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Latest Updates from Our Project:
ADD-ONS, VTTs & STUFF
over 2 years ago
– Sun, Sep 04, 2022 at 08:10:14 PM
Hey Everyone!
Another 5K, another stretch goal.
Just as a sneak, the next three stretch goals to be revealed are either physical rewards for the books or in-game content expansions. For example, the brunt of the main book will be exploring Europe, but I have a bunch of plans for Africa, which will add considerable additional content. The upcoming additional illustrations will be the last of those.
EXPLORING MORE ART IN AMETHYST
Here is the second part of our old series about the history of the original art of Amethyst.
BY POPULAR DEMAND
OK, you have spoken.
If you check out the add-on image on the campaign page, you can now order both the PDFs and physical books for Ultramodern5-REDUX and Affinity. Physical books always include the PDFs.
And yes, you CAN order the deluxe versions of these sets.
The Ultramodern5-REDUX deluxe book has a slipcase and spot UV with a satin bookmark.
The Affinity standard set is in a slipcase with spot UV. The luxury LEATHER set is in full leather (obviously) with gilded pages, embossed logos, satin bookmarks, and the whole freaking thing fits inside a magnet latch box.
YEAH, I KNOW, RIGHT.
Here’s a video of me unboxing these bad boys.
Now, the Amethyst luxury books will look something like this, but they won’t have a magnetic box as we hope to make more Amethyst. That being said, the Amethyst books could have more luxury features depending on how far the campaign goes.
I am making enough extra with Affinity to cover any additional orders and I always order additional deluxe UM5s.
As you read this, Affinity (my last KS) has finished production…
If I need to order even more, I will.
So, for those curious, you have two options.
You can wait for the Pledge Manager and add your books then.
OR….OR, you can increase your pledge now by the listed amount, push the needle of Amethyst further, maybe close in on more stretch goals, and just complete the order later.
I’ll leave the details to you.
VTT EXPANSION
I explained in the previous update that while Roll20 was the big reveal for Amethyst, we have already began working on similar modules for Shard and Fantasy Grounds, with the later already finished.
Well, we’ve received updates on those fronts.
So, here’s the deal:
For “All-In” pledges, we are throwing in the Fantasy Grounds, Shard, and Foundry modules for FREE (this is atop of the Roll20 modules which are included already in all three-pack sets.
For all three-pack sets that are NOT “All-In”, we will issue coupons to allow backers to acquire them at near cost. This applies to Fantasy Grounds and Shard. As for Foundry, I have someone on hand to create the module: we just need some final questions answered in regards to if we can include them for free or at a cost. If the former, then all “three pack” pledges will receive them. Once we hear back from Foundry, we’ll update the pledges officially.
The whole cost/free aspect of this depends on who is doing the conversion. If Dias Ex Machina is handling the conversion, then we cover the costs and can include “keys” for free. If the company handles the conversion, then all we can do is pass on the coupons to backers. In the case of “all-in” pledges, Dias Ex Machina will cover the cost for these modules.
In summary, Dias Ex Machina will be offering VTT modules for Fantasy Grounds, Foundry, and Shard, as well as Roll20. Shard and Foundry are in development. Fantasy Grounds is already available, though they have yet to receive the new content from Revelations.
Oh, and we’re also available on D20Pro but literally, no one has ever asked about that. 😊
SENSITIVITY READERS
I know some of you don’t care, but Dias Ex Machina employs sensitivity readers in its products and have been since Affinity. Now, Amethyst is not a “rounded edges” setting. It features a lot of allegory and parables to human history. It may and likely will trigger some people.
Here are the sensitivity readers employed by Dias Ex Machina
Paco García-Reed Jaen (of the GMS Magazine Podcast)
William R Miller
Hannibal Tabu
That last name is a big win for me as I have a lot of respect for Hannibal and love his writing.
In fact, Tabu is finishing up his own Kickstarter, The Sundering, right now.
The Sundering offers something really special for every player and GM, with a diverse pantheon of gods, including Oya from the Orisha and Set from the Kemetic pantheon. If you’re looking for allegory, The Sundering is not subtle AT ALL, and I love it!
I backed it, think it’s awesome, and Paco and I even interviewed him about the project a few weeks ago…
HERE IS ANOTHER GAME I BACKED
Adventuring is serious business! Death lurks around every turn and ill-prepared characters don't last long when coming face-to-face with terrible monsters that want nothing more than to kick their asses!
And yet, the very essence of role-playing games is too fun! We believe that Game Masters can provide their players with scary yet challenging encounters while still having a good laugh.
This richly illustrated, full-color, hilarious supplement is the perfect companion for any 5th Edition game. It presents and brings to life a menagerie of new creatures that have funny appearances and abilities that are sure to surprise even the most veteran of players. This whimsical supplement will keep them smiling and create memorable moments your players won't soon forget while still presenting a real danger for the party!
Each of the book’s 200 monsters will be illustrated by the extremely talented Danny Pavlov. In addition to the beautiful art, we provide creative descriptions and extensive stat blocks for 5th Edition.
Your players will die laughing!
FREE shipping to the US and EU, and only $10 to other countries!
Anyways, that’s it for today! Next update, I am hoping to reveal some more stretch goals.
Also, just as a side comment, Amethyst got accused of ripping off Arcana of the Ancients recently. I find that interesting as Amethyst was first published in 2008 and Arcana was released in 2020. This is not the first time this has happened. Since Amethyst’s original release, a lot of people making only a cursory examination of the setting have accused it ripping off Shadowrun…even though Amethyst is in no way cyberpunk.
There’s an old OLD game called Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, which I had never heard of until many years after its release which bares SOME resemblance.
It’s very simple folks.
Amethyst is Judge Dredd except outside the city walls of megacity one is Middle Earth.
Simple 😊Right?
Chris
DEM
STRETCH GOALS, VTTs, AND NEW STUFF
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Sep 02, 2022 at 09:16:51 PM
HEY EVERYONE!
We are only three days into our crowdfunding campaign, and we’ve already crossed six stretch goals and $45K.
This means yet more illustrations have been unlocked, adding to the girth of the final book.
I have also revealed THREE MORE STRETCH GOALS
We got another illustration goal plus a couple of real humdingers (had to look up that word to see if it was appropriate).
TECHAN RACE
While there will already be at least one, maybe two new races within Revelations, this stretch goal allows players to assume the role of probably the most exotic race in the setting. You get to play as one of these guys…
Who are they? These are angels. No, not THOSE kinds of angels. To know more…well, you will have to read the book. One specific named angel, Kairos, was introduced in Factions, and he will be making his narrative premiere in the third novel, Hallowed Kingdom.
The only thing I will say now is that Kairos and the angels are NOT robots.
REVISED FANTASY CLASSES
Reaching this stretch goal will add 40 pages at least to the final Revelations count.
It’s been a dream of mine to throw my spin into classic D&D classes. These are not replacements, just more options for people, especially those who want to play around more in the canonical setting. These classes can, of course, be ported to any other setting you offer.
What are the details?
I don’t have much at the moment to share: just ideas, many of which I am brainstorming as I type.
PALADIN: I’d want to offer paladin without innate spellcasting or even magic. Their smite ability would be non-magical and operate similarly and yet opposite to rogues. Yes, I just said that.
RANGER: Same as a paladin; I’d want this to be closer to the 4E version but with a few unique twists of my own.
DRUID: This variation would offer more alchemical abilities with a bunch of healing effects to replace clerics if need be.
ROGUE: I’d like to split the thief and assassin paths and offer one as low-combat, similar to the face in Ultramodern5.
Like I said, they’re just ideas for now. There will be six new classes total.
THE OTHER VTTS
A few people have been asking about other digital programs connecting to role-playing, like Fantasy Grounds and Shard Tabletop. Now, TECHNICALLY, Roll20 modules are the ones included in this KS, but in actuality, I hope to offer all three.
A Shard adaptation for Amethyst is currently in the works, and the Fantasy Grounds module is available RIGHT NOW.
The big reason for their exclusion is that these adaptations are being done by those companies and not by people employed by DEM. As such, all we’d be able to do is offer discount coupons.
SOOOO, YES, if you want the Fantasy Grounds modules for Amethyst, anyone backing any triple RPG pack (digital or physical) will receive the “at-cost” coupon.
As for Shard, once completed, I will make sure I can offer coupons and, when able, will do so for the same backers.
THE OTHER RULES
The other commonly asked question involves supporting other systems.
In 2014, our first Amethyst Kickstarter supported 13th Age, Savage Worlds, Fate, 4th Edition, 5th Edition, and Pathfinder. However, that campaign took four years to finish. As such, this one will only PROMISE the 5E Edition (so I can have it finished in the time promised).
Does this mean the others are no longer being supported?
Not exactly.
The SW and Fate editions were done by Christopher Stilson, and he has expressed interest in adapting these systems. Adapting Amethyst to 13thAge would be easy for me, as I quite enjoy those rules. Pathfinder…well, that’s tricky because would I adapt to 1e or 2e? Paizo split their own audience in half; I honestly don’t know what to do about that.
The point I am making is that any other adaptations we make will be offered in PDF for free to anyone that backs the 5E books.
AFFINITY AND ULTRAMODERN5
I had earlier decided to not offer UM5 and Affinity (our last two publications) as part of this Kickstarter...because...I don't know...reasons, but as we have attracted a bunch more people, there have been a few asking for the opportunity to order the exclusive slipcase and leather editions of these sets.
OKAY, sound off in the comments. If anyone wants to order any of these sets, let me know...
SPREADING LOVE
One aspect of RPG Kickstarters that I don’t find with board game Kickstarters is a sense of community. We genuinely want one another to succeed. We are not competing in a small pool. We are all endeavoring to expand that pool to fit more people.
As such, I recently backed this campaign…
Riddle Register: The Ultimate Book of Riddles for all TTRPGs
Introducing the Riddle Register: The Ultimate Book of Riddles! A collective of cataloged riddles for your TTRPG, each indexed by class, element & answers for your immediate access.
Anyways, that was a big update and I will have more to offer soon.
CHRIS
The First Update
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Sep 01, 2022 at 01:59:02 PM
HEY EVERYONE!
Heck of a first day, I'd say.
We crossed our goal in under 90 minutes and already scratched off four stretch goals. If this campaign follows the pattern of the two previous campaigns, we should reach our last stretch goal the day before the campaign ends. Previous campaigns had about 15 – 20. This one has over 30 (in case you were wondering how long the image goes).
STRETCH GOALS
I wanted to quickly (which, knowing me, is not) explain how I run campaigns and design stretch goals. Admittedly, I do set my goals low, but as we cross them, we can make the final product what I would prefer it to be.
A good example is our last Kickstarter, Affinity. When the project began, it was a 3-pack of 150-page campaign worlds with $3,000 of art shared between them. By the end of the campaign, each book was 250 pages with added content and nearly $20,000 of art spread across all three books.
This is why Amethyst Revelations is pitched to be between 300 and 400+ pages, depending on how far the campaign runs. This is why there are non-physical stretch goals like "Increased Illustrations," as each allows me to add more images to the final product.
You'll also notice paper quality increases and other physical upgrades that affect only the print books. Obviously, these cannot carry onto print-on-demand books and will only apply to the physical books as part of the Kickstarter.
With Affinity, the physical upgrades included spot UV, satin bookmarks, metal corners, and gilded pages. Here is a video showing what the luxury Affinity eventually looked like.
If you can believe it, thanks to our new printer, we may even be able to do more with Amethyst, but some of those are surprises still to come.
SPELLCASTING
The $40K stretch goal refers to a canonical spellcasting system. What does that mean?
Well, in the last few years, I started considering alternative spellcasting engines that deviate from the Vancian system D&D is known for. With Affinity, I presented three very different models. One involves talismans. Another employed deck-building. The final used trees of power "nodes."
The spellcasting mechanic in the original Amethyst offers a variation of the classic 5E system, but I have often claimed that each volume of Amethyst never fully presents the genuine setting as conceived.
This "canonical" system will be very close to what we see realized in the novels, employing more esoteric ideas than specifically named spells. Spellcasters will be able to radically alter spells when cast based on talents they select throughout character progression.
Chaos magic in Amethyst is also about "life in all forms," making it especially easy within the setting to create semi-intelligent elemental forms. So instead of casting fireball, you create a fire elemental that assumes a specific beast you select upon casting…
The white light of crackling current sparked from his book. Like spindly fingers, they reached Aiden's arm, growing longer as they crawled over his neck to the open free hand. The electric beast pooled in his palm into a ball of lightning.
Stone and Friedkin stepped back from the image. The creature dropped onto the edge of a broken table. Gangly claws extended from its arms. Its body formed a skeleton, a feral electric animal. It shrieked to Friedkin.
The techan lifted his weapon to fire. The creature caught the plasma discharge and happily consumed the energy, growing in girth from the meal. Friedkin repeated the attempt, and the beast countered with a gulp, expelling a belch of lightning.
"Oh shit," Friedkin said.
The beast flipped its back legs over to reach beyond its front and ran, rolling towards the techan. It leaped and spread its fingers along the plates of titanium. Friedkin spasmed and dropped his weapon. A convulsion brought him to the ground.
ARTISTIC RETROSPECTIVE
To give you an idea of how old Amethyst is, here is one of the first videos I did for my channel, discussing the history of the setting's artwork. Back then, all the artwork was in black & white. Now, they’re all in color.
ANYWAYS. Thanks again to everyone, and I’ll have more soon.
Chris
DEM
WOW
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 01:05:10 PM
HEY EVERYONE!
YAY WE FUNDED!
It's been less than two hours since this journey began, so my brain is still processing.
We'll have a more detailed update to follow very soon, sharing some videos and previews of upcoming stretch goals.
THE FUTURE
I wasn't planning on looking ahead so soon, but someone asked about the future of Amethyst…
When you produce the next book, Will we be able to buy the lux version of it without having to buy the other three lux versions we already purchased in this campaign?
If this campaign does well...and...I mean it's looking good...we'll return to Amethyst in the future and we'll have luxury books offered then as well.
The fun part will be that we have physical stretch goals for the physical books as part of this campaign, which means a future KS would have to offer these books at that exact level.
So, whatever level the standard & luxury books get to with this KS will be the fixed quality for the next one.
BRICK & MORTAR & ONLINE
We initially indicated the retailer pledge was only for B&M retail stores.
It does include online stores as well. We have made that amendment.
CONTRIBUTING LORE
In the first Amethyst Kickstarter (For Factions in 2014), we allowed several backers to contribute to the overall lore of the setting.
While not official, I'll be offering that opportunity for all AMETHYST ALL-IN PERSONALIZED pledges. At the very least, you can add your character's name to the book (like we did in 2014).
We can then work together to integrate your characters history in a noteworthy way to the setting. Obviously, this is dependant on the ideas offered.
Anyways, thank you, everyone! I love all of you, and I'll have more soon.
