WOW!

10 Years!

(Shades of Grosse Pointe Blank‘s reunion scene)

10 YEARS!

First: Thanks to all of you, whether new to us or after ten years on the Path!

We just could not have gotten here without you, and we truly do appreciate that integral fact. (More on appreciation in a bit).

When I started Onyx Path just a few months before Jan 1, 2012, it was because I recognized that I missed and loved making TTRPG worlds and the books which serve to contain them. Contain them, until the folks in our community gets their hands on them and take their own games and stories places we never dreamed of. But love!

And for a decade your support has meant that I, and all of our Onyx Path crew of creators, have been able to make more and more worlds and games, both original and reclamations of older properties. We’ve dodged disasters, climbed seemingly impregnable walls, and have brought in more and more fine talent from around the world in the spirit of including the vast panoply of experiences shared by creators of very different backgrounds.

Again, thank you all for that!

Now, On With the Show!

I’m not going to do one of those “Year in Review” things, but you can ask me about that in the Comments. Instead, I heartily recommend hitting this link to our own Ian AA Watson’s blog post from last week that goes over all of our releases in 2021.

When you are in the midst of building and creating all of these projects, it is sometimes hard to recall just how many Worlds we are Pathing. Just check it out: https://theonyxpath.com/release-retrospective-2021/

What I’m focusing on talking about today is looking forward into 2022 and what we’re doing this year to come! Today we talk about celebrating and enjoying all of our game lines and worlds through our deca-anniversary year!

For example, 2022 will be a year that we continue the monthly Tasty Bits PDF program. The chance to explore our game worlds in little bites has been a lot of fun, and these smaller projects are jam-packed with material for use with all of our Storypath games! So, let’s do 12 more!

Now, to be fair, that’s not a new announcement. But I wanted to get it out there as an example of the “through-line” of how we’re handling the next year. We’re continuing to push our projects towards release just as we did all last year, and accelerating the pace of release. Even when hammered, and we were really hammered, by our situation with our printers.

That’s resolving now. This month, the first batch of our six Kickstarter funded books are getting to press, with the rest to wrap up and get shipped to our fulfillment shipper through January and into February. So far, that is happening. Six KSs are being fulfilled in these next three months. With our next round of books going to press as soon after that as the printer will allow.

So, for 2022 and our 10th Anniversary Celebration, how are we doing it?

First, each month is going to feature a specific game line, with 90% off discounts for the PDFs of those game lines – that’s right, they are at 10% of their usual price in honor of our 10th Anniversary. These sales will happen throughout the month and at specific times (which will hopefully be long enough for everyone to enjoy the discounts) as we need to not run the 10th Anniversary sales while DTRPG is running their sales. We want no conflicting sales discount algorithms – that just gets very messy, frustrating, and confusing for all involved!

Which means that January is the month featuring Dystopia Rising: Evolution, with the Anniversary Sale running from Jan 18th until Jan 24th for the core rulebook, and the rest of the projects in the line on sale from Jan 25th until the 31st!

(The massive New Year, New Game Sale that DTRPG runs every year is running from Jan 4th – 17th).

Eddy Webb spearheaded the post-apocalyptic Dystopia Rising: Evolution Storypath setting, and included some stunning new SP rules for communities, zombies, and scavenging the trash of the old world to create new useful items. If you want “Macgyver” rules for your Storypath games – this is your perfect chance to get them, and a whole lot more!

In addition, our Onyx Pathcast will be focusing on the game line (or lines) of the month in one or more of their weekly broadcasts. Interviews with the creators, deep-dives into the games and/or their lore, and other features throughout the month, all brought to life with that unique combination of silliness and insightful wit that Dixie, Eddie, and Matthew bring to every episode!

As a digression in the spirit of the always-digressing Pathcast trio, this week’s Onyx Pathcast is its 200th audio bit broadcast, even though it’s episode #189. The spunky lil’ Pathcast that could!

We’re planning on Onyx Path Virtual Con 3 in June – with an even bigger swathe of sales across our lines during the convention, and pop-up give-ways to con-goers, as well – all in the same spirit of thanking our community supporters for 10 years of making and playing our games! The whole convention will be themed around our 10th Anniversary, so expect all sorts of surprises!

We’re also going to be upgrading our website, first with an overhaul to solve some of our ongoing “quirks” of the site, and then a newly redesigned site. After all, it’s been ten years – there’s wear and tear. We’re looking at things like a solution to the glitch that stops some folks, some times, from accessing this very blog. We think we have found a way to fix that caching issue, so we’re giving that a try.

Along with that, we’ve been upfront about the issues with our forums. That’s another area we’re in the process of implementing a solution for. We seriously do want Exalted fans to be able to post as often as they want, but that glitch was just not responding to fixes. And the standard solution looked like it would very likely trash the previous posts. This wasn’t something we felt would make most of our forumites happy, so now we think we’ve got a way to make it all better.

Bear with us as we work through the process this next month or two.

Then, we come to this very MMN Blog.

I’ve felt that we have bloated up a fair bit in the last few years – so I’m cutting back. Take a look below, there’s less stuff.

For example, OP Media is moving most of its info over to its own Tuesday blog, where Matthew will still be featuring feeds and vids from all and sundry who contact him about playing our games. We’ll still put out our Twitch schedule and the Media Highlight of the Week here, while those of our community who want to really dig into Actual Plays and analysis of our games online can get those links on Tuesday!

We’re going to be trying a new method of showing the Progress Report each week starting next week – which we’ll do for the rest of the month to see how well it gives you all what you need without the large lists of projects under every category. I think it’ll take several weeks to see if the flow of info works, and we’ll post a poll to get your feedback on that. We know a lot of you love the Progress Report, so we want to hear from you if it’s a good thing!

Lots of excitement, and what we hope are good changes here, all in recognition and celebration of our ongoing journey through:

Ten Years, Many Worlds, One Path!

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Blurbs!

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Kickstarter!

Thanks to everyone who pledged, and if you missed out…keep an eye out for TC: Anima on Backerkit and you can still get in on the fun!

Right now, we’re submitting the campaign for the Mage 20th: Lore of the Traditions to the folks who need to approve it! More to come…

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Onyx Path Media!

This week: Holiday Special Movie Watch with Deadly Invasion! Oh, boy!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

Onyx Path Media will be moving in its near totality to Tuesdays on the blog! We’ll continue posting our highlight of the week here, but Tuesday will be the day to visit if you want to catch up on actual plays, interviews, deep dives, and other assorted Onyx Path media!

Please check out our attached media schedule for the impressive number of videos on our Twitch channel this week! In particular, keep those eyes open for our Storypath Showcase, where we give an excellent profile of our various Storypath games and how to play them!

MEDIA HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK:
The Polyhedron Podcast actual play of Trinity Continuum: Anima concluded over the holidays, but that just means you have access to the whole playlist right now and can watch every one of the excellent episodes (run by champion Storyguide, Eddy Webb) right on our YouTube channel. If you’re interested in checking them out, please take a look at this playlist and enjoy: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNRTdSDh6-We96fHKbTsaqwgr9yBMbjM

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more. Please subscribe and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

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Virtual Tabletop!

The first of our official sheets designed for Foundry VTTis now available!

As they say:
Direct Link: https://foundryvtt.com
“Foundry Virtual Tabletop is a self-hosted roleplaying
platform with support for hundreds of game systems with modern
features and a developer-friendly API. Foundry VTT is a one-time
purchase where your players connect for free using a web browser.”

We’re offering first the character sheet for Scion Origin and Hero, featuring:

• A whole platform as a new place for Storyguides and Players
• Fully integrated and up to date character sheet
• Familiar to users of the paper sheet
• Handles all needed rolls
• Officially created and supported

More VTT offering and projects will be arriving this year!

A Quantum Leap (A Trinity Continuum: Jumpstart), The Adventures of Teen Tomorrow (A Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Jumpstart), Quantum Entanglement (A Trinity Continuum: Aeon Jumpstart), are all on Astral TableTop.

Also on Astral TableTop is the Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb for Realms of Pugmire!

Check out Astral TableTop for two free projects: Scion 2E: A Light Extinguished and Scarred Lands: Gauntlet of Spiragos and this Dagger of Spiragos module for sale: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/336406/Dagger-of-Spiragos-5e–Astral-VTT

On DrivethruRPG, here is the main filter for all of our current VTT content:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/4261/Onyx-Path-Publishing?filters=0_0_0_45317_0

A few highlights of our platform agnostic DTRPG content:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/309127/Scarred-Lands-Creature-Collection-VTT-Token-Pack
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/317690/Trinity-Continuum-Hunt-for-the-Red-Widow-VTT
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/340327/Trinity-Continuum-Aeon-VTT-Tokens
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311578/Scarred-Lands-VTT-Separation-Anxiety
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311580/Scion-2e-VTT-Origin-Signature-Tokens
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311579/Scion-2e-VTT-Hero-Signature-Tokens

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Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to provide our traditionally printed books out into your local game stores. Game stores can order via their usual distributors, and can also contact Studio2 directly. And individuals can check out our projects via the links below!

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

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles in PDF and PoD versions at DriveThruRPG.com!

The New Year, New Game Sale starts this week!

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).

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On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday do you dare to enter the squared circle with the N!WE Unleashed wrestling sourcebook for Trinity Continuum: Aberrant? Only in PDF and PoD versions on DTRPG!

In the world of Trinity Continuum: Aberrant, wrestling is a major form of entertainment. Unlike in our world, many of these wrestlers are novas — individuals with amazing powers — and in the case of N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment and Nova Combat federations, these novas use their powers to wow the crowds, win fans, and make themselves rich, or suffer horribly for trying.

In N!WE Unleashed!, you roleplay characters who work in the wrestling business, both in the ring and backstage, courting popularity and heat, striving to win championships, and making enough of a legend of yourself that one day, you might even have your own action figure.

N!WE Unleashed! uses the Storypath System and requires Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook and Trinity Continuum: Aberrant for use.

N!WE Unleashed! includes:

• A deep-diving headbutt into the inner workings of the wrestling industry, covering everything from maintaining character to the choreography of a bout, and all the participants involved in running a show.
• A plunging powerbomb into the N!WE’s history, with advice on incorporating the premier wrestling company into your games of Aberrant, and how to play out and run wrestling matches and all the backstage politics that precede and follow them.
• A torture rack of new Edges, Conditions, technology, and characters to augment your game and give it that wrestling federation feel.
• A piledriving new mini-system for wrestling-focused games, complete with character creation, rules for moves and maneuvers, and guidance on building up faces, heels, and character popularity.

Remember: the Pre-Order page for Trinity Continuum: Assassins is open on DTRPG! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/379041

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Conventions!

Because dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, we don’t yet have a list of upcoming physical conventions. Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!

While we won’t be attending as a company, Eddy and a few more of our gang will be at Midwinter Convention in Milwaukee in January. Seek them out if you are attending those cons!

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And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from 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.)

• Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)
• Tasty Bit: Polyphemus (Trinity Continuum)

Redlines

• Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Tome of the Pentacle (Mage: the Awakening 2e)
• Scion: God (Scion 2e)
• With Great Power (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• Adventure! Addendum (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)
• Terat Novella (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Second Draft

• The Hedge (Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition)
• Squeaks in the Deep Jumpstart (Realms of Pugmire)

Development

• Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)
• Bizarre Tales and Unusual Characters (M20 Victorian)
• No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Scion: Dragon Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)
• W20 Howls of Apocalypse Scenario Book (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Manuscript Approval

• Trinity Continuum: Aether core book (Trinity Continuum: Aether)
• Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Weird Wonders and Revolutionary Magick (M20 Victorian)

Post-Approval Development

• Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Scion: Dragon Companion (Scion 2nd Edition)

Editing

• Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)
• M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
• CtL2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)
• Legacies of Earth (Legendlore)
• Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Proteus Nova Compendium (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• They Came From [Classified]! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)
• Realms of Magic and Mystery (was Terra Incognita) (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Vigil Watch: The Kelder Mountains (Scarred Lands)
• The Paranormal Investigator’s Handbook (WoD 20th)
• Apocalyptic Record (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
• M20 Lore of the Traditions (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Panopticon Novella (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• TC: Adventure! Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)
• W20 Icons of Rage (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
• Squeaks in the Deep Companion (Realms of Pugmire)
• Whispers From Darkness (was Masks of the Mythos Companion) (Scion 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development

• Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)
• Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Trinity Continuum: Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)
• The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
• Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)
• Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)
• Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• Tales of Depravity! (They Came From…!)
• Trinity Continuum: Anima
• They Came From [Classified]! (They Came From…!)
• Once and Future (Scion 2nd Edition)
• They Came From the Cyclops’s Cave! core book (They Came From…!)
• Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)
• Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Tasty Bit: They Came From Animal Distaster Films!
• Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Indexing

• Hunter 2e (Hunter: The Vigil 2e)

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Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

• Scion: Dragon
• Masks of the Mythos
• TC: Adventure!
• M20 Victorian – With to Maria to AD.
• Dead Man’s Rust – Sending to Maria to AD.
• Exalted Essence – Art buy figured.
• TC Mission Statements
• Squeaks In The Deep
• Realms of Magic and Mystery
• TC: Anima (KS)
• TC: Assassin – Maria ADing.
• Legendlore: Legacies of the Earth
• Novas Worldwide
• W20 Apocalyptic Record
• Mage20 Lore of the Traditions – Waiting on approvals.
• TCFBtG! Monsters From the Crypt
• They Came From [CLASSIFIED]! and They Came From the Cyclops’s Cave – Art is going – checking in on artists this week.
• Kith and Kin – Awaiting art notes.
• EX3 Exigents (KS) – Splat sketches in.
• EX3 Across the 8 Directions – Awaiting art notes.
• EX3 Adversaries of the Righteous – Awaiting art notes.

In Layout

• Scion: Demigod – Layout proceeding.
• Squeaks in the Deep Screen
• Squeaks in the Deep – Layout proceeding.
• HtV 2e Screen
• Paranormalists Handbook – Layout proceeding with Josh.
• Saints and Monsters – Layout proceeding.
• M20 Technocracy Dossier/Companion

Proofing

• Hunter: The Vigil 2e – Indexing.
• Spiragos Collected Adventures
• They Came From Camp Murder Lake! – Prepping PDF and PoD files.
• Hundred Devils Night Parade – Advance PDF errata input finishing today.
• Aberrant VTT
• TC Prometheus Unbound – Got proof notes back, nothing horrible.
• TCFGtG! Heroes in a World of Horror

At Press

• M20 Technocracy Reloaded – Deluxe getting ready for press.
• Mummy 2e – Getting ready for press.
• Mummy 2e Screen – Files sent to printer.
• Deviant – Press proofs back to printer.
• Deviant Screen – Files sent to printer.
• Technocracy Reloaded Screen – Files sent to printer.
• TGFBtG! Screen – Signing off on proofs.
• WoD Ghost Hunters – Trad printed book files with printer.
• WoD Ghost Hunters Screen – Signing off on proofs.
• Legendlore – Trad printed book files with printer.
• Legendlore Screen – Signing off on proofs.
• M20 Rich Bastards Guide – PoD prep.
• TC Aeon Novella: Dawn – PoD proof on the way.
• TC Aeon Novella: Meridian – PoD proof on the way.
• V5 Forbidden Religions – PoD proof ordered.
• They Came From Beyond the Grave! – Trad printing proofs being reviewed, PoD proofs on the way.
• Trinity Continuum: Assassins pre-order is live on DTRPG.
• TC Aberrant N!WE – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Weds on DTRPG!
• Ghost Hunters Jumpstart and RMCs – PDF going out to KS backers.
• Dystopia Rising Evolution fiction: Exquisite Corpse – PDF going out to backers.

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Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Although he was born a looong time ago, today we celebrate the birth of that guy who popularized fantasy – no, not Peter Jackson! We’re talking about the guy who wrote the books he “based” his movies on!

“John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State. As a child, Tolkien was bitten by a large baboon spider in the garden, an event some think later echoed in his stories, although he admitted no actual memory of the event and no special hatred of spiders as an adult.” Sure, Professor, sure – it’s just a coincidence that nasty spiders are antagonists in every book!