I go through 2-5 of these Coke Zeros a day. During vacation, I got it down to 1-3. That’s good isn’t it? Maybe I’ll get superpowers.
But some days you just need the magic go-juice.
I hope everybody enjoyed Eddy’s guest stint last week as he returned to writing our blog here.
Now watch me dovetail the last two ideas: next week, we’ll have two different guests filling in for me as I try to get an actual vacation and not one that has me finishing up a very busy finish to the W20 Changing Breeds Kickstarter (which is mentioned below, but let me say again, it really was great!). Rollickin’ Rose Bailey, who gives me a weekly Update on where our projects are in writing, development, and editing, and Mirthful Mike Chaney, who does the same with art and design, will guest host.
Today, I brought up to Eddy a couple of things. The afore-mentioned Deluxe Changing Breeds Kickstarter wrapping up so nicely, a big stupid issue with the Deluxe Mummy the Curse books (more on that below), and the book that I read over my “break” that I first enjoyed purely as a fan of the Pertwee-era Dr Who, and then, like we do, I examined as a nostalgia product. Since both the cWoD and our Trinity Continuum (and to a much lesser extent, Scion) game lines must be designed with an eye towards those nostalgic feelings our fans have, it was interesting to shuffle through my own responses to the book (Alastair Reynolds’ “Harvest of Time”) and to try and see what he did that really played up my enjoyment of that era of Dr Who. The author has an excellent ear for each characters syntax, so much so that I mentally read it in their voices, and that was vital in recreating the feeling of watching one of the TV episodes. For the 70’s Pertwee Dr Who, treating the UNIT “family” well is a vital and important key to drawing me back there. The pacing and storyline were also dead on to the episodes, but here we have improvements as the writer isn’t limited to the episode structure or budget and can avoid long sequences of running back and forth through hallways except as a wink to the reader. The settings were interesting as they were very evocative of the sorts of places shown in the TV episodes, but with just enough extra stuff that couldn’t have been done on TV- but not too much. The Master’s prison is in a shut down nuclear facility, and his entire cell is submerged in cooling water and must be raised out of the pool by a winch. Not impossible for the FX and budgets of the time, but not likely. Skillfully and importantly, I was never drawn out of my fan-boy recreation of a Pertwee episode.
I think this relates back to the question of how much do you change with a cWoD 20th Anniversary book, or with Trinity. Enough that the setting lives again and isn’t just a reanimated but ultimately uninspiring hulk of nostalgia, but not so much that our nostalgic touchstones are swept away and the game is unrecognizable to a devoted fan. It’s sometimes a hard line to draw, but I think its worth it to be able to re-ignite those fires and remind folks why they love that game, or setting, or era.
Also, as I discussed with Mr. Webb, it occurred to me that Dr Who as an IP was a truly Transmedia one. The TV shows were one whole way to enjoy the “world” of Dr Who, but the novels were very much another, and the audio dramas were something else as well. And the comics, etc. What I was saying to Eddy was that as far as I could tell, the various different ways that folks could get into the IP were pretty good at being viable novels, or audio shows, and also ways to enjoy the IP. Not just tack-ons or projects that are bad at being novels, for example, for the sake of preserving something from the TV shows. (They could no doubt be bad for other reasons, of course). The viability of “Transmedia” as a concept is still something that Eddy and I feel is deserving of consideration, particularly when we have potentially disparate media for our game world to shine in like board/card games, novels, comics, and audio. Hmmm.
For nostalgia’s sake then, more Updates:
– Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) The PDF and electronic format versions are on sale now at DTRPG/DTFiction: http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/117396/The-Strix-Chronicle-Anthology
– Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle (VtR) Still waiting on just a very small bit of the final drafts.
– Mummy the Curse – Deluxe book and Screen are at press- looking to be sent to the shipper just after mid-August. (Which is not exactly right, in that the Mummy books were at the shipper on Friday as promised, and on Saturday I discovered that for a currently unknown reason the printer had not embossed the covers. So back they go, and the cover will be embossed and the books reshipped to arrive around the 20th. More details to the backers in a Backer Update, but that’s the story in a nutshell). The MtC Ready Made Characters Pack is in art direction/layout. Cursed Necropolis DC being written and its cover has been approved.
– Exalted 3rd Edition: A couple of EX3 chapters continue to be finalized by the Devs and thence for Editing. The EX3 Quickstart is being written. EX3 novel contracts are being created and should go out this week.
– V20 Hunters Hunted 2: Sent a couple of corrected pages to the printer for the Deluxe but other than 3 pages the book is good to go to press- thanks to those of you who caught just a couple more changes we needed to make via reviewing the PDF. Which is live on DTRPG this week. Justin is bogged down on real life issues for a presentation at his day job, but will send the HH2 Fiction Anthology to editing ASAP.
– V20 Anarchs Unbound is in editing and we are getting art for it.
– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: At press and getting the page-edge gilding put on. Mike Lee went back and revised a fair number of chapter in the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel prior to submitting to Bill for dev review. The Storyteller Screen files are done and ready for W20. Bill has theW20 Anthology stories done and they are headed for editing. Jess Hartley continues writing the White Howlers Tribe Book and the W20 Cookbook is almost done in editing
– Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has Phil Brucato writing like a maniac and developing his writers, also like a maniac. Very early sketches for the fulls from Michael William Kaluta look awesome. Getting art notes out to a ton of classic Mage artists- lots of sketches are coming in and a good number of finals were approved. Going to try to get up an art blog this week- this didn’t happen but I will try this week.
– W20 Changing Breeds Kickstarter finished last week and was our third highest funded KS. The last few days were amazing and the excitement from backers and fans was infectious. A fair amount of expanded material was added to the book, and a Changing Breeds Fiction Anthology was added to the schedule because of passing through the Stretch Goals. I’m talking to Stew Wilson and Jess Hartley later this week to go over the KS and what we do next.
– W20 Rage Across the World: All the art is in, approved, and going into the book.
– Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is into editing and art is coming in.
– Conventionbook: Syndicate (cMtA) is ready for the PDF version to go live on Weds.
– Conventionbook: Void Engineers (cMtA) is in editing. Art is all in.
– W20 Book of the Wyrm is almost ready for editing.
– V20 Rites of the Blood: is being written and red-lined and is in Open Dev on the blogs: http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/ Eddy is preparing art notes.
– Under the Darkening Sky (classic Dark Ages): Writers are writing. David is sending Mirthful Mike art notes for the cover.
– Trinity Continuum: We now have a whopping big Aeon outline and a Trinity Continuum Core Book outline. Ian and John Snead are gathering their writers.
– Scion: Joe’s team is hammering systems, but Joe himself has been stricken with chronic back pain. Measures to relieve this are being taken, and we must look at other measures to ensure that Scion isn’t delayed while Joe recuperates.
– Demon: The Descent: The text is now in editing! Lots of example of play commentary including from Black Hat Matt McFarland’s play test are up on the new Demon blog: http://whitewolfblogs.com/demon/ Check it out, there are quite a few playtests posted now and they give a very interesting (if early) look at the game. Demon Quickstart is being laid out this week with the approved art. Our goal is now to get copies of the Quickstart for Gen Con as it has come together quicker than expected.
– Hunter: The Something About Monsters: Writers are writing.
Reason to Drink: Did you see that Mummy news up there? Grrrr Glug-glug.
It killed me to not throw money at the Changing Breeds KS but as the changing breeds were something I so rarely got or get to pursue, it lacked the nostalgic quality for me.
I noticed that, it seems likely Mage 20 will do well. I am really torn on whether or not to back it. Our group, that played back in the day, had the most frustrating times playing it due to how open the power system was. Granted at the time many of the gaming group were immature (even though I was the youngest by multiple years, I was marginally more mature) however I hope to see a little more structure in the core book. Perhaps creating a large number of Rotes to help explain the system.
Even when I had a good grasp I could not get people to play it who I had introduced from DnD. Even worse, players who loved Battlelords of the 23rd Century had trouble with it.
…Also…Harry Dresden…..would he be an Orphan, Order of Hermes, or Euthantos? 😉
Nothing wrong with not backing a project you really aren’t into.
Mage20 is going to be cool, but again, don’t back it if you don’t enjoy it. It was and is a very different and interesting take on magic(k) working, and not for everybody.
Unfortunately, I kind of have to back M20. You see, a statement had been made that if W20 did well there would be a M20. Then I read that if M20 did well Wraith20 could be a thing.
I am a rare rare thing. A Wraith fanboy. I have all but 2 books for the line (technically from other lines) and desperately want things like the unwritten Guildbooks and a nice high quality 20th book. But to make that happen I need to do my part to make M20 happen. and to make that happen I needed to make sure W20 happened. So; kind of a vicious cycle for me.
Sidenote: I will buy Changing Breeds 20 POD though. Cause you know…glutton for punishment.
You’re not the only Wraith fan. There are dozens of us. DOZENS!
I just don’t give estimates on releases any more. There’s more ill will than positive if there are delays, even at this stage where, as you can see, the book is well along.
Glad you’ve liked them- thanks!
Hi Rich, I was just wondering what book is going to Kickstarter next. I’m hoping it’s time for another V20 book.
We have several options- Anarchs Unbound is one of them.
Thanks Rich, I’m hoping for Anarchs Unbound, but any CWoD would be good for me.
Deluxe Anarchs Unbound or Deluxe Rites of the Blood would be pretty awesome >:)
Ye ye!
Just so it’s clear- the books are supposed to get to the shipper from the printer around the 20th and they are fore-warned to get rolling on actually shipping ASAP.
So Mummy should be arriving in September. Nice.
I’m hoping a little before that in late August.
Welcome back! Nice update, it’s awesome how well you folks juggle so much good stuff around.
Goooo Changing Breeds!
So, W20 has been in the process of being gilded for a month… is there a reason why it’s taking so long to do this process? Did it miss its scheduled date and is stuck being done between other jobs, or is there a problem with the materials? Will all gilded books take this long to be done as well?
What’s really left to do to the book to get it into our hands?
We still haven’t seen a sample of the HME cover either. Even as steadfast as I’ve been about this book, trusting that it’s being done as quickly as it can be, and trying to find explanations of what’s taking so long in the process, it seems that W20 has had more snags than any other OPP KS project so far, and even my enthusiasm and determination to keep a positive spin on the project is starting to run out of steam. :-/
I understand that W20 has taken a long time- each additional thing that we added to make it cooler has taken longer to resolve. The copper gilding takes a long time, yes. If we had gone with a standard color like silver or gold, it could have been done at lot sooner and in the same plant. We had to go to an independent who could do different colors- and he is in another part of Canada. I did see several samples of the HME and rejected them, so I still am waiting to have the last one that I liked delivered to me in physical form so I can take a pic for you folks. I won’t show you the rejected ones, though, as that would be counter productive for all of us. And yes, the Deluxe W20 has been the most trouble-fraught and latest of our KS books, but up until EX3 it was also the most ambitious. We’re always learning from these.
Yeah, the next time you produce a book like HME-W20 make sure you have at least the special cover treatment-option researched well in advance. In hindsight it would have saved tremendous amount of time and tears.
The info about the rejected HME covers and the alternate source for the color gilding makes sense and is info that helps me feel more comfortable about the time it’s taking. 🙂
Yeah I can understand the delays when they’ve had to switch the printing company on the fly. I hope they’ve taken the hint from these earlier KS when it comes to Printing Demon & Mage20-KS so they won’t delay from the reasons that Mummy & W20 have been I.E printing problems.
It would be a great place for Onyx Path to clean their tarnished image in that field.
Thank you for the update!
But could you give us more information concerning “Red List”? I has been off the radar for a long time (until Eddy mentioned it last week)… How long is (pages)? how many vampires are on it? Boons? etc…?
Keep up the good work!
Matt McElroy tells me that he’s preparing a post for the WWBlogs that will go into how the book has evolved and expanded and what is in there. Keep an eye out, he’s going to try and get it there by the end of the week.
Still no progress in W20 case? That’s a bummer 🙁
There has been progress in that most of the books are done being gilded and are ready for binding. But it is a very slow progress too, which is the nature of printing something like this. So my Update really just reports on what stage the project is in, nothing as granular as how many books have been gilded now, vs how many are left, etc.
Great to see something happening with Hunter. Keep up the great work!
In case you know and can comment on this at this junction, do you have any idea how likely Demon is to get a Kickstarter?
Welcome back, and I hope next week’s vacation goes smoother. 🙂 The Gencon after it will surely be a crazy ride.
Demon will definitely get a KS, it’s just a question of when. The rest of the year is like a Tetris puzzle of what goes where best, KS-wise.
Fantastic news – Demon is a great game, and I’m trying to whip people into a frenzy over it. (Well, not literal whipping because that might be illegal in some areas….). I’m glad it’s getting its own Kickstarter, as it deserves it!
I asked this over on the Demon blog but I’m excited so I’m going to ask here too: Will we be able to walk away from the booth with a Quick-Starter for Demon at GenCon? Now, I don’t mean if its ready (because obviously if it isn’t ready at the time than we won’t), I mean is the plan to have copies for sale as opposed to just for display purposes? I would dearly like to run a game of Demon for some of my friends at the convention.
In general, no we won’t be able to hand out or sell copies- we aren’t mass-producing them, just printing enough to show off at the con. We might be able to help you out with a loaner, if you want to play it- come by the booth and we can talk.
I am happy and sad in equal measure. I will absolutely see you at the booth Mr. Thomas.
I see that the Syndicate book is going to be ready Wed – PDF only. Are you implementing the POD coupon for those of us who buy the PDF early?
DriveThruRPG doesn’t really have that functionality.
We still have hundreds of PDFs which aren’t yet available in print, and there’s no special early bird coupon for those, either.
– Conventionbook: Syndicate (cMtA) is ready for the PDF version to go live on Weds.
A new Mage book the day after tomorrow?! Fantastic news! Also looking forward to the Mage art blog. Bring the purple!!!
And thanks for the updates – always very much appreciated :).
This isn’t that relevent to the discussion at hand, but I also have a Coke-0 habit of your proportions, Rich. Do they put crack in that stuff or something?
So….RichT, this new infusion of cWoD books….it isn’t going to stop at M20 is it? Do you intend to do anything with the Wraith or Changeling game lines like the KS runs you guys have been doing with Werewolf and Vampire. I know it’s kind of far off and you guys have your plates full with all the projects you currently have. I was just curious with the extent that the Onyx Path and revisiting the classic World of Darkness and how far it’s going to go.
They tend to keep their lips sealed tight about future plans beyond what’s on the schedule.
I’d hold on until Gencon… they’ll likely slip their plans for the coming year around then, and then we’ll have more information. I can’t wait to see what they’ve got on offer.
2011: We put V20 up for preorder. After seeing V20 sales numbers, four days before GenCon, we decided on W20. We announced W20 at GenCon.
2012: We did a W20 Kickstarter. After seeing W20 sales numbers, we announced M20 at GenCon.
2013: Mage20 is due out. GenCon is in two weeks.
Rich may not have made a decision yet about the future of the X20 lines. Whatever decision he’s made, you likely won’t hear about it until GenCon.
Re: Ian’s comment: announcements at Gen Con for next year (and then pretty rapidly that news will be on-line.)
Well, I know it’s probably a long way down the road but I would love to shell out money for Wraith 20th edition.
oh man me too Mike. I’ve commented to friends that when this happens I will have to do the big book and then I will force them all to play. Force….I will chain them in a basement and beat them into Oboli unless they play.
I hope a Scion kickstarter comes down the line sometime next year… That would be badass. Also wish i could help work on it. Lol. Man, Onyx Path has really had their feet to the fire putting out new material!
I fully expect us to do KSs for Scion and Trinity- we can have a lot of fun with them. Yeah, sometimes we bite off more than we can chew, but it takes a lot to ramp up everybody’s favorite game-lines.
Anything info on HTV Monstrous Basterds?(Great title BTW)
OK its weds and still no Mage Syndicate.
It’s live now.
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/117395/Convention-Book-Syndicate
See above “Hunter: The Something About Monsters.”
haha syndicate just came out…
The conflict between change and nostalgia is going to be particularly acute with Changeling20, esp. in comparison with Lost. I don’t think anyone wants a return of Cantrip cards. I’m hoping for something along the lines of DA:Fae.