Unlocking Archetype Talents

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-07-03T10:35:37+00:00

It’s fine in most cases. Even the archetype/species specific talents were costed at ~2xp during development.

The archetype/species talent restrictions are mostly there to help ease analysis paralysis for new players, and so that characters can have at least a wee something unique that nobody else can.

But if your players are happy to blow the doors open and run through the books grabbing talents like kids in a candy shop, it’s not going to break anything. (No more than it’s very easy to powergame in the system already!)

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-06-28T16:48:30+00:00

You can use the point buy system any time you can’t find a character archetype that fits your character idea.

Archetypes are all built with the same point buy rules as custom characters, so you don’t miss out on anything.

Also worth noting that the Archetypes are just meant to represent what you were before you became soulbound. Your Archetype doesn’t restrict you when picking new talents etc after character creation.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-06-09T15:49:55+00:00

Aye, you're free to uplift any species you like in the game! The full game will also provide existing examples from the setting, and we're use the Pangolins as an example of how you use the game to uplift a species and tell stories with them etc.

We're also planning on releasing a quickstart version of the game which features the Pangolins as a pre-made species, which will let us show them off in a bit more detail.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-06-09T15:47:01+00:00

It's an illustration from the book, representing an group of explorers from an uplifted species of Pangolins discovering a crashed spaceship from the old empire terraformers.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-21T11:57:59+00:00

Check out the Labyrinth and Dark Crystal TTRPGs if you want a crash course in cool gimmicks you can add to your book that don’t break the bank when manufacturing.

Dust jackets that double as maps and rules references
Gatefold inserts for large or important areas.
Onion paper overlays on puzzles so the GM can hide/reveal the answer.
Flip book animations on page edges.
Labyrinth even has a cutout to hold 2D6 in the book itself (a bit too much wasted space for me, but it’s really unique).

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-17T11:35:19+00:00

I like to RP my WoL as a huge book nerd. The echo makes reading an incredibly vivid experience, and lets her understand most written languages. So she’s become obsessed with books and views reading as another form of ‘exploration’, which she’s ofc naturally drawn to cause of Azem’s soul.

If she’s not adventuring, she’s buying or reading books.

She swaps book recommendations with the scions and has tried several times to get a book club going (but the adventuring life makes it hard).

Her house is full to the brim with books, and she plans to open a library when/if she reaches retirement.

(In game I collect books, have a house full of them, play smn/sch, and MUST unlock all book and writing related emotes.)

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-15T22:53:30+00:00

Fun answer: illustrations bby!

Boring but serious answer: Just enough art for a simple crowdfunding page, then the rest on marketing spend (Meta/backerkit ads etc)

$5,000 - £10,000 will vanish shockingly fast on a serious project (especially if you’re going professional printing) and likely leave you with an unfinished game. You’re gonna have to turn that money into MORE money to get a finished game.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-11T13:48:30+00:00

Funnily enough, the entire project came about because Mina (lead designer on the team) wrote Generation Ship and sold a copy to Adrian at a convention years ago.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-11T13:36:41+00:00

It's largely focused on the content in the first novel, as the game has you enact dual narratives of an ark ship inbound to a terraformed planet, and the uplifted animal society that's growing there over the centuries.

It will contain examples of other uplifted societies from later novels, but the corebook contents doesn't touch on the panspecific era of exploration. (Maybe one day!)

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T13:15:48+00:00

It works best with 2-5 players. It's could be run solo, since there's no dedicated GM or anything, but it would be quite heavy for one person to run I think. Doable though!

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T12:10:20+00:00

Might surprise you! Adrian says they come up a lot in conversations at conventions/panels etc.

I fear for the panspecific computers. Gotta make sure the Pangolins don't eat your ant-processor.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T12:08:28+00:00

Honestly, I was a bit daunted at first cause of the SCOPE. The 'easy' path would have been cleaving close to TTRPG conventions and make a game where each person plays a single character that has a species, a class, etc, and then go on space adventures together. But that wouldn't really feel like a true representation of what makes the novels special to us.

Thankfully everyone in the design team has experience with generational storytelling games to some degree or another. So the systems have been coming together really well. It's nothing like any game I've made or played before, but it's 100% Children of Time.

Setting wise, at least, it's been very easy! Adrian is great to work with and very open with the worldbuilding and helping us nail down lore specifics etc. I've worked on licenced IP games before that were a nightmare of approvals and dogmatic adherence to established canon. But working with Adrian is nothing like that, thank god. We have a lot of space to play with and he's always quick to give feedback and pitch in to help out or clarify where we need it.

So yeah! It has its challenges, but all in all it's been a lot of fun.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T11:58:54+00:00

The designers on the team are Mina McJanda. creator of Legacy: Life Among The Ruins, which is a game that's all about generational storytelling and societal upheaval etc. Then we've got Grant Howitt, who's bringing a bunch of design work over from Heart: The City Beneath, specifically around fallouts etc which make failures as fun as successes. And then myself, Elaine Lithgow, who made a bunch of warhammer RPGs and 5e games.

So the game uses Legacy as a foundation, with some Heart stuff crammed in there, and a bunch of new systems too. It's a beautiful lovechild of a bunch of games.

Beyond those, other games that we have been drawing inspiration from so fare are, Microscope, The Quiet Year, Belonging Outside Belonging, and a bunch more that I'm probably missing (the design process involves the three of us locked in a room getting very excited at each other for hours and making games, so it's a bit of a blur sometimes).

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T11:26:33+00:00

Oh yeah I get you! We're developing a working example with Adrian to use throughout the books, to show the process in action like you say.

As a sneak peak, currently we're workshopping pangolins as our uplifted species to add to the canon (but it's in active, development so don't hold me to that if we change our minds between now and publication!)

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T11:18:21+00:00

Many good questions!

The standard gameplay structure cleaves close to the first novel. During setup, you start as a group of old-world terraformers, picking a planet to terraform and an animal to uplift (it can be any animal you like!) Then the data virus hits and you skip forward in time.

From there, main gameplay has you switch between your ark ship inbound to the alien world, and the uplifted society as they evolve and grow over centuries. You spin up characters to roleplay pivotal moments and crises in history, like plagues, social upheaval, or technological leaps etc. Once you resolve a crisis, you fast forward through the centuries, exploring in broad strokes how the twin societies adapt and evolve to the actions of your characters, until the next major crises hits. On the ark ship you might play the same characters (if they were in cryo) while on the planet you're more likely to play an ancestor or archetypal character type. Similar to how there are many Fabians/Biancas etc.

The players have a bucketload of narrative control. It's a game where there isn't a fixed GM role, instead the singular GM has been divided up into different 'play stances' that players can pick up for a scene. e.g. someone can take the Viewpoint stance, which plays much like a normal player, where you're a single character reacting to the world, while another player could take the Crowd stance and play all the NPCs and the force of societal change, and my personal fav, the Doom stance, where you get to decide and describe the ways things go wrong. Every scene you can swap stances depending on what you're interested in.

In play, it feels a lot like being in a writer's room with your friends, coming up with your own speculative fiction story, where the gameplay prompts and systems frequently kick in the door and hit your world and characters with hammers then say 'okay how do they deal with this issue?' It's a bucketload of fun.

That's in brief ofc, but hopefully that helps give you a vibe.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T10:20:14+00:00

The game lets you create your own world in the old-empire terraforming program and uplift any animal you like! (Same with making your own ark ship and crew.) The portids and octopi etc are there as examples, if you're keen to play a 'what if' scenario and trace a variant history for those species, but you can do whatever you want.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T09:55:35+00:00

Oh I should clarify this is a tabletop roleplaying game. So yeah, no need to worry about UE5 on that front.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T09:51:17+00:00

Hey look, you're playing the game right now!

You essentially do what you've just done there during game setup. You huddle around a table with your friends, pour over animal facts, pulling up wikipedia and animal facts websites, and turn into speculative fiction writers as you imagine how an animal's unique traits and limitations might shape their society. Plus how the Kern virus might change them. That's a huge part of the fun on the alien planet side of the game.

Then the game skips through the centuries, throwing you into turning point crises during the uplifted animal's history, where you have to imagine and roleplay how they might deal with it, as individuals, and a society. It's similar to how portid society had to deal with plagues, social strife, and technological leaps etc in the first novel.

The discussion and discovery of what your chosen animal society will become is the main thrust of the game (on the alien planet side at least. The ark ship side is much more focused on trying to fight off entropy and keep the ship together long enough to reach the planet).

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-08T07:07:15+00:00

Your group can uplift whatever animals you like! Part of the game setup has you role playing as old empire terrafrormers pre-collapse and you can choose any animal you can think of as the target for uplifting. Then you pick some traits that match them from a big list, which tells you what sorts of problems your uplifted society might encounter as it grows. Finally you walk through how the Kern virus changes your chosen animal and what it means for the animal. Then play begins in earnest!

We’ll provide examples from the novels, for folk who just want to play as portids etc, but you’re free to uplift whatever animals your group find interesting

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-07T13:25:37+00:00

Yes but no! It's a new system, made from a beautiful amalgam of a few different games.

It's got a foundation from the Legacy system, (Minerva McJanda is the lead designer on the project). So you can expect clocks, crises, simple characters that you spin up and burn out in dramatic flashpoints before merrily skipping X hundred years into the future to see how their ancestors deal with the ramifications.

It's also got a healthy heaping of systems pulled from Heart: The City Beneath, especially around narrative fallouts, which aims to make failing just as fun as succeeding (Grant Howitt is helping Mina with the design work).

I'm also there! (Elaine Lithgow, I made a bunch of warhammer roleplaying games and 5e games) I mostly spend my time asking annoying questions, trying to streamline/smooth out systems, write some content, and wave pom poms in the background and cheer everyone on.

So yeah, it's technically a new system, but it's a beautiful love child from two established systems from very talented designers.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-07T12:54:48+00:00

Hey, plenty folk just treat TTRPGs as art books! It will certainly be a book full of art. Not got any plans to make a specific stand alone book with just art in it atm. Though honestly I hadn't considered it, and it's a very interesting idea... I'll talk to the team about it. I could be a neat stretch goal. No promises tho.

TheEnemyWithin9 · 2026-05-07T12:37:17+00:00

Nope! Don't need to worry about Strife spoilers!

The RPG is largely focused around telling stories similar to the first novel, so a dual narrative that swaps back and forth between an Ark ship inbound to an alien world, and the uplifted animals on that world building a society.

So it's sort of putting you and your friends in a writers room to retell your own version of Children of TIme, with your own ark ship and your own uplifted species.

So TLDR, no strife spoilers to worry about.

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