Laboring Day

Today in the US, and I also hear it’s similar in Canada but with an extra “u”, we have the Labor Day Holiday. This matters little to us at Onyx Path as we have tons of stuff to get done, so we’re working away anyway.

Eddy was at home, but just fine with chatting at lunch, so I mentioned that I’m finally using my iPad to listen to podcasts. Specifically, I’m catching up on Welcome to Nightvale, and David Mitchell’s Soapbox. Now, Nightvale is something that is just so WoD it’s worth it to hear a lighter but still twisted touch to horror, and I listen to David Mitchell’s podcast because, as with Stephen Fry, I just love to listen to both the elegance of his use of language, and hearing it spoken in the Queen’s English- and he’s very funny.  At this point, it’s probably no secret that Eddy and I are both Anglophiles, so the interest shouldn’t be surprising, but Eddy did pick up on (and by “picked up on” I mean “mocked me seriously”) the fact that I’m only now coming to the wonderful world of podcasts. Well, at least in terms of entertainment- I have been aware of and appeared on a fair number of them for years. I haven’t been living in a cave. But I did mention that I’m getting more interested in the similarities between these kinds of entertainments and the offerings my parents listened to during the Radio Years. Which is pretty awesome when you think about it. There are entire pages of forums trying to picture Cecil, the Nightvale narrator, as well as fan-art depictions, all because we can’t see him except in our imaginations. (At least until they do their live broadcasts, or do Nightvale the Movie). But we’re fascinated. For quite some time I’ve seen that ability to fill in the gaps with our imaginations as one of the great strengths of tabletop RPGs, and one of the chief reasons that we get so invested in playing- we’re not just consuming someone else’s ideas, but adding our own.

So then, Eddy and I talked business for most of the rest of the hour, because now that he is even more Onyx‘s chief point of contact at CCP, we actually need to review numbers and biz stuff. Which all is, unfortunately, not stuff I can let anybody in on. But the brevity of our reportable meeting minutes means I can take the opportunity to write a bit more about our latest Onyx Path Schedule. As you might have noticed last week, I went over the thinking behind even having a schedule, and did we have some great discussions- thanks folks! This week, I’d like to take a closer look at a few of the projects on the schedule, which you can find here if you didn’t get a copy yet: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/118000/Onyx-Path-2013-2014-Publishing-Schedule

First, we have the Mage 20th Anniversary Edition, which we announced last year and which Phil Brucato is busily developing even as you read this. Things are going really well with it, even though I still haven’t managed an art preview blog…yet. Apparently, more than a few of you wonderful Mage fans took the fact that the only book on the current schedule listed after Mage20 itself was Digital Web 3.0 as some sort of indication that DW3.0 is the only supplement to Mage20 we were planning. Not so- you can Face Front, True Believers! We learned from W20 that it’s pretty important to leave some room on the schedule for the “extra” projects that can come out of a Deluxe Anniversary Edition’s Kickstarter. With W20, Stew Wilson has been great getting up to speed on the scheduled books as well as the Stretch Goal projects, but it’s still a lot to keep track of. So we left the period after M20‘s release pretty open for Phil and the many cool projects we’d like to see enabled with the Kickstarter. And besides that, bear in mind that the schedule ends with next August, and we’ve already revealed at least one project after that, so there will be other Mage20 books later in 2014. And hopefully, beyond that.

Of course, that project we revealed was the Wraith 20th Anniversary Edition, to be developed by Rich Dansky. Rich and I had a great talk last week, and while I’m not yet listing it on the Updates below because he’s only just getting his thoughts together based on that talk, I think it’s going to be something special. We’re also not talking about possible supplements, because a) they’d be later than August 2014, just like Wr20, and b) we need to see if our M20 release strategy works out.

Another big project that we’re really excited about is V20: Dark Ages. First, please notice the title, because we are being really specific here: this is V20‘s version of Dark Ages. Just like WW‘s original foray into that setting was VtM‘s take on that time period with Vampire: Dark Ages. So while this is not an anniversary edition, there is a lot of classic goodness baked in because of it being a supplement for V20. Dashing David Hill has already got a team of writers working on ideas, and he’s a big fan of the Open Development Process, so expect some blogging sooner rather than later.

Huh, looks like I talked just about cWoD coming attractions- next week I’ll try and look at the two Chronicles books and Dark Eras for nWoD.

Welcome to Onyx Path 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 If you already purchased them you should have received an Updated notice in your DTRPG library as we made a few minor changes. PoD version on sale this week.

– Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle (VtR) Final dev pass. Art notes out to a couple of main artists.

– Mummy the Curse – Deluxe and Screen: On road from printer to the shipper- more definite news to backers later this week (once the shippers are back from Labor Day). The MtC Ready Made Characters Pack is finishing in layout and then it will be ready for approvals from CCP. Cursed Necropolis DC being written and its cover has been approved.

– Exalted 3rd Edition:  While John hunkers down to rewrite the Charms chapter, the rest of the team is working on a couple of EX3 chapters that continue to be finalized for Editing. Dev notes for Matt Forbeck and Jess Hartley’s  EX3 novels as well as Zub’s comic are to the writers/artist and their contracts are in various stages of completion.

– V20 Hunters Hunted 2:  Deluxe is being assembled. PoD version to join the PDF on sale at DTRPG this week. HH2 Fiction Anthology text is in editing.

– V20 Anarchs Unbound is in layout and we are prepping for its Kickstarter.

– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: At binding. Mike Lee is submitting chapters of the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel to Bill for dev review.  The Storyteller Screen files are done and ready for W20. Bill has theW20 Anthology stories done and they are in 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 mostly developing now like a maniac and most of the book has been written and we are prepping an editor for this big ol’ thing. Still trying to get Mirthful Mike Chaney to start an art blog.

– W20 Changing Breeds  Kickstarter expanded material has been written and is now being worked into the previous text and then to an editing pass and new layout, and the Changing Breeds Fiction Anthology is being edited/developed by Jess Hartley.

– W20 Rage Across the World: In layout.

– Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) layout is waiting on a couple of pieces of art and then its done and ready for CCP approvals.

– Conventionbook: Syndicate (cMtA) PDF version is live and I’m waiting for a PoD proof version.

– Conventionbook: Void Engineers (cMtA) is in editing. Art is all in and going into CCP approval.

– W20 Book of the Wyrm is prepped for editing.

– V20 Rites of the Blood: is in editing, Eddy is preparing art notes.

– Under the Darkening Sky (classic Dark Ages): Writers are writing second draft based on Dev notes. 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 and writers are writing.

– Scion: Joe’s team is hammering systems- big time. Joe is getting back up to speed.

– Demon: The Descent: The text is now in editing! Art has been assigned. Demon Quickstart PDF is free on DTRPG.

– Hunter: The Something About Monsters: Writers are writing.

Reason to Drink: To all our friends laboring at PAX and Dragon-Con last weekend.