Double trouble with Nick & Ian here to talk to you about the exciting new huge status update we have for Eldritch Automata. With this, we are coming up on one year out from this campaign launch and in the second half of 2025! This update will be massive, but I think you’ll appreciate what we have for you. We’ll share some new art, including pilots and horrors, some layout spreads, go over where we’re at in development, and a lot more.
Tariff Update
Just to give a little update on the tariff as it gets ever closer to printing, there is a decent chance that the tariffs may stabilize a bit more. It feels like watching a plinko machine where there are ups and downs, and no one knows really where it’s going to land. We’ll keep you updated, and hopefully by the time we go to print (which is looking like very soon), things will be in a much better spot than they were when we made that last update.
Upcoming Events
We have a LOT to share about upcoming events. Gen Con just around the corner, a mere month away, and we have a ton happening there, including 74 4-hour and 2-hour sessions of E//A to play in, including one run by Nick himself, and a phenomenal Live Play of E//A on that Sunday!
Eldritch Automata: The Annihilating Angel is a Gen Con exclusive event, featuring Ify Nwadiwe, Cate Osborn, Jacob Burgess, and Persephone Valentine! Nick will lead the cast through a ruined Philadelphia, and while hailed as heroes upon their arrival, not everything is what it seems…
In addition to all the great E//A events, we’re running a plethora of games of Liminal Horror, Trashumanism, Call To Power, Paragons, Horror D&D, and more! We’re also hosting several panels, so check the full events schedule for our sessions.
Beyond Gen Con we have quite a few events coming up in the second half of the year. We’ll have sessions at PAX West and Dragon Con, as well as Quest Con Orlando, NYCC, LUG Con, and PAX Unplugged before the end of the year – many of which we’ll also have a booth at. And don’t forget, if you want to attend a show and run E//A or another horror game of your choice, we’re always looking for more GMs to fill our ranks!
Art Update
Pilot Archetype Art - The Sheltered
Pilot Archetype Art - The Legacy
Our big update for this month is the art. We have a lot to show you, including some pilot art, some page spreads, and even a little piece of Horror art. Currently, we are sitting at about 65 percentof the art plotted out & finished, with the rest allocated to an artist and being started. It took a little bit to find the right artists for cohesiveness in the art style, and locking down who we wanted to build our art team as they freed themselves up from other projects. Now we have a full team of artists, each dedicated to different facets of the book, and we are moving full steam ahead. In the past 2 months, we’ve accomplished more art than we’ve been able to in the prior 10, and our estimates are showing that we’re only going to be accelerating from here on out. Our art director, Paladin Mendelhall, has been doing a great job of taking the reins of art direction for this book and establishing communication with our artists to get everything moving in a timely fashion. With the special Backer tier art already on the slate for production, we are in good shape to hit our goals. Our current focus is still on getting the pilot art, including key background characters who have vastly changed the world of Eldritch Automata.
Pilot Archetype Art - The Thanathos
Pilot Archetype Art - The Puppeteer
We’ve also started getting finished Horror pieces in, and are excited to share the final direction some of these took. Establishing the tone of the Horror art, and how gory/body horror-y it would be, took some time, and we’re thrilled with the outcome. Below is a sample of the Sinful Sight… “A floating balloon mass of a horror, the surface writhing with a network of pulsating veins. Countless eyes surround this Horror, each with a milky orb and piercing gaze. A single gaping maw splits the underside, lined with razor-sharp teeth that drip with ichor.”
Horror Rough - Sinful Sight
And another - The Fleshripper.
Horror Rough - Fleshripper
Finally, we’re excited to share that we’ve made a key change to the brand of Eldritch Automata. When we launched the Backerkit campaign and started working on the book, the E//A logo was a placeholder, never originally intended to be the final version. As time went on, though, we were focused on other aspects of the game and didn’t find time to swing back to the logo.
Today, we’re sharing the final version of the Eldritch Automata logo! We hope you love this version as much, if not more, than the original placeholder!
Layout Update
On to the layout! We’ve been plotting out the layout and art hand in hand as a way to judge how much filler art we’ll need and where. Currently, we have 13 out of 16 chapters (81 percent) laid out and ready for art. Our art director, Paladin, has been doing an excellent job with the layout, which is why we’re excited to show you some of the spreads we’ve been working with. In their words, “I want this layout to win awards.”
The layout has required an interesting balance as we addressed how we wanted the core rulebook to feel, making sure it could be read through without issue while also making it feel like it had that sort of gravity and punch you expect from a highly-produced TTRPG product. Despite being a game with darker tones and themes, we’re happy to say that the book isn’t all dreary with washed-out colors. With a healthy dose of striking colors and visuals, we’ll be sure it’ll be fun to flip through and keep on your coffee table for when party guests come through and you want to let your horror flag fly. We can’t fully give the page count yet, but it looks like it’ll be a whopping 350+ pages of art, horror, and mecha action.
Manuscript Update
Speaking of page count…we’re about to start the second round of editing in the next month or so. This is the last step toward being print-ready, and we’ll be able to release the second half of the manuscript to Backers as soon as it’s done!
New Products!
At Origins last week we revealed a few new pieces of merch, including a collab with The Roasted Crow Coffee! Check out Mech Fuel, a Pecan Cream-flavored Cafe Cubano-style dark roast! We worked directly with the folks at The Roasted Crow to develop this blend, and we absolutely love it. Ian has already gone through an entire bag in a week. Head over to The Roasted Crow to purchase a bag, and use the code "GEHENNA" at checkout to get 10% off your order!
We also are moving a few new pieces into production, including an Omamori, designed by a Japanese friend of ours, and more! All of these will be available on our website for purchase soon, and available at all of our upcoming events.
Additional Game Content
Currently, at the time of writing this, Eldritch Automata has one published item: the Quicklaunch. Beyond the core rulebook, the two supplements (Eldritch Automata: Homefront and the unnamed Eldritch Automata Operation Campaign from Storyteller’s Forge) are planned but not currently in development and will not go into development until Eldritch Automata is ready for digital release. But despite the two big supplements planned, we know that people are chomping at the bit, so we’re proud to confirm that alongside Dark Passenger (from the Quicklaunch) and Open Arms & Heart of Entropy (from the core rulebook), we have three new Operations coming to you in the near future to fill out the current product line. This includes Renegade Base Alpha, a convention scenario written by one of our very own GMs, Jay Gellerman, Violence Against Nature, written by another one of our GMs, Kyle Knotts, and Titans of the Deep, written by Nick himself. Titans of the Deep will be the first release, and we’re looking at having it out in PDF and print by Gen Con!
This place was supposed to be a paradise – some of the brightest minds working together in order to bring about a new possible haven for humanity. You were only there to deliver supplies and assist in the collection of research. No one ever mentioned anything about the station 30,000 feet down on the edge of a massive unexplored trench.
But now you’re down here, at home with someone, or something. No one is who they say they are, the water pressure will turn you into paste, and if that isn’t enough, being this deep is starting to make you see things, hear things, and act differently.
Can you keep going deeper till you find the truth, or will you take a one-way trip to the locker?
Titans of the Deep will also come with some new additional game rules, like underwater combat, the dangers of extreme deep water pressure, and some new equipment. Titans is an Operation and a zine-sized supplement all in one, meant to add a little more flavor to your Eldritch Automata games.
Finally, as requested by our community on Discord, I’m also dropping a new stat block below – an example of an Automata enemy that can be used against your players.
War Dog (Threat 8)
Description: A sleek and agile Automata built for high-speed combat. Its frame houses experimental plasma weaponry, with a distinctive red and black paint scheme marking it perfect for the frontlines.
Health: 10
Ego Field: 5
Attack: Plasma Blade
Tags: Heavy Damage, Close Range, Charging
Attack: Plasma Overdrive
Tags: Medium Damage, Close Range, Area
Talent: Skirmisher - When this enemy makes a successful attack, it can immediately move to an adjacent zone as a Free Action.