Kris Green wrote up an AP for The 23rd Letter playtest.

Highlights:

The scenario, titled “Psilence is Golden,” follows a crew of four “Espers” navigating the dangerous underworld of a near-future Seattle where psychic abilities are both a gift and a curse. The team consists of Harry Finch, a psychometric antiques dealer; Marley, a telepathic courier; Randall, a pyrokinesis-wielding goon; and Whisper, a specialist in mind control. Operating out of a shared safehouse, the group balances their personal lives and illicit businesses with high-stakes missions that often pit them against powerful corporate interests.

The primary antagonist of the narrative is Muon Biochem, a pharmaceutical firm led by the ambitious Oliver Guttierez. The company is the source of Psilence, a critical drug that suppresses the psychic “stress” that accumulates when Espers use their powers. As the crew investigates Muon, they discover a dark secret: Guttierez has been keeping a young Esper named Ella captive in a hidden basement facility, using her unique biology to facilitate the mass production of the drug.

The story reaches a climax when the crew orchestrates a daring raid on the Muon Biochem facility to rescue Ella and seize a valuable stockpile of Psilence. During the operation, the team navigates tight security and moral dilemmas, eventually liberating Ella from her containment. However, the extraction turns chaotic when Randall loses control of his pyrokinesis, triggering a massive, supernatural “all-consuming conflagration” that levels the building and covers the group’s tracks.

In the aftermath of the explosion, the crew finds themselves in possession of several boxes of Psilence worth approximately $360,000 on the black market. While they have dealt a massive blow to Muon Biochem and saved Ella, they remain wary of the inevitable corporate retaliation. The campaign ends with the team safe for the moment, having secured both a massive payday and the responsibility of protecting a powerful, traumatized young Esper.

Arcane Manifold is pleased to announce that Burning Frontier, currently available in playtest beta, will be brought fully in-house ahead of its final publication.

Since its initial release in playtest beta, Burning Frontier has continued to grow through feedback, testing, and development. The decision to bring the project in-house reflects Arcane Manifold’s commitment to giving the game the focused attention, refinement, and production support it deserves as it moves toward full release.

Set against the harsh and dramatic realities of the eighteenth-century frontier, Burning Frontier is a roleplaying game of survival, conflict, and difficult choices in a land shaped by war, wilderness, and competing peoples. The playtest period has helped sharpen the game’s identity and deepen its design, and this next step marks an important stage in its journey.

Bringing Burning Frontier in-house will allow Arcane Manifold to oversee the game’s continued development more directly, ensuring that its final published form reflects the strongest possible version of the project. This includes further work on presentation, structure, and overall polish as the team prepares the title for publication.

“We are incredibly excited about the future of Burning Frontier,” said Arcane Manifold. “The playtest beta has been invaluable in helping shape the game, and moving it in-house gives us the opportunity to develop it with even greater care and clarity before release.”

Further updates on Burning Frontier, including publication news and future announcements, will be shared by the team in due course.

For more information, follow Arcane Manifold for future news and updates on Burning Frontier.

We have released our SRD for the AME Engine under the ASRDL v1.0.

AME SYSTEM REFERENCE DOCUMENT LICENSE v 1.0. Copyright © 2026 Arcane Manifold

The Arcane Manifold Engine (AME, pronounced Amy) is a our game engine which we designed to address some of the issues we had with YZE (Year Zero Engine) from Free League, which we’d written games and supplements for.

These issues were:

• A general dislike of the dice pool proliferation (playing Aliens, a YZE game, one player had to roll 17d6. It looks like Invincible has gone that way too). We prefer to roll a small number of dice, and ideally only once to fully resolve an action.
• Discomfort with the target numbers (6, 10) and so we aligned the target numbers to 5, 10, 15, 20. Easier to remember.
• Pushing slows the whole game down, particularly when rolling a lot of dice. Also players frequently express confusion about whether they’re trying the task again or just getting a re-roll with some risk attached. Also, we prefer to roll once!
• Hit Points seems like a step backwards in terms of game design. AME uses attribute decrease to reflect minor injury, fatigue, pain and distraction. These heal quickly.

As we developed the engine, we added some other key things we felt were important to use as both players and writers.

• Critical Injuries are expanded into multiple tables in AME implementations for the most part. Let’s not ignore Mental and Spiritual injuries!
• Simplified table for combat modifiers. These are very easy to refer to, and ideally will end up with a mnemonic!
• Streamlined “life path” for character generation. Life events are tied to Qualities/Talents so you know when/where you got your skill for horse riding or your underworld contacts.
• Cross-Universe compatibility. A character from Shifters can easily fit into a MAJESTIC or 23rd Letter campaign. The base resolution mechanic and its currency (Successes and Complications) are the same.
• Addition of the d4 for PCs and also including d20 as part of the scale. (In theory if d14, d16 and d18 were readily available, we’d use those too.)
• We built a game (The 23rd Letter, more on that soon!) and then made an SRD. And then rebuilt the game, and had a partner launch their first game with the SRD!
• AME is actually 100% compatible with YZE games and supplements.

We are a tabletop role-playing games company, and our journey is just getting started. More info to come soon.