I feel the earnest need to apologize to you, good reader, for the catalogue of beasts, weather systems, and geologies encountered since my introduction. I appreciate they may lack the flair of exciting reading, but know that this intelligence is highly sought by my master in Sorcere. Now, however, I have tales of a more narrative bent than the ratio of edible-to-poisonous fruit on the bushes that grow in Drenchton’s ditches!

I should tell you about the personages with whom I travel. Firstly, allow me to state outright that this squad may not be a permanent accompaniment. They made this quite clear to me and I share their sentiment. You retain company for as long as it’s useful; this lifestyle makes no room for bonds of affection when necessity is pressing. 

My first companion is the harlequin, Iscap. I bought his freedom from the prison in Cascade, and his gratitude (though tempered by his constant need to impress with his tricks and the ephemeral crown he bears) bound him to my cause at low cost. 

In Drenchton I came upon an unlikely duo of miscreants — a gruff, crude dwarf named Marasc and his mentalist companion, Sjazzara. I believe she is quite insane based on her babbling about spirits probing her mind and her apparent communion with the gods, but Marasc assures me that if you can tolerate her noise, she makes for a fierce monster to have alongside. I must put aside my innate distrust of having a vampire in my squad if her abilities are as Marasc says, and reader, I note that he appears to be no slouch as a marauder: I’ve now seen him swing the oversized warhammer he calls his “Sceptre of Bone Shattering,” and can tell you it lives up to its title.

Together, the four of us ventured across country to the Dyso town of Iterneton. It was far from a peaceful journey, as parasitic creatures had tendency to snake through the earth to grasp us whenever we paused for sustenance. I cannot recommend the border between Dys and Draoidahaek to any wanderer, as it seemed the closer one grew to Dys, the lower the ages of the people we encountered (few who dwell close to Dys live beyond the age of 35, it seems), and the greater the population of mindless undead, nameless tentacled beasts, and deadly carrion birds. It was Iscap who told me “they’re not called carrion birds because they feed from rotting corpses; it’s because they create rotting corpses.” I saw it happen to a farmer who chose a terrible place to occupy land, as one of these loping avians flew down, gnawed into his neck with its curved beak, and I saw the blight of undeath afflict him within seconds. After we cut him down, I stored some of the wounded flesh in a pouch for later experimentation.

The border lacked the guards I expected. I discovered why when I reached Iterneton. Iterneton is a tremendous town of higgledy-piggledy towers each said to house families of corpses going back centuries and the ever-observant onyx lozenges that float around, spying on everyone passing through. Iterneton possesses a handful of living beings with whom I made a swift acquaintance. Though unwilling to divulge information freely, between Marasc, Sjazzara, and Iscap we were able to exert physical and mental pressure enough to make their lips and tongues move appropriately.

These Iternites explained how the border guard were drawn deeper into the Dys heartland to address the emergence of a terrible monster. This being — composed of gray, rotting flesh, split in multiple places to allow the screaming heads of its victims to emerge through slits in its skin — was spotted in a devastated town known as the Whispering Ruins. Since its appearance it has consumed upward of a hundred living and undead, growing in size each day. Moreover, it appears to be spawning heads with tendrils that trail from the open neck wounds, allowing them to propel themselves at surprising speed, all while howling horribly. I remarked “Alas, tis so much for Whispering Ruins,” but only Iscap laughed and clapped.

While I spent much time in Iterneton chronicling the activities of wraiths and shambling undead, my companions defended me from the draining compulsions of the incorporeal predators here. My mind kept drifting back to the many-headed abomination. Not out of morbid curiosity, I should stress, but because one of the witnesses with whom we spoke referred to a crown visible upon the brow of one of its inner heads. Mayhap this might be a chance for me to claim a crown of my own and exert Draoidahaek’s will and doom on the Monster Kingdoms?

There was little else for it, lest my interest devour me from within: I resolved to slay this beast and claim its crown for myself. Perhaps by doing so, the Dyso would also see me as a figure to be respected.

I shall update this journal anon, with good news or bad. Once the beast of the Whispering Ruins is felled, my intent is that we continue south to Creuore!

Hello Monsters,

A great first day! We funded the project, announced our first Stretch Goal, and shared the first Monster Kingdoms travelogue!

If you missed any of that, you can check out our updates in the Community section of the Crowdfunding page!

Today's update may be just as fun! Because I've got our next section of the draft manuscript for backers, this time looking at the Storypath system, which are the rules that run the Monster Kingdoms game!

But first, speaking about that Stretch Goal we announced yesterday...

We have achieved this Stretch Goal and unlocked this new Add On!


If you have pledged to one of the hardcover reward tiers, you can opt to "MANAGE YOUR PLEDGE" on the top or right side of the page and then "EDIT PLEDGE" to re-select your pledge tier and add this new Add On if you wish. You'll be able to update your pledge right up until the end, and all Add Ons will be available to select later in the Pledge Manager as well.

That means we need a new target to hunt!

Over the course of the next 4 weeks, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for Monster Kingdoms, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in monster-sized sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over the next several weeks, 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: https://forms.gle/TpaaPsUqJ79zD1kE6

You can use this Feedback Form to share your thoughts directly with the Monster Kingdoms creative team to help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.

Remember, thanks to BackerKit magic, 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 "Learn More" link on the bottom and I'll see you below the banner.

Hello Monsters!

My name is James, and I’ll be your Onyx Path Crowdfunding Concierge for this fun new project - Monster Kingdoms, the latest tabletop roleplaying game in the Earthbane Cycle. I’ll be updating the campaign as we go, sharing the draft mansucript previews, answering questions, and providing support wherever needed as best I can.


I’ll note that I’m not part of the creative team on this project – so I won’t be able to immediately answer some of the more intricate rules or design inquiries – but having me manage this Crowdfunding campaign allows Matthew and his crew to keep their focus on the awesome projects that they’ve got in the works.

That said, feel free to make me your point person for any questions or issues you may have. I'll make sure to dig up answers as quickly as possible and clear up any issues that arise. Mostly, I'm just looking forward to an exciting ride along with all of you on this (and future) projects.

Our comment section is for all members of this community – united by our shared desire to see this project fund and develop – to cheerlead the project and figure out how best to spread the word about what we’re building here. If you’ve started a thread on whatever social media platform exists today or a Discord conversation about the game or this campaign – let me know about it so we can share that info. If you’ve discussed the game on a blog or podcast, let’s hear about it! If you’ve got funny ideas for social media hashtags, well we can do those too!

I will also be the person who gets to share the updates and previews with you! As noted on the main page and in the pledge descriptions, I also get to share an exciting treat – The Monster Kingdoms Draft Manuscript previews, so you can start reading the book immediately! Scroll down to the bottom of this post on the website to see the first BACKERS-ONLY update for a download link.

So, welcome to Crowdfunding by BackerKit! Welcome to this exciting and interesting new game, Monster Kingdoms! Name your Sceptre! Seize your Crown!



Some quick things to note before we get into the manuscript.

First up, it's amazingly expensive to ship, especially from Onyx Path's home base in the US. And that's as of today - we're all in the dark about how things will look in 2 years. We get that, but there's not much we can do at this time. Onyx Path is in a difficult space where the company is big enough that they're not saving money by fulfilling out of Rich's garage, but small enough that they haven't been able to set up ongoing international partners to handle portions of the fulfillment. So we are where we are - for now.

The best we can do at this point is to plan carefully, advise everyone up front that shipping will likely be expensive (see our projections on the main page) and only charge what it costs us when the time comes. We’ll be charging for shipping in the Pledge Manager once the books are being printed and we can deal with the actual shipping charges rather than using our best-guesses this far out. If you aren't sure you want one of the hardcover editions, you can pledge to the PDF tier now and upgrade your pledge in the Pledge Manager once we know the final shipping costs.

Over the course of the next 30 days, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for Monster Kingdoms, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in monster-sized sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over the next several weeks, 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: https://forms.gle/TpaaPsUqJ79zD1kE6



You can use this Feedback Form to share your thoughts directly with the Monster Kingdoms creative team to help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.

Remember, thanks to BackerKit magic, 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 "Learn More" link on the bottom and I'll see you below the banner.