By Grant Howitt & Grant Taylor

Crewing a steampunk flying train through the celestial realm of The High Wilderness.

Based on the game Sunless Skies and the Fallen London Universe

It’s been a year and a half since Prince of Clay came out and it’s been really interesting watching peoples reactions to it, who understood what I was putting down, and who didn’t.

Because if Skyfarer was an adventure story, and Dragon Road was a thriller, Prince of Clay needed to be, and is, a war-story. And that means by definition for me to be honest when handling that sort of story, it couldn’t be upbeat or cheerful. It needed to be messy, and complicated, and painful and abrupt, and leave a partial taste of ash in the mouth at the end.

If I hadn’t done that, it wouldn’t have been a war story. It would’ve been another adventure story that used war as its backdrop. Those are fine, but they’re not war-stories.

There were moments of glory and triumph in Prince of Clay, but it was not intended to be a story of Glory or Triumph. It was intended to be something else altogether. It’s been really interesting seeing who that resonated with, who it didn’t, and why.

Rythulian Oddities

1-24 - Fan Art. Rythulian attire adorned with queer deer and stone serpents, yesss… An idea behind one of the sets of attire we donned in-game and quite enjoyed, using some new art supplies including silver and gold metallic paint pens…~ A scan doesn't show it so well, but it shimmers in-person…~ And yes, finally finished something, oof… Only we and those we gifted to may use, do not steal.

it's something we've formally tried to make happen twice, and on a third occasion we did release something: skyfarer, a lightweight system for one-shots and short campaigns set in sunless skies.

as to something bigger, we'd love to, but it's more of a challenge than you'd think, considering that we're full time game developers and not ttrpg designers/writers. we could make a very good go of it, but dropping our work on games is too costly to us.

I gotta say, YouTubers photoshopping game designers’ faces to look beaten and bloody on a thumbnail belonging to a review proclaiming things like “total failure” or “is this even a game?” is an ad hominem and certified Dick Move. I don’t know what it is about Critical Role projects that attract the worst of culture war B.S. At worst, I can say that it makes a good faith yet inelegant attempt to deal with sensitivity and inclusivity. Compare that with DnD, and I say that it passes well. (Honestly, Old Gods of Appalachia or Bluebeard’s Bride deal with that best - consent checklists and content warnings.)

That out of the way, the game is actually good. Super rules-light, narrative heavy, and with very cool lore. It’s halfway between one-page RPGs like Lasers and Feelings (or a fifteen pager like Skyfarer) and Powered by the Apocalypse systems. If you like the improvised storytelling of RPGs but hate the crunch of most examples of the genre, this is the game for you. Find an experienced GM, though.

The scar and gilded dice mechanics are really neat, and the open-ended worldbuilding is like a blank canvas for a GM to go nuts with. I plan to use this as a gateway drug to drag more people into the hobby. Also, there’s an en-cyphered story in the book that I haven’t taken the time to work out, yet. Someone should get on that.

The Neath to Reach Zine is finally here!!

I dont have much to say other than a massive Thank You for all the amazing spectacular submissions! It's been a blast putting this together bc i got to know so many lovely people, see so much good art, and read so much cool writing!! Thank you to everyone who participated!

You can view and/or download the Zine by clicking the link above! Hope you enjoy!