A downloadable game

Buy Now$10.00 USD or more

Did you miss the Kickstarter? You can buy a digital version of the game right here. Physical copies are available for order at Exalted Funeral and A Room of One's Own.

Explore the ruins of a magical school tucked deep within the forest. 

The Academy was once on the verge of discovering magic that could pierce reality. To protect its hard-earned knowledge from the outside world the school sealed itself within an immense, opalescent bubble, waiting for the day when it could unveil the culmination of its progress. 

But that day never came, 

and the school was left to molder 

within its impenetrable cocoon. 

The game

  • A dangerous world of Dark Academia, experimental magic, and barriers to knowledge.
  • An interrogation of ways of knowing as systems of power.
  • An exploration of what it means to treat knowledge as a thing to be treasure-hunted.
  • An adventure module for the ground-breaking game Trophy Gold, including all the rules you need to play (as well as monster conversions for 5e and Old-School Essentials).

What you will find inside

  • A fully-illustrated, 60+ page PDF with core ruleset.
  • Guidance and tools for playing and running the game over a full campaign.
  • Two separate character creators, each one able to generate hundreds of different characters in minutes.
  • Random tables of items, magic, secrets, and strange events.
  • New and innovative rules about magic and knowledge.

Actual play

Check out the videos below for a campaign of The Academy Chrysalis run by the phenomenal Jason Cordova, founder of The Gauntlet and publisher of Trophy Gold.

Part 1 of 4:

Part 2 of 4: 


Check out the Jason's YouTube page for links to parts 3 and 4.

Podcast

TAC was featured on Fear of a Black Dragon, an award-winning OSR podcast. Check it out here: https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/fear-of-a-black-dragon/the-academy-chrysalis


See a typo in the PDF? Let us know using this form.

Purchase

Buy Now$10.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:

The Academy Chrysalis -1- Spreads [High Res].pdf 176 MB
The Academy Chrysalis -1- Speads [Low Res].pdf 24 MB
The Academy Chrysalis -2- Singles.pdf 160 MB
The Academy Chrysalis -3- Printer and Reader Friendly.pdf 3 MB
The Academy Chrysalis -4- Character Sheet - Pursuer of Knowledge.pdf 3 MB
The Academy Chrysalis -5- Character Sheet - Should You Die.pdf 3 MB
The Academy Chrysalis -6- Record Sheet - Knowledge-As-Treasure.pdf 3 MB

Exclusive content

Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.

Community Copy

If you're in need and can't afford a copy of the game, help yourself to a community copy of the digital zine. 

I'd appreciate a positive rating/review!

Comments

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hi 👋 there I ordered the physical copy through Pluripotent and it’s says it comes with PDF copies but no DL link was sent - can you please send me PDF or add it to my library here? … my order number is 

Order number

1356369853

Cheers 🙏

Ken

Yes! Will send right away!

Hello!, Placed a pre-order for the physical book through the pluripotent website. I also need access to the digital book. Thanks!

Thanks for the heads up! You'll get the digital version later today!

Did this get sent out?

Sorry for the delay - it should have just sent!

Hi, I placed a pre-order for the physical book through the pluripotent website. It says digital access is included. How do I redeem that digital access? Through Itch? Thanks!

Oh! You should have received the digital version upon placing the order on the Pluripotent site. There must be something awry - I'll check the system later today and see if there are any unfulfilled orders, and hopefully it will be sent to you soon!

Hi there - were you able to determine the status of the digital version? It was Order No. 692007526

It should be fixed now - let me know if you didn't get it

(+1)

It came through! Thanks for taking care of that. This will be my first foray into Trophy Gold so I'm looking forward to playing it :)

(+1)

Academy Chrysalis does a good job of walking the line between providing a game that's engaging and interesting to play and asking players to reflect on important topics including colonialism, land theft, and knowledge appropriation. The knowledge as treasure mechanic invented for this game is really unique and interesting! The art/layout is beautiful and nerdy folx will love the nature and animal-behavior inspired magic. 10/10!

(+1)

The art and layout for this game are stunning. There are a lot of really interesting ideas in here.