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Arcana of the Ancients, a 5e science-fantasy sourcebook

Created by Monte Cook Games

Bring the wonders of Numenera, with its mysterious technology and weird science-fantasy elements, to your 5e campaign with Arcana of the Ancients.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

A Few Things Before This Campaign Ends
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 10:00:40 PM

What an awesome week—and what an awesome Kickstarter—this has been! The final day has been particularly exciting, and we're so pleased that with your help we made ALL our stretch goals. Wow!

Before the campaign reaches its end, we wanted to give you a little checklist of things you might do to make sure you get all of the rewards you deserve without any hiccups. 

1. Double-check Your Pledge. Go right now to the Kickstarter page and make sure you chose the reward level you want. If you want any add-ons, make sure you’ve increased your pledge amount accordingly. (Just click Manage Your Pledge, then increase the amount of your pledge by the cost of the add-on(s), without changing your pledge level. We’ll clarify what the extra funds were for in BackerKit, after the campaign ends.) 

2. Credit Card. Please make sure your credit card information in Kickstarter is current and correct. 

3. Last Minute Reward Add-Ons. Once the Kickstarter campaign is over, you won't be able to modify your pledge using Kickstarter. Add-ons should available, for a limited time, through BackerKit. We can't guarantee it, though, so if there's something you want, now's the time to be sure you get it. 

4. Be Prepared for Additional Updates. The Kickstarter campaign is ending soon, but we’ll be interacting for some time—most rewards won’t ship for many months! Updates are the most reliable way of reaching all backers, so please make sure you read them and that they don’t go to your spam folder. 

5. How Do You Spell Your Name? We apologize if this sounds silly or condescending, but it’s a real issue, and we have no other choice but to confront it head-on. Occasionally, in haste, people misspell or omit critical information when they provide it to us. This creates problems with shipping and sending rewards. When you provide information—your name, address, and so on—please pay close attention to all the details. If you live overseas, and your name or address includes special or accented characters, if at all possible please instead use the closest standard alphabetical character. Accented characters are often garbled as the Internet tries to convert them into American text; an "É" may come through the system written as "$%^", rendering your address undeliverable. Sometimes we can figure out the correct spelling, but often not. 

6. Spread the Word One Last Time! This campaign isn’t over yet! We greatly appreciate all your support. Thank you for helping us make all these amazing books happen!

Jade Colossus PDFs for Everyone!
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 01:59:58 AM

Another goal reached. Now backers at every level get the Jade Colossus 144-page PDF sourcebook added to their rewards. (Backers who already have the Jade Colossus PDF or otherwise don't want it will be able to choose, after the campaign, to get a $10 gift certificate at the MCG online store instead.)

And remember, everyone at every backer level was already getting the 5e Conversion PDF for Jade Colossus, so now all levels are getting both.

We're down to the last 16 hours of this campaign, and it's been a great ride. But there's maaaaybe time to reach one more goal? What do you think? How about this: we've seen a lot of people asking for more "crunch" so we will add even more cyphers and artifacts to the main Arcana of the Ancients book. A full 32 pages of additional content (that's like a whole additional small book) bringing Arcana of the Ancients to a mammoth 304 pages! This automatically makes everyone's book bigger and better! (And if you're getting both the standard and deluxe versions, both of these will be the new and improved size).

But we're going to need to get this campaign over $500K to do it. That's a big jump, but our Kickstarter campaigns in the past have often had really big final days, and we like the drama of setting a difficult goal that makes for a real nailbiter of an ending. We're just crazy that way.

So if you were ever going to share this campaign with your fellow gamers, now's the time to do it!

More (Moar!) Monsters Unlocked!
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 12:19:57 AM

Amazing! We have broken the $400,000 barrier, thanks to your support. And because of that, we will now add more monsters to Beasts of Flesh and Steel, making it an even better, even bigger hardcover book of monsters for 5e.

And we're still not done! Well more than 24 hours remain in the campaign. Yesterday, we unlocked a goal that gave backers at every level a 5e conversion guide for Jade Colossus: Ruins of the Prior Worlds. And we made it a discounted book you could select as an add-on. But some of you said, "but I want the PDF instead." Well, we thought about it, and we decided what the heck? The next goal will be that every backer at every level gets Jade Colossus in PDF for free. (The print version is still a steal at the add-on price... I'm just sayin'.)

EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. Backers who maybe already have Jade Colossus or otherwise don't want the PDF will be able to select, after the campaign, to get a $10 gift certificate at the MCG online store instead.

To unlock this goal the campaign needs to reach $430,000 before the campaign closes tomorrow at 5 pm Pacific Time. Please help us spread the word.

Jade Colossus Conversion Guide Unlocked!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 02:08:29 AM

Wow! Way to go. And so fast. Thanks to you we'll be making a 5e conversion guide in PDF for our sourcebook, Jade Colossus, and we'll give that conversion guide to backers at all levels. Remember, though, you need a copy of the original Jade Colossus book to make use of the conversion guide. Jade Colossus is really cool, and we're so sure you're going to like it that we've made it available here as an add-on at a special discounted price. Just click the "Manage My Pledge" button near the top of the page and add $32 to your current pledge. That's it—we'll make it all work after the campaign using a service called BackerKit where you're able to tell us that you also want that add-on. 

So what's next? There's only 2 days left in the campaign, but we're really moving along with some momentum, so we thought we'd add another stretch goal that makes Beasts of Flesh and Steel, the monster book we already unlocked, bigger and better, with more than 150 creatures in it. More pages, more art, more science-fantasy monsters to plague the PCs in your campaign! And if you're already getting Beasts of Flesh and Steel, you'll get all the additional content free and automatically if we reach $400,000. And how do you make sure you're getting Beasts of Flesh and Steel? Either select the EXPERT OF THE ANCIENT PAST backer level or above or choose Beasts of Flesh and Steel as an add-on. (If you prefer PDFs, take the EVERY PDF! level.) 

$400,000 is a lot, so we'll need your help in spreading the word. Tell your 5e-playing friends or post this news where cool people talk about 5e and let them know that they should get in on this campaign. There's only two days left! 

Where the Machines Wait Is Unlocked!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 01:52:15 AM

Thanks to you, backers, we have already unlocked Where the Machines Wait. This means we’re making yet another book, and adding it to the rewards of hundreds of backers—for free. To recap, everyone at the EXPERT OF THE ANCIENT PAST backer level or higher is getting the following:

  •  Arcana of the Ancients (upgraded three times!) in print and PDF
  •  Beasts of Flesh and Steel in print and PDF
  •  Beneath the Monolith in print and PDF
  •  Where the Machines Wait in print and PDF
  • The deluxe, leatherbound version of Arcana of the Ancients, including all the upgrades plus additional art, cloth ribbons, and similar deluxe features

Backers at the EVERY PDF! level get the PDFs listed above.

If you’re not backing at one of these levels, you're missing out! This is a Kickstarter-exclusive deal, and it’ll be a lot more expensive to get these books individually later.

There are still two full days to go in this Kickstarter, and they’re likely to be very exciting. Can we unlock more stretch goals? Almost certainly, if you keep spreading the word. Here’s what’s next.

We here at Monte Cook Games have, over the past six years, published a lot of great weird science-fantasy content for the award-winning Numenera roleplaying game. We'd like to open some more of that content for you! One of our favorite books is called Jade Colossus: Ruins of the Prior Worlds, by the awesome Bruce R. Cordell. Half of it details a huge, ancient mega-structure recently and mysteriously arisen from the depths of the earth. The other half gives you a detailed, robust system for easily creating your own random, weird science-fantasy ruins (or to expand on the Jade Colossus). This extremely crunchy 144-page hardcover book is filled with tables and ideas to make all sorts of dungeons for your game and makes the perfect companion for Arcana of the Ancients.

This PDF conversion guide will be added to all backer levels. You'll need a copy of Jade Colossus: Ruins of the Prior Worlds to make use of it, but if we unlock this stretch goal we'll make that title available as an add-on at a special, Kickstarter-backer-only price. We'll unlock the conversion guide if we hit $360,000.