struggling to find for themselves a new place in society, the Ironbound feels particularly torn in the struggle of man and machine.

Yea! And the game is very focus on narrative and creative problem solving, and how you can help each other out as a party! Your base roll is 2d6 ( or 3d6 if you have proficiency) but to get to higher dice (max 6d6) you need your party help with their skills and other interactions.

For combat we use a damage threshold for HP and Sanity for the enemies. HP dmg kills/incapacitates enemies, and stress dmg does severe debuffs on the enemy so it's great for control. HP thresholder is a bit lower than the Sanity one, but enemies also have less sanity than HP. And yes! certain character classes are better at dealing physical dmg or stress dmg but you can customize them to fit your playstyle. How you deal and think about each situation as a team can really make your life easier ( or harder if you don't work together!)

The game was created with lots and lots of love from everyone involved! And No AI was used anywhere in this project. This project is fully human made!

The art was made by our wonderful partner Altergate Studio. And if you find any of this cool please please please like, repost, support us! We really need as many eyes in our page as we can get!

Kickstarter Page

I spent the last two years doing nothing but working on my TTRPG Brass & Embers and now it is finally up on kickstarter! I basically wanted to created it because I was tired of feeling so hopeless and powerless all the time, and I wanted to create a game where hope, community and rebellion were the central themes. Somewhere where we could push back against oppression and have our voice heard... so I created Brass & Embers! Where you can do just that in a steampunk world that just went through this huge tech revolution that completely turned the world upside down.

We have our own d6 system and in the game Hope is our HP, so if you keep receiving injury, sanity, notoriety or reserves damage those eventually take their toll on you and decrease your hope. We have 7 unique classes that I designed to have their own unique struggle with the new era of tech, for example:

the Knight was raised to nobility status because they caught the attention of a noble and swore fealty to them, so they have this struggle between their simple roots and their current higher station... their past, their present, and who they want to be. The Inventor was never seriously considered as a professional career until this new age of tech.

Before Inventor was believed to be a weird hobby one did in their spare time, but now after great and powerful changes were brought into society thanks to tech, inventor became respected as a true profession... even though the chances of one getting a rich patron to bank your research is abysmal. Yet even those Inventors that "made it" are chained by draconian contracts to their patrons, seen as a precious assets more than a person. And that's not even considering the impact of the things that have been created by them.

The Ironbound are people who were subjected to illegal experiments and gained superhuman strength and senses as a result... but sacrificing their place in society to do so. Ostracized, and struggling to find for themselves a new place in society, the Ironbound feels particularly torn in the struggle of man and machine.

Yea! And the game is very focus on narrative and creative problem solving, and how you can help each other out as a party! Your base roll is 2d6 ( or 3d6 if you have proficiency) but to get to higher dice (max 6d6) you need your party help with their skills and other interactions.

For combat we use a damage threshold for HP and Sanity for the enemies. HP dmg kills/incapacitates enemies, and stress dmg does severe debuffs on the enemy so it's great for control. HP thresholder is a bit lower than the Sanity one, but enemies also have less sanity than HP. And yes! certain character classes are better at dealing physical dmg or stress dmg but you can customize them to fit your playstyle. How you deal and think about each situation as a team can really make your life easier ( or harder if you don't work together!)

The game was created with lots and lots of love from everyone involved! And No AI was used anywhere in this project. This project is fully human made!

Lemme share now the art by our wonderful partner Altergate Studio. And if you find any of this cool please please please like, repost, support us!

Kickstarter Page