Hello Lightbringers,
As the Kaos Storm subsides and we prepare for our next Kalm Season, it's time to take stock of our recent endeavor and see what we've found.
That is to...
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James Bell
11 days ago
FINAL HOURS: CHECKLIST & WHAT COMES NEXT
Hello Lightbringers,
Welcome to the final hours of this campaign! We've had a fun run - funding the books, reading the manuscripts for The Delver's Guide and Secrets of Kalm...
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James Bell
12 days ago
Final Day Review - Stretch Goals
Hello Lightbringers,
We're closing in on the final 24 hours of the campaign as I prepare this post. Within this final day, I wanted to review some important topics, most es...
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James Bell
13 days ago
The Obscure Labyrinth [Secrets of Kalm and Kaos Manuscript Preview 6]
Hello Lightbringers,
We're in our final days, and it's time for our final section of the draft manuscript for Secrets of Kalm and Kaos! As of this update, backers have acces...
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James Bell
13 days ago
Final Days Review: Pledge Tiers and Add On Options
Hello Lightbringers,
I've got a lot to go over today, so let's settle and prepare for review.
Before we get into it, one more quick note about our current Stretch Goal targ...
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James Bell
17 days ago
FINAL WEEK COUNTDOWN
Hello Lightbringers,
There are moments it feels like we just started this campaign, but in truth we've been running since mid-February and we're now officially in our FINAL ...
Tomorrow, we kick off our final week countdown. This campaign finishes up next Thursday, March 19th at 2:00 PM EDT. We'll have one final manuscript preview section out for backers next Tuesday, the chapter with our adventure scenario for Secrets of Kalm and Kaos. But we're gonna jump to the end of the book today and I'll share the three Appendicies from the book.
As mentioned when we had our Appendix section from the World Below Delver's Guide, these aren't just mere lists but contain a ton of ideas, plot seeds, challenges, and jumping off points for your stories in the World Below. There's great stuff here, so dig in!
Draft Manuscript Previews
Over the course of this campaign, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for The World Below: Delver's Guide and The World Below: Secrets of Kalm and Kaos, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in mangeable sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over these 30 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: <TWB Buried Treasures Feedback Form>
You can use this Feedback Form to shrea your thoughts directly with the World Below developers and help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS - BACKERS ONLY
Remember, thanks to BackerKit sorcery, 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" or "Learn More" button on the bottom and I'll see you below this title treatment.
Ready to get into our second chapter from the Secrets of Kalm and Kaos today? Some treasures get unearthed today!
THE WORLD BELOW REDDIT AMA COMING ON FRIDAY
I'll mention this again in our next manuscript preview drop (which comes on Firday, coincidentally), but if you've got Questions, the crew have some answers and will be running an Ask Me Anything session this Friday starting at NOON Eastern Time in the Onyx Path subreddit.
If you've got questions and won't be around to throw them into Reddit, feel free to leave them below and I'll pass them along!
Draft Manuscript Previews
Over the course of this campaign, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for The World Below: Delver's Guide and The World Below: Secrets of Kalm and Kaos, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in mangeable sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over these 30 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: <TWB Buried Treasures Feedback Form>
You can use this Feedback Form to shrea your thoughts directly with the World Below developers and help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS - BACKERS ONLY
Remember, thanks to BackerKit sorcery, 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" or "Learn More" button on the bottom and I'll see you below this title treatment.
A brief reprieve between storms in my area means it's time to dig deeper into the World Below with the next section from the Delver's Guide draft manuscript. We're going to get more options for our characters, as well as some new tools to add to help our chances for survival in the great test that is The World Below.
First up, though, let's celebrate!
STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED
ACHIEVED! - At $10,000 in Funding - THE ADVENT OF THE SILT
THE ADVENT OF THE SILT - The team will create a West Marches-style adventure for The World Below, focused on exploration and cave delving. A PDF version of The Advent of Silt will be added as a bonus reward to all backers receiving either the Delver's Guide PDF or the Secrets of Kalm and Kaos PDF as part of their pledge rewards.
We'll get back to the Advent of the Silt adventure and hopefully expand it before the end, but let's set up our next two Stretch Goals. These may be pretty familiar to frequent Onyx Path supporters. A couple of milestone markers to help us keep our pace and celebrate as we move forward with the project.
At $13,000 in Funding - WORLD BELOW SHIRT ON REDBUBBLE
WORLD BELOW SHIRT DESIGN - A new World Below shirt design will be made available on Onyx Path's Redbubble sore for a limited time only. Backers will be notified when this design becomes available.
At $14,000 in Funding - WORLD BELOW DIGITAL WALLPAPER
WORLD BELOW DIGITAL WALLPAPER - All backers supporting this project will receive a digital wallpaper for their computer desktop featuring artwork from the Delver's Guide or Secrets of Kalm and Kaos books.
Draft Manuscript Previews
Over the course of this campaign, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for The World Below: Delver's Guide and The World Below: Secrets of Kalm and Kaos, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in mangeable sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over these 30 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: <TWB Buried Treasures Feedback Form>
You can use this Feedback Form to shrea your thoughts directly with the World Below developers and help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.
Digital and Print-on-Demand Rewards
We know times are hard these days, particularly with rising costs and economic uncertainty, so we’ve designed this crowdfunder to be as painless as possible. We offer a wide variety of digital options for backing, as well as leveraging print-on-demand technology to have physical products printed as close to you as possible to cut down shipping and reduce tariff concerns - and avoid some of the manufacturing delays that have delayed other campaigns.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS - BACKERS ONLY
Remember, thanks to BackerKit sorcery, 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" or "Learn More" button on the bottom and I'll see you below this title treatment.
As the Kaos Storm subsides and we prepare for our next Kalm Season, it's time to take stock of our recent endeavor and see what we've found.
That is to say... thanks to the support of nearly 300 World Below backers, Onyx Path will be able to develop the PDF and Print-on-Demand hardcover versions of The World Below: Delver's Guide and The World Below: Secrets of Kalm and Kaos!
There's more to celebrate! Not only did we fund the project on the first day, we unlocked FIVE Stretch Goals over the campaign. That's right - we unlocked our final stretch goal target today, in the final hours of this campaign!
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At $10,000 in Funding - THE ADVENT OF THE SILT
THE ADVENT OF THE SILT - The team will create a West Marches-style adventure for The World Below, focused on exploration and cave delving. A PDF version of The Advent of Silt will be added as a bonus reward to all backers receiving either the Delver's Guide PDF or the Secrets of Kalm and Kaos PDF as part of their pledge rewards.
At $13,000 in Funding - WORLD BELOW SHIRT ON REDBUBBLE
WORLD BELOW SHIRT DESIGN - A new World Below shirt design will be made available on Onyx Path's Redbubble sore for a limited time only. Backers will be notified when this design becomes available.
At $14,000 in Funding - WORLD BELOW DIGITAL WALLPAPER
WORLD BELOW DIGITAL WALLPAPER - All backers supporting this project will receive a digital wallpaper for their computer desktop featuring artwork from the Delver's Guide or Secrets of Kalm and Kaos books.
At $15,000 in Funding - THE ADVENT OFTHE SILT EXPANDED
THE ADVENT OF THE SILT - The adventure scenario will be expanded to include opportunities for base building and resource hunting. A PDF version of The Advent of Silt will be added as a bonus reward to all backers receiving either the Delver's Guide PDF or the Secrets of Kalm and Kaos PDF as part of their pledge rewards.
At $16,000 in Funding - STREAMING OVERLAY
WORLD BELOW STREAMING OVERLAY - A set of overlays for your online game will be created, for your use when streaming your World Below session. This reward will be added to the rewards list for all backers.
So a huge congratulations to Matthew and the team on this project, and to all of the backers who've joined in to make this possible. I'm happy about the goals we hit and rewards we introduced, but I'm also always excited and delighted about having nearly 300 backers join in to support this quirky, odd, and amazing game. The World Below has such a personality, such a vibe, and I really dig it, if you'll parden the pun.
COMMUNICATION
So, as noted in today's earlier update, starting in April I'll be sending out updates once a month and whenever we've got a new goal, survey, or other item to cover. If you have any questions or need clarification on something related to the campaign, feel free to get in touch. I may take a bit to answer as I recover from these past four weeks and take some time to unwind and clean up my desk!
I'll also see if I can sneak a compiled draft manuscripts out to you maybe by the first weekend in April. Nothing changed, just smashed together in order.
TO CONTACT ME
Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your forthcoming survey page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.
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:
Welcome to the final hours of this campaign! We've had a fun run - funding the books, reading the manuscripts for The Delver's Guide and Secrets of Kalm and Kaos, building our community, and unlocking almost all of the Stretch Goals!
In these final hours, we're tip-toeing up to our final goal, which we just posted yesterday.
At $16,000 in Funding - STREAMING OVERLAY
WORLD BELOW STREAMING OVERLAY - A set of overlays for your online game will be created, for your use when streaming your World Below session. This reward will be added to the rewards list for all backers.
When I shared this yesterday, I thought it was gonna be a tough stretch - possible, but difficult. But we're *this close* to unlocking this before the end!
The most important part of this campaign, though, is that we have successfully funded this project! Thanks to everyone who's come out to support this campaign, we'll be getting these amazing books!
FINAL DAY CHECKLIST
Whether you're just setting out for to gather food or a seasoned bug-tamer returning from selling your wares, these are some good topics to review over these final hours...
1. KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SUPPORTING
These sourcebooks expand the options and setting for The World Below roleplaying game. Matthew Dawkins has shared many videos about the new content on his Gentleman Gamer channel, so you can absolutely get the vibe of this quirky and amazing game.
This update breaks down your best starting point for figuring out which Backer Reward Tier to choose to help support this project in a way that works for you.
The main reward offered in this campaign is, of course, the main goal of the entire proposition: the finished PDFs and a discounted Print-on-Demand hardcover for The World Below Delver's Guide and Secrets of Kalm and Kaos. The first decision you need to make is whether you're just looking to add the mostly character-focused Delver's Guide, or the Setting and Storyguide-supporting Secrets of Kalm and Kaos, or make it a two-book reward pledge and get both?
With that decision in mind, we've got three key reward tiers to choose from:
LANTERN IN THE DARKNESS
This is the pledge path to select if you're only interested in The World Below: Delver's Guide book. The PDF will be fulfilled by our partners at DriveThruRPG.com - when it is ready, you will receive a link to add it to your DTRPG library at no cost and be able to download at your leisure. In addition, you will get a special code to order the discounted Print-on-Demand hardcover version as part of your pledge reward.
LORE OF THE LABYRINTH
This is the pledge path to select if you're only interested in The World Below: Secrets of Kalm and Kaos book. The PDF will be fulfilled by our partners at DriveThruRPG.com - when it is ready, you will receive a link to add it to your DTRPG library at no cost and be able to download at your leisure. In addition, you will get a special code to order the discounted Print-on-Demand hardcover version as part of your pledge reward
PATHS THROUGH THE VAST UNDERGROUND
This amazing reward tier includes both The Delver's Guide PDF and the Secrets of Kalm and Kaos PDF, along special discount codes to order each of these rewards as Print-on-Demand books.
And another key option:
KALM SEASON
Not ready to commit, or just looking to offer general support? This pledge role is for you. This does not include any of our primary rewards, but allows you to select some digital optional Add Ons, as well as participating in the post-campaign Pledge Manager as a backer. You'll also be able to read the draft manuscripts of The Delver's Guide and Secrets of Kalm and Kaos that we post throughout this campaign.
ADD-ON OPTIONS - The other half of our Reward Tiers update, including information on the second step of pledging. There are a few Add On options that you can add as part of your pledging process, including the World Below corebook as well as pre-ordering the other Earthane Cycle game corebooks, At the Gates PDF and Monster Kingdoms PDF. Since these is still in the pre-order phase, you'll get the draft manuscript for those until the Backer PDF becomes available. Other games using the Storypath Ultra system are also avaialble to add on in PDF form.
ADD ON selections will be available in the post-campaign Pledge Manager as well.
SO: Ensure that you've selected the Reward Tier you want, and select any Add On options you wish to include. AND - make sure that you are comfortable with the Pledge amount, in terms of it covering everything you want and theaffordabilityof the pledge at this moment!
Be Financially Responsible
I'm going to speak against my own self-interest for a moment, and repeat something I say at the end of every campaign - 2026 has been pretty wild so far, and there's even more uncertainty ahead. Ensure that your circumstances enable you to afford this pledge at this moment - BackerKit will begin processing payments late tonight after the campaign ends and neither Onyx Path nor I have any involvement in that process. If you are unsure of your financial situation but don't want to miss out, please pledge for a tier you can afford right now and know that you will be able to upgrade to open pledge levels in our post-campaign Pledge Manager for some time before the book is completed. There are no refunds for regret, and the funds raised start being spent immediately on paying for the work done thus far and the additional work ahead plus the projects unlocked via Stretch Goal. So please be financially responsible.
Choose a Reward Tier You Can Afford
Readthe Manuscripts and Make Sure You Know What You're Getting
Be Aware of the Projected Delivery Date (Onyx Path will try to deliver earlier than this, but these two books will take some time to get perfect, and we're dealing with an imperfect world. Schedules sometimes go awry)
3. PAYMENT AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Once you're comfortable with your pledge, please ensure that the payment and contact information in your BackerKit account is up to date and correct. Making sure your e-mail is entered correctly and your credit card isn't expired will speed up the next step process. (I have learned from experience!)
4.OVERTIME MODE
Overtime Mode extends the campaign past its original end time to give backers a final chance to make their pledge and adds an interesting twist to the end of the campaign. How long will it extend? That’s entirely up to backers: The campaign will keep going for an additional 10 minutes as long as pledges keep coming in – a chain of back-to-back pledges is called the Backer Train. The campaign will end only when the Backer Train stops after a period of 10 minutes passing without any pledges.
You’ll know we’re in Overtime Mode when the campaign’s Backer Train counter displays a bright rainbow border and a new countdown that resets to 10 minutes after each new backer joins that final Backer Train ride.
So, we've scheduled the campaign to conclude on March 19th at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, but it'll be extended in 10 minute chunks as long as backers keep pledging. Will we add an extra 10 minutes? An extra 20? Or will it all finish up as planned? Who knows, but we'll find out together! Kaos Storm Protocol!
WHAT COMES NEXT?
5. AFTER THE CAMPAIGN ENDS
First, we celebrate. The campaign page will subtly change, locking out the ability to pledge and showing the final totals. We'll give socially-distanced high fives and digital fist bumps in the Community section and over on Discord.
Then, the BackerKit payment process begins. Starting late tonight and continuing over the next week, Backerkit will begin charging your payment methods for the total amount you've pledged.
If there is an issue with your payment method (expired credit card or incorrect number or pre-paid Visa awaiting funds, for example), BackerKit will keep trying to process payment during this time.
Once this step is done, which will likely be by the first week of April, BackerKit will confirm everything with Onyx Path and I can begin to set up the project in the Pledge Manager and load in all of the campaign data.
In addition to providing the crowdfunding platform for this campaign, BackerKit is also Onyx Path's regular Pledge Manager partner.
BackerKit provides a robust fulfillment integration and pledge management program that will allow us to work with all of the data and distribute the rewards to you. It will take me about a month to set the project up. Once I've got it all entered and built, the team from BackerKit will review to ensure I didn't mess anything up too badly, and then I'll make any changes they've suggested and we can move on to the Survey stage.
6. BACKERKIT SURVEYS
Once BackerKit says I'm good to go, I will send out a survey to all backers. This is why confirming your e-mail is important!
The BackerKit survey is both a verb and a noun - it will collect data for the analysis of some aspect of a group (enabling Onyx Path to set schedules, prioritize new projects, and fine-tune future campaigns), as well as providing a general review or summary of the reward tier you've chosen, confirm all of the rewards associated with that reward tier, and confirm your total pledge amount.
I expect Surveys to go out before May 2026.
During the Survey period, you can choose to increase your reward tier and add on additional options. If you've found $20 in your spring coat or found an alternate income source and decide it's time to trade up to include both books or include another add-on, you can do so at this time. Note, you will not be able to reduce your reward tier selection, only increase.
If you selected Add On options, they'll be added to your reward list automatically.
Note that you'll be able to upgrade your pledge tier for quite some time - until we're getting ready to distribute the backer PDFs. So don't feel pressure to have it all figured out right away - we'll make sure there's plenty of time to get it all sorted before the books go out.
I'll also use the Survey to confirm details for the premium reward tiers.
7. REWARD DISTRIBUTION
Once the surveys are up and running, I'll prepare fulfillment for the existing rewards - the Add On options that are all currently available, like the World Below core rulebook PDF, and the At the Gates and Monster Kingdoms draft manuscripts, plus the other Storypath Ultra games (including Curseborne!). Depending on how smoothly the Pledge Manager process goes, those should be out fairly soon after the survey stage starts. So, let's say the existing PDF rewards will be out to you by the start of May. That's only the beginning, though.
This is a long process, but I will send out regular updates (usually at the end of the month) to keep you up to speed on Onyx Path's progress. There will be strings of updates that are just "still working on it," but I will share new artwork or information when I can.
Eventually, we will have a completed PDFs of The World Below: Delver's Guide and The World Below: Secrets of Kalm and Kaos. I don't think they'll be done at the exact same time, so we'll likely see one a few months before the other. Onyx Path will take some time to distribute, review, and compile any errata or corrections that need to be made. When they've made any necessary changes, they'll make an updated versions of the PDFs available in your DriveThruRPG digital library and then begin creating print-ready files for the Print-on-Demand hardcover versions.
It's yet another long road ahead, likely full of twists and turns and surprises, but one that we wouldn't be undertaking if not for your ongoing support.
So - one final time - please spread the word to any potential backers and fans, and thanks so much for a great campaign!
