We’ve Given This A Lot of Thoth [Monday Meeting Notes]

Yes, I’d say the creation of the 2nd Edition of Scion has taken the most thought (and Thoth) of any of our projects to date.

From the years spent iterating the Storypath System that powers Scion, to the years and years we and the Scion community dissected and recombined the first edition rules and setting, to the extensive amount of care the writers and developer Neall Raemonn Price have put into improving first edition in every way they could.

Like the Netjer (Egyptian) pantheon pictured above, all the pantheons have been researched and re-researched and run past experts in the myths and cultures they represent. You don’t in any way need a doctorate to use and enjoy them in your game, but now they more accurately reflect our current understanding of the gods and their cohorts.

Neall goes into this in his interview with Eddy and Dixie on last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast, and it is well worth your time to check it out if you’re a Scion fan. He goes into his thinking on Scion, as well as some of the often torturous steps we have had to take to get the first two game books created. If you’re not a Scion fan, he also reveals how Beckett’s Jyhad Diary was developed and written, and so basically, it’s a great overview of how RPG books are created.

You can check it out on your favorite podcast venue or directly on PodBean here: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

This Friday on the Onyx Pathcast, the Wraith Curse rears its ugly head, and the gang have to recreate an entire episode where they only mention Wraith in discussing TTRPGs and how they affect our non-game lives. Listen in to find out how the Wraith Curse manifests this time!

 

 

Dragon-Blooded art by Yiyoung Li

 

 

Now for myself, I too have thought a lot about Scion. From green-lighting the first edition and realizing that without something wahoo going on, the sales distribution system was going to under-order Scion: Hero, (“We need new games to sell!” “Here’s a new one we made.” “Wah? It’s new and has no sales history, how can we order that?”), to getting a copy of the book put into every retailer bag at that year’s GAMA trade show. Retailers who then ordered the game in such amounts that we had to do a second print pretty much before the book hit stores!

I’ve thought a lot about the dedication of the Scion community during the (very) lean years when almost nothing new came out, yet WW‘s old Scion forums were still getting more posts than entire other gaming websites. I read your posts you magnificent bastards, and incorporated that thinking into what we needed to do to elevate Scion for second edition.

I’ve ground my teeth in frustration during the time Storypath was iterating and while Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero have been incubating, and thought long and hard about the iterations and improvements that slowed things down. Were they worth it?

Well, the answer is yes, as far as I can see. Storypath is the simple base 10-sided pool system that can be expanded depending on your table’s interest in more shared storytelling that I hoped for. It is so flexible that we can add tweaks to it to emulate a post-apocalyptic scarcity game with zombies in Dystopia Rising: Evolution, and reflexive and meta humor mechanics in They Came From Beneath the Sea!.

And it enables play from man on the street to god levels of power for Scion and the Trinity Continuum.

 

 

VtR2 Guide to the Night art by Sam Araya

 

 

 

Scion has a built-in setting now, with the World, yet it is so designed that you can pull back on that and keep the god stuff hidden, or dial it to 11 and make the presence of the gods even more impactful on our normal world. I thought about whether adding the World was the right way to go – and had probably far more discussions with Neall than he wanted to have about it – but in the end, I think the default setting combined with the very easy options to alter that if you so choose hits the right spot.

It’s there and it’s rich and deep with history, but still open enough that your characters matter. Which is a big part of Scion, as I see it.

And one more thing that I’ve thought about A LOT, and have mentioned before, is that to me Scion is just getting started. The 4 book core of Origin, Hero, Demigod, and God is really the central spine of the possible ways Scion can be played. There’s the “Children of the Gods in Modern Times” that defines that spine, and we can provide a lot more projects that help build on that. We already have the Companion, Jumpstart, Ready Made Characters, and Bestiary being worked on.

But let’s change that to “Children of ____ in Modern Times”, or “Children of the Gods in _____ Times”, and we open up a huge range of possibilities if we start filling in those blanks!

Whew! I get pretty fired up thinking about all that.

Now, on to the Notes from our Monday Meeting today! We talked about:

1- We are all over the place online right now! It’s great! On this Tuesday night at 6pm Pacific US time, Pugmire: Homeward Bound begins on the Saving Throw Show Twitch channel. Here’s the intro video (it is amazing and beautiful!): youtu.be/qMpNHXjbZK8

And the link to their Twitch channel: twitch.tv/savingthrowshow

2- I did a wee little interview that surprisingly covered all sorts of Onyx Path and classic White Wolf stories and yet did not go into my love of pudding. Why is that surprising? Because the podcast interview was for Everybody Loves Pudding, and I was lured into this because I thought I’d be able to expound on the virtues and wonders of pudding. But, even without the pudding, it’s a pretty good chat – the guys were very on target with the questions. Not sure if you can say the same about my answers, but judge for yourself: http://www.everybodylovespudding.com/podcast/season-1-episode-22/

3- Eddy Webb is flying up to my neck of the woods and we’ll be going together to Save Against Fear, the convention that benefits the Bodhana Group, whose mission is to use tabletop gaming in their therapeutic efforts. Links are below in the Convention News section of The Blurbs, but we recently added that I’ll be there on Saturday signing Magic Cards and working on some artist proof sketches. So if you are near there and want your cards signed and to help a great group – come on by and meet me and Eddy!

4- On a related topic, Monica Valentinelli is working with Extra Life on a fundraiser where she’s playing D&D5e to help sick kids. Onyx Path has donated Scarred Lands PDF rewards at various levels of contribution, so here’s your chance to help a super cause and dig into Scarred Lands! https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=326323

 

 

M20 Gods and Monsters art by Claudio Pozas

 

 

5- If you missed the Prince’s Gambit casual Vampire card game by Justin Achilli Kickstarter campaign, we have copies of the card set available to buy from Studio2 and your local retailer, see below, and the basic set and booster pack will go on sale on Wednesday from DriveThru. The retail card set is all the cards from the Kickstarter in one box, and the DriveThru cards take all the cards and divide them into a basic set, and then the added cards from the KS in a booster pack. And, because we are asked this, Prince’s Gambit is a different type of game than VTES, it is not VTES, was not intended to replace VTES, and lots of us here are VTES fans and glad that new VTES cards are being made.

6- Finally, we have a fantastic sale going on at IPR for our Deluxe and Prestige books from our Kickstarter print-run overruns! Half off until the end of October, it’s our HalfoWeen Sale! The Mummy: The Curse Prestige Editions have sold out as of this writing, which means there are no more of them available for sale anywhere in the world! (Except EBAY, I’m sure. But other than that…)

I’m not finding a clever way to lead in to out tag-line this time, no wait, I just did. Damn:

Many Worlds, One Path!

 

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Lo the darkness that lies like a pall over Chicago. The V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter arises in October!

We’re also working on the Kickstarter for They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCFBtS!), which has some very different additions to the Storypath mechanics we’ll be explaining during the KS.  They take an excellent 50’s action and investigation genre game and turn it to 11!

 

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

 

 

 

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

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

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

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

Three different screenshots, above.

And our latest, the dice for Werewolf: The Forsaken 2e:

 

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

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

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

Our selection includes these fiction books:

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

 

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

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

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

And we’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

 

iprlogo

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

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

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

 

 

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

 

The Prince’s Gambit basic card set and the added cards from the PG Kickstarter booster pack will both be available on DriveThru this Wednesday!

 

 

 

 

CONVENTIONS!

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will also be a featured guest (and RichT will be there at some point, too) at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

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

 


And now, the new project status updates!

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

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

  • C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)
  • Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)
  • City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)
  • Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
  • Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)
  • Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)
  • Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)
  • Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)
  • Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)
  • Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

 

Redlines

  • Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)
  • Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
  • Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

 

Second Draft

  • Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)
  • Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)
  • CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

 

Development

  • Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)
  • CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)
  • Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)
  • Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)
  • Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)
  • M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
  • Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)
  • In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)
  • WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)
  • Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)
  • Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
  • V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

 

Manuscript Approval:

  • Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
  • C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

 

Editing:

  • Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

 

Post-Editing Development:

  • Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
  • Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
  • Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
  • Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)
  • They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)
  • Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau) (With Eddy)
  • Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

 

Indexing:

 

 

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

 

In Art Direction

  • Dystopia Rising: Evolution
  • M20: Gods and Monsters – AD’d and Contracted.
  • Geist 2e
  • The Realm
  • Trinity Continuum (Aeon and Core) Tracking down Core finals and going over Aeon Sketches.
  • Ex3 Monthly Stuff
  • Chicago By Night KS art finals in.
  • Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats
  • C20 Player’s Guide
  • Aeon Aexpansion
  • They Came From Beneath the Sea! Got KS artnotes out.

 

Marketing Stuff

 

In Layout

  • Trinity Core Working on symbols this week.
  • Trinity Aeon Fancying up my Opnet images.
  • Ex3 Dragon Blooded

 

Proofing

  • Scion Hero – Inputting Neal’s 2nd proof changes.
  • PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented KT has Steffie’s corrections in.
  • Scion Origin Doing Neall’s errata changes, and swapping out the font.
  • VtR: Guide to the Night Danielle is getting me her p.xx stuff on Monday and I’ll be wrapping this one up for approval by WW shortly thereafter.
  • Fetch Quest Package design done

 

At Press

  • Monarchies of Mau and Screen At Studio2. Dice and buttons getting ready to ship to Studio2.
  • Cavaliers of Mars Backer copies all shipped out.
  • Wraith 20th – Printing the Deluxe interior, proofing cover.
  • Wraith 20 Screen Printing.
  • Scion Dice – At Studio2.
  • Cav Talent cards PoD proof coming.
  • Lost 2e Screen – Prepping files.
  • Scion Screen – Prepping files.
  • Prince’s Gambit core deck and booster PoD On sale at DriveThru on Wednesday!
  • Changeling: The Lost 2e – Prepping files for printer.

 


TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: OK, celebrate this one or don’t as you see fit. I know a lot of my South Philly buddies do and will. All I know is today I didn’t get my new fancy brush recommended by Jeff Miracola today because no mail on the Monday holiday. And the last kid has off from school, so I get to hear him shouting at his friends as they multi-play a shooter. Some holiday.


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24 responses to “We’ve Given This A Lot of Thoth [Monday Meeting Notes]”

  1. Iceblade44 Avatar
    Iceblade44

    Thanks for the in depth overview of the work that Scion is going through Rich, hopefully it helps people who are waiting for it patiently by seeing how much work is going into it. Yeah I agree with you that unlike first ed the four cores will just be the start of Scion, man the way you took away the modern part just makes me realize that a dark eras styles books for Scion would be so good, especially to explore pantheons history.

    Anyhow though, just tell everyone that’s working on it that they have my full faith and I can’t wait to see the final product with all its glory

  2. The_Bob Avatar
    The_Bob

    Just a heads up. The dice app is broken beyond usability on the iPhone Xs Max. The GUI runs way off the screen.

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

      Please report that to the devs, either using the iOS in-built reporting tools or via their Facebook page.

  3. Charles Kellner Avatar

    I love the art previews this time round!

    Also, at the Story Told, we’ve released our final C20 episode of our current run where we focus on character creation: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/episode-11-changeling-the-dreaming-character-creation

  4. Phil H Avatar
    Phil H

    That Dragon-Blooded art piece is stunning. I like it so much that I’ve just set it as my iPad screen wallpaper.

    Scion feels tantalisingly close. Looking forward to seeing you guys deliver on it, hopefully with Trinity close on its heels.

  5. Full Time GM Avatar
    Full Time GM

    Very excited for Chicago by Night V5 now that I’ve picked up V5 and read it through. Chicago is one of the most played cities in my group so anything that focuses around it usually goes over well for us.

  6. Brian Quinn Avatar
    Brian Quinn

    Always enjoy these Monday Meeting notes, hearing your successes and travails.
    Are there any conventions in NY or New England region that Onyx Path members attend in any official capacity?

    1. Dixie Cochran Avatar
      Dixie Cochran

      It’s not *quite* in that area, but we’ll be at PAX Unplugged in Philly. I used to go to the Mohegan Sun cons when I lived in Connecticut, but I’ve moved now. Lots of conventions in Jersey for me, though, if you can make it down that far.

  7. Cryocube Avatar
    Cryocube

    This is something I must have missed somewhere. Mummy: the Curse was the game that made me re-evaluate (and more favorably I might add) the CoD. I loved the tone and feeling of it.

    Knowing semi-recent events may have removed the original lead from the project, who has taken the helm of Mummy?

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      We were done working with Colin years ago, as the first edition run of Mummy wrapped up. We announced Mummy: The Curse’s 2nd Edition would be developed by Dixie Cochran and Matthew Dawkins a couple of months ago, and the book is being written now. Thanks!

      1. Cryocube Avatar
        Cryocube

        Wonderful news! Everything I see from these two is wonderful!

  8. Louis Garcia Avatar

    I’ve been running Scion 2nd for sometime now. I recently started a Werewolf: The Forsaken game and I found myself missing the rules system from Scion. The way the players can contribute to the story telling is fun. I think the Storypath system could be Onyx’s big contribution to the hobby.

  9. Rory Avatar
    Rory

    Wow – Chicago by Night crept up quickly!

    Along with the Scion, Trinity and Mage books, there’s lots to keep my accouncy skills tested!

    1. Rory Avatar
      Rory

      ….and spelling skills…er….”accountancy”.

  10. glamourweaver Avatar
    glamourweaver

    Man, Sutekh is shorter than I imagined.

  11. Wandering Avatar
    Wandering

    Speaking of Pugmire, I was wondering last week what ever happened to the Pugmire Earplay. Is it still a thing?

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

      It’s still a thing. As I understand it (and I could be wrong), Earplay’s had some challenges negotiating with Amazon, so we’re waiting that out on our end.

      1. Wandering Avatar
        Wandering

        Thanks for the update! I’ll hope for the best for them then.

  12. Josh Stotz Avatar
    Josh Stotz

    Just wanted to drop a note and say the Cavaliers of Mars book is beautiful! Got both my copies the other day and haven’t put it down!

  13. Ken Avatar
    Ken

    For the Love of Bob, please publish Scion Origins and Hero, already! 🙂

    1. Dixie Cochran Avatar
      Dixie Cochran

      We are working on it; we’re just perfectionists! (It’s lovely, though. Neall and the team did an amazing job.)

  14. Calvin Taylor Avatar
    Calvin Taylor

    When are we gonna get a hard date for hunter the vigil 2nd edition release, I feel like it’s been in development for a while now, books and other things that were announced after seem to be leap frogging it?

    1. richt Avatar
      richt

      Pretty much, when we announce the Kickstarter for it, and then ultimately when I announce on this blog that the PoD and PDF will be on sale to the public on a Wednesday. And please bear in mind that pretty much each game line, and often the individual projects for that line, are made up of different teams of developers and writers, so they progress at different paces. Thanks!

  15. Phill G Avatar
    Phill G

    Hi OP!

    I’m really looking forward to the public release of Changeling the Lost 2nd!! Do you have any news of when we poor mortals can obtain our copies from DriveThruRPG? Thanks all!