Hello Essential Entities,
Technically, the New Moon started a few days ago, but I'm old so feel fairly comfortable with '80s pop references. Feel free to translate as needed...
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James Bell
4 days ago
Exalts of Creation: Intro Fiction
Exalts of Creation
Dauntless Aelia also called herself Audacity because she didn’t fear the impossible. She’d worn that name even before the Unconquered Sun chose her, but n...
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James Bell
5 days ago
Exalted: Excellence! XSPG is Funded!
Well, hello there!
I love this project and this community, and I'm thrilled to see so many people come out to support this expansion for Exalted: Essence. The Exalted: Esse...
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James Bell
5 days ago
Welcome Aboard - Manuscript Preview #1
Hello Alchemists!
My name is James, and I’ll be your Onyx Path Crowdfunding Concierge for this fun new project - Exalted: Essence Player's Guide, a jam-packed new player-fac...
Technically, the New Moon started a few days ago, but I'm old so feel fairly comfortable with '80s pop references. Feel free to translate as needed.
We're just about to start our fifth day in this 28 day compaign and have a lot of ground to cover, many chapters still to share, and lots of information to reveal as we move forward. Wondering about some specific Charms? Wondering about how certain bits have been translated into Exalted: Essence? Wondering what's been expanded in this book? We'll need some patience as we work through the next three weeks. We'll have answers to most of your questions as we go!
Today is a good day if you've been wondering about Lunars! I loved the Dragon-Blooded chapter and how it put the spotlight on the champions of the five elemental dragons. Now, the spotlight shifts to the chosen of Luna.
Additional Lunar milestones? check! Exploration of Caste concepts? check! Expanded Shapeshifting rules! CHECK!
And, of course, lots of Charms!!
Draft Manuscript Previews
Over the course of these 4 weeks, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for Exalted: Essence Player's Guide, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in Exalt-based sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over the the 28 day campaign, but it's more about guiding the conversation and helping steer feedback for the developers.
Because they want your feedback! These manuscript previews are of the current draft manuscript – the document in its latest, approved form. This may not be the final form after editing and any additional development, but you can consider it about 95% finished, so keep that in mind.
In fact, you can help guide the team through the next stages of development by providing feedback on these manuscript previews! The Onyx Path team has set up a special Feedback Form just for campaign backers for this very purpose: https://forms.gle/sqmxdW6u87pT3Mhg8
You can use this Feedback Form to share your thoughts directly with the Exalted: Essence creative team to help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.
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 "Learn More" link on the bottom and I'll see you below the Exalted emblem.
Dauntless Aelia also called herself Audacity because she didn’t fear the impossible. She’d worn that name even before the Unconquered Sun chose her, but now she laughed in the face of demon-kings and smiled as she cut down legions of the dead.
Right now, though, Dauntless Aelia felt her audacity dampened. Her daiklave was sheathed on her back, her armor stowed at the campsite, and a dozen tigers prowled around her, licking their chops. She understood what was required of her, though. She was Dauntless, not thoughtless, and so she fixed her gaze on the creature in front of her, straightened her posture, and made her face an emotionless mask. At her side, the Sidereal known as Elyntine Kesh did the same, offering a courtesy with a flourish of her saffron silks.
The creature was a Wyld thing, equal parts cat and serpent — and the size of a whale, to boot. Its smile was full of sword-sized teeth. Worst of all, though, was the man who sat just atop its head. The beast’s master buffed his talons on his velvet robes as he regarded Aelia and Kesh with disinterest.
“You can’t have the village,” he said. “I took it fair and square, and it’s not proper that you should begrudge me what I have so fully and dutifully taken.”
“Like the other three villages?” Aelia asked, and Kesh elbowed the Dawn Caste gently as a warning. No emotion, she’d told Aelia. Both of these monsters fed on it. Aelia remembered the other villages, though, and the blank-eyed survivors. This creature had cracked their souls open like oysters and gorged himself on what he’d found inside.
“Yes, precisely,” he said. “Or better, even. These villagers invited me, if you can believe it. You don’t even have to believe it. Just watch.”
The man flourished like a puppeteer, and one of the villagers was dragged out in front of Aelia and Kesh. He was eighteen, with what might have been his first patchy beard. A nerve pulsed on his forehead as he tried to regain control over his body, and his lip trembled with fear. When he looked into their eyes, he was pleading — but his mouth opened, and it spoke in a voice of false cheer:
“We love the Husk Prince. Truly, we do! Our village was so boring and hungry before he came, and we pleaded with him: please come, and bring your tigers!”
The Husk Prince shrugged and gestured again, shuffling the boy off to the side. “You see?”
“You hate boredom more than anything else, don’t you?” Kesh asked, in her infuriating not-actually-a-question singsong voice.
“Oh,” the Husk Prince said, “I hate it like you people hate being burned or frozen or being covered in thousands of teeny tiny ants that someone’s given teeny tiny little swords. I hate it so much, and I think these people are going to be very good entertainment.”
“What if we were even more entertaining than they could ever be?” Kesh asked, and broke her own rule by smiling — just a fraction. It was subtle as silk and placid as an untroubled pond, somehow provoking and reassuring. The creature took the bait.
“I know better than that,” the Husk Prince said, and folded his arms like a child. “You wouldn’t really entertain me. You just want me to go away and die.”
“You could have so much fun with us, though! Just imagine if one of us died instead. That would be worth a few big laughs, wouldn’t it?” Kesh asked.
“Go on,” the Prince said, “I want to hear more about the part where you die.”
“It’s simple, really. You’ve got such a magnificent monster here, and it’s obviously absolutely lethal,” Kesh said, standing on her tip toes to pat the behemoth’s cheek. “So I’d like to make a bet! I’ll wager that it can’t kill me, even if I walked right into its mouth. It’ll have a free shot, yes? It could chew me up and spit out my bones.”
“Yes, yes,” the Prince said, nodding vigorously. “I like this plan. Do it.”
“But!” Kesh said, clapping her hands, “if it can’t kill me, then you promise my friend here can fight you and only you, no outside interference allowed — and that means no hiding behind the villagers.”
The Prince thought about it, stroking his elaborate black mustache. Aelia tried to scream at Kesh with just a raised eyebrow, but the Sidereal just raised a finger to her lips.
When the Husk Prince finally agreed, the behemoth opened its wide jaws to let Kesh step inside. Its mouth closed around her, and the beast made an exaggerated, wet sound as it tried to chew and crunch and crush. It stopped, though, and tilted its head, and opened its mouth to reveal… nothing more than a single strip of yellow cloth.
In the distance, Aelia could see a flash of saffron stardust as Elyntine Kesh reappeared, balanced on the top of one of the nearby huts. The Prince hemmed and panicked and even begged, but Aelia just unsheathed her daiklave and let a thin, scouring ray of sunlight gather on its blade.
“It’s not fair!” the Prince howled, leaping back as Aelia prodded his defenses with a few quick cuts that left him stumbling backwards. Oh, he was fast! Quick as a cat, and when he turned a blow aside with his sharp talons, she could feel the strength behind his arms. He was strong enough to put his fist through an old oak. Even without the villagers or tigers to worry about, he was a deadly foe.
But she was a Dawn Caste, and battle was her vocation. His would-be lethal blows met empty air or easy deflection. Her orichlacum blade cut strips into his false flesh, Wyld blood spilling like a pool of silver fire. Strike by strike, Aelia earned her name anew. Kesh deserved a deed-name for her courage, but Audacity was already taken.
I love this project and this community, and I'm thrilled to see so many people come out to support this expansion for Exalted: Essence. The Exalted: Essence core rules covered a lot of ground when they came out and had to explain a million different things within the two covers, and didn't have a ton of time to really dig into each Exalt type the way some of us would want. Well, this book... each Exalted gets their own chapter!
And if you've read Chapter 1 and have seen the great job the team does covering Dragon-Blooded, you must be as excited as I am to see the rest of the book.
But enough of that... let's get right to the point!
Exalted: Essence Player's Guide is FUNDED!
Thanks to your support, the Exalted: Essence Player's Guide has been funded and will get a fully-developed PDF, hardcover AND Deluxe hardcover release! Let me quickly switch into my Exalted mode...
Just more swords.
This happened a lot faster than I'd expected. With a lot of distractions lately and running around picking up MLB Opening Day snacks, I thought we might have a quieter start, but I should have really expected the BOOM and rapid take off. So let me scramble to get this all sorted...
Because we're not done now that we've hit our funding target! It's time to add more options, mark some milestones, and build a bonus reward!
As we increase the overall funding and support for the project, we’re able to add additional resources to the project, expand the rewards listed, and add in new offers and opportunities. Each Stretch Goal will have a target that, once reached, will add a project to the reward list for backers of the relevant Pledge Levels. Whenever we achieve a stretch goal, the listing will be updated to reflect the achievement.
At $30,000 in Funding - ESSENCE EXTENDED (Exalts of Creation Expansion I)
Onyx Path will create a supplement further exploring the Solars and Sidereals. This supplement will be released for purchase on DriveThruRPG and added as a free bonus reward to all backers receiving the Exalted: Essence Player's Guide standard hardcover or Deluxe Edition [SIDEREAL PLEDGE+]
At $40,000 in Funding - ESSENCE EXTENDED (Exalts of Creation Expansion II)
Onyx Path will expand the new supplement, adding material on Dragon-Blooded and Lunars. This supplement will be released for purchase on DriveThruRPG and added as a free bonus reward to all backers receiving the Exalted: Essence Player's Guide standard hardcover or Deluxe Edition [SIDEREAL PLEDGE+]
At $50,000 in Funding - ESSENCE EXTENDED (Exalts of Other Realms Expansion I)
Onyx Path will expand the new supplement, adding material on Abyssals and Infernals. This supplement will be released for purchase on DriveThruRPG and added as a free bonus reward to all backers receiving the Exalted: Essence Player's Guide standard hardcover or Deluxe Edition [SIDEREAL PLEDGE+]
At $60,000 in Funding - ESSENCE EXTENDED (Exalts of Other Realms Expansion II)
Onyx Path will expand the new supplement, adding material on Alchemicals, Getimians, and Liminals. This supplement will be released for purchase on DriveThruRPG and added as a free bonus reward to all backers receiving the Exalted: Essence Player's Guide standard hardcover or Deluxe Edition [SIDEREAL PLEDGE+]
The Architects are the Chosen of a city, and the Chosen of all cities.
So, our first four Stretch Goals will assemble a supplement for the XSPG giving us ... MORE. More on each of the Exalted of Creation and the Exalted of Other Realms. By the way, the Essence Extended title is just a placeholder for me, the team will actually come up with something way better when they actually create the book.
So, off to a great start! Lots of manuscript to come! Some fiction tomorrow! A handful of Stretch Goals to get us started, and the team will come up with more if we keep this project growing! I mean, surely there's room to add some new Exigents! And more!
Tomorrow... Dauntless Aelia also called herself Audacity because she didn’t fear the impossible!
My name is James, and I’ll be your Onyx Path Crowdfunding Concierge for this fun new project - Exalted: Essence Player's Guide, a jam-packed new player-facing supplement forfor the Exalted: Essence tabletop roleplaying game. I’ll be updating the campaign as we go, sharing the draft mansucript previews, answering questions, and providing support wherever needed as best I can.
I’ll note that I’m not part of the creative team on this project – so I won’t be able to immediately answer some of the more intricate rules or design inquiries – but having me manage this Crowdfunding campaign allows the Exalted Crew to keep their focus on the awesome projects that they’ve got in the works.
That said, feel free to make me your point person for any questions or issues you may have. I'll make sure to dig up answers as quickly as possible and clear up any issues that arise. Mostly, I'm just looking forward to an exciting ride along with all of you on this (and future) projects.
Our comment section is for all members of this community – united by our shared desire to see this project fund and develop – to cheerlead the project and figure out how best to spread the word about what we’re building here. If you’ve started a thread on whatever social media platform exists today or a Discord conversation about the game or this campaign – let me know about it so we can share that info. If you’ve discussed the game on a blog or podcast, let’s hear about it! If you’ve got funny ideas for social media hashtags, well we can do those too!
I will also be the person who gets to share the updates and previews with you! As noted on the main page and in the pledge descriptions, I also get to share an exciting treat –The Exalted: Essence Player's Guide Draft Manuscript previews, so you can start reading the book immediately! Scroll down to the bottom of this post on the website to see the first BACKERS-ONLY update for a download link.
So, welcome to Crowdfunding by BackerKit! Welcome to this awesome expansion for Exalted: Essence! It's time learn what it means to be Exalted!
Some quick things to note before we get into the manuscript.
Shipping Costs will be Collected in the Pledge Manager
First up, it's amazingly expensive to ship, especially from Onyx Path's home base in the US. And that's as of today - we're all in the dark about how things will look in 2 years. 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 haven't been able to set up ongoing 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 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 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
Over the course of the next 4 weeks, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for Exalted: Essence Player's Guide, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in Exalt-based sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over the next 28 days, but it's more about guiding the conversation and helping steer feedback for the developers.
Because they want your feedback! These manuscript previews are of the current draft manuscript – the document in its latest, approved form. This may not be the final form after editing and any additional development, but you can consider it about 95% finished, so keep that in mind.
In fact, you can help guide the team through the next stages of development by providing feedback on these manuscript previews! The Onyx Path team has set up a special Feedback Form just for campaign backers for this very purpose: https://forms.gle/sqmxdW6u87pT3Mhg8
You can use this Feedback Form to share your thoughts directly with the Exalted: Essence creative team to help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.
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 "Learn More" link on the bottom and I'll see you below the Exalted emblem.
