ZiMo2026: Mottokrosh

Frank "Mottokrosh" Reding is currently raising funds for Knightcore, their project for ZineMonth 2026. They were kind enough to answer some questions for this interview series.

Question: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less.

Answer: Knightcore: An aesthetic that combines gleaming armor, soft, flowing fabrics, and ethereal, haunting glows, now as a tabletop roleplaying game.

Q: Is this your first ZineMonth project or have you done it before? If it's your first, talk a bit about what inspired you to give it a shot this year. If you've done it before, what's something you've learned from previous crowdfunding projects that you may be doing differently this time, or, if you're not doing anything differently, talk a bit about your previous projects.

A: This will be my second ZineMonth project. I did Wolden Issue 1 last year, and had originally planned to launch issues 2 (full adventure) and 3 (two new cults/classes) this time, and while they're almost ready, this whole Knightcore thing popped into my head, and before I knew it, I'm doing photoshoots, commissioning art, and writing and playtesting two adventures. My goal, as with Wolden, is relatively modest, as is befitting of my social reach.

Q: Finally, tell us something about your current project that really excites you but the average backer may not be aware of. Maybe a twist to an old trope, a new way of presenting something, or maybe just something you've never tried before that you're using this as an opportunity to try out

A: A question often asked in game design is "how do the rules support or enable the desired play or setting", and here they're tied together. We have a dark, chaotic, and thus unpredictable world, modeled by the chaos die, we have a struggle between light and dark expressed by the Purity <> Depravity scale, and of course we have shining armor and silk fabrics, embodied by the Knightcore Aesthetics values. This I find quite exciting.