References
Arc themes, campaign music, and links to the rules and setting materials.
Arc 1: Argent Shadows
Current Arc
Arc 1 — Argent Shadows
▶ Opening Theme
From Shadows
Jeff Williams — RWBY Volume 1
■ Closing Theme
Shadow of the Day
Linkin Park — Minutes to Midnight
Touchstones
Works that shaped the tone, aesthetics, and themes of Motherboard.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Post-post-apocalyptic machines as fauna; old-world tech as mythology. Core aesthetic DNA.
RWBY
Arc 1 opening theme. Tone of young protagonists in a world bigger than they know.
Final Fantasy
Crystal mythology, ancient infrastructure as magic, the weight of a world with a past.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Equivalent exchange, the cost of knowledge, conspiracies that run deeper than they appear.
Shannara (Terry Brooks)
Post-apocalyptic world so old it reads as pure fantasy. Ruins that were once civilization.
Portal / Portal 2
Institutional AI, black humor in dying infrastructure, and the creepiness of old-world facilities.
Mad Max
Scrap economy, road-gang factions, survival societies built on what's left over.
Kino's Journey
City-states with distinct philosophies, the cost of moving on, moral ambiguity without easy answers.
Trigun
Wanderers in a dead-tech landscape, pacifism tested by violence, the weight of a name.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Toxic ecology as the new normal, empathy with the monstrous, civilizations built on misunderstanding.
Cowboy Bebop
Jazz-inflected episodic structure, ensemble of people running from their pasts, style as character.
Dark Souls
Lore delivered through environmental decay, institutions that outlasted their purpose, cycles of collapse.
NieR: Automata
Machines that dream, identity and consciousness in artificial beings, the tragedy of programming.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Overgrown post-apocalypse with beauty in the ruins, small-party dynamics, machine repurposing.
The Last of Us
Survival infrastructure, escort-and-protect stakes, found family under pressure.
Battletech — ComStar / Word of Blake
Tech-hoarding institution that became a religion, knowledge as power, sacred infrastructure.