The Dark Symmetry PDF is Here!
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Mar 08, 2024 at 02:22:29 PM

Dearest Dark Symmetry Backers,

At long last, the Dark Symmetry PDF is finally here! Our wonderful artists, writers, designers, editors, and proofreaders have rallied together in an epic final sprint to get the second installment in the Lore of Aetherra series definitively across the finish line. I couldn’t be more proud of our team nor more satisfied with the way the book turned out. I think you’re going to love it as well. 

I’m happy to report that print files are with the printers, who have estimated that we should have books on their way to our fulfillment center by the end of March. With every other physical reward already in hand, we’ll be ready to start shipping boxes to you as soon as Dark Symmetry arrives.

Let’s dive into the updates!

Dark Symmetry PDF

The digital (PDF) version of the Dark Symmetry campaign setting and adventure is officially available for download for all backers. You should have already received an email with download instructions, but if you haven’t, go ahead and click here to access your digital downloads in BackerKit. If you have any trouble gaining access to your PDF, please contact us at [email protected].

Now let’s take a closer look at that PDF! 😍

Please note, this is version 1 of the PDF. If you find any errors, feel free to log them on our Discord server or shoot them directly to [email protected]. We really appreciate any and all feedback.

What’s Next?

Of course we’ve still got physical rewards to ship out, but we’ve already delivered a good bit of digital items… but there’s more! With Dark Symmetry in print, we’re now focusing our efforts on the last two remaining digital rewards on the campaign.

Aetherforging Toolkit
Unlocked toward the end of the campaign was the digital version of the Aetherforging Toolkit. This package of PDFs will include a set of play materials used for forging powerful items with aether. First, you’ll get a set of print-and-play cards featuring:

• Aether Caches: Loot cards that determine the amount of aether you find
• Aetheric Formulas: Recipe cards that guide you through the forging process
• Aetheric Artifacts: Item cards that represent items that have been imbued with aether

In addition to the print-and-play card set, you will also get a complete guide to Aetherforging. Much of this content will be the same as what’s inside the Dark Symmetry book, but we’ll make sure it’s spoiler-free to serve as a shareable reference for your players at the table. 

Alchemy Game Module
As many of you already know, our main gig is creating Alchemy RPG. A virtual tabletop built around cinematic immersion and theater of the mind gameplay. We created Lore of Aetherra specifically for the Alchemy platform — we just love making books and vinyls too! 

Our content ingestion team is hard at work creating the Dark Symmetry Alchemy module. Look for that hitting your inbox in the next couple of weeks!

Physical Rewards in Hand

As I mentioned, we have all of the physical inventory on hand (besides the Dark Symmetry standard and limited edition books) and I must say, we’re incredibly happy with how they turned out. 

Here are a couple of photos: 

Timeline

The progress chart below has just about run its course! We’re digging into the Aetherforging Toolkit and the Alchemy Module now. We’re hoping to get both of those rewards out to you all in the next 2-3 weeks.

With the factory estimate of books shipping at the end of March, we’re aiming to start packing boxes and printing labels in mid-April. Stay tuned for more updates here on how that process is going. We should be able to share factory photos of the Dark Symmetry standard and limited edition books before everything is palleted up and shipped to the fulfillment center. 

I’m a broken record at this point, but I just can’t say enough how grateful we are for your patience. We know that Kickstarters are often late more than they’re on time, but we’ve never accepted that norm as our standard. The completion of this book has been an incredible stress on our shoulders over the past year, but I can’t describe to you how incredible it feels to have it done.

We’re so proud of this work and we hope you absolutely love it as well. Remember, if you have feedback for us while thumbing through the PDF, please get in touch with us on Discord or email. 

Symmetrically Yours,

Chris @ Alchemy

Print Production, Art Progress, and Print Lock!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 04:37:18 PM

Happy New Year Dark Symmetry Backers,

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and your year is getting off to a great start! We’re feeling rejuvenated, inspired, and ready to explore what 2024 has in store for our creative endeavors. There’s so much we want to do with Aetherra and we can’t wait to share more of our ideas with you. 

Toward the end of last year we had such high hopes that we’d have Dark Symmetry completed and off to the printers; a cherry on top of a creatively fulfilling and productive year. Well December hit, and so did the holidays, and before we knew it, we were counting in the new year. — At this point, we are finished with every single task, product, and outstanding payment on this campaign except the internals of the Dark Symmetry book. — Why?

Artwork.

The more art we complete, the more we realize we need (and want) to amplify specific aspects of the story or provide visuals for some of the more complex concepts we’re trying to communicate. Since our last update, we’ve added several new environments and adventure map briefs and work orders for our talented team of artists. Could we have skipped these extra pieces and fast-tracked to print? Maybe, but then we’d have holes in the book, and paper and ink is forever. 

We set a high bar with The Lost Druid and we want to make sure that Dark Symmetry is everything it was, but so much more. — Thank you for your continued patience as we sweat these details and create for you the absolute best product we can. 

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the updates!
 

Manufacturing Updates

Dark Symmetry Vinyl

We love the way the Dark Symmetry Original Soundtrack turned out, and from what we’ve heard, many of you do as well. A beautiful soundtrack needs a beautiful vinyl, and I’m stoked to inform you that we have one. Our friends at Hand Drawn Pressing have come through again with another gorgeous gatefold and vinyl combo that we think is going to look incredible next to your copy of The Lost Druid. 

Here’s a photo from the factory of the gatefold and an early pressing of the vinyl in Tangerine Dream with hand-inked black marbling. After approving this photo, vinyl went into production and should be reaching our distribution facility within the next 1-2 weeks. 

The Lost Druid Vinyl Re-Press

We also recently received a restock of The Lost Druid vinyl. These albums are in our hands and ready to ship as soon as the rest of the physical goods arrive at our distribution center.

Dark Symmetry Soy Candles 

We also have in our possession some beautiful custom-scented soy candles, expertly crafted and hand poured by The Crafty Gamer (you gotta check these guys out). We worked with their team to explore several scent profiles and iterations on the tin, but ultimately fell in love with the custom printed black on black matte canister. If you’re one of the few who picked one of these up in our pre-order store, you’re in for a treat!

Dark Symmetry Player’s Guide

One of the things we were so stoked to do on this campaign was to create these 6x9 staple spine Player’s Guide booklets. These physical copies are specifically made for you to distribute to your players to build characters using the new subrace, classes, and spells found inside. Also inside is our custom 5e character sheet and 5 premade characters, ready to play.

The Lost Druid 3rd Printing

After a quick update and some small tweaks to The Lost Druid, we were able to get the book in production for its third printing. Standard Edition books were bound a couple of weeks ago while Limited Edition books are just arriving back at the print facility from a third party partner who gilded the edges in our Aqua Blue. We can’t wait to see how they turned out. — Here’s a photo of the pallet of insets before hardcover binding and edge gilding.

Everything's coming together surprisingly well with the physical manufacturing process on all fronts as the printers patiently await our final submission of the Dark Symmetry inset. With covers already created and our position held in the print queue, we should be able to turn the book around quickly as soon as it’s submitted.

Art Production Update

If you’ve backed any of our other projects, you know that we have an insanely high bar for visual aesthetics. We aim to create evocative experiences with the things we make that immerse you and your friends deeply within a fantastical story world. — As we’ve neared the completion of our budgeted scope of artwork for Dark Symmetry, we’re realizing that there is so much more we need to depict, so many concepts we want to visualize, and so many pages we want to fill with interesting artwork from our amazing team. 

Here’s a look at some of the new pieces we’ve recently completed:

The Endeavor Mansions Habitat

We have a great shot of the exterior view of Chrysalea and a beautiful top-down map, but what we didn’t have was anything up close that helped show the structure of the city, what it was made of, and its scale. This piece helped capture those elements.

The Eiven Quarter During the Festival of Prowess

The other perspective we lacked was what it looked like to walk the streets of Chrysalea. We wanted this piece to give you a boots-on-the-ground view into the Eiven Quarter.

Taos’ Station

I won’t say too much about this piece as it depicts the location of a critical event in the story’s arc. This is Taos Openda’s underground mining operation below the bottom of the lake.

The Gloom Doldrums

One of our favorite places in Chrysalea is Gloom. An ostracized habitat with impossible living conditions due to it being a dumping site for aether experimentation. These doldrums represent where there was once a massive root from the Mother Tree, delivering life and sustenance. Now an empty void of ruin.

Sketch Illustration Preview

Much of the art that remains on our todo list today are these sketch illustrations crafted by the talented Jordan Kerbow. Pieces that help embellish the pages within a chapter and depict hyper-specific elements within the story. Though these type of illustrations lack the high detail of a fully realized space, we absolutely love what they do for the reader: help fill the gaps in the imagination.

In Dark Symmetry, we get to explore the aquatic life of Chrysal Lake where we couldn't in The Lost Druid due to budget constraints.

We’re so excited for you to read The Ghost in the Machine. A portion of the adventure that takes place within Mount Mnaris in the Balance habitat. Here the characters learn all about the Mnaris Project and the dark secrets this mountain vault holds. 

We sincerely hope you love the artwork we’re making. Thank you all for your patience as we meticulously build each of these spreads. It will be worth the extra time!

Speaking of time…

Print Lock & Timeline

We know you’ve been waiting patiently for this book to arrive and we’re certainly feeling the (self-imposed) pressure to get it finished. Though we’re making some awesome improvements now that we know you’re going to love, we also realize we need to put a reasonable limit on the amount of time we spend making those improvements. 

That’s why we’ve decided to impose the immovable deadline of February 28, 2024. This is the date we will put our paint brushes down, regardless of where we’re at, and push the layouts into PRINT LOCK. That means that shortly after this date, not only will we send the book off for printing, we’ll also be delivering to you the PDF. 

Here’s an updated look at our timeline estimates:

With a fresh update on production, artwork, and a date to look forward to finally seeing this book, we just want to say thank you again for your patience so far. Your support means the world to us and we wouldn’t be here without you. — More to come!

Symmetrically Yours,

Chris (CEO, Alchemy RPG)

Digital Rewards, Print Production, Shipping & Add-Ons
over 2 years ago – Sat, Nov 04, 2023 at 07:48:53 PM

Hello Dark Symmetry Backers,

We’re so incredibly close to getting this book in your hands! We’ve made some great progress over the past 4 weeks on art production, digital assets, and print production. We officially have new digital rewards ready for download, print files at the printers, music files at the vinyl factory, playtesting wrapped up, and final charges collected for fulfillment.

Let’s dive into the updates!

Dark Symmetry Player’s Guide

We’re so excited to announce that the Dark Symmetry Player’s Guide PDF is ready for download! Inside, your players will find 12 new subclasses, 1 new subrace, new spells, 5 premade characters, custom character sheets, and a map of the city of Chrysalea. Be sure to check BackerKit for your download link. All backers who backed at the Daybreaker tier or higher should have access to this digital download. Let’s take a closer look at a few pages from the guide:

Dark Symmetry Original Soundtrack

We couldn’t be more excited to announce that the Dark Symmetry Original Soundtrack is available for digital download! This body of music has been a labor of love that we’ve relentlessly agonized over for the past 12 months. We’re incredibly proud of these compositions, not only because they’re the best songs we’ve written and recorded to date, but because they so perfectly capture the sonic tone of Dark Symmetry. We think you’re going to love these songs and we can’t wait to hear what you think.

Check your BackerKit digital downloads for your link to download the MP3 OST. If you’re receiving a vinyl with your pledge, we’re thrilled to inform you that our partners at Hand Drawn Pressing are hard at work creating your hand-inked 180g double gatefold vinyl in Tangerine Dream with black marbling. This is going to be an absolutely gorgeous product we can’t wait for you to hold and hear.

Print Production Update

We’ve been working hard with our partners at Standart Impressa getting all of the print materials ready for mass production. Here’s a list of everything we officially have at the printing house:

• The Lost Druid Third Printing
• The Lost Druid Standard Edition Hardcovers
• The Lost Druid Limited Edition Hardcovers
• The Lost Druid Title Art Poster
• Dark Symmetry Standard Edition Hardcovers
• Dark Symmetry Limited Edition Hardcovers
• Dark Symmetry Player’s Guide Booklets
• Dark Symmetry Title Art Poster
  

We’re so excited for you to see the Limited Edition covers for Dark Symmetry and The Lost Druid. Each with UV Coated Aether and Chrysalea schemas and red and blue gilded page edges.

Here’s a look at the final cover submissions:

We’ll be sure to keep you updated in the coming weeks as Standard delivers final production samples and we get more information on production timelines which will ultimately determine delivery dates. – We’re so close y’all!

Art Production Update

We continue to make incredible progress on art production for the Dark Symmetry book, but we’re not quite out of the woods yet! We’re happy to report that the “core artwork” for the book has been completed: All character art and environment art is complete, leaving only a handful of maps and finishing sketch art pieces.

We’ve been so pleased with how the character art has turned out, especially those done by Ognjen Sporin who did an incredible job depicting the Chrysaleans. Check out these pieces:

Here’s a look at our latest environment: The Merelise Mansion from the adventure portion of the book, The Ivory Tower and The Shackled Bow Shelf Cave from At the Bottom of the Lake:

Playtesting Wrapped

We just wanted to give a huge thank you to all of those who participated in our three rounds of playtesting. Your feedback has been invaluable to us as we’ve worked through the final developmental edits on Dark Symmetry. We’re happy to report that we’re finished playtesting and working through a few final tweaks as we wait for the last map art pieces to roll in.

Charging for Shipping & Add-Ons

Charges for shipping and add-ons have finally been collected! – We want to thank you for your patience as we’ve spent months working through determining the final shipping logistics for this campaign. We’ve been relentless in determining shipping fees, working with three different logistics partners, to finally land on what we feel are the absolute best pricing and priority shipping, both domestically and internationally.

If you have any questions about your order, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us at [email protected].

Timeline Update

With all of these updates in mind, we’re so incredibly close to having this book in your hands. With much already in production now, we’re just weeks away from wrapping the final sprint on artwork to get the guts of the Dark Symmetry book to the printer.

Here’s an updated look at our timeline estimates:

Art progress, new playtest material, music, and fulfillment
over 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 03:12:51 PM

Hello Dark Symmetry Backers!

First off, thank you so much for your patience as we work through the final obstacles of fulfilling this campaign. We’ve made some incredible progress on art, developmental editing, and manufacturing. In this update, we’ll share a long overdue update on creative production, release our final playtesting packet, and key you in on what’s next.

Let’s dive into the updates…

Art Production

As mentioned in our previous update, art has been the area we’ve been the furthest behind. I’m happy to report, that is no longer the case. Our art team has created some of our most stunning pieces yet. We’ve completed character art for all 12 subclasses, many of the environments from the adventure and setting portions of the book, custom character sheets, and are now diving deep into cartography.

Subclasses

Below are 7 of the 12 completed subclasses in the book. Each spread features class information flanked by beautiful full-page character images and thematic background elements. We can’t wait for you to roll up your own take on these character archetypes and explore the underwater city!

Setting & Adventure

Chrysalea features a diverse set of both interior and natural environments to depict a setting that is otherworldly, backdropped with the advanced organic Chrysalean technology. We’re having so much fun bringing these scenes to life!

Character Sheets

The 6x9” Player’s Guide booklets (and PDFs) will include all of the character creation options from the book, so you can distribute relevant information to your players without also sharing the secrets of the scene guide. Appended to the back of these booklets will be the custom Dark Symmetry character sheet so your players can track their adventure through Chrysalea. They’ll find new fields to track their aether cache and prominence points they’ve earned across the various factions in the city.

Premade Characters

We’re currently hard at work on character portraits for the premade characters comprised of the custom subclasses offered in Dark Symmetry. Players will be able grab a character and dive right into the adventure, or use them as a starting point to build their own.

We couldn’t be happier with the art that Brian (our Art Director) is getting out of our amazing team of talented artists. This has been an area of creative production that we’ve been behind on, but we’re so glad we’re taking the time to get it right.

We were shooting to have everything wrapped up by the end of August, and we made great strides toward that goal, but we had several summer vacations and holidays on the team we didn’t account for. That leaves a few more environments, premades, and maps we still need to wrap up. It’s never fun to miss a goal, but it’s hard to be disappointed in the level of quality we’re getting from the team!

New Playtest Material

Attention Dark Symmetry playtesters! We’re excited to present you with our final playtest packet: The art of aetherforging. A way for players to imbue mundane items with powerful effects by harnessing the power of aether and sound. We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on both your initial read-through and/or play-through.

Specifically, we’re looking for feedback on the following:

•  Intuitiveness: Is it easy to understand what aetherforging is and how to do it?
•  Usefulness: Do you think this would be a useful addition to your DS adventure?
•  Fun: Does the process of collecting aether and forging it into items sound like a fun downtime activity?

Download the playtest packet here.

Leave your feedback for us here.

Soundtrack

If you know anything about our team, you know that music is at the heart of everything we create. Dark Symmetry is no exception, inspiring our stories and the sonic nature of the world of Chrysalea. Jessy (our composer) currently has 11 of 12 planned compositions completed that will backdrop each of the scenes in the adventure.

Here’s a sneak peak at “Shadows of Remembrance.” – This theme brings to life the scene in Origin, a  habitat that houses the technological innovations of Chrysalea. In this scene, the players adventure through The Reach. The laboratory that once drove many momentous discoveries and breakthroughs for the Chrysaleans but now holds a forgotten relic of the past: The first Peerless Arc.

A Note on Scope & Budget

In our first book, The Lost Druid, we had an incredibly ambitious goal of composing over two hours of gameplay music. In fact we composed so much music we couldn’t fit it all on two double-sided vinyl records! – Full disclosure, The Lost Druid soundtrack is valued at $144,000 ($1,200 per minute). Yeah, that’s some serious cash to drop on music, but I think it illustrates how important music is to what we create and how committed we are to paying top talent industry-standard rates to compose it.

When we set out to create Dark Symmetry, we planned to do the same (2 hours of original music), but as we near the end of the project and factor in the costs of manufacturing 4 books (TLD and DS standard and limited edition covers), dice, vinyl records, Player’s Guide booklets, candles, and posters, we’ve come to the sobering realization that we will be unable to meet that same scope. Dark Symmetry will feature 12 compositions at 5 minutes each, totaling a little over 60 minutes of gameplay music. This still puts us in the territory of a double vinyl for the physical pressing, just a bit short of what we originally set out to accomplish.

On the bright side, we think this is the best music we’ve ever created for Lore of Aetherra, and that it perfectly captures the genre of Science Fantasy. We hope you will absolutely love the music and the ambient sound design tracks that will accompany each composition as much as we do.

Timeline Update

Again, thank you all so much for your patience as we work through the logistical challenges on fulfilling this project. We mentioned in our last update that we would be charging for shipping and add-ons at the end of June. This has NOT happened yet.

The short story is, we received shipping estimates from our fulfillment partner and they were not good. Since that partner was US based, international shipping rates were through the roof and we didn’t feel right about passing those costs on to you. So, we started from scratch with a new fulfillment partner based in the same country our books are being printed (Lithuania). Not only were their US rates the same as the US-based shipping provider, their international rates were light years more affordable.

While the move saves everyone a lot in shipping, we’ve had to start from scratch with a whole new logistics provider and even have had to ship some inventory from our previous provider to the new one. I just received word that we will have a final cost simulation from our new provider tomorrow, after which we will load into BackerKit, and charge cards with a 48-hour notice. We’re expecting to have everything in place to do that as soon as next week!

Timeline Expectations

With final editing, developmental editing (game design), and layout complete, we officially have a book! At this point, we’re just filling in placeholders in the layout with artwork as it becomes available. We’re aiming to have the complete book, with art, finished by late-October. That means PDF fulfillment and print files sent to the printer for book manufacturing.

Here’s an updated look at our timeline estimates:

Again, thank you so much for your patience as we work through the challenges of fulfilling this project! We’re moving at a strong clip, making progress, and loving the outcome of the creative work.

Symmetrically Yours,

Chris (CEO, Alchemy RPG)

Art Production, Playtesting, and Shipping
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 24, 2023 at 07:47:15 PM

Hello Dark Symmetry Backers!

We hope you’re getting excited to continue your Lore of Aetherra adventure and explore the magnificent underwater city of Chrysalea. We’ve made a lot of great progress in the last 30 days but we have some important updates to share with you regarding our fulfillment timeline, a new playtest packet, and an update on shipping.

Let’s dive in…

Art Production Delays

If you own a copy of The Lost Druid, you know that we have incredibly high standards for the art we produce for our books. Depicting the city of Chrysalea has been no easy feat and we’ve had some challenges in the art direction department that have caused some delays to our planned fulfillment date. We have an all-star line-up of creatives working on Dark Symmetry, but sourcing and directing artists is a much different ballgame from writing and designing a setting and adventure. Unfortunately this gap in skill set has caused us to fall behind on art production, but it also presents us with the benefit of creating art for a completely finished manuscript.

How have we solved this issue?

We’re excited to announce that Brian Walters, Art Director for Hit Point Press titles like Humblewood Tales, Heckna!, and Fool’s Gold, has joined our team to help bring Chrysalea and its many characters to life visually. Brian brings his experience directing art for Hit Point Press and his many connections throughout the TTRPG art community, to help get art production moving forward quickly and at the standard of quality we expect for our books. We’re stoked for Brian to join the Dark Symmetry team and can’t wait to see where he takes it.

Cool, but how much extra time are we talking about?

Our goal is to complete all of the artwork for the book, have it laid out, and ready for prepress by the end of August. We’re ramped up and currently in production with some of the incredible returning artists from The Lost Druid, including Maxwell Schiller, Leon Tukker, Jordan Kerbow, and Stu Harrington. We know delays aren’t great news, but we’re also incredibly excited about the velocity and quality this team is capable of producing.

We’ll be sure to keep you posted on our progress in the coming weeks. For now, check out this time lapse of Queen Lillius Openda from the amazing Stu Harrington:

New Playtest Material

First, thank you all so much to those who have been participating in our playtest for Dark Symmetry. Your feedback has been invaluable! We’re super excited to share with you our next packet: Subclasses!

Included are the 12 original subclasses that you can use in the book’s adventure or in your existing 5e campaigns (where applicable). We’d love to hear your open-ended feedback on both your initial read-through and/or play-through.

Specifically, we’re looking for feedback on the following:

•  Balance: Does the subclass feel over or under powered at the various character levels?
•  Fun: Are these subclasses thematically interesting to you and are they fun to play?
•  Intuitiveness: Is it easy to grok the features of the subclass and create a character using them?

Download the playtest packet here.

Leave your feedback for us here.

Book Layouts

With a completed manuscript for Dark Symmetry in hand, we’re also nearing completion on one of our favorite steps in the process: Layout! Chris and Tori (our awesome new layout designer!) have been having a blast expanding upon the established styles from The Lost Druid, to produce a consistent look with some fresh additions for Dark Symmetry.

We’re working with the incredible Jeff Langavin to expand the graphic design elements throughout the book, including these sequential chapter spreads, which depict the aether core burning hotter and brighter as the story progresses.

As mentioned previously, one of the benefits to having writing and layout in place ahead of final artwork is that our artists can craft art pieces specifically for the contents of the book for a more intentional final product that perfectly marries with its writing.

Shipping + Charging Cards

Though we’re experiencing delays in the art department, the logistical planning of the project remains on schedule (thank you, Asher!). With a final shipping quote in hand, we’re just about ready to charge cards for shipping and add-ons via BackerKit. We’re planning to get those figures entered this week and charge cards by Friday, June 30th. Please note, this will be your last chance to make any changes to your order.

If you have any last minute address changes, please get in touch with us this week to make those corrections to ensure you receive your rewards when they ship. You can get in touch via the Alchemy RPG Discord or by emailing us at [email protected].

Timeline Estimate

First and foremost, thank you all so much for your continued support and your patience as we work through the various challenges of this project. We’re committed to delivering the absolute best product we’re capable of creating, even if that takes us a bit longer than we initially anticipated.

Here’s a look at what’s left and our projections on when you can expect to receive your rewards.

We’re very proud of what we’ve already created and excitedly look ahead to what’s still to come. Stay tuned for more frequent updates regarding our team’s progress.

Symmetrically Yours,

Chris (CEO, Alchemy RPG)