Ephemeris: Omens of the Blood Comet – live on Kickstarter!

Join us in beginning a daring adventure of vampire hunting and occult discovery

The day the omens have foreseen is finally upon us – Ephemeris: Omens of the Blood Comet is live on Kickstarter!

Ephemeris begins with a classic gothic horror setup in a retrofuturist setting: landing on a desolate forest planet, the players travel to the manor-observatory of Chateau de la Bré to join their hosts in studying the Blood Comet, a celestial body brimming with occult power.

Your host, Baroness Bela de la Bré, is a powerful Blood Ink Vampire whose occult research has led her to make a desperate plan: make a pact with the cosmic entity trapped within the Blood Comet. Bela’s daughter Katarina is dying from an illness which eludes diagnosis, but the Blood Comet has the power to change her fate – Bela has resolved to free the demon in exchange for saving Katarina. But setting loose such an eldritch horror will cause calamity all across the stars…

Ephemeris presents the players with dozens of threads to pull on: the Chateau’s libraries are full of occult tracts and its laboratories bristle with untried elixirs. The manor’s grounds host ruins from unknown forerunners, and a strange corruption has transmogrified the wolves and ravens that patrol the dead birch groves. Winding catacombs run beneath the chateau, holding eldritch secrets and the final resting place of the ancient de la Bré patriarch who lives anew as an undying lich. Above all, Ephemeris is fundamentally driven by a mother’s quest to save her daughter – it’s up to the players who that quest unfolds, and if our fates can be changed without unleashing the horrors of the stars.

Ephemeris explores a competition of science vs. the supernatural – Bela utilizes both technology and occult rituals to manipulate the demonic Blood Comet, but are the artifices of humankind (or vampire-kind?) enough to control a cosmic horror? Powerful artifacts both scientific and arcane can be found within Chateau de la Bré, and the players can discover how to perform alchemical experiments and blood ink rituals that channel the power of the stars themselves. A part of the same narrative universe as Retrograde, Ephemeris introduces the occult power of Blood Ink Vampires to a cosmos driven by blood, ink, and occult printmaking.

Ephemeris is a completely standalone game – everything you need to play is right in the book, with 6 pre-generated player character archetypes, 3 interconnected scenarios across 3 areas of play, and dozens of linocut and monoprint illustrations that bring the adventure into stark relief.

I’ll be printing Ephemeris’ booklets on risograph with a special edition printed with a letterpress cover, infusing your games with the tactile power of analog printmaking. Getting to print the booklets myself is my favorite part of the whole project, and it’s an incredible feeling to see the game start to take physical shape.

If you’re eager to begin your journey into the occult cosmos or continue unraveling the secrets first revealed in Retrograde, consider backing the Kickstarter today! Supporting the project on Kickstarter helps turn this universe into a physical reality, and I’m immensely excited to get printing these booklets. You can start playing a demo version of Ephemeris for free here, and if you’re able to back or share the campaign with folks you know, it’s an immense help.

Thanks so much for reading and continuing on this journey of arcane storytelling and analog printmaking – we hope you’ll join us on this next big adventure!

– Zosimos