Burn Bryte and Embers of the Last War

Logo by Dylan Todd.

Hey guess what? You can preorder my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure right now! The prices are about to go up, so preorder now to get the best deal.

Wooo! I have two big things to share today.

Burn Bryte

I am super proud to finally announce Burn Bryte! For the last year, I’ve been helping an amazing team of designers, artists, editors, and Roll20 staff create a new science fantasy RPG optimized for the virtual table. The design team included Jim McClure, Kat Kuhl, Darcy Ross, and myself.

Here’s the news from Roll20’s announcement about the world of the game:

The Burn Bryte universe is experiencing a possible end… just as there was a “big bang,” many scientists predict the possibility of a “big crunch,” and as such the universe our players are trying to survive in is shrinking– with resources becoming increasingly scarce and cultures that never were forced to interact with each other suddenly cornered into the same galactic real estate. And while all of this sounds intense and bleak, we believe that many who play the game will be heroes that are simply living their best lives helping others through the blow out that is the end of the existence.

The game has a core mechanic to go along with our idea of escalation and rising complications that we see in so many science fantasy stories. Here’s how Jim McClure describes the mechanic:

• Every player has the same eighteen skills (six Physical, six Mental, and six Social) and almost every roll made is a skill roll.

• Skills are rated from a d4 to d12  with d12 being better. Dice sizes are d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12.

• When a player makes a skill roll, they roll multiple dice of the skill they are using, and if they do NOT get doubles, the roll succeeds. Getting doubles is a failure. The number of dice they roll outside of combat is based on the skill roll’s complexity.

• In combat players will roll two dice of the skill they are using for the first action they take on their turn, then three dice for the next action, four for the one after that, and so on. Players get to choose how many actions they want to take in a turn, but a failure on a roll results in the end of their turn, plus additional consequences.

We empower players to press their turn/actions as far as they want, with increasing levels of risk the further they go. This is also just the bare bones of the system, there are advantages, Nova Points, Health Levels, Story Path advancement, and space ship combat just to name a few other mechanics in the game.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be revealing more and more about the game and a public playtest for Roll20 subscribers should be happening soon. I cannot wait to reveal our species and more to you. Get ready for an awesome ride!

Embers of the Last War

Speaking of awesome rides, I am proud to announce I am also the editor of the Embers of the Last War storyline for the DMs Guild Adepts and the D&D Adventurers League. Eberron has always been my favorite setting and it is a HUGE honor to help craft the overall storyline and work on the adventures for the game with people. You can read more about the storyline, the amazing authors working on it, and my thoughts on Eberron in the official announcement.

If you like what you’re reading please follow me on Twitter, like World Builder Blog on Facebook, check out my podcasts, find my products on the DMs Guild, tell your friends about the blog, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!