project-image

At The Gates

Created by Onyx Path - At The GAtes

At the Gates is the core rulebook for a high fantasy tabletop roleplaying game inspired by Japanese RPG video games.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

October 2024 Update
21 days ago – Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 07:47:07 AM

Hello Outlanders!

Happy Halloween! I'm sneaking in our monthly update on the last day of October because I wanted to sneak one quick reward in for backers who added on The World Below to their rewards list. The Backer PDF for that one is now ready and will be going out via BackerKit within the next day.



If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://at-the-gates.backerkit.com



REWARDS STILL PENDING


The World Below Backer PDF will be going out to those who added it on to their rewards list over the next 24 hours. Our At The Gates Jumpstart PDF has entered the First Draft stage! Incremental progress continues behind the scenes.

For those receiving The World Below Backer PDF, the design and development teams have done their best to proofread and correct any errors and typos - but some always sneak through. If you catch any typos, incorrect math, visual glitches, and the like, we want to hear about them and correct them before we send the book off to print. Onyx Path will be launching a special The World Below Feedback Form, which you will be able to access here:  https://forms.gle/jTQ95sHhJmhGvYUq8


REWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO BACKERS

  • Trinity Continuum Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)
  • Scion Second Edition Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)
  • They Came From Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)
  • The World Below (Oct 31 '24 Update)

ONYX PATH PROJECT TRACKING

You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <September 2024 Project Status Summary>

You can find the weekly Monday Meeting blog updates <here>, which note any projects with status changes since the previous Month End summary. The project statuses listed are current as of last Monday, so do check it out each Monday night to see if anything may have progressed!

I will continue to post regular updates everymonth until the final reward has gone out.

ONYX PATH DISCUSSION CHANNELS

You may be able to get further insight and possibly some in-depth conversation at these Onyx Path discussion zones:


TO CONTACT JAMES

  •  Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
  •  Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.


FINAL HOURS ON KICKSTARTER




FINAL HOURS to back the CURSEBORNE Kickstarter campaign.

Curseborne is a game about being unapologetic monsters in a world where being monstrous is the least of your worries. In Curseborne, you play as Accursed, descendants of monstrous lineages lurking in a modern world that closely resembles our own. You rebel against the ancient feuds between these entwined families, as well as against the web of curses that bind you, while fending off inhuman antagonists seeking to claim — or reclaim — your power.

The world of Curseborne is full of intrigue, magic, and things that go bump in the night. It’s just like our world, except the reason that things don’t go your way or that bad things happen is that the people are literally living in a world of curses. Some people are cursed more than others, and these are our Accursed characters. They have a particularly large curse that hangs over their heads and makes them more prone to bad things happening to them and around them. The nature of this curse also makes them magical in nature. They have a sense of the thing holding them back, and they can manipulate it in ways that normal people cannot.



This book is comprised of two main parts. The first part is the setting of Curseborne, as well as more about the Accursed themselves through the view of the characters. It shows how they see themselves, their world, and their place in that world. Lineages represent five broad categories of Accursed: The Dead (ghosts and spirits), The Hungry (vampires), The Outcasts (angels and demons), The Primal (shapeshifters and werewolves), and The Sorcerers (magicians).

The second part of the book are the instructions on how to use this book to play a game. You’ll find the chapters on how to play the game using the Storypath Ultra system, how to create a character, all the cool powers those characters have, and information on how to run a game of Curseborne.

  • <This Update> has a list of resources to check out, including Panels and Discussion about the game, Explainer videos, a ton of Actual Play sessions, and free brochures.
  • <This Update> covers the Reward Pledge Tiers and Add On options for the Kickstarter campaign.
  • <This Update> has the ENTIRE draft manuscript available for Backers to read before the campaign ends, before any pledges are processed or payments collected. A $5 pledge will get you access and you can be building characters tonight!


September 2024 Update
2 months ago – Wed, Sep 18, 2024 at 08:17:14 AM

Hello Outlanders,

Once again, the time for our monthly check in has arrived. No big changes this month, so let's jump in!




If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://at-the-gates.backerkit.com



REWARDS STILL PENDING


Our main reward, At the Gates, has seen the mansucript complete editing and move on to a final development pass, to ensure the work reads as a single holistic piece and makes sense throughout! 

I'll post this chart in each monthly update, and fill in dots as projects move along.


REWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO BACKERS

  • Trinity Continuum Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)
  • Scion Second Edition Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)
  • They Came From Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)

Once a project finishes up on the progress chart and is distributed to backers, I'll move it down to this list and note which update talks about reward distribution for that item in case you want to go back and get more information.

ONYX PATH PROJECT TRACKING

You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <August 2024 Project Status Summary>

You can find the weekly Monday Meeting blog updates <here>, which note any projects with status changes since the previous Month End summary. The project statuses listed are current as of last Monday, so do check it out each Monday night to see if anything may have progressed!

I will continue to post regular updates every month until the final reward has gone out.


ONYX PATH DISCUSSION CHANNELS

You may be able to get further insight and possibly some in-depth conversation at these Onyx Path discussion zones:


TO CONTACT JAMES
  •  Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
  •  Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.



CURRENTLY FUNDING


In 2017 Onyx Path unveiled the Storypath System, the rules engine that has come to power many of our games: the sci-fi universe of hope, heroism, and peril known as the Trinity Continuum, the modern-day stories of old gods and titans called Scion Second Edition,and the trope-focused exploration of genres that is the They Came From! series, and more.

We're extremely proud of what we’ve done over the years with Storypath, but felt it was time to tighten up the rules, smooth off the rough edges, and get rid of anything that got in the way of telling amazing stories. As a result, we’ve created the Storypath Ultra Core Manual.

Storypath Ultra isn’t a new edition, nor is it a replacement rule set — many of the concepts we developed and refined from the Storypath System are still there, even as they rearrange or rename things to make them as clear as possible. Think of it as a new take on Storypath: It’s the same great game but spruced up and tweaked to be the best possible version.

Currently Crowdfunding! We're almost in the final week! Join now and you can vote on an example game that will be included in the final version!


COMING TO KICKSTARTER ON OCTOBER 1ST


Curseborne is a game about being unapologetic monsters in a world where being monstrous is the least of your worries. In Curseborne, you play as Accursed, descendants of monstrous lineages lurking in a modern world that closely resembles our own. You rebel against the ancient feuds between these entwined families, as well as against the web of curses that bind you, while fending off inhuman antagonists seeking to claim — or reclaim — your power.

The world of Curseborne is full of intrigue, magic, and things that go bump in the night. It’s just like our world, except the reason that things don’t go your way or that bad things happen is that the people are literally living in a world of curses. Some people are cursed more than others, and these are our Accursed characters. They have a particularly large curse that hangs over their heads and makes them more prone to bad things happening to them and around them. The nature of this curse also makes them magical in nature. They have a sense of the thing holding them back, and they can manipulate it in ways that normal people cannot.

This book is comprised of two main parts. The first part is the setting of Curseborne, as well as more about the Accursed themselves through the view of the characters. It shows how they see themselves, their world, and their place in that world. Lineages represent five broad categories of Accursed: The Dead (ghosts and spirits), The Hungry (vampires), The Outcasts (angels and demons), The Primal (shapeshifters and werewolves), and The Sorcerers (magicians).

The second part of the book are the instructions on how to use this book to play a game. You’ll find the chapters on how to play the game using the Storypath Ultra system, how to create a character, all the cool powers those characters have, and information on how to run a game of Curseborne.

SIGN UP TO BE NOTIFIED AT LAUNCH




August 2024 Monthly Update
3 months ago – Wed, Aug 21, 2024 at 06:56:40 AM

Hello Outlanders,

It's time for our regular monthly check in. As a reminder, I'll be posting these updates once a month, just to check in on the various projects from the Crowdfunding campaign and make sure we're all in the loop and on the same page. For many months, they'll be pretty boring - just a note that the Onyx Path team are "still working on it" and we'll see only incremental progress. Still, I find it's better to touch base once a month even if we don't have any big news than to wait in silence while we all wonder what's going on.

So let's get to it!



If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://at-the-gates.backerkit.com



REWARDS STILL PENDING


There's a lot of stuff on this list! Our main reward, the AT THE GATES PDF, standard and deluxe hardcover, along with the Print-on-Demand option, is all part of that first line, and those various formats will be rewarded at different stages near the end of the production side. Right now, we can see that the manuscript is in editing before one final development pass finishes that up and then it's on to Art Direction.

I'll post this chart in each monthly update, and fill in dots as projects move along.


REWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO BACKERS

  • Trinity Continuum Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)
  • Scion Second Edition Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)
  • They Came From Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)

Once a project finishes up on the progress chart and is distributed to backers, I'll move it down to this list and note which update talks about reward distribution for that item in case you want to go back and get more information.

ONYX PATH PROJECT TRACKING


You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <July 2024 Project Status Summary>

You can find the weekly Monday Meeting blog updates <here>, which note any projects with status changes since the previous Month End summary. The project statuses listed are current as of last Monday, so do check it out each Monday night to see if anything may have progressed!

I will continue to post regular updates every month until the final reward has gone out.

ONYX PATH DISCUSSION CHANNELS

You may be able to get further insight and possibly some in-depth conversation at these Onyx Path discussion zones:


TO CONTACT JAMES
  •  Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
  •  Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.

July 2024 Update - Existing PDFs going out
4 months ago – Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 04:10:49 AM

Hello Outlanders,

It's been just about three weeks since we started sending our our Pledge Manager invites. If you haven't yet filled out your backer survey, please do so as soon as possible - you can change it or update it right up until the books are printing and we're getting ready to ship. We use the Pledge Manager for all reward fulfillment, so having your backer page set up ensures you'll be getting your rewards in a timely manner.




If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://at-the-gates.backerkit.com


DIGITAL REWARD DISTRIBUTION

Many of the rewards for our Crowdfunding projects take a lot of time and effort to complete. Usually, the campaign is a means of moving the project from an idea (even when it's a mostly-fully-written idea) into the actual channel that turns it into a project/product. It'll be a while before we're ready to talk about delivery on At The Gates, and even longer for our projects generated via Stretch Goals (the Companion supplement, the Jumpstart, and the rest).

That said, there are a few rewards that are available now, as they were mostly add-on PDFs or bundles of existing products. And now we can work on getting those out to you over the weekend.

The following Add On Rewards Will Be Distributed This Week:

  1. Trinity Continuum Digital Starter Bundle
  2. Scion Second Edition Digital Starter Bundle
  3. They Came From Digital Starter Bundle

Within each of those items are 4-5 PDF products, so it's a much bigger list than it appears. It's basically this section from our Add On menu during the campaign.



If you want any of these and didn't add them on during the campaign, you can still update your BackerKit page and add them to your rewards list. See the BackerKit How-To instructions above.

REWARD DISTRIBUTION

Your link to claim these digital rewards will be sent out by our BackerKit pledge manager over the next few days. Since we are using our partners at DriveThruRPG as the hosts for these, you will need to set up a DriveThru account if you don't have one already. If you encounter any problems with downloading your rewards, please contact DTRPG's customer service to resolve the matter, they've always been top-rated for customer service. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/contact_us.ph





The best way to ensure these redemption codes work smoothly is to log in to your DTRPG account first, and then click (or copy) the link shown in your BackerKit.

Again, you will receive an e-mail from BackerKit with links for these rewards over the next 2-3 days if any of them are on your expected list of rewards. I'll be releasing them in waves, so don't panic if you only see a couple links at first... the rest are coming. (We're in a digital world, but there are still a lot of manual processes. And there are many links to go out!!)

The easiest way to see if you've got digital downloads available is to login to your backerkit account: https://at-the-gates.backerkit.com and it'll show anything available. Your backerkit account should also confirm all rewards that you should expect from your reward tier selected.

DRAFT MANUSCRIPT

In addition to redemption links for these digital rewards, all backers have received a link to the compiled draft manuscript. This link can be found in your BackerKit digital rewards page, and you likely received an e-mail linking to that with the Backer Survey invitations. Again, this isn't a new manuscript, it's just all of the pieces we shared during the campaign put together in order. It's the same link that I share at the bottom of these campaign updates, but I want to make sure you have access to it in any place that makes sense.

MONTHLY UPDATES

With the Pledge Manager up and running, this is officially the first "regular" monthly update for our project. I'll send these updates out every month to let you know where we sit. We're still in the earliest stages of this post-campaign, where projects make incremental movements along the progress path. A lot of months will be pretty similar, just a quick note to let you know that the Onyx Path team is still working on it. Any time we have a new reward or something of interest to share, I'll include that as well.

At the end of each month, I'll include a summary of our rewards and their current status (they'll either be delivered or marked as still pending, possibly with additional details if I know more). I'll also list any relevant Update posts, in case you want to go back and check into something.

Each month, I'll list our "Pending" rewards and our "Delivered" rewards. We'll track the project status of our pending rewards by filling in the stage dots, and I'll note which update (and include a link) with each delivered reward, in case you want to go back and re-read the relevant update for more information. If any of these rewards were on your pledge list, you can access download codes in your BackerKit Digital Rewards page. And once they've been added to your DriveThruRPG library, you can access them through your DTRPG digital library at any time.

REWARDS STILL PENDING


There's a lot of stuff on this list! Our main reward, the AT THE GATES PDF, standard and deluxe hardcover, along with the Print-on-Demand option, is all part of that first line, and those various formats will be rewarded at different stages near the end of the production side. Right now, we can see that the manuscript is in editing before one final development pass finishes that up and then it's on to Art Direction.

I'll post this chart in each monthly update, and fill in dots as projects move along.


REWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO BACKERS

  • Trinity Continuum Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)
  • Scion Second Edition Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)
  • They Came From Digital Starter Bundle (July 17 '24 Update)

Once a project finishes up on the progress chart and is distributed to backers, I'll move it down to this list and note which update talks about reward distribution for that item in case you want to go back and get more information.

ONYX PATH PROJECT TRACKING


You can read Onyx Path's most recent monthly summary, covering all projects and their status up to that point here: <June 2024 Project Status Summary>

You can find the weekly Monday Meeting blog updates <here>, which note any projects with status changes since the previous Month End summary. The project statuses listed are current as of last Monday, so do check it out each Monday night to see if anything may have progressed!

I will continue to post regular updates everymonth until the final reward has gone out.

ONYX PATH DISCUSSION CHANNELS

You may be able to get further insight and possibly some in-depth conversation at these Onyx Path discussion zones:


TO CONTACT JAMES
  •  Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
  •  Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.


CURRENTLY FUNDING 

Scion: Mythic Shards presents alternate realities for the World of Scion and provides new rules for players and Storyguides to incorporate into their games. Each chapter explores a single shard of reality at varying tiers of Scion gameplay. These chapters are standalone from each other and don’t need to be consumed with the other chapters in order to start playing.

Scion’s setting — the World — is an exciting place where heroes are larger than life, and Fate always lurks in the shadows, pulling strings. It is a place of urban fantasy where the legends and myths of our ancestors live in a world that’s much like our own.

But, there are some tales that belong to another world — stories that need another place to breathe and come alive — places like…

  • After the End: A post apocalyptic desert full of peril and opportunities for new beginnings
  • Cyber-Scion: A cyberpunk dystopia where Scions pilot mecha to fight corporate kaiju
  • Farewell to Heroes: Gritty noir cities where Scions are illegal
  • Four Color: A place of superheroes, alter-egos, and over-the-top excitement
  • Space Odyssey: An entire galaxy of starships and aliens

FUNDED in 12 HOURS and now ready to unlock Stretch Goals! Join in!




Pledge Manager Surveys Coming Soon!
5 months ago – Thu, Jun 27, 2024 at 06:50:57 AM

Hello Outlanders,

It's time for our first update of the post-Crowdfunding campaign phase!

We finished up the Crowdfunding portion of our campaign just three weeks ago with a successful run, adding many backers and extra bonus rewards. Now it's time to start the next phase of the project - the Post-Campaign, where we track the progress of the various projects we helped fund and send out rewards as they become available.

To help with all of that we use BackerKit's Pledge Manager.

Today's Topics

  •  BackerKit Pledge Manager Surveys Coming Soon 
  •  Compiled Draft Manuscript (available in BackerKit Digital Rewards) 
  •  Coming Next 

BACKER SURVEYS

Over the next handful of days (June 27-July 2), you’ll receive an email from us with a special link to your Pledge Manager survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfill your rewards.



You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey (although you probably already have one from pledging to this campaign). When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey invitation link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available later this week via email!

The e-mail will have a button that looks something like this:




After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts, and that won't happen until the books are being printed and we're preparing to ship.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://at-the-gates.backerkit.com/


If you have any other questions or concerns, you can post them to the comments for this update, the comment section, or message me via one of these methods:

TO CONTACT JAMES

  •  Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
  •  Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.

If there are any issues you find with the Pledge Manager, please contact me as soon as possible to let me know. It rolls out in waves so that I can correct issues on the fly and make it work as best possible as people come on board.

I had initially expected to be sending this out three weeks from now, but I'm going to try to sneak in a vacation in 10 days so hammered on this and somehow got it done early. The chances of a few errors in the Pledge Manager set up are ... greater than zero ... so let me know if you see something off and I'll fix it as quickly as possible.



Within the BackerKit Survey and Pledge Manager, you can:

  • Review your Pledge Tier Selection and Rewards
  • Upgrade your Reward Tier pledge selection
  • Confirm Add On selections
  • Set up payment information for any failed payments from the Crowdfunding campaign or to pay for any new Add On options selected.

When you click on your BackerKit invitation link, you should see something like this...



From the Pledge Manager welcome page you can choose to

  • Review Your Pledge Level and Rewards
  • Start Your Survey, confirming pledge rewards, confirming or selecting new Add On options, and confirming any shipping and payment info that may be needed
  • Switch Your Pledge Level

If you've pledged to a reward tier that includes physical rewards, you can enter your shipping country at this stage. As noted during our campaign, we haven't set shipping costs yet - those will be calculated and added in when we're preparing to ship the book. That won't be for a long time, though, and there will be plenty of opportunity - and notice - for you to make changes.

If you click on your Pledge Level, you will see a list of all items included in your Pledge Rewards (including Stretch Goals and the Draft Manuscript), and also have the option to switch your Pledge Level, in case you've decided to get the hardcover pledge instead of the PDF-only pledge tier for example.

Once you've confirmed that your Pledge Level is correct and where you want it to be, you can GET STARTED with your BackerKit Pledge Manager Survey.

Once we've got a fair response to our survey and collected a reasonable amount of info, I'll be working on fulfilling rewards that are available now - like the PDFs of the titles included in our Add On section (for example, the Scion Second Edition Digital Starter Bundle, the Trinity Continuum Digital Starter Bundle, and the They Came From Digital Starter Bundle). Those will likely be coming to you in mid-July, and I'll send another update with more info when that time comes.

So, in summary:

  • Look for an e-mail invitation to BackerKit's Pledge Manager sometime over the next 4-5 days
  • Get Started on your survey
  • Confirm your Pledge Level (or SWITCH your Pledge Level if you want to change it)
  • Confirm and Select Any Add On options
  • Confirm Your Shipping Information (if needed)
  • Confirm Your Payment Information (if needed)

I will post an update in another week or two as I begin outlining the delivery of our first Add On rewards (the existing Starter Bundles, as noted above) and beginning distribution of those PDF rewards.

DRAFT MANUSCRIPT

Looking in the example pledge list above, you can see a listing for the Draft Manuscript. In your BackerKit digital rewards page, you will have access to the compiled draft manuscript. It won't be different from the one that was shared during the campaign - it'll just be all gathered together in one big file. The Draft Manuscript link may not be active when you first login to your BackerKit survey, but I'll throw the switch and it'll send you a notice next week after all of the invitations have gone out.

I will talk about how to access your BackerKit digital rewards links in an update coming later this month, when I send out the first wave of available rewards.

COMING NEXT

In the next 3 weeks or so, I'll send an update with details about the distribution for that first wave of Starter Bundle rewards. I'll also get the compiled draft manuscript up and ready for you.

We'll also begin our regular monthly check-ins, tracking the progress of this project as it moves through this phase. It'll take some time, but we'll have regular updates all through the process. I'll also have notes on how to check the weekly and monthly All Project Progress updates on Onyx Path's website.

TO CONTACT JAMES

  •  Via E-Mail: Onyx.Kickstarter [at] gmail.com
  •  Via BackerKit: Click "Need Help?" from your page, and then fill in the Contact Us form. BackerKit will pass your message along to me.

CURRENTLY FUNDING - ONYX PATH ADJACENT

From The Bodhana Group, the Branch Riders tabletop roleplaying game is currently in a campaign on Kickstarter. The Bodhana Group advocates for and utilizes tabletop gaming as a directed therapeutic and clinical practice that can benefit personal growth as well as enhance social and educational services to individuals and families.  Gaming has usefulness in education, skill building and therapeutic applications.  

Branch Riders is an RPG that came out of years of design and development - with the help of some of the Onyx Path team - to be a fun and compelling game first and foremost, but with the right therapeutic and skill-building tools "under the hood" for trained instructors to utilize beyond that.

If you're interested in a multi-genre action-packed easy-to-learn and -teach fun game with different approaches to problem solving and a variety of GM tools and player challenges, come check it out!