In the afterglow of the creation of the world, the Druids seek perfection in a new Card Crafting System game from John D Clair
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Mystic Lands Pledge Manager and Late Orders Are Open on BackerKit
2 months ago
– Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 01:22:10 PM
Hello Druids!
Thank you for backing the Mystic Lands campaign on Kickstarter!
We have received the funds from Kickstarter and all orders have been imported into the pledge manager for this campaign: BackerKit. It is now time to close your order. Every time we run a crowdfunding campaign we have a small number of backers who ignore these BackerKit messages and end up not getting their Rewards due to not completing their orders. If you do not log into BackerKit and complete your order before fulfillment begins, your order will be cancelled.
BackerKit will send you an invitation to complete your order, which they refer to as a "Survey". That link will be sent directly from BackerKit and not From Kickstarter.
On BackerKit you will be able to change your Reward level, and you will be able to add items to your order. You will also provide your delivery address and you will arrange payment for any balance due on the order.
If you pay via PayPal any balance due will be collected at the time you complete the order checkout process. If you pay via credit card your card will be charged after we close the pledge manager next year. We will notify all backers before credit cards are charged.
We will transmit Updates related to the schedule for closing the pledge manager and ending Late Orders. Generally speaking we close it 8 weeks before we begin fulfillment. The current plan for Mystic Lands is to fulfill in November of 2026 so we plan to close the pledge manager in September of 2026. If those dates change we will provide lots of notice to the community to ensure everyone is aware.
You can see the current milestones and status of all our Crowdfunding campaigns here:
If you have never used BackerKit before or if you are not receiving email from BackerKit about your order and need to gain access to it we've prepared a page on our website that explains how to use it.
The newsletter promo, Cumulonimbus Auspex has been added to the orders of all Kickstarter Backers who were subscribers to our Newsletter list as of the end of the campaign on Kickstarter. If you log in to BackerKit, and review your order and you do not see the Cumulonimbus Auspex Add-on on your order, and you believe you were eligible to receive it for free, please contact [email protected]. If you were not a Newsletter subscriber or you made a Late Order you can purchase the Add-on for $10.
For those of you who did the pre-order for the Mystic Lands T-Shirt on alderacstore.com we have imported those orders and added the shirt to your order. You will be asked to choose a size as a part of the Survey.
Other important info:
All orders (Kickstarter Orders and Late Orders) will ship at the same time, next year, in one wave. We don't do split shipping.
If you have questions about retailer orders, group buys, or other questions involving larger orders please see the FAQ. We have not yet added the Alpha Store items to the system and Alpha Stores should not place orders at this time. You will be notified via email when we're ready for Alpha Store orders to begin.
You may encounter an issue related to the country you wish to have your order sent to. You may see an irrational shipping cost ($1,000,000) if you attempt to select a country or region we don't service.
We only ship to the following locations: the United States; Canada; the UK; the EU (plus Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein); Australia & New Zealand; and select countries in Asia (China (including Taiwan), Japan, South Korea, and Singapore). If you want to complete your order and you live in any place other than those listed you need to arrange for a freight forwarding service to accept delivery of your order in a country or region where we do deliver.
If you live in a country or region we do not service and you want to cancel your order, email [email protected] and we will cancel and refund your order.
If you decide after completing your order on BackerKit that the total price including tax and shipping is higher than you were led to expect and you believe the total amount is unreasonable you can email [email protected] and we will cancel your order and issue a full refund.
The final issue we need to address is AppleID. Kickstarter allows you to use your AppleID and Apple allows you to configure any service using your AppleID as private. If you have done so the email we receive from Kickstarter associated with your order is useless to us (and BackerKit). The only people who can use it are Kickstarter themselves. If you have done this you must contact us at [email protected] and we can change the email address on your order to something that actually works. Every year we have a few customers who ignore these requests and have their orders cancelled as incomplete because they never received any notices or reminders about their order on BackerKit.
----
If you missed the campaign on Kickstarter you can now make a Late Order on BackerKit. Late orders have the same pricing and same components as Kickstarter Rewards. They will ship as the same time as Kickstarter Rewards. In all respects, Late Orders and Kickstarter Rewards are identical.
If you have any other questions or concerns about your order please email [email protected] and we'll be happy to help!
-- The AEG Mystic Lands Team
End of the campaign & What happens next
4 months ago
– Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 05:00:59 PM
Dear Druids,
The Oran Mór has come to a conclusion!
We have reached the end of the campaign on Kickstarter! Thank you for your support!
Your support allows us to continue to make new games like Mystic Lands and make deluxe versions of them like the Oran Mór Edition. Every pledge counts and we are very grateful you chose to back this project. We can't wait to fulfill your Rewards!
In the following few days:
Kickstarter will charge your credit card. If your card fails to process, Kickstarter will retry it several times in the following week
Late Orders for those who missed the campaign will open as soon as we have completed setup with our pledge manager. We expect Late Orders to go live before the end of November but it may take a few days longer. We will post an Update when the Late Orders goes live. DO NOT MAKE A LATE ORDER IF YOU MADE A KICKSTARTER PLEDGE
The Pledge Manager for Kickstarter backers will be opened three to six weeks from today, with the exact date depending on when Kickstarter transmits the funds from this campaign to us. You will receive an Update and an email from us and emailed notification from the pledge manager when the pledge manager is ready to being processing your Kickstarter orders. Until then, you do not need to take any action.
We’ll Update you periodically over the next year when the campaign hits a major milestone. The next major milestone will be when we begin the production process by approving files; that will happen several months from now.
Please visit alderac.com/crowdfunding for the most up to date info on this and all our campaigns; that site is your best source for progress information and anything else you need to know about the campaign and we update it every time we have any new information to report.
When the pledge manager is ready to allow you to complete your Kickstarter order, you will be sent an email from the pledge manager with a link to access your order. Use that link to complete the checkout process. You can change your Reward, and include add-ons with your Reward. The system will calculate the amount due for shipping & tax and present you with a final total at checkout.
APPLE ID USERS: Please note - if you use your Apple ID to access Kickstarter and you chose to have Apple hide your email, the email address we receive from Kickstarter is useless. Neither we, nor the pledge manager can contact you via email about your order. Please email [email protected] for assistance if you have your account configured in this manner.
How To Get Your Newsletter Promo
If you are a subscriber to our newsletter as of the day we open the Pledge Manager on the pledge manager for Kickstarter orders we will add this content to your order for free. One Newsletter Promo (the Cumulonimbus Auspex Druid) will be added for free per order. If you are not a subscriber to the newsletter, or if you want more than one, you'll be able to purchase them for $10 each.
If you don't know if you are a subscriber or if you want to subscribe, please visit this page:
If you sign up and you're already a subscriber, there is no negative effect. It's safe to subscribe to be sure. When in doubt, subscribe!
-----
Some Information about BackerKit, our Pledge Manager for this project
We intend to use BackerKit for this campaign as our pledge manager. We've used BackerKit many times in the past and don't expect any challenges with this campaign. The pledge manager for Mystic Lands will be very simple - it will have the Oran Mór Edition, the Druid Newsletter Promo and the T-shirt. We're not going to offer other games or other add-ons for Mystic Lands in this pledge manager.
Please note that the pledge manager for the Fun Factory, which has a wide selection from our catalog at special crowdfunding prices, is still open at hiveinteractive.net!
When the pledge manager is open for Kickstarter backers you will be sent emails from BackerKit with links to your order. You won't get these emails until after we open the pledge manager for Kickstarter orders. We will post an Update here when the pledge manager is open. Until you see that message, you don't have to take any action.
-----
There is a comprehensive FAQ for this campaign that answers many common questions. If you need information please consult the FAQ and see if your question is answered there. If we get a number of enquiries that aren't addressed in the FAQ, we'll update the FAQ!
At any time if you have questions, concerns or comments please email [email protected]. We will monitor the Comments channel periodically but the best way to get a response from our team after the campaign ends is via email.
-- The AEG Mysic Lands Team
Vale Map: Long Bay
4 months ago
– Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 07:06:08 AM
Hello Druids,
The final vale map, and the second map for the expansion, Tropical Tides, is the Long Bay. This is the last map John D Clair shared with the team back when we were making them, and shows how much further we can explore vale maps in the future!
Prototype art shown, names and art subject to change.
I just received some of the latest art for the final map to share:
The Long Bay is unique because it focuses on the paths. The tide will ebb and flow allowing you to only travel the low tide (blue) paths when the tide is low. But high tide isn't all that bad, as thematically it leaves treasures that were washed up on those low tide paths. High tide also lets you manipulate your deck a bit, if you want to discard your on-deck card.
Here are the rules. Note: the High Tide and Low Tide spaces are the blue boxes in the rules box at the top right of the prototype map above.
Long Bay Setup: Place the tide token {tide token} on the low tide space.
All players have the optional ability: {day} If you Withered, you may change the tide by switching the {tide token} from the current tide to the other one.
High Tide (space) {day} Discard your on-deck card
Low Tide (space) You may use {low tide blue paths}
Now, withering may be something you want to do if you need the tide a certain way on your turn. Note that you'll even get the benefits of both the Low and High tides that turn if you switch tides!
For example, if the token is on High Tide, you can activate that day ability of discarding your on-deck card. Then activate the optional ability if you withered to switch the tides, you can now travel the low tide paths.
The Low Tide paths will grant you 2 types of resources, mana and rain tokens:
Sunrise Point is one of the vales printed on Long Bay, giving you an activation ability to change the tides when you choose, without having to wither. Get one of the advances that grants the power to refresh vale abilities, and you'll be in control of the tides!
Another printed vale is the Shallows. It's completely surrounded with water.
Every player who enchants here will have an activated ability of playing their on-deck card in the day phase, which avoids withering, and speeds through your deck faster. You also get the option to change the tide.
For everyone that reaches the Sunset Bay on the far-right bottom of the map you will get 2 scoring options that depends on what tide the game ended on:
Latest text below:
Sunset Bay {ongoing} After you complete your final turn of the game, if it is High Tide gain 1 {vp} per 2 cards with at least 1 advance, if it is Low Tide gain 1 {vp} per card you own without an advance on it.
This makes it a struggle between players to finish on the tide that they want to match how they built their deck!
I hope you've enjoyed learning about the vale maps, we play tested even more ideas that may become a reality in the future.
Thank you to everyone who backed the campaign, from everyone at AEG!
-Kirk AEG Development Team Member
Solo play, a sneak peek!
4 months ago
– Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 03:06:44 PM
Hello Druids,
A few of you have asked about solo play for Mystic Lands, and now that we've got a few dozen plays under our belts, collectively, I can share a little bit about how it will work!
Note that all rules and artwork shared here are subject to change, but the general mechanics will remain the same. Let's start with game setup:
Setup: Set up all your components as you normally would for a 2-player game.
In a convenient place on your table set up your opponent’s area. Your opponent is called the Force of Nature, and they get a player board with a VP token starting at 0 and a Spirit token starting at 1. They get all of their Enchantment cubes.
Use a mana token on the Force of Nature board to track the turn number (it does not gain Mana).
The rest of their player-color components are not needed.
Shuffle the 14 card Challenge deck and place it “Face-up” on their Deck space. For normal difficulty these cards should all be brown-side face-up.
If using the Works of Nature card, place it next to the Challenge Deck and place the green, yellow, and red tokens on it on their gray side.
Here is an example of 3 of the Challenge cards, which I will clarify in a bit:
Gameplay: You go first. Your turns resolve the same as they would in a normal game, but with the Force of Nature taking their turn after your Dusk phase and before your next Night phase, the Force of Nature takes its turn.
Round Overview: • Player Night phase • Player Day phase • Player Dusk Phase • Force of Nature Turn • Flip all work of nature tokens to the gray side. • Resolve the on deck Challenge card. • Turn on TOKENS indicated • Green - Positive for you. • Yellow - Neutral for you. • Red - Negative for you. • Force of Nature gains any Spirit & VP indicated. • Force of Nature gains the Advances indicated. • Check to see if the Force of Nature can Enchant any Vales. • End of Force of Nature’s turn • Discard their on deck Challenge card. • End of round.
Here's what the Force of Nature board looks like in Tabletop Simulator. We will decide on what the final print version will be, if not just one of the other playerboards after all development is done.
We'll start with the normal difficulty rules without the Work of Nature card added:
Force of Nature turn detail: On the Force of Nature turn, resolve the top card of the Challenge deck for the turn number you are on (1-4, 5-8, 9-11, or 12+).
After the Challenge card has been resolved, set it aside in a discard pile. If the Challenge deck is ever out of cards, reform it with the discarded cards.
Resolving the Challenge card in the following order:
• Give the Force of Nature VP and Spirits as indicated. If they cross and trigger the 5 or 15 VP threshold, discard the right-most level 1 advance to make room for the new level 2.
• The Force of Nature claims the advances in the market as indicated. These are placed into the “Discard” zone of their player board and only matter for end game scoring.
• Check to see if the Force of Nature enchants a Vale using the following steps:
• Do they have enough Spirits to enchant 1 or more Vales (discounts apply)? If no, skip to the end of the Force of Nature turn. If Yes:
• If there is only 1 possible Vale, they will enchant that one, and they always enchant the top-most spot.
• If they could enchant several, their preference goes as follows. From top down, if ever one of these steps leaves you with only 1 viable option, that is the one they enchant:
1. Prefers to be the first cube at a Vale. 2. Prefers the greater endgame VP number. 3. Prefers the lower cost. 4. If there are still multiple possibilities, then you choose which one.
• Now check to see if the Force of Nature has enough remaining Spirits to buy another Vale, and if they do, repeat this step.
End Game Scoring: The game end triggers as normal, by a player reaching 25VP or placing their 10th Vale cube. The player triggering the end gains 5VP, and the other player then takes an additional turn.
Your score is calculated in the same way as a multi-player game.
The Force of Nature scores as follows: • VP accrued on its VP track as normal. • All end-game VP on advances it has collected. • VP from its Vales. However, in this case, while the Force of Nature always places its cube at the highest available spot on each Vale card, it scores VP for that Vale equal to the Highest VP value at, or below, its spot.
Difficulty Scaling:
The cards in the Challenge deck are double-sided, with the normal difficulty on the brown side and the Hard difficulty on the blue side. You can scale your difficulty by turning some portion of the cards over to the Hard side before the game.
• Standard: All Brown. • Moderate: Set up the deck where every 3rd card (3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th) is flipped to Blue. • Hard: Set up the deck where every 2nd card is flipped to Blue. • Harder: Every 2nd and 3rd flipped to Blue. • Hardest: All cards flipped to blue.
Here are 3 cards as an example, the top are card fronts with the normal difficulty, and the bottom are their backsides with Hard Difficulty:
“Works of Nature” Scenario Modules:
There are 2 “Works of Nature" scenarios that you can optionally use on a double-sided card. One is a Basic scenario, and the other side will be an advanced scenario.
These cards may have standard “always-on” effects. They will also always have a Green, Yellow, and Red icon with rules text.
On the Challenge cards you will see these color icons. If you are not using a scenario, they mean nothing. Otherwise the Challenge card will turn on the specific scenario effect shown.
• Green (circle): When on, this will be in effect during the phase shown. It is usually positive. • Yellow (hexagon): When on, this will be in effect during the phase shown. It is usually neutral. • Red (square): When on, this will be in effect during the phase shown. It is usually negative.
During end of game scoring, make sure to factor in the Work of Nature scenario score bonus.
Here's an example of the Basic Works of Nature card we are currently using to test the Challenge deck with the Green ability activated (it flips back to gray when not active):
Here's an example of the Force of Nature resolving its 5th turn while using the Work of Nature card:
They will use the second section of their top deck card.
• First they will move the mana token to track that is round 5. • Second they will flip the yellow token so that Mycorrhiza will be active during your turn. • Next they will gain 2 Spirit and 2 VP. • then they will gain the 5th advance from the Market. • And finally check if they can Enchant any vales with the 4 spirit they now have.
The Works of Nature card opens up some very cool possibilities for future releases. We're deciding how to expand the solo experience with them beyond this base game implementation, but the nice thing is they can be released on just double sided cards. John has some very cool ideas that lean into the flavor of each aspect color!
As always, thanks for backing!
-Kirk AEG Development Team Member
Vale Map: Tropical Forest
4 months ago
– Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 07:58:27 AM
Hello Druids,
We are now about to dig into the 2 expansion Vale Maps, which come free with the deluxe Oran Mór edition offered here on Kickstarter with 36 additional advancement cards, 4 more druids, and 11 more Vale Cards.
The name of this expansion is Tropical Tides, so we're re-theming this prototype of a snowy cold map into a Tropical Forest with magic infused gems and crystals to collect.
Here's how the map we tested looked:
The Snowstars on this map will become Physalis Gems that grow on the tropical trees. Like the Physalis fruit, it sprouts inside gossamer leaves. This was the art direction we've given the amazing artists at Matt Paquette & Co. so I'm excited to see how it turns out.
The Physalis fruit!
The Iceblooms will become Bush Crystals, which are already scattered around the first sketch we have. Note that all names and art are subject to change as we work on it, and it begins to evolve and become part of the Mystic Lands world! Here is a sneak peek at the first sketch for the map illustration:
Now for the rules on the map, Physalis Gems will score endgame VP depending on how many you collect:
[Physalis Gem icon] End of Game: Score points for each Enchanted spot on a Vale card that is adjacent to a [Physalis Gem] as follows:
Bush Crystals simply give you a choice during your Day phase on collecting Mana or immediate VP gained to your player board tracker:
[Bush Crystal icon]: {day} Gain 1 {mana} or 1 {vp} per enchanted spot you have adjacent to a [Bush Crystal].
There are different ways to collect these icons. Some paths lead to mini-vales you can enchant to collect them:
They are cheap in Spirit, but give no endgame VP for your placed cubes, other than what the Physalis Gems and Bush Crystals give as part of their powers.
While we're here, check out my ALL-TIME favorite Vale Card, Satyr Home! The only thing better than the Druid you get to start the game with is getting a 2nd druid from this vale!
The other way to collect these precious icons are by enchanting certain spots on the Vale cards. They are in different positions for different locations:
At the farthest reach of the map will be a renamed spot full of Bush Crystals:
Give me some NEW tropical name ideas in the comments!
Through the center of the Forest is a fast path with some different costs associated with it:
This path will cost you 4 Mana to cross, but it gives you access to a level 2 vale card straight from the starting circle with a 2 Spirit discount to boot! The example Vale card, Great Table, normally costs 6 Spirit to enchant, but here you can enchant it for 4 Spirit instead!
The path after it also costs 4 mana to traverse, but with a level 1 vale card there that also gives a 2 spirit discount, it's great for players heavier on Mana than Spirit in their deck build.
Here's a level 2 advance that loves to help you reuse vale card effects with activation arrows. This will let you refresh them to use again and again. Collect more green aspect icons to do it even more!
Shown crafted on a starting card.
That's it for today, my next couple updates will include the Long Bay vale map and a report from our solo game testing!
