Summer Camp 2026
Week 1
Updating Old Articles
Aether 2d12 is constantly being updated. The first playtest group is working its way through the rules as we actively world build directly from the players' actions. Aether 2d12 is a bit unique from a world building perspective. The players begin play basically next week in the future so we are using the modern world and our lived experiences as premade world building.
The playtest campaign is the world building. How the players react to challenges during their adventures will determine how the world building progresses. The player are currently playing in and creating the prehistory of the Aether universe.
Create or Update World's Meta Documents
I updated the meta documents today. Currently Aether is a game system with a game world attached. Looking at the meta it might make sense to split the game world off into its own world space if I want to create a universal ruleset.
Review and update CSS
In 1996 I did one of the first CSS Sr design projects for my BS in the World. The separation of the display layer and the data layer. I created roughly 2200 lines of custom CSS when HTML 3.0 was just an infant. Its been 30 years so I need to put myself through a refresher course but I plan on creating a custom CSS for Aether 2d12. For now I switched to a prebuilt CSS that I will work on editing. Update: Success! I have managed 1 line of custom CSS.
Review and Update Homepage and World Primer
We have not been using the campaign tools. I need to get the game system listed as an option in the dropdown list. We need to have a budget to get character sheets built into the game so the characters can be managed. There is so much to do and I am so impressed with people that have all their ducks in a row. I don't use the campaign tools because our games are in person pen and paper. I am making rule changes as we discover situations that could be navigated more efficiently. I might try the campaign tools with my kingmaker Pathfinder group.
I updated the cover image and campaign texts.
Love
Love. Love is about the last thing we would invest time into in Aether 2d12. I guess the one story might be a mother's love or in this case a lack there of love. In 1934 a 16yo Maria Orsic was given the opportunity by the Nazi regime to have a hybred child with the Aldebaran, tall Nordic aliens, and she did. Maria was the antennae and Adolf Jr. the bridge. AJ grew fast, too fast, and at 10 looked to be 20 and out grew and aged past his mother who would stay forever young when her development was retarded in her early 20s due to her exposure to Xerum 525. Love was not a common among those dedicated to the Dark Sun. Child bearing was a contract to create the perfect race, or at least a higher race of hybrids. AJ loved his mother like an adult child and viewed the other vrill witches as his aunts. He knew the program that created him was morally wrong but couldn't blame the vrill witches because they were like children. Moths to a flame.
Week 2
Going to focus on creating NPCs and Creatures.
Why did you choose this area of focus? Why is it fun to write?
Since completing the rules I have set a personal goal to write an adventure per week, but for the purposes of Summer Camp 2026 I am going to focus on bringing NPCs and alien creatures to life so beyond the sky is the limit. Primarily, I chose this focus because I need critters for my players to fight and right now I am using fast and sloppy conversion rules that are mostly in my head. The mechanics of Aether allow it to use any d20 based monster, as is, from DND, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Modern (Future), d20 Starwars, or even d20 Shadowrun with minimal changes. Products registered under the Open Game License almost always allow stat blocks to be used. This means 1000's of creatures have the potential of being converted and my pledge will focus on writing new description text blocks for each creature or NPC.
Make a list of concepts you would like to explore.
- Aether - what is Aether how does it interact with known matter. How is it used in the Aether Universe?
- Dark Aether - What is Dark Aether and how does it relate to life. How does humanity learn to manipulate it in its natural state.
- One or more types of swarm aliens. One with a central hive mind and each with a unique way of assimilating genetic code. Swarm creatures in real live tent to have cast systems or genetically modified members to fit specific roles. I would really like to do a deep dive on these critters.
- Creates that exist on a slightly different harmonic frequency. Areas where these creature can pass over. How and when these events occur. Is there an invading force? or are these just creatures only perceivable to a few.
- Time. Time glitches. I am a proponent that time is static and can be used as a dimension of measurement. Since time is a dimension you should be able to navigate it. All that is and all that was exists in on instant that lasts into eternity. Divine beings are so powerful that they exist outside of time and therefore can navigate it. Existing outside of time would allow the divine to know all that has ever been and all that will be.
- Worm holes and permanent jump gates. It a toss up in my head whether jumping into a gravity well or a flat plane would be most advantageous.
- A universe of universes and string theory governed by Okun's Razor.
How does your area of focus interact with the rest of the world?
Aether is unique in the way that the world building happens as a direct result of the player's actions. We are playing in the world of tomorrow, literally it could be tomorrow in time and space. Things that go bump in the night were largely eradicated by the Church and various secret societies over the millennia. What the player's don't know is that magic is real, vampires and werewolves hide in plain sight, and witches still have covens and cast spells. Magic is believed to be nothing more than myth or fairy tail, but the truth is darker and more sinister. The organizations that once hunted and suppressed those who use magic and creatures of the night have either grown lazy or forgotten their own history. Either way, creatures of myth and legend will work there way back into Earths timeline and Aether will need creature to inspire DMs. Eventually, xeno-creatures will will also be encountered too numerous for local governments to hide.
Create an article about your area of focus.
Anacite Predator Drone - CR 10
Emergency Workers, Hazard Response Crew | CR 3
Emergency Workers, Hazard Professional | CR 6
Emergency Workers, Enercopter Pilot | CR 9
Diplomats, Religious Peacekeeper | CR 7
Diplomats, Plenipotentiary | CR 11
Week 3
What's your typical creative process and routine?
I don't have a typical routine and would describe my writing as binge writing. My routine I a) listen to a cutting edge scientific journal, b) I read a chapter or two in a scifi book, c) play a sci-fi video game for a couple hours, or d) find something sci-fi to 3d print that inspires me. Usually I rotate between these activities until I get inspired to write. Part that are routine. I still take notes on index cards. I think we were taught to organize ideas like this in 5th or 6th grade and its stuck. I find a few ideas I would like to write about and then discuss and research topic with Grok. Then I generate a few more index cards and then I write. Because I am creating a new sci fi game based on the OGL I try to keep a 1 original idea to 10 existing articles that I have to convert into my ruleset. So if I create a new alien species then I convert 10 more existing species and write new descriptive texts. I find this balance generates a ton of new content but also keeps the game familiar enough for people to play. After I write I go back to cycling through the things that inspire me. Once a week I spring new content on my Friday night game group. In addition to writing new content and mechanics I decided to write an adventure a week often using my new content. I have pretty much been doing this since the November write-a-thon.
Go for a walk.
My walk was anti climatic and uninspiring. My wife and kids are out of town so walks include the dog who is a pain in the ass. She is a sweet heart to people but hasnt been socialized with other dogs so she is a 12 LBS nutcase if we get near other dogs.
Read an Article
BAH HUMBUG... I read the World of Wizard's Peak and several of the Hawklands articles. I should find it inspiring but instead I feel envy. Everyone has a better handle on their CSS than I do. What makes it particularly frustrating is CSS used to be my jam but my medication makes it hard to remember the finer details. As a Gen-Xer I grew up with the beginnings of the Internet and transferred Civil Engineering into Information Engineering Technology when I was a Senior in College and eventually graduated with degrees in ITE and Industrial Engineering. My sr design was the power of CSS with HTML 4. Why can't I remember? So much for it being like riding a bike. You won't see me get on one of those either.
Gather Music or other media to inspire you.
I like the idea of my players being able to see what they are fighting or representing their character on the table so 3D printing is most often my muse. This month I am working with parasites so I found stl models on MMF. Then I 3d print and paint the models. Then I either give them to my daughter to draw or feed images into AI. Sometimes the AI result is brilliant, sometimes its a trainwreck, and sometimes its something completely new that I can still work with. My daughter creates perfection but its on her schedule.
Plan your writing time.
I try to write every day. Usually I am ready to write after dinner. The family is settled for the evening. The 12 LBS terror has been walked.
My family is on vacation this week so I will be rotating through my 'routine' earlier. Due to my disability I work in 45 minute burst about once every 3-4 hours on a pain roller coaster.
Create an Article About Loss (Why Not Two)
Echoes of the Hollowed , Necrophages
Week 4
Which Articles do you need to achieve your goal?
Last week I thought new alien species would be the biggest hitter in the lineup but running this campaign I have to write an adventure a week plus any space aliens or personnel that appear in said adventure. I have used WA to set up some virtual note cards and have the first 12 weeks planned out. Now I need to put the meat on the bone and complete the adventures.
WA really needs a way to set weight to the order of the article entries. My articles seem to jump to which ever spot they want to be in the lineup somewhat dependent on the source of the article. An example would be spell entries. There is no way I have figured out to keep them in alphabetical order.
Find a Community or Buddy.
This has been a struggle for me . I have run hundreds of campaigns but I have never met someone interested in world building. I have players that are fully engrossed in the worlds I have been serving up but not active participants.
Take a break and re-energize.
My wife, kids, and mother-in-law went to Vegas without me so 1 week without someone needing money or a car breaking down, or needing a co-signer has ben sublime. Only stress has been the dog... The dog has psycho level love for me and it drives me nuts. I am now eagerly waiting for their return so someone else can look after her. I know it sounds terrible but since being forced to retire early some days its hard to even get out of bed and navigate the stairs. So walking the monster is its own task. I will give it my best effort to decompress this week. I didn't realize how much the dog was stressing me out until I started writing. Thinking about it now, I should go take her on a walk.
Prepare your writing space.
My writing space and my painting space have married and become one. I need to separate them once again but the biggest hassle is my painting table doesn't have a view of the TV. I am not sure why I need to see the TV while painting but it bothers me I can't just look up and see what's on the screen at any moment without turning around. Silly right?! My whole creative space has become a bit of a mess with a game table I actively use to run DND and Aether games and my 3D printing hobby, obsession. I really need help. Writing is just a hobby for me so it shares a quad-use space. It would be nice if my computer set up and painting workstation could magically swap places, but I can at least move my paints back to their work area. That might be the extent of what I can handle without digging into my hobby time. Time will tell.
What's your goal as a world builder? How will Summer Camp help you?
My goal as a world builder is to create a free system people can play and understand without reading hundreds how pages of rules, but is as deep as it it is wide. A long time ago before there was Starfinder by Paizo there was Starfinder RPG by Stroh Hammer. Their lawyers got nasty with me because they hadn't search to confirm the name already wasn't in use. It was and that person was me. It was explained to me that the evil corporation had already spent millions in branding and that they would defender there IP. To which I replied I was defending my IP. But I digress. They stole Starfinder from me and putting together Aether (Starfinder RPG 2.0) is my way of sticking it to the man even if it is only at my game table. Summer Camp will help me refine my system and begin filling in the gaps.
Building your own system is a huge undertaking and something I find very inspiring tbh. Best of luck with it and have fun with SC!
Summer Camp is here and so is My pledge! <3
Visit my world of Kena'an for tales of fantasy and magic! Or, if you fancy something darker, Crux Umbra awaits.