Steampunkette (She/Her)

In 1 hour and 12 minutes we hit our goal! Let's keep going!

Coming soon: Night of the Knife: A Campaign Quartet Adventure Four new character classes for gothic and horror themed 5e-compatible games packaged with a one-shot themed adventure!

New Book Alert!

Get Ready for Martial Artistry: A Compendium of Combat for 5e Games From Steampunkette - Get Ready for Martial Artistry: A Compendium of Combat for 5e Games

WELP.

Scheduling error. Backerkit went live hours early.

Fuck it, we'll do it live, right?

www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

Less than 6 hours 'til Launch for Martial Artistry!

I'm full of nerves and excitement!

Martial Artistry: A Compendium of Combat for 5e Games New classes, archetypes, origins, systems, and options to breathe new life into martial characters and provide options for Mass Combat and Social Structures.

www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

Thank you, Sol!

In just under 28 hours, Martial Artistry launches on Backerkit! Four new classes, four new heritages, mass combat, injuries, new weapons, new archetypes, a fealty structure for player-driven rewards, combat synergies...

It's a -lot- of material!

Martial Artistry: A Compendium of Combat for 5e Games New classes, archetypes, origins, systems, and options to breathe new life into martial characters and provide options for Mass Combat and Social Structures.

www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

Martial Artistry launches in 3 days!

New classes, New heritages, Mass Combat, New Weapons, Fealty Tracks... 149 pages already ready for PDF when the campaign ends!

Champion, Gunslinger, Sentinel, and Warcaster!

And two full classes as Stretch Goals!

YouTube video by Grant at BSP A5Evening: An All Party Round Up - June 3 2025: Rachel Williamson (Steampunkette) and Nir Chezrony

I did an interview!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JW6...

I'm launching my new book in June!

www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

If y'all wouldn't mind spreading this around a bit, I'd really appreciate it!

Oh, look! The back cover is coming along nicely!

And with everything in between complete, we'll be able to go to kickstarter, soon!

An image of a willowy woman with a flowing purple skirt and sash tat wither to tatters, bandages wrapped tightly around her forearms trailing frayed ends, and a cross-strap halter top in a similar purple to the skirt. Her flesh is grey and shows a disconcerting view of the muscle beneath, as if somewhat translucent, on her belly, arms, and chest, while her face is like pale grey flesh pulled too tightly over a skull with a pronounced hollow in either cheek and no nose. Her hair is red and hangs limply down her back, and her fingertips are blackened, as if from frostbite. She appears to be dancing and is leaning forward and to the left at the waist, her arms hanging loosely at her sides, her face looking to the left, with her hips canted and left knee lifted slightly.

A man of greyish skin wearing a bolero which appears to have an Egyptian influence in the gold work,, large plate necklace, and peaked shoulders above a shirt with green sleeves and a mesh torso. His face is pasty white and looks like skin pulled tightly over a skull with characteristic cheek hollows and no nose. His hair is parted to the right, worn short, and jet black. Under his mesh shirt you can see his ribs, likely painted to highlight them through the flimsy fabric. He wears a leather belt with a trailing end knotted through itself and a pair of black tights. His sandals appear to be a shoe-sole wound to his feet with green ribbon that runs up his leg past the calf, and he has a whip made of flowing blood in his right hand.

Enjoy a first peek at the finalized Macabre! A new heritage for A5e of Quasi-Undead you'll find in the upcoming Martial Artistry!

Follow this woman! She is amazing and dedicated, brilliant and filled with more verve than I can manage on my best days.

Fantastic designer, absolute sweetheart, and inventive storyteller. Buy her book!

Two new character heritages for Martial Artistry. The first three images are the Macabre, quasi-undead humanoids. The fourth image is of both a male and female Drek. Children of forgotten gods killed by their own creations in a bygone era.

The reason that jelly is refrigerated is because it ferments since it's a sugary grape juice reduction.

It won't make you sick if you don't, it won't kill you if you don't, but it will turn into -really- shitty booze and taste awful if you don't refrigerate it.

Unless you eat it all pretty fast.

Suddenly the tactical considerations for how to spend your turn are way more involved than "Am I standing next to an enemy? No? I move to an enemy. Then I swing."

Now you've got to use your -space- to block enemy movement, or dive for cover, or whatever. And with fewer OA there's less sticking.

And you could make it even more impactful by changing the rules of Opportunity Attacks to require a character to have a readied weapon.

Not a readied Melee weapon, so you can have dirty backshooters with hand crossbows or pistols...

But now Dragons don't get opportunity attacks!

You'd obviously need to make some NPC actions into Reactions, of course, to give the DM the same choice on any given turn of whether to keep the NPC "Sticky" for movement purposes or make things more fluid by gambling an extra bit of damage or some kind of debuff.

But what a difference!

Combine Bonus Actions and Reactions.

Anything that would normally take a Bonus Action instead takes your Reaction. HUGE difference in gameplay structure with that one change.

Now you have to choose between Raging or Opportunity Attacks.

Movement options and positioning increase dramatically!

So Mike Mearls is talking about getting rid of Bonus Actions as a core principle because they don't "Limit Multiclass Ability" which... weird reason, to me.

But I've been thinking about it and talking to posters on the ENWorld forums and I think there is a way to do it and still have some impact.

Decided to make the Esper Class and Powers free for anyone to use in their A5e or 5e compatible games. So if you want a copy, here you go!

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

The Warcaster class table. Level 1: Spellcasting, Casting Style, Initiation Level 2: Empowered Casting, Legerdemain Level 3: Warcaster Archetype, Warcaster's Edge Level 4: Ability Score Improvement, Scout Training Level 5: Splitcast Level 6: Archetype Feature Level 7: Redirected Power Level 8: Ability Score Increase, Legacy of War Level 9: Broadened Horizons Level 10: Casting Style Improvement Level 11: Ability Score Improvement, Voice of Authority Level 13: Reflected Power Level 14: Archetype Feature Level 15: Broadened Horizons Level 16: Ability Score Improvement Level 17: Arcane Denial Level 18: Archetype Feature Level 19: Cantrip Mastery Level 20: Power Unleashed

For their archetypes I wanted to play with some traditional conceits and some new ones.

Crimson Edge: Burn yourself for more power.
Swordsage: Warrior-Casters with steel and spells.
Tactician: Battlefield Control through cantrips and ploys.
Wrathbearer: Give up precision to drop area strikes.

As they level up, Warcasters build on their cantrip casting by learning to split their cantrips into multiple attacks. If you have 2d10 for your firebolt you can splitcast it into two 1d10 firebolts, for example.

And they can apply combat maneuvers to one, or both, firebolts!

Casting Styles function like Fighting Styles for fighters. You pick one of the styles and gain its benefit.

These can be simple, like Defensive adding a +1 to AC or Long Range adding a +1 to spell attacks beyond 30ft. Or they can be more complex, like Overwhelming allowing you to reroll damage.

Warcasters instead use Cantrips as weapons. After all, the difference between a Firebolt and a Heavy Crossbow at level 1 mostly lies in the range, with the heavy crossbow winning out.

So Warcasters start out with 4 offensive cantrips, 2 cantrips from their "Initiation" and a Casting Style.

You know, I think it's time for the Warcaster.

The Warcaster is a cantrip-focused casting class which gets more traditional "Spells" as limited-use exploration and social mechanics rather as core combat functionality. This allows me to play with one of A5e's basic tenets.

Maneuvers use Weapons.

Heyo!

As a special note: The Sentinel class can be particularly useful when a new player or someone who is curious about the game wants to sit in on a session.

Just give them control over your companion character for the session so they can directly help the party and join in with practically no effort!

Companions gain new abilities at level 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, and 20.

They also have their own proficiencies in armor, weapons, tools, and skills separate from the Sentinel. So you could have complementary characters, or characters who double down on specific skills for better chance of success!

Level 1: Combat Maneuvers, Companion Level 2: Field Training, Stewardship, Teamwork Level 3: Sentinel Archetype Level 4: Ability Score Increase Level 5: Extra Attack Level 6: Archetype Ability Level 7: Careful Coordination Level 8: Ability Score Increase Level 9: Archetype Ability Level 10: Protector's Sacrifice Level 11: Raise the Bar Level 12: Ability Score Increase Level 13: Archetype Ability Level 14: Trust Exercise Level 15: Coordinated Assault Level 16: Ability Score Increase Level 17: Archetype Ability Level 18: Sacrifice Level 19: Ability Score Increase Level 20: Legendary Sentinel

The Sentinel archetypes provided are:
Cavalier: Noble Knights and protectors.
Dark Knight: Wicked commanders.
Gaoler: Jailers and marshals.
Hooligan: Criminal leaders and pirates.

You can also change out your companion character over time, so a Gaoler could have a series of prisoners in travel!