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Steampunkette (She/Her)

@steampunkette.bsky.social

200 followers 950 following 54 posts

TTRPG Designer, Nerd, Feminist, SJW, Anti-Fascist, Neurospicy (DAVE/Autism spectrum), Research Monkey. It goes without saying but then again these days maybe it doesn't: Fuck Nazis. Fuck White Supremacy. Fuck Trump.

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Dec 11

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...

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Sep 3

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

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Aug 29

New Book Alert!

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!

www.kickstarter.com

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jun 15

WELP.

Scheduling error. Backerkit went live hours early.

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

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

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

www.backerkit.com

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jun 15

Less than 6 hours 'til Launch for Martial Artistry!

I'm full of nerves and excitement!

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jun 14

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

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jun 12

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!

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

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jun 7

I did an interview!

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

A5Evening: An All Party Round Up - June 3 2025: Rachel Williamson (Steampunkette) and Nir Chezrony

YouTube video by Grant at BSP

www.youtube.com

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · May 24

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!

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · May 17

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

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

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Mar 5

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

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.

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jan 11

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!

Sarah (she/her) @scholarsarah.bsky.social · Jan 10

Why should you trust this team to make magic items? Well, we've all written for Level Up before (although only @steampunkette.bsky.social is on #ttrpgsky so). I'll let her post her very cool stuff, but I'll keep sharing mine downthread:

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jan 9

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.

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jan 4

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.

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jan 4

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.

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jan 4

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!

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jan 4

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!

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jan 4

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!

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Jan 4

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.

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Dec 11

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...

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Dec 10

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

Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Dec 10

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.

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Dec 10

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!

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Dec 10

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.

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Dec 10

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.

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Steampunkette (She/Her) @steampunkette.bsky.social · Dec 10

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.

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