This month we’ve been making steady progress on the campaign extras that all backers will receive digitally and that will be packed into every box set.
Progress is steady, with Dai taking the time he needs to make sure every component looks just right. His work is elevating every part of this project, ensuring the final box set will be something we're proud to own; not just as a game, but as a beautiful RPG object that’ll stand the test of time. Here's what's been completed this month:
GM Screen is Ready
The moody, atmospheric front.
The GM screen is complete and ready to rock. Here’s what you’ll find:
Quick-reference list of all the NPCs from the adventure.
The weather table, to keep the pressure on as the storm rises through the ruins of Ma’at.
A “loot the body” table, for dusty discoveries in forgotten corners of the necropolis.
The useful, stylish back.
Character Sheets Are In
The character sheets are modelled after expedition intake forms: a nod and wink to the premise of the mission itself. Your players are just joining a totally routine, xenoarchaeological dig on Ma’at. Nothing to worry about. Totally safe. Please disregard the boxes marked “Stress” and “Wounds.” I’m sure they won’t be necessary ;-).
The box set version will be printed in full colour, but we’ll also be sharing a print-friendly black-and-white version for home use to prevent the annihilation of your ink cartridges along with your PCs.
In sun burnt orange
Stories from Ma'at
I'm curious to know if any of you brought Burning Gods to the table yet. Or started smuggling campaigns using the Barge Bazaar? If you've slotted it into your campaign, run a one-shot, or kicked off a whole new adventure, I’d love to hear how it went. Hit reply or drop a comment and let me know what your crew got up to.
What’s Next
Looking ahead to next month: we’ll be finishing the remaining components which are the box, the dice, and the poster. I know out of everything the poster is the piece Dai is most excited about. Which makes me very excited to see what he comes up with and to share it with you all.
Until next month, play games, have fun, and stay frosty. Sincerely,
Welcome to the, somewhat belated, May update. This month’s big news: The Smuggler’s Guide to 1365 is complete—and it’s almost ready for distribution!
Dai submitted the final draft this past Friday, and we had hoped to get it into your hands before the end of May. But after a thorough review, I caught some typos and layout tweaks that still need to be fixed. Nothing major—it should take about a day to address. So, expect your download link to arrive via BackerKit early this Week - likely Tuesday. I can’t wait for you all to see it.
The cover reveal!
What’s Inside the Smuggler’s Guide?
We took this thing way beyond the original scope. I’ve talked about that before—but now that it’s done, I can tell you: it clocks in at 48 pages, cover to cover. That’s just 4 pages shy of Mothership first party legend: A Pound of Flesh.
Here’s what’s packed inside:
A brand-new character class: the Smuggler with D10 custom loadouts.
Robust generators for fences, smuggling runs, and complications.
Guest content from Joel Hines and DG Chapman, including an original "social sandbox" investigation adventure inspired by classic noir and pulp crime stories.
A full setting: The Barge Bazaar—loaded with shady NPCs, sketchy locations, and hooks galore.
Rules, tools, and tables to live out your Han Solo meets Ripley space-noir dreams.
“The Crawlways”—a labyrinth of shafts and access tunnels beneath the Bazaar for PCs to get into deep, dangerous trouble
Zine Aesthetic
Dai drew heavy inspiration from early BBS websites, 1980s hacker zines, and a warm, gritty cassette-future aesthetic that in my opinion pairs perfectly with Mothership. Bold warm oranges and yellows slashed against stark black-and-white layouts—usable, high-impact, and dripping with retro-futurist style.
All the art inside is Dai’s handiwork—a signature collage style built from deep dives into public domain sci-fi archives, mashed together in Photoshop and filtered into beautifully grimy, nostalgic spreads. It’s evocative, it's gameable, and I love it. I hope you do too.
The back cover is also a character class, what?!
Box Set Progress
Beyond the Smuggler’s Guide, Dai is still hard at work on the rest of the box set materials. Progress slowed a bit this month after a serious fever hit his household, but the good news is he’s on his feet and back at it.
We’re aiming to share previews of box set contents and an update on the production timeline in the regularly scheduled June update.
Final Notes
Once you get the Smuggler’s Guide in hand, I hope you tear it apart (in the best way possible)—dig into the generators, mine the Bazaar for story seeds, and start spinning up your next gritty campaign. Since this PDF is still technically a pre-production version, feel free to drop me a line in the comments if you notice any typos or layout issues. We’ll zap 'em before the print files go to press.
Thanks again for backing, reading, and playing and talk soon,
Hi everyone, Welcome to the April update. Here’s what’s up this month:
The Big News: Burning Gods PDFs are here!
Just one of Dai's 80's inspired isometric maps
That’s right—the completed PDF of Awaiting the Burning Gods is ready for you! Here’s how you’ll get it:
As soon as this update goes out, I’ll be sending a final 48-hour notice to lock orders. After this, you’ll still be able to update your shipping address—but no more add-ons.
Once orders are locked, I’ll charge cards for any post-campaign add-ons and distribute the digital downloads. You’ll receive a second email with your download link. From there, you can grab your preview PDF of Awaiting the Burning Gods, as well as any other Magnum Galaxy zines you backed.
I’m excited for you to finally see the zine you made possible. Let me know what you think in the comments—I think it turned out great, and I’d love to hear your first impressions. Also, if you spot any typos, post them as well so we catch them before the zine goes to print.
Project Timeline: April
Here’s where everything’s at:
Awaiting the Burning Gods – Complete!
The Smuggler's Guide to 1365 – ~80% through layout, on track to finish this week.
Box Set Extras – Maps, warden screen, character sheet, and dice have been pulled into Photoshop and are now in active development.
Audio Files – Initial script sent to the production company, with a release planned to coincide with physical shipments later this year.
A sneak peek at your Smuggler's home away from home, The Barge Bazaar
Tariff Update
Yes, the ongoing U.S. tariff situation impacts this project—just like it's affecting many other parts of life these days. As you may know, the American government’s tariffs on goods manufactured in China fluctuate near daily. If the tariffs remain in place at time of shipment, a tariff surcharge will be added to U.S. orders as part of shipping.
The good news? Thanks to favorable shipping rates from my U.S. fulfillment partners at Flying Cloud and excellent manufacturing pricing with Panda GM, the additional charge should be modest. Awaiting the Burning Gods currently has some of the most affordable shipping prices among Mothership Month campaigns and my aim is to keep total shipping costs roughly in line with my peer projects. And of course, I’ll keep you all updated as the situation develops and we get closer to shipping time.
Designer Commentary
Over on the Magnum Galaxy Gazette, I recently shared an update on the progress of Awaiting theBurning Gods and ongoing work on the Hardlight Anthology. But beyond status reports, I want that newsletter to be something I'd be excited to read. While I’ll keep sharing news and behind-the-scenes updates, I also want to dive deeper into design thinking—like how Burning Gods came to be, how I approach worldbuilding, how I collaborate with artists and designers, and how I try to make books that are both beautiful and gameable. I love thinking through these creative challenges, and I hope a peek into that process would be interesting to you too. If that sounds like something you'd enjoy—or if you have specific topics you'd like to see covered—drop a note in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.
That wraps up this month’s update. I’m beyond excited to finally get Awaiting the Burning Gods into your hands—so with that, I’m signing off right… now!
Big milestone this month—all writing for Awaiting the Burning Gods and The Smuggler’s Guide to 1365 is officially complete and edited!
Where We're At:
Writing & Editing Done – Both books are fully written and polished.
Art Complete – Daniel has wrapped up all illustrations, and they look incredible.
Treasure Table Submitted – Joel’s D100 Treasures, Loot, and Contraband table is in, featuring gems such as:
Layout Nearly There – Dai just has the maps left, and once those are done, the layout for Awaiting the Burning Gods will be complete!
What’s Next?
Preview Copy – Once I get the final file, I’ll do a proof pass and work with BackerKit to figure out the best way to get a preview copy in your hands. I can’t wait to see the full zine come together!
Smuggler’s Guide Layout Begins – With over 10,000 words (slightly longer than Burning Gods itself!), The Smuggler’s Guide to 1365 could have been its own standalone project. But having it as part of this set feels right, and I’m excited to share it with you all.
Box Set Extras – Once Smuggler’s Guide is laid out, we’ll move on to creating all the box set goodies, including the Poster Map, Character Sheet, and Warden’s Screen. That should take us through April, with the Panda pre-production process starting in May.
A Sneaky Surprise…
I’m working on something extra special behind the scenes for this project… but I’m not ready to share details just yet. Is it too soon to start getting excited? That’s up to you. ;-)
Hello everybody and welcome to your February update. It’s a juicy one! Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Awaiting the Burning Gods: Progress Report
Now that Daniel has submitted all but two of the art pieces Dai is working on the final layout, and it looks fantastic. Honestly, I could yammer on about it but have a look at these samples as I think they speak for themselves.
Work in progress - final layout may vary
Work in progress - final layout may vary
The Smuggler’s Guide to 1365…
Is done! The manuscript that is. Plus, in a stroke of good luck, the illustrious Jarret Crader had an opening in his schedule and has stepped in for editing. Long time Mothership fans may recognize Jarret’s name from a whole slew of projects including a bunch of work on his own publishing imprint Space Penguin Inc., the majority of first party Mothership adventures, and, of course, Magnum Galaxy's very own Dying Hard on Hardlight Station. Jarret has already completed the developmental edit on The Smuggler’s Guide, and will be doing line and copy this week which means I’ll be turning it over for layout very soon. Can’t wait to see what Dai does with this outer rim outlaw’s guide to the galaxy (or at least one particularly lawless chunk of it).
Speaking of the Smuggler’s Guide I kind of got a little carried away with it. I figured, you know what would make all those cool fence and contraband tables sing? A complete mini-setting to anchor them in! So, surprise surprise, along with the alternate start scenarios, the bonus adventure, and all the promised tables, there is also a whole new location to explore: The Barge Bazaar, an itinerant black market that roams Nakatomi Sector 1365 peddling elicit wares to all with the cash to pay. Can’t wait to share more about it in the coming months but I’ll leave this as a fun teaser of what’s to come.
Cross Collab with Interloper: Androids!
I took a quick break from writing The Smuggler’s Guide last week to switch gears and create some weird, wacky, and occasionally horrifying androids for my cross collab with Joel Hines’ Interloper. I had a lot of fun cranking out 20 different visions of the android copy of the park’s founder. The challenge was to see how many strange, weird, and fresh directions I could come up with. Inspired by Arnold K’s “Dungeon Checklist” from Goblin punch I imagined not only a unique character for each but also how they might function in play to drive action, unlock mysteries, or create some horrific scenes. I love these weird little fellas and can’t wait to try them out when I finally get my hands on the final copy of Joel’s game. Here’s a sneak peak at a couple of my faves:
Backerkit Pledge Manager Progress
The pledge manager opened at the beginning of the month and already 91% of you have completed your surveys. That’s awesome! If you have yet to do it, lost or never received your survey you can head to the survey recovery page, enter your email, and you will receive another survey link.
Speaking of the Pledge Manager, I received a couple of questions about how the promotional patches appear in your cart. Those of you who are first 48 hours backers should all have 1x complimentary Smoking Darkness Reclamations patches in your carts. The other promo patch is the Landis University patch. That one, as you may remember, is the reward to celebrate all 20 Mothership Month projects funding and it is going out to every physical backer of Awaiting the Burning Gods. If you are a backer at the zine only level you will see 1x of the Landis patch in your cart. However, if you are getting a box set you won’t see the patch in your cart because the patch will be packed inside the box set. So, if you are getting a boxed set, you will be getting the Landis patch. Hope that clarifies that one. If you have any other questions about your cart or survey don’t hesitate to reach out to Backerkit through the Pledge Manager and they will either answer or pass it on to me to respond.
That’s a wrap for this month. This was a big one and I am excited to share even more next month! Until then, all the best and happy adventuring,
