They Came From the RPG Anthology! Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Created by Onyx Path - They Came From...
The next They Came From tabletop RPG, containing Western, Noir, Costume Drama, Space Opera, Theatre, and Genres Voted on by Kickstarter backers!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Aug '23 Monthly Update - Additional Chapters
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Aug 23, 2023 at 12:15:27 PM
Hello Anthologists,
It's a little bit early for our month end check-in, but my calendar says it's 23-08-23 so I figure that's still a pretty cool time to send out an update. If you've missed an udpate since our campaign concluded, you can check out
Check out our previous update if you need to refresh your memory. We're just about at the 90% response marker, so most of you have confirmed your selections and collected any available rewards. Thanks!
For the remaining 10%, you can get a refresher on filling in your survey in the July 24 update linked above. We utilize BackerKit for all of our reward fulfillment, so it's important that you visit the page at some point to ensure it's all set up correctly for you.
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://tfc-rpg-anthology.backerkit.com
Within your BackerKit Digital Rewards page, you'll find a link to the collected Draft preview manuscript for They Came From the RPG Anthology. So anytime you need to access it, know that it's waiting for you in BackerKit.
REGULAR MONTHLY UPDATES
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
So, still in the earliest stages, but some new information about the additional chapters has come out! Keep reading the update and find out more below!
Andnow a special word from They Came From Maestro, Matthew Dawkins!
TWO ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS
Greetings, true believers! Matthew here, to chat a little about our relatively recent Kickstarter campaign, They Came from the RPG Anthology! We funded it a couple of months ago and the campaign is now over on BackerKit for anyone who missed it the first time around and wants to pre-order: https://tfc-rpg-anthology.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
But what is in the RPG Anthology, and why should you back? Let’s find out…
Theatrical Cut
When we initially launched They Came from the RPG Anthology!, it was with a mind to fund five new genres in the They Came From milieu, which you’d be able to play as their own worlds, or cross over with existing They Came Froms. Therefore, the following chapters were already written when the book went to Kickstarter:
They Came from the Mean Streets! – our love letter to film noir, black and white suspense movies, and lots of people talking fast while holding cigarettes or pistols, or both. We performed an actual play of it with Red Moon Roleplaying, with a story of betrayals, sex, violence, and Christopher Walken: https://youtu.be/jPb3uIHPGV0
They Came from the Bard’s Quill! – our first non-movie They Came From, as we explore the stage with new Theatrics and strive to emulate Shakespeare’s (and other playwrights’) plays via the medium of They Came From.
They Came from Bridgton Rectory! – period and costume dramas, tending to be set anywhere from the Georgian to the Edwardian era, encompassing everything from Jane Austen to Upstairs, Downstairs. We even performed an actual play of it with Red Moon Roleplaying, set at the cusp of the Russian Revolution: https://youtu.be/cveYW8RSxkc
They Came from Cowboy’s Gulch! – our long sought-after Western genre finally makes its way to the world of They Came From, with reverence for everything from Sergio Leone to Carry On Cowboy. The Old Ways Podcast performed their own actual play right here: https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/5wspodcast/id/27070314
They Came from the Interstellar Starship! – space opera writ large, with the possibility of going utopian Star Trek or grim and gritty Battlestar, all the way to my personal favourite: Farscape.
But that’s not all, as the RPG Anthology also contains a quick play version of Storypath, tailored to They Came From, along with the full Storypath Ultra ruleset! If you want to read either ahead of release, just pre-order the book using the link at the head of the blog.
Director’s Cut
As luck would have it (and due to the dedication of our wonderful fans), our RPG Anthology campaign funded additional chapters as stretch goals! It’s been a while since we last added content to a book due to stretch goals, but this is a case where we accounted for the possibility and were very glad for having done so.
New chapters were decided upon in some incredibly heated polls. In at least one case, the winner and that week’s loser were a bare handful of votes between each other. Here’s what we funded with those stretch goals:
They Came from the Billiard Room with the Candlestick! – murder mysteries! Everything from Clue and Midsomer Murders to Poirot and Marple, with a lovely assortment of detective features and tropes. I’ve written this chapter now, and am very much looking forward to seeing what people think.
They Came from the Meticulously Planned Bank Job! – one of the genres that edged its way to victory; Meticulously Planned Bank Job explores heists, gangsters, and other grotty criminal elements glazed with a veneer of class and organization. Ocean’s 11 meets Goodfellas in this chapter!
They Came from Under the Skull and Crossbones! – renamed from Avast Behind (and there was much rejoicing) we get the long desired pirate movie genre for They Came From in the form of Skull and Crossbones! Pirates of the Caribbean, Muppets Treasure Island, Our Flag Means Death… You can find it all in here.
They Came from Beneath Capes and Cowls! – superheroes, fighting villainous rogues of all stripes! This chapter takes its inspiration from the Silver Age, the classic comics, and the ridiculous superheroes of yesteryear. More Mystery Men than MCU, you can play either with the tools we’re providing. And by the looks of it, this one will set a new record with seven or eight new Archetypes…
That’s right, we funded four additional chapters as the book’s campaign went on! But we also funded a couple more, and a few of you may have missed this part. One goal was for the writers to pick a chapter that had lost the backer polls, and the other… That one was highly unexpected.
Reinserted Deleted Scenes
The writers thought long and hard (a day) about which chapter they wanted to add from the fallen runners. Would it be the soap opera They Came from Dawkins Creek! Maybe, or the hotly anticipated They Came from Neo Tokyo!? No in both cases! And no to most others as well, as there could be only one. And this one was:
They Came from the Hi-Octane Apocalypse! – the writing team agreed that the genre with the greatest scope for new Archetypes, a different kind of playstyle, fresh sets and Cinematics, and more, was Hi-Octane Apocalypse. Now you get to play the Leather Daddy Archetype everyone has always wanted, along with the Road Warrior, the Noise Merchant, and more, and even better, you can add them into any other They Came From. Including Bridgton Rectory.
I alluded to another chapter. We were all prepared for five additional chapters to match the five already in the book. It was nice and synchronous. But no, in the last hours of the Kickstarter, a mysterious backer put down $5,000 on a backer level to add a genre of their choice.
We didn’t expect someone might go for this one (we had a fleeting hope, but nothing to gamble on – unless you’re a character in Meticulously Planned Bank Job), let alone in the closing hours of the campaign. Yet here it was: another chapter.
We had to wait several days. We’ve been stung before by people backing and then pulling pledges, or the credit card details they provided not working out, or paying more than they should… even human errors can catch people out (“I thought it was Z$5,000!”). But we confirmed the pledge and here’s what the backer went for:
They Came from the Steel Dragon Fighting Tournament! – Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter, Killer Instinct, King of Fighters, BlazBlue, Darkstalkers, Soul Calibur, and much much more. The backer could have invented a genre, but they went for Steel Dragon, which was in one of the backer polls but failed to win. A genre all about playing the protagonists of fighting games, but in a collaborative fashion so it’s not just fight after fight, and a game where you can’t just depend on Close Combat + Might to solve every issue (despite the premise). The ideas in our draft for this one are fantastic, and I’m really grateful to the backer who went for it. It’s quite experimental, but I think we’re going to crack this one.
Cut Scenes
There we have it! RPG Anthology is going to be a beast of a book with 11 games you can play, and 50 or more Archetypes, along with Tropes, Cinematics, and more you can move between genres. It’s one hell of a hurrah for They Came From, and I’m so glad we made it.
But I know what you’re thinking.
Will Dawkins Creek Ever see the light of day? Will we ever return to the neon shores of Neo Tokyo? Will the Code of Bushido once again bring its blade down onto cinematic RPGs?
Only time will tell!
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: <July 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
If you've got questions about the rules or setting, or just want to discuss this game with other fans (as well as the Onyx Path writers and developers!), you can check out these Onyx Path discussion zones:
Via Kickstarter: Click RichardThomas under the "Created By" heading on the main page, and then press the "Contact Me" button - the message will come to me!
Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
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://tfc-rpg-anthology.backerkit.com
Many of the rewards for our kickstarter projects take a lot of time and effort to complete. Usually, the kickstarter 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 TheyCame From the RPG Anthology!.
That said, there are a few rewards that are available now, as they were mostly add-on PDFs of existing products. And now we can work on getting those out to you over the next few days.
The following Add On Rewards WillBe Distributed This Week:
[Add On] TheyCame from Camp Murder Lake PDF (and discounted PoD Link)
[Add On] TheyCame from TastyBits Compilation PDF (and discounted PoD Link)
[Add On] TheyCame from the Cyclops's Cave Draft Manuscript
[Add On] TheyCame from [CLASSIFIED] Cave Draft Manuscript
[Add On] TheyCame from Beneath the Sea! Digital Bundle
[Add On] TheyCame from Beyondthe Grave Digital Bundle
It's basically this section of the Add On menu from our campaign page:
With Cyclops's Cave and [CLASSIFIED] currently in production, backers who added on these options will get the draft mansucript at this point and the PDF (and discounted PoD link) when those items are available.
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 few 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://tfc-rpg-anthology.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. Your link to the draft manuscript will be available in your BackerKit digital rewards page until our final reward goes out, so you'll be able to access it even after the book is in your hands.
TO CONTACT JAMES
If there are any issues with your digital reward redemption links, please let me know asap and I'll get them sorted over the next week. You can either contact me at one of the methods below or just comment on this update post. As mentioned, there are a LOT of links going at the same time, and I may have messed one up. They can usually be fixed within 24 hours, so just drop word below and then check back in a day.
Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
Via Kickstarter: Click RichardThomas under the "Created By" heading on the main page, and then press the "Contact Me" button - the message will come to me!
Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
Trinity Continuum: Aegis is a game of epic adventure and exploration set during Greece’s Iron Age. The setting features figures and events from history and mythology, viewed through the lens of the Trinity Continuum. In this game you’ll play Champions, Oracles, and Olympians — characters who have come into contact with the mysterious substance called ambrosia and been transformed into Inspired individuals with powers similar to Talents, Psiads, and Novas millennia ahead of their counterparts’ times. These characters live in an age of wonder and discovery. People in the ancient world made amazing strides in science, exploration, and philosophy, all while grappling (sometimes literally!) with gods and monsters. About a decade ago, bright streaks flashed across the sky and a fiery object crashed into Mount Olympus. Other pieces landed throughout the world, creating heroes and horrors wherever they touched down.
Trinity Continuum: Aegis continues to explore the Trinity Continuum’s themes of hope, sacrifice, and unity — in an age where societies are in decline and survival sometimes feels uncertain, these are the tenets under which people band together.
July '23 Update: Surveys Coming This Week
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 09:50:42 AM
Hello Anthologists,
It's been just over a month since our campaign concluded, and it's time to move into the next phase of the project. We're all done with the crowdfunding portion, now we move on to the post-campaign portion with the launch of the Pledge Manager and Backer Surveys going out this week.
There's a lot to go over, so let's get to it!
Today's Topics
BackerKit Pledge Manager SurveysComing This Week
CompiledDraft Manuscript (available in BackerKit Digital Rewards)
Monthly Progress Report
ComingNext
BACKER SURVEYS
Over the net few days (July 25 - 28), you’ll receive an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfill your rewards.
You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey (although that may help keep things organized if you've got multiple projects going.) When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey invitation link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available laterthis week via email!
The e-mail will look something like this:
After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts, and that won't happen until the books are being printed and we're preparing to ship.
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://tfc-rpg-anthology.backerkit.com
If you have any other questions or concerns, you can post them to the comments for this update, the comment section, or message me via one of these methods:
TO CONTACT JAMES
Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
Via Kickstarter: Click RichardThomas under the "Created By" heading on the main page, and then press the "Contact Me" button - the message will come to me!
Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
If there are any issues you find with the Pledge Manager, please contact me as soon as possible to let me know. It rolls out in waves so that I can correct issues on the fly and make it work as best possible as people come on board.
Within the BackerKit Survey and Pledge Manager, you can:
Review your Pledge Tier Selection and Rewards
Upgrade your Reward Tier pledge selection
Confirm Add On selections
Set up payment information for any failed payments from the Kickstarter campaign or to pay for any new Add On options selected.
Whenyou click on your BackerKit invitation link,you should see something like this...
From the BackerKit welcome page you can choose to
Review Your Pledge Level and Rewards
Start Your Survey, confirming pledge rewards, confirming or selecting new Add On options, and confirming any shipping and payment info that may be needed
Switch Your Pledge Level
If you've pledged to a reward tier that includes physical rewards, you can enter your shipping country at this stage. As noted during our campaign, we haven't set international shipping costs yet - those will be calculated and added in when we're preparing to ship the book. That won't be for a long time, though, and there will be plenty of opportunity - and notice - for you to make changes.
If you click on your Pledge Level, you will see a list of all items included in your Pledge Rewards, and also have the option to switch your Pledge Level, in case you've decided to get the hardcover pledge instead of the PDF-only pledge tier for example.
Once you've confirmed that your Pledge Level is correct and where you want it to be, you can GETSTARTED with your BackerKit Pledge Manager Survey.
Once we've got a fair response to our survey and collected a reasonable amount of info, I'll be working on fulfilling rewards that are available now - like the PDFs of the titles included in our Add On section (for example, the Beneath the Sea! and Beyond the Grave! digital bundles, the PDFs for Camp Murder Lake and the Tasty Bits Compilation, and the preview manuscripts for Cyclops's Cave and [CLASSIFIED]). Those will likely be coming out in the first week of August, and I'll send another update with more info when that time comes.
So, in summary:
Look for an e-mail invitation to BackerKit sometime next week
Get Started on your survey
Confirm your Pledge Level (or SWITCH your Pledge Level if you want to change it)
Confirm and Select Any Add On options
Confirm Your Shipping Information (if needed)
Confirm Your Payment Information (if needed)
I will post an update in another week or two as I begin outlining the delivery of our first Add On rewards (the existing PDF titles, as noted above) and beginning distribution of those PDF rewards.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT
Looking in the example pledge list above, you can see a listing for the Kickstarter Draft Manuscript. In your BackerKit digital rewards page, you will have access to the compiled draft manuscript. It won't be different from the one that was shared during the campaign - it'll just be all gathered together in one big file. The Draft Manuscript link may not be active when you first login to your BackerKit survey, but I'll throw the switch and it'll send you a notice next week after all of the invitations have gone out.
I will talk about how to access your BackerKit digital rewards links in an update coming early-August, when I send out the first wave of available rewards.
MONTHLY PROJECT CHECK IN
And with the surveys going out this week and the wave of existing titles coming to backers in a few weeks, it's time to monitor the monthly progress on our Kickstarter rewards from this campaign. There's still a long road ahead and a lot of work to be done on these projects, but we're going to have these regular updates at the end of each month to keep track of where we sit on our rewards.
MONTHLY UPDATES
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.
In addition to notes on our reward status, each month I'll also include the BackerKit links and my How To PDF notes, as well as contact information in case you need to get in touch.
PROJECT REWARDS STILL PENDING
This is our monthly project progress character sheet. We'll be filling in the dots as the Onyx Path team moves the project through the stages of development and production. As noted, we're in the very earliest stages of this project. Our main reward, They Came From the RPG Anthology!, is a bit different than most because we added new content which needs to be written, which means the preview manuscript draft that we'll have in our BackerKit Digital Rewards Locker is only about half the book - just the five genres and rules chapters we had during the campaign.
That said, it's a bit deceptive to have the project listed as only in outlines. We know half the book is written and ready for final editing and development, but with more chapters to come I'll track it as a holistically as a single project. So, based on our voting during the campaign and our stretch goals (plus premium pledge rewards), the team is working on the new content and is at the earliest stages.
They're pretty eager and experienced, so I expect it to move much quicker than it would if they were starting truly from scratch. We'll continue to track it each month so that we're all on the same page regarding the progress.
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: <June 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
If you've got questions about the rules or setting, or just want to discuss this game with other fans (as well as the Onyx Path writers and developers!), you can check out these Onyx Path discussion zones:
Via Kickstarter: Click RichardThomas under the "Created By" heading on the main page, and then press the "Contact Me" button - the message will come to me!
Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
They Came From a Completed Kickstarter Campaign!
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Jun 22, 2023 at 11:09:47 AM
Hello Anthologists!
FUN!
That's what I think about when I think of this game line. The They Came From games are more about fun at the table than almost any other game I've seen. I mean, just listen to the Actual Plays or see the game in action at a convention. They're always the loudest tables, laughing and having a great time.
This campaign was fun. From the beginning, the team wanted to do something different. They wanted to focus less on building funding to hit Stretch Goal additions and more about starting with the idea of expanding the book built-in to the campaign and having input from backers to make it even better.
And now, we see how much fun you can pack into a single book! Because this book is gonna be jam-packed!
Along with a Quck Play rules system and a bonus version of Storypath Ultra for campaign play, here's what this book will contain:
TheyCame from Cowboy’s Gulch! is our Western game where you’ll find new Archetypes in the form of the Gunslinger, the Gambler, the Doc, the Tracker, and the Impresario. You’ll find sets that make you think of your favorite Spaghetti Westerns, antagonists rich in characters, and more Cinematics and Quips than a cactus has needles.
TheyCame from Mean Streets! is our Noir game, including the Criminal, the Fatale, the Underdog, the Gumshoe, and the Newshawk, with new Tropes and Quips. Our new Archetypes come equipped, ready for play in the crooked alleys and neon-lit bars profiled in this chapter with Cinematics that’ll make you start internalizing all your dialogue.
TheyCame from Bridgton Rectory! is our corset-busting, shirt-ripping costume drama, with heavy does of Austen and Brontë tragedy and romance, along with its share of farce. New Archetypes are the Hero, the Rake, the Rebel, the Heart, and the Charlatan. Once more, we see fresh Cinematics and Quips, along with sets and antagonists, but most importantly, this chapter contains a fresh mechanic all to do with falling in and out of love.
TheyCame from Interstellar Starship! has been at the forefront of requests for a They Came Fromgame since we started the line and first told people “the aliens from Beneath the Sea! can just as easily come from space.” But rather than simply make this another 1950s b-movie pastiche, we lean into sci-fi epics and soap operas, with the new Archetypes: the Explorer, Robot, Galactic Marine, Alien, Technician, and the updated Astronut. Also included are rules for interstellar craft and battles!
TheyCame from Bard’s Quill! repositions They Came From to make things theatrical, with a new spin on Cinematics. There’s also the Knave, Authority, Lover, Solomon, Paladin, Fool, and Idealist Archetypes, and a host of new methods of play to make everything slightly more staged than before.
They Came from the Billiard Room with the Candlestick! (The Mystery Genre - Benoit Blanc, Agatha Christie, Clue, etc. with thrilling new Archetypes such as the Butler and the Colonel and a mystery plot device system!)
They Came from Beneath Capes and Cowls! (Superhero Genre - Four Color Heroes with a splash of camp, with Archetypes including the Mystery, the Savior, the Mutant, and the Mecha and, Quips designed to emulate Batman, Spider-Man and Superman of the 1960s)
They Came from the Meticulously Planned Bank Job! (Heist and Gangster Media - Ocean's Eleven, Reservoir Dogs, Goodfellas, etc. with new rules for planning your caper and building your reputation in the criminal underworld, including Archetypes such as the Mafioso, the Professional, and the Hitman.)
They Came from Avast Behind! (Adventure Movies and TV, especially focusing on pirates - Treasure Island, Our Flag Means Death, Three Musketeers, Mutiny on the Bounty, etc., with a flurry of exciting new Archetypes and Quips based on an adventurous life, including the Captain, the Swashbuckler, and the Scurvy Dog.)
They Came from Game X - Another chapter added via Stretch Goal achievement, the particular genre and tropes explored will be determined by the writers and developer during the ongoing creation of this book. Will they take inspiration from your comments and suggestions? Will they find a new niche that needs exploring while writing the other games? Will a new idea present itself that is simply the cherry on top of the sundae and too good to pass up? Only time will tell!
They Came from the Diplomat! - Chosen from the many, many worthy options that didn't come out on top in one of our backer polls, the Diplomat has the ability to resurrect an idea and have it incorporated into the book! A second chance for a Steel Dragon tournament? A High Octane Apocalypse? Or the drama of Dawkins' Creek! Only the Diplomat knows... for now!
That's just amazing!
This book started off being great with our first five game chapters written and previewed during the campaign. No one knew what would come over past 4 weeks, but looking at that list, we're in for something amazing! And still a few mysteries to discover! I love it!
Let's Celebrate!
A huge congratulations to Matthew and the team! As I've said more than once, the chapters presented had great takes on familiar genres and presented new or rarely-seen game topics in amazing and interesting ways! The writers have something special going on with this one. This will be the basis for so many They Came From games going forward, and it's going to be a very useful core book to have in your collection.
EXTRA THANK YOU
We had a great comment section for this campaign, and also around the web. I loved reading comments here and in the Discord suggesting different game ideas and archetypes and tropes! And also figuring out how to use the different pieces of the games presented and building new and exciting stories! Lots of great discussion on this one! The weekly polls took ideas from backers, sometimes refined and focused, and presented us with difficult challenges every week. There were no bad options! Just a ton of great, great ideas!
We hear a lot about the division and politics and struggle in the world right now, and it's always rewarding to spend time with this community and feel the positive vibes that everyone puts out. It's really appreciated.
COMMUNICATION
So, as noted in today's earlier update, I'll be sending out updates once a month and whenever we've got a new goal, survey, or other item to cover. If you have any questions or need clarification on something related to the kickstarter, feel free to get in touch. I may take a bit to answer as take a bit of a break and recover from this past month, but I'll eventually have an answer!
TO CONTACT ME
Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
Via Kickstarter: Click RichardThomas under the "Created By" heading on the main page, and then press the "Contact Me" button - the message will come to me!
For setting stuff and questions about the game itself, it's probably best to visit one of these Onyx Path discussion zones:
So, huge thanks to everyone for joining our mad troupe and making this They Came From project happen!
Now to attend to other business and eventually collapse for a few hours and recover from the awesomeness of the last couple days! High fives in the comment section, and you'll hear from me again around the end of July!
#TheyCameFrom
#SoManyGamesInside
Final Hours - Checklist & What Comes Next
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Jun 22, 2023 at 04:15:29 AM
Good morning, Anthologists!
Welcome to the final hours of this campaign! We've had a pretty great 4 weeks, and a *really great* past 48 hours! It was just a few days ago we were hoping to hit our $23,000 Stretch Goal and get close to 500 backers... and we've smashed past both of those milestones over these final days!
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 with 10 amazing genres explored within!
That's right, TEN game chapters! Because we've also hit our final Stretch Goal!
ACHIEVED! - At $25,000 in Funding - ADDITIONAL GENRE - Let's add another genre to the They Came From the RPG Anthology! This one will be decided upon by the writer team behind the book so they get the opportunity to directly influence this final piece of content!
I'm calling this one Chapter X because it's the 10th game genre chapter in the book. I know there's an intro and rules chapter, but let's not worry about the math this early in the morning. Chapter X sounds cool, and the X lets you know it'll be decided by the developers and writers as they're putting the book together.
But you still have a chance to decide on the contents of another chapter in this book, because voting for Round continues until this project ends at 2:00 PM EDT today!
As I type this, only NINE votes sit between pirate ships and steel cages, and with fewer than 400 votes we know there are plenty of backers who haven't yet made their voice heard. Time is running out!
FINAL DAY CHECKLIST
Whether you cast the first vote in the Round 1 poll or are just visiting the Round 4 poll for the first time, here are some good points for you to review before we conclude this campaign in about 7 hours...
1. Know What You're Supporting
At the bottom of this post <link>, you'll see a list of podcasts and actual plays 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 read their actual words.
The first decision you need to make in figuring out your reward tier is whether you want to receive the PDF version or the hardcover edition (which comes with a bonus PDF version).
THEARCHIVIST: This is the PDF-only reward tier. So, if you're saving trees or saving shelf space - or avoiding the shipping charges that are absolutely ever-increasing - this is the reward tier options that you should begin with. The PDF will be fulfilled by our partners at DriveThruRPG.com - when it is ready, you will receive a link to add it to your DTRPG library at no cost and be able to download at your leisure.
THELIBRARIAN: This reward tier includes the hardcover version of this book. Shipping costs ARE NOT included in the cost of your pledge. You will be charged for shipping after the campaign through the pledge manager. In addition, this option also includes the PDF version, so you will get a digital copy as described above.
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 TheArchivist tier and upgrade inthe pledge managerto TheLibrarian tier once the shipping costs are known before we lockdown orders.
THEAUDITOR: Not ready to commit, or just looking to offer general support? This pledge tier is for you. This does not include our primary reward, but allows you to select some digital optional Add Ons, as well as participating in the post-campaign Pledge Manager as a backer. You'll also be able to read the draft manuscript chapters from They Came From the RPG Anthology! that we post throughout this campaign.
THEIMPRESSIONIST / THE MUSE / THE PERFORMER / THE OBSERVER / THE DIPLOMAT: A few Reward Tiers offer special limited premium rewards in addition to the basics, including an option to supply a pet's name to be used by an NPC in the book, to provide photo references used for an interior illustration, to participate in an online game session run by the developer, or to get special access to the new chapters that'll be added to the book as they're being developed. Check each of the Reward Tier descriptions for more details.
ADD ON OPTIONS - the second step of the Pledge Tier process. There are several Add On options that you can add as part of your pledge, including other They Came From setting and rulebooks (They Came from Camp Murder Lake!, Cyclops's Cave!, [CLASSIFIED]!, as well as big bundles for the games that launched the line Beneath the Sea! and Beyond the Grave!).
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 theaffordabilityof the pledge at this moment!
I'm going to speak against my own self interest for a moment, and repeat myself one last time - 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 - Kickstarter will begin processing payments 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.
Choose a Reward Tier You Can Afford
Readthe Manuscripts and Make Sure You Know What You're Getting
Be Aware of the Projected Delivery Date (Onyx Path will try to deliver earlier than this, but the book will take some time to get perfect)
3. PAYMENT AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Once you're comfortable with your pledge, please ensure that the payment and contact information in your kickstarter 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!)
WHAT COMES NEXT?
4. AFTER THE CAMPAIGN ENDS
First, we celebrate. Kickstarter will send out a virtual "Hooray!" email confirming the campaign ended with final totals. We'll give socially-distanced high fives and digital fist bumps in the comments section.
Then, the Kickstarter payment process begins. Over the next week, kickstarter 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), Kickstarter will keep trying to process payment during this time.
Once this step is done, which will likely be by the second week of July 2023, Kickstarter will confirm everything with Onyx Path and I can begin to set up the project with the BackerKit Pledge Manager and link it to the Kickstarter data.
BackerKit's Pledge Manager is 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 a few weeks 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.
5. BACKERKIT SURVEYS
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 kickstarters), 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 the end of July2023.
During the Survey period, you can choose to increase your reward tier or add on additional options. If you've gone back to work or found an alternate income source and decide it's time to trade up to the hardcover version of the book 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 there was an issue with payment to Kickstarter, you should also be able to address that at this point in the process.
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 the 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.
6. REWARD DISTRIBUTION
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 They Came From the RPG Anthology! 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 version.
It's yet another long road ahead, likely full of twists and turns and unexpected challenges, but one that we wouldn't be undertaking if not for your faith and support.
So, celebrate Chapter X! Vote for Round 4! And I'll see you on the other side of the finish line!
