In more ways than one. First, here in the US April 15 is the deadline to send in our income tax to the government. This year was the first year I did it for Onyx Path, and so it was a tad stressful and complicated but ultimately it was nice to know that the company made a little bit of a profit last year. (Enough to send a bunch of us to Gen-Con and buy some meals and drinks for the team). Second, I had to be on the phone all afternoon with my IT guy trying to figure out why my main computer no longer believes our network printer in online. And third, I have friends and family in Boston that needed checking on after this afternoon’s cowardly attacks. (So far, everybody is reporting in OK).
Before any of these things happened this afternoon, Eddy and I spoke at lunch, as is our wont. I let him know that not only are we doing the PDF and PoD versions of projects and having traditionally printed versions made via our Kickstarter campaigns, and the ePub versions of our fiction projects like The God Machine Chronicle Anthology, but thanks to Manly Mike Chaney we’re making some serious head-way with other formats that tie into other venues. That’s about all I can say about that now, but we continue to move in that direction as I really want Onyx Path to create tabletop RPGs in the formats people get their entertainment in.
We also talked a lot about a topic near and dear to my heart as Eddy attended and spoke at the 221b Convention over the weekend. It seems that an interest in Sherlock Holmes has really grown with the success of the movies, Moffat’s Sherlock, and Elementary. Now, Eddy and I are fans- we can talk about ACD canon, and the importance of Watson, and all sorts of stuff, but what we generally discuss is the broader picture of how this specific interest informs an overall view of media. In this case, Eddy pointed out that a lot of the growth of interest has been from more and more women becoming fans of Holmes. While incredibly thrilled and not wanting to jinx such a thing, we still wondered at where such interest is coming from. Or to phrase that better: why the upswell in interest now? Is it the modern day settings for the TV shows, or Watson being a woman in Elementary that is more appealing compared to the original stories? In addition, there’s the fact that Eddy was told several times by Holmesian newbies that they got into the character via the TV shows, but started reading the fiction afterwards as they were intrigued by what they learned from their entry material. So much that they’d attend a convention about it, even. This is for us a great trend to examine in terms of whether interest in game worlds would/could have the same patterns.
And from there, more discussion of Eddy’s story for the W20 Fiction Anthology– his Werewolf heist story. Eddy has a tendency towards a Noir sensibility which seems appropriate for WtA, while I maintained that the best heist or caper flicks are actually upbeat. The protagonists can have dark secrets in the past, even painful ones, but the resolution has to show how they win out through tricky planning. So I think Eddy’s offering in that anthology is going to be walking a very fun line and I’m really looking forward to it.
Some updates here:
– God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) Waiting for PoD proof copies.
– Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is in Editing.
– Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle (VtR) is in a crisis right now. Rose was scrambling last week to fill the loss of two of our writers who had to drop out of the project because of very real personal issues, and then was sick all this weekend so I haven’t been updated yet as to whether this will delay the book a month or more.
– Mummy the Curse – The single volume PDF and standard color PoD, as well as the “virtual box set” PDFs are on sale and doing great. We’ve added separate product listings for the Player’s Book, the Screen PDF, and the SAS. Sent the KS edition files to the printer.
– Exalted 3rd Edition: I’ve been told that John and Holden are feeling much better and were recording voice-overs for the Kickstarter today. So I expect to get the KS pulled together this week if those VOs work. Sketches are all approved for the map and the artist/cartographer is moving to finalize the painted map.
– V20 Hunters Hunted 2: New sections are in layout and almost all the art is in and in for approval. Justin is reaching out to writers for the HHII Fiction Anthology and has signed Bill Bridges, Rich Dansky, Alan Alexander, Matt McFarland, and more to come.
– V20 Anarchs Unbound is in editing and we are getting art for it.
– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: Sent the Deluxe W20 files to the printer (both Standard Deluxe and the Heavy Metal Edition). So far, no issues with the printer. The W20 PoD versions look good right now, but we did make a few changes that have to also be set into the PoD files and all new proofs sent out. Mike Lee is three quarters-way through the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel. The Storyteller Screen files are going to press with W20. Bill has prepared the W20 Anthology outline and contracting prospective writers. The Skinner is in layout and almost all the art is in. Jess Hartley is writing the White Howlers Tribe Book and the W20 Cookbook is being outlined. Check out some news here: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/2013/03/18/w20-cookbook-update-white-howlers-outline/
–Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has Phil Brucato writing like a maniac and developing his writers, also like a maniac. Art notes and contracts out to our full-page artist, once we have some feedback from him I’ll look a posting an art blog along with Phil’s developer notes. I’m looking at very early sketches this week for the fulls, I hear. Phil and I had a huge talk about other artists we’d love to work with on the book.
– W20 Changing Breeds is in layout.
– W20 Rage Across the World: Most of the art is in but a bit continues to trickle in.
– Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being written.
– Conventionbook: Progenitors (cMtA) waiting for DTRPG PoD proofs.
– Mage Translation Guide is almost done in Editing.
– W20 Book of the Wyrm is being written and red-lined. Check out the W20 blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/
– Trinity Continuum: we had a great call last week that really pinned down the last vague overall Continuum issues, and are looking at the schedule to start setting up writing.
– Scion: some very impassioned creators sharing their ideas at this very early stage. Scion: Extras, has had a huge number of downloads- thanks! We’ll be offering a PoD version later on that we’ll charging for, and will probably drop a small price tag on the PDF as well, so get it free now.
– Demon: The Frutang: 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
– Free RPG Day Project: Reap the Whirlwind, for VtR, is a combined 64 page booklet that combines a revised version of “Into the Void” and additional rules files from the Strix and God Machine Chronicles. This will be available at participating friendly local game stores June 15, I think, and is at press.
Reason for Drinking: Mmmm, W20 and Mummy files to the printer- now I think I need a triple for when the EX3 KS is ready!
About Blood and Smoke (since I’ve now had a chance to update Rich): crisis largely averted, I’m distributing the wordcount across the team. I’m not yet sure what impact this’ll have on getting it to editing.
Printers were sent from Hell: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers
…Especially when you throw in troubleshooting network connectivity to it.
Glad to hear the hamster and John are doing better.
Get the EX3 Kickstarter up this week and I will seek to mail you the booze myself.
Thanks- that’s the sort of support and incentive I can relate to!
Wow.. some nearly-hidden gems among this post.
An updated file to W20? (sure enough, 2013-04-15 sitting there in my Library on the site.) Were they text-issues, or graphical stuff? Were these corrections caught in time to replace the files used for the W20 Deluxe editions?
I know that the W20 team doesn’t like to update their projects very often, but with 3 books already in production, I wish so much didn’t have to be a surprise until the end (and I still suspect that when W20 hits the masses, there MAY be some push to have some additional issues addressed in Rage Across the World, as V20 Companion showed that the fans indeed had some strong input to give and wanted cannon answers to. 🙂 )
You’re keeping your full-page M20 artist under-wraps, huh? I’ll be looking forward to that post then. Even if M:tAs wasn’t a game I kept up with, I’ll certainly be happy to watch the artwork develop and be posted as it comes along.
I’m glad to hear that you were in the “Black” for your first year (I think that is pretty impressive for a company’s first year, especially with being light on public-eye promotions and such.)
I’m also excited to hear that you’re partaking in the Free RPG day. I hope that you include a few pages in the back to help promote your recent, current, and upcoming projects to let folks know that you never went away, and perhaps even with an explainer of what “The Onyx Path” and OPP are, and use it as a proper promotional piece along with the free RPG adventure. 🙂
I’m sure that it will be available as a free PDF download, but might you consider offering it as PoD on DriveThruComics, or DriveThruRPG as a softcover?
And one last bothersome question: Have you ever considered consolidating all of the Werewolf: the Apocalypse comics (2nd Ed. core book, all of the Tribe books, Breed Books, etc.) into one book and offer it as a PoD? Maybe make it a stretch-goal for one of the upcoming KickStarters if you must? …. just a thought. 🙂
Keep up the good work. Can’t wait to get my hands on W20HME!
… if they Deluxe printing is different from the PDF/PoD, could you please make an errata, or list of the changes, so that those who have the Deluxe book know what the changes are in the PoD/PDFs?
“And one last bothersome question: Have you ever considered consolidating all of the Werewolf: the Apocalypse comics (2nd Ed. core book, all of the Tribe books, Breed Books, etc.) into one book”
There were also the Moonstone comics (Only went up as far as the Glass Walker Tribe in B/W, and Get of Fenris in color), there was a comic by Brian LeBlanc in one of the Rage CCG Strategy Guides, and there was a vaporware graphic novel called Croatan Song in development in 95/96.
In fact, the original comic by Ron Spencer in the Bastet Breed book was meant for a Rage CCG item/promotion. But due to the CCG crash in 96/97, it was moved into the Bastet book.
A lot of the Moonstone comics suffer from ” We have to make this cameo for no reason!” of well-known characters showing up just because. I think only one of the Moonstone comics doesn’t do this. Plus, for people not very familiar with W:tA, it just assumes you already know everything. And so the comics sold well among fans, but not to very well towards people who didn’t know anything from the start. However, despite handicaps, some people do get very interested to find out more about the setting, and try to seek out what they are missing. Noted, not everyone does this.
I think they (Moonstone) would have better worked better as a mixed pack of characters going through Rite of Passage that readers followed comic to comic, rather than doing short Tribe-specific stories every single time.
Personally, I would like to see new comics put out. Or at least, have a comic section stretch goal for each Werewolf 20th book that’s on Kickstarter.
Wow, let me see if I can answer all these: A few issues that Ethan missed while inputting the pages of tweaks we culled from across the intrawebs. Pretty much all text. Should be, we’ll drop the pages in during proofing.
Don’t know what you mean by this, as Stew’s been great about posting on the W20 blog as far as I’ve seen.
In general, if we have something as a PDF, we pretty much are going to do a PoD version of one kind or another.
If they are all of good quality that’s possible, sure.
Thank you for the reply, Rich. 🙂
The long post below is simply my trying to best explain my point of view, which could be flawed by some facts, I admit:
I guess what I meant, in regards to the W20 info, was that for the 5 or so projects in production, or nearly complete, we are just barely getting much info (it seems) on each one. Of course, the V20 blog probably spoiled me for every product after. 😉 But, I haven’t seen any info on Rage Across The World (that I recall), or artwork sketches, or how the development is going, or what influences the reaction to the posted info for Changing Breeds, or Book of the Wyrm have had on the content. It doesn’t quite feel like the “conversation” we had with V20, or the Spencer Sketches (which between that and the V20 Companion” Technology” section I think highly illustrated the effectiveness that player involvement and back-and-forth interaction can have on creating a better product for everyone.)
BUT, as you have mentioned before, each developer handles the public/open-development process differently. So far, the way W20 seems to be is that content is shown, but the reaction to the fan-response is not well vocalized or shown (from my perspective… maybe I’m not looking in the right places, or taking proper notice.) It’s not easy to tell if taking the time to respond has much influence, or helps, or if we’re not helping in the direction the author needed.
In a perfect world, I’d love a weekly post on each project, not only showing the process, but how (if at all) interested fan response was helping the process. Again, that’s an unlikely, near-impossible fantasy request with all of the other work everyone is doing besides W20, and I understand that. We are fortunate we even have ANY insight during the development process at all, AND I THANK YOU AND THOSE INVOLVED for that opportunity.
Leaving a note to say that I really should reply to this when I’m not mad-busy.
Placeholder noted. 🙂
I really, REALLY don’t want to discourage the amount of work that you already do with your bi-weekly-or-so posts on the White Wolf blogs. The information that you’ve already given with your posts over the months are more than is really required by a developer (at least traditionally.) Anything is appreciated, of course. And I do understand that you guys are busy with so many things. Many of my “wishes” are for things that may outright be difficult, or impossible to accomplish due to the methods/means by which the projects are being produced, but just in case it has some influence either now or in the future, I just wanted to try to be as precise with my intents and interests.
I love previews of the products coming up. I love to watch the development as well. But sometimes the development-posts are offered as “open development” in a way that makes it seem the author is seeking input. And if that’s the case, I’d like to (strongly) suggest that responding with what suggestions were helpful, not-helpful, and how they were used would be fantastic, and likely elicit better responses from fans who put forth their own energy to help you guys create the game they want to buy. 🙂 If a post is just to show something off, but you’re not looking for “help”, perhaps mentioning that might be helpful to state in some way so that people aren’t concerned if their doesn’t seem to be any changes made by those offering suggestions/help. 🙂
I wish you much luck, ease, and success with everything that keeps you busy, Stew. 🙂
Must be pretty busy, huh? Hope all’s well. 🙂
Non-upbeat heist movies: Reservoir Dogs, Sexy Beast.
Where would you classify Judas Kiss?
Though, come to think of it, while I’ll argue all day long that’s a caper, it’s arguably not a heist.
I’m not sure I’d ID either of those as heist flicks actually. Sexy Beast has always seemed like a modern Noir film to me that happens to have a robbery as a reason to set the “bad things are going to happen” train rolling. And Reservoir Dogs is one of Tarantino’s trope collages, if you will, that also has a pretty non-important robbery in there just to get the characters to all the good moments he wants to present. So I guess, I feel like the actual heist or caper has to be a significant part of the story to make it a caper or heist film.
Never saw Judas Kiss. We only know most of the Reservoir Dogs characters by their heist code names, so that qualifies as a major part. Sexy Beast doesn’t qualify as noir because things start going right after the heist starts and the main character goes back to his peaceful life.
Sounds like mostly positive news the week. I, for one, am going to allow myself to get excited for Exalted again! And a bunch of the other stuff that’s coming down the pipeline. Thanks for keeping the window into the Onyx Path opened.
Thanks for reading and glad that projects are moving along is heartening.
I’m most excited to hear that things are expanding. While I’m not sure what “other formats that tie into other venues” means practically to me as a Storyteller, I’m optimistic.
The demon playtest notes have been very good. Demon really seems to be a different kind of game within the World of Darkness line, one that appeals to many of my interests (espionage, transformations, extreme power with a price, etc.). My players are excited about having a new kind of WoD game to explore.
Glad to hear it. More info when we have it.
I agree; Demon’s pitch from Rose was one of those tingly moments that succeeded in describing a new way get to some of the essential issues that something called Demon could explore.
Now that we’re closer to GMC’s release, do we know if the free rules update will be released at the same time? Or is it going to be in the Free RPG Day material?