Hello Ultrasmart backers,

I've got the second section from our draft manuscript for you today! This section is all about Expansion!

In the previous chapter, we covered the core rules of Storypath. While there might be a few tweaks here or name changes there, those rules will generally be the same in any game using Storypath Ultra. They are, if you will, the skeleton for all Storypath games, the foundation they’re all built upon.

Now you might want to expand on them. Maybe you want to make your own Paths, or need to create Edges and powers that give your characters that special spark unique to your vision of the game. Or maybe you want to introduce some more detail to systems like combat or bonds. In this chapter, we’ll talk all about how to expand on the core rules.

If the core rules are the “science” of Storypath, here we move into the “art,” as you fine-tune the rules to work in whatever way you need them to. These suggestions aren’t as hard-and-fast as the core rules, and sometimes consist more about what feels right than what makes the most mathematical sense.

One quick note about Shipping before we get into the manuscript previews. 

First up, it's amazingly expensive to ship, especially from Onyx Path's home base in the US. 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 can't really set up 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.

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 "Read The Update" link on the bottom and I'll see you below the title treatment.

The first of the included example settings, Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, not only offers a complete game set in the parallel version of the year 2000, but also illustrates exactly how Story Path was implemented and adjusted.

The Onyx Path team has plans to write two more, and as a backer you'll be able to vote on which ones you prefer.

For the first poll, you'll be voting on a Sci-fi setting example. Your options:

Voting will run until September 14th at 2:00 PM EST. You must be a backer of this project to vote for this setting.

We'll have a second poll running during the final two weeks of the campaign, where backers will be voting on one of the Fantasy Setting options.