Release Schedule August 2012 to August 2013

We were going to make a big announcement a week or so ago, but vacations and conventions meant that most of the folks who needed to agree on what to say weren’t ever able to meet and figure out the details. That process is happening now, but rather than tease you wonderful folks any further, here is one part of that bigger announcement: the White Wolf release schedule covering August 2012 right through August 2013. There are nWoD, cWoD, and Exalted releases and I’d like to break out the thinking on each of these sections. See the full schedule here

World of Darkness

Overall, the schedule for WoD has been put together to focus on several large sets of releases with a few popular favorites as treats among the more focused and connected releases. Looking at the last few years, I wanted us to cool down on the smaller stand alone SASs for awhile- we’ve got a great back library of them now, so folks should be able to easily get their hands on an adventure for almost all of the game lines. For the bigger releases for nWoD, we’re thrilled to release Mummy: The Curse as the first new game line in the last couple of years- if you haven’t been following the Mummy Dev blogs, you really should as the game’s depths and innovations are slowly being revealed there. Mummy and its supplements continue our successful limited series approach for new releases but with a chance that other unscheduled books might also come out depending on the success of it’s Kickstarter. The KS for Mummy is going to be different than some we have done, as it will as usual be for a deluxe edition but this time the KS will run right before or even after the PDF and PoD versions are available. It’s an experiment in timing, and we certainly hope folks will check it out and back a cool deluxe version. Midway through the schedule we’re going to be presenting a new idea for the WoD “blue books” and Vampire the Requiem with the God Machine and Strix  Chronicles respectively. These both begin with a fiction anthology that combines the best fiction from the last eight years of game books with all new works that immerse the reader in the world as envisioned by the Chronicle. And when we say Chronicles, these aren’t just big adventures but entire reimaginings of the game-line viewed through a strong storyline. These books are designed to present a default setting that Storytellers and players can look to as the consistent story-rich WoD core or VTR setting. They will contain the rules changes it is clear were needed after eight years of critical thinking and fan commentary, as well as mention of the various WoD tools that have been developed in that time such as the Tiers, SASs, etc. Basically, here are Chronicles that can be used whole-cloth or in pieces as you see fit, but which are there in their entirety with a rich and immersive background that can be enjoyed for it’s own sake as well. And then, in August there is Demon: The ???– where we continue our rich tradition of not revealing the subtitle although, frankly, none of us remember why we always do that. Demon will build on the setting revealed in the God Machine Chronicle, but will stand entirely on its own as a new and terrifying supernatural game line in 2013.

Classic World of Darkness

What can we say? What an amazing year it’s been for Classic WoD from V20 through the Deluxe V20 Companion and Children of the Revolution Kickstarters. The community has been amazing and so we’re looking at continuing that approach with Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition and its supplements.  We’re going to continue using Kickstarter for the deluxe books, and keep experimenting with finding the best way to be responsive to the cWoD community that has stayed so committed to the world they love for so long. Special extra PDF books? cWoD T-shirts, dice, etc? We’re looking at all those ideas and more to complement the book release schedule on Kickstarter. And besides quarterly releases for V20 and W20, we have the promised Technocracy Convention books for the Mage fans awaiting word on Mage20.

Exalted

Ex3. This year. John and Holden and Geoff. Talk amongst yourselves. Seriously, it was evident several years ago that Exalted needed a serious overhaul in order to return it to the glory that so many fans, ourselves included, fell in love with. But that overhaul couldn’t be accomplished without a new edition and we weren’t set up to support such a major project. Fortunately, Holden, John, and a great crew of volunteers were able to begin the thinking on how to revitalize Exalted with their Ink Monkey work and were further able to jump into suggesting how to approach a new edition. Around the same time, a lucky conversation with Geoff Grabowski, my old partner on the development side of Exalted (see the Making of Exalted booklet contained within EX1), revealed he was interested in revisiting the world he had set on its course. The path was clear: EX3. And here’s the schedule. Please bear in mind that ANYTHING in it may change, books may be dropped or added or delayed.