This will be two releases in one: an illustrated novel and a 5e RPG Campaign setting.
For those who backed the previous Ultramodern5 that is owed the Campaign setting, you are still owed this reward. This crowdfunding project is meant to help increase the project's scope, elevating it from a small-scale adventure which recycles most of its illustrations from other DEM publications (like Threshold) to our first full-scale release since Affinity, featuring exclusively all new artwork from Nick Greenwood (except for two images which provided the original inspiration carried over from UM5).
You can back just the novel, just the RPG, or both.
The illustrated novel follows artist William Truth from his normal life in 1984 Earth to the alternative "Verth", a biopunk dystopia where the inclusion of alien devices known as sparkplugs almost a century prior has radically altered the past, leading to a crumbling postwar planet.
Intertwined with William's journey are explorations of this alternate world, where biological machines and genetically engineered life forms have replaced modern technological advances. With the help of the seraph Kex, whose love for him may or may not be programmed, William must navigate mutated wastelands, sentient vehicles, and biomechanical horrors to save two worlds from annihilation.
The 5E Campaign Guide opens the world to players of 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Characters assume the roles of reapers--scavengers/mercenaries tasked with entering contaminated Black Zones to forage for priceless alien warborn, retrieve lost technology, or escort personnel.
FEATURES OF THE 5E GUIDE
Seven new species, including genetically modified humans.
Six new backgrounds.
Prestige rules offering an alternate path to character progression.
Revised and expanded firearms, including specific models from the past century.
Organetic body modifications.
Rules regarding "warborn".
Biomechanical "trophon" vehicles.
New monsters.
BUT WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
In this alternate reality, humanity's destiny was forever altered on April 17, 1897, when a mysterious alien device was recovered from a UFO crash in Aurora, Texas.
This sparkplug implanted itself into Johann Friedrich Wagner, gifting him not only advanced knowledge but an irrepressible drive to replicate it. Thus began the age of spark technology—biomechanical wonders decades ahead of their time, from self-repairing trophon engines to genetically engineered life forms (GELFs).
But progress came at a cataclysmic cost. The very machines designed to uplift humanity soon turned against it. Thanatic Reflux—a toxic blight emitted by damaged trophons—poisoned continents, rendered fertile lands barren, and suppressed human reproduction.
World War II ended not with a nuclear bang but with a biological whimper, leaving Europe a desolate wasteland. Later, the North American War fractured countries into ideological factions: the Maritime Coalition, which outlawed GELF slavery but embraced trophons, and the Heartland, which opposed with contrary values.
Vast Black Zones—toxic wastelands crawling with rogue trophons and mutated horrors—offer peril and promise. Within these zones, warborn form, rare compounds invaluable to surviving governments, corporations, and even parallel worlds connected through slippates.
You are a reaper: a scavenger, survivor, or outsider brave enough to enter these lethal landscapes. Whether you're a spark gifted with alien knowledge, a GELF fighting for personhood, or a backdoor from another reality, your choices will shape the fate of worlds. Employ hollows—remote-controlled simulacra—to explore without risking your life, or venture forth in person to confront biomechanical abominations, corporate conspiracies, and ecological decay.
The Sparkplug Chronicles is a multiversal extraction shooter RPG wrapped in a rich, narrative-driven setting, blending biopunk horror, retro-futurism, and existential dread, with lore spanning a century of divergent history.
PRINT ON DEMAND
By shifting back to a POD format, we hope to avoid the delays and complications which accompany offset printing. In the current unstable political environment, costs are very much in flux, with unpredictable tariffs and production surges along with constantly changing shipping prices.
DriveThruRPG's Print-On-Demand infrastructure allows for rapid production and distribution from several different facilities worldwide, reducing the chances of VAT and import fees. We won't accidentally overcharge shipping, and it also dramatically reduces intermediate fees regarding facilitation and distribution. It also significantly reduces our funding goal, enabling us to concentrate on what truly matters: the book's content.
The release of the Ultramodern5 Bestiary was truly impressive. I admit being worried about future 5E releases, but the Bestiary was our best release since that last Ultramodern5, hitting number 1 on the D&D list on DTRPG. As such, I have decided to accelerate progress on the Ultramodern5 Armoury.
Admittedly, the reason was connected to The Sparkplug Chronicles. I decided to create authentic branding for firearms, given the setting's retro-alternate format. After creating a hundred new entries, I realized they should be in their own book. Since I had already considered doing an Armoury release, it made sense to create entries for that book instead.
Unlike the Bestiary, which drew 50% of its content from other DEM publications, after a single chapter on basic gear, it became clear that the Armoury would essentially be a page 1 rewrite of all previously created entries. There will be some carry over but to give you an example, in Ultramodern5, we listed about 100 pieces of non-fantasy gear.
The Armoury lists 400, and I haven't even gotten to firearms yet. I still plan to have this book finished this year, so it will not conflict with any work on The Sparkplug Chronicles.
CLONEFALL
As I might have mentioned, the writer of this book just had a kid, and he is building a house. So, I am keeping the pressure off as he addresses these obvious priorities. I apologize for the lateness, and he has given assurances that this final adventure will be completed before the end of this year.
That's it for now, thank you to everyone for your support.
