Eagle-eyed Mr. Richard Fayder, of Fort Lee New Jersey, sent us this example of how Onyx Path has twisted its way into the gestalt of popular culture everywhere. Thanks, Richard, and enjoy your puzzles!
We certainly have a lot of stuff going on, and the stuff we are doing grows in breadth every project we create. Changeling 20th introduced deluxe dice, and Pugmire added regular but game specific dice. Pugmire has also spread our dark path to audio dramas and even interactive audio dramas based on the game world.
(By the way, the Pugmire Kickstarter has less than 24 hours to run! It is now our Kickstarter with the single greatest percentage over the funding goal, and we couldn’t be happier! So please, if you have not already done so, check it out and pledge to help us bring a totally new game world into being. That’s a daunting task that your pledges can help make happen! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/pugmire-fantasy-tabletop-rpg)
But while we’re moving forward in that way, I know that there has been a lot of frustration with how a bunch of our magnus opuses (opusi?) have seemingly been stuck in the production process for decades. We feel it, and we know you, our beloved community, feel it as well.
Up until now, I haven’t really pulled the curtain back about our most recent reason for delays with some of our projects, even though our oft-quoted mantra of “quality over deadlines” has certainly still been true.
I really didn’t want to go into too much detail while still negotiating contracts and procedures with our new license granters, the new White Wolf Publishing. Plus, from the point that their purchase of the WW properties from CCP was revealed, every single change has freaked somebody out, and dealing with that doesn’t make it any easier to do our jobs.
Now, though, I’ve been through multiple discussions with WWP, we’ve hammered out terms and conditions, and most importantly for you, our dedicated community, we’ve put in place and are sending projects through a spankin’ new approvals process.
That means, I can explain to you folks that the transition from CCP to WWP challenged Onyx Path on a lot of levels. Because of the negotiations, we had no knowledge of whom was buying the WW IPs, just that something was happening. So we had no idea where we stood with the new owners. Would they be OK with us doing that voodoo that we do so well? We just didn’t know. We felt like this person, below:
Even after Tobias and Martin went to great pains to get into communication with me, it was still a madhouse for them in terms of the flood of emails and messages and meetings that exploded on them after the sale was announced.
And here is the first time I’m going to say something about WWP I want to get across to all of you reading this: these guys handled that madness better than most folks I’ve ever seen in their position. The pressures that came down on them are simply not something that can be understood unless you have been through a start-up company that now owns total control over a 20+ year set of IPs that have multiple fanbases and multiple licensees.
Of course, for us, the situation was different. We had our community also yelling, some at us, and even harder for us, and we had our creators just as freaked out, concerned, angry, you name it, as our community at large. Plus, they were in the midst of projects at various stages: would this purchase ruin those projects?
So we basically went ahead with those projects we knew could be finished and as the terms of our relationship with WWP became clearer, it was possible to add more projects to that list. Or, in the case of any 4th Editions for the cWoD, when we learned that one of WWP’s major initiatives was a new unified version of the World of Darkness, we were able to say for sure that our 4E plans couldn’t be done as we had originally planned.
If you remember the twists and turns of how we had to negotiate with CCP to do second editions for the nWoD lines, with first having to do Chronicle Books because they didn’t want us doing 2nd Editions, and then being OK with 2nd Edition branding once we had already done a couple of Chronicle Books, then you might appreciate why we held back on some of the nWoD projects we were working on. While I thought we’d eventually be given the OK to proceed, I didn’t know. And sinking time, effort, and dollars into projects and then having them cancelled has crashed bigger companies than Onyx Path.
But, as noted in previous blogs in this series, we came to a resolution that actually is far and away a huge boost for what was nWoD: the renaming of the line to Chronicles of Darkness.
Which brings us to the next challenge we had to overcome in order to get our projects out: the approvals process. This is what we’ve been caught in since January, and which we have been fine tuning in order to come up with a system that fulfills WWP‘s need to be sure about what is being published, and our need to be creative and not crushed by procedure.
And here is the second time I add in a note about WWP: this is not my first time working with a license and they are, so far, knock on wood, don’t say the name of the Scottish play, the most collaborative licensors I’ve worked with. Blizzard, Sony, WOTC, CCP – all of them dictated terms and we had to live with them. We’ve been working with WWP to establish terms that can work for both companies, and that is a breath of fresh air.
Unfortunately, getting us all to the point of having a working pipeline for approvals really delayed a whole bunch of projects in the interest of having a system later on that has those approval times built in. On top of the CofD delays and on top of the general WW IP buyout slowdown, that means that some projects like Mage 2nd Edition got hit with a triple whammy.
So please, my apologies for how long this process has affected our projects and for only being comfortable with hinting at what was happening on this blog (go ahead and read through them and you might catch the hints I was giving as to what part of negotiations we were at). I know from the outside that these delays have seemed inexplicable. I hope you can all understand that I just didn’t think explaining the situation in public while I was negotiating was a strategy for business success.
We only have to clear through the layout backlog as we did for development, and we should have cleared the path for greater Onyx Path-ing in this year to come.
Thanks for your patience!
BLURBS!
KICKSTARTER!
THESE ARE THE LAST HOURS of the Pugmire Kickstarter! Pledge to enable us to create a beautiful full color, hardcover, 180+ page, 7″ x 10″ core rulebook that we can also get into game stores. We’re at over 1200% and need you to join this pack of merry dogs!
We’re striving right now towards what may be our last Stretch Goal of also creating a cat kingdom version of Pugmire with the Monarchies of Mau Early Access PDF. If we pass it, backers will get the cat version to start adding in kitties before anyone else!
ON SALE!
GM’s Day Sale at DriveThruRPG.com has 9 days left!
Get all kinds of Onyx Path PDFs on sale at craaaaazy prices! V20 Red List, V20 Children of the Revolution, and the Aberrant Storytellers’ Guide are just three of the possibilities!
The Demon Storyteller Guide has dropped its cover and is on sale as a PDF and a physical copy PoD on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/170165/Demon-Storytellers-Guide
The Demon Storyteller’s Guide includes:
- Expanded information on angels, including a look at how Incarnations apply to them
- A extensive look at the spy genre and its permutations and how they apply to Demon
- Three “setting hacks,” including an examination of Demon in the Bronze Age
Dreams of Avarice has risen from the sands and PDF and PoD versions are on sale now! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/170167/Dreams-of-Avarice
Dreams of Avarice is a personal manifesto penned by the Arisen called the Heretic. This in-character richly illustrated 6″ x 9″ volume exposes secrets and hypocrisies that underlie the world of Mummy: the Curse.
The Chronicles of Darkness Core Rulebook looms out of the shadows, and is now on sale with PDF and PoD versions on DTRPG: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/168428/Chronicles-of-Darkness
Chronicles of Darkness RPG rulebook contains:
- A guide to creating characters to explore a world of modern horror, from hopes and fears to psychic powers.
- Dramatic rules for investigation, social manipulation, and bone-crunching violence.
- Over a dozen monsters straight out of weird fiction and urban legend… plus complete rules for creating your own.
- The God-Machine Chronicle, a massive collection of sample characters and techgnostic adventures.
- Formerly titled nWoD Core Rulebook 2nd Edition.
The Pugmire Early Access book is for sale in both PDF and PoD formats! Backers will still get the PDF for free and a discount on the PoD versions until the Kickstarter is over!
Condition Card PDFs for both Chronicles of Darkness http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171574/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Condition-Numina-and-Dread-Power-Cards and Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171573/Werewolf-the-Forsaken-2nd-Edition-Condition-Cards are now up dealt up at DTRPG, with PoD cards going on sale on Wednesday!
If you are into the Pugmire KS, here are also six Pugmire posters available as free PDFs or $.99 physical posters, suitable for framing:
- Spike Mutt: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150845/Spike-Mutt-Pugmire-Poster-6
- Pan Dachshund: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150844/Pan-Dachshund-Pugmire-Poster-5
- Jack Rat-Terrier: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150944/Jack-RatTerrier-Pugmire-Poster-4
- Sgt. Leo Bulldog: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150843/Sgt-Leo-Bulldog-Pugmire-Poster-3
- Princess Yosha Pug: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/149750/Princess-Yosha-Pug-Pugmire-Poster-2
- Sister Picassa Collie: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/148516/Sister-Picassa-Collie-Pugmire-Poster-1
Start spreading the Code of Man!
CONVENTIONS!
Gen Con 2016 planning has started. We booked our rooms in record time, so we are sure of a place to sleep to recharge our tired Onyx brains!
Here are some cons Fast Eddy Webb will be attending! Talk to him about V20 and Pugmire and Sherlock Holmes and Oxford Commas:
- Cleveland ConCoction (March 11-13, 2016, Cleveland, OH)
- AggieCon 47 (April 1-3, 2016, Bryan, TX)
- ECGC (April 19-21, 2016, Raleigh, NC)
- MomoCon (May 26-29, 2016, Atlanta, GA)
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)
- M20 Book of Secrets (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- CtL fiction anthology (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)
- Ring of Spiragos (Scarred Lands)
- VtM Endless Ages fiction anthology (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
- BtP Building a Legend (Beast: the Primordial)
- Scarred Lands Player’s Guide 5E: Ghelspad (Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)
- Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
- DA V20 Dark Ages Companion (Vampire 20th Dark Ages)
- Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
Redlines
- Mummy Fiction Anthology (Mummy: the Curse)
- Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition
- Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition
- Dagger of Spiragos (Scarred Lands)
- EX3 Quickstart (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Scarred Lands The Wise and the Wicked (Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)
Second Draft
- Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
- Cavaliers of Mars
- Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes (Beast: the Primordial)
Development
- W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- V20 Lore of the Bloodlines (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Beast Ready Made Characters (Beast: the Primordial)
- Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)
- Beckett’s Jyhad Diary (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
- W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- CofD Hurt Locker (Chronicles of Darkness)
- DA Tome of Secrets (Vampire 20th Dark Ages)
- Scion: Alpha (Scion 2nd Edition)
Editing
- Dark Eras Companion (Chronicles of Darkness Dark Eras)
- W20 Shattered Dreams (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Shattered Dreams in-book stretch goals (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- W20 Kinfolk (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
Post-Editing Development:
- Scarred Lands Player’s Guide: Ghelspad (Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)
- EX3 Backer Charms (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Indexing:
- Beast: the Primordial Core Book (Beast: the Primordial)
ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:
In Art Direction
- W20 Shattered Dreams – Last of the additional art should be in this week.
- Promethean: the Created Second
- Scarred Lands PG
- Dark Eras Companion
- Secrets of the Covenants – Art due in this week.
- Necropolis Rio – Cover contracted
- W20 Kinfolk – Art underway
- V20 Ready Made Characters – KMJ contracted and working on it.
In Layout
- Mage: the Awakening Second
- V20 Black Hand – Fixing a couple of snags.
- V20 Ghouls
- WtF2 The Pack
Proofing
- Ex 3 core book – From RichT: Indexing is rolling along really well.
- Dark Eras
- Beast Anthology
At Press
- M20 Deluxe Edition – from printer to shipper this week
- Chronicles of Darkness Cards – on sale this week
- Gauntlet of Spiragos 5e
- Forsaken 2 Condition Cards – on sale this week
- Beast Screen – proofs approved, being printed
- Lore of the Clans LtD Edition – proofs approved, being printed
- Lore of the Clans Screen – proofs approved, being printed
Special- projects on hold in the art and production area until an external factor is resolved
- Wraith 20 – Can’t go further until art notes come in, still being developed by Rich Dansky.
- Pentex Employee Indoctrination Manual – Some added and amended text needs to come in.
TODAY’S REASON TO DRINK: To RPG books and pizza! Perfect together, and identical business models!
Comments
108 responses to “We’re Everywhere! [Monday Meeting Notes]”
Is there any way you guys will ever move from using drivethrurpg. I never have anything but problems with them. And while I look forward to getting new books. Having to fight with them every time a new one comes out is just exhausting. Like maybe in the future kickstart the 2nd edition cores at a later date? I dunno. Just this exclusive market is really hard on the fans.
What ongoing problems do you have with them? Maybe we can help solve them.
Wavy pages, books that don’t lie flat, and upraised cover seams are very common issues for me in Western PA. Much less so now, but to some extent even with the CofD core. We had some books in late 2014 that were bad enough that we got them replaced because of bleed through the pages making the opening and chapter fiction unreadable, and severely warped pages as well as the issues above.
There are some books where I would gladly pay Kickstarter premium prices just to get back to that old trad publishing quality. I know that’s not feasible for everything, but there it is. You make great-looking books that POD just doesn’t do justice much of the time.
The hardcovers do have a variable binding quality. Usually really good but there are clunkers. Interior pages-wise, were the books you had trouble with b&w or color, standard or premium color?
I found the Premium printing to be good quality for Vampire and Werewolf 20th Anniversaries. Mage was good too, but the spine struggles with the bulk of the pages. Other, non premium books are very hit and miss though. My Pendragon books were warped by about 30 degrees, while others were fine.
Are these recent Pendragon purchases, and did you talk to Stewart Wieck at Nocturnal about them?
I’ve always gone with premium color, unless it’s a softcover supplement.
The worst was the Geist: The Sin Eaters core. The printer didn’t seem able to handle the opening fiction pages with the deep, dark colors and the white text with the ghostly effect very well, those pages were unreadable, and all the pages curl on the page borders with the blue-black color art. Even the replacement book they sent had those issues. Probably the best was M20, which I didn’t realize I wanted until after the Kickstarter. The pages all look good, Echo Chernik’s art just pops. Even the copious velvety blue sidebars with the gold text came out good. The only issues there are the cover seams are a upraised on the folds and the binding scares me sometimes (more because it’s such a massive book.)
Very much the difference between book files created by us specifically for PoD printing and porting printing files over from layout files designed back in the day. Mirthful Mike does good work.
I never had any problem with Drivethrurpg PoDs until this same week. My Chronicles of Darkness Premium quality: it´s bad cut or bleed in the top of the pages in almost all the pages (some have just a milimeter, but some have up to 3-4 milimeters of white). It´s specially noticeable in the fiction pages.
If you haven’t already, let DTRPG know. Those printer errors are something they need to talk with their pod printer about, and you need a properly printed book.
Thanks much, I just did, I sent them several photos.
Shipping and printing. They can never seem to ship items to me at any decent length of time no matter what I pay.
And printing. I don’t see much difference with standard to premium. But I have a few pages in boobs that have these garish serrated marks through them like paper is meant to be pulled away and easy torn apart. Like you’d see in a mailer or something. Nothing is more irritating than paying 75$ for a book you have to tape to keep together.
Also. I meant “pages in books” but boobs is one of my better auto fails.
Shipping is a crapshoot, I agree. But for what sounds like a printing error, have you notified DTRPG customer service?
As a software developer, DriveThruRPG is in my top 5 worst pieces of software I use list (right next to nexusmods). It’s incredibly frustrating to deal with login problems every time I go to their site, and I sure don’t trust them with my credit card, not that I really have a choice.
I’m so used to resetting my password every time I Order it just happens naturally.
I don’t have log-in problems with their site, sorry.
Hey rich, on that note, I’ve also had occasional troubles with the binding on core books from drivethru. Mainly though, i was wondering whether it would be feasible, even if it required a price bump, to print the pages of the color hardcover premium books on the sort of laminated pages that traditional printing and the Kickstarter campaigns use. Because the main issue with any physical book purchased from dtrpg for me has been how the stock paper pages are so easily torn or damaged. I would gladly pay an extra $10 or so for quality pages and slightly better binding.
We have no ability to change the specs for the PoD books offered by DTRPG. I personally can’t imagine the premium color pages being easy to rip through regular use, but maybe that’s just my use, although the standard color pages are of a lighter stock currently, and I could see that being an issue.
I thought the quality of the paper was very good. I’ve had problems with the bindings twice (but buy a lot of books), however I’ve always contacted drivethrurpg with photos and they’ve sorted it out very quickly.
I’ve found their Customer Service to be great for these sorts of problems- sounds like you’re communicating well with them!
I’m curious as to what troubles you’ve had.
Personally, I’ve never had any major issue, and the two I had (issues with their printer) were corrected and replaced without hassle.
I’ve never had an issue with the coupons that come through my Email for the “free” copies of the PDF either. So I’m just curious what problems other folks have. 🙂
Ack, sorry… opened the page and didn’t get around to reading/replying in time to see you had answered this in previous posts. 🙂
I only have 4 PoD books from Drivethru – and they are all fine. But I got them all from the UK site – so maybe they deliver just better quality.
None the less the overall quality of real printed books is just better. The glossy paper, the full bleed pages with no white border etc.
This must have been asked a couple of times now, but why haven’t you done KS for the 2nd Ed. sourcebooks ?
Have you thought of doing a KS that just provides “real” prints of the 2nd Ed. books ?
Probably something like:
You need X USD to cover the costs per book. So you could make a KS that starts with the CoD source book and add the others as stretch goals whenever X is reached.
If you just do a basic “prestige” print with good paper and some nice effects on the cover this ought to be a success.
But probably there are good reasons not to do prestige prints for those books that I’m just not aware of …
Only the earlier b&w books have had no full bleed, but yes, some people prefer the glossier paper stock. Others don’t. Each print run for traditional printing is much too costly to have as Stretch Goals, unless we would have a $150,000 Stretch Goal. Far more likely we would simply do a KS that straight up was about making traditionally printed versions of the CofD core, VtR2, WtF2, and maybe Mage2 as a group.
“Far more likely we would simply do a KS that straight up was about making traditionally printed versions of the CofD core, VtR2, WtF2, and maybe Mage2 as a group.”
A++ would back this kickstarter so my other CofD books match the Demon and Beast book covers better.
While glossy paper would be a lovely option, I know many traditionally printed books that were nowhere near the quality of the *standard* paper drivethru offers. One of my all time favourite rpg’s – a certain hi-octane kung-fu action rpg – was printed on something akin to toilet paper.
Yeah I’d back that day of. 4 prestige cofd books. With stuff like silk book marks and gilded edges. I’d lay down whatever you wanted. A group thing would be great. You could put it up tomorrow and I’d secure funds.
Number of books, amount of fancy, all up for discussion. _If_ the goal is getting them into stores, as opposed to Prestige Editions, then less fancy equals more cash to go towards getting them in. Our usual level of quality is more than enough to pull them off shelves, we’ve mostly added the fancy bits for all of our backers on KS.
Please, PLEASE do this Kickstarter !
The nWoD books were so beautiful on the outside and on the inside.
Well, we are talking about which KSs to do this year…
I also second that, and I would definitelly back a KS offering those 4 books!
I’d back a fancier copy than the pod to help get it in stores. But if live something close to the style Of demon the descent.
I thought I would chime in as well (drivethrough has already been contacted) the book quality (im in ohio, my books have been printed through Lightning Sources in La Vergne TN) is very hit or miss. My DtD Storytellers Guide came today and the title on the spine goes WAY off center towards the top. I’ve had two printed that I’m less then impressed with how the front cover sits, thats less of a deal breaker for me. But irregularities in the spines on my shelf drive me crazy, im sure tons of you can relate. Great book content wise, I’m just bummed.
You mean it’s on an angle towards the top? That is off.
Send them a pic. If you have the books ref number in the back they will send you a new one or give you a credit for what you paid.
Despite how I irate I was earlier in the week drivethrurpg went through the ringer to spoil me and make it up to me. So yeah. They went way out of their way for a pod I paid 17 for. But they will get you covered.
It’s good to see that Onyx Path and White Wolf have embarked on a very good relationship working together. Transitions always cause delays and disruptions and I appreciate your willingness to speak frankly and openly about what is occurring. Kudos to all of you and I’ll make sure to eat a pizza while leafing through my next RPG book.
Anchovies and green peppers. Mmmmmm.
Thanks for the heads up on the m20 books ! Also I will be backing Pugmire, as well I could not resist, and while I want the $ 75 one, to me, my 5 year old dog will always be my puppy, so I will probably be going with the $ 20 one. Also its an interesting read and mergers and what have you always cause some setbacks and delays. It is apart of life, what matters is how you deal with it and you have handled it wonderfully.
Thanks!
Thank you for the honest open dialogue. Business is business and big changes mean delays. Besides as near as I can tell Scion and Trinity seem to be moving along so I’m happy.
Yep, really happy we’re rolling with both of those lines. Neither game line is a WW IP, so not affected by all the stuff I wrote about.
Ah! That offers some much appreciated clarity. Thanks Rich!
Glad it helps-
Thanks for the openess it’s always a pleasure to read these blog posts. I’m happy that the collaboration with WWP turns out well and looking forward for many titles in the list!
Thanks!
$1000 and 12 hours to go to get Monarchies of Mau! Super stoked to see Dark Eras move up into Proofing too. Also great to see Mirthful Mike’s commentary return. Hopefully no one with sticks up their butts will take away his Mirth again.
Apparently my reading comprehension goes when I’m excited. $11000 to go with 12 hours. Eh, still doable.
Mirthful Mike will comment on the books he has something to say something about, as he sees fit. Which is a lot like being in a meeting with him, but with less cursing and normal words he somehow turns into filthy words.
So I see that Mage 2nd is still in layout, what does that actually mean? It has been in layout for about 3 months now what is actually going on with it? I understand laying out a book can be difficult but as a fan who has been tracking its process, small notes would be nice even a super rough “its roughly 45% done” would be amazing
So, that whole bunch of words above the updates is there this week in order to talk about why a bunch of the books, but specifically Mage2nd has taken so long. The layout notation hasn’t just been a guy laying out the project.
Rich,
Thank you very much for the clarity on what’s going on with our favourite brands.
Much has been explained, much hugs and hope you fantastic people can get these issues sorted soon.
We can certainly see the light at the end of the tunnel! Thanks!
Goodbye.
Come on, the Pack!
I’m glad to hear things aregoing well with WWP. I’m sure it was a really rough time with you all, especially with not being able to share details and everyone (including myself) wanting more and more and more. I’m sorry, man.
No problem. Nothing that can be done there, we try and be as transparent as possible but biz negotiations are definitely in the “can’t talk about it” column. Concern and frustration when you don’t know the reasons for things is totally understandable, it’s the anger and accusations that aren’t right, IMHO.
Magna Opera, by the way.
Thanks!
Sorry to ask this, Rich, as I think you’ve already laid it out somewhere, but can you say roughly how the division of licenses will work?
From what I can tell, Onyx will carry on with the anniversary editions, Chronicles of Darkness, Trinity, and Scion, while new White Wolf comes up with new stuff for their version of One World of Darkness?
The license continues as it has been, with us being able to publish books for WoD, CofD, and Exalted. Within those game lines, we continue to focus on the 20th Anniversary lines, as we can’t actually do anything else for WoD until WWP has their IP document in a state they can hand to licensees. Scion and The Trinity Continuum have nothing to do with WWP, as we own them. Hope that helps!
This IP document… how will that work? WWP will define the parameters of the world – “the Gangrel will leave the Camarilla and the Technocracy will nuke the Ravnos founder”, for instance – they will develop a MMG environment for that world, and you will handle the PnP version?
Sorry, MMO. mental short-circuit!
We don’t know how it will work in practice. In theory, any project doc, or “bible”, provides the info licensors need to create their licensed products. Or at least the stepping off points. So, again in theory, the WoD doc will provide the basis for every licensed product, whether game books, or novels, or LARP rules, or AA computer games, or slot machines, or a series of Netflix series.
Thanks for that look behind the scenes.
I’m glad everything seems to have come out fine in the end and I certainly see the wisdom in making sure the ink on the contracts are dry and that you have a system in place for continuing business (in this case, approvals).
I’ll just keep switching between D&D and CofD. When one lags in terms of releases or can’t keep up with my gaming troupe, we switch to the other system.
Keep up the great work! 😀
Thanks!
I noticed in the schedule that the progress bars have been removed. Was that a change made for efficiency? The mercurial nature of project completion would make updating the bars troubling, so I could see how that choice would come about.
Also, What’s the Wise and the Wicked? Is it a player supplement? A character book? These surprise inclusions are always intriguing.
The Wise & The Wicked is an updated version of this d20 product.
As a visual person, I liked the idea of the bars, but in actuality they were frustrating a lot of people who got the info graphic, but not the details on what was happening from them.
So, I see no Vampire the Requiem up there. I get that a lot of people have a love of VtM, but VtR is my personal favorite gameline of the CofD and I am kind of missing them getting any new 2e content.
Secrets of the Covenants is in art direction.
I’m eager to buy this one. I’m with hopes that the art direction can finish this before June.
Oh I had something else I wanted to bring up.
I haven’t seen an update about that owod book announced at gencon that had to deal with ghosts. Is that still going to happen with the whole proposed owod.
And if it is. Any chance that book could somehow come with cofd rules? It was a really great concept I just love a good ghost story
It was pitched for cWoD and to complement Wraith, so it’ll stay there. But who knows what books might be pitched during Pitch Season?
I’m working on the outline and brainstorming up what the overall structure of WoD: Ghost Hunters will be.
So it isn’t quite ready yet for Open Dev posts or status updates in the Monday Meeting Notes.
Do we wait for gencon for what gets approved in pitch season. I could have sworn. I remember announcements coming twice a year but I can’t remember.
@ Matt I can understand that. I was really interested when I heard it announced and I didn’t want to fear the worst before I asked.
I know we will be announcing new projects at GenCon like usual, but beyond that we’re looking at other ways to communicate what we are planning, as well.
That is really exciting. I’ve been worried about Wraith not getting as much attention as it might due to the workload constraints and general Wraith curse chaos that has hit Wraith. While it’s not the Proctor guildbook I would love to see it is still exciting to see new Wraith related development.
I still have the Ravenloft and Masque of the Red Death books published under the Sword and Sorcery label on my shelf. They still have some of the best discussion about the structure of horror stories in them.
It’s good to hear the relationship with WWP is settling out amicably.
(I also used to have the WoW RPG but Activision/Blizzard just couldn’t let things be could they. We literally have a A universe and a B universe now)
It was certainly fun to work on books with those different approaches to horror. I still get on WoW fir an hour or two once in a while just to run around and see the changes, but I was never a PVP player so a lot of their efforts went past me.
It’s in layout! #ThePack
What a glorious day!
Congrats on getting things worked out. DrivethruRPG has always been great for me, but maybe I’ve just been lucky.
Just out of curiosity, what licensing was Sony involved in? I’m aware of all the rest.
Everquest the RPG. One and two, actually. The others were the Warcraft RPG with Blizzard, and Ravenloft (and GammaWorld, but I really only supervised that one) with WOTC. We also did Street Fighter, back in the day, but that one really didn’t register as a learning experience that way.
Is there a release schedule for the Exalted books in development?
The Exalted books being worked on right now are all through the Updates list, and we have put out blurbs for more in our brochure every year.
Yeah, that’s why I asked, the brochure covering up to summer 2016 has a lot of Exalted books listed including some that aren’t shown as in development yet. Is there an updated expected release date for them or is the Exalted line done when it’s done?
Appreciate it must be frustrating from your side, just trying to get a handle on planning games which depend on more sorcery and Exigents.
First EX3 totally, finally, completed. Then we’ll get the books that have been in progress for a year headed towards finish, then new projects. I’m loathe to add books until at least the first point is done. 🙂
Totally understand. Thanks for the update.
Ok, tiptoeing through the minefield on this one, are you guys going to be doing a kickstarter campaign for Dragonblooded when it hits the 80% stage? I know the infamousness of the original Ex3 campaign still raises some hackles but as proven by every KS since, you guys really do learn from these things. I have friends who were not able to take part in the Ex3 KS who I think would jump on the chance to get their names marked with honor as supporters of this world.
There is no trigger percentage, but basically I don’t want to do another EX Kickstarter without EX3 having gone to press and also whatever books we’re Kickstarting being almost completely written. And by that I mean that I’m OK to add material during the KS if we already know what that material can be and what it would take effort-wise to create it, but I want the entire book itself done writing otherwise.
Why has Beast spent so much time in indexing?
It is a big book for a new game line. Do you want it rushed?
Touche, good sir, touche.
Because is it taking the time it needs to be done. Really not extraordinarily long by my measurement- seems like any other index.
Really excited by Beast, didn’t Kickstart it, but looking forward to getting it once it’s available on Drivethru!
I’m kinda new to Onyx Path Publishing method, so I’m not sure how much time it usually takes. Thanks for answering; I’m just a little impatient because of excitement.
A lot of times I check through the previous project lists from earlier Monday Meeting Notes to compare times in layout or editing or whatever in order to get a feel for how we’re doing on time. Not something you have to do, but it might ease down your concerns to see the context. Thanks!
Was there any news about the Exalted License? If I’m not mistaken, WWP holds that as well. Are we to good to look forward to a couple more years of Ex3 releases?
The license is for WoD, CofD, and Exalted- all the WW IPs.
Nice to have updates on the overall situation. Thank you for taking the time to keep us informed, as much as you are able.
I personally continue to be excited for Mage 2nd Edition and for the release of Exalted 3rd Edition.
They are coming!
So does this mean you will not be doing 4th edition Vampire: the Masquerade?
What we know for sure is, as previously announced and as stated in this blog, we won’t be creating the version of VtM4 that we intended to create here at Onyx Path and announced at GenCon 2015.
Thank you so much for these meetings notes you publish every week. It’s nice to see this level of transparency from a company and one of the big reasons I continue to support OP today. That said, I’m curious what has happened to cause the notes to start journeying to a later time each week? Maybe it’s just my over zealousness for continuing news, but it feels like they have slipped to be posted at a later time than they had previously.
I have to write the notes after we finish up our meetings for the day. Sometimes that means mid-afternoon, sometimes late afternoon. If that block of time gets co-opted by other meetings or issues that need solving (not to mention unimportant things like dinner or family events) then I get it done later.
Just checking I’ve got this right: you’re free to continue with the WoD 20 books, since they don’t require the WWP IP document. They’ve not set down requirements for the WoD 20 books in the same way they will for 4th edition. Is that about right?
I mean, pretty much. It’s not how I look at it, but yes, essentially. Any license partner who will be creating One World of Darkness or 4th Edition or whatever the new version goes by ultimately, will be working from the IP doc. Since WWP has approvals over our 20th Anniversary Edition books, they can still require changes for any reason, so ultimately it’s a different situation from my point of view.
I see the Beast Screen and the Lore of the Clans Screen, but what is the progress on the Dark Era’s Screen. I didn’t back beast at a Screen level because I have the Dark Era’s screen coming to me, but it seems like the Beast one will be out long before it…
Dark Era’s screen will be shipped with Dark Eras, so hasn’t shown up on the projects list yet.