Sarah Carapace is an artist and game designer who some readers might know from Dungeon Bitches and who is now on Kickstarter with a TTRPG of her own.
The game is called Violet Core, uses an adapted version of Powered by the Apocalypse and is inspired by Grunge, Riot Grrrl and with 1990s-style aesthetics, it’s a romantic high-speed sapphic mecha conflict in space. The campaign needs AU$12,000 to fund and is nearly there, with over two weeks left for crowdfunding.
In this future, there are three opposing factions; the cold and stern but scientific Reach, the messy militia of Homebound and the cultish Cosmic Embrace.
Each faction has its own mecha, known as X-10s, with different looks and styles, but all are categorised into either Warrior, Rogue or Witch. Likewise, pilots come in five flavours;
- Rat Bitch – Engineered to suit their faction with cybernetics and chemicals, born to pilot despite any struggle to resist.
- VioletKind – Empathic and psychically gifted yet also genetically engineered with spotaneous mutations.
- Shining Star – A talented ace overly focused on being a fantastic pilot.
- Baseline Breaker – A regular person without any special talent but with a lot of grit.
- ReBuilt – A pilot who nearly died before and now in a rebuilt and almost entirely prosthetic form.
The game explores whether you’ll just follow orders and fight for a system that does not care for you. Or whether you’ll side with people who might harm people you know or who might have already done so.
The game aggressively, and perhaps unreasonably, makes use of the saddest, gayest dice in the known galaxy: the maligned and misunderstood d4, gathered and thrown in pools (with occasional help from the wonderfully-shaped d8).
Backers who pledge AU$5, which is about £3, get a thank you and their name in the book. Those who can spare AU$24 will get a PDF copy of Violet Core.
There are stretch goals, and at AU$39 backers get the above plus any digital stretches that unlock.
The print-on-demand at-cost coupon, a thank you and the PDF of Violet Core are the rewards at AU$39. You know this but at-cost means you’ll still have DTRPG’s printing and shipping fees to pay.
The stretch goals are added back in at AU$54, along with the previous tier.
Sarah estimates a November 2025 delivery and the Kickstarter is running until Friday 25th of October.
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