Welcome to the very first project in a series of books coming from the Cypher Unlimited trio! Each of us has something Cypher related on the horizon, with the first one being The Entropic Isle from AncientAlbatross!
We are looking for funding to pay for a small hardcover print run of The Entropic Isle. Backers of the campaign will get the book at a discount compared to the final price once it is officially out. Backers can get the PDF for $10 and the hardcover copy (and free pdf) for $30.
If the campaign is successful, we will be selling extra copies from the print run in our Ko-Fi shop along with the PDF. A physical copy will cost $40 (comes with a free PDF), and the PDF alone will be $15.
We will be shipping the books ourselves, so books will ship out from the US. Shipping will not be charged with your pledge. Instead, shipping details and costs will be collected some time after funding concludes.
Below you will find shipping costs (in USD) per region:
AncientAlbatross is working closely with his husband, Sin, to bring this book to life. Ancient is doing all the writing, design, and layout work with Sin doing the majority of the illustrations!
Working together, the duo go by Ancient Sin's Scribbles; a studio here to bring you more peculiar and interesting Cypher System books and settings with striking art! The Entropic Isle is only just the beginning for us, we look forward to bringing more books to life with your help!
The Entropic Isle changes some rules in Cypher System to create a deadlier game while streamlining character creation.
No foci — Characters gain magic abilities randomly from a list of “Chaos Magic” during character creation and as they advance.
Types are replaced by archetypes — Archetypes provide a strong base for characters by providing unique (sometimes rule-breaking) skills and abilities.
Descriptors have no mechanical benefit — Characters have a positive descriptor and a negative descriptor, neither provide any mechanical benefits. These are purely to aid roleplaying. There is also a Bad Habit table to further flesh out your character.
Inabilities can stack like trained/specialized, causing your character to have a detriment. If you have a detriment at a skill, that skill is hindered two steps.
Crits in combat
No tiers or advancements, in the traditional sense — Characters simply Get Better (or not). When this happens, they perform rolls against their character’s attributes.
Ultimate Abilities — Each Archetype has a no-cost Ultimate ability. This is a powerful ability that can usually only be used once per day.
These changes, along with the dark fantasy setting, will provide game masters and players with the perfect setup for playing out a gritty, deadly, magic-filled game.
Here are a few samples that showcase the book’s art direction and aesthetic: What a starting character sheet would look like:
*NOTE: These images are NOT final and may change in the final product
The Entropic Isle will also have the following;
Convenient A5 size, Bring chaos everywhere you go
Hardcover with 80+ pages of full color, with lots of full spread and full page art
How-to-Play section so this book is all you’ll need to play and run the game
8 brand new artifacts and cyphers, along with a new item type; cursed artifacts.
Lots of random tables to help your gaming
Introductory adventure “The One Pure Human” (or “Don’t Wake Daddy!”)
All backers at Digital Deviant and higher will receive plain text playtest materials at the end of the campaign.
The playtest currently includes:
Cypher System rules changes and new rules for The Entropic Isles with a How to Play section
Character creation, setting lore, and a partial bestiary (along with a creature and NPC generator)
Random adventure generator
Introductory adventure “The One Pure Human” (or “Don’t Wake Daddy!”)
Printer friendly character sheet PDF
A month after the campaign ends, we will send a survey about the playtest. With your responses, we will tweak the book as necessary before we make the final version.
We will also update the plain text version to match the final version and distribute it along with other rewards. This will provide everyone with simple, artless way to read the book.
Here we have a small collection of concept art designs by Sin for the characters and monsters you will find in this book!
We will also feature a couple of guest artists, below you'll see concept art from Martina Litvinenko!
Please note that none of these designs are final and may change in the final book, but we wanted to give a better look into the direction we are taking with our art.
If funding goes extremely well, we have some stretch goals lined up!
$4,000 — TWO new archetypes; Wight Mage and Monk, 2 more brand new artifacts, cyphers and cursed artifacts!
$5,000: VTT asset pack — We will create a bundle of digital assets to use in your online games of The Entropic Isle; tokens! Item cards, background art, etc.
$6,000: Expand the whole book AND sticker sheet! — We'll bump the archetypes and creatures up to 20 total, 2 new setting locations, 2 more cyphers, artifacts, and cursed artifacts! STICKER SHEET: With this goal we will also produce a sticker sheet! Each physical copy will come with a sticker sheet with art from the book!
July 23rd - August 23rd — Backerkit crowdfunding, exciting! If successful, we move on with this timeline! If the campaign fails, we will relaunch as a PDF only online at some point.
~September 9th — We should receive Backer information (hopefully earlier). As soon as we have the ability to, we will send out early bird Loot the Corpse PDF rewards along with the plaintext playtest of The Entropic Isle.
~October 9th— We will send out a survey asking about your playtest experience. We will take this feedback and incorporate any changes that need to be made into the final version of the book.
We are aiming to have the book print-ready by early January. In the time leading up to this, we will be polishing the book's writing and finishing up art pieces. This estimate may be extended depending on stretch goals. If we reach all our stretch goals, the book will get much bigger and we'll need more time for the writing and art, as well as time to produce the sticker sheet!
