Veldrin

Cover art by @boocanan

Undertow Update #1: Refresh

The podcast formerly known as Eidolon Playtest is now Drawn from the Undertow!

Welcome to Undertow Update, your monthly newsletter describing what awaits you in the next month of Drawn from the Undertow. This month, we've got a lot!

Threadspinner is now ready for a full playtest, and we're going to do it in not one, not two, but three long-form campaigns that will serve as the backbone of this podcast for the next year and a half:

Threadspinner FLAME Players: Iris, Maxie, Tyberius GM: Luke Editor: Iris @stiltsthegm

Threadspinner SPARKPlayers: Crystal, Morgan, ZoeGM: LukeEditor: Luke

Threadspinner GLOW Players: Lexi, Mike, Molly @yerfriendmolly GM: Luke Editor: Mike @mikelovesrabbit

May is going to be a transitional month between Eidolon and Threadspinner, where we will look back on the latest round of Eidolon miniseries while rolling out details about Threadspinner Playtest, which will officially debut on May 25th! The full schedule is below:

Monday, May 4: Eidolon ISLAND/FLASHBACK/ADULT GM Postmortem with Crystal and Maxie Wednesday, May 6: We will reveal the cover art, opening music, and premise of Threadspinner FLAME! Monday, May 11: Eidolon ROMANCE/+MACHINE GM Postmortem with Crystal, Iris, and Zoe Wednesday, May 13: We will reveal the cover art, opening music, and premise of Threadspinner SPARK! Monday, May 18: Eidolon TOOL/PROTO GM Postmortem with Crystal, Luke, and Mike Wednesday, May 20: We will reveal the cover art, opening music, and premise of Threadspinner GLOW! Monday, May 25: Threadspinner FLAME Session #0 Monday, June 1: Threadspinner SPARK Session #0 Monday, June 8: Threadspinner GLOW Session #0

Welcome to the podcast, Morgan!

@girlnextvore is joining as a permanent cast member of Drawn from the Undertow! Everyone loved her performance in Eidolon ADULT, and we're lucky to have her as part of Threadspinner SPARK!

Why rename the podcast?

We're not playing EIDOLON in the near future, so "Eidolon Playtest" isn't really accurate. But we're also not done with EIDOLON forever, and more RPGs will come in the future, so "Threadspinner Playtest" would only be temporarily accurate. Instead of changing the name over and over, we're using a permanent name that is inclusive of EIDOLON, Threadspinner, and everything else that we do: Drawn from the Undertow.

Why three campaigns?

In the past, we split our 9 non-GM players into groups of 4 and 5. We noticed that the 5-player groups consistently struggled to keep up the pace and give each character equal spotlight. For the recent round of Eidolon miniseries, we experimented with 3-player groups and found that they reliably avoided the frictions of larger groups. In addition, 3-player groups are easier both to schedule and to edit.

art by @boocanan

EIDOLON is 80% off!

Until January 1st, the full illustrated PDF of EIDOLON: Become Your Best Self is available to all new and existing $5 members on Patreon!

EIDOLON: Become Your Best Self is a narrative driven, tarot-based RPG all about bringing the power of your soul to life as an Eidolon, an idealized avatar that wields reality bending powers. With the power of your heart and with your friends behind you, you'll confront a world of supernatural intrigue and audacious action as you explore the Undertow, a shadowy parallel world born from the collective unconscious and filled with powerful monsters.

art by @skarchomp

Challenge Fate

EIDOLON uses our own Drawn From the Undertow game system, which replaces dice with a deck of tarot cards. Each action requires a draw, and each card dictates a new direction for the story to go. Play The Magician, and "you achieve an impossible success," but play The Tower, and "something terrible happens." Each character also chooses their own Resonant and Dissonant cards, which act as their own personal critical successes and failures!

art by L.L. Simkowiak

Drama-Driven Battle System

Combat is designed first and foremost with an eye toward building a compelling dramatic arc, with a unique system inspired by shonen battle anime. Short-term victories make enemies more powerful, more deadly, and more desperate, pushing them to further and further extremes until the players reach a moment of climactic triumph!... or, they suffer enough failures, incur enough physical, psychic and metaphysical damage, that they are forced to Face Death, and must cut a deal with the forces of The Undertow to go on fighting.

art by Julie Low

Actually, I Meant for You to Kick My Ass!

With the Reveal Your Master Plan Move, you can dramatically change the flow of a session by revealing a secret strategy that your character's been employing the entire time! Take a bullet? Reveal Your Master Plan to open your shirt and show off the body armor you've been wearing all along! Find yourself alone at the mercy of a powerful villain? Reveal Your Master Plan to declare that you called for back-up before the fight even started! Of course, nothing's ever a guarantee, and you'll often find that your "master plan" has a few hitches you'll need to resolve before it comes to fruition!

Hey having a little tiny bit of money trouble so I thought I would open a few comissions just some bustand also some fun WOD ones cause i do love drawing world of darkness characters

If interested dm me and then we can put the request through on kofi!

art by @boocanan

Physical copies of EIDOLON: Become Your Best Self are available now!

EIDOLON: Become Your Best Self is a tabletop RPG for 2-6 players. Look deep inside yourself to find the power lying dormant within, nourish that power through the bonds you build with others, and use the reality-bending abilities it grants you to fight for your ideals, fighting against the pull of the Undertow, the psychic tides that dictate the collective unconscious!

art by @skarchomp

Challenge Fate

EIDOLON uses our own Drawn From the Undertow game system, which replaces dice with a deck of tarot cards. Each action requires a draw, and each card dictates a new direction for the story to go. Play The Magician, and "you achieve an impossible success," but play The Tower, and "something terrible happens." Each character also chooses their own Resonant and Dissonant cards, which act as their own personal critical successes and failures!

art by L.L. Simkowiak

Drama-Driven Battle System

The combat system from 1E has been significantly reworked, while remaining the same core of the Crash system, in which battle is governed by dramatic arcs instead of hard numbers and stats. Short-term victories make enemies more powerful, more deadly, and more desperate, pushing them to further and further extremes until the players reach a moment of climactic triumph!... or, they suffer enough failures, incur enough physical, psychic and metaphysical damage, that they are forced to Face Death, and must cut a deal with the forces of The Undertow to go on fighting.

art by Julie Low

Actually, I Meant for You to Kick My Ass!

With the Reveal Your Master Plan Move, you can dramatically change the flow of a session by revealing a secret strategy that your character's been employing the entire time! Take a bullet? Reveal Your Master Plan to open your shirt and show off the body armor you've been wearing all along! Find yourself alone at the mercy of a powerful villain? Reveal Your Master Plan to declare that you called for back-up before the fight even started! Of course, nothing's ever a guarantee, and you'll often find that your "master plan" has a few hitches you'll need to resolve before it comes to fruition!