Shhhhh.

Don’t startle the bronco, as so far it’s a bit of a calmer start to this week than last. (Last week’s blog was entitled “Bucking Broncos” for those unfortunate few who missed it). While I expect that horse to start buckin’ any minute now, let’s enjoy the calm between yee-haws!

I’m feeling better this week, thanks for asking. The coughing can still be back-muscle-tearing intense, but the spells are less frequent and I finally got some decent sleep this weekend.

Much more capable of getting things done.

The first thing that I got done was the prepping of the shipping sheets for both the Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition Kickstarter and the Deluxe W20 Shattered Dreams Kickstarter. KS allows creators to download Excel spreadsheets containing the backers’ shipping addresses as well as their responses to the Backer Survey, which is where backers note the Add-on items that they have added money to their pledges for.

It is the Add-ons which are the time killer because there is no programmatic way to assemble that info besides the spreadsheet as adding on to your pledge is something KS creators invented, not Kickstarter itself. (Another reason why adopting BackerKit as our back-end program was so helpful, as they do add up and keep track of Add-ons).

The Ex3 KS has five possible physical Add-ons as well as upgrading to the Ultra Deluxe, and something like 4,000 backers getting physical rewards. So it was necessary to go backer by backer, line by line, through each spread sheet and reconcile the pledge amount with the amount added and the Add-ons selected by the backer. Let’s just say that these numbers often did not match.

And it is really important to us that backers get the items they are expecting, especially since they have had such a long wait.

 

 

 

Then I did the Shattered Dreams sheets and they took 1/10th the time. Book and maybe Screen? Fiendishly simple!

While I’m reconciling the pledges and add-ons, I’m also making a very simple list next to each backer containing the number of each item that will go in their rewards box that the shipper packs. We’ve discovered painfully that we need to create what is basically a bill of lading for each backer in order to increase the odds they’ll get the right stuff.

Finally, I delete any columns that contain information that the shipper doesn’t need. Like what names the backers gave us for inclusion in the book, that sort of info. And now the shipper sheets are out to our fulfillment shippers, and they are reviewing them and already have gotten back to me with questions, which is a very good thing.

Much as we always say to freelancers: communication is key. A shipper who feels he can talk with you and ask questions can often point out mistakes before they bother the backers, and can suggest better methods that may improve things all around, or even save us money.

Which with shipping costs where they are, we need all the help we can get.

 

 

 

 

The thing is, and one of the reasons I shared this process, is that with feeling ill and my concentration being a bit short, this all pretty much took up my week along with the aftermath of last week’s upset. In an organization the size of Onyx Path, it only takes one of us to get sick, and some things just don’t get done.

But a lot more got done than if this had happened last year, because we now have Rollickin’ Rose and Mighty Matt on board. Now, they can pick up tasks when I can’t do them, and visa versa. In addition, between the three of us we now have the bandwidth/infrastructure to step in and assist projects, or entire game lines, get back on track. Or even onto a whole nother track that is better.

I’ll be writing more about those sorts of changes in the weeks to come as I let you in on some of the leaps forward we are making.

 

 

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

I’m finishing up the KS pages for the Prince’s Gambit casual card game this week. Things look good, and we are all for starting the KS in early March so long as the process of pulling the KS together cooperates. If so, then Monarchies of Mau KS would be next, after Gambit.

 

ON SALE!

DTRPG’s GM’s Day Sale starts March 2nd and runs for about a week! Check out all sorts of sales and bargains on Onyx Path and White Wolf PDFs at DriveThruRPG.com!

 

 

 

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!

 

 

Continuing our individual Dark Eras chapters, we’re hoping that we can offer you Dark Eras: Fallen Blossoms this Wednesday, March 1st, if the USPS fates are kind to us and we get the PoD proof!

 

 

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Doubting Souls (Hunter 1690-1695 Salem). Immigrants and tribes struggled to co-exist on the Eastern Seaboard in the ever-expanding Colonies. Violent clashes, supernatural beliefs, and demonic influences spelled disaster for Salem Village and its surrounding towns, while others fought werewolves and vampires on the frontier. With so much at risk, only god-fearing men and women were deemed innocent — and those were few indeed.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204372/Dark-Eras-Doubting-Souls-Hunter-the-Vigil

 

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Bowery Dogs (Werewolf 1969-1979 NYC). New York City in the 1970s. Crime. Drugs. Gang violence. Vast economic disparity. And werewolves. It’s a lean, ugly time to be alive, and the lone wolf doesn’t stand a chance out there. In the end, all you really have is family.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/203762/Dark-Eras-The-Bowery-Dogs-Werewolf-the-Forsaken

 

 

The Locker is open; the Chronicles of Darkness: Hurt Locker, that is! PDF and physical copy PoDs are now available on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/199275/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Hurt-Locker

Hurt Locker features:

• Treatment of violence in the Chronicles of Darkness. Lasting trauma, scene framing, and other tools for making your stories hurt.
• Many new player options, including Merits, supernatural knacks, and even new character types like psychic vampires and sleeper cell soldiers.
• Expanded equipment and equipment rules.

Hurt Locker requires the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook or any other standalone Chronicles of Darkness rulebook such as Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, or Beast: The Primordial to use.

 

 

 

Both the Beast: the Primordial http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198773/Beast-The-Primordial-Condition-Cards & Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition Condition Cards http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202619/Promethean-the-Created-2nd-Edition-Condition-Cards are now on sale on DTRPG in PDF and physical card PoD versions! Great for keeping track of the Conditions that are on your characters!

 

 

 

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Ruins of Empire (Mummy 1893-1924). Perhaps the quintessential era of the mummy in the minds of Westerners, this period saw the decline of the two greatest empires of the age: British and Ottoman. Walk with the Arisen as they bear witness to the death of the Victorian age, to pivotal mortal discoveries in Egypt, and to the horrors of the Great War.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/178801/Dark-Eras-Ruins-of-Empire-Mummy-the-Curse

 

 

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Sundered World (Werewolf and Mage 5500-5000 BCE). At the birth of civilization, in the shadow of the Fall, the Awakened stand as champions and protectors of the agricultural villages spread across the Balkans. In a world without a Gauntlet, where Shadow and flesh mingle, the steady taming of the world by humanity conflicts with the half-spirit children of Father Wolf.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202272/Dark-Eras-The-Sundered-World-Werewolf-the-Forsaken-Mage-the-Awakening

 

 

Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes for Beast: the Primordial is available now as an Advance PDF: 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.

 

 

The PDF and physical book PoD versions of Reap the Whirlwind, the Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition Jumpstart swirls into being on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/201127/Reap-the-Whirlwind-Revised-VtR-2e

You are a vampire, a junkie. Every night, you beg and you borrow and you steal just a little more life, just a few more sweet moments. But there’s a guy at the top. The Prince. He’s got everything. The money, the secrets, the blood.

Tonight, you’re going to take it from him. Tomorrow, there’ll be hell to pay.

This updated edition of Reap the Whirlwind features revisions to match the core rulebook for Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition. Text edits and rules clarifications have also been updated.

Reap the Whirlwind Revised includes:

• Rules for creating and playing vampires in the Chronicles of Darkness
• The first two levels of every clan Discipline, the dark powers of the dead
• A complete adventure by noted horror author Chuck Wendig

This new revised Reap the Whirlwind Revised includes an updated booklet, 7 condition cards, and the interactive Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition character sheet.

 

 

 

 

It is now the preordained time for Dawn of Heresies, the Mummy: the Curse novel written by internationally renowned author Brian Hodge to arise! Both PDF/electronic and physical book PoD versions are now available on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198720/Dawn-of-Heresies

Rawhead and bloody bones

Steals naughty children from their homes,

Takes them to his dirty den

And they are never seen again. 

So says the nursery rhyme that gives birth to Rawhead, the most fearsome entity to imperil the living since the infamous Roller. Once an obedient mummy by name of Benefre, a desperate bid by his cult fails in tragic fashion, and in so doing, sends him to the Devourerís waiting, corruptive maw. What remains of Benefreís ambitious soul rises again, impure and unholy, set to the execution of a scheme so baleful, it constitutes a heresy even among his own misbegotten kind.

All that stands between Rawhead and his terrible aim are a lone mummy, Kemsiyet, and what little remains of her cult following its destruction at Rawhead’s hands. Declan, her prized security aide, and Fiona, an Irish researcher only just recently inducted into the cult and its blood-soaked world, must fight both the odds and the clock in order to prevent a calamity the likes of which the world hasnít seen since the days of the mummies’ creation.

About the Author:

BRIAN HODGE is the acclaimed author of 11 novels, almost 125 short stories, and four full-length collections. His first collection, The Convulsion Factory, was ranked by critic Stanley Wiater among the 113 best books of modern horror. Heís currently wrapping up his fifth, The Immaculate Void. Among gamers, he is perhaps best known as the author of the first official Hellboy novel, On Earth as It Is in Hell.

Recent works include “The Weight of the Dead,” from Tor, and novelettes of cosmic horror in The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu and Children of Lovecraft. His oft-reprinted 2013 novella, “The Same Deep Waters as You” has recently been optioned by a London-based production studio for development for television. Brian lives in Colorado.

 

 

Open the V20 Dark Ages: Tome of Secrets now on DTRPG! Both PDF and physical book PoD versions are now available! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/197358/V20-Dark-Ages-Tome-of-Secrets

The Tome of Secrets is a treatment of numerous topics about Cainites and stranger things in the Dark Medieval World. It’s about peeling back the curtain, and digging a little deeper. Inside, you’ll find:

• Expanded treatment of Assamite Sorcery, Koldunic Sorcery, Necromancy, and Setite Sorcery

• A look at Cainite knightly orders, faith movements, and even human witchcraft

• Letters and diaries from all over the Dark Medieval World

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONVENTIONS!

Starting this Wednesday, Mighty Matt McElroy will be at Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon, walking the floor, taking meetings, and generally talking the talk. Make sure you say hi if you see him there!

Impish Ian Watson will be on a Q&A panel at CAiNE http://www.caine2017.ca/ being hosted in Hamilton Ontario March 16 to 19th 2017!

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/

 

 

 

 

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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 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• CtD C20 Jumpstart (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
• Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
• Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)
• Monarchies of Mau Early Access (Pugmire)
• Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

 

Redlines