The tyrant-kings banned our gatherings, arrested our leaders, and burned our books. If the Whisperlights appeared in a forest, they chopped it down to make warships. If we spoke the truth about the gods, they killed our families to make us recant.

We formed a resistance: a crew of musketeers. People who once fought each other— humans, trollborns, witchlings— stood side by side, for the first time. Defending not only the truth, but also a new kind of society: democratic, inclusive, and free.

Our Commonwealth stands. But the tyrant-kings are ever watchful. Summerland still needs heroes.

Aeronauts and Musketeers

A&M is an early-modern swashbuckling fantasy role-play game. Taking inspiration from Gulliver’s Travels, Baron Munchausen, Zorro, and the Three Musketeers, with A&M you can find adventure from baroque city streets, to surreal faraway islands, and everywhere in between!

The Basic Rulebook

The Basic Rulebook gives you everything you need to run a fast-paced swashbuckling adventure in world of greedy merchant princes, ruthless tyrant kings, and scheming religious fanatics. The innovative Wildcard system is intuitive and easy to learn; and character-creation takes mere minutes.

• Thrust, parry, feint, riposte, and coup-de-grace as a dashing and dangerous Musketeer!
• Start scandals, make or break reputations, and own the social scene as a Salonniere!
• Bend fortune and luck in your favour, and curse your enemies, as a Hedge Mystic!
• Move silent and unseen, sneak-attacking from the shadows, as a notorious Outlaw!
• Enter ship-to-ship combat as an Aeronaut, whether pirate or explorer, at sea or in the sky!
• Learn talents from multiple paths, and in any order, for uniquely customized PCs!
• Collect Wildcards in the course of the action. Play them to make Power Moves, or to make any action more effective, flamboyant, and fun!

The Campaign Sourcebook

The Campaign Sourcebook takes you into the world of Whisperlights, Brendan’s high fantasy novel for young-adult readers of all ages. It imagines what would happen if a fairy-tale world had a democratic revolution.

• New character paths including Engineer, Occultist, and Highlander!
• New playable ancestries, including fae-born, troll-born, astrons, and witchlings!
• Full details for over a dozen Patron Orgs your players can join, including the Musketeer corps, sky-pirate fleets, scientific exploration teams, underground freedom fighters, and the Commonwealth Of Summerland itself!
• A gallery of NPCs to inspire your campaign as quest-givers or as recurring villains!
• A gazetteer of Summerland: its twelve provinces, its sentient ecosystem, and the ever-changing realm of the Scatterlands!
• Story hooks and inspirational tips, to start your campaign and keep it running!

No more kings.

No more jealous gods.

Summerland belongs to all!

Acknowledgements:

I believe it only fair, right, and just, to give my first thanks to my first GM, Thomas Webb, and the members of my first RPG group, who in the early 1990s gave me the gift of gaming, and my first set of dice. The highest mountain in Summerland is named for him. I also thank Maya Shainblum for re-invigorating my interest in RPGs during the pandemic.

I acknowledge the inspiration of several other RPGs including Apocalypse World, Fate, (Old) World of Darkness, Court of Blades, The Queen’s Cavaliers, Call of Cthulu, and Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies.

Gratitude to the many readers and testers who provided early commentary, criticism, and inspiration, especially Jonathan Korman and Pat Bellavance. I thank Bridget Gole for her help with some of the research on early modern society and culture. I also thank my colleagues at Cegep Heritage College, especially Laurent Gagné-Dumais who provided commentary on this sourcebook, my students who provided cultural sensitivity advice, and everyone who joined in some fun discussions about swashbuckling as a literary genre.