The most immersive way to play tabletop role-playing games online.
Welcome to the pre-order store for the Kickstarter campaign, Alchemy RPG: A Reimagined Virtual Tabletop. The prices and rewards (including stretch goals) are the same as they were during the campaign and are available until we lock in order quantities.
Please note, we are waiting to charge for shipping and sales tax until we are closer to fulfillment. After shipping fees and tax are added in, you will be notified via email before your payment is charged. For estimated prices and taxes, please look at the bottom of the Kickstarter page.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Devlog #36: Tales of the Valiant, Action Prompts, and OUTGUNNED!
4 months ago
– Sat, May 25, 2024 at 06:02:28 PM
Hey Backers,
May has been a packed month of exciting game releases, excellent progress toward our V1 goals, and of course, Vampire chasing! Today we have a quick check-in for you in the form of the latest Devlog, where Isaac covers our Tales of the Valiant integration and some exciting improvements to System Builder.
Vampire: The Masquerade We're getting stoked to show you what we've been doing on Vampire: The Masquerade. Isaac and team have been building out some brand new components, like dual-state pip trackers, and more customization for the primary / secondary wing trackers in the game experience. Stay tuned for the beta announcement soon!
Speaking of Betas...
Outgunned Enhanced Edition (Beta)
Today we're excited to release Outgunned into Beta! Outgunned is an action-packed cinematic RPG by some of our favorite creators: Two Little Mice. During the campaign, we partnered with 2LM to announce that all backers on their campaign and ours would receive a free Alchemy module for the Enhanced Edition of the Core Rulebook. Well, today's the day! All backers at the Content Deck pledge tier and above should have already received a redemption code via BackerKit. If you haven't received your code, please get in touch with us.
Jump in, redeem your code, and let us know what you think!
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We have some incredible things planned this summer so make sure you're plugged into our newsletter, discord, and/or social media. We can't wait to show you what's next!
Cheers,
Chris
Devlog #35: Token Settings, Two-State Pip Trackers, and More!
4 months ago
– Mon, May 06, 2024 at 06:17:51 PM
Hey Backers,
May is upon us and we're currently fully immersed in the World of Darkness! In the latest episode of the Devlog, Isaac shows off some of the new core kit functionality we're building in preparation for Vampire: The Masquerade game support as well as one of our final V1 roadmap features: Token Settings. Watch Devlog #35 to get all the details:
Additionally, we're currently working on perfecting our Dragonbane integration by adding several capabilities to System Builder, like the ability to...
build a roll from a character attribute
add a "push roll" option to an action
shuffle combat initiative along with better round tracking
prompt a Player for more information to determine a Target Number
Check out the episode to learn more, and as always, feel free to drop us a question or comment for Isaac to answer on the next Devlog.
A Week in the Misty Vale
Our latest optimizations for Dragonbane come on the heals of a few exciting announcements tied to the game system release. Check it out:
TWO: We've partnered with our friends at Free League and Startplaying to put on: Alchemy Presents: Dragonbane. A Week of Mirth and Mayhem. A week-long activation event that organizes tons of professional Gamemasters hosting games of Dragonbane exclusively on Alchemy. If you want to experience this awesome game in the new Alchemy integration, this is a great opportunity to do so!
The event will run Monday 5/13 - Sunday 5/19. Browse the available games so far, and if you're new to Startplaying, sign up here to get a $10 credit on us!
THREE: This week our team is hosting several LIVE workshops to teach curious Gamemasters how to play Dragonbane on Alchemy... totally FREE. If you're interested in jumping into a session, you can sign up today on Startplaying.
FOUR: Check out our article on Dragonbane at alchemyrpg.com/dragonbane. Written by Taron Pounds (aka Indestructoboy), this article dives deep into the history of the IP, how it plays, GM tips and tricks, and much more.
Have you seen Mek Borg yet? — Our good friend Dave is is writing one of these amazing Mörk Borg compatible adventures, and best of all, it's coming to Alchemy! If you like our Mörk Borg, Vast Grimm, and Pirate Borg integrations, you're going to love Mek Borg. Check it out on Kickstarter. They've only got 9 days left!
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That's all for this quick update! — For an even tighter feedback loop, be sure to join our Discord server and if you need us for anything, drop us a note at [email protected].
Cheers!
Chris
Devlog #34: Fallout, Dragonbane, and What's Next?
5 months ago
– Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 09:48:50 PM
Hey Backers,
It's been an exciting couple of weeks here at Alchemy HQ! We've moved two major titles into full releases: Fallout the RPG and Dragonbane. To mechanize both of these systems we've made some major upgrades to both System Builder and our Action System. — Join Isaac in Devlog #34 to get a closer look:
Our current momentum has all of us super excited to blaze through the rest of our V1 Content Roadmap. What system are we tackling next? — Vampire: The Masquerade. 🧛
See you in the next update!
Chris
Game System Support, Fallout, Shipping, System Builder, V1 Progress, and More!
5 months ago
– Mon, Apr 08, 2024 at 06:03:31 PM
Hey Backers,
Please pardon the long lapse in Kickstarter updates! Our team has been heads down cranking out some incredibly powerful new capabilities for the Alchemy platform that we can’t wait to share with you, but before I get into the updates, I want to take a moment to say thank you for all the support, feedback, and patience as we sprint nearer to the finish line of this campaign. I know many of you are still waiting on mechanical support for your favorite game system, but rest assured, beta activations for every system offered on this campaign are right around the corner.
As our developers have been banging on our System Builder, we’ve been shipping thousands of Backer Boxes and Content Decks all over the world. At this point, most of you should have either received your physical rewards, or (at least) a shipping notification informing you that they have shipped. There are a handful of orders we’re still working on to resolve shipping issues, mostly to hard-to-reach regions. If you haven’t received your physical rewards or a shipping notification, please reach out to us ([email protected]) so we can get you squared away.
Now, without further ado, let’s get into a few updates!
System Builder (It's Aliiiiive!)
In November we announced in a Kickstarter update that we would be making a pretty significant pivot to our development strategy for V1 by moving away from building each game system individually, and instead focus our efforts on creating a robust feature set to enable anyone on our team (not just software engineers) to mechanicalize game systems within a Content Universe. The idea was that we’d trade some short-term velocity on system development for the ability to spend 1-2 weeks (instead of 1-2 months) standing up complete game system support for character sheets, dice mechanics, custom theming, and game experience automations. And best of all, the ability to eventually extend that same functionality to you to build your own game systems.
3 months of development, lots of bugs squashed, and a few gallons of Ghost later and I can confidently say that we made the right call! – Last month we rolled out Coriolis: The Third Horizon into a full release, which was our first system to use System Builder in its Ship Sheet. Now, we’ve built Fallout (moving into beta tomorrow) and Dragonbane (projected for beta next week) from top to bottom in System Builder and both look excellent!
Here’s an early look at what we’re working with in Sheet Builder:
Coriolis: The Third Horizon Ship Sheet
Fallout PC, NPC, and Creature Sheets
Dragonbane PC, NPC, and Monster Sheets
Get a closer look at Sheet Builder in the latest version of the Devlog where Isaac demos the latest features for creating a sheet and using them in a game:
More Feature Development
So what else have we been working on? A whole lot! – Here’s a roundup of some of our latest code deploys along with their highlights in the Alchemy Devlog.
Shared Game Trackers Game trackers enable GMs to create game trackers in their own dedicated tracker panel within the game experience and share those trackers with their players. This works great for mechanics like Darkness Points, Momentum, Clocks, and more.
Dice Roll Builder It’s kind of wild we went so long without this, but we made a fundamental change to our dice roller, enabling players to build and roll multiple dice at once.
Segmented Dice Pools + Marketplace Revamp Many of the games on our V1 roadmap require different types of dice to be rolled in the same dice pool. Segmented Dice Pools merges those individual dice pool actions into one result, making it a whole lot easier to parse. We also added more search and browse functionality to our Marketplace.
Token Rotation, In-Game Search for Players Essential for games like Pirate Borg that feature naval combat systems, we built the ability to rotate tokens and extended the in-game search to players (not just GMs).
Zen Mode One of our favorite new features, Zen Mode allows a player or GM to hide the game interface and immerse in the scene without the distraction of the UI.
Performance Settings With the introduction of a slew of new Tactical Mode features last year, we noticed a significant impact on the app’s performance, so we spent the time to optimize a few things and build a few settings to enable players to dial in a more personalized experience for their hardware.
So what’s left on the “version 1” list? For many of our backers, the idea of “V1” has been a bit nebulous as we’re working through all kinds of features, some we’ve communicated externally and some we haven’t. So then what are we waiting for before stamping the V1 release? – Mostly Game Systems. In particular the game systems we promised on our Kickstarter.
Beyond games, we’ve also been working through our Streamer Mode feature in the background. This is an experience that requires quite a bit of authentication capabilities to enable multiple instances of a game and prevent security holes when viewing access is shared. We’ve made great progress on that front and are so excited to share with you how the feature has evolved in a future update.
Game System Rollouts
With System Builder in full swing, we’re preparing for an impending flurry of long-awaited game system rollouts over the next few weeks. These games will of course roll out to backers first before making their way into full release and the Alchemy Marketplace. Let’s take a moment to discuss what we mean when we say Alpha, Beta, and Release.
ALPHA: Access to Content Universe Think of alpha as if you were receiving the game book, enabling you to read the setting, learn the rules, and prepare for future campaigns.
BETA: Character Sheets, Dice, and Game-Ready Assets Think of beta as if you were playing the game at the table, with access to character sheets, dice, miniatures, handouts, and all of the other supplements you’d need to run the game in its entirety.
RELEASE: Automation & Quality of Life Think of the full release as everything you’d expect from your VTT experience, with smart character sheets that filter options based on choices, character creation options and/or generators, and automations that help streamline the gameplay experience.
As we move Fallout into beta tomorrow, we’ve already been working hard on queuing up Dragonbane to not be far behind. Our team is concurrently working on Vampire: The Masquerade, Forbidden Lands, and Pathfinder 2e. We’re aiming to release all of these titles into Beta this month!
Here's a look at the state of every game system we're working on. Each column represents where the system is in it's release lifecycle.
Fallout: A Week in the Wasteland
To celebrate the release of Fallout on Alchemy, we’ve partnered with Modiphius Entertainment and Startplaying Games to kick off A Week in the Wasteland. – Starting today, players can sign up for tons of open games hosted by professional gamemasters exclusively on Alchemy.
Don’t miss out on your chance to experience Fallout on Alchemy with some great GMs. And if it’s your first time on Startplaying, click here to sign up and get a free $10.00 credit on us.
Ready to GM your own Fallout game? Join Dan and Vinny from the Alchemy team as they walk you through how to get started building immersive scenes on Alchemy running the Fallout RPG game system integration.
What’s Next?
We have so many exciting new partnerships, features, title releases, and project initiatives that we absolutely can’t wait to reveal to you later this year. For now, we’re going to remain laser focused on game system development and get this V1 release stamped!
Working through the fulfillment of this Kickstarter has been an incredible challenge, but Isaac and I are so proud of our team for remaining steadfast and steadily making progress toward our monumental goals week in and week out. We know you’re eager to experience Alchemy to the fullest, and we can’t wait for you to. Again, thank you for your patience!
As for what lies beyond Version One, we aren’t ready to announce that just yet… but we think it’s going to be a pretty big deal.
Alchemy Partners on Kickstarter
We have several partners with active campaigns on Kickstarter who are offering Alchemy modules as stretch goals or add-ons. If you’re looking to bag even more games at incredible savings, check them out!
The Field Guide to Floral Dragons (Hit Point Press) Blends the fascinating world of flowers with dragons and a dash of magic to create a fabulously floral draconomicon. Featuring Kin Wald’s gorgeous illustrations, this over 200+ page book contains everything you need to spark imagination and create floral dragon-filled stories and adventures. – If you know who Hit Point Press is then you know this is going to be a top notch 5e supplement that brings the highest aesthetic, mechanical balance, and originality. Don’t sleep on this one!
Astroprisma (Crescent Chimera) A solo sci-fi rpg about space exploration and faction conflict set in a retrofuturistic universe. – We’re so excited about this game. This is a must back!
Secret Dragons (Roll For Combat) Four books, each covering in extensive detail a new family of dragons and the many ways to play them and add them to your game! – A must have 5E / P2E supplement for dragon lovers.
If you have any additional questions, comments, or concerns, we want to hear from you! Join the thousands of Alchemy supporters in our Discord Community, or you can always reach us directly at [email protected].
That’s all for now!
Chris
Wave 5, Physical Rewards, V1 Progress, System Builder, and more!
8 months ago
– Mon, Jan 08, 2024 at 01:29:20 AM
Happy New Year, Backers!
2023 was an incredible year for Alchemy and our small team feels incredibly lucky to be entering into our third year of full-time development on the platform. We’re so excited to discover what 2024 has in store and can’t wait to reveal some exciting new initiatives later this year that we know you all are going to be stoked for.
Though we had hoped to have stamped the Version One release before the end of 2023, the challenges we faced have galvanized our vision for Alchemy and inadvertently pushed the platform (and our business) down a path of becoming more sophisticated than we had ever imagined it would be. From developing tactics that enable us to build componentized support for game systems at scale to creative directing a team of motion designers, sound designers, and composers in the production of over 500 multimedia assets, 2023 taught us how to activate. – We can’t wait to put those new skills and systems to work this year to make Alchemy not only the most immersive place to play TTRPG, but also the most ubiquitous.
Looking ahead, our number one priority remains game system activation as we concurrently work toward the completion of our V1 feature roadmap. We’re so close. How close? Let’s dive into the updates and see.
Version One Progress
If you’re following along with our V1 Roadmap, you’ll see that we’re just a few milestones away from presenting the baseline feature set that we’ll build and iterate upon as Alchemy grows. With likely just a few more weeks of feature development ahead, we’ll be focusing our efforts wholly on activating new game systems by way of our System Builder as well as continuing to build system integrations by hand. Here’s a look at what we recently shipped, what’s going out in the next deploy, and what’s coming next:
Custom Dice (v0.225.0) — Deployed: Jan 5, 2024
Among an ongoing list of bug fixes and improvements, last week we shipped Custom Dice. One of the first paramount features required for System Builder. Custom Dice enables us to create bespoke die types, customizing their success and fail value, number of faces, and even provide custom iconography to support games with special faces.
Custom Dice for Vaesen in action
In addition to the ability to create custom dice, this feature also enables us to create custom dice sets for game systems as well. These dice sets will then appear in the game for every player by default. One of the most powerful aspects of this feature is that the individual dice are simply Alchemy Actions (our rudimentary automation framework). That means that the default dice set in each game can include any action type, such as an attack, roll table, sound, dice roll, or any combination of actions.
Custom Action Tray
The Custom Dice builder enables us to set up proprietary dice mechanics for game systems completely from the UI, which saves days of development time. Best of all, Custom Dice is available to everyone else as well. Create your own games with custom dice!
Persistent Encounters, Streamer Mode MVP, System Builder MVP, and Coriolis (v0.226)—Projected: Friday, Jan 12, 2024
We’re currently testing a massive improvement to our turn order system which persists the Encounter order across instances where it might be reset today, such as the GM leaving and returning to the game, temporarily losing internet connection, and changing scenes.
Streamer Mode has presented us with a few unexpected challenges, but we’re aiming to get the first pass of it out to you next week. This feature allows you to pop out a new window of the game experience without any specific GM or Player information. That window can then be shared to a broadcasting tool, like OBS, or presented locally to provide an agnostic view of the game in an in-person setting. Additional features allow you to upload a custom overlay image, a copy/pasteable broadcast link, and coming shortly after launch, the ability to customize what panels to show in the UI (including cameras) and which panels to hide completely.
Current state of Streamer Mode pop-out window
With Custom Dice, Themes, and the basic custom character sheet builder, we have the foundational building blocks in place for System Builder. This past week, we’ve been working on bringing these components together into a brand new destination in the app called System Universe. This will be an alternate view of a Content Universe where you’re used to seeing Articles, NPCs, Handouts, Scenes, etc. that will enable us (and you for your custom Universes) to build out the mechanical configurations that tell Alchemy how a game system operates. Most importantly, the System Universe will serve as the foundation to one of our most significant capabilities to date: the ability to quickly create first-party support for any TTRPG.
System Universe Switcher
Of course all of this work on System Universe is to increase our velocity for creating new game systems as we continue to build them by hand. In this deployment we also plan to push our third Year Zero Engine game, Coriolis.
Coriolis character sheet
What’s Next? (v0.227+) — Projected: Friday, Jan 19 and beyond
Beyond next week, we’ll be diving into the ability to rotate tokens and customize their borders, configure the UI panels that appear in Streamer Mode, and diving deep into expanding the functionality of our custom character sheet builder via System Builder.
And of course we’ll also be continuing to work on the V1 game systems. For a prioritized list of game systems, see the bottom portion of our V1 Roadmap.
Physical Rewards Shipping Next Week
For those of you who are receiving physical rewards, we’re excited to announce that Backer Boxes and Content Decks have been completed, shipped from the factory, and have been safely delivered to the distribution center. Our warehouse team will begin stuffing envelopes this week with the goal to begin shipping the week of January 15.
As you likely saw this past week, all shipping addresses have now been locked via BackerKit. That means addresses can not be changed without contacting us directly. If you require an address update, please get in touch immediately at [email protected]. Once packages are labeled, we’ll have no way to make any address changes.
We will update you once packages begin shipping and everyone receiving physical rewards should expect to receive a tracking number. All of this information will come via BackerKit, so be sure to keep an eye on your inbox.
Want to get a sneak peak of the Backer Box and Content Decks? Check out this unboxing stream that Dan recorded last month:
Wave 5: The Final Fulfillment Wave
Coming this Friday, January 12 we will be delivering the fifth and final wave of digital codes via BackerKit. These codes will round off a staggering 82 total codes offered on this campaign!
Please keep in mind that if you are receiving physical rewards you do not have to redeem all of these individual codes. On every content deck there is one unique code printed on the inside flap that will redeem all 10 of the titles within. That means you only need to input one code per deck you receive to redeem all available rewards to your Alchemy account.
Content Deck code location
Listed below are the 32 remaining titles included in Wave 5, broken down by your chosen reward tier. Please take special note that titles denoted with PRE-RELEASE are titles with game systems that are still in development. That means that while these games do not have playable character sheets yet, they do have a complete Content Universe and Alchemy Enhanced game assets (where applicable). You will also be able to create games using pre-release titles that will automatically be updated when the game system is released, enabling you to begin preparing for your future campaigns as soon as you receive your codes.
Fantasy Deck & Backer Boxes
Dragonbane Core Set (Enhanced Edition) – PRE-RELEASE
Pathfinder 2e Core Rulebook – PRE-RELEASE
Futures Deck & Backer Boxes
Coriolis Core Rulebook (Enhanced Edition)
Fallout RPG Starter Set (Enhanced Edition) – PRE-RELEASE
Stillfleet – PRE-RELEASE
The Wildsea – PRE-RELEASE
Horror Deck & Backer Boxes
Call of Cthulhu Core Rulebook (Enhanced Edition) – PRE-RELEASE
Maelstrom – PRE-RELEASE
Modern Deck & Backer Boxes
City of Mist Player’s Guide (Enhanced Edition)
Vampire the Masquerade Core Rulebook (Enhanced Edition) – PRE-RELEASE
CBR+PNK – PRE-RELEASE
Stretch Goals (everyone at Content Deck tier and above)
There are a couple of reasons we chose to give you everything now, even though some systems are still in development. First, because we have a lot of work done on the integration of these titles and we want you to have access to all of it while we work on the final mechanizations of the outstanding game systems. Second, because physical rewards are almost ready to ship and we don’t want to delay those shipments until we’ve completed the last game system.
The short answer: We want you to have access to as much as you can while waiting for us to complete the system integrations.
That’s nice, but why is it taking you so long to mechanize game systems?
To be honest, it’s taken us quite a bit longer to create these game systems than we originally thought when we launched the campaign. Really there are two main reasons: First, before we even write a line of code, we must take the time to read these rulebooks and develop a deep understanding of the systems before we can design and build them. As you can imagine, that takes quite a bit of time. Second, we’re unwilling to compromise on the depth of the integration we’re building for each system. From character generation, to game content loaded directly into character sheets, custom dice, unique trackers, and automations, we’re building these systems the “Alchemy way.” We’re also doing it wholly with our in-house team. While this might make us slower, it instills a consistent bar of quality across all releases.
Ok, so what are you doing to get faster at developing game systems?
As mentioned in previous updates (and this one) we are investing deeply in creating what we call, System Builder, which is a tool within a Universe that enables us to build player and NPC character sheets with drag and drop functionality, create custom dice, configure game experience UI panels, and define mechanical behaviors in the game; all without writing a single line of code. It might take us a long time before we can mechanize an entire system with System Builder without a software developer, but every improvement we make to it eliminates code, and thus time, that the developer has to write.
We’ve already made great progress on this tool and meaningful strides toward increasing our velocity.
Sounds good, but when are you going to have the ____ system done?
We understand that many of you backed this campaign because you had one or two games that you really wanted, and there’s a good chance that at least one of those games isn’t done yet. While we can’t give exact time estimates, we can let you know where we are now and what we’re planning to build next. We’ve created this list based on the most efficient use of our engineering time. For example, it makes the most sense to do all of the Year Zero Engine games together so we can establish consistent patterns and workflows.
We get that it’s frustrating to have to wait for your game of choice, but you now have access to a lot of other games! It might be a great time to try out something new while you wait.
Wave 5 codes will be coming to you via BackerKit, so keep an eye on your inbox for the notification!
Devlog Episode 26: Improvements to Dice Rolls, Vaesen, and System Builder Dice Tray!
In case you missed it, be sure to check out the latest episode of the Alchemy Devlog on our YouTube channel. In this one, Isaac demoes some cool new improvements we've made to rolling dice, our Vaesen system integration, and the System Builder Dice Tray.
We teamed up with our good friends Cze & Peku to bring an incredible bundle of awesome battle map packs, each with matching scene illustrations and Alchemy Unlimited subscription time. You can grab the entire bundle for $25 to get over one thousand art assets, 6 months of Alchemy Unlimited, and an original adventure module written for the Mörk Borg system.
Check it out:
Vaesen: A Nordic Horror Weekend on StartPlaying
We’re so excited to announce our very first in a series of incredible game activations in partnership with StartPlaying and Free League Publishing: Vaesen: A Nordic Horror Weekend, beginning on Wednesday, 1/10 - Sunday, 1/14.
Head over to StartPlaying now to book a game with tons of vetted professional Gamemasters who are hosting sessions of Vaesen this week, exclusively on Alchemy. Be sure to reserve your spot in a game soon because games will fill up fast! Join a game today
Vaesen: A Nordic Horror Weekend
New to StartPlaying? Sign up here and get $10 toward your first booking on us.
What’s Next?
Okay, that was a ton of information, so here’s what you need to look forward to:
This Friday, January 12, all remaining title codes will be delivered to you via BackerKit. You will receive a notification via email when your codes are ready. If you’re missing anything after you receive your codes, please reach out to [email protected] and let us know!
If you are expecting physical rewards, watch out for a shipping notification and tracking number toward the end of the week of January 15th.
Though you’ll be receiving all of your rewards this month, our job isn’t finished yet! As we continue to work on activating game systems, we’ll continue to keep you updated here on Kickstarter on a regular basis. Expect to hear from us again soon!
If you have any additional questions, comments, or concerns, we want to hear from you! Join the thousands of Alchemy supporters in our Discord Community, or you can always reach us directly at [email protected].
