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The first Kickstarter for the World of Aetaltis launched today, and I hope you'll check it out! After less than a day we're half-way to our initial funding goals, so it looks like we're already heading for stretch goals! The purpose of the Kickstarter is to launch this new world, and create a brand new realm for game designers, authors, and artists to build fantastic new products!
The core product we're releasing is a Pathfinder Compatible adventure for 4-8 1st Level characters called The Temple of Modren.
Goblins are loose in the hills, and the town of Thornwall is under attack! With the nearest royal guards posted more than three days ride to the south, you and your stalwart companions are the only hope for this harried hamlet! You must defeat the goblins and seal whatever Deepland hole they crawled out of or Thornwall is lost.
The adventure is already written and edited, and anyone who pledges any amount can download the text-only draft of the adventure today. A fantastic group of industry pros contributed to the adventure, including Steven S. Long (of HERO System fame), Amanda Hamon Kunz (freelancer on over a dozen Paizo products and the developer and editor of Deep Magic from Kobold Press), Mike Schley (cartography), Mitchell Malloy (lead artist), and Universe M (logos and additional illustrations).
And since most of the work is done on this, our first Stretch Goal is to release the electronic version of the finished adventure for FreeRPG day on June 21st!
Our next stretch goals bring you two additional Pathfinder Compatible books. These two books provide great new adventure sites you can use in your campaigns. The Green Briar Tavern is the quintessential fantasy watering hole, and it features a host of ready-to-play characters and NPCs. The Town of Thornwall provides you with a full town, complete with maps, townspeople, descriptions of local businesses, and adventure seeds.
Once the Town of Thornwall and Green Briar Tavern are unlocked, we give you a series of fantastic stories set in the World of Aetaltis. To write these stories, we tapped some of the best authors in the industry, including:
- Larry Correia (Monster Hunter International)
- David Farland (The Runelords)
- Matt Forbeck (Eberron, Guild Wars)
- Ed Greenwood (Creator of the Forgotten Realms)
- Dave Gross (Pathfinder Tales, Iron Kingdoms)
- John Helfers (Shadowrun, Vorkosigan Companion)
- Steven S. Long (HERO System, LotR, Star Trek)
- Mel Odom (Shadowrun, Forgotten Realms, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
- Jean Rabe (Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance)
- Lucy A. Snyder (Shotgun Sorceress, Bram Stoker Award Winner)
- Michael A. Stackpole (Star Wars, Battletech)
- Elizabeth Vaughan (Warland Series)
Plus, with every new story we add, we'll take a character from the story, stat them out, and add them to the Green Briar Tavern.
Once we unlock all the stories, the next step is to unlock a mass market paperback print run of the anthology. To top it all off, Larry Elmore has agreed to create a new piece for the cover of the book.
To make all this happen, we need your help! Please check out the Kickstarter, and if you like what you see we'd be honored if you'd back our project! And please let other people know! Word of mouth (electronic or real world) is the best way to get the word out on these projects!
And if we pull this Kickstarter off, I promise a steady stream of great new Aetlatis Pathfinder Compatible products, stories, and more!
Click here for the World of Aetlatis: Temple of Modren Kickstarter
Click here to visit the World of Aetaltis Site
THANKS!
Marc Tassin
Contributor
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I gotta say, folks, the Temple of Modren adventure is really, really cool. It has a very old-school vibe while still staying firmly planted in the PFRPG rules system. I can see this one becoming a classic con adventure very quickly -- and it really whets the appetite for the Aetaltis setting.
Plus, the text-only version is available now for any pledge amount! Can't ask for better bang for your buck.
Seriously, with some of these incredible names lined up to write stories set in Aetaltis (provided the projects meets its stretch goals), this Kickstarter could be the start of something VERY big! Check it out!
Thanks, Amanda! :)
And when people download the adventure, I hope they email me their feedback! I'd love to hear what people think, and there's even time to make changes if someone makes a really good suggestions!
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For those of you keeping score at home, on our 2nd day we hit our initial funding goals! Needless to say, we're thrilled! This means that The Temple of Modren will soon be a reality! Thanks to everyone who supported us!
Now...on to those stretch goals!
@Marc_Tassin: really really reay minor query: Why does Larry Elmore's Bloodstone Lands picture have a Copyright date of 2014? I thought it was at least twenty years old...
You can have a current copyright on an older piece of work. It simply reflects that he has a current copyright claim on the image.
Great question! Thanks for asking! I'll try to pick one of each!
Earthdawn from FASA Corporation
I loved the heroic motivation for adventuring in the Earthdawn game combined with a fantastic story-based rationalization for dungeons filled with monsters. Their world also had a sense of wonder and mystery that I loved. I'd like to think that Aetaltis captures those same elements.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (The Cartoon, Not the Cameron Movie)
Aetaltis approaches the idea of a magical world in the same way as Avatar did. It explores what it means to live in a world where magic is real, how it shapes society, and how people adapt to the limitations of magic. Like Avatar, Aetaltis tries to keep in mind that not everyone in the world is one of the heroes. The everyday business of life goes on even after the heroes head off on their next adventure. Avatar also did a great job of capturing the endless variety of ways people live, from isolated villages driven by religious dogma to great cities teeming with life. It's a great setup for an adventure world and one I think is very close to Aetaltis.
MYTH Books by Robert Asprin
I had to list these books not because Aetaltis is a comedy setting, but because life isn't all dramatic wide shots with swelling orchestral music and revelations about breathtaking mysteries unfolding before our eyes. I loved Asprin's street level take on a magical world, and while Aetaltan magic isn't quite as wide-spread as in the Myth books, Aetaltis captures that feel of everyday fantasy life.
And that was a LOT harder than I thought it would be!
With all day to think about this, I thought I'd add something! Maybe next time I'll give myself more time to think first! ;)
The Elder Scrolls + Pulp + 80's/90's RPG Worlds = Aetaltis
Take the rich fantasy and action of the Elder Scrolls games (I'm leaving Daggerfall out), add a pinch of Conan-esque grit, and mix it all with the fantastic, fun, heroic settings of the 80's and 90's (Realms, Greyhawk, Earthdawn, Shadoworld) and I think you've got something close to the feel of the world of Aetaltis.
I stand by my earlier answers, but this is probably a better way to imagine Aetaltis!
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Contributor
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Hey, folks! If you're interested in learning more about Aetaltis, Marc has posted lots of cool details about the world's playable races, regions, and lore in this thread.
It also offers details about an opportunity to design a pregen for his Kickstarter project. The winner will be in the company of Ed Greenwood, James Sutter, Dave Gross, Larry Elmore, and many more industry greats who are connected to this project. It's all extremely cool, I think!
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For those of you keeping score at home, the Kickstarter is going REALLY well.
Stretch Goal #1 is Unlocked! Thanks to everyone's collective support, we’ll host a one-day free download of the final, stand-alone electronic version of The Temple of Modren on June 21st.
Printing Savings=New Lower Stretch Goals! Almost all of our stretch goals are now $1000 to $2000 lowers thanks to a savings on printing I managed to get!
100+ Backers! And we hit 100 backers last night, which is just a really cool thing!
Now that's how you start a morning! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1486366537/world-of-aetaltis-the-templ e-of-modren/posts/841957
Yep - this is a good way to start the day!
Stretch Goal #2 is Unlocked! As of this morning we unlocked our second stretch goal. This stretch goal adds The Green Briar Tavern to the project, turning the book that ADVENTURER level and above get into a Pathfinder Compatible campaign book!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1486366537/world-of-aetaltis-the-templ e-of-modren/posts/841957
I think you're referring to this?
This is also the first step toward transforming The Temple of Modren from an awesome adventure into a Super Campaign Book for everyone at the NOBLE level and above!
That's still accurate. NOBLE level and above do get the expanded campaign book as stated, but only in it's e-book format. The printed copy they receive is still limited to a stand-alone Temple of Modren.
In my giddy excitement to post the news, I left out the word "Printed" before ADVENTURE in the last post.
A little background on this as well. Previously we planned to release all three printed books as three individual saddle-stapled books (old-school D&D module style). I discovered, however, that I could get the books printed perfect bound (much sturdier, higher quality, a spine with title, etc.) as a campaign book for close to the same cost. Originally, I didn't think this was possible.
After consulting with all the ADVENTURER level backers and up (the ones eligible for all three books) the vote for perfect bound combined was unanimous! Every person who replied wanted that option.
Sorry for the confusion on that. I'll put some additional information on the site to make sure it's clear for folks!
We just upgraded two more of our stretch goals today!
At $14K we've added a new Pathfinder Compatible mini-adventure by James M. Ward the creator go GAMMA WORLD! Incredibly excited about this one! This is in addition to short fiction from Mel Odom and Jean Rabe
At $18K we work with the team from Storium to adapt Aetaltis to the Storium online storytelling game and have it ready for you to play when Storium goes live in Novemeber! This is in addition to stories from Steven S. Long and Pathfinder Tales' own Dave Gross!
For those of you who are following this thread to get updates on the project, here's the rundown plus all the latest news!
- We hit double our initial funding goal over the weekend!
- We're less than $800 from the next stretch goal.
- Live event at Vault of Midnight in Ann Arbor, MI on Wed, May 21st from 6 PM to 8 PM
- Reddit AMA on Thurs, May 22nd from 7 PM to 9 PM!
- New articles at www.aetaltis.com
Get all the latest here: http://kck.st/1ifZfwT
And if you want to help get the word out, check here!