Welcome to the index of development materials for my upcoming game Ultima Thule! For those stumbling on this page, UT is an idea that has been kicking around in my head since around 2020, inspired by Diplomacy forum games and the Mississippi campaign in the US Civil War. I wanted to play a game where ironclad paddle steamers might sail up the Murray and... burn a few fruit trees? Australian colonial history has no wars that are satisfying to the cinematic perversions of 21st century schoolchildren, and imagination has to stretch a long way before it even enters the frame of believability! So, to bolster imagination, I started writing rules.
I also did a lot of reading. These documents will include the bare rules for UT, and my design intentions with them, as well as the historical and secondary sources which I have used to build my picture of this time period. It is my hope that by narrowing the scope to a single region, I can create a historical simulation game that genuinely educates and edifies the people who choose to play it, as well as allowing them a sense of power in approaching the horrors and injustices of the time.