Transmission Thursday: Chem and Tech Items
about 4 years ago – Fri, Nov 06, 2020 at 02:05:03 PM

Welcome back, agents

It’s been a very exciting couple of weeks for us with the final touches on the core rulebook. 

As you all know, the 600+ pages book split into 2 books, Expeditions and Almanac. We fixed some of the details you have spotted from the pdf we delivered a few weeks back and we can't thank you enough for the high-detailed feedback you provided us, we truly appreciate it and are deeply moved because of how you love this universe. 

We are in talks with the manufacturer, Panda, to make the slipcase with a frosted finish to push the foggy style of the Miasma! Here's a sneak peek of the design: 

Definitely, this last stretch will result in a truly fascinating set of books. We want to thank you all for your support and patience over the whole process, we expect to deliver the PDF's by the end of the month via Lair and start mass production on the beginning of December (we hope it starts sooner but with digital proof and pre-production copy process, minor issues might come up). 

Now going back to the Miasma, today, we’ll talk about the equipment you can expect to use when traversing the Wounded Earth. 

Equipment

Traversing the fog is hard enough even without considering the terrible monsters that lurk within. In a different Transmission Thursday we’ll make sure to speak of the armor ideally worn by agents and the history of its creation. Today, however, we’ll focus our attention of the technology and chemical objects (here named tech items and chem items) that will make the difference between a simple adventure and a journey through hell.

As you’re aware, the Wounded Earth consists of six different factions, along with a few independent countries. These factions have all developed different technologies and scientific breakthroughs which are evident in the kind of objects they use in the fog.

Consider the Atlantean Hoverpack, for instance which allows an agent to traverse great lengths in the air for a short time. The Oceanic scarp bomb, a makeshift grenade by the seafaring community is a quick explosive crafted in the spur of the moment that can result in a second to escape.

Eldritch Century: Chronicles of the Wounded Earth also introduces the mechanics for upgrading and modifying all forms of equipment. Essentially, all weapons, armor and vehicles present a specific number of upgrade points to be filled with upgrades found in the fog. Anyone can upgrade, but characters with high Intelligence (Technology) skill modifiers may have an easier time about it. These upgrades can reward the player with a myriad of effects, from a higher hit modifier to a higher base speed.

Great Wyrms of Drakha

Our dragons still soar. While these creatures belong to a different universe than Eldritch Century, we’re taking this Transmission Thursday to remind you that the Great Wyrms are ready to face you, do you have what it takes to survive in Drakha? 

Remember that as returning backers you will have access to a free loyalty reward! The STL's from the Alpha Generals; but that's not all, if you pledge on the "Hardcover book" tier ($40 USD or above, having any physical reward) you will receive a free dragon miniature too! 

Make sure to take a look out of the Miasma and visit Drakha here. 

Finally, after almost 8 months of quarantine, last week we make possible a short reunion with the team (with al safety measures) and play a bit of our games and even built Baastherox's battlemap, here's a photo of our agents! 

Until next Thursday, stay safe, over and out!

Transmission Thursday: Remnants and a shoutout
about 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 11:27:55 PM

Greetings, agents

Our books are coming together quite nicely. Some of you have had the opportunity to check a preliminary version of our book and your feedback has been incredibly valuable to us. Today’s Transmission Thursday will focus on one of the most important missions your team will have.

Remnants

We have stated this before, in the explanation of your missions, but one key aspect in fighting the Miasma, we've found, is the extraction of remnants. It's important that you consider, when dealing with these people, that many of them may have been corrupted by the subject we've come to know as The One Who Breathes and may not be eager to exit the fog. Proceed with caution.

The following is a report by a few of our agents.

As the Miasma expanded, it covered more and more inhabited regions. In the first expansions, there was absolutely no way to escape it. The eldritch poison of the fog, however, didn’t affect everyone in the same way. While some became monsters or simply got lost in the ever-twisting density, others remained in their original bodies and with their original minds, only haunted by the Miasma’s intrusion. These are the Remnant.

The Remnant are the people who were left behind and were forced to make a life inside the fog. These are folk who have to manage with constant attacks of horrifying creatures who seek to bring down any structure inhabited by humans. Not only do they have to watch their backs from the monstrosities that roam the Miasma, but also from the entity they’ve named “The One Who Breathes.” Its influence knows no bound and it can completely transform a person’s mind. All survivors of the Miasma hold a small trace of the being’s presence.

Our team from LAIR is working on releasing version 0.0.3 and once that is done, digital fulfillment for the FINAL book will begin (next week!).

Special shoutout

Here at Draco Studios we constantly strive to create bigger, greater universes. We are a team of creatives and gamers who love deeply thought out worlds and interesting mechanics. We’d like to take this Transmission Thursday to shout out our newest kickstarter campaign: Great Wyrms of Drakha.

Massive, imposing dragons, each with their own personality, evolutionary process, needs and desires. Great Wyrms of Drakha funding will see the development and process of seven unique dragons now in plastic version as partnered with Panda, as well as seven high-level adventures and encounters to be played using 5e. One for each.

We have several goodies for your, starting with a free sample adventure against one of the great wyrms: Baastherox, the Mightiest   (Look for this image in the campaign and click on it to download).

As returning backers, you get 1 EXTRA gargantuan miniature for free when pledging for the physical book or a higher reward tier with physical items. You will also get the STL files for unreleased models of Dragonbond for no cost. (And if you are into 3D printing, you definitely have to check our massive lairs which are OpenLOCK compatible). We truly value your trust and loyal support, so returning backers always get the best deal!

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Now that Layout for the Corebook of Eldritch Century is finished, with art complete, and overall, development stage complete, we will move to manufacture of the 2 books (which is mostly waiting for the factory and reply some emails). 

Our creative team will start working on this new RPG book once the campaign finishes and we plan to deliver another beautiful book! We hope to see you there!

We will be back during the next Transmission Thursday!

Transmission Thursday: ARTWORK FINISHED!
about 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 10:43:36 PM

Greetings, agents

The miasma’s density thickens as time moves forward. Perhaps it is a sign. Today’s Transmission Thursday will talk about the Minerva Initiative Headquarters in Iceland. But first, we would like to celebrate with you an important milestone from our real HQ in Draco Studios that happened some minutes ago:

ALL ART COMMISSIONS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED!

To be honest, once we realized that we had so much more content than what we originally planned for, one of our main concerns was the time and cost for the extra art pieces to properly illustrate as many details from the Wounded Earth as we could. Thanks to your enthusiasm and an outstanding collaboration from everyone in our team and the multiple guest artists, we managed to complete 270+ pieces of artwork!

Can you imagine the amount of work hours for creating the briefs, recruiting artists to assign each brief, sketches and revisions submissions, art direction feedback, file management and admin work?? We are proud of this great achievement but most of all, we are excited to share it with all of you!

Over the course of the last months, we have been sharing with you some of the art in the Transmission Thursday updates because we are delighted to share this project's development with you.

• Soon, you will receive the digital and final PDF (once our graphic layout team completes some finishing touches) and you will be able to see all the art! 
• Transmission Thursdays will continue with news from Manufacture, Stretch goals development (comic and Minerva Adventure) and hopefully, sharing RPG stories from fellow backers. We are still not done, and we will continue working to fulfill all our promises! But certainly, the hardest stage of this project is about to be done.  

Thank you all for your patience and support!!!

Minerva Icelandic HQ

Iceland saw a lot of movement after the second Miasmic expansion. Regardless of the government’s many attempts to keep the peace, the citizens scattered throughout the Wounded Earth in an attempt to escape the Miasma, which was bound to expand once more. Now, the island is home to Minerva Initiative, from where they can keep a watchful eye on their greatest enemy and key goal: the fog.

The following is a brief report on our technologies.

Perhaps Minerva’s greatest invention is the core energy structure of their headquarters. Before the influx of Zohar engineers, their entire domain made use of geothermal energy, making use of the volcanic activity of the region. With the Miasma drawing ever closer, and with the advice of Axumite recruits, Minerva implemented the use of Zohar by-products to power their facilities and improve upon their communications techniques. With help from its Oceanic Recruits, the Initiative has also fashioned anti-radar devices for their vessels. Rather than simply hiding them from radars, they reflect the radio waves back to the sender and use the returning signal to navigate.

Inside Minerva HQ, transport is managed through Magnet technology. While the process can’t be automated, an entire team of people is dedicated to managing the many lines and links that connect the facility.

A year ago, Eldritch Century was funded on Kickstarter, it has been an amazing experience for us and we are ecstatic for being able to deliver you a lot of extra content and value for your pledge. We are committed to improve ourselves and offer better products for our community. Eldritch Century was our first experience at developing RPG books; we have learned a lot and have optimized many processes. 

Now that this project is going to manufacture, our RPG dev team is ready to take a new challenge... this time we will take you to new heights, to the Red Moon. Introducing 7-high level draconic adventures, where players will have to discover their foes' weaknesses in order to stand a chance against the Great Wyrms of Drakha. 

We will be thrilled to count with you in our second RPG project and to offer you yet another amazing experience, from the Kickstarter campaign, to the final product. 

You can use this link to be notified on launch: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dracostudios/great-wyrms-of-drakha

Transmission Thursday: "Adventures"
about 4 years ago – Fri, Oct 09, 2020 at 03:13:21 AM

Greetings, Agents

Lucky for all of us, today’s Transmission Thursday will be all about your duties as agents for the Minerva Initiative.

Missions in the fog

The research team in Minerva HQ has been compiling quite a bit of information regarding the Wounded Earth. This has led to dossiers of events that have occurred in the Factions and, most importantly, in the Miasma.  Before we move forward, let’s take a moment to recall the key precepts that Minerva Agents must have in mind.

Understand our enemy

The initiative started as an academic endeavor and it is, for the most part, guided along those lines. What makes the threats around them so dangerous is the fact that, even despite the passing of decades, their understanding of these threats is limited. Minerva spends a lot of resources and manpower just gathering information, either directly from the source, sending field agents to collect and analyze data, or by proxy “acquiring” information from other sources or outside research, such as a corsair company eager to make some extra money from their incursions, or a misplaced report issued by a diplomatic squad sent by the mandate to placate foreign intruders.

Stop de Apocalypse

Every few years the Miasma grows, and whenever it grows, it decimates a portion of the Earth’s  finite surface. This swelling fog threats to engulf the planet and fill it with otherworldly terrors. The rate at which this has happened is unsustainable, and the clock is ticking. Minerva’s mission is to put a halt to this.

This objective feels vague, and so do the actions Minerva takes. It is not only about the Miasma, it is about what goes on there, what others do there, and also what they do in their homelands. Eliminating a potential emissary to the One Who Breathes one day, polluting an Atlantean portal a corsair company is trying to design in order to save money on the trips to Europe the other. Who knows how many times disaster has been averted? Worst of all, who knows when it will have to be averted again? Sometimes, Minerva pulls a finger out of a hole to plug another, and the ship keeps taking on water. It is a thankless job, but it is the sort of job some people just can’t sit idle while nothing is done. Those people are the ones Minerva recruits as agents.

Additionally, Minerva agents are expected to bring out any Remnants they may find within the fog, within the confines of logic and possibility. Bear in mind their proclivity to become polluted by the aforementioned One Who Breathes.

These dossiers, colorfully coded “Adventures,” present the many key moments of a historical issue, the information agents need to complete a mission and the many moving pieces behind them. Three are in the works at the moment, but we’re in talks among the team and external researchers for new material.

The book

We are veeery close to finish the layout on the book. We are waiting for the last dozen of illustrations and it will be ready for prepress and production! 

Our creative team has started working on the digital adventure unlocked as part of the stretch goals, we will keep you posted about the progress.

Thanks again for all your support! We will be back next week!

Transmission Thurs... Wed... ???: Renascent Psionics
about 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 01, 2020 at 09:23:17 AM

Greetings, Agents. Welcome back.

Today’s transmission Thursday won’t happen on a Thursday. We’re moving it a bit early. Or perhaps it is Thursday and the Miasma has been corrupting your mind. Perhaps…

As it may, today we’ll talk about the great development of psionics in the Renascent Hegemony, a massive step forward for the South American faction and a subject that has confused and intrigued scientists around the world.

Renascent Psionics

An excerpt from the work by Ezzy Languzi and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Psionic ability lies dormant within each individual, awaiting to be awakened by mutagens or intense study and practice. No two people's psi abilities are the same. Those demonstrated by Renascents who have submitted to mutagen therapy are telekinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, and self-empowerment. This is not to say that there aren’t abilities that remain undiscovered. Each manifests in many different expressions and forms. For example, a Renascent who is an adept telepath may apply their craft in spycraft, lie detection, mental suggestion, remote viewing, and identity fragmentation, to name a few skills. It’s not uncommon for a Renascent to be a talented telepath and telekinetic practitioner.

Application

Spycraft often involves the use of psionic abilities to dim the perceptions of others, induce hallucinations, and prevent the formation of memories pertaining to the spy in question. Telepathic lie detection, as well as remote viewing, further make Renascent spies difficult to guard against. Powerful forms of mental suggestion, as well as the ability to manipulate subconscious desires and instincts, are available to more elite Masques. In extreme cases, identity fragmentation and cognitive impairment bombs are detonated, with irreversible results for the victims, but without any external physiologically traceable causes.

Assassins

Assassins are trained in the art of psionic manipulation of others to act as triggermen who execute intended targets, thus misdirecting culpability and providing authorities with a clear scapegoat. Successful assassins are rewarded with psionic mission-specific memory wipes and replacements that are undetectable to even other advanced Masques. Unsuccessful assassins in turn become targets.

Shoutout to a Kickstarter project we love: Scarlet Republics

As you can see in the universe we are creating for Eldritch Century, we really enjoy immersing in original settings...

Recently, we found about Scarlet Republics, a videogame set in a vibrant fantasy world inspired by the Italian Renaissance and the art of Leonardo Da Vinci. The game tells a mature fantasy story of vengeance and conquest, with plenty of choice, consequence and wit.

They are in their last stretch with less than 24 hrs left, and it would be great to see them thrive even more. If this sounds as an experience you or a friend would like, make sure to check it out before their campaign ends: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/167245551/scarlet-republics

We will be back next week with another transmission!