We're all part of this fast-moving machine... and it is indeed moving fast! We had a great day in the campaign yesterday, and it was amazing to feel part of a community with a lot of positive news again!
In fact, yesterday was so exciting that we've already smashed our first posted Stretch Goal targets!
[ACHIEVED] At $40,000 in Funding - NEW ADD ON: ALCHEMICALS STORYTELLER SCREEN - A three-panel Storyteller Reference Screen with charts and information for running an Alchemicals game will be created and offered as an Add On to any hardcover reward tiers for +$25.
Alchemicals Companion - Starting with our $50,000 Stretch Goal reward, a new Alchemicals supplement will be added as a bonus reward to all backers receiving the Alchemicals: Forged by the Machine God PDF as one of their pledge rewards. This Alchemicals Companion PDF will be expanded via Stretch Goal achievement, with each achieved goal unlocking a new section in the book.
[ACHIEVED] At $50,000 in Funding - ALCHEMICALS COMPANION: The Lost City of Tekun - The disappearance of the metropolis Tekun is a mystery to the Eight Nations — but now, the truth is revealed. Cast though the Seal of Eight Divinities, the lost city has survived deep in the vast underground caverns of Creation. Its people still preserve the Octet’s culture and faith despite their isolation from the Machine God, a flickering light of hope amidst the many perils of the deep.
[ACHIEVED] At $60,000 in Funding - ALCHEMICALS COMPANION: The Forge of Legends - Additional Storyteller advice and plot hooks for Alchemical campaigns, whether in Autochthonia or Creation.
[ACHIEVED] At $70,000 in Funding - ALCHEMICALS COMPANION: Beyond the Eight Nations - An expansion of Autochthonia’s reaches and those who dwell within: tunnel folk societies, Alchemical outcasts, and gruesome horrors born of the Blight.
Let's not stop and rest there! I don't think we'll see the amazing wave of support that comes in the first 24 hours again, but let's set up some more Stretch Goals to maybe take us through this first week! Here are three more Stretch Goals to build our bonus reward supplement and a fourth one to mark a milestone along our journey!
At $85,000 in Funding - ALCHEMICALS COMPANION: God-Machinery of Exalted Power -A panoply of Alchemical Charms and submodule upgrades, as well as Light-Sharpening Blade style, a martial art that makes use of beamklaves.
At $95,000 in Funding - ALCHEMICALS COMPANION: The Ever-Spreading Blight -Quick Character traits for Apostates, those Alchemicals corrupted by Autochthon’s Blight, and the lesser gremlins that stalk the Realm of Brass and Shadows.
At $105,000 in Funding - ALCHEMICALS COMPANION: Industrial Assembly of the Chosen -Quick Character traits for Alchemical heroes from across the Eight Nations — and Creation.
At $110,000 in Funding - BACKER SHIRT DESIGN - An Alcehmicals-themed Backer shirt will be hosted on Onyx Path’s Redbubble store for a limited time. Backers will be notified when the shirt becomes available for purchase.
As a note, in addition to our main page, our Stretch Goals - called Acheivements by the BackerKit system - are tracked in the Community page under the Achievements tab. It's fun to check those out and watch the funding bars fill up.
As I mentioned in our first update, we're going to have a lot of draft mansucript updates coming our way over these 4 weeks, and we're going to jump around a lot through the book. Yesterday we had Chapter 1... today we're getting Chapters 3 + 4.
Chapter Three: Character Creation provides rules for creating Alchemical player characters.
Chapter Four: Traits details the unique traits used by Alchemicals, including their Castes and the cold, inhuman Clarity of their Great Curse.
Some quick things to note before we get into the manuscript.
Shipping Costs will be Collected in the Pledge Manager
First up, it's amazingly expensive to ship, especially from Onyx Path's home base in the US. And that's as of today - we're all in the dark about how things will look in 2 years. We get that, but there's not much we can do at this time. Onyx Path is in a difficult space where the company is big enough that they're not saving money by fulfilling out of Rich's garage, but small enough that they haven't been able to set up ongoing international partners to handle portions of the fulfillment. So we are where we are - for now.
The best we can do at this point is to plan carefully, advise everyone up front that international shipping will likely be expensive (see our projections on the main page) and only charge what it costs us when the time comes. We’ll be charging for shipping in the Pledge Manager once the books are being printed and we can deal with the actual shipping charges rather than using our best-guesses this far out. If you live outside the US and aren't sure you want the hardcover or other physical items, you can pledge to the PDF tier now and upgrade your pledge in the Pledge Manager once we know the final shipping costs.
Draft Manuscript Previews
Over the course of the next 4 weeks, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for Alchemicals: Forged by the Machine God, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in bite-sized sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over the next 28 days, but it's more about guiding the conversation and helping steer feedback for the developers.
Because they want your feedback! These manuscript previews are of the current draft manuscript – the document in its latest, approved form. This may not be the final form after editing and any additional development, but you can consider it about 95% finished, so keep that in mind.
In fact, you can help guide the team through the next stages of development by providing feedback on these manuscript previews! The Onyx Path team has set up a special Feedback Form just for campaign backers for this very purpose: https://forms.gle/TNemGoMirkKR4h8U6
You can use this Feedback Form to share your thoughts directly with the Exalted creative team to help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS - BACKERS ONLY
Remember, thanks to BackerKit magic, these download links are visible to Backers only - you must be logged in and reading this on the website to have access to the manuscript preview links. So, if you're reading this via e-mail, click that "Reply to this Update" link on the bottom and I'll see you below this title treatment.
