We're bouncing around the draft manuscript again today, jumping way into the end with Appendix II. This is a quick but stuffed section that covers Expansion and Consolidation regarding troops you may acquire in the game.
Legions of gauntlets flock to the banner of strong warriors. Once these despots have filled their ranks, stuffed their coffers, and left their names on the quivering lips of the terrified masses, it’s time to take stock of their victories from the relative safety of the underground. Dungeons act as fortresses for the aspiring warlord, balancing security for their conquests with an external sign of their ever-growing power.
Expansion places a regiment of (mostly) loyal mercs under the squad’s direct control. The army’s theirs to command in any way they see fit, and as the squad cuts through the terrain to ensure its infamy is well justified, the army picks up the scraps, keeps the locals in line, and maintains the legend. This rampaging regiment takes anything their masters desire, repurposing and reconfiguring whatever they find into something useful for an army. Akin to a swarm of locusts, the regiment leaves behind only that which they’ve no use for: blackmail material, valuable materials, fighters and skilled workers are all targeted equally, for the regiment is nothing if not resourceful.
Consolidation inevitably follows. Once the regiment’s taken everything and everyone they can carry, the dungeon provides a place of respite, a place to return to and count your coin, craft your wonders, and ensure no one can do to you what you’ve done to them. Machines of war are constructed, making way for expansion on an even grander scale.
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 one of the hardcover editions, 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 this campaign, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for Monster Kingdoms, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in monster-sized sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over the next several weeks, 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/TpaaPsUqJ79zD1kE6
You can use this Feedback Form to share your thoughts directly with the Monster Kingdoms 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 banner.
