Good morning, Diggers!

Welcome to the final hours of this campaign! We've had a pretty great run - funding fairly quickly by the third day day and then unlocking TWELVE Stretch Goals along the way. We're closing in on 970 backers, which is just amazing!

That's right, we landed our final posted Stretch Goal in the darkness of the night.

ACHIEVED! - At $58,000 in Funding – FURTHER INTO THE WORLD BELOW – The World Below Adventure Scenario PDF will be expanded to include a third adventure. Our third adventure tasks our heroes with making contact with a distant settlement that's fallen unnervingly silent, reestablishing dead links, and facing the nightmares that have occupied the empty space where the living once dwelled.

Can we get up to 1,000 backers before the end? Can we hit 200% of our Funding Target? Should we try for one more Stretch Goal?

Let's go for it! ONE FINAL STRETCH GOAL...

At $60,000 in Funding – THE WELL LICH OF THE WORLD BELOW  – The World Below Adventure Scenario PDF will be expanded to include a final adventure. Our fourth adventure sees our protagonists in a race against the Kaos storm and one of its horrifying drivers: a Well Lich. Do you jump through a Kaos Portal and take your chances, face down the undead monstrosity, or run for your lives?

With mere hours left, this one will truly be a race to the finish line. Let's see if we can get there before our light runs out!!

The best part of this campaign, though, is that we have successfully funded this project! Thanks to everyone who's come out to support this campaign, we'll be getting this amazing game book (and a deluxe version as well!)

Now that we've added a third scenario to our adventure path (and could maybe add a fourth?), that's an expanded bonus reward for everyone who's backed this project and has The World Below PDF as one of their rewards! Let's see if we can get our backer count to 1,000 so even more members of our community get to enjoy this achievement!

 

Whether you're a veteran of many Kaos storms or just prepping for your first Kalm season, these are some good topics to review over these final six hours...

In the body of <this post>, you'll see links to podcasts that will let you know more about the creation (and creators) of this game and how it plays in action, but the best way to confirm what the team is building is to hear their actual words.

Backers can read the entire current draft of the manuscript <HERE>. Please make sure you read the manuscript before the campaign concludes so you know exactly what you're pledging to support.

This update breaks down your best starting point for figuring out which Backer Reward Tier to choose to help support this project in a way that works for you.

The first decision you need to make in figuring out your reward tier is whether you want to receive the PDF version or the standard or deluxe hardcover edition (which comes with  bonus PDF versions).

As noted, shipping charges will be calculated later and charged in the BackerKit Pledge Manager. We'll have exact shipping costs once the book is in production and we know the specifications, but we do expect it to be expensive. See our estimates on the front pate. If you're an international backer, you can pledge at The Hunter tier and upgrade in the pledge manager to one of the hardcover tiers once the shipping costs are known before we lockdown orders.

ADD-ON OPTIONS -  The other half of our Reward Tiers update, including information on the second step of pledging. There are several Add On options that you can add as part of your pledging process, including other The World Below items (like pendants and pins) plus messenger bags, Storyguide Screens, and a premium glowing dice set! We've also got digital starter bundles of some other Onyx Path games that are well worth checking out!

ADD ON selections will be available in the post-campaign Pledge Manager as well.

SO: Ensure that you've selected the Reward Tier you want, and select any Add On options you wish to include. AND - make sure that you are comfortable with the Pledge amount, in terms of it covering everything you want and the affordability of the pledge at this moment!

I'm going to speak against my own self interest for a moment, and repeat something I say at the end of every campaign - though 2023 has been a bit better than the past three years, the world is still unpredictable and some futures are a little less certain. Ensure that your circumstances enable to afford this pledge at this moment - BackerKit will begin processing payments late tonight after the campaign ends and neither Onyx Path nor I have any involvement in that process. If you are unsure of your financial situation but don't want to miss out, please pledge for a tier you can afford now and know that you will be able to upgrade to open pledge levels in our post-campaign Pledge Manager for some time before the book is completed.

Once you're comfortable with your pledge, please ensure that the payment and contact information in your BackerKit account is up to date and correct. Making sure your e-mail is entered correctly and your credit card isn't expired will speed up the next step process. (I have learned from experience!)

First, we celebrate. The campaign page will subtly change, locking out the ability to pledge and showing the final totals. We'll give socially-distanced high fives and digital fist bumps in the Community section and over on Discord.

Then, the BackerKit payment process begins. Starting late tonight and continuing over the next week, Backerkit will begin charging your payment methods for the total amount you've pledged.

If there is an issue with your payment method (expired credit card or incorrect number or pre-paid Visa awaiting funds, for example), BackerKit will keep trying to process payment during this time.

Once this step is done, which will likely be by the end of November, BackerKit will confirm everything with Onyx Path and I can begin to set up the project in the Pledge Manager and load in all of the campaign data.

In addition to providing the crowdfunding platform for this campaign, BackerKit is also Onyx Path's regular Pledge Manager partner.

BackerKit provides a robust fulfillment integration and pledge management program that will allow us to work with all of the data and distribute the rewards to you. It will take me about a month to set the project up. Once I've got it all entered and built, the team from BackerKit will review to ensure I didn't mess anything up too badly, and then I'll make any changes they've suggested and we can move on to the Survey stage.

Once BackerKit says I'm good to go, I will send out a survey to all backers. This is why confirming your e-mail is important!

The BackerKit survey is both a verb and a noun - it will collect data for the analysis of some aspect of a group (enabling Onyx Path to set print runs, prioritize new projects, and fine-tune future campaigns), as well as providing a general review or summary of the reward tier you've chosen, confirm all of the rewards associated with that reward tier, and confirm your total pledge amount.

I expect Surveys to go out by early January 2024.

During the Survey period, you can choose to increase your reward tier and add on additional options. If you've found $20 in your winter coat or found an alternate income source and decide it's time to trade up to the hardcover version of the books or include another add-on, you can do so at this time. Note, you will not be able to reduce your reward tier selection, only increase.

If you selected Add On options, they'll be added to your reward list automatically.

Note that you'll be able to upgrade your pledge tier for quite some time - until we're getting ready to print the book itself and have figured out International shipping costs. So don't feel pressure to have it all figured out right away - we'll make sure there's plenty of time to get it all sorted before the books go out.

Similarly, if you have a hardcover book as one of your rewards, the survey will ask you to confirm your shipping address, even though it'll be some time before we ship out the final product. Do not worry about moving before shipping begins - you will be able to update BackerKit right up until the point that we begin fulfilling the final book. We will send out a notice prior to lock down so you can update any information.

I'll also use the Survey to confirm some details for the premium reward tiers.

Once the surveys are up and running, I'll prepare fulfillment for the existing rewards - the Add On options that are all currently available, like the digital Starter Bundles. Depending on how smoothly the Pledge Manager process goes, those should be out fairly soon after the survey stage starts. So, let's say the existing PDF rewards will be out to you by the end of January. That's only the beginning, though.

This is a long process, but I will send out regular updates (usually at the end of the month) to keep you up to speed on Onyx Path's progress. There will be strings of updates that are just "still working on it," but I will share new artwork or information when I can.

Eventually, we will have a completed PDF of The World Below. Onyx Path will take some time to distribute, review, and compile any errata or corrections that need to be made. When they've made any necessary changes, they'll make an updated version of the PDF available in your DriveThruRPG digital library and then begin creating print-ready files for the Print-on-Demand and the hardcover versions.

It's yet another long road ahead, likely full of twists and turns and things hidden in the darkness, but one that we wouldn't be undertaking if not for your ongoing support.

So - one final time - please spread the word to any potential backers and fans, and thanks so much for a great campaign!