IT'S REAL AND IT'S HERE
hello! it's been a while since I've updated about BURNAWAY or much of anything else. But this is worth talking about; right at the three year mark of when I started this project, two heavy boxes full of BURNAWAY's physical edition showed up at my house! It's a pretty surreal feeling, but a very good one. I started this alone with a cluttered word document, and ended it with a whole creative team and an amazing slate of Kickstarter backers. Thank you to every single person that showed interest in this project!
There's gonna be plenty of copies left over after backer copies are shipped out, and I will likely put those up for sale on my website for folks who are interested. I'll drop the link whenever I can get that sorted. More immediately, I'll make a point to put the digital pdf on the Arnamantle DrivethruRPG and itch.io stores! (I wanted them live when I made this post but apparently they need to review all listings...)
Challenge fate and make impossible choices as you exorcise or empathize with inferno-powered ghosts.
hello there! It's been nearly a year since the successful crowdfunding of BURNAWAY: A ttrpg about Loss and Hope from the Ashes. A lot of writing, editing, layout and logistics have happened since then, and the result is going to be even better than I had been hoping for. Genuinely, this book is gonna look dope. If you missed out on backing BURNAWAY last year, or are just hearing about it now, here's one more chance to pledge for a digital pdf, a lovely softcover physical edition, and/or one of three limited 8x10 posters!
BURNAWAY is a lightweight, self-contained roleplaying game for three to five players. In the darkening days of a possible near-future, fire is still a common cause of lost homes and tragic deaths. However, not every spark is started by a flicked cigarette or a faulty wire. Some wandering spirits, whose sorrows lash them tight to this world, can become so distraught that their very ectoplasm combusts, starting a blaze wherever they seek to haunt; we call these troublesome phantoms embergeists. Regular firefighters aren’t trained to deal with this supernatural threat; extinguishing one fire means little when an irate ghost kindles many more at the same time.
Enter the Burnaways. A Burnaway is a professional, for lack of any other unifying factor, contracted by a private company to swoop in as soon as a report of an embergeist comes through. Burnaways come from all walks of life, though most are trying to leave dark pasts behind. Exceptional danger for unexceptional pay is a hard sell for anyone save those individuals motivated by desperation, personal atonement, or something else that’s worth walking through fire for. Disparate backgrounds bring together a team with all the skills needed to maneuver through blazing buildings, locate and rescue victims, and even exorcise an arson-inclined specter.
This is a game is about loss.
Fire destroys things we can’t ever recover, whether they be treasured possessions or beloved lives. Regardless of how much we try to prepare for it, we all inevitably lose things we care for, as lights that are snuffed out, leaving our lives darker in the void.
This is also a game about confronting and processing that loss.
When we suffer loss, we fill that void with grief. Sometimes, grief props us up and pushes us forward. Other times, grief threatens to pin us down until our pain buries us. But grief is an emotion, one which fades with time and care. Our relationship with grief determines what grief leaves us with when it’s gone. Grief gives purpose. Grief gives wisdom. Grief gives scars.
As a Burnaway, you are a thief entering the house of Death and snatching back its claim. However, what you leave behind is just as significant as what you choose to take. This is a game about choices; do you rescue the executive or the janitor? The priceless hard drive or the poodle dog? Do you leave your comrade bleeding out to banish the geist and save many others? Or do you leave it all in order to save yourself?
Finally, and just as importantly, this is a game about hope.
When we encounter situations in which we feel powerless or that suffering is inevitable, despair is a rational response, while hope seems illogical. Fortunately, human minds are illogical things, and thus we can find ways to carry on and heal even after an unbearable ordeal, even knowing there are more to come in our future. This is a game that encourages the exploration of these familiar feelings and experiences without denying ourselves the light that always returns from the darkness.
A huge thanks to all who have supported this project from the concept stage three years ago to this point of being a real ttrpg! And again, if this looks cool to you, you can jump on board here!
Challenge fate and make impossible choices as you exorcise or empathize with inferno-powered ghosts.
hello there! It's been nearly a year since the successful crowdfunding of BURNAWAY: A ttrpg about Loss and Hope from the Ashes. A lot of writing, editing, layout and logistics have happened since then, and the result is going to be even better than I had been hoping for. Genuinely, this book is gonna look dope. If you missed out on backing BURNAWAY last year, or are just hearing about it now, here's one more chance to pledge for a digital pdf, a lovely softcover physical edition, and/or one of three limited 8x10 posters!
BURNAWAY is a lightweight, self-contained roleplaying game for three to five players. In the darkening days of a possible near-future, fire is still a common cause of lost homes and tragic deaths. However, not every spark is started by a flicked cigarette or a faulty wire. Some wandering spirits, whose sorrows lash them tight to this world, can become so distraught that their very ectoplasm combusts, starting a blaze wherever they seek to haunt; we call these troublesome phantoms embergeists. Regular firefighters aren’t trained to deal with this supernatural threat; extinguishing one fire means little when an irate ghost kindles many more at the same time.
Enter the Burnaways. A Burnaway is a professional, for lack of any other unifying factor, contracted by a private company to swoop in as soon as a report of an embergeist comes through. Burnaways come from all walks of life, though most are trying to leave dark pasts behind. Exceptional danger for unexceptional pay is a hard sell for anyone save those individuals motivated by desperation, personal atonement, or something else that’s worth walking through fire for. Disparate backgrounds bring together a team with all the skills needed to maneuver through blazing buildings, locate and rescue victims, and even exorcise an arson-inclined specter.
This is a game is about loss.
Fire destroys things we can’t ever recover, whether they be treasured possessions or beloved lives. Regardless of how much we try to prepare for it, we all inevitably lose things we care for, as lights that are snuffed out, leaving our lives darker in the void.
This is also a game about confronting and processing that loss.
When we suffer loss, we fill that void with grief. Sometimes, grief props us up and pushes us forward. Other times, grief threatens to pin us down until our pain buries us. But grief is an emotion, one which fades with time and care. Our relationship with grief determines what grief leaves us with when it’s gone. Grief gives purpose. Grief gives wisdom. Grief gives scars.
As a Burnaway, you are a thief entering the house of Death and snatching back its claim. However, what you leave behind is just as significant as what you choose to take. This is a game about choices; do you rescue the executive or the janitor? The priceless hard drive or the poodle dog? Do you leave your comrade bleeding out to banish the geist and save many others? Or do you leave it all in order to save yourself?
Finally, and just as importantly, this is a game about hope.
When we encounter situations in which we feel powerless or that suffering is inevitable, despair is a rational response, while hope seems illogical. Fortunately, human minds are illogical things, and thus we can find ways to carry on and heal even after an unbearable ordeal, even knowing there are more to come in our future. This is a game that encourages the exploration of these familiar feelings and experiences without denying ourselves the light that always returns from the darkness.
A huge thanks to all who have supported this project from the concept stage three years ago to this point of being a real ttrpg! And again, if this looks cool to you, you can jump on board here!
AI art was at it's scariest at around the dall-e 2 phase, when it was actually capable of imitating a breadth of styles and was still kinda fun and frictionless to play with. the tools have diminished in functionality, gotten more cumbersome and expensive to use, and all these improvements and backend prompt-engineering have given AI art a distinctive airbrushed "look" that is instantly recognizable. the specter of the future just isn't what it used to be
this is on openai's official demonstration, and it shows such a clear decline. i maybe would have been fooled by the one on the left, the one on the right is not only NOT an oil painting, it looks extremely AI generated in a way that everyone has learned to detect at this point. no one should be scared of this anymore, the only useful or even legible AI art is going to be coming from dedicated hobbyists crafting their own models from scratch. you still need experience to make art.
saturday d&d tip: when you're designing an encounter, make sure there are plenty of interactable features in the encounter area. barrels to hide behind or set on fire, chandeliers to swing from, bottles to smash, etc.
you can have levers to pull, pit traps to fall into, elemental gems to shatter.
then, when the PCs don't interact with the encounter environment at all, you'll have even more notes to reuse later!
it's been a challenging month, but I'm incredibly glad we got across the finish line. Now, finally back to writing.
If you're interested in getting occasional updates on how BURNWAY is shaping up, along with my other projects slated for production in 2024 and beyond, I've got an email list!
happy Hallowest of Weens everyone! We're now less than 48 hours away from the end of BURNAWAY's Kickstarter campaign, and we're still hoping to reach our stretch goal so we can bring on a slate of amazingly accomplished writers to bring this world to life!
Since this is the apex of spooky season, I wanted to share the completed comic, masterfully arted by @kcrossvine-art and worded by @rascalbot, depicting a... day in the life of a burnaway brigade. I'm incredibly grateful for all of the support we've gotten in bringing this neat original ttrpg to life, and super excited to get started on the publishing process! If you've been interested but haven't dropped a pledge yet, there's no better time to come give us a BOOst! (ha) 👻
come support us on Kickstarter now to make this project the best it can be!
and we're nearly halfway to our first stretch goal! Thank you again for all of the support! We've got just three days left in the funding campaign: how high can we get before all hallow's eve?🎃
It’s been one hell of a long road, but we’ve finally got another chance to fund digital and physical copies of the original ttrpg I wrote and produced!
Can a house be haunted even while it burns down?
A not-so-hypothetical question in a world with Embergeists – spirits so mournful or vindictive that their very ectoplasm combusts, setting their haunts ablaze. Players enter the scene as a brigade of Burnaways – mercenaries who must act as fire fighters, detectives, and ghost hunters to stop the Embergeists by means of force or empathy.
BURNAWAY is a game about making tough choices in the literal heat of the moment, and coping with the consequences when the ash has settled. A near-future retropunk setting and “grimhope” tone puts focus on narrative growth, contrasted with a unique “level-down” advancement mechanic in a lightweight, accessible system geared toward one-shots and short campaigns.
Burnaway’s mechanics are easy to pick up for first-timers, while still offering depth and detail in skilled hands. The hit-based system allows the use of any type of dice, so bring your favorite mix to the table!
Each mission is a unique puzzle with many different solutions, though not all of them are satisfying, and the puzzle is constantly on fire. Characters’ decisions are the greatest determiner of their fate, with no railroading to hamper their actions (or to protect them from fatal disaster).
Who said anything about getting stronger? BURNAWAY eschews traditional TTRPG power up mechanics. In a line of work where retirement or death are the only prospects, it’s up to the characters to process their own Grief and avoid suffering permanent Burns at the end of each session.
Acknowledgment of hope is just as important as the acceptance of Grief. Characters may build Bonds with each other, relationships forged in literal fire, and gain mechanical benefits from their evolving interpersonal dynamics.
BURNAWAY adapts to how your group wants to game, providing a full ruleset for traditional, GM-lead or collaborative GM-less play.
Want to dive into the world of BURNAWAY asap? We’ve got a FREE setting sampler out now that can be played through solo in under 15 mins. Make hard choices and escape a burning building before the Embergeist gets you! 🔥
My team and I have put a tremendous amount of love and effort into this, so if this kind of game seems up your alley, please come check out the campaign!
We're up and running baby!!
Thank you to every single person who pledged and spread the word- there's no way this would have happened without you! We've still got 6 days left, and if we hit the first stretch goal we'll be able to bring in some amazing writing talent you might be familiar with~
justifications for why a "puzzle" in a non-traditional dungeon would have clues just lying around?
Seems to be genre convention that puzzles have clues, like a warning inscription to help the PCs contextualize the puzzle, but I'm often at a loss for why anyone would uh...do that.
As the in-universe designer of a puzzle, especially in a place that you would use regularly (like a lich-lord adding puzzles and traps to their tomb/fortress), why bother leaving a clue? I don't mean "can we come up with some contrivance for a Specific Dungeon" (although maybe that's the evergreen answer) -- I'm more curious about how dungeon-building folks out there like to manage the internal logic of this issue.
puzzles are meant to be solved. If you actually don't want intruders to get at something, you build a wall, not a puzzle. And nothing sucks worse than spending all that time and effort building a puzzle and not having the adventurers see your genius cuz they're not smart enough to figure it out. So you throw them a bone and leave a clue.
It’s been one hell of a long road, but we’ve finally got another chance to fund digital and physical copies of the original ttrpg I wrote and produced!
Can a house be haunted even while it burns down?
A not-so-hypothetical question in a world with Embergeists – spirits so mournful or vindictive that their very ectoplasm combusts, setting their haunts ablaze. Players enter the scene as a brigade of Burnaways – mercenaries who must act as fire fighters, detectives, and ghost hunters to stop the Embergeists by means of force or empathy.
BURNAWAY is a game about making tough choices in the literal heat of the moment, and coping with the consequences when the ash has settled. A near-future retropunk setting and “grimhope” tone puts focus on narrative growth, contrasted with a unique “level-down” advancement mechanic in a lightweight, accessible system geared toward one-shots and short campaigns.
Burnaway’s mechanics are easy to pick up for first-timers, while still offering depth and detail in skilled hands. The hit-based system allows the use of any type of dice, so bring your favorite mix to the table!
Each mission is a unique puzzle with many different solutions, though not all of them are satisfying, and the puzzle is constantly on fire. Characters’ decisions are the greatest determiner of their fate, with no railroading to hamper their actions (or to protect them from fatal disaster).
Who said anything about getting stronger? BURNAWAY eschews traditional TTRPG power up mechanics. In a line of work where retirement or death are the only prospects, it’s up to the characters to process their own Grief and avoid suffering permanent Burns at the end of each session.
Acknowledgment of hope is just as important as the acceptance of Grief. Characters may build Bonds with each other, relationships forged in literal fire, and gain mechanical benefits from their evolving interpersonal dynamics.
BURNAWAY adapts to how your group wants to game, providing a full ruleset for traditional, GM-lead or collaborative GM-less play.
Want to dive into the world of BURNAWAY asap? We’ve got a FREE setting sampler out now that can be played through solo in under 15 mins. Make hard choices and escape a burning building before the Embergeist gets you! 🔥
My team and I have put a tremendous amount of love and effort into this, so if this kind of game seems up your alley, please come check out the campaign!
we've got just 7 days to go in our funding campaign, but we're getting so close! We need just a handful of more pledges to ensure we can make this game a reality next year! BURNAWAY's got all the halloween spirit you could ask for!
It’s been one hell of a long road, but we’ve finally got another chance to fund digital and physical copies of the original ttrpg I wrote and produced!
Can a house be haunted even while it burns down?
A not-so-hypothetical question in a world with Embergeists – spirits so mournful or vindictive that their very ectoplasm combusts, setting their haunts ablaze. Players enter the scene as a brigade of Burnaways – mercenaries who must act as fire fighters, detectives, and ghost hunters to stop the Embergeists by means of force or empathy.
BURNAWAY is a game about making tough choices in the literal heat of the moment, and coping with the consequences when the ash has settled. A near-future retropunk setting and “grimhope” tone puts focus on narrative growth, contrasted with a unique “level-down” advancement mechanic in a lightweight, accessible system geared toward one-shots and short campaigns.
Burnaway’s mechanics are easy to pick up for first-timers, while still offering depth and detail in skilled hands. The hit-based system allows the use of any type of dice, so bring your favorite mix to the table!
Each mission is a unique puzzle with many different solutions, though not all of them are satisfying, and the puzzle is constantly on fire. Characters’ decisions are the greatest determiner of their fate, with no railroading to hamper their actions (or to protect them from fatal disaster).
Who said anything about getting stronger? BURNAWAY eschews traditional TTRPG power up mechanics. In a line of work where retirement or death are the only prospects, it’s up to the characters to process their own Grief and avoid suffering permanent Burns at the end of each session.
Acknowledgment of hope is just as important as the acceptance of Grief. Characters may build Bonds with each other, relationships forged in literal fire, and gain mechanical benefits from their evolving interpersonal dynamics.
BURNAWAY adapts to how your group wants to game, providing a full ruleset for traditional, GM-lead or collaborative GM-less play.
Want to dive into the world of BURNAWAY asap? We’ve got a FREE setting sampler out now that can be played through solo in under 15 mins. Make hard choices and escape a burning building before the Embergeist gets you! 🔥
My team and I have put a tremendous amount of love and effort into this, so if this kind of game seems up your alley, please come check out the campaign!
we're already over 25% of the way there in just a few hours! Huge thanks for all the support so far, I hope this momentum keeps up!🔥
We'll have early-bird pricing on both digital and physical copies of the game until tomorrow morning too!
The first 24 hours of our funding campaign have gotten some excellent support! Honestly just very happy to see and hear that folks want to play this game!
There's now ONE HOUR LEFT to get early-bird discounts on physical (-12%) copies and digital (-28%) pdfs! If this game sounds like something up your alley, I'd strongly recommend you jump on these prices!
we're officially past 50%! While reaching or initial funding goal is our main focus right now, hitting our first stretch goal would be amazing cuz that would mean all of our incredible writers get to contribute even more missions, NPCs and embergeist descriptions to the book!
If you're down to help fund an original ttrpg about the living dead and the nearly-dead living who confront them, check us out here! Every pledge helps immensely!
