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.

Greetings Backers, Nick here! It’s a new year, and we bid goodbye to 2024 and march into 2025. It’s a brave new world and we’re excited that you’re here taking the journey with us. First off, we wanted to apologize for the lack of updates since before PAX Unplugged. It was a big month for us and we were attempting to get this update out by the end of the new year but with the holidays and PAXU and some other challenges, we found ourselves overwhelmingly busy. We also didn’t want to release an update so close to the BackerKit pre-release empty-handed… But with our editing complete on the pre-release it’s time to give you the New Year Update!

Let’s start with some news.

PAX Unplugged was an amazing show for Eldritch Automata with over 60 sessions running eight different scenarios, six of which were created by our team of amazing GMs. We managed to fill every table and bring Eldritch Automata to the masses of Philadelphia for PAX. We brought a whole batch of physical copies of the Quicklaunch Guide and completely sold out by the third day, making Eldritch Automata a huge hit. We got to meet fans and prospective players alike and showcase the war against the Architect for them. We also did countless interviews during the show! But overall, showcasing the scenarios – including a new one written by yours truly – was a massive highlight of the show, and we got some amazing feedback from the players. And, of course, if you managed to stop by our booth we had some get our special edition pins (which you may see at future conventions as well)!

Did you play E//A at PAX Unplugged? Let us know what you thought in the comments!

Here are a couple of the great interviews we had:

The first eight chapters of the book have been finished and edited, and we’ve setup a PDF to share with all of you! By our current count, we have 16 total chapters for the Manuscript and our final page count will be somewhere north of 300 pages for the core rulebook in GLORIOUS US Letter size. The second half of the book is around 80% complete, pending some editing and revisions, and one of our guest operations is completely finalized, with the second one pending some light edits. The modules remain the last things from the BackerKit stretch goals that remain unfinished for the core rulebook, which is good for us! The only challenge we’ve hit is getting art finalized. The Automata Archetype art is about 99% complete as we near the end of that chapter being laid out, and the Pilot Archetype is underway, as well as some of our general page and margin art. Once we’ve finished the stretch goal modules, the core rulebook will officially be in its final stages, and my writing duties move on to the supplements and [REDACTED].

Ok, this is probably why you’re still here reading. Yes, it’s time for the pre-release to go out, as we’ve been discussing. That means you get your hands on the first eight chapters of Eldritch Automata (roughly the first half of the book) as a raw (edited) manuscript PDF, or “ashcan,” as we sometimes call it. I don’t consider this an ashcan anymore since it has gone through final editing, but rather an art-free PDF of the first eight chapters. The chapters have been run through our editing team and match what will be in the book, minus any errata you submit upon review. You’ll notice some things have been changed since the Quicklaunch and have been modified. Which begs the question…

So, we consider the Quicklaunch Guide our official public release beta version of Eldritch Automata. It’s a polished version of the rules of that time alongside an official scenario. As of this time, we have no plans to update the Quicklaunch Guide, as it will serve as the publicly available rules until the release of the core rulebook. The Quicklaunch Guide is a state of the game that is tried, tested, and works. We know it does. The changes we have made that you’ll see in the pre-release are what is currently in flux and may not be final.

The next, and final update to the Quicklaunch will be after the core rulebook is finalized to align the two.

What does this mean for the pre-release player manuscript? Well, consider this a private beta, a v0.75 to the Quicklaunch Guide’s v0.5. Which is why we are sending out a feedback form with it. This feedback form will continue to stay open until the final publication of the core rulebook is locked in. This will be open to all Backers and playtesters, so please use this form to submit your feedback, typos you may have found, inconsistencies in the rules, and things that you feel need further clarification. The feedback form also has a question about what aspects of the game or mechanics you like+ and might want us to focus more on in future supplements.

To be crystal clear, this update gives Backers access to:

It will also include a blank character sheet for you to build your own characters, test the rules out, try some of the new changes we made for the rules out, and give us your thoughts. The private playtesting is over, it’s time for Eldritch Automata to enter your hands!

Unfortunately, with all of this, we need to be clear there is some bad news to share. While we have some art in process - art is very behind schedule. We were holding off on sharing this on the chance we would hit our deadline of getting the book to print by Chinese New Year, but between the current state of US relations with China, the status of our art direction, and finalizing some of the stretch goals, we know for sure that isn’t in the cards now. This means our timeline is going to shift a couple of months. Rest assured, we are still releasing in 2025. We’re just looking at a late Q3, Q4 release now. We will be proactive in sharing updates on this progress with you all, and showcasing some of the new art as it comes in, and we thank you in advance for your patience as we get this phenomenal game across the finish line!

Keep an eye out for an email containing the manuscript and character sheet, coming shortly!

Hello Pilots! It’s our favorite month of the year, October! We have a MASSIVE update here with a lot of fun news, so sit back and enjoy!

Our focus is still on the manuscript right now and getting it prepared to go into the editing phase. We are eyeing to release the manuscript preview to backers in two parts to keep people satiated and collect extensive feedback on the archetypes and armory sections of the corebook. What does this look like in the grand scheme of things? It means you’ll get the first eight (8) chapters of the core rulebook, which gives players all they need to know about playing Eldritch Automata in a raw, text-only format. This isn’t going to happen overnight, and we want to at least get our editor to review the first eight chapters before releasing it. But we do want people to be able to start making their own characters and sharing their characters with us.

Shifting to the physical side of things, we’ve recently gotten the patches and enamel pins in and they look GLORIOUS. Honestly, every time a real physical piece tied to our game comes in it always leaves us in awe. They’re colorful and vibrant and will be perfect for repping your favorite Archetype. 

Next, we are proud to announce we have hired an Art Director and Layout Artist to take over the management side of things and help us be more efficient. They’ve already taken to ripping and reorganizing all our folders (this is a good thing) and letting us declutter the past several years of assets and random image drops. We’re excited to welcome Paladin Mendenhall to the team! You might know their work from the award-winning Sina Una, and we’re excited to get their expertise on board as the book progresses.

Stretch goal-wise, Nick is currently writing the location modules, starting with the Forge, and cleaning up a few things in the game mastering section of the book. “The longer I stare at this manuscript, the more I find myself revamping and adding.”

Our guest operations are in production and being written. We’ll have to address when the layout is getting underway if the guest operations are going to be able to fit into this book or if we’ll have to shift them to digital release. 

Finally, the Quicklaunch Guide revisions are done, and the print version is complete and sent off to the printer this week! To quickly cover it, here are the patch notes for v2:

That’s it for today, take a look at the gorgeous final products on the patches and pins, and go download the updated Quicklaunch Guide!