Knife Crab!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 07:57:38 AM

Hey! As promised, I did a stream: you can find the recording here. As I explained earlier, this is mostly to give an idea of the game's setting, themes, and vibes—a lot of Wetrunner's new rules come up between missions and not so much in oneshots, so I focused on exploring the setting this time.

It might also help give you an idea of the setting to know that Lo is currently working on this knife crab. The CyberCrab is an all-purpose robot in the corporate strongholds of Pinnacle City: it can hold stuff, its flat back is ideal for carrying things, it can handle unusual terrain and aquatic environments, and it can stab people with a big fucking knife. Can you think of any problems these features can't solve? That's right: You can't. The Culture, here we come.

We're currently passing ten days to go. It's looking like we'll get over the line (I'm confident enough to start commissions early, as you can see), and time will tell how those stretch goals shake out. If we fund, I'm planning to open up a backer tier for the Shark Carnival stretch goal: it'll basically work like the Join the City tier, with a backstory and a face portrait and such, but if we hit the Shark Carnival stretch goal the character will feature in that scenario as a bounty hunter. If we don't, they can just be regular Join the City tiers. (You do get a face portrait with the regular Join the City tier, by the way.)

That's all I've got for now. As usual, if you'd like us to fund it'd be a huge help if you spread the word, whether you tell your friends or do Posts in the places you like to do posts at. Either way, feel free to chant "Knife Crab!" in the comments in case it helps manifest this pic faster. That would be great for me.

See you later!

Wetrunner stream this weekend
over 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 09:11:21 AM

Hey! I mentioned a stream earlier, and guess what: it's happening!

I set up a Twitch channel for TTRPG things like this, so this weekend I'll be running a Wetrunner oneshot for a few mates. I'll be the guy with the greatest avatar you've ever seen:

The place: https://www.twitch.tv/ettin64/.

The time: Saturday April 15, 10AM GMT (8PM AEST).

Will there be a recording to watch at my leisure?: Yes!

I'll do my best to demonstrate the game's setting and themes. As usual, you can follow me on Twitter (assuming it's not run into the ground before Saturday) for updates.

See you then!

The Art Update Update
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Apr 07, 2023 at 11:00:58 PM

Hey there! We've passed the halfway mark already, and there's still a few higher-level tiers to push us forward, so I'm very happy with how things are going. Thanks again for backing!

Today I'm here to talk about art. As I mentioned on the campaign page, Wetrunner's characters have a summer aesthetic going on. The basic idea here is that a lot of cyberpunk games feature characters in cool, elaborate outfits, with techwear and punk accessories and sometimes improvised armor if they're a scavenger type; we're being a little silly by doing the same thing but with summer outfits.

Plus, there's a hidden edge to it that I like—it's like this because capitalists plundered the world! Ha ha! Comedy.

Anyway, the point of all this is I got the sample Sinker's outfit redone.

Bazza Reynolds, Australian hacker, was one of the first characters I commissioned for this game. He's pretty cool, but since I commissioned him I've been feeling that his gear could be leaning into the aesthetic more. I decided to commission a new version from Lo, and here's what she came up with! He's even got blue and pink now, The Cyberpunk Colours™. Now he's even better! You're welome.

That's all for now—I gotta make a couple last-minute changes before announcing my plans—but I'll sort out what I can over the long weekend and get back to you ASAP. See you then!

Behind The Scenes
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Apr 03, 2023 at 10:16:44 AM

Hey there! Last update I mentioned that I've been working on Wetrunner for a while, and I think it's a good idea to elaborate on that so you know what you're getting into here. If you read to the end, there's another cool project I'd like to mention!

I've been fiddling with Wetrunner on-and-off since 2015. The original inspiration came from Cellusious, who did art for Breakfast Cult and Retrocausality; he tweeted an idea for a stealth game about fishing from private rooftop pools in a sci-fi city, and Wetrunner came from me thinking about ways that could work. (Cellusious will be doing some artwork if we fund, by the way.)

I mostly sketched out setting ideas for a while after that. I have actually posted Wetrunner content before though: in 2018 I ran a Patreon where I wrote setting ideas with plot hooks and characters, and Wetrunner was one of the offerings. (I am not reposting that, because I've changed enough that it won't give you a good idea of the setting, but I'd got the basics down by then.)

Ultimately though, I ended up setting it aside in favour of other projects, especially Hard Wired Island. Bits of my early work on Wetrunner made it into that, particularly NPCs—the villain Tiger Shark and the PC ally Haru Hiryu were written for Wetrunner.

The point of all of this is that I have spent the last few years writing cyberpunk TTRPGs, and I've built up a lot of experience.  It feels like a good time to actually finish a project I've had on the backburner, and now that I'm coming back to this I'm confident I can write a great heist game for you!

Also, Check This Out

This time I'm ending the post with another project I think you'll like: Guns Blazing, by Basheer Ghouse (who previously wrote for Sin: A Spire Sourcebook, Journeys Through The Radiant Citadel, and Critical Role's Campaign 3, among other things!).

It's a dieselpunk fantasy action RPG about decolonial resistance and revolutionary politics in an alternate 1920s. I'm pretty sure that if you're interested in my work at all, anti-authority alternate-history games are something you could be into. If it is, please consider giving him (and the excellent guest writers and artists he's working with) some money too.

I'll be back soon with another update—Lo is working on more art already, and I've got streams to plan, rules to discuss, and cool things to announce. Expect at least one of those in the next couple days. See you then!

There's a Forged in the Dark stretch goal now!
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Apr 01, 2023 at 03:43:30 AM

Hey there! I'm here to announce a minor update to the stretch goals: the second stretch goal will be for a Forged in the Dark rules conversion, rather than a conversion to Fate Core's skill system. (If you're unfamiliar, Forged is an open-source system like Fate, but one specifically designed for heists.)

Using Forged is something that I've been going back and forth on for a while—and Wetrunner is something I've had on the backburner since 2017, so I mean a while. I ultimately chose Fate because I felt it fit Wetrunner's atmosphere best, and I'm very good with it (is this a chance to mention my previous work Breakfast Cult, currently Platinum on DriveThruRPG? Yeah it is!)

That said: one thing I've noticed in the last few days is that there are people who are interested in Wetrunner because it's a game by Ettin, The Hard Wired Island Guy, but aren't big on Fate right now. This is valid and I fully support people giving me money, but it did get me thinking about Forged again.

So, after consulting with some friends, here is the deal: the second stretch goal will be that Forged version I was thinking about. The original stretch goal—rewriting the rules to use Fate's more complex skill system—can still be done in a smaller way: I can just write an appendix laying out how to do it, instead of rewriting the entire book.

There is one caveat: I'll be tinkering with the Forged rules to better fit Wetrunner's setting, so it'll be a little more work, and with that in mind I have nudged the stretch goal amount upward slightly. Like the previous stretch goal, this will come out after the base game because the alternative is madness.

That's all for now. Keep telling your friends about Wetrunner, and I'll see you soon!