Hello Cool Cats,
As we slide into the final days of April, we've got enough time to sneak in our regular monthly update. No big news for this month, so let's dive right i...
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James Bell
about 2 months ago
March 2025 Monhtly Update
Hello Cool Cats,
We've shared previews of some characters from the jumpstart over the past several updates, but this month we're gonna keep it quick and dive right in! No bi...
2
0
2
James Bell
3 months ago
February 2025 Monthly Update - Sabian Sphynx von Angora preview
Hello Cool Cats,
February is a short month, so let's get right to it! Our regular monthly update will be followed by our final character preview from the upcoming Curious Ca...
2
0
0
James Bell
4 months ago
January 2025 Monthly Update
Hello Curious Cats,
It's time for our first monthly update of 2025. As a reminder, I'll be posting these updates at the end of every month as we track the progress of our Cr...
2
0
0
James Bell
5 months ago
December 2024 Monthly Update
Hello Cool Cats,
One quick note before we get to our monthly preview of a character from the upcoming Jumpstart. If you backed at the House Rex pledge level or added the Rea...
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James Bell
6 months ago
November 2024 Update
Hello Cool Cats,
As promised last month, we've got a series of previews from one of our Stretch Goal rewards that we'll be sharing over the next several months.
Curiou...
We've already had a sneak peek at most of the creatures from the next chapter in our manuscript, but here they are all together - with a lot more threats mixed in for good measure! It's time to detail some of the challenges our cat characters will face as they traverse the monarchies; it's time for Chapter 6 from our draft manuscript!
International Shipping – Collected in the Pledge Manager
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.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS - BACKERS ONLY
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 "Reply to The Update" link on the bottom and I'll see you below the title treatment.
WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK
I'm going to be sharing the manuscript in sections over the next 30 days, Part of the reason for that is to keep focus on one section at a time so the developers, Eddy and Lauren, can gather feedback to help guide the manuscript through the next steps of editing and development. To that end, they've created a special Feedback Form for you to submit your comments after reading each section!
As we slide into the final days of April, we've got enough time to sneak in our regular monthly update. No big news for this month, so let's dive right in.
Rewards Still Pending
The team is still making incremental progress behind the scenes, but no dots to fill in yet. I'll continue to track the project updates from Onyx Path and update our chart each month.
[Add On] Realms of Pugmire Discounted PoD Links (Dec 11 '24 Update)
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://curious-cats-of-mau.backerkit.com/
You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <March 2025 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 reward has gone out.
Remember: You can use the links at the bottom of this e-mail to unsubscribe from updates or Manage your notification settings. These status updates are available on the campaign page for you to review at any time.
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:
We've shared previews of some characters from the jumpstart over the past several updates, but this month we're gonna keep it quick and dive right in! No big changes - we're in the stage where lots of incremental work behind the scenes is going on, but these updates may be a little familiar. Let's get to it...
[Add On] Realms of Pugmire Discounted PoD Links (Dec 11 '24 Update)
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://curious-cats-of-mau.backerkit.com/
You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <February 2025 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 reward has gone out.
Remember: You can use the links at the bottom of this e-mail to unsubscribe from updates or Manage your notification settings. These status updates are available on the campaign page for you to review at any time.
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:
February is a short month, so let's get right to it! Our regular monthly update will be followed by our final character preview from the upcoming Curious Cats jumpstart - this month, we've got Sabian Sphynx von Angora!
Pending Rewards No big changes from last month, as the Onyx Path team works behind the scenes to make incremental progress. Hopefully we'll get a dot or two filled in over the next few months.
[Add On] Realms of Pugmire Discounted PoD Links (Dec 11 '24 Update)
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://curious-cats-of-mau.backerkit.com/
You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <January 2025 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 reward has gone out.
Remember: You can use the links at the bottom of this e-mail to unsubscribe from updates or Manage your notification settings. These status updates are available on the campaign page for you to review at any time.
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 BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
Curious Cats Jumpstart Preview 5
Here’s Sabian Sphynx von Angora, converted to the latest edition, as part of the Curious Cats of Mau Jumpstart!
Sabian Sphynx von Angora
History: Sabian’s family has a reputation throughout the monarchies as powerful necromancers. While Sabian did follow in the family’s footsteps to pursue magical study, he’s nowhere near as dark and creepy as his family’s reputation would indicate. His whole life he’s gone against the grain, retaining a bubbly personality and a love for reading a book while quietly enjoying a cup of tea. He brings that same energy to adventuring.
Roleplay Tips: Unless pontificating about magic or talking about an interesting factoid, Sabian is often quiet. Those who don’t know him might mistake this as brooding. They may even find Sabian’s silence disturbing or intimidating. But his friends know that he’s just a little shy and prefers the company of books to people.
Description: Sabian has thin, gray fur. He prefers to dress in heavy black robes and the pointed hat commonly favored by mancers of House Angora.
Personality: Drive: I am an excellent cat because I seek to learn as much as I can. Secret: No one knows about how much I want to help others. Weakness: No matter what, I just can’t manipulate people.
Level: 1 House: Angora Family: Sphynx Background: Sage Calling: Mancer Experience Bonus: +1 Stamina Dice: 1d6 Stamina Points: 6 Defense: 16 Initiative: +1 Speed: 30 ft./35 ft. Spell Slots: 2 Attributes:Agility +1, Might −1, Vitality +0, Cunning +2, Intellect +3, Presence +0 Skills: Know Arcana, Know Culture, Know History, Search Tricks: Mancy, Nearby Expert, Voracious Learner, Simple Weapon Aptitude, Light Armor Aptitude Rucksack: One simple weapon, one set of light armor, one focus crafted from bone (acquired under unusual circumstances), a bottle of ink, an ink pen, a few sheets of parchment, and a small collection of books. Plastic Track: A few coins
Tricks:
Mancy: The cat starts with a magical focus made of bone. By taking this trick, the cat becomes attuned to the focus and can draw and channel her magic through it. The cat uses the focus to cast all her spells.
This focus is powered by the cat’s life force and is uniquely tied to the character once attuned — another cat cannot use it, and cats with a similar focus might find it allows her to create different effects.
The three spells the cat learns upon taking Mancy are Chill Touch, Eldritch Blast, and Prestidigitation, and they also receive two magnitude 1 spells from the mancer list. All references to “spellcasting attribute” are references to Intellect.
Nearby Expert: Whenever a cat tries to learn or recall a piece of information and fails, she sometimes knows a person or a location from which to get the information. The Guide may decide the knowledge is secret or difficult to obtain. Fortune: If the player spends fortune, she can declare that a previously unknown non-player-character sage or expert is a friend or peer on good terms with the cat.
Voracious Learner: The cat with this trick gains a boon on Intellect checks involving something the cat might have read or heard about in the past. It does not apply to situations that are new to the cat’s experience.
Simple Weapon Aptitude: Cats with this trick can add their experience bonus to attack and damage rolls when using any simple weapon. This includes clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, quarterstaves, shortbows, sickles, slings, small axes and crossbows, spears, and unarmed punches, kicks, and bites.
Light Armor Aptitude: The cat with this trick can wear light armor effectively, giving her a Defense of 11 + her Agility.
You attack a character within range with a spectral paw. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 deathly damage and can’t regain stamina points until the start of your next turn. If the target is Invisible, they also have a hindrance on attack rolls against you.
Deathly energies temporarily bolster your stamina. You gain 1d4 + 4 stamina points. You lose these stamina points when the spell ends, possibly leaving you injured or dying.
Prestidigitation (Mancer Basic) Casting Time: 1 action; Range: 10 feet; Duration: Up to 1 hour
You create one of the following effects within range:
You create a minor instantaneous, harmless sensory effect that cannot deal damage or inflict a condition.
You light or snuff out a flame no bigger than a small campfire.
You instantaneously clean or dirty an object no larger than one cubic foot.
You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for the duration.
You make a color, small mark, or symbol appear on an object or surface for the duration.
You create a non-magical trinket, or illusory image, that can fit in your paw until the end of your next turn.
You can have up to three of these effects active at a time and can dismiss one effect as an action.
You summon black fire to wreath your attacker when you are dealt damage by a successful attack. They take 2d8 fire damage.
Test (Agility): The target takes half damage.
Currently Funding - Final Week!
In Trinity Continuum: Steam Wars, your player characters are the crewmembers of a war rig, venturing into battles against people from far off countries, aligned to ideals different than their own, and trying to preserve their peace, their way of life, or their rich deposits of a new, bizarre energy source: condensed coal. Your characters — the crewmembers of these war rigs — are as likely to be enlisted crooks as they are commissioned officers; gung-ho patriots as common as conscripted people from the imperial powers’ colonies. They fight because they have to. But in the fear and fog of battle, bonds form, friendships and rivalries grow, and legends are made.
Trinity Continuum: Steam Wars takes place outside the Trinity Continuum's "Alpha" timeline -- the worlds explored from Aegis to Æon -- taking place in a parallel reality, setting the stage for new adventures and discoveries.
Trinity Continuum: Steam Wars contains:
A complete setting based on the acclaimed graphic novel Steam Wars® with writing by Larry Blamire.
Detailed rules on piloting, managing, and fighting massive coal-powered giant war rigs in a parallel 19th century.
Six different roles you can perform on a steam rig, along with more than half a dozen Alliances involving in the Second Steam War that you can fight, ally with, or sabotage.
Storyguide advice, secrets, hooks, and plots, to enable you to start your game of Trinity Continuum: Steam Wars
It's time for our first monthly update of 2025. As a reminder, I'll be posting these updates at the end of every month as we track the progress of our Crowdfunding campaign rewards.
Rewards Still Pending
No big changes over the holidays. We've got another one of our characters featured in the Jumpstart to preview in this update, down under all of the monthly check in.
[Add On] Realms of Pugmire Discounted PoD Links (Dec 11 '24 Update)
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://curious-cats-of-mau.backerkit.com/
You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <December 2024 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 reward has gone out.
Remember: You can use the links at the bottom of this e-mail to unsubscribe from updates or Manage your notification settings. These status updates are available on the campaign page for you to review at any time.
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 BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
Curious Cats Jumpstart Preview 4
Here’s Halo von Siberian, converted to the latest edition, as part of the Curious Cats of Mau Jumpstart!
Halo von Siberian
History: Halo was once an agent of House Siberian, chasing the house’s enemies and bringing them low wherever they hid. On one mission, she crossed paths with a stubborn and reckless dog who nearly killed her. It was only due to the intervention of a member of the Church of Man that she survived. Once nursed back to health, Halo returned to the monarchies. Ever since, she’s contemplated why she survived and the role the Old Ones may have played in her fate.
Roleplay Tips: Halo is calm, kind, and outgoing. However, if pressed to violence, she becomes cold, quiet, and calculating. The shift in demeanor is disturbing to all around her as every bit of softness fades and the fierce hunter of her past emerges from hiding.
Description: Halo has gray and brown mottled fur and greenish-yellow eyes. She dresses in pants and a vest, carrying all her possessions in a backpack.
Personality: Drive: I am an excellent cat because I seek to understand the Old Ones. Secret: No one knows about my violent past. Weakness: No matter what, I just can’t watch a defenseless cat be threatened.
Level: 1 House: Siberian Family: Siberian Background: Criminal Calling: Wanderer Experience Bonus: +1 Stamina Dice: 1d8 Stamina Points: 10 Defense: 11 Initiative: +1 Speed: 30 ft./35 ft. Abilities:Agility +1, Might +3, Vitality +2, Cunning +1, Intellect+0, Presence −1 Skills: Balance, Bluff, Sneak, Traverse Tricks: Friends in Low Places, Hardy Constitution, Martial Arts, Simple Weapon Aptitude, Martial Weapon Aptitude, Light Armor Aptitude Rucksack: A crowbar and a set of dark common clothes that includes a hood, one sickle (1d4 edged, light), a shovel, torches, rations, and a musical instrument (gained under unusual circumstances). Plastic Track: A few coins
Tricks:
Friends in Low Places: The cat has some (generally) reliable and trustworthy contacts among criminals. She can get information from such characters, unless the act of passing on information would endanger them. Fortune: If the player spends fortune, she can declare that a previously unknown non-player-character criminal is one of her contacts on good terms with the cat.
Hardy Constitution: The cat with this trick can add 1d4 to all Vitality tests.
Martial Arts: The cat relies on his own body more than fancy weapons and armor and fights best unencumbered. When he’s:
Not wearing armor or using a shield
Unarmed or wielding only simple melee weapons without the two-pawed quality
He gains the following:
Unarmed and melee attacks gain the finesse quality.
Damage increases to 1d6, though the damage type doesn’t change.
If an attack is a success or triumph, you can make another attack of the same type as a supplemental action.
Simple Weapon Aptitude: Cats with this trick can add their experience bonus to attack and damage rolls when using any simple weapon. This includes clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, quarterstaves, shortbows, sickles, slings, small axes and crossbows, spears, and unarmed punches, kicks, and bites.
Martial Weapon Aptitude: A cat without this trick always attacks with such weapons with a hindrance. Cats with this trick, however, can use martial weapons well, and can add their experience bonus to attack and damage rolls using them.
Light Armor Aptitude: The cat with this trick can wear light armor effectively, giving her a Defense of 11 + her Agility. Note that Halo is not wearing armor despite knowing this trick.
