About the Creators

Hi, I'm Rasp (real name: Rodney Smith), and alongside my longtime friend and co-collaborator C’smyth.

Emberwatch started in 2007, when we were broke college kids with a few dice, a secondhand D&D book, and the realization that a lot of games had more flash than substance. So we did what any long-term GMs with too much free time do: we started building our own.

It wasn’t called Emberwatch back then. It went through names like Fate’s Thread and Destiny Prime. Over the years, it changed as we did. Rebuilt, rewritten, scrapped, restarted. But the core idea never went away. Build a game that feels different. One where characters matter more than classes. One where the world pushes back. One that actually says something.

While most of the updates and development logs you’ll see here are posted by me, C’smyth has been there since the beginning, brainstorming, designing, and shaping the game every step of the way. He is not one for the spotlight, but Emberwatch would not be what it is without him.

Now, after nearly two decades of iteration, worldbuilding, and storytelling, our idea has finally become something worth sharing.

I have spent most of my life telling stories: as a game master, as a designer, as a product manager, and as someone who loves systems and the people who navigate them. Emberwatch is where all of that finally comes together. I have written the setting, built the mechanics, designed the website, and assembled every piece of this project with C’smyth’s help and guidance. It has been a long time coming, and we are building it to last.

Why We Made Emberwatch

• Because we wanted a game that told stories that mattered.
• Because we wanted players to feel something, not just fill in stats.
• Because we believe a game can be rich, character-driven, and still accessible.
• Because we were tired of watching great ideas buried under price tags.

Emberwatch is, and always will be, free to play. If you want to support the project, that is what the Patreon is for. But if all you want to do is grab your friends, make some characters, and tell a good story, that is enough. That is what it is for.

Where This Is Going

This is just the beginning. Emberwatch is a living world and an evolving system. There is still more to write, more tools to build, and more stories to tell. We are continuing to grow the site, add new content, refine the rules, and support the community that is starting to gather around it.

Whether you are here to explore, to run a game, to offer feedback, or just to poke around and see what this is, thank you. We are glad you are here.

Let’s see where it goes.

— Rasp