While our main book works through the Art Direction process, one of our Stretch Goal supplements - the Mosnter Kingdoms jumpstart - has finished up in drafts and is now in development, where the Developer hammers all the pieces together to make it into a cohesive whole. Incremental progress, and a few dots filled in.
Let's get to our monthly review!
Pending Projects
REWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO BACKERS
The World Below Core Rulebook PDF (Nov 6 '25 Update)
At the Gates Draft Manuscript (Nov 6 '25 Update)
Pledge Manager
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://monster-kingdoms.backerkit.com/
Even as we're mostly playing with the draft manuscript, Onyx Path is introducing new support for the Storypath Ultra system in general each month. These can easily be added to your Earthbane Cycle games or any game using the SPU system.
This Storypath Ultra Tasty Bit introduces traps for use with the Storypath Ultra Core Manual or any game using the Storypath Ultra system.
Traps are a natural fit for action-adventure scenes, endangering the protagonists without needing to directly confront their enemies. The characters may also set traps of their own to even the odds against a superior foe in pursuit. Regardless of who’s wielding them, traps ensure the environment’s perilous to any who tread carelessly.
Troublesome Traps includes:
Rules for setting and disarming traps
Expanded crafting rules for traps
New trap tags, Edges, and Area and Status Effects
Thirteen trap elements to inspire you
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: <January 2026 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:
If you've got a question about your pledge or BackerKit page or any part of the process, you can contact me with any of these methods
Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
CURRENTLY CROWDFUNDING!
The World Below: Buried Treasures
As you know, The World Below is a game of adversity, heroism, terror, and awe. Your characters will overcome or be defeated by terrible beasts, environmental calamities, and Kaos storms ravaging their surroundings and the souls they encounter. They will chart their journeys, chronicle their tales, and pass their stories down to their descendants, who will, in turn, become your characters when your old ones perish or retire.
Now, two new books will let you delve deeper into The World Below and illuminate some of the darkness!
The Delver’s Guide is a Player's Manual for The World Below.
Delvers may be brave, but that doesn’t mean they don’t require help once in a while. That’s what this guide is: help for all delvers, explorers, and survivors in the World Below. New Callings and weapons, new Dialectics and powers, a new scenario and fresh rules for crafting and harvesting, and much, much more await within, so every delver can feel properly equipped for the adventures ahead.
Secrets of Kalm and Kaos is a Storyguide’s Handbook for The World Below.
There are hundreds of tales to tell of the World Below. From stories of adventurers braving Kaos storms to intrepid explorers who throw themselves into the dreamlike Obscura or harrowing Abyss. From chronicles of settlements rising and falling to those of bold delvers who go so far as to tame the beasts of their realm and call them pets. New playable options, new powers, new rules for Kalm, machinery, monstrous mounts, and more besides await within.
Our main reward, the Monster Kingdoms core rulebook, has just tiptoed into the first stages of production. Now that the manuscript has gone through a final development pass (though, it's never really finished until it's printed), preliminary work in Art Direction has begun. The Developer and Art Director are figuring out the artwork needs for the book, both in general and then specific illustrations, and then seeing how those needs can line up with artist's styles, abilities, and availability before figuring out contracts and getting the illustrations rolling.
So, we've got a bit to wait for our backer PDF still, but I'll be tracking progress each month in these regular updates.
I know many groups have been playing with the draft version of the manuscript while we wait. If that's the case - or you want to prep for the future - I have new rules that you can incorporate into your game right now!
This Storypath Ultra Tasty Bit introduces two new kinds of antagonists for use with the Storypath Ultra Core Manual or any game using the Storypath Ultra system.
Giants are characters, creatures, or artificial constructs operating on a scale where meaningful, direct interaction with human-sized creatures is possible, while titanic-scale creatures are beings so immense that human-sized creatures are unable to interact directly with them in any meaningful way.
Massive Monsters includes:
Four new antagonists ready to drop directly into your Storypath Ultra game
Two new antagonist types: Giants and Titanic-Scale Creatures
New Antagonist qualities
New Area Effects
Onyx Path will be releasing Storypath Ultra Tasty Bits all year - bite-sized rules & tools that you can drop into your Storypath Ultra system games with ease.
Now let's get to our regular check in...
Pending Projects
While our main book moves into Art Direction, our jumpstart supplement unlocked via Stretch Goal achievement is in redlines, where the developer provides the writers with direction to take the manuscript to a final draft before further development happens.
REWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO BACKERS
The World Below Core Rulebook PDF (Nov 6 '25 Update)
At the Gates Draft Manuscript (Nov 6 '25 Update)
Pledge Manager
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://monster-kingdoms.backerkit.com/
You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <December 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.
ONYX PATH DISCUSSION CHANNELS
You may be able to get further insight and possibly some in-depth conversation at these Onyx Path discussion zones:
I'm taking a quick break in the middle of my holiday vacation to get out our last update of 2025. As a reminder, I'll be posting these updates once a month, just to check in on the various projects from the Crowdfunding campaign and make sure we're all in the loop and on the same page. For many months, they'll be pretty boring - just a note that the Onyx Path team are "still working on it" and we'll see only incremental progress. Still, I find it's better to touch base once a month even if we don't have any big news than to wait in silence while we all wonder what's going on.
So let's get to it!
Pledge Manager
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://monster-kingdoms.backerkit.com/
While our main book is finishing up in final development before heading to preliminary art direction in the new year, there has been a bunch of advancement on our jumpstart stretch goal. The writer has turned in a first draft and now the developer is providing redlines - feedback and corrections needed to move this towards a final draft. Many more dots to fill in for 2026, and I'll continue with our monthly updates so we can all track it as it goes.
REWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO BACKERS
The World Below Core Rulebook PDF (Nov 6 '25 Update)
At the Gates Draft Manuscript (Nov 6 '25 Update)
Once a project finishes up on the progress chart and is distributed to backers, I'll move it down to this list and note which update talks about reward distribution for that item in case you want to go back and get more information.
ONYX PATH PROJECT TRACKING
You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <November 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.
ONYX PATH DISCUSSION CHANNELS
You may be able to get further insight and possibly some in-depth conversation at these Onyx Path discussion zones:
It's time for our regular monthly check in. As a reminder, I'll be posting these updates once a month, just to check in on the various projects from the Crowdfunding campaign and make sure we're all in the loop and on the same page. For many months, they'll be pretty boring - just a note that the Onyx Path team are "still working on it" and we'll see only incremental progress. Still, I find it's better to touch base once a month even if we don't have any big news than to wait in silence while we all wonder what's going on.
So let's get to it!
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://monster-kingdoms.backerkit.com/
There's a lot of stuff on this list! Our main reward, the MONSTER KINGDOMS PDF, standard and deluxe hardcover, along with the Print-on-Demand option, is all part of that first line, and those various formats will be rewarded at different stages near the end of the production side. Right now, we can see that the manuscript is in the final development pass before it finishes that up and then it's on to Art Direction.
I'll post this chart in each monthly update, and fill in dots as projects move along.
REWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO BACKERS
The World Below Core Rulebook PDF (Nov 6 '25 Update)
At the Gates Draft Manuscript (Nov 6 '25 Update)
Once a project finishes up on the progress chart and is distributed to backers, I'll move it down to this list and note which update talks about reward distribution for that item in case you want to go back and get more information.
ONYX PATH PROJECT TRACKING
You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <October 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.
ONYX PATH DISCUSSION CHANNELS
You may be able to get further insight and possibly some in-depth conversation at these Onyx Path discussion zones:
Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
Infernals: Crowned by Hellfire
The Infernal Exalted arise, clad in brass and hellish wonders, to punish the world.
Chosen for their spite and grievance, the Infernal Exalted command the alien powers of Hell itself. In the Demon Realm, they are crowned as the Green Sun Princes, the heroes who will give the Yozis their much deserved vengeance. In Creation, they are the fulfillment of prophecy for cults the world over — the hellish heroes who will topple the temples of the gods. For all the expectations placed upon them, though, it is up to each Infernal to answer the ultimate question for themselves: What will you become, when anything is possible?
This Exalted Third Edition sourcebook provides everything players and Storytellers need to introduce the Infernals to their story. Inside you will find:
Rules for creating your own Infernal characters, including their strange, overwhelming Charms.
New character options, including artifacts, a new martial art, and lost arts of the highest circle of sorcery.
Setting information for the Demon Realm and its cults in Creation.
A roster of demons to serve as allies, adversaries, and bound servitors.
It's been about a week since we started sending out our Pledge Manager invitations. If you haven't yet filled out your backer survey, please do so as soon as possible - you can change it or update it right up until the books are laid out and we're getting ready to send your redemption links. We use the Pledge Manager for all reward fulfillment, so having your backer page set up ensures you'll be getting your rewards in a timely manner.
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://monster-kingdoms.backerkit.com/
Many of the rewards for our Crowdfunding projects take a lot of time and effort to complete. Usually, the campaign is a means of moving the project from an idea (even when it's a mostly-fully-written idea) into the actual channel that turns it into a project/product. It'll be a while before we're ready to talk about delivery of Monster Kingdoms and the Stretch Goal projects.
That said, there is one reward that is available now, and a draft manuscript that you may receive while we wait for the backer PDF on the other. 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:
The World Below Core Rulebook PDF
At the Gates Draft Manuscript
It's basically the non-Monster Kingdoms options from our Add On menu during the campaign.
The redemption codes will come out over the next week. You'll receive an e-mail if you have any of these rewards on your rewards list, sending you to the Digital Rewards page on your Pledge Manager. The Digital Rewards page will have links to add the PDF files to your DriveThru cart at $0 cost.
REWARD DISTRIBUTION
Your link to claim these digital rewards will be sent out by our BackerKit pledge manager over the nextweek, as noted above. 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. You may have to refresh your Cart to see the item before checkout.
Again, you will receive an e-mail from BackerKit with links for these rewards over the next week 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://monster-kingdoms.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 have received a link to the compiled draft manuscript. This link can be found in your BackerKit digital rewards page, and you likely received an e-mail linking to that with the Backer Survey invitations. Again, this isn't a new manuscript, it's just all of the pieces we shared during the campaign put together in order. It's the same link that I share at the bottom of these campaign updates, but I want to make sure you have access to it in any place that makes sense.
MONTHLY UPDATES
With the Pledge Manager up and running, at the end of November I'll have our first "regular" update for our project. I'll send these updates out every month to let you know where we sit. We're still in the earliest stages of this post-campaign, where projects make incremental movements along the progress path. A lot of months will be pretty similar, just a quick note to let you know that the Onyx Path team is still working on it. Any time we have a new reward or something of interest to share, I'll include that as well.
At the end of each month, I'll include a summary of our rewards and their current status (they'll either be delivered or marked as still pending, possibly with additional details if I know more). I'll also list any relevant Update posts, in case you want to go back and check into something.
Each month, I'll list our "Pending" rewards and our "Delivered" rewards. We'll track the project status of our pending rewards by filling in the stage dots, and I'll note which update (and include a link) with each delivered reward, in case you want to go back and re-read the relevant update for more information. If any of these rewards were on your pledge list, you can access download codes in your BackerKit Digital Rewards page. And once they've been added to your DriveThruRPG library, you can access them through your DTRPG digital library at any time.
That's for the end of the month, though. For now, enjoy your Add On rewards!
To Contact James
Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
