Hello Cogs in the Machine,

There are moments it feels like we just started this campaign, but in truth we've been running for since mid-November and we're now officially in our FINAL WEEK COUNTDOWN!

Over the next week I'll be sharing a handful of instruction and review-type posts about Reward Tiers & Add Ons, Stretch Goal reviews, and What Comes Next, so if you've got any process questions or are wondering about how the Crowdfunding steps work, I'm hoping to clarify any remaining questions before we finish. Of course, if you're still wondering about something, please ask and I'll help as best I can.

We've got one dot in time extension and we may be able to manipulate our planned finish line a bit. We're going to try and unleash our Exalted power for a special Charm! It's called "OVERTIME MODE" and it allows us to keep the campaign rolling as long as backers are pledging.

Overtime Mode

Overtime Mode extends the campaign past its original end time to give backers a final chance to make their pledge and adds an interesting twist to the end of the campaign. How long will it extend? That’s entirely up to backers: The campaign will keep going for an additional 10 minutes as long as pledges keep coming in – a chain of back-to-back pledges is called the Backer Train. The campaign will end only when the Backer Train stops after a period of 10 minutes passing without any pledges.

You’ll know we’re in Overtime Mode when the campaign’s Backer Train counter displays a bright rainbow border and a new countdown that resets to 10 minutes after each new backer joins that final Backer Train ride.

So, we've scheduled the campaign to conclude on December 12th at 2:00 pm Eeastern Time, but it'll be extended in 10 minute chunks as long as backers keep pledging. Will we add an extra 10 minutes? An extra 20? Or will it all finish up as we programmed? Who knows, but we'll find out together! Exalted indeed!

I know, this is something I've already said many times (and seem to say during every project!), but for this final week, you are officially an Alchemicals Ambassador for the Realm of Brass and Shadows and this Crowdfunding project. It's time to share your excitement for Alchemicals: Forged by the Machine God! Basically, we want to recruit as many curious backers as possible to see how long we can keep our Backer Train running over this final week.

I know I've ended many update posts with "Keep spreading the word! Invite others to join in!" - but what does that mean, and how do you do it?

Easy answer - don't stop talking about Alchemicals until 2:01 PM EST next Thursday December 12th  (and then as long as we continue running in Overtime Mode). Yes, family and friends are tired of me talking about it. But what else have I got to talk about? Stocking Stuffers? And -  they've learned to tolerate me during a crowdfunding campaign. But here's the thing - there are others around who haven't heard or don't know about the campaign.

There are many, many Onyx Path and Exalted fans who haven't yet heard about this campaign and would love to join in. We're right in the middle of a very busy season - tons of different things competing for our attention and changing schedules and winter weather - so it's not surprising that new backers are just finding out about the campaign every day. If you have an opportunity to let someone know, please do and let's make sure they have a chance to join in before the end.

Onyx Path running an Exalted campaign at the end of the year has sort of become part of a regular schedule, but I still get fans contacting me affer every campaign saying they just missed out! And even though you will be able to pre-order the book through the Pledge Manager later, late backers won't get the Alchemicals Companion that we've built via Stretch Goal achievement automatically added as a bonus reward to their pledge.

So, let's help out our awesome Exalted fans and make sure that we've spread the word as best we can and everyone has an opportunity to participate in this campaign!

If you're inviting new backers, or if you are a new backer (hi new backers!), here are a few key resources to be aware of for this campaign.

Backers are able to review the (soon-to-be) complete manuscript for this book before the campaign closes and any pledges are processed. With the exception of the Quick Characers chapter coming on Tuesday, the entirety of the rules and options from this book are available for download and review by backers, along with all of the setting information, Chamrs, Martial Arts, Sorcery, and Artifacts for these Exalted! 

Anyone who pledges to this campaign before the end can read the entire book now AND provide feedback directly to the developers to help guide the manuscript through the final phases of development and editing!

And, if you join now, as I've noted, we'll be posting the final chapter of the book next week before we reach the finish line. This final chapter is all about Alchemicals, machine spirits, gremlins and templates a Storyteller can use to personalize the characters in their game.

Onyx Path's podcast, the Onyx Pathcast, has had two episodes devoted to discussiong Alchemicals and the work that went into the book.

In this podcast episode, the Pathcast hosts talk to Jon Matyus and MJ Monléon, Exalted writers, about their work on Alchemicals: Forged by the Machine God!

In this episode of the podcast, the pathcast team talk about Alchemicals: Forged by the Machine God.

Give those episodes a listen when you've got some time to get a peek behind the curtains (and a lot of other discussion about occasionally-related things).

The Discord is particularly lively, but you might be able to gain further insight and some in-depth conversation at any of these Onyx Path discussion zones:

1) Don't forget to share a link to the Crowdfunding page in any discussion you have (where appropriate) - and feel free to pass any of the long list of links above to those who may need more info (or, just point them to this post!)

2) Don't forget to tell us about any post or review or discussion you write! Come to the comments section and let us know so we can all go and contribute! Like the discussions going on at RPG.net. I know I keep saying it, but really - these last days are key. Keep the enthusiasm high and keep on inviting others to join in, either directly ("Come see...") or just by setting an example of your enthusiasm and interest.

I'm really interested to see if we can get a backer train going at the end of the campaign and wondering if we can keep rolling for another 10 or 20 minutes past our set end time!

We've got one week to go, everyone! Thank you all so much for your support! We work together because it's the right thing to do, and because backers make it better! Let's finish strong! And let's continue exploring this Autochthonia together, sharing our feedback with the writers and delving into the draft manuscript, and let's see if we can't get another Stretch Goal before we review next Wednesday!

At $130,000 in Funding - ALCHEMICALS COMPANION: Servants of the Machine God - Quick Character traits for a variety of machine spirits found in the Realm of Brass and Shadow.

At $135,000 in Funding - ALCHEMICALS STREAMING OVERLAY - A set of overlays for your online game will be created, for your use when streaming your Alchemicals session. This reward will be added to the rewards list for all backers.