So I have a chest cold. I’m hacking and coughing while typing this, and my sleep has been pretty limited these last few nights so I find myself zoning out even as…
Yeah. Like that. What was I saying?
Right, I’ve got a cold. Which is pretty rare for me these days, but this one hit right before Christmas, I fought it off, and it has harassed me since the new year. So other than trying to keep up with Kickstarter questions, I didn’t get anything done for the past several days. Watched a lot of old TV during the late night hours that coughing kept me awake, though. Streaming might be a new weapon in the arsenal against flu and colds. So, still working on the Deluxe Anarchs Unbound Kickstarter page because there was no way I wanted to write up all that fiddly KS language with a mush-filled brain cavity.
Similarly, I did not write up Onyx Path‘s look forward into 2014 this week. Although I did talk to lots of our Onyx gang about tweaking the schedule and what they thought was going to be cool, so we’ll have some good stuff when I do write it up. And then, Eddy and I managed to talk about twenty minutes today as his WoD MMO meeting ran long. That’s right, the meeting he had with the Producer of the WoD MMO about how Eddy is doing his job on the WoD MMO that he still has and is working at. Actively working on the actively being worked on WoD MMO.
Since Eddy and I really just talked about the V20 schedule through 2015, and some financials he needed as part of being Onyx‘s CCP contact and representative (which is a small part of his overall job of actively working on the actively being worked on and discussed and scoped and implemented WoD MMO), how about we just skip to the Updates this week?
Hack. Cough. wheeeeze.
Here they are! Back by popular demand! the weekly updates:
– Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle (VtR) The PDF is available on sale on DTRPG! The acclaim that this project has gotten has been amazing! Thanks so much everyone who has already picked up the PDF- we’re actively getting the PoD files together right now. Screen and Condition Cards being worked on.
– Mummy the Curse – The MtC Ready Made Characters Pack PDF upgrade is out there, the PoD version will be available this weekt. Cursed Necropolis DC writing is being developer-passed.
– Exalted 3rd Edition: While John hunkers down to rewrite the Charms chapter he is also changing some of the ways he’s been doing these to enable more to get finished, the rest of the team is working on a couple of EX3 chapters that continue to be finalized for Editing: Charms: Socialize is finished, Presence and Performance are being worked on in tandem. Sorcery is being hammered now to get it towards Editing. Playtesting continues with a new round which adds War and Social systems to the pool. The almost finished map went out to KS backers and I have final notes to get off to Jared today.
Zub’s EX3 Comic and both EX3 novels are being worked on. Exploration of a theme continues for the EX3 Music Suites– I have the first fruit of their efforts that I need to listen to.
– V20 Hunters Hunted 2: Shipping services continue to deliver these although we are getting to the “returned because of incorrect address” phase, at least in the US. The holidays seem to have bogged down the shipping services. HH2 Fiction Anthology is back to Justin for final dev review and then to CCP for approval.
– V20 Anarchs Unbound is in layout and we are still putting the pieces together for its KS- see above, but we are prepping for this Kickstarter.
– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: As with HH2, shipping services continue to deliver these although we are getting to the “returned because of incorrect address” phase, at least in the US. The holidays seem to have bogged down the shipping services. The Heavy Metal Deluxe W20 prototype was approved and they are slowly assembling and binding the books by hand. Mike Lee has a new batch of chapters of the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel for Bill to review. W20 Anthology PDF is on sale at DTRPG now, and we are looking to get the PoD files ready ASAP. Jess Hartley has submitted the White Howlers Tribe Book is in red-lining, and the W20 Cookbook PDF was delivered to backers before last year ended- next we’ll be getting the PoD version prepped once Stew gets back with notes on the PDF.
– Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has Phil wrapping up the very last sections of the book. Reviewing full pages in b&w first from Mike Kaluta. Four pieces of the Traditions two-page spread art have been approved by CCP. Going to do it’s Kickstarter after Anarchs Unbound‘s.
– W20 Changing Breeds PDF and PoD versions are on sale at DTRPG! Deluxe files are with the printer. The Changing Breeds Fiction Anthology is being written.
– W20 Rage Across the World: The PDF went to Deluxe W20 backers first as an appreciative gift for their patience, and is now on DTRPG. Prepping the PoD after we hear from Stew Wilson on corrections pointed out by our awesome eagle-eyes fans
– W20 Book of the Wyrm is in layout. A couple of additional art pieces still coming in.
– V20 Rites of the Blood: is ready for layout, but layout is not yet ready for it, art finals rolling in.
– Under the Darkening Sky (classic Dark Ages): Layout proof with David Hill. Or at least his computer, wherever that is. David had a lousy 2013.
– Trinity Continuum: New System ideas continue being hammered out. Most of the Aeon setting material is in.
– Scion: New Systems discussion continue. Both Scion and the TU above are now moving into active mode for 2014.
– Demon: The Descent: In a surprise move, we delivered the Demon PDF to KS backers before the end of December, and we’re compiling changes and tweaks before creating PoD and traditional printing files.
– Hunter: Mortal Remains: In Art Direction.
– Book of the Deceived (MtC): Second drafts being worked on.
– nWoD: Dark Eras: Writers are writing.
– V20 Dark Ages: Scribes are scribing. Some on 2nd Drafts. Check out the discussion on the WW Forums and these very blogs.
– DtD Players Guide: Flowers Of Hell?: In final development.
– V20: Ghouls: Writing continues.
– V20 Red List: In final draft stage.
– The Making of the Art of Children of the Revolution: Out to backers who pledged for it. Creating PoD files to go with PDF for sale on DTRPG.
Reason to Drink: Only drinking Nyquil.
Get well soon!
Thanks!
If White Wolf/OnyxPath ever gets to Changeling/Faerie, I would like to recommend that the 2004 book “Dark Ages Fae” be the template for the whole game. I think it captured the essence of the mythlore of “faeries” better than any of the other games. I thought that Changeling the Dreaming was always too limited in concept and Changeling the Lost was trying way too hard to emulate Bill Willingham’s “Fables” comic book series.
With Dark Ages Fae, one could actually create a character like the Elves in Tolkien’s Silmarillion. Or you could have created a character who resembled Treebeard from Lord of the Rings.
Just food for thought.
Both Dreaming and Lost had very specific thematic interests built in, and neither were really concerned about emulating Tolkien’s take on elves or faerie-like elements (nor were they about emulating Fables), so I’m not surprised that the Sidhe or Redcaps didn’t quite port. Awesome that DA:Fae worked for your purposes, though.
The Gentry in Lost were pretty obviously inspired by Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Sidhe and Redcaps can be modeled pretty well by Lost, and its flexibility pretty much overshadows Dreaming’s rigid kiths. Going the more freeform route of DA: Fae makes sense.
I have pretty much the exact opposite view. Dreaming has always seemed incredibly more flexible to me than Lost. While I enjoyed DA: Fae way more than Lost, Dreaming is by far my favorite. Changeling: The Lost will very likely get a chronicle book similar to Blood and Smoke assuming the Forsaken and Awakening chronicle books do well. If there’s going to be a Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary edition, I hope it stays true to the core of Dreaming.
However, there is one thing I would like to see changed in C20th:
BEDLAM
That or a sidebar mentioning that Changelings have been killing innocents for years that really didn’t have bedlam at all.
Because I find it very offensive that “autism” is listed as one of the symptoms of Bedlam. As someone with it, I don’t like the idea at all. Plus murder of people with autism as well as other disabilities is a serious problem in the real world. People who do it often don’t get punished for their crimes.
Also, knowledge has changed a lot about autism and the description in the first and second corebooks in the Bedlam section was very dated even by the time it was put out.
And I know of people with it as well that are very creative folks.
Again, the 20th Anniversary Edition core books aren’t 4th Editions. They are supposed to evoke the best parts of the earlier editions. Neither Wraith nor CtD had Revised Editions, so we’ll see perhaps greater changes than the first three x20s, but not to the extent of redesigning the games. If a Dreaming fan doesn’t immediately feel like they’ve come home when opening the book, then we failed in the 20th Anniversary Edition. And point taken, Hyena, those sorts of things are what we should be reviewing when the time comes to do C20.
How is it more flexible to have nine rigid kiths as opposed to the customizable mechanics of DA:Fae or Lost? Especially if the majority of the Dreaming kiths are derived from Celtic mythology. Is that culture the core of Dreaming?
The trouble with going home is that there were some serious flaws in the 1st ed. As I’ve said before, I doubt anyone is clamoring for the return of cantrip cards. I’d argue that limiting something as diverse as folklore to a few mostly celtic influenced kiths with the same structure as V:tM clans (without even a caitiff option) is one of them. That’s probably why additional kiths proliferated in subsequent books.
Hi !
C:tD and C:tL are very different games and hard to compare.
I like both (and created a fan nWoD conversion for C:tD as I prefer the system of nWoD) but one thing that is superior in C:tL (in my opinion) is the flexibilty of the character creation.
A troll is not allway large and blue and kinda-scottish but there are thousands of possibilities to create strength-and-honor based creatures with the C:tL system.
I know that there will be no changes as big as a new approach to character creation but at least if all possibilities of all source books are included it might be ok for me.
Regards
Discobutcher
“How is it more flexible to have nine rigid kiths as opposed to the customizable mechanics of DA:Fae or Lost?”
Lost has just as rigid of a kith system as Dreaming, the only real difference is that it has more kiths in it’s core book. However, the total number of kiths published for each game is pretty close.
Dreaming plots are limited only by your imagination. Literally, it’s non-earth realm is imagination made manifest. If you can dream it, it exists in the game. Lost, as far as I can tell from reading the core book, only has one plot – be an abuse victim, which I have absolutely no desire to ever play.
As for cantrip cards, they’re a fun group casting mechanic. My only real complaint about them is that bunks are random. I’m really hoping that a revised version of cantrip card rules and a PoD version of the cards become stretch goals if there’s a C20 kickstarter.
But really, the nice thing is that Dreaming, DA: Fae, and Lost all exist as games. Folks who prefer Lost have it, can play, and enjoy the occasional new supplemental material for it. Mortal Remains and Dark Eras are on the schedule now, and I bet it will get a Blood and Smoke style chronicle book. Folks who prefer DA: Fae have it, and Under the Darkening Sky will probably be coming out this month or next.
Dreaming hasn’t had any new material since 2001 and never got a revised edition. If there is going to be a rules updated, cleaned up 20th anniversary edition (which I certainly hope there will be), there is absolutely no reason to not do Dreaming as Dreaming for fans of Dreaming when the other options already exist with continuing support for their fans.
Hi PookaKnight !
I agree to a very high percentage with you – the only thing I complain about the Dreaming is the narrow fokus of the kiths. If I wnat to play a character focussed on strength Dreaming gives me the Troll (blue, strong, large, honor-bound) and Lost gives me the Ogre (skin like charcoal, or treebark, or white and squishy or made of glass or furred and striped like a tiger … can be large or small can be a lying thief or sell himself to the highes bidder – everything is supported by the rules)
I allways hated why Pooka have to lie – why is this decision done by the game and not by me ?
There are thousands of fairy tales all around the world with beasts and people in so many shapes, why does Dreaming concentrat on the UK beeings ?
So I would totally vote for a C:tD20 version that includes rules to play fairy beeings from all cultures around the world.
I want to live the themes and topics from the Dreaming with characters that are not so narrowly defined (at least that’s how I feel about it)
Changeling is actually a fine game. What it needs is a massive rules cleanup, definition of what Banality “is”, because I’ve seen people claim “Math is banal”, “Religion is banal”, and “Technology is banal” and it becomes really irritating.
The other thing Changeling needs is tighter focus on its theme. Is it about the oncoming winter and the fae having a few tricks left up their sleeves, or is it about drinking tea with chimerical bears in tutus?
WTF!? Dreaming labels people with Autism as some monster that must be murdered? That’s way worse than the Corax Breedbook blaming Autism on broken spirit eggs.
It’s all BS. I have Autism too and I ain’t a monster or freak. I’m just a person who doesn’t fit into my society’s excessively tiny “normal” and “employable” boxes. It is NOT OK for any book to depict murdering children as a normal, acceptable thing. We have to deal with enough discrimination and misunderstanding already.
– DtD Players Guide: Flowers Of Hell
Oooh that quietly took a step forward out of the basements of Moscow, Paris, Cleveland- or whatever..
Yeah, that was sneaky, and not entirely deliberate on my part as I was having fun with the cryptic teasers and didn’t pay attention to Rose’s updates to me.
We are also waiting, with baited breath for Night Horrors: DtD.
Did someone tell you we were doing one?
“That’s right, the meeting he had with the Producer of the WoD MMO about how Eddy is doing his job on the WoD MMO that he still has and is working at. Actively working on the actively being worked on WoD MMO.”
But White Wolf is DDDDDDDEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDD!
Wait, does that mean Onyx Path is Batman?
No. I’m Batman.
“[Blood and Smoke] Screen and Condition Cards being worked on.”
I had no idea that y’all were releasing a storyteller’s screen for the chronicle books! I have to admit, I really rely on those.
There’s a thing DTRPG has in mind for Screens that we’re going to try.
ooOOooo… PoD screens? This sounds hopeful. 🙂
I had one package that was apparently shipped back but I’m not sure if this was it. Is there a way to check if the package was HH2? I’d hate to miss my chance at having mine because no one was home when the UPS guy came. :'(
We have to wait until the package returns or not to the shipper. We don’t have the bandwidth to have the shipper check right now.
Is “Under the Darkening Sky” going to have info for all the classic Dark Ages lines? I thought I heard yes at some point but I can’t remember.
Yes, one chapter for each as it’s structure is based on the original concept pitched back in the day.
Ohh Look forward into Onyx Path 2014! Can’t wait to see it
::crosses fingers for Guide to the Bahari for V20::
Pretty sure we talked about that…hmmm…
“Most of the Aeon setting material is in.”
*does happy dance*
Truly, I hope you can kick this cold’s ass quickly.
Sleep, Ester-C (Vitamin C with flavinoids), Zinc, and Echinacea are my suggestions (mostly in that order.) Sleep (18 hours a day if you can manage it) will kick its ass pretty good, but is the hardest of those to get. :-/
“Making of the Art of Children of the Revolution” is getting out? Sweet. I hope that means that the “Making of the Art of W20” will be on its way too. 🙂
I am a little concerned with the amount of time it’s taking to hand-cover those 20 books–It sounds like either you guys got thrown to the bottom of the pile, or there’s a problem with their process. PLEASE also find out if corner-protection can be added to the packaging! $100 book is one thing to have a ding, but a $300 book is another. :-/ I’ll pay extra just to make sure its double-packed in Styrofoam if I need to.
Also, I think that there are a lot of us looking forward to the W20 Cookbook on PoD. 🙂 I do wish it had a mixed-drinks section in it for each Tribe, but maybe that can come in a PDF update at some point. 😉 (V20 got a drink list lately… albeit unofficially, I think.)
Anyways, take care of yourself and get well soon.
I got my copy of W20 Deluxe last week, but my copy of Hunters Hunted 2 deluxe wasn’t with it. I double checked and the address is the same for both surveys, does this mean that Australian backers will be receiving the books separately?
Also get well soon, probably should have started with that.
The shippers combined the shipments when they could. Some folks got them combined, some didn’t.
Alas no, but a setting like God Machine Chronicles in general and DtD in particular is going to thrive off of creative, mind-bendingly horrible antagonists, Night Horrors or some sort of antagonist splat book seemed like shoo-in not far down the line.
Given the overall quality of the Night Horrors line, if you don’t have plans to release one for DtD, please consider this a very emphatic plea to reconsider.
Sounding great; looking forward to the M20 kickstarter especially. Just hope you get well soon Richt; imagine a cold is not the most enjoyable thing given the weather at the moment.
I am really looking forward to M20 as well. Lets hope that the kickstarter can be submitted and approved promptly after Anarchs Unbound is over.
Thanks- the weather hasn’t really impacted it so much as lack of sleep from the coughing.
Get better soon Rich and a happy new year, well done on getting this update out considering everything! 🙂
I agree with Torakhan about the corner protectors or some better protection and willing to pay more. There’s various reports on repackaging problems and huge dents to W20 – mine included, which was also left outside. As said, willing to pay extra to have it packaged like V20 but concerned about getting M20 now if it stays the same.
I sent an Email to the shipper directly (as well as informing Rich), complaining about the damage caused by lack of proper protection/shipping methods. They should know that the products they are responsible for shipping are being damaged.
The shipping is not going to stay the same after this last ship out.
What about “Secrets of the Covenants” for VtR? I thought it’s supposed to be published around Q2 of 2014? But still no updates in the Monday Meeting notes?
It’s in outlining right now, as well as some schedule finagling so that I can get the writers I want working on it.
We usually add the projects to the Updates list once the writers are working. As we’ve seen, “still working on the outline” isn’t really exciting or helpful.
I’m thrilled with how quickly the D:tD PDF went out after the Kickstarter. This can only mean great things for future Kickstarters!
Well, I hope it demonstrates that every Kickstarter will play out differently as I’ve been saying all along. We get a lot of “every Onyx Path KS does X”, and frankly, none of them have been the same. It’s the wild west out there in KS-land, and we’re learning and hopefully improving with each one, but with such a small group of folks working on them, any little change could have big repercussions.
Feel better! I ache every time I hear about the WoD MMO. Seems like almost all the news since announcement has been grim. But I hope! And so excite for M20!
Thanks- seriously, I hope everybody realizes that while we at Onyx really hope the WoD MMO comes out and blows everybody away by how awesome it is- we’re actually not connected to it. No secret knowledge or ability to influence any decisions for good or ill.
Hope we hear about the Idigam Chronicle book soon. Can’t wait for Forsaken to get the GMC treatment.
Hope you feel better soon!!
Yep, that should be getting onto the Updates list soon, I think. Thanks!
I couldn’t agree more about W:tF and the GMC treatment. Mad props to all of you at Onyx path for making magicmagic in page formats. Feel better soon Rich!
Get well soon!
Was hoping for more news about the WtF anthology and chronicle book, but
likewise, very excited to hear that Scion is getting ready for 2014. 🙂
Perhaps we can ask for an update on “Secrets of the Covenants” and the WtF books for 2014 next week (or this week? :P)
Thanks! I’ll try for next week with a look ahead, but it depends on being able to sit and concentrate on it.
Rich…feel better. We need you at your best!
Also, any word from Mike on when the next art blog will be out? I love them.
Resuming Friday. I had to put them on hold until after the holidays and end of the year crunch was done.
Sounds good! Thanks, Mike.
do you have any idea if the kickstarter for DtD will be similar to M20’s in terms of what we can expect $$ amount wise ?
Not sure I understand the question- which $$ are you asking about? Total pledge amount, rewards tier buy in amounts, the pledge to get the deluxe book reward?
I.E.
Pledge $100 or more
27 backers
Double Agents (US): You will receive two copies of the Demon: The Descent Prestige Edition book, two copies of the DtD PDF, you get two beautiful electronic wallpaper files featuring a collage of selected Demon: The Descent illustrations, and can list two names (real names or two characters’ names, or one of each) on the credits page as an Unchained. This is for backers within the US.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2014
Ships within the US only
M20 will have a huge page count as well as a leatherette deluxe cover, so any individual reward tier that contains the deluxe book will have a much higher pledge amount.
A little reminder Richt, I know you guys are busy and do your best but please; don’t directly quote previous editions in M20 and if you have to, at least change the words a bit so it won’t so terribly obvious.
Some of the errors in mechanics and such in V20 and W20 were directly linked to this.
Other than I’ve been quite pleased on what I’ve got so far from Onyx.
I was afraid of that. its still cool though, just wish the kickstarter for mage had happened around October – Dec of last year when I actually had that kind of $$ instead of a smaller amount.
Rich, I hope you’ve recuperated sufficiently. Regarding M20: please have it in silver or gold leaf edging; my W20’s copper leaf edging sticks together in numerous sections, while both of my V20 and HH2 Deluxes don’t have that issue.