It's been just about 10 days since we announced the Pledge Manager and we've got about 80% of backers responding so far. That means there are still some Delvers out there who haven't clicked their link yet - please do so as soon as you can. All fulfillment is managed through the Pledge Manager, so you'll need to have your pledge confirmed to receive your downloads and other items.
Hopefully some reward distribution will help Inspire you! Because I've got some rewards to send out!
If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://the-world-below.backerkit.com/
Many of the rewards for our Crowdfunding projects take a lot of time and effort to complete. Usually, the campaign is a means of moving the project from an idea (even when it's a mostly-fully-written idea) into the actual channel that turns it into a project/product. It'll be a while before we're ready to talk about delivery on The World Below, and even longer for our projects generated via Stretch Goals (theUnderworld Adventures supplement, Ed Greenwood's Monstrous Ecology, and the rest).
That said, there are a few rewards that are available now, as they were mostly add-on PDFs or bundles of existing products. And now we can work on getting those out to you over the weekend.
The following Add On Rewards WillBe Distributed This Week:
Trinity Continuum Digital Starter Bundle
Scion Second Edition Digital Starter Bundle
They Came From Digital Starter Bundle
Within each of those items are 4-5 PDF products, so it's a much bigger list than it appears. It's basically this section from our Add On menu during the campaign.
If you want any of these and didn't add them on during the campaign, you can still update your BackerKit page and add them to your rewards list. See the BackerKit How-To instructions above.
REWARD DISTRIBUTION
Your link to claim these digital rewards will be sent out by our BackerKit pledge manager over the nextfew days. Since we are using our partners at DriveThruRPG as the hosts for these, you will need to set up a DriveThru account if you don't have one already. If you encounter any problems with downloading your rewards, please contact DTRPG's customer service to resolve the matter, they've always been top-rated for customer service. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/contact_us.ph
Thebest way to ensure these redemption codes work smoothly is to log in to your DTRPG account first, and then click (or copy) the link shown in your BackerKit.
Again, you will receive an e-mail from BackerKit with links for these rewards over the next 2-3 days if any of them are on your expected list of rewards. I'll be releasing them in waves, so don't panic if you only see a couple links at first... the rest are coming. (We're in a digital world, but there are still a lot of manual processes. And there are manylinks to go out!!)
The easiest way to see if you've got digital downloads available is to login to your backerkit account: https://the-world-below.backerkit.com/ and it'll show anything available. Your backerkit account should also confirm all rewards that you should expect from your reward tier selected.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT
In addition to redemption links for these digital rewards, all backers will be receiving a link to the compiled draft manuscript. This link can be found in your BackerKit digital rewards page, and you'll receive an e-mail linking to that with the first wave of rewards going out. Again, this isn't a new manuscript, it's just all of the pieces we shared during the campaign put together in order. It's the same link that I share at the bottom of these campaign updates, but I want to make sure you have access to it in any place that makes sense.
MONTHLY UPDATES
With the Pledge Manager up and running, this is officially the first "regular" monthly update for our project. I'll send these updates out every month to let you know where we sit. We're still in the earliest stages of this post-campaign, where projects make incremental movements along the progress path. A lot of months will be pretty similar, just a quick note to let you know that the Onyx Path team is still working on it. Any time we have a new reward or something of interest to share, I'll include that as well.
At the end of each month, I'll include a summary of our rewards and their current status (they'll either be delivered or marked as still pending, possibly with additional details if I know more). I'll also list any relevant Update posts, in case you want to go back and check into something.
Each month, I'll list our "Pending" rewards and our "Delivered" rewards. We'll track the project status of our pending rewards by filling in the stage dots, and I'll note which update (and include a link) with each delivered reward, in case you want to go back and re-read the relevant update for more information. If any of these rewards were on your pledge list, you can access download codes in your BackerKit Digital Rewards page. And once they've been added to your DriveThruRPG library, you can access them through your DTRPG digital library at any time.
REWARDS STILL PENDING
There's a lot of stuff on this list! Our main reward, The World Below PDF, standard and deluxe hardcover, along with the Print-on-Demand option, is all part of that first line, and those various formats will be rewarded at different stages near the end of the production side. Right now, we can see that the manuscript is in editing before one final development pass finishes that up and then it's on to Art Direction.
Two of our Stretch Goal rewards have entered first draft status. They're outlined and now being worked on by the various writers who will get feedback (redlines) from the developers. This goes back and forth a number of times until they have a final draft to submit and then the project moves to the developer's hands (or, screens, I guess).
I'll post this chart in each monthly update, and fill in dots as projects move along.
REWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO BACKERS
Trinity Continuum Digital Starter Bundle (January 25 '24 Update)
Scion Second Edition Digital Starter Bundle (January 25 '24 Update)
They Came From Digital Starter Bundle (January 25 '24 Update)
Once a project finishes up on the progress chart and is distributed to backers, I'll move it down to this list and note which update talks about reward distribution for that item in case you want to go back and get more information.
ONYX PATH PROJECT TRACKING
You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <December 2023 Project Status Summary>
You can find the weekly Monday Meeting blog updates <here>, which note any projects with status changes since the previous Month End summary. The project statuses listed are current as of last Monday, so do check it out each Monday night to see if anything may have progressed!
I will continue to post regular updates every month until the final Stretch Goal reward has gone out.
ONYX PATH DISCUSSION CHANNELS
You may be able to get further insight and possibly some in-depth conversation at these Onyx Path discussion zones:
Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
CURRENTLY CROWDFUNDING
We’re all out of the traditionally-printed copies of several of our core rulebooks from previous crowdfunding campaigns. So we’re going back for more!
This should help us fund a new print run for:
You, if you back this. Fulfillment, probably later this year. No development needed, just printing.
Other campaigns: we like adding core rulebooks as add-ons to other campaigns (we did a bunch of those on this campaign too!), and this helps us keep doing that.
Retailers: Put our games in front of other faces at physical game stores!
The books have all received minor edits to fix a few errors we’ve noticed over the years. This Friday's Onyx Pathcast will talk about these books and the possible minor edits that are being worked on. You can check out the campaign for one more week <here>.
