Just wanted to send a quick update sharing more of scragend's illustrations. I put together these quick collages and thought y'all would appreciate seeing them first:
Flatline Update May 2026: Last Chance for Pre-Orders!
Salutations Dreamers,
Chris Airiau here, back for your monthly Flatline on the Blocks update.
I'm so deep in layout editing for finalizing the zines and pamphlets before our big fat HIT PRINT date for June 1st that I nearly forgot to send this update today!
Scragend has been on a spree finishing the characters, scene illustrations and spot art for Flatline:
The Organ Failure team has been working with me on finalizing the drafts for those single spread adventures:
Dev on this one took a lot of MotoGP research, haha
Phagocytosis turned out to be a two-spread adventure. That big box is gonna be a Laux News feature, a fun nod to OVER/UNDER courtesy of Just Kaylee, :)
Just a little drug den dungeon
And for our cross-collab with Breathe Easy, I met with Marco Serrano to hammer out the racing procedures for the Rival Racers: Magenta & Turquoise Editions. He whipped up these maps for those mini-game adventures:
Spinal Crux Warriors projects
Kyle Tam'sMORIAH is seeing a print run for the first time! Her game won an Indie Groundbreaker Honorable Mention in 2023, and the book is crowdfunding for a hardback tome in June. Follow the BackerKit launch!
Amanda P.'s Orestruck was recently featured on the popular OSR Actual Play show, 3D6 Down the Line. Check out the first episode here!
We're fast approaching the end of the regular update cycle. Once the zines go to Tuesday Knight Games' warehouses in July, the ball will be in their court.
However, the Spinal Crux Warriors are committed to sending an update on this project's progress on the second-to-last Monday of each month. Like this month, we'll be sure to share any other projects the Warriors are working on.
Flatline Update April 2026, Pre-Orders & Megapledge manager
G'day Dreamers,
Tuesday Knight Games sent out the megapledge manager about three weeks ago to all Mothership Month 2025 backers. All backers must complete this pledge manager in order to receive their rewards, even PDF backers! If you cannot find your megapledge survey, use the link below to have BackerKit send you a new one.
If you need any support contact Tuesday Knight Games and BackerKit. Due to the immense complexity of the megabundle manager, only the TKG and BK teams have access to the pledge manager information and management. This includes upgrading pledges.
For support, add both addresses to the same email. Be sure to add relevant screenshots, when necessary:
support <at> tuesdayknightgame <dot> com
support <at> backerkit <dot> com
Production & Art update
We've ordered the sticker sheets for the Spinal Crux bundles, and we've entered the the process for getting the the early bird Spinal Crux and NERC patches. The Organ Failure team is working hard on refining those five Spinal Crux adventures for layout, too. But what's most fun to show off is the art, right?
Check out these pencils scragend has been working on:
Spinal Crux Warriors projects
Our creative team has been busy these last few months! Check out what they've got going on this April:
S. Murphy released a new Mothership adventure, Outpost 33, set on an iceball planet (I hear they're all the rage these days). Check it out on itch!
The snow is poison. There is something under the ice.
Finally, if you're interested in listening to a sci-fi ttrpg module review podcast, I release new episodes of Ansible Uplink every other Wednesday. I invite game designers on the show with me, like Spinal Crux Warriors Reece Carter, Christian Sorrell, and Waco Matrixo.
The Spinal Crux Warriors are committed to sending an update on this project's progress on the second-to-last Monday of each month. Like this month, we'll be sure to share any other projects the Warriors are working on.
Flatline Update March 2026: Pre-proof, pre-art PDF!
Howdy Dreamers,
I can't seem to kick my CHC cowboy roots. Oh well.
So yeah, Chris Airiau reporting in! Big big update this month for our backers, as we have a gameable pre-proof, pre-art PDF for all backers at the bottom of this update!
27 spreads and two cover pages
This is not the final PDF!
Pre-proof means pre-proofreading, and pre-art means the Scragend art that goes in all those empty boxes throughout the zine. Notably, this is going to be the factions, character portraits and spot art throughout, and the back cover.
The zine also has some little weird leftover layout bits that I still need to go in and fix, and the team is currently helping me compile a fix list to help out with these:
The list goes on...
The complete block map art by Ripley Matthews is included in the zine. Again, this is potentially pending small tweaks.
Other than the proofing and layout fixes, Scragend is digging into the art for Flatline on the Blocks and Organ Failure. Expect loads of character portraits and spot art in the April update!
We're now getting geared up to set up all the bits and bobs for production, as well: the pamphlets, the stickers, the patches. Getting those into production alongside the zines for delivery to ShipBob by May is our main goal.
Tuesday Knight Games and BackerKit should be getting the megapledge manager up soon. Quite a massive (and mad) logistics ordeal for them, from what we've been able to gather on our end. No one's ever done this before, so give it up for those teams too, yeah?
Longing for a lil melancholy?
Josh Domanski, of the Liminal Horror team invited me (Chris Airiau) on to co-write an Orbital Blues zine with him. With art by Lur Noise and editing from Samantha Leigh, Paramour is set on an iceball planet, in a city you used to love, where an old flame is in trouble (again). The zine sticks its Outlaws in a tough spot of seeking a bounty, or helping her with one last job.
Follow Paramour on BackerKit!
I wrote the adventure sites and six city districts (yeah, I'm deep in that city space fiction right now), and it's been a fun change of pace from horror to heartbreak & nostalgia. The BackerKit launches next month, check it out!
Future Updates
The Spinal Crux Warriors are committed to sending an update on this project's progress on the second-to-last Monday of each month. Like this month, we'll be sure to share any other projects the Warriors are working on.
Flatline Update February 2026: Maps and Layout in Progress
Hello Dreamers,
Hope y'all had a lovely Valentine's weekend, <3 It's Chris Airiau, back again for your monthly update on Flatline progress. And it's a sexy update with layout spreads to share, check it out:
The Lighthouse, by Scott Garriott
The Playhouse, by Kyle Tam
Anthill, by Julius "Kin" Karajos
Green Zone, by Reece Carter
Layout Work
Jet McFin and Jordan Boschman have finished their round of copyediting, and now we've moved on to the layout-fit copyedits. As you can see, these spreads aren't entirely finished. The boxes are spots for Scragend to fill with artwork, and there are numerous "pg. xx" references throughout, which will be of course be fully clickable in the final draft (alongside a plaintext PDF version).
Our goal is to get you a pre-proof PDFin next month's update. It will be like these spreads above, without all the finished art, and come alongside a google form to report typos we've missed.
Ripley Matthews Maps
We cannot overstate how thrilled and amazed all of us are to have Ripley Matthews work on these maps. She is doing an AMAZING job. We have an eclectic mix of Blocks, which feeds into the cartography necessitating a flowing, by the Block stylization. I tried to pick spreads that evoke the different kinds of maps and illustrations that Ripley has been working on, and here's another four to show how those differences matter.
Maps by Ripley Matthews. Clockwise from top-left: Amorph Row by Amanda P., Trak-Blok by Waco Matrixo, Milan Commons by Ben King, Warship Museum by Julius "Kin" Karajos.
The top row employs, as Ripley herself said it, a "90s Lucasarts point and click 'fuck perspective' sort of thing" for Blocks that emphasize mood and abstract space rather than Blocks that require a more classic (though still abstracted) top-down dungeon style for play, as we see on the bottom row. We even have weirder, more illustrative Blocks, like the Anthill which functions with a procedure based on the Flux Space procedure.
Zine Month Projects
Zine Month is still on! Check out these three Mothership RPG projects by members of the Spinal Crux Warriors:
Twisting Unseen: A scissors-and-glue, build-the-dungeon zine of teleportation gates and the cursed beings living behind them. By Chris Airiau.
Cain Sun: Play as parasitic aliens controlling the fatally curious Dr. Abelsson. Like Everyone is John, except EVERYONE IS WORM. By Waco Matrixo.
Worms Worms Worms!:Three authors, including Scott Garriott, deliver a wormy tri-fold anthology of five pamphlets in a slimy little box.
Future Updates
The Spinal Crux Warriors are committed to sending an update on this project's progress on the second-to-last Monday of each month. Like this month, we'll be sure to share any other projects the Warriors are working on.
The pre-order store may be opening soon. We've done our bit for Tuesday Knight Games in order for them to get our Flatline wares onto the BackerKit pre-order store; the required materials were due at the end of January. If the pre-order store goes live far from 23 March, we'll send out an update ahead of schedule to let you know.
Flatline Update January 2026: Copyedits & Map Sketches
Hello Dreamers,
Happy New Year, and Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! Chris Airiau here, bringing you your monthly update on Flatline progress. But first!
Zine Month Projects
Three of the Warrior writers (myself included) are participating in Zine Month in February! Check out what Waco Matrixo, Molgannard Press (Scott Garriott), and 5MW Press (that's me) have coming up, :)
Cain Sun by Waco Matrixo
Players incarnate parasitic alien worms and fight for control of a single human host. Follow your secret agenda to take over your host, or die under a burning sun. Follow the launch for Cain Sun!
Worms Worms Worms! by Scott Garriott, Clive Lancaster, and Terry Herc.
A five-pamphlet pack, including Scott Garriott's adventure Right As Rain: Deliver divorce papers to a luxury orbital clinic where the staff will make your skin crawl. Literally. Follow the launch for Worms Worms Worms!
Twisting Unseen by Chris Airiau
Parlay through technoreligious factions, evade transdimensional monstrosities, and Build the Superstructure to escape this portal-twisted Jump-9 colony. Follow the launch for Twisting Unseen!
Also, how weird is it that all three of our projects have worm-things in them, eh?
Flatline Copyediting Progress
After regrouping the manuscripts, and hammering out a few editing guideline hiccups, copyediting began last Thursday, January 15th. In this short amount of time, Jordan and Jet have already completed a third of the copyediting work. Each Block is under 1200 words, so we're well on track with our project timeline.
Map Progress
Due to a little scheduling conflict due to life reasons last week, Ripley only started on the map sketches today. She was kind enough to send me over the first "ridiculously sketchy" map "doodle" for M-1: The Lighthouse. (I love how what Ripley described as "ridiculously sketchy" is leagues and leagues beyond my personal capabilities, hahaha!) The Lighthouse is an OcuSec broadcasting center and comedy club hosted by "uplifted chimp" comedian BoBo, from writer Scott Garriott.
Ripley says now that things have settled, she's powering through the rest of the maps full time, so we'll have a lot more next month. Can't wait to share more!
Future Updates
The Spinal Crux Warriors are committed to sending an update on this project's progress on the second-to-last Monday of each month. Like this month, we'll be sure to share any other projects the Warriors are working on. Thanks for tuning in, and see ya soon.
Xeno-plants crawl through the vents, noodle shop mobsters operate black markets, monobikes burn rubber down dingy streets, rogue slugtech creeps up out of toilets, a dead warship slumbers, scrappers chip away at the infrastructure underfoot, and crowds clamor for the new MindOrb cybermods unknowingly powered by a sinister source.
In the Spinal Crux District, every Block has its secrets. Most bad, but some good—if you know where to look.
18 veteran Mothership writers, artists, and more bring their surgical precision to the Spinal Crux District in Flatline on the Blocks, a 52pg zine detailing its 20 Blocks on Prospero's Dream.
Explore the Spinal Crux District organically while keeping your Finger on the Pulse, instigating encounters using a procedure inspired by Mythic Bastionland's Myth Omens.
