Monday Meeting: It’s Wednesday and Finally Monday Because of Tuesday Addams.

(Reposted from WhiteWolfBlogs)

Yep, things spiraled out of control around here because I didn’t get to write these notes and get them up on Monday, like normal. First of all, with the new year I’ve followed up every Monday Lunch Meeting With Eddy with a second meeting consisting of folks who are helping Onyx Path move forward as a company- which is different than the Development and Art teams that work on each book or line.  We look more at the overall concerns for Onyx and right now, and for the past few weeks, we’ve been talking all the time about Marketing. Onyx Path wasn’t even announced until mid last year and that truncated what sorts of methods of information we had to use with all you great folks. As you might have noticed, we really only used social media like the WW Forums, various Facebook pages, my personal and OP‘s Twitter feeds, the Kickstarter communication venues, the Onyx Path website and these blogs. Any interviews or announcements came out as they went live, and with only a skeletal plan. So one of my goals in 2013 was to get our Marketing moving in a cohesive and directed fashion that encompassed and directed what we were already doing with social media, but which also included demo teams at cons and prize support and maybe even parties. So there’s been a lot to discuss in these Monday OP meetings as we got things sorted out, and the meeting has ballooned from an hour to, on some Mondays like this last one, four hours. So, I ran out of time to write this up. And then yesterday I sent out the links for the KS Backers’ copies of the Werewolf the Apocalypse Twentieth Anniversary Edition PDFs and that started out taking most of the day and kept going as I wanted to respond to and pull together the Backers’ comments. We’re finding some errors and omissions (Thanks to our eagle-eyed Backers!) but by and large, and with great joy on our part, the vast majority of the comments are in praise of such a beautiful and huge book. Which feels really great, let me say! (The comments are still coming, but the flood eased up overnight.) And I ran out of time to write this up.

So here we are at last, and now the notes from my meeting with Eddy: We started with talking about the pros and cons of Adobe Reader. Right now, its looking good for PDF review, but I was concerned that some of the better features from Acrobat would be missed if I didn’t install Acrobat on my new “main” computer. When I mentioned liking the pen tool in mark-ups for signatures and missed that in Reader, Eddy noted that there’s a HUGE HONKING BUTTON at the top right that says “Sign”. I am so smrt.

In reference to the delivery of the W20 PDF I talked about how getting a preview copy out really helps us clean up those bits of info and errata that even a bunch of eyes and several proofing stages miss. This related to some of the very detail oriented comments that fans post during the Open Dev Process that catch things the writers and Dev gloss over as they pull together the work of several different writers into a coherent whole. This sometimes creates a funny dichotomy with a community member wondering “How could they miss that bit that we talk about at almost every game session?”, and a Dev wondering “How did they catch that obscure reference from a forum post in 2001?” Or words to that effect. The great thing is that what is really a complementary relationship can now be part of how we pull these projects together and the two kinds of game knowledge can be united to make the games better.

We talked, as we should, about CCP Approvals and got some thumbs-up on some art and projects, and at the time the 2013-2014 Schedule was still under review. But as of today, I can say that CCP approved our proposed projects through the end of 2014! Woot! One of my questions about that is whether to release any of the 2014 schedule before Gen Con of this year…maybe in sections? I need to talk to my Marketing guys! (After all, I already know your response: tell us everything!) (And actually, I don’t hide this info just to tease you all. We’ve learned over the years that things WILL change, and people seem to see announced schedules as promises of chunks of heaven and get real miffed when those changes take anything away. So it doesn’t pay to announce things too far out).

Finally, although its not a WW-focused thing, I let Eddy know that we’ve been having some great discussions about both Scion and the Trinity Continuum with their respective Dev teams and hope to have more to say on development progress soon. Is that info you folks would like me to include here like I do the WW properties- keep it all in one update a week?

And here are those WW projects now:

-  God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) is in Layout and most art has been CCP Approved, but a few redone art pieces are coming in. A proof is with Matt McFarland: gentleman developer.

-  Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is into Editing.

- Mummy the Curse - The new Backer PDF is live and I’m waiting for a physical PoD copy to get to me and if it’s cool, we’ll go live on DTRPG. Still waiting on a cover template from the printer now that the final page count has been settled; we’ll get those files out to start the creation of the traditionally printed KS version. Chaney is working to get the Character Sheet Pack and Wallpaper rewards ready for Backers this week.

- Exalted 3rd Edition:  Looks like this Kickstarter is happening mid-March now as we had a couple of delivery hiccups from our art folks- nothing that could be helped unfortunately, but things are still rolling and the art is looking sweet. We’re working on a new logo, I have a cartographer rendering the new map, and we’ve actually got a very cool soundtrack put together for the KS video. These things are just taking more time to pull together. The DEVs are currently head down and deep into the Charms section, getting together the text we’ll be teasing with Updates throughout the Kickstarter, and getting their vocal cords tuned for the KS video.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2:  New sections are getting written. Rather than tacking them on at the end, we’ll be adding a chapter before the Appendix as that just works better for the flow of the book.

- V20 Anarchs Unbound is almost done in post writing Development. Our editor is standing by for the files this week. You can check out the Storytelling chapter here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12wSuBi0l8SHKDuzTBdunDvOQ9iHJUXPDRwkPqhie3G0/edit?pli=1

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition:  As I mentioned above, the W20 Backer PDF is out, and folks are loving it.  A little feedback from Backers as to their names while we arrange the PoD files, and then we’ll be prepping the Deluxe printer files. Mike Lee is three quarters-way through his novel.  The Storyteller Screen files will go off to press with W20 and I hope to get the Wallpaper out to Backers very soon. Bill is preparing the W20 Anthology outline and looking for prospective writers.  The Skinner is in Editing and Art Direction. The White Howlers Tribe Book is with a writer (if you want to know who, bug Stew Wilson).

-Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato has started assigning writers and has started writing his part. Talking to a guy about the art. That guy: pretty excited about the art. Phil: also excited about writing the art descriptions for the full-page pieces of art.

- W20 Changing Breeds is in Editing.

- W20 Rage Across the World: Most of the art is in but a bit continues to trickle in.

- Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being written.

- Conventionbook: Progenitors (cMtA) is done in Editing, art is going to CCP for approval.

- Mage Translation Guide is being written, we have an Editor ready.

- W20 Book of the Wyrm is being written and red-lined. Check out the W20 blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/

Reason for Drinking: W20, at least in PDF form, has seen the light of day finally, and the WW 2013-2014 Schedule has been approved. This is a huge thing as it means we can plot out the next year and a half. It will be…glorious!