Only the Cats Had Meetings Today- No Notes.
But we still have these, and I’ll be back next week with our usual tomfoolery:
BLURBS!
KICKSTARTER!
We’re headed to the half-way point, and are at that stage where we’re doing a lot of talking to bloggers and games sites! Please help us out by talking Monarchies of Mau up on social media and to your friends, especially your cat-loving friends. Don’t be shy, every mention helps!
We’ve already shot past Stretch Goals for an exclusive t-shirt, an Intro adventure, the first three Mau stories in a fiction anthology, a book of character write-ups featuring the characters submitted by backers, and our second adventure goal – this time by Dennis Detwiller – is headed toward happening with plenty more to come! If you get a chance, here’s the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/monarchies-of-mau-fantasy-tabletop-rpg
ON SALE!
ON AMAZON:
We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!
And this week, we’re releasing another six fiction books:
- Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds
- Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology
- Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology
- Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology
Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? 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/
You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages!
ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM:
Curated by Matthew McFarland, developer of Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition and featuring authors such as Myranda Kalis, Wren Handman, and Peter Woodworth, this C20 Anthology of Dreams will go on sale in electronic/PDF and physical copy PoD formats this Wednesday on DTRPG.com!
Now on DTRPG, the EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart PDF/PoD jumps up for sale!
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/208891/Tomb-of-Dreams-an-Exalted-3rd-Edition-Jumpstart
Once, in the time before the gods forgot their names, when the world was flat and floated on a sea of chaos, there was an age of gleaming cities, untamed wilderness, enlightened devils, greedy spirits, and mighty heroes. This was the age of the Exalted, champions empowered by the highest of gods.
Tomb of Dreams will jumpstart your group’s Exalted game—all you need to start playing Exalted Third Edition is this book, pencils, and 10-sided dice. Included here are the game’s core rules, five pregenerated characters, and a self-contained scenario that can start a new campaign or that Storytellers can use in an ongoing chronicle. And for groups that already have the Exalted Third Edition main rulebook, Tomb of Dreams will serve as an introduction for new players and a quick reference during play—anyone intimidated by that prodigious volume need only read Part 1 of this book to get started.
What legends will they tell of your deeds?
Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion Advance PDF is now on sale on DriveThruRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/211504/V20-Dark-Ages-Companion
Travel the long roads and deep seas in search of power and experience danger, or tackle the wilderness to hunt monsters and face death. Settlements large and small dot the black expanse with the promise of sanctuary, life, and community. These bastions of civilization present cold comfort, when playing host to vampire warlords and sadistic Cainite faiths. Whether led by a Prince, a coordinated belief, or hounded by monsters from without and within — no domain is truly the same as another.
Dark Ages Companion includes:
• Domains scattered across the world, from small fiefdoms to massive cities. Bath, Bjarkarey, Constantinople, Rome, Mogadishu, and Mangaluru each receive coverage.
• Apocrypha including plot hooks, new Paths, and mysteries to explore in your games.
• A how-to guide on building a domain within your chronicle, including events and servants necessary to make a domain as functional or dysfunctional as you wish.
• A study on warfare in the Dark Ages period, so combat in your chronicles can gain authenticity and lethality.
Bill Bridge’s new W20 novel, The Song of Unmaking, is on sale in PDF/ePub/PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/208366/W20-The-Song-of-Unmaking and in ebook form on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VM2S3D/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1494441226&sr=1-1 !
The fabric of reality is cracking. Fissures appear in thin air, glowing with balefire. Something is scratching on the other side, pressing, beginning to break through….
The Wyrm’s corruption finds its way into the hearts of humans and Garou alike. Even an ultra-rational techno-cratic scientist can fall sway to its lies. Channeling his hate and resentment through the most sophisticated machine ever created, Basil Czajka has turned a tool designed to peer deep into the heart of the quantum universe into a nursery for the hatching of a horror — a creature whose birth cry is destined to unmake Gaia’s Song of Creation.
The only ones standing in his way are One-Song, a broken-down old Theurge, and Lord Albrecht, whose heed-less anger might be the very weapon the enemy needs to crack the egg and free the Unmaker.
The Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Companion has arrived in PDF and PoD physical book versions at DriveThruRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/207879/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Dark-Eras-Companion
The Dark Eras Companion presents eleven new Eras for the Chronicles of Darkness. Stretching from Ancient Rome and Egypt through the Black Death, the Thirty Years War, the Reconstruction, and the Russian Revolution, the Companion showcases even more of the secret history of this eldritch world. Included in each era are “snapshots” of the various supernatural creatures, including vampires, changelings, mummies, and demons. Also included are lists of inspirational media to help you put these Eras in context for your troupe.
Open the Dark Eras Companion and take another look back in time.
V20 Lore of the Bloodlines awaits in PDF and physical book PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com!
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/207392/V20-Lore-of-the-Bloodlines
Lore of the Bloodlines is a single volume (created via Kickstarter) that revisits some of the bloodlines in Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, providing story hooks, character concepts, history, and bloodline-specific rules. The secrets of the Baali, Daughters of Cacophony, Gargoyles, Harbingers of Skulls, Kiasyd, Salubri, Samedi, and True Brujah are now yours.
Lore of the Bloodlines includes:
• The history, lore, and nightly practices of nine bloodlines, told from the perspective of the Kindred themselves.
• New combo Disciplines, powers, Merits, Flaws, and other rules specific to each bloodline.
• Revisions and updates of more classic Vampire: The Masquerade material to V20.
Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes for Beast: the Primordial, PoD and PDF versions is now on sale on DTRPG.com!
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202615/Night-Horrors-Conquering-Heroes
This book includes:
- An in-depth look at how Heroes hunt and what makes a Hero, with eleven new Heroes to drop into any chronicle.
- A brief look at why Beasts may antagonize one another, with seven new Beasts to drop into any chronicle.
- Rules for Insatiables, ancient creatures born of the Primordial Dream intent on hunting down Beasts to fill a hunger without end, featuring six examples ready to use in any chronicle.
From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Beneath the Skin (Demon and Skinchangers 1486-1502 Aztec Empire). Ahuitzotl sits on the throne at the height of the Aztec Empire, overseeing his sorcerer-priests’ sacrifices and the endless flower wars his jaguar and eagle warriors carry out in his name to keep the altars well-supplied with victims. The gears of the Aztec Empire turn smoothly and inexorably, but not everything is what it pretends to be. Skinchangers take the shapes of animals to run the wilds or bring down human prey, the Unchained cobble together identities from stolen lives, and stranger things still lurk in the deserts and jungles beyond the walls of Tenochtitlan.
On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/206028/Dark-Eras-Beneath-the-Skin-Skinchangers-and-Demon-the-Descent
From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Into the Cold (Demon: the Descent 1961 Berlin). East Germany erects a wall against its Western counterpart, turning West Berlin into an island within its own country. As the Cold War heats up, demons find themselves the targets of increasing human scrutiny, and begin to realize that the God-Machine’s plans didn’t end with the War.
On sale now in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/206081/Dark-Eras-Into-the-Cold-Demon-the-Descent
CONVENTIONS!
Discussing GenCon plans. August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Every chance the booth will actually be 20? x 30? this year that we’ll be sharing with friends. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s).
In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: https://www.gameholecon.com/
And now, the new project status updates!
First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)
- Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
- M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)
- DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)
- The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Redlines
- Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Second Draft
- V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
- GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)
- Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
- Scion: Origins (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)
- WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)
- Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)
Development
- Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
- SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)
- Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)
- Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)
- BtP Beast Player’s Guide (Beast: the Primordial)
- M20 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)
- Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)
WW Manuscript Approval:
- Book of Freeholds (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
Editing:
- Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition
- Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Post-Editing Development:
Indexing:
ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:
In Art Direction
- Beckett’s Jyhad Diary
- W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook – AD’d
- Cavaliers of Mars
- Wraith 20
- W20Changing Ways
- Ex3 Monthly Stuff
- Storypath Brochure
- VDA Jumpstart
- Scion Origins
- C20 Jumpstart – AD’d
- Ring of Spiragos – AD’d
- Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – AD’d & Contracted
In Layout
- M20 Art Book – In progress…
- Prince’s Gambit – New Cards out for playtesting
- Gen Con Stuff
Proofing
- CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology
- M20 Book of Secrets – Josh inputting final corrections and page xx’s.
- VTR: Thousand Years of Night
At Press
- Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.
- Dark Eras: To the Strongest – PoD proof on the way.
- EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart – Going on sale on DTRPG.com this week.
- C20 Anthology – On sale this Wednesday.
- C20 – Wrapping up errata and prepping for indexing.
- Pugmire – Printing.
- Pugmire Screen – Printing.
- Pugmire Cards & Dice – Printing/manufacturing.
- Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – At Press
- Dark Eras: The Wolf & Raven– Reviewing PoD proof.
- Dark Eras: Three Kingdoms of Darkness – Reviewing PoD proof.
- Dagger of Spiragos (5e) – Out to backers.
- Dagger of Spiragos (PF) – Out to backers.
- V20 Dark Ages Companion – Awaiting errata so I can wrap this up.
- BtP Building a Legend – Out to backers last week, gathering errata.
TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Not so much “celebrate”, but certainly we commemorate today all of those who gave their lives in service to their countries.
Comments
25 responses to “Memorial Day nonNotes [Monday Meeting Notes]”
Oh, a change to one of the Exalted novels after all these years. Didn’t expect that.
As we’ve been mentioning, we have moved on all of the Exalted 3rd fronts, particularly with the advent of our new developers. Plus, Aaron, is very excited to return to writing Exalted, so that’s a very big plus as to getting the work rolling along.
Very cruel to make your cats meet when you aren’t. For shame!
Never been able to _make_ cats do anything! Besides, it’s their meeting and we have no idea what’s on the agenda.
This post made me laugh.
I know I am asking for the Grail, but I am talking up the new version of TC to a friend of mine, any word on when the KS is going to be. Obviously after GenCon, but in that range of Sept.- Nov., can y’all pin it down a little?
Nope. we have to see how our second half (or is it third third) of the year shakes out post GenCon, where we always have revelations and opportunities.
Hi. Any more news about Mage F.A.Q?
Yes. The aggressive posts in the Mage2 forum have compelled DaveB to put some distance between himself and the idea of working on the FAQ. Since the FAQ was entirely something DaveB wanted to do as a special thing for the Mage2 community, you’re going to have to see if he feels differently once his time opens up again. I’ve been trying for years to bring home to our community that the people who create our projects are people first and foremost, and deserve to be treated as such and not simply entertainment providing machines, and here is an example of what happens when a creator feels attacked, both personally and through attacking the company he has dedicated his talent and effort towards.
Thank you for your reply. It’s a sad situation indeed.
Goddamnit. First Mirthful Mike, now Dave. Why do people have to be assholes to the people who work so hard to entertain them? Dave, if you are reading this, we appreciate everything you do and will understand however much time you need to take for yourself.
I’m not surprised. The OP forums are filled with some incredibly strange, self-important, people.
There’s some good eggs, too. But holy hell can it be a minefield at times.
I.E. the Changeling 20 thread about art.
I’m really glad that you are helping and protecting your employees, and I think it’s a magnificient stance to take, similar to how good parents are uncompromising when it comes to shielding their children from harm.
However, I humbly ask you to take a step back and look at this situation from a certain distance, kind of like how a parent should when they have to evaluate actions of their children when they hear about their misbehavior at school.
I used to be a very active poster at the Mage board. I spent hours and hours of writing, hoping that things I write will help others enjoy this game a tiny little bit more. I have been always writing in good faith and avoided confrontation and aggression at all costs, because I simply don’t like to attack or be attacked. If you don’t believe me, you can check my posting history or ask people, like your mods; I can’t imagine having a reputation of a troublemaker or firestarter.
There was a time when I felt personally attacked, though. Here it is: http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/mage-the-awakening/1047834-yantra-limitations?p=1048112#post1048112
I have also passionately participated in both the community errata, and the FAQ. Again, I spent hours upon hours reading and rereading the book, looking for things that were either not very clear, looked dysfunctional, or had other problems that we were asked to find.
This experience, combined with the tons of post aimed at helping my fellow Mage players, combined with helping my local Mage Game Masters and players, combined with playing our own local game, brought a certain thing to my attention.
This thing is that, basically, a lot of people don’t understand how this game works. That after reading the core book, they either go ask someone to provide them with an answer, or they form answer of their own…which then, to their surprise, collides with someone’s else interpretation of this very same thing, and instead of playing the game, they have to either argue who is right, or forge a compromise.
There is no common ground to stand on, because instead of providing a shared framework that creates bridges between imagination of very different people, allowing them to end up on the same piece of imagination land, a lot of elements of this game create questions that shatter them and force people to stay on their own imagination islands, unable to connect.
Questions people asked – time after time month after month, user after user – aren’t about some esoteric aspects of the game that are unneeded to experience it. They are about very basic things that are needed to *play the game*. Someone asked why we need an official FAQ instead of creating our own, and answer to that was simple and depressing:
We can’t because we don’t know the answers. We can only guess what was the intent or how something is supposed to work. And each user, each player, has their own interpretation. And most of these interpretations are mutually exclusive. I haven’t meet a single pair of people who had compatible “vision” of the Mage. And this is how we have experienced it in our play groups, and my friends player groups, and our Facebook group, too – people cant connect their viewpoints. They open up the same book, but they seem like each one of them read a slightly different one, and these differences lead to clashes, arguments and other things that introduce cracks and splinters into the fun of the game.
Results? We have put our Mage game on hiatus, because while our GM loved the characters and the setting, having to constantly “research” the multiple mysteries and questions of this game was simply too exhausting.
My friends groups? Games ended prematurely, mostly after arguments between players and GMs, because they simply couldn’t find a common ground; and, in a game where your are supposed to improvise your powers, common ground is key.
We lack that common ground. The best thing we can count for is to submit to someone’s else interpretation, or force our own. Each one of us is playing “their own Mage”, not because of a informed choice, but simply because we don’t know what a “default Mage” is.
So, while it’s easy to frame this whole thing as “community bullies a developer in order to make him answer some irrelevant questions”, I don’t think it’s fair. We have a magnificent Answer Simple Question thread, where people help each other time and time again, patiently explaining what they can. But many, many times, our only possible answer is “I think it works like this, but your guess is as good as mine.”
Questions that are constantly asked, and repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, from different people, different times.
I have been feeling lately that the default answer to this phenomena is supposed to be “the book is fine, it’s people who are not good enough to read it correctly”. And this feeling alone made me pretty much stop wanting to contribute to the forum, because I feel that my existence is unwelcome. I have been watching Mage forum closely since the open dev of 2nd ED…and honestly? The last 9 months were, like, maybe 2 or 3 posts with a short “FAQ out already? No? Oh, ok, see you later”. I feel like I’m being gaslighted about some kind of aggression and attacks aimed at the Dave, and I might even wake up one morning hearing that I was a part of them???????
This is first time I’m going to say it, but to me, Mage core feels like a great game…but slightly unfinished and little bumpy. And this is why I cannot play it anymore. Nobody I know is willing to spend so much time before and in middle of each game trying to decipher what could the rules possibly mean. As my GM put it, “she doesn’t have time or energy to basically write the game – which include rules – filling out a questionnaire provided by the book”. We are supposed to be solving Mysteries in game, not “of the game”. I also know that I don’t want to play this game with strangers, because I don’t want to spend a week arguing about how my characters is supposed to function, because there is a real chance – this happened before, multiple times – where I will do something, and someone will say “whoa, I don’t think this works this way…” or even worse “Uh, I don’t know how to resolve this, how does this work?”, and evening is lost. Aggressive posts in the “any news about FAQ thread”? Most of aggression in that thread was pointed at people asking about the FAQ (!), not at the Developer. Again, I invite you to read the thread yourself, instead of relying on second handed information, as it’s pretty short.
I’m really sad, because this book was a gift for my birthday. Waiting for it helped me fight my depression and gave me few months where I actually had something to look forward to and to think about future with hope. The fact that I’m unable to enjoy this game – and neither are my friends, and their friends – pains me.
When people ask “FAQ WHEN?”, they just want to remove this obstacle and be able to enjoy the game fully, with clarity and knowing that they are “playing it right”.
First, I very much appreciate both your civility and your efforts towards encouraging folks on the forums and in real life to play Mage 2nd. Thanks for jumping in where you saw a need in order to help folks understand and play the game. It’s that kind of commitment, and fortunately you are not the only person we can say this about in our community, that changes these games from simply being books to absorb, into experiences where players are communicating and debating with each other.
This is part of the magic of tabletop RPGs, and something that, as a publisher, I try and keep an eye on for each book: how much interpretation is good and where does that cross over to becoming a broken game? Geist 1, for example, I would call broken as it stood when first published, which is why one of the first things Onyx did was to create the Geist 1.2 version. But plenty of people fell in love with Geist 1, and found ways to play it.
Which is more of that tabletop RPG magic. Try and negotiate the rules for your favorite MMO with the system. Unless you’re hacking, you’re not going to get far.
We’ve looked at Mage 2, and in my opinion it is nowhere near a broken game. It is complex (I mean: it’s Mage), and like any game of that complexity, there are plenty of parts where opinions on interpretation will vary. Your mileage may or will vary on just how much is OK, and there may be specific sections where DaveB felt he could clarify things with specific sections of a FAQ, but mostly, for most people, Mage 2 not only works but is a huge step forward for the line.
Now, as for DaveB deciding to step away from any talking about a FAQ, that was his decision, based on his interpretation of the thread, that he made as an adult professional creator. I also have been reading the thread for longer than just this weekend, and found several posts to be objectionable. Since other posters were already flagging them, it wasn’t something I felt needed my involvement, but seeing things there develop as they did, I have no issues with DaveB’s decision.
And as much as I appreciate your understanding of my position, I think it is really important that we never consider our creators as any kind of children, nor see me as some patriarchal figure. In terms of one of our creators deciding that a post, thread, or forum is offensive to them, I see myself as a fellow creator who also pours his heart, soul, talent, blood, sweat, and tears, into his work here, and who also would not appreciate being offensively communicated with. I do not need to defend them, they are more than capable of dealing with things as they feel they need to. Rather, I support them in how they need to respond.
I don’t expect our community to be constantly flattering and ass-kissing any of our creators (unless what you’re posting is really how you feel!), but I will not tolerate the inverse and do not expect any of our creators to “take it” when communication becomes nasty, offensive, or too aggressive. Fortunately, to refer to your earlier point about gaslighting, no, I don’t think you have been a problematic poster, but ultimately, that’s a call each creator has to make.
Or our ever-working and fantastic forum Mods.
So does this mean he’s getting paid to do a FAQ or one will be included in signs of sorcery?
There’s nothing in my post or even the one I’m responding to that suggests anything like those ideas.
I know, that’s why I’m asking.
Those options are outside the scope of our current discussions.
Can I quote you on that? It’s for a blog.
Simple Rich, the cats are discussing how to knock your important items off of shelves or tables and get you to worship them..
j/k Though I really do love the Monarchies and backed it as soon as it went live. My friends who are cat people love it too. = ^.^ =
Also YAY for the M20 BoS getting close to the finish line !
I knew it! 🙂
Thanks! Glad Monarchies is working for you- we appreciate you telling your friends!
OK read Lore of hte Bloodlines, excellent. Now any chance we can actually get a bonus directors cut and get the write up for the Blood Brothers bloodline…pretty please…
I would love to write up the Blood Brothers, but we will have to see what the future holds! Please leave a review on DriveThruRPG!
If I pledge for Kittens and Puppies living together, can I submit a Dog NPC?
You have to pledge to a reward tier that specifically includes submitting a dog NPC as a reward. That’s a really big deal, we have to do a lot more work to incorporate those characters into the book/world, so they are higher reward tiers.