Evolutionary Paths [Monday Meeting Notes]

Dystopia Rising: Evolution illustration by Jonothan Reed

 

Every once in a while, I need to take a week’s worth of this blog and do kind of an Onyx Path Publishing primer.

Just go through our history, who we are, and how and why we do what we do. Usually this sort of “Who the Hell is Onyx Path?” blog is necessitated by external forces; by an influx of questions or misapprehensions here or on other bits of our social media.

And this is no exception.

This installment is brought to you by the letter V and the number 5, in fact.

The recent release of White Wolf‘s Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition (v5) has increased the number of folks stopping by here – hi, nice to see ya! – and with WW planning to continue to push further into new venues and media, I’m not thinking we’re going to see less folks confused by who we are and how we relate to White Wolf and V5.

And it is totally understandable that who we are and what we do is not obvious, particularly if you are used to the way the original White Wolf operated as a business. So, first I’m going to talk about Onyx Path‘s evolution through the last six years, and then end with reminding folks that our new Kickstarter campaign for our new game Dystopia Rising: Evolution starts on this coming Wednesday.

So, if you’re an long-time reader and know all this, please feel free to skip down to where I remind folks that our new Kickstarter campaign for our new game Dystopia Rising: Evolution starts on this coming Wednesday.

 

 

Scion: Hero illustration by Enzo Lopez

 

 

Okay, everybody else, skootch closer and I’ll tell you a tale. It’s a longer than usual blog post, so get comfortable.

In 1991, a gaming company called White Wolf published a ground-breaking tabletop RPG called Vampire: The Masquerade. It was massively influential and popular. More World of Darkness game lines came out every year, then other game worlds like Trinity and Exalted got lines, and the original WW kept expanding and then contracted big-time. In an effort to spur sales, the World of Darkness was ended in accordance with all the prophesies presented in the various lines, and a New World of Darkness set of game lines began publication.

Unfortunately, while the initial sales of the core rulebooks for each New World of Darkness line were huge, the overall trend of declining sales was not stopped. In an effort to keep publishing and also to evolve into the electronic games market, White Wolf merged with an Icelandic MMO (massive multi-player online game) company named CCP, and began work on a World of Darkness MMO.

For too many reasons to go into here, but maybe I will someday, eventually the project stalled and CCP laid off a lot of the US office, which meant they laid off most of the original White Wolf staff. (Later, the WoD MMO was canceled).

Which is where Onyx Path enters the story.

Onyx Path, that is, not me. I entered the history of WW many years earlier and had, in fact, been with White Wolf for years before Vampire: The Masquerade came out, and was responsible for all the visuals (art, layout, printing) for every project we created. As the WoD MMO was ramping up and our TTRPG publishing conversely was slowing down, they asked me to come over to help with the MMO. While the herculean efforts to make it were occurring, a few of us also put together a side project and convinced CCP to OK its publication.

That project was a special return to TTRPGs: an omnibus edition of VtM celebrating the 20th anniversary of its publication, which is now known as V20. Even with relatively little outreach and selling it from our own webpage, it did pretty darn well.

Even more importantly from my point of view, it reminded me how much I loved making game books.

So when the big layoffs came, I was faced with watching folks who I had hired into WW, some of them more than a decade before, and who had devoted that time to the company, lose their jobs. For me, it was time to go, but I wanted to not just go but to return to TTRPGs and not as an employee, but with my own company.

Thus, in 2012, Onyx Path Publishing was born!

With the feedback from V20 indicating that there were a lot of folks still interested in WW‘s Intellectual Properties (IPs) as TTRPGs, Onyx Path negotiated licenses to create new TTRPG books for the World of Darkness, Exalted, and New World of Darkness game lines. Onyx Path bought outright the Scion, Trinity, and ultimately Scarred Lands game lines that had been originally created and published by White Wolf from CCP.

It was never my intention to try and be the new White Wolf, even if there weren’t still people at CCP who needed to approve what we were doing with the license and might be a tad miffed if I started announcing that. You see, by the time I left, I was WW‘s creative director and responsible for not just visuals but every phase of creating our games. I knew the pitfalls we had fallen into previously and intended Onyx to follow a different Path.

With that in mind, we started with PDFs and then very quickly added physical book Print on Demand (PoD) versions as well via DriveThruRPG.com. The advent of Kickstarter enabled us to create Deluxe books and later books that were traditionally printed in other ways. Getting those books to backers was a challenge, but we kept on with fulfillment shipper after shipper.

Structurally, Onyx Path worked off of the Developer/Writer/Editor to Art Director/Graphic Designer book creation track that we had perfected during the WW days. Our processes were those processes, because that was what the folks I was working with and I knew best. And those creative folks were mostly developers and writers from the olden times of WW, along with some newer folks who were fans of those days. It was great to make books with Justin Achilli, Phil Brucato, Ethan Skemp. and many more folks again, as well as artists I hadn’t worked with in over a decade.

We followed that path of creating new projects for the WW IPs and in a few years I was able to add some new game worlds by working with creators on more of a partnership basis. Thus were Pugmire and Cavaliers of Mars brought onboard. So we had the licensed IPs from WW, these creator-owned lines, and the game lines we owned. I was able to hire some folks on as full-time staff, like Mirthful Mike Chaney as art director and numero uno layout artist, and Rose Bailey to help our developers.

Other than them, though, everyone else was (and pretty much still are) freelance contractors, most of whom have other full-time jobs and create what they create in their “spare time”. Despite that, their devotion to their game lines has been amazing and very gratifying. And while we hammered through a lot of challenges with deadlines, Onyx still published some amazing books and games, revitalizing WoD with our 20th Anniversary lines, Exalted with its 3rd Edition, and 2nd Editions for the Chronicles (New World) of Darkness.

 

 

Exalted 3rd Hundred Devils Night Parade illustration by Melissa Uran

 

 

Hold it. Something realllly important happened right at the point we started those 2nd Editions.

CCP sold all of what remained of White Wolf to a Swedish computer game company called Paradox Interactive, and they spun off a new company called…White Wolf! And why not, they bought the name along with all the IPs, after all.

We talked, we tweaked processes to work with how they needed them to be, and we continued with our Tabletop RPG licenses of the WW IPs. Current White Wolf is a lot more hands-on than CCP, as befits a company that want to build those game lines into RPGs plus other venues like computer games and other media like TV and movies. They have a lot more feedback for us on our licensed projects with them, they helped us rebrand the New World of Darkness into the Chronicles of Darkness to better differentiate the lines from WoD, and then, and then…and then they created the latest edition of Vampire: The Masquerade in-house: V5.

So, to be clear: until we started working on V5 Chicago By Night, we at Onyx Path really didn’t contribute anything to V5 directly. WW wanted it to be their baby, and we totally respect that as creators ourselves.

Continuing our clarity moment: we do not own WoD, Chronicles of Darkness, or ExaltedWhite Wolf does. We can’t OK your screenplay based on your Mage game, we can’t fire that guy who looks like Dracula at WW, and we pitch to WW book ideas for the game lines we have a license for, but they are the ones that OK them so we can work on them. We are one of what they hope to be hundreds of licensees, and WW is at the hub, licensing.

With the way WW is working with licenses, we at Onyx Path may or may not know about another one of the licensees, but we don’t know who is working on a license from White Wolf until WW tells us. We aren’t involved with who gets a license, who they or WW hire to work on a project – we only call the shots on the projects we’re creating under the WW license.

As of this writing and for as far into the future as I can see, Onyx Path is independently owned by your Uncle RichT, and I continue to look at building Onyx to last as a publisher forever, basically. It is a challenge, as we don’t have a safety net of a parent company or investor we can fall back on, so I’m very careful about how and where we expand.

With what I hope is some ongoing strategic thinking, evolution of our company continues.

We currently have four full-time staff members: myself, Mirthful Mike, LisaT in our business office, and Mighty Matt McElroy as our Operations Manager. Rose Bailey left early this year and has already produced about 14 zillion games you can get in on through her Patreon and on DTRPG.com.

Before Rose left, we were already evolving how to work with our developers and writers. We had changed and raised our pay rates, and then began to look at the challenges faced by our freelance creators. While it was obvious that trying to make the old WW processes work just wasn’t ultimately going to get us where we needed to be, we needed to be in a position where Onyx Path could provide more hands-on mentorship for our developers.

First, I lucked into being able to create a role doing just that with Eddy Webb, who had been involved with Onyx Path since the beginning, but now he was set to be our first full-time freelance developer “at-large”. In other words. Eddy was going to work with those developers who needed another dev to cover some of the very diverse responsibilities their position encompasses.

As Eddy and I were working out just what this new thing entailed, Matthew Dawkins approached me wanting to be more involved with Onyx Path. So he became our second of these contracted but full-time devs. And then, with Rose leaving, she suggested an outstanding editor who was kicking ass to step up, and Dixie Cochran became our third development overseer. Meanwhile, I talked James Bell, who has huge customer service experience, into running our Kickstarters full-time.

When you see a game line start to move forward with more and more timely releases, when you just have a blast being part of one of our Kickstarters, when you listen to our weekly Onyx Podcast for more news and insight into what we’re up to; these are the folks doing that.

As a company ethos, we believe that everyone should be able to enjoy and be represented respectfully in our projects and social media, and that, in the words of Buckaroo Bonzai, “we don’t have to be mean”.

I realize that this runs counter to a lot of the internet, but within our social media we do try to live up to that.

Just to come back to the evolution of Onyx Path in terms of our business, we are still working to license to other companies our existing game worlds for a variety of new projects that allow folks to enjoy those worlds in other ways, and to obtain licenses to other worlds that we think can be transformative TTRPG experiences as well as a lot of fun to play.

In fact, our new Kickstarter campaign for our new game Dystopia Rising: Evolution starts on this coming Wednesday.

We continue to offer PDF and PoD versions of our projects on DriveThruRPG.com, and at least our fiction so far on Amazon and the Nook store. Because we have been able to forge excellent relationships with Studio2 Publishing and Indie Press Revolution for post-Kickstarter sales, we have been able to start offering our physical products into retail channels in a way that is healthy for our business model. Studio2 is also able to put the books they handle for us onto Amazon, so you will see more and more of our projects there.

Just look below for even more venues for our projects.

Finally, because we actually do think of the worlds we create as springboards from which we can create art, we’re very proud to be working with several groups of folks who are dedicated to gaming as a therapeutic tool to help people around the world. Our friends at the Bodhana Group and iThrive are out there trying to make the world a better place. There is no doubt in my mind that gaming, and particularly roleplaying games specifically, has changed many lives for the better. I’ve just heard so many stories over the years about just that, and I’m proud the worlds we’ve created have made a difference in the real world.

 

 

Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition Tormented illustration by Vince Locke

 

 

OK, That’s who we are and what we do. You can all sit back now, lecture-time is over. 🙂

Oh yeah, please don’t forget that our new Kickstarter campaign for our new game Dystopia Rising: Evolution starts on this coming Wednesday. (And there’s even more info in the Blurbs! section below).

Finally, always remember this when you think of Onyx Path Publishing:

Many Worlds, One Path!

 

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

 

Dystopia Rising: Evolution art by Mark Kelly

Our next Kickstarter will be for Dystopia Rising: Evolution starting on Wednesday the 22nd at 2pm EDT.

Dystopia Rising is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game that quickly grew into a live-action sensation. Now, Onyx Path is pleased to update the live-action setting with Dystopia Rising: Evolution, a tabletop roleplaying game that presents a fresh and exciting take on the post-apocalypse genre.

Dystopia Rising: Evolution will be powered by Onyx Path’s Storypath system, and includes all the rules you need to play as a survivor in the post-apocalypse, including rules for creating characters for up to 24 different Strains, variations on humanity that survived the Fall. It also has details on the powers of faith and psionics, along with advice on running action-adventure stories, webs of personal intrigue, or procedural investigations. And, finally, dozens of antagonists, including a variety of zombies and raiders to use in your series.

Throughout this Kickstarter campaign, we will be posting complete previews of the Dystopia Rising: Evolution manuscript as backer-only updates.

 

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

 

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

  • Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)
  • Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)
  • Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
  • Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)
  • Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
  • Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)
  • Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
  • Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
  • Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
  • Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)
  • Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)
  • Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)
  • Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
  • Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)
  • Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (KindleNook)
  • V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)
  • Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (KindleNook)
  • Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)
  • Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (KindleNook)

 

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

 

 

iprlogo

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: https://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

SPECIAL W20 and M20 SALE! Huge savings on our Deluxe printing overruns until 8/31! ONE WEEK LEFT!

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

 

 

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

 

 

This week we are responding to the many, many messages asking for V20 Dark Ages Journals! So expect those to go live on our RedBubble store on Wednesday!

 

 

CONVENTIONS!

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will be speaking at Broadleaf Writers Conference (September 22-23) in Decatur, GA. He’ll be there to talk about writing for interactive fiction, and hanging out with other writers who have far more illustrious careers. http://broadleafwriters.com/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference-speakers/
Eddy will also be a featured guest at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

 

Dixie Cochran will be at High Level Games Con in Atlantic City October 12-14, running a Women in Game Design panel, Eddy’s RPG Developer Bootcamp, and possibly making a surprise appearance at another event!

 

 


And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

  • M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
  • Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)
  • Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)
  • City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)
  • Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
  • Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
  • Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

 

Redlines

  • Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)
  • Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)
  • CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)
  • V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

 

Second Draft

  • WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)
  • Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)
  • Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
  • C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)
  • Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
  • Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

 

Development

  • Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
  • Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)
  • Fetch Quest (Pugmire)
  • CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)
  • Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)
  • Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)
  • Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)
  • Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

 

Manuscript Approval:

 

Editing:

  • They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)
  • Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau) (With Eddy)

 

Post-Editing Development:

  • Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)
  • Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
  • Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
  • Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
  • Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)
  • GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)
  • M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)
  • Guide to the Night (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

 

Indexing:

 

 

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

 

In Art Direction

  • Dystopia Rising: EvolutionWorking on banners for the KS. Art is in for the video and KS page.
  • VtR: Guide to the Night
  • M20: Gods and Monsters – Leblanc already has sketches in.
  • Geist 2e
  • The Realm
  • Trinity Continuum (Aeon and Core)
  • Ex3 Monthly Stuff
  • Ex3 Dragon Blooded Sketches and color roughs continue to come in and even some finals from Gunship.

 

Marketing Stuff

 

In Layout

  • Scarred Lands Trilogy Novels – Converting to PDF and PoD.
  • Fetch Quest – New cards contracted…. will be in by September 15th. KS backer shirt out.

 

Proofing

  • Scion Hero 
  • Cav Talent cards
  • PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented

 

At Press

  • Changeling: The Lost 2e – incorporating errata and getting it ready for indexing.
  • Monarchies of Mau – Printing. Dice and buttons printing.
  • Scion Origin Errata review and incorporation.
  • Cavaliers of Mars Finishing printing.
  • Wraith 20th – Prepping the Deluxe files, still poking printer for cover specs.
  • Monarchies of Mau Screen Printing.
  • Cavaliers of Mars Screen Printing.
  • Wraith 20 Screen Printing.
  • Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.

 


TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Today is James Marsters birthday, and so let’s wish a great one for Spike! Arguably the best of the bads from Buffy, and role model for thousands of Vampire: The Masquerade characters!

 


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46 responses to “Evolutionary Paths [Monday Meeting Notes]”

  1. Atavist Avatar
    Atavist

    I’m really glad to hear about the Bodhana group collaboration, I’m sure what comes out of it will be enriching.

    Looking forward to Shunned by the Moon, though it looks like Promethean got the jump on us Werewolf fans, if the picture is anything to judge.

  2. Ekorren Avatar
    Ekorren

    This was an early one. Us Europeans are inoffically calling the Monday Meeting Notes the “Tuesday Meeting Notes” because that’s when we usually read it. Can’t wait for the Kickstarter, by the way. I don’t know much about Dystopia Rising yet but I have a feeling that I’m going to pledge for it.

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      It’s a fair naming. There have been several times I posted at 11:59pm my time (23:59) to make sure it went up on our Monday here.

  3. waelcyrge Avatar
    waelcyrge

    Being a WW groupie since Ars Magica and V1 I have absolute trust in OnyxPath. You kept going all those years when TTRPGs was concidered dead and obsolete. I sadly don’t play that much anymore, but I will keep on supporting you as long as reading your extraordinary books reproduces the worlds in my mind. I love you!

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      We deeply care about you too. Might be love, but we fear commitment. But we really appreciate _your_ commitment all these years: thanks for sticking with us!

  4. Roman Avatar
    Roman

    Every week I scroll quickly to see if there’s been any movement on Technocracy Reloaded. I know that any updates will appear here, but is there any sense of it still being worked on?

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      If it is in the Progress Report, it is being worked on. Writing these books is not a fast process and we post it to the Report right when it starts. So patience, grasshopper.

      1. Roman Avatar
        Roman

        Thank you for the confirmation. I’ll try to achieve a mellow zen state in the meantime.

        1. richt Avatar
          richt

          Ohhhhhmmmmm.

          1. ThomasM Avatar
            ThomasM

            @Roman
            You might be interested in the first GenCon episode of the OnyxPathCast. The way that Dixie, Eddy, and Matthew are supporting the developers in getting books out more quickly was a good discussion, and Technocracy Reloaded was specifically mentioned.

  5. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    I’m glad to see Onyx Path included in V5 with the upcoming Chicago by night!

    I know it may be a sensitive question, but what are your thoughts on what WW has done with V5, both mechanically and setting-wise?

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      I think they are trying to walk a very difficult line of making Vampire: The Masquerade compelling for more of an audience than folks who are already fans while not destroying what feels like VtM to existing fans. It is a really hard thing to do, I do not envy them that job, and think they are doing their level best to create an exciting Vampire setting and game.

      1. Yiodan Avatar
        Yiodan

        Interesting question… and answer. Well put, I’d say.

        I’ve only read about half of it so far (busy schedule) but I absolutely love it. I certainly see that they tried to do that, and am quite curious to see if it will succeed.

        As a fan since about 2nd ed, they nailed it for me. If I’m being honest, there were I few things I wasn’t a fan of in previous editions that they’ve pretty much fixed. For one thing, they brought it back down to the lick on the streets fighting for his/her humanity which I still think should be the core of Vampire and that, I feel, we had lost over time.

  6. Alexis Avatar
    Alexis

    I was wondering if there’s an estimate for how long before the Scion hardcopy books are out.

    Also, I’m super excited for the Lunar 3e book and I’m happy to see its progress. Is there a kickstarter out for that yet?

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      No estimates, we don’t do them. We expect a Lunars KS in 2019, early.

  7. Greg Davis Avatar
    Greg Davis

    Does all this mean we are more or less likely to see a Kindred of the East 20 edition? ‘Cause an announcement to that effect would make a lovely Christmas pressie.

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      As likely as ever, which is a big maybe. Like I was trying to indicate in the blog, we haven’t really changed our process with WW so we’d need to pitch it, and they’d need to OK it.

  8. JetstreamGW Avatar
    JetstreamGW

    The Nook store still exists?

    … Nooks still exist?

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      Apparently, but not dramatically.

    2. karpomatic Avatar
      karpomatic

      I have a Nook and I still use it all the time. Granted its a 10″ tab 4.. but it’s still a Nook.

  9. Dennis Avatar
    Dennis

    I see *Monarchies of Mau* being At Press, but I can’t find it on DriveThru; can we expect it this Wednesday, or did I miss something? (Like, making sure Backers get it first.)

    1. Ian A. A. Watson Avatar
      Ian A. A. Watson

      As you can see with the descriptors next to the items in that category, “At Press” doesn’t mean “on sale.” There are a number of different things happening in that final phase before a book’s released to the public.

      1. Dennis Avatar
        Dennis

        Thanks! I just got used to having a PDF available before the book went off to the printer, so I was afraid I had missed something.

  10. Oliver Lindholm Sørensen Avatar
    Oliver Lindholm Sørensen

    Is there an estimate for when Scion Hero will come out to backers? I’m SO excited to get my eyes on the artwork in that. What we’ve seen so far in this blog has been amazing.

  11. Rosencroft Avatar
    Rosencroft

    Is there any news on Signs of Sorcery?
    It’s been a while since any news on it was released…

    1. Ted Avatar
      Ted

      I’d be interested in an update as well. It was mentioned in the Comments last week that the manuscript was being shown off at Gen Con sans the last chapter, but that makes it sound like there’s been no progress since the update we received in March stating there was about 4K words left to write.

  12. Kate Critt Avatar
    Kate Critt

    No disrespect to new White Wolf, who I’m watching with interest, but I hope to see Onyx Path’s name on WoD, CoD, and Exalted publications for years to come. You guys have delivered, even in the face of some really trying times. Keep up the great work. Remain awesome.

  13. Austin G Loomis Avatar

    I can’t speak for anyone else, but this is the third week running that MMN have gone up on the site without a notification in my inbox. Are we sure all the relevant switches got flipped when everyone returned from Gen Con?

    1. Ian A. A. Watson Avatar
      Ian A. A. Watson

      Please see the comments in last week’s MMN post about the lack of emails.

      The tl;dr: I’m pretty sure I know what the problem is, but fixing it is giving me more trouble than anticipated.

      1. Wolf Avatar
        Wolf

        Thanks, Ian! I was wondering what was going on.

  14. Lance Avatar
    Lance

    I would like to see Hero Lab charater generation or develop your own app to build characters included in all your kick starters as a stretch goal

    1. karpomatic Avatar
      karpomatic

      I’ve mentioned this before. I know Eddy has spoken to Lone Wolf Development about Pugmire but not sure if it went any where.

      1. Eddy Webb Avatar

        I sent them some information about Pugmire, and they’re working on it! I don’t have any more information beyond that.

  15. karpomatic Avatar
    karpomatic

    I’m ready for Dystopia Rising. My wife may not be ready for me to spend more $$ on a KS but I will have physical copies of all the Storypath games!

    1. Ekorren Avatar
      Ekorren

      You’re lucky. I regret that I pulled out of the Trinity KS to save money. That wasn’t money I should have saved.

      1. karpomatic Avatar
        karpomatic

        The trinity KS was the most I’ve ever spent. Over $300 on that one.

  16. Harry Sillett Avatar
    Harry Sillett

    Hey, are the old CofD books still getting turned to POD on DriveThruRPG? Some books like Damnation City are still PDF only.

    1. Joe Avatar
      Joe

      That’s a White Wolf title, not Onyx Path. So it’s up to WW to do that or not, and I’m gonna lean towards unlikely.

    2. Ian A. A. Watson Avatar
      Ian A. A. Watson

      As far as I know, DriveThruRPG continues to work through older titles as they have the time and ability.

  17. Nina Avatar
    Nina

    Greetings!
    What happened to the Bunyip tribebook for W20? Its not listed in the current projects, nor can I find in the newest Publishing Broschure.
    Did the project get scrapped?

  18. Morgan Avatar
    Morgan

    I love you guys.

  19. Cardul Avatar
    Cardul

    One thing I will say: even though I have been following you all for years, I do appreciate these sporadic “History of Onyx Path” posts. You see, first, there is the simple fact that these are good reminders of where everything has come from. Second, gaming history is actually one of those areas that fascinates me. And, third, it is great way to summarize the important events over the last year.

    Please, never stop doing these sorts of posts.

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      Much appreciated – thanks! History shows us that I will, no doubt, be doing more of these sorts of posts as the need arises!

    2. Ian A. A. Watson Avatar
      Ian A. A. Watson

      If you’re a fan of RPG history, and if you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out EvilHat’s excellent Designers & Dragons series.

  20. Josh Avatar
    Josh

    If someone wanted to use published material from exalted in an online tool for character and combat tracking, would we go through OPP?

    1. Ian A. A. Watson Avatar
      Ian A. A. Watson

      White Wolf owns the Exalted IP, so I’d contact them first.