Plotweaver RPG announces new partnerships and a setting contest

Brotherwise Games has announced several new partnerships to support its new Plotweaver RPG, the game system behind its Cosmere RPG, along with a new setting contest. Today at Gen Con, Brotherwise Games announced two new partnerships for its new Plotweaver game system. The company will be partnering with Earthborne Games to develop an RPG system set within the worlds of their Earthborne Rangers board game. The Earthborne Campaign Setting is a solarpunk setting and will be available to pre-order during Plotweaver's crowdfunding campaign in 2027. Also announced was a partnership with Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis's Twogether Studios. The pair are creating a new "genre-hopping" RPG setting called Infinite.

Baker will also be involved in a new contest planned to support the Plotweaver Setting Search. Baker, who created Eberron as part the Fantasy Setting Search held by Wizards of the Coast for D&D" will sit on hte panel for the Plotweaver Setting Search. RPG designers can submit their setting ideas to get featured as an official release from Brotherwise Games. More details about the contest will be revealed later this year, with a plan to accept submissions in early 2027.

An Open Alpha for Plotweaver begins next week, featuring a new fantasy setting called Erstwild. Two more settings will be released in September and October and an early beta is set for early 2027. The crowdfunding campaign for Plotweaver will launch in Q2 2027.

 

[djotaku]

I said this in the thread that was talking about this announcement, but I'll repeat here that I think it's awesome for Brotherwise to capitalize on this system by branching out from Cosmere. It means the system can have a life (and make money for Brotherwise) if the Cosmere agreement is terminated or eventually if they are done making new Cosmere stuff. I've also seen all over enworld people who are interested in the system, but couldn't care less about Cosmere.

Plus I think this could be a very nice potential 3rd or 4th place system behind D&D, Paizo, and Daggerheart. It's also the most innovative of the group (I know, debatable, but D&D/Paizo are basically bizarro versions of each other) which provides a nice contrast for folks looking for a TTRPG if the big 3 don't work for them. (This, of course is not to say stuff against the smaller folks like Blades in the Dark, Vampire: TLM, etc - they just aren't (I think) nearly as big as these)

 

[Parmandur]

I said this in the thread that was talking about this announcement, but I'll repeat here that I think it's awesome for Brotherwise to capitalize on this system by branching out from Cosmere. It means the system can have a life (and make money for Brotherwise) if the Cosmere agreement is terminated or eventually if they are done making new Cosmere stuff. I've also seen all over enworld people who are interested in the system, but couldn't care less about Cosmere.

Plus I think this could be a very nice potential 3rd or 4th place system behind D&D, Paizo, and Daggerheart. It's also the most innovative of the group (I know, debatable, but D&D/Paizo are basically bizarro versions of each other) which provides a nice contrast for folks looking for a TTRPG if the big 3 don't work for them. (This, of course is not to say stuff against the smaller folks like Blades in the Dark, Vampire: TLM, etc - they just aren't (I think) nearly as big as these)

Earthbourne makes a lot of sense, since the guy who designed the core rules for Cosmere also made that game. Seems interesting.

Keith Baker is very exciting, actually, love to see what he comes up with in a looser yet still crunchh framework than D&D.

 

[ngenius]

Interesting news. I love Eberron, the seminal world Keith Baker created for Wizards of the Coast Setting Search as far back as 2023, the year, I too started my journey from computer based Baldur's Gate into tabletop Eberron.

 

[TwoSix]

Plotweaver + Keith Baker is an extremely appealing combination.

The Stormlight book convinced me that Plotweaver is my favorite of the "evolved 5e" systems.

 

[Incenjucar]

It would be super funny if I tried another setting submission after failing to beat Baker in olden times. Though I have no context on Cosmere which tells me it would be an uphill battle to even figure out how my design would work there.

I do absolutely need to put a setting together regardless, though.

 

[djotaku]

Plotweaver + Keith Baker is an extremely appealing combination.

The Stormlight book convinced me that Plotweaver is my favorite of the "evolved 5e" systems.

It has a pretty cool combination of the things that were in the air at the time. You've got your d20 to keep it kinda familiar. But you have the plot dice (duality dice in Daggerheart), the 3 action economy (Pathfinder), sophisticated encounter systems for not-fighting (Pathfinder/Starfighter) eg speaking with others and cinematic scenes, and then the FF10-style or CRPG-style tech tree.

It would be super funny if I tried another setting submission after failing to beat Baker in olden times. Though I have no context on Cosmere which tells me it would be an uphill battle to even figure out how my design would work there.

I do absolutely need to put a setting together regardless, though.

I don't think you need any context of Cosmere. This is for their not-Cosmere "generic" system. Or do you mean you have no context on Cosmere RPG?

 

[Incenjucar]

It has a pretty cool combination of the things that were in the air at the time. You've got your d20 to keep it kinda familiar. But you have the plot dice (duality dice in Daggerheart), the 3 action economy (Pathfinder), sophisticated encounter systems for not-fighting (Pathfinder/Starfighter) eg speaking with others and cinematic scenes, and then the FF10-style or CRPG-style tech tree.

I don't think you need any context of Cosmere. This is for their not-Cosmere "generic" system. Or do you mean you have no context on Cosmere RPG?

At the moment I just know it as "That RPG from some author I've only heard about from Hello Future Me videos". I'll have to make some time to at least scan over the rules juuuust in case.

 

[Parmandur]

@Gianni_the_Mystic I see you there: would love to see more of you and your team share updates around these parts when you do your socials!

 

[Gianni_the_Mystic]

@Gianni_the_Mystic I see you there: would love to see more of you and your team share updates around these parts when you do your socials!

For sure! It's been way too long since I used this account.

We're very excited for what's ahead with Plotweaver, especially these announcements we made last week. I got my start in the RPG industry by starting an Eberron fan site called "Jhonen Olain's Eberron Journal," which compiled everything Keith Baker said about the (then-unreleased) setting here and at the Wizards forums. He and I stayed in touch over the years, and he helped spread the word when I launched the Kickstarter for Boss Monster in 2012.

So it took more than two decades, but I'm finally working with Keith on an original RPG settting! He and Jenn have some awesome ideas, taking a lot of what Plotweaver does well (action, drama, magic, technology) and combining it all into one genre-hopping setting. It's a little bit like his philosophy of "everything in D&D should be in Eberron." While I'm excited about our three internal settings, Infinite is basically the most Plotweaver-y setting you could make.

BTW, in case folks are wondering the system will be creative commons (CC-BY 4.0) and it is our goal to make it the most homebrew-friendly and creator-friendly RPG around. The Setting Search contest is just the first step we're taking to support indie creators!