Æthermancy
...is the quintessential book for all-things-magical for the critically-acclaimed Æther Role Playing System. The point of this Kickstarter is to get it off the ground. The bulk of the book was written at the same time as the Æther Core Book, but it has evolved and changed with the system. Now we are ready to give it the finishing touches that it deserves along with the polish and shine that we have so badly wanted for it.
Æthermancy is a complete magic book that builds on the skill system that is at the heart of Æther. It allows for an incredible degree of creativity and flexibility with your spell caster, whether you are using the system for typical wizards, clerics, or psychic users; all of them are treated the same in the Æthermancy book, at least mechanically. The book contains ways to incorporate magic into your existing campaign, it contains 30 adventure hooks, a fully fleshed out adventure, and over 200 spells. (FINAL COUNT 257 unless someone else pledges in the next 2 minutes, then it's more!) It blends seamlessly with the Æther system; making it feel like a continuous inclusion rather than something clunky and bolted on.
What is Æther?
From Kevin Rohan, the system creator
Æther is a critically acclaimed universal role playing system that allows you to do anything. The Core Book is geared for modern games, but it is easily and readily adaptable for any time or technology level, from the Stone Age to the very far future. It is a skill-driven system that has amazing character creation flexibility and the possibilities for advancement are virtually limitless. But, you don't have to take our word for it, see what some of our customers have said!
From Amazon:
Find those at Amazon.com. For a few more, click the link to see our reviews at DriveThru RPG! Want to know more about the system itself, visit the Silver Gryphon Games website!
Why are we Kickstarting this?
We need additional funding for art. We want the presentation of this book to be our best ever, and that means more polish than we've ever done before on the various print editions. Virtually all of the Kickstarter funds are going for art, with a very small portion of them going to establish other features of the book such as the ISBN codes and identifiers.
In the spirit of Kickstarter, we have several stretch goals, all of them revolve around more content for Æthermancy and more choices for you at your gaming table. More spells, more caster types, more archetypes, and more creatures are made available at the individual stretch goals. As we approach those new goals, we will tell you more about them, but we can say that we have a lot planned for this project! Without being Kickstarted, these other goals may never see the light of day, so this is a rare opportunity to actually drive content and tell a publisher exactly what you want!
We do have some art already, provided by Dennis Darmody, and for a taste of what's due to be inside, we present you with the Explode spell and an illustration for it!
Fast breakdown of what you can get!
Funding and Stretch Goals
We will be updating this section as this project grows, and we have a number of stretch goals that are designed specifically for Æthermancy and supporting information for using more magic in your game world. Ranging from more Æthermancer archetypes, spells and adventure hooks, all the way up to fantasy bestiaries and beyond, this will be a keystone project for Silver Gryphon Games and will help guide our production for many months to come!
Daily Expansion Goals: We really want this to succeed and we're willing to put our mouth where your support and money are! Starting on September 17th, we decided to add 5 new spells to the main book every time we have more than 5 backers in a day. Additionally, every $1,000 dollars in pledges we receive will generate another 5 spells for the main book! Considering there is (at the time I'm writing this) already 210 spells in the book, that could end up being a huge spell selection!
$4750: Æthermancy is Funded! We will contact the prospective artists immediately and we will get art going. If all goes right, we may be able to update you with concept sketches or even full art, depending on when the goal has been hit!
$6500: The first stretch goal of the Tome of the Unknown Æthermancers is unlocked! Each of the smaller stretch goals for this companion volume will add another main Æthermancer archetype with three variants, spells, adventure hooks, and pre-generated Æthermancers, ready to use in your campaigns! Our expected date of delivery on these is April of 2014 due to the art concerns, but we may be able to get these out sooner!
The spell casting mechanic of Æthermancy works by the player choosing which of the eight attributes their character uses as a Casting Attribute, and each of these eight Æthermancers pivots off a different attribute, adding a wide range of possibilities to your gaming table! The first of the Unknown Æthermancers is the Sorcerer, and others unlock as stated below! If all eight Æthermancers are funded, the book will be completed with its own fully fleshed out adventure!
$11,750: The second major stretch goal is the Grimoire of Forgotten Lore! Each small goal unlocks another type of magic, adding para-elements to the five core elements of fire, earth, water, air, and energy included in the core book, and it also adds life magic, death magic, and summoning to the mix! Every small goal unlocked gives you another 30 spells, three Æthermancer variants that deal specifically with the type of magic unveiled, and it also gives three adventure hooks per caster type! Our expected date of delivery on these is June of 2014, again, due mostly to art concerns.
If all eight sections of the Forgotten Lore are unlocked, there will be an adventure added to the Grimoire of Forgotten Lore to complete the book!
We have many further goals in mind for this project and as we get closer and closer to unlocking them, we will reveal more information about them, but here's a taste:
$19,500: Catalog of Mythical Beasts - Contains up to 295 creatures of an Æthermantic nature, each of them is fully illustrated! One of the mini-stretch goals of this volume also contains a new type of Æthermancer, the artificer!
$49,250: Reliquary of Forsaken Relics - Contains up to 210 relics from many places, origins, and times, all for use in your Æthermancy adventures!
That is just a taste of our goals, we do have further goals in mind, and we will release more on them as we approach the appropriate funding levels!
Pixie Dust Miniatures
Caroline at Pixie Dust Miniatures has agreed to do miniature Æthermancy books for us, and they make perfect charms for necklaces, bracelets, zippers, Christmas ornaments, or just to have for a keepsake! There is only one pledge level that you get a small Æthermancy book for backing us, and that is the $25 pledge level. We did this for those who wish to support the project, but may not be interested in purchasing the physical copies of the book. We thank you for that, and we want to know that we appreciate your support!
All others who wish to have one of these items, simply add $20 to your pledge when you determine a level of support. The books are made of real leather (sorry, no material substitutions for those who prefer a non-animal based material) and other non-toxic materials and measure approximately 1 inch by 0.75 inches by 0.2 inches.
Caroline is also providing a special award for those of you who pledge to our top two levels; a miniature wizard's desk complete with scrolls, books, and bottles! As with the spell books, everything is hand-crafted from leather and glass and a few other secret materials! The table measures 5.25 inches wide by 1.5 inches deep by approximately 4 inches tall.
Questions and Answers!
We here at Silver Gryphon Games have never had a "fire-and-forget" mentality when it comes to a product, and a Kickstarter project is no exception. Last summer with our dice, we were answering questions and met quite a few of our fans. With this Kickstarter, we plan on having on-line game nights revolving around Æthermancy, Q&A sessions with Silver Gryphon online, and we will of course be available via emails and the Kickstarter message system to provide any answers you may need!
These events will be scheduled via our Facebook page and announced at the Silver Gryphon Games home page. We invite you to check with us regularly, but we will try to keep everyone updated via the Kickstarter as well.
Delivery of Product
We will be waiting for art before we can do the final layout. After that we will deliver the backer awards and then we will wait a short time to put the standard editions of the PDFs and books into circulation. Additional supplements unlocked via the stretch goals may have differing delivery dates, and those will be updated as we are able to firm those dates up.
As of now, we are confident we can begin delivering Æthermancy in February of 2014, and every two months, we expect to be able to deliver the next expansion book (Tome of Unknown Æthermancers, Grimoire of Forgotten Lore, Catalog of Mythical Beasts, etc) every two months thereafter. All backers will have their products sent to them in the mail before we release Æthermancy to the public, and we're expecting about two weeks later, we will release the book through our normal sales channels.
For the expanded material, we will be releasing those in a similar manner. All backers will have their PDFs and physical copies sent out to them at least two weeks in advance of Silver Gryphon Games making them publicly available.
Special Thanks
We'd like to be sure to thank Caroline at Pixie Dust Miniatures for providing the spell books and the wizard table! To see what else Caroline loves to create, visit her Etsy shop at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PixieDustMiniatures
We would also like to thank Paul Shapera for use of his music for our video. If you'd like to hear the full version of "The Steampunk Opera Overture" and all of Paul's other outstanding work, visit his site at: http://mochalab.bandcamp.com/track/the-steampunk-opera-overture
Risks and challenges
If funded, our greatest risk and challenge lies in working with the artists involved with this project. Silver Gryphon Games is a three-time Ennie nominated publisher for Fans' Favorite Publisher and we have many critically acclaimed projects. We have been producing RPGs for almost 6 solid years and we have a passion for this hobby that we hope is reflected by every publisher in the industry.
We have also started a Kickstarter group on Facebook which has become one of the largest Kickstarter support groups on any social media platform, which gives us a huge network to tap if there are any unexpected hiccups.
As a group and individuals, we are dedicated to helping others meet their goals as well, so we will participate in Kicking it Forward, and continue to invest a portion of our profits made possible by this project into Kickstarter in the future.
http://kickingitforward.org/
This is not our first Kickstarter and we have learned that when the unexpected happens, we will communicate those issues with our backers and we will keep you as informed as we can. It is backers such as yourself that allows companies all over the world to see their products and dreams to completion, and we're not going to risk violating that trust or respect!
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Funding period
- (30 days)