FINAL HOURS for Affinity and Exclusive Pricing (and that final stretch goal)
about 3 years ago – Wed, Apr 28, 2021 at 01:32:28 PM

AFFINITY is down to its final 24 hours. In the past two days, we crossed another three stretch goals…

Which leaves only one.

ONE left. And I believe we can reach it.

KICKSTARTER PRICING COMPARE TO RETAIL

It’s important to note that these final hours will be the LAST time new backers can lock in their price for either the STANDARD or the LUXURY editions of AFFINITY. The prices listed during the campaign was a KICKSTARTER EXCLUSIVE.

Not long after this campaign ends, the pledge manager will activate. The retail price of both box sets (and the individual volumes) will rise given that the previously estimated 200+ pages of each book will likely reach in excess of 250 pages. This means that late pledge and retail options will be more expensive than Kickstarter pledges. 

I know you are going to ask about backers that want to upgrade. 

Don't worry. If you backed at any level, you will access to Kickstarter pricing. The increase will be for people that completely missed the campaign or for those wishing to purchase the books through normal retail channels later. Meaning if you are reading this during the campaign and have backed at any level, you can basically ignore everything I just said. :)

How much more will the retail edition of Affinity be? Unclear at this point, but it could be between 10% and 20% higher.

Just to stress, this only applies to the retail price later, and does not affect the price backers are paying. I am only mentioning this so people are aware of the deal they are getting for backing the project now.

WHAT I’M WORKING ON

It’s been a hell of a ride, and I am looking forward to showing you some wonderful things in the coming months. I am finalizing the work on the maker class for Conestoga, which as mentioned in a previous update, turned into four thematically connected classes in one. 

After that, I’ll be diving into Paradise and its expanded golem rules before returning to Torus. The objective is to finish the mechanical additions and have the playtest rules out ASAP, so I can focus on the narrative segments of the three books (which are required for the audio play).

TORUS & THE REST

I took a moment to ask a bunch of backers purchasing single volumes which was their preference, and shockingly (meaning, it wasn’t), the preference was the steampunk setting of Torus. 

I kind of knew that going into it, as there really isn’t a Steampunk 5E setting that I know of out there. I also realized, after creating all those ancient firearms, that there were some neat ideas present. As a result, most of the content stretch goals fell to the other two volumes. The maker class, the golem rules, both are substantially larger than the thrower weapons being added to Torus. The end goal is to make all three books about the same length, mind you; Torus was just the longest going into the Kickstarter.

As I truly believe the series is far better together than the sum of its parts, I hope these backers will consider upgrading at some point. It would be like purchasing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone but never any later books. 

But that’s just my humble opinion.

FINAL STREAM

I will be running a FINAL Q&A stream this Thursday at 9:00 am PST, leading up to the campaign’s conclusion. I hope to have a few friends on board. 

Anyone can literally ask my anything.

HAVE A FANTASTIC DAY!

Chris

FINAL THREE DAYS
about 3 years ago – Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 01:18:51 AM

SOO EXCITING!

ONLY 4 STRETCH GOALS LEFT

Hey everyone!

Only three days left. The campaign ends at 10:00 am Thursday, April 29th. With only four stretch goals left, I have confidence we’ll be able to clear the board by then. Over forty backers already upgrade or pledged for the new luxury version, and I for one cannot wait to have that in my hands.

CROSSED!

Two more goals down, and these two are thematically connected.

The Affinity Novel Release compiles all the narrative segments from all three books, connecting them with additional content to form a complete novel. This is a separate digital release that will be included with all pledges that offer all three volumes. It will be available for sale as an add-on after the campaign.

This stretch goal is important given the next one we crossed.

This is a personal passion project for me. Jon Fink and his crew have really done an amazing job with their second batch of radio play excerpts. And now they’ll have the opportunity to expand their work to include the entire Affinity Novel. I can’t give an estimated time for this one, as I want it to be the best it can be. The Affinity Audio Play, like the novel, is a separate digital release that will be included with all pledges that offer all three volumes. It will be available for sale as an add-on after the campaign.

ALL THREE CLASSES

Given the stretch goals, there is now a full class included in each book. As ULTRAMODERN5 covered all the non-magical classes, those offered in Affinity are distinctly magical, from the Ofuda-inspired abecedarian of Paradise and the deckbuilding chaos magic of the Torus oxomancer, and now the maker from Conestoga, the latter proving to be potentially the most radical.

In a previous update, I had mentioned that the plan to turn the metron ladder into a class was scrapped in favor of keeping it as is and adding a new class which became the maker. The maker was intended to be a form of psychic soldier and not a traditional spellcaster as some readers may be expecting.

I’m only about half way through the design, but the maker has turned into not one class, but an umbrella group covering four smaller roles underneath—the geospoiler, the hydromancer, the tempest, and the thermal. Each of these employs a skill tree not unlike those found in certain video games.

The maker still operates as a class, with recognizable general rules, but as you level, instead of static benefits, you get to explore the skill tree of your choosing, creating potentially hundreds of unique options based on player choice. Obviously, we’re going to have to test the hell out of this thing.

However, if this system works, and people respond positively to them, I’d love to replicate some of these ideas with other fantasy classes in future projects.

THE FINAL AUDIO PLAY EXCERPT

And this is it. The final audio excerpt from AFFINITY, this time from Torus. Again, huge thanks to Jon Fink and his team for taking this project on.

AND ANOTHER VIDEO

Jennifer Stewart of EZLA interviewed me regarding my recent projects. She’s a cool customer and her channel is worth checking out.

UNTIL NEXT TIME MY NEW FRIENDS

Chris

THE LUXURY EDITION IS HERE WITH NEW PLEDGE LEVELS (BIG UPDATE)
about 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 02:40:38 AM

These are SO COOL

Okay, granted, they're digital renders. But every product on Kickstarter is a digital render. 

Also the cover is not finalized as we would prefer to create an all new cover for this exclusive edition.

There are TWO pledges--one for those that purchase Affinity as part of the Ultramodern5-REDUX Kickstarter in 2019, and one for everyone else.

REMEMBER, only backers that purchased Affinity as part of 2019’s ULTRAMODERN5-REDUX Kickstarter are eligible for the upgrade. For everyone else, select the COMPLETE LUXURY EDITION if you want the luxury edition.

And if you have already pledged, and want to upgrade...well, that's easy. Just change your pledge...

Before you ask, no, backers will not be offered the option of ordering just one luxury book, and we won’t be offering it as a retailer option…that is, unless they ask REALLY, REALLY nice. :)

As for shipping. We are going to give people a bit of a deal and charge people the same amount for shipping as the lighter standard edition. As mentioned often times by this point, the price in shipping ACTUALLY includes both SHIPPING and VAT, which Kickstarter creators can no longer work around.

And there are stretch goals!

GILDED PAGES

Yeah, so we kind of already crossed this one (we already added it in the image).

METAL CORNERS

And we crossed this one as well (already added in the image). SOMEONE suggested that each book have different corners. Well, you know, I always believe in the democratization of Kickstarter, so here are all the corners I have access too. As you can see, we already have different corners on the proofs.

State in the comments which one should be for PARADISE, which one should be for TORUS, and which one will be for CONESTOGA. I’ll have my opinion as well, as will all my friends, and we’ll reveal the results after the campaign.

EMBOSSED COVER

ORIGINAL COVER POSTERS

The leather books obviously will lack the illustrated covers of the standard edition, so we will be including 9x12 high quality gloss posters of those covers in the box.

EXPANDED INSERTS

More stuff for the luxury box set—A selection of high quality images from the series in 9x12 posters.

THE FINAL STRETCH GOALS

This is it, the final stretch goals for the campaign! It’s been a heck of a journey!

AFFINITY NOVEL PDF RELEASE

All of the narrative segments of Affinity will be bundled together with new content in the form of digital novel. This book will be included in all “UPGRADE”, “3-PACK”, and “COMPLETE” pledges.

AFFINITY AUDIO PLAY

Obviously, we have been moving towards this one, and I consider this a personal passion project more than anything else. Jon Fink and his intrepid voice acting crew will be tasked with adapting the aforementioned Affinity Novel Release as a full audio play. This digital release will be included in all “UPGRADE”, “3-PACK”, and “COMPLETE” pledges.

DOWNLOADABLE ADVENTURES

I decided that these adventures would be downloadable PDFs for a couple reasons. One, all the content stretch goals have already pushed the core books by 20 pages. Two, by keeping the adventure separate, GM’s don’t have to worry about players spoiling the plot by reading the book. And third, the adventures are the largest content addition to the project, and by publishing separately, we can push the physical books faster and publish the adventures later in the year.

ELIGIBILITY AUDIT

Last week, I went through all of the UPGRADE pledges to verify backer’s eligibility for those levels. The vast majority got back to me, with only a few needing to correct their pledges. However, a few still haven’t gotten back to me.

I will be doing another audit early next week and another after the campaign has concluded.

I need to stress that if you did not purchase ALL THREE Affinity books as part of the 2019 Ultramodern5-REDUX Kickstarter, you are NOT eligible to select these levels. Meaning if you backed those levels and are not eligible, you will receive nothing.

Thankfully, the pledge manager will offer another opportunity to change your pledge if you selected one of these erroneously.

SING THE SONG OF SIRENS

I know campaigns will add a “projects we love” section at the end, but I like being clever.

SIRENS: BATTLE OF THE BARDS launched a few days ago, and to say they exploded is quite the understatement, as they crossed $100,000 at the time of this writing.

This tier 1 to 4 epic Campaign and Setting places your party not only in the crucible of conquest—but at the heart of a battle for the very soul of a growing empire. The Setting of Salvata features a variety of performance locations including taverns, amphitheaters, comedy clubs, Bard Colleges, and other locations of interest. Sirens: Battle of the Bards can easily be scaled to suit all tiers of play, and each adventure contained within offers boundless opportunities for side quests and improvisation.

Check out their campaign here…

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stonejamison/sirens-battle-of-the-bards?ref=duw0ty

SEE YOU IN A FEW DAYS!

CHRIS.

THE BIG REVEAL
about 3 years ago – Wed, Apr 21, 2021 at 07:45:23 PM

As normal, two days later and two more stretch goals crossed...

An update on that last one. As I was working on it this week, I realized that the metron ladder, as presented, as actually somewhat cool. It’s kind of a psionic that doesn’t possess complete control over what abilities they get. No one would ever pick a class like that but as a ladder, it works.

As a result, I am keeping it the way it is and spiraling off the combat caster into a new class, the maker. The maker is effectively a multi-build psionic soldier employing “cooldown” abilities and a skill tree. There are four different paths a maker can take.

The earth maker is called a geomage with branches focused on terraforming and life magic. The hydromancer controls water and other liquids including acid and poison. The tempest is a master of wind, later focusing on storms, electricity, and raw energy. Finally, there is the thermal—one who controls the extremes of temperature, starting with fire, then eventually extreme cold and superheated plasma. Upon emergence from a tuning ritual, the maker selects one of these paths. From there, as a maker grows and focuses their skills, they gain specific powers and the ability to improve or alter said powers. However, the most compelling talent is a maker’s capacity to create other makers, a power a character can internalize, effectively allowing them to reallocate their own abilities and change their specialization. Yes, you read that right; there is an in-canon rule to allow a maker to completely respec.

I know I have said the maker/metron is a battle caster, but another way to describe it is a psychic soldier, so don’t expect a traditional magic system. If you think the deckbuilding mechanic for the Oxomancer in Torus is weird…

DRUMROLL…THE BIG REVEAL

…As we are closing in the last few goals, certain design elements didn’t manage to synergize particularly well. What I mean is that I was hoping on having 3d renders for you by today, but I wasn’t expecting to get this close to 70K so quickly.

Rest assured before we officially unlock $70K, I will have full renders for you.

We finished our negotiations and can finally reveal the worst kept secret.

THE AFFINITY LUXURY EDITION

The luxury edition is a special extremely limited version of Affinity. It will not be made available for retailers. We will be creating two new pledge levels, one upgrade (for those that purchased Affinity as part of the 2019 UM5 Kickstarter) and one standard. They both will offer the same benefits, including all digital content that the COMPLETE EDITION possesses.

The LUXURY edition WILL be available via the pledge manager, so if you don’t want to upgrade your pledge now (and potentially unlock more stretch goals), you can do so after the campaign has concluded.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT THE LUXURY EDITION?

Well, for one, it will have a leather-wrapped cover and have the highest quality paper inside. It will feature the satin bookmark and the foil-stamping unlocked with the standard box set.

Instead of the slipcase, however, all three volumes will be stored in a book-shaped box. Yes, you read that right. It will appear as a large, ultra-thick book containing three games inside. There will be a unique cover for this box along with labeling along the spine.

Here is an example of what such a box will look like….

This image, of course, is not entirely accurate.  For one, our cover will feature a flap that will open with the side attached to the cover, allowing for easier removal of books

The price point is still being finalized and will be announced when we have something to show you.

Along with the DELUXE edition, we can confirm additional stretch goals for said Luxury Edition.

Gilded pages is very classy, I think.

Still trying to decide what these will look like, maybe something simple, or maybe something more dramatic.

And if you check the stretch goal image in the campaign, you’ll discover that there are STILL MORE stretch goals hiding. Some are content, others are physical upgrades for the LUXURY EDITION. Another is a bit of a surprise still waiting.

Tomorrow begins our final week. It’s been a heck of a ride, and I can’t wait to see where this will go!

LIVESTREAM TONIGHT

Just another reminder, I will be on a livestream tonight at 4:15 PM PST. Me and two others will be making characters in each of the three settings. You can check it out on our Facebook page and our YouTube Page

THANKS EVERYONE!

Chris.

ANOTHER TWO; GETTING CLOSER
about 3 years ago – Mon, Apr 19, 2021 at 07:29:25 PM

Another update with another two stretch goals crossed…

It should be noted that this paper upgrade is the LAST planned for the standard edition of Affinity. This version already includes these great unlocked stretch goals:

SPOT UV COATING

SATIN BOOKMARK

FOIL STAMPED LOGO

We got two more “content” upgrades before the big reveal…

…and what is that?

We are…still figuring that out.

I mean, we know what it is. But I want something to actually show you rather than tell you. Nick Greenwood is designing digital prototypes as you read this while we continue to work with our printers to ensure we can ACTUALLY deliver what we want.

Also, given the campaign's progress, I have been brainstorming new content stretch goals. So my question to everyone: What kind of cool things would you like to see?

CLARIFICATION ON THE UPGRADE PLEDGES

I recently did an audit on the AFFINITY backers, checking everyone that backed one of the two UPGRADE pledges. If you pledged one of these two levels, you would have received a direct message from me within the last 24 hours of this update’s posting.

The vast majority of backers who selected this level are eligible as they purchased Affinity back in 2019 as part of the Ultramodern5-REDUX Kickstarter. However, I am having issues confirming a few, primarily due to me not being able to bring up your account with the 2019 campaign. So, if I have sent you a message asking for that information, please get back to me as soon as possible.

However, there are a few people who selected that level that I have confirmed did not purchase Affinity back in 2019.

I need to stress that the two UPGRADE pledgees (“ULTRAMODERN5/AFFINITY DIGITAL UPGRADE” and “ULTRAMODERN5/AFFINITY COMPLETE UPGRADE”) are only for backers that purchased Affinity as part of the 2019 Ultramodern5-REDUX Kickstarter campaign. If you want to acquire just the PDFs or the entire Affinity book set, the “AFFINITY DIGITAL COLOR (3-PACK)” and the “AFFINITY COMPLETE SET (3-PACK)” are for you.

I know it can be confusing, and I do apologize. It was the one oddity of this campaign I couldn’t work around.

Hopefully, by the next update, we’ll have the big REVEAL!!

CHRIS