Hello Ultra Backers,
Jumping out of order for a quick manuscript drop today. If you've previously read the Storypath Ultra brochure that Onyx Path released last year, you've se...
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James Bell
1 day ago
Example Setting: Storyguide Characters
Hello there, Ultra-backers!
Welcome aboard to all of our new backers who have joined as we're digging into our final week of the campaign. Two quick bits of campaign stuff to t...
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Eddy Webb
1 day ago
Looks like wizard wars are winning the vote!
Right now, it looks like I'll be working on a war-torn world ripped apart by a devastating magic war. Don't agree with that? Now's the time to vote!
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James Bell
2 days ago
FINAL WEEK COUNTDOWN
Hello Ultra Backers!
There are moments it feels like we just started this campaign, but in truth we've been running for since the start of the month and we're now officially in...
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James Bell
3 days ago
Storyguide Advice - Manuscript Preview #4
Hello Storyguides,
The fourth section in our manuscript is for you!
As a Storyguide you design the world your player character’s live in, the stories they pursue, and the obs...
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James Bell
4 days ago
Example Setting: Wrestling Matches
Hello Ultra Storypathers,
In the Building Blocks chapter for Storypath Ultra that backers received last week, we saw some examples of rules systems that could be dropped into y...
As a Storyguide you design the world your player character’s live in, the stories they pursue, and the obstacles that get in their way. You play the entire world and draw attention to what is important in your character’s lives. You’re the guardian of the setting and the keeper of secrets.
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.
BACKERS VOTE ON CONTENT
The first of the included example settings, Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, not only offers a complete game set in the parallel version of the year 2000, but also illustrates exactly how Story Path was implemented and adjusted.
The Onyx Path team has plans to write two more, and as a backer you'll be able to vote on which ones you prefer.
For our Sci-Fi example, backers have chosen "An experimental space flight flings the player characters into a distant galaxy full of strange and alien sights."
For the final poll, you'll be voting on a Fantasy setting example. Your options:
A cozy fantasy game where explorers look for ingredients to help heal their sick dragon friend.
A war-torn world ripped apart by a devastating magic war, and a few surviving wizards try to prove who is the best among them.
A group of young heroes are blessed with magical armor and weapons in order to defeat an evil sorcerer queen seeking to destroy their land.
Voting will run until the Crowdfunding campaign ends on September 26th at 2:00 PM EST. You must be a backer of this project to vote for this setting.
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 this Update" link on the bottom and I'll see you below the Feedback Form image.
WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK
I'm going to be sharing the manuscript in sections - building blocks, even - over the next weeks, Part of the reason for that is to keep focus on one section at a time so that the team 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!
I've got the third section from our draft manuscript for you today! This section is all about Building Blocks!
With our two previous manuscript releases, you now know how Storypath works, and even how to build on it. However, sometimes you need something specific. Your game might involve a lot of building strange scientific items or breaking into secure locations on a regular basis. You can use the core Storypath rules, absolutely, but you might want a whole new subsection of rules to give some real heft to these specific activities. We call these building blocks because you can add or remove them as you see fit and put them in whatever configuration makes the most sense to you.
These are only some of the possible building blocks you can add to your games, but these offer the most benefit to a wide variety of worlds. If you see one from another Storypath game that you like, feel free to lift it and make any adjustments you need to use it in your own game, using this chapter as guidance.
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.
BACKERS VOTE ON CONTENT
The first of the included example settings, Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, not only offers a complete game set in the parallel version of the year 2000, but also illustrates exactly how Story Path was implemented and adjusted.
The Onyx Path team has plans to write two more, and as a backer you'll be able to vote on which ones you prefer.
For the first poll, you'll be voting on a Sci-fi setting example. Your options:
Cyber-enhanced humans fly corporate-owned starships in search of new life and new financial opportunities.
Futuristic superheroes fight interdimensional monsters in order to keep them from destabilizing reality.
An experimental space flight flings the player characters into a distant galaxy full of strange and alien sights.
Voting will run until September 14th at 2:00 PM EST. You must be a backer of this project to vote for this setting.
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 this Update" link on the bottom and I'll see you below the Feedback Form image.
WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK
I'm going to be sharing the manuscript in sections - building blocks, even - over the next weeks, Part of the reason for that is to keep focus on one section at a time so that the team 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!
Welcome aboard to all of our new backers who have joined as we're digging into our final week of the campaign. Two quick bits of campaign stuff to talk about before we get to today's sneak peek.
First up, for backers who have just joined in - please make your voice heard!
The final version of the Storypath Ultra Core Manual will have three example games - these will be settings with systems and rules in place to run right out of the book, but serve an even more important job as examples of how the rules can be used to build your own game and implement your own ideas. The Storypath Ultra Core Manual is a book full of lego bricks, and these three examples are just some of the cool ways to build your own cool structures.
The first of the included example settings, Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, not only offers a complete game set in the parallel version of the year 2000, but also illustrates exactly how Story Path was implemented and adjusted. Onyx Path has plans to write two more, and as a backer you'll be able to vote on which ones you prefer.
For our Sci-Fi example, backers have chosen "An experimental space flight flings the player characters into a distant galaxy full of strange and alien sights."
For the final poll, you'll be voting on a Fantasy setting example. Your options:
A cozy fantasy game where explorers look for ingredients to help heal their sick dragon friend.
A war-torn world ripped apart by a devastating magic war, and a few surviving wizards try to prove who is the best among them.
A group of young heroes are blessed with magical armor and weapons in order to defeat an evil sorcerer queen seeking to destroy their land.
Voting will run until the Crowdfunding campaign ends on September 26th when the campaign concludes. You must be a backer of this project to vote for this setting.
I love to gather around the table with my gaming group and roll dice, but I find that we're mostly getting together online to play these days. The last Stretch Goal and next Stretch Goal are there to provide some tools to help a bit with online play. We've just unlocked one goal and are now ready to look at our final goal for the campaign.
ACHIEVED - At $45,000 in Funding – VTT TOKEN PACK - Digital assets will be created to support online play for Storypath Ultra games, including key character and creature tokens from the book. This online asset pack will be added to the rewards list of all backers.
At $52,000 in Funding – DISCORD DICE BOT - Onyx Path will work with an external developer to create and maintain a Discord Dice-Bot for Storypath Ultra.
We'll have a review or our Stretch Goal accomplishments and bonus rewards next Wednesday as we head into our final day.
Throughout the campaign, as we've shared sections of the manuscript, we've followed up with some examples of how bits from those chapters could be used as illustrated by our example setting, Pinfall from Grace. Our last chapter was all about Storyguiding these games, so today we're going to look at some Storyguide Characters from our example setting. These are just some excerpts, but you'll be able to read the entire Pinfall from Grace, Bodyslams from Hell chapter next Monday when the final chapter of the manuscript becomes available to backers.
Storyguide Characters
The Y2K World is a fascinating place full of adventure, intrigue, and mystery. But all in all, the whole concept of wrestling matches between angels and demons would fall flat if there weren’t any opponents to wrestle. Here we present a handful of antagonists to use in your games of Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, and to inspire you to make your own using the antagonist advice.
Demonic Wrestlers
Demonic wrestlers use the same antagonist rules as in many other Storypath games. However, because of how they interact with the new rules presented in Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, we’ll recap some things to keep in mind as you portray or create your own antagonists.
Demonic antagonists use the same templates as Storypath, but the templates have different names. “Worker” is equivalent to “Grunt,” “Talent” is equivalent to “Professional,” “Star” is equivalent to “Villain,” and “Lord” is equivalent to “Nemesis.”
Storyguide characters don’t have Grace or miracles — just Qualities and powers. If you want to give a character a miracle (to emulate a Storyguide character angelic wrestler or to provide an equivalent demonic ability), you can convert it into a power. Just use the rules for the miracle but note that it can only be used a certain number of times, such as once a scene or a few times a story.
During matches, antagonists can only use powers marked as “match only.” Qualities still work during matches, however. “Natural Weapon” does not incur the Foreign Object Complication when used in matches. Generally, match-only powers are used once a match.
Antagonists have a wrestling style like Wrestling Style Paths, to allow them to purchase relevant Moves. They can even have more than one wrestling style, unlike player characters (although typically only Stars and above have more than one style). However, antagonists don’t get Enhancement to purchase those Moves, although they can use their inherent Enhancement to purchase them as normal. If you want to make a demonic wrestler that’s closer to a player character wrestler in terms of Enhancement, give them one of the championship titles.
New Antagonist Powers
Below are some additional powers used by antagonists from Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell.
Demonic Defense (Match Only)
The antagonist can resist more damage than normal. Once per match, it may double its Defense for a number of turns equal to its Desperation Pool.
Drain (Match Only)
The antagonist steals the life of its foes. Once per match, the antagonist can purchase to the following Move:
Drain (1-3 hits): Deals 1 damage for each hit. Further, the antagonist gains a +1 Enhancement that stacks on the next action it takes against the character.
Slippery (Match Only)
The antagonist proves difficult to hold. Once per match, they can ignore the Establish Grapple or Educated Feet Moves.
Ricki the Rhymer
“When you face me, you count to three. When you fall, I’ll win it all. Only when you… oof! Hey! You hit my nose before the match goes!”
Ricki is one of the lowest orders of demons, the rhyming demons. This diminutive, green-skinned goblin of a wrestler can’t help but speak in rhyming poetic meter. Combined with its propensity to wearing gold and shiny jewels, it is sometimes mistaken for appropriating modern hip-hop culture, but in truth it’s simply a speed demon with delusions of adequacy and only the faintest idea of what’s going on, let alone understanding human society.
“Ffffloat like a butterffffly? Hardly. I ffffly directly into your nightmares, toady to angels.”
The Queen Bee looks like a bee twisted into humanoid form. It has muscular limbs, but a bulging abdomen and a stinger at the end which it uses in the ring. It likes to toy with its opponents, wearing them out through a variety of technical moves and draining stings before ending the match.
“You cannot stop me. You cannot even touch me. I am the obstacle to all your hopes and dreams.”
The ravager of souls. The wrecker of dreams. The indigo assassin. This towering purple monster with ram’s horns and a black unitard has been called by many names, but the most important name of all is “Chaos champion.” It has held the Chaos Championship since the war started, and its implacable, tenacious style makes it unlikely that anyone will take the title from it anytime soon.
Template: Star Primary Pool: 10 (monster and brawling wrestling styles) Secondary Pool: 8 (resist pain, intimidation) Desperation Pool: 5 Enhancement: +2 on attacks with ram’s horns, +1 on intimidation Defense: 2 Integrity: 1 Injuries: 8 Armor: 2 Initiative: 5 Qualities: Invulnerability, Stable, Weakness (silver objects) Powers: Chaos Championship title, Demonic Defense (Match Only), Summon Ring
If you look at these excerpts and start to think about how you'd write up some of the different tier villains in your Thundarr the Barbarian-inspired game, then the examples are already working! These example settings will be about 30,000 words - brief but to the point, streamlined but playable - and serve as examples and inspiration as well as games in their own right.
And yes, I said Thundarr the Barbarian because I'm voting for Option 2, and that's my take on it!
I've been seeing a lot of folx on the Onyx Path Discord (https://discord.gg/TcFut7Y8AF) discussing the kinds of games they want to create or play using SPU. What games do you have in mind for this system?
