Greetings Backers, Nick here! We’ve received some feedback in and out of the form from people who have taken a deeper look into the released manuscript. Once, again, please submit any errors, issues, or suggestions from your playtests in this form. This is the best way to assist us in tuning up the game even more, as it lets us review the feedback in the most actionable manner and quickly review if something has already been submitted or addressed. We cannot stress how important this can be in getting your thoughts out there – we look at every bit of feedback we get and consider it heavily.

Automata Archetypes Art is 100% done and we are awaiting more commissions and art to come through. We can’t wait to show you some pilot art soon, and we’re about to start on the special backer tier for people’s original horrors and pilots! A big focus in the art process we’ve been working on and taking painstaking steps toward is consistency – getting artists who match the themes of the game with similar styles.

The second half of the book is 90% complete, with one or two organizations that still need a bit more writing. I’m currently working on finishing the Location Modules that unlocked from the stretch goals, the guest operation Heart of Entropy is in final reviews, and Operation: Open Arms is going to editing. And Ian is wrapping up the final chapter of the core rulebook. I anticipate will be locked in by the end of the month and shifting the second half to initial editing. It’s been a journey for sure and what is nice is that the book feels complete in its content, I don’t think we’ve had to cut anything out (content-wise) and while printing might tell us otherwise, as of right now we haven’t had to compromise on our vision or additions to Eldritch Automata.

Let’s take a look at something we haven’t really had a chance to talk about yet.

The Enemy Codex is a bestiary I’ve written that was a lot smaller in the first inception, initially just a high-level addition at the tail end of one of the GMing sections with examples of how to create your own enemies. It is now expanded into its own chapter, armed to the teeth with 20 different Horrors, 12 Seraphs, and 13 Automata & Human Combatants. With loads of special enemy-only talents and a simplified Threat Die system for determining what to roll, I am pretty proud of this chapter and what it evolved to. Eldritch Automata has always felt like, mechanically, it’s a toolkit to give GMs the ability to shape what they want, but as we proceed we realized that having more concrete examples and ready-to-go mechanics helps achieve that goal.

So some people have been asking for more lore and we want to share it, but not all at once. So here’s my attempt at summarizing a particular section of the lore without copy and pasting multiple paragraphs and pages of the core rulebook. In this update, we’ll take a look at the Gehenna Institute, with some choice excerpts from the manuscript. The history of the Gehenna Institute truly begins five years after Advent Day, with some areas of the world affected by a slow moving nuclear winter, and full on devastation in others. 

The Gehenna Institute main task was to study signs of the Architect in an attempt to find a reason or way to turn around the extinction of humankind. What they found was that wherever the Architect had manifested, strange things would begin to happen in those areas – time dilation, gravity, and even loss of memories. 

With this discovery, the surviving United Nations (which has since collapsed in the current time of the game) decided to bankroll the Gehenna Institute’s research in hopes of finding a weapon. Spoiler alert: they find something even worse.

I know you’re already asking “What is the Liminal Fall?” Next update, pilots. So, then the Gehenna Institute conducts these tests known as the Basel Experiments.

I’m sure you can guess what is coming next…

A few of you have let us know that you didn't receive the Backer release of the first eight chapters. If this is the case please either email us at [email protected] or join the Discord to ping Ian or myself.

In order to continue expanding playtesting and generate more hype for E//A, we're going to be publicly releasing the ashcan as well, via Hedron. Not only will this give the Hedron userbase the chance to play and give us feedback, but it will provide a VTT platform for all of you to run games through! We have already partnered with Hedron to digitally release E//A and make it accessible on the VTT, so this gives us early access and the ability to start building out assets for the game there.

All backers will receive access to the E//A Beta Manuscript on Hedron FOR FREE. You just need to create an account on Hedron, then let us know what email address it's associated with so we can grant you access! You'll be able to access to manuscript in the same state it was released in as the PDF, along with Hedron's tools for character creation, game scheduling, a virtual tabletop, campaign management, and setting up and sharing your own homebrew items (looking at you racs333).

The manuscript will become available next week with the public release of Hedron V1, and we'll roll out Backer access shortly after!

And don't worry, we're still working on the Alchemy release, which will have a different set of assets and release date! We'll have more news there soon.

While we are hard at work finishing up E//A to get it to print, we’re also psyched as hell to announce that we’re partnering with the multimedia artist Le Destroy to publish Trashumanism - a new Tabletop RPG from Le Destroy and E//A contributor Chris Handley (Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, Iron Kingdoms)! Released first as a full-length album in May 2024, then as a graphic novel later in the same year, Trashumanism has evolved into a multimedia project focused on society’s regression and the impact of technology and media on humanity through themes of consumerism, feminism, body autonomy, sexuality, and technology’s overthrow.

We’ll be publishing the TTRPG and supporting Le Destroy in development of the book, with initial playtesting and demos beginning later this Spring! We’re super excited to be working with Chris again, and can’t wait to show off more about Trashumanism soon. Rest assured this will not impact our timeline for Eldritch Automata, with two different teams working on each project.