Fragged Aeternum 2 | ttRPG

Introduction

Fragged Aeternum 2 is a 450+ page two-book collection that brings a gothic superhero-like game to your table, where Players take on the role of immortal Tethered in an endless gothic city filled with monsters, strife and mystery. Drawing inspiration from gothic horror literature, soulsborne video games, eldritch horror, victorian folklore and dark fantasy.

Core Book Includes:

Endless City

Aeternum is the name of both city and all material existence. Unfathomably large, our eternal urban expanse stretches out beyond all horizons. It is so large that not even deranged madmen claim to have reached its limits, and so all-encompassing that humans can not imagine an existence outside of a city.

Whenever a building in Aeternum is ruined it will often be replaced by the Divine Architects - small glittering creatures that appear out of thin air who can materialise massive buildings within a day. While this saves the people of Aeternum a lot of effort, the Architects are not beholden to, or mindful of, the plans of man, and will often replace buildings with structures of entirely different design. This regularly creates problems with surrounding roads that do not align with existing paths, or buildings not used for purpose; such as multiple families living in a cathedral-like structure due to the destruction of their previous residences and the subsequent mismatched reconstruction.

Architects do not clear ruins, they simply build over the old. Countless years of this practice have pushed the remains of ancient Aeternum lower as newer structures are raised atop the old. As the city sprawls endlessly across every horizon, so too does its Undercity plunge endlessly downward. It is a labyrinth of caverns, sewers and mine shafts, with its own exotic ecosystems of creatures and lost subterranean Districts.

From the city’s great spires, one may gain a faint glimpse into how tiny they are compared to the endless urban expanse. From even the highest vantage point the buildings stretch out forever in all directions. From above Aeternum appears as a giant puzzle, its pieces divided by the massive walls that separate the many nation-like Districts of the city. The walls are topped with ancient statues and towers that keep a silent vigil over the people below. Wide streets feed into huge gates; the only points of passage through the walls from one District to another.

Immortal Tethered

If any one aspect most influences the flow of life and history within the endless city, it is the soul. For within Aeternum, the souls of the dead do not lie still. When a human dies, a flickering spirit will visibly rise from their body, and after the briefest pause, that soul will either flutter into the sky or be pulled violently down beneath the ground. The former gives a sense of joy to all, while the latter radiates dread. Humans live their lives under the shadow of two disturbing truths: the vast majority of souls do not ascend, and no one knows for sure where souls go.

The immortal Tethered, known within as ‘The Order’, regard the protection of human souls as their sacred charge. They seek to accomplish this by protecting people's lives to provide them with more time to cultivate souls capable of ascension. They have thrown themselves into an eternal struggle against the nature of humanity, otherworldly threats and the vile Fiends.

By fusing their souls to the Golden Fire within a Great Lantern, the Tethered are capable of cheating death. The flow of a person’s soul into the lantern slowly changes them. A Tethered’s body become stronger and faster than ordinary humans. Muscle memory is greatly enhanced, allowing most members of the Order to quickly learn complex physical skills in a matter of months, which would take an ordinary human a lifetime to master. Other changes accompany the fusion, but these vary from one member of the Order to the next. It is not unknown for a Tethered to possess strange and arcane abilities beyond the ken of mortals.

In ancient times the Order had incredibly strict entry requirements that only accepted the best and purest. While many still join the Order with noble intentions, some now join for selfish reasons. Murderers, thieves, outcasts and other ne’er-do-wells have sought to join the ranks of the Tethered seeking a reprieve from damnation. Many great Tethered originally joined the Order for selfish reasons, only to later grow into their calling.

The Golden Flame cares only for the mission and not the nature of its agents.

PC Archetypes

Your Archetype will define your playstyle and character narrative. Each comes with unique mechanics, though their exact narrative nature is defined by you.

Select your Arcane Power

Foes

"Never trust a Fiend, especially when they speak truth." - Ancient truism.

Game Mechanics

Fragged is a proudly medium-crunch game (if you can handle D&D and Pathfinder you will be just fine with Fragged). There are no classes - when you Level up, the primary thing that happens is that you gain a Trait (these are the building blocks of your character).

The core resolution mechanic is "3d6 + a bonus vs a target number". Eg: 3d6+2 from your Leadership Skill vs 12. Very simple, but anytime you roll a "6" this is called a Strong Hit and you can do something special - the default Strong Hit option allows you to re-roll a die, but maybe your a psychic and you're talking to someone, you could use a Strong Hit to pluck the surface thoughts from their mind. Or maybe you have a flame weapon in combat, you could use a Strong Hit to set someone on fire or melt their armour. You Strong Hit options come from your items and Traits.

Character Sheets

Pledge Rewards

Human made Art (no AI)

Community Links

• Website (Online stores and more).
• Patreon (STLs, art, playtest access and more).
• DriveThruRPG (PDF store).
• MyMiniFactory (STL store).
• Discord
• Facebook
• X
• Instagram
• YouTube

Videos & Community Content

Lets play session with Lollygaggers:

Interview with Mildra the Monk:

Live play by Tickingtimebob team:

Original music by the talented Jesse James:

Shipping & Fulfilment

Following the crowdfunding campaign we will use the Kickstarter pledge manager to collect your postage details, shipping costs, and accept late pledges. Pledges will be shipped out from one of our fulfillment warehouses in the United States, Australia or United Kingdom. PDFs will be sent out via DriveThruRPG. STLs will be sent out via MyMiniFactory.

Estimated Postage Costs:

• Australia: $22aud.
• UK: £11.
• USA mainland: $20usd*.
• NZ: $42nzd.
• EU: €21*.
• Canada: $52cad*.
• Rest of the World: $37usd*.

*I will instruct my warehouses to pass all import costs (such as VAT) onto me, but this is not foolproof and there is a tiny chance you will be charged extra. If this does happen, please reach out to me via Kickstarter or Discord.

Stretch Goals

I'm going to speak plainly. As with my Fragged Empire 2 campaign I do not wish to focus on stretch goals, as they can cause production bloat/delays, unreasonable expectations, low-quality add-on products and encourage artificial marketing (such as creators removing features so they can add them back in as Stretch Goals). If we're especially well-funded I will put out a few Stretch Goals.

While this campaign does not have a large focus on Stretch Goals, I know it would be encouraging for many of you to know how I plan to spend the additional funds that we may raise.

• Additional padding to absorb postage/shipping expenses (especially to those who live outside the USA, UK and Australia).
• Additional funding to increase production speed.
• Printed endpaper for all hardcover books.
• Early development of the next Fragged projects (just how previous campaigns have allowed me to do so much early development on this project).