Here we GO!

It’s the last few days of the Exalted Abyssals crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo!

Over 450% funded! Over 1500 backers! Over a dozen Stretch Goals – our usual extras plus the sections for an amazing Companion Book!

It’s been a delightful campaign as our developers have revealed their devious disruptive designs for the most ghostly, ghoulish, even most vampiric, of the Exalted.

Disruptive?

Yes, in the sense of shaking some things up. Mostly expectations brought to this 3rd Edition of the Abyssals by how everything about them was handled in the 1st and 2nd Editions. Not dashed or destroyed, mind you: this is the 3rd Edition for Exalted and follows through as we at Onyx Path have handled the previous core and “fatsplat” books in trying to upgrade, modernize, and emphasize the cool, in both the elements of the world and the rules of the game.

(Bearing in mind that the core book came out 7ish years ago and a lot has changed in the TTRPG space in those years!)

But not wreck everything, as our crew love Exalted as much as our fans, after all. Disruption, not destruction. Updates and tweaks to the old lore, and also new lore. New art and design that includes the previous aesthetic (like that gorgeous but scary piece at the top of the blog) but adds some additional ways to view the Abyssals. New rules and Charms that move the Abyssals into 3rd Edition – which is, after all, the point of another edition, right?

It’s all in there and almost all the text sections have been revealed as I write this – almost all, but I think there’s one more to go right now?

So please do check it out if you haven’t already, and if you were waiting for the end of the campaign to ride in on your skeletal steed and pledge (or re-pledge higher near the end as some fans have noted) please do, you have all day Thursday to do it!

You’re the disruption to the status quo we’re looking for!

Disruption Junction, What’s Your Function?

OK, really, what’s the deal with the whole disruption thing? Well, sometimes we hit on a theme during our Monday Meeting and it just fits.

As creators, sometimes our job is to create things that break expectations, like I mentioned above. As a business, sometimes it’s our job to disrupt our “tried and true” methodologies and processes to develop more effective ways of doing what we do. As a creative business, sometimes our job is to let folks know we’re doing our job, and we need to create or find ways to tell folks what we’re up to that cut through the vast, vast typhoon of noise in the TTRPG space.

Like I mentioned last week in terms of the changes we’ve put in place with our printers for physical books. That was a necessary disruption to how we had previously had our books printed that was mostly in response to changes out of our control due to Covid in the printing industry, but our response was a huge shake-up in the traditionally printed book printing/shipping/sales wing of how we get our Trad-printed books to y’all.

Putting out a core Storypath Ultra rules manual next year – but you know a lot of the work was this year – is also a disruption in how we’re doing Storypath rules sets by having it a “generic” rules set, not tied to any one gameline.

But, we also have to take care that we’re not tossing stuff out just for the sake of change – it’s that balance that fuels a lot of the Monday Meeting discussions, and today we actually looked at the concept with, I hope, some intelligence and experience, to weigh just how to effectively shake things up.

(And also how much we’re shaking things up with all the results of all the meetings we’ve been having here at the end of 2023).

You’ll have to let us know next year as the fruits of those mental labors, uh, drop? Or something. I may have wandered off the metaphor, there.

Which is a good sign that I should get to a couple of solid notes, like sales: we have two for the end of the year, actually!

End of the Year Sale at Studio 2 is live now:

https://studio2publishing.com/collections/onx-onyx-path-publishing

and

End of the Year Sale at IPR is live now:

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

And keep your eyes open for DTRPG sales from now through next month – I know they do a big New Year sale every year.

Been having a bit of fun with Eddy’s Realms of Pugmire book Threats and Curs, which is going to be very familiar to folks who enjoy yer olde monster manuals. And that is kind of the point in how we’re handling a tome of threats. In this coming Friday’s Onyx Pathcast Eddy goes into more detail on the themes and processes and what might be in there, but I don’t know if he makes mention of the art I’ve been doing up and sending him based on the text entries.

Now these are just photos I sent him and Mirthful Mike so they see how things are going, as opposed to properly scanned-in for layout pieces, but I hope you get a kick out of them:

For me, doing up monsters, maybe one a day or every other day, is almost like meditation (or therapy)! These are a couple of the scarier ones, so don’t worry, there are all sorts of creatures in here – including some absolutely adorable lil beasties!

Finally, speaking of scary things, I just wanted to note that last week I posted and then got a notice that the blog had been edited. But I didn’t do that, nor have any of our crew with access to the blog. Sometimes the software gets weird, which is fair as sometimes I get weird, too. Still, there are more things in heaven and earth than in our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

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Blurbs!

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Crowdfunding!

The Exalted: Abyssals Deluxe Edition campaign on IndieGoGo is IN ITS LAST WEEK! So far, we’re over 450% funded and over 1500 backers and just four days to go! Thanks to everybody who have backed so far!

Our backers have enabled us to pass over 12 Stretch Goals including: building an Abyssals Companion supplement with sections unlocked so far including: new soulsteel artifacts, new Underworld locations, an Underworld map, new Abyssals Charms and more Necromancy spells, an expanded section on Ghosts, Storytelling advice, Abyssals and Deathlord Quick Characters, and much more to come!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/abyssals-sworn-to-the-grave-for-exalted-3e/x/25772954#/

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Onyx Path Media!

This week: Eddy talks about some of the design and behind-the-scenes work on the next Pugmire book, Threats & Curs!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue!

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Please check out our attached media schedule for the videos on our Twitch channel this week! In particular, keep those eyes open for our Storypath Showcase, where we give an excellent profile of our various Storypath games and how to play them!

MEDIA HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK:

The Story Told Podcast sat down with Matthew Dawkins to discuss worldbuilding, game design, and memory!: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/episode-139-an-interview-with-matthew-dawkins

The Onyx Path News discusses recent and upcoming releases! You can find it on our YouTube channel (click the bell to be informed when we go live!) but if you missed the last episode, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gsg00XHqI4E

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Virtual Tabletop!

New on the Roll20 Marketplace, it’s the Scarred Lands Creature Collection and Camp Murder Lake Tokens for Roll20 VTT play!

NEW!
They Came From Beneath the Sea! on Roll20 VTT!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/22308/they-came-from-beneath-the-sea

Here are some more shots from the They Came From Beneath the Sea! Compendium!

And there’s also the Scion Jumpstart, all ready for Roll20 VTT fun!

https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/21165/a-light-extinguished-a-jumpstart-for-scion-second-edition

More news and links when we have them!

The Scion: Origin and Scion Hero Compendiums are now available on Roll20!

https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/publisher/1716/onyx-path-publishing

Scion is just the start! They Came From Beneath the Sea! and other
Onyx Path RPGs are in development for Roll20 virtual tabletop!

The first of our official Scion sheets designed for Foundry VTT are
now available!

Direct Link: https://foundryvtt.co

Looking for more virtual tabletop resources? We have a selection of
Tokens, Encounters, and more available now at DriveThruRPG!

Get ’em here: https://bit.ly/3SnrNJ7

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Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to provide our traditionally printed books out into your local game stores. Game stores can order via their usual distributors, and can also contact Studio2 directly. And individuals can check out our projects via the links below!

End of the Year Sale at Studio 2 is live now:

https://studio2publishing.com/collections/onx-onyx-path-publishing

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books, dice, and screens? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

End of the Year Sale at IPR is live now:

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles in PDF and PoD versions at DriveThruRPG.com!

Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

Check out Melody Through the Mirrorshade Lens and Facets of Truth, as well as Trinity Continuum: Terat and The Hollow Courts on Kindle in the Kindle store!

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On Sale This Week!

In Cascade, the city of the future, there is your life…and then your virtual life! Trinity Continuum: Anima presents a future setting where cyberwear is not only part of your life in the city, but enables instant access to a shared virtual world. But that’s just a game…isn’t it? WHAT IS REALITY? PDF and PoD versions available on DTRPG this Weds!

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Conventions!

As we are slowly returning to attending conventions in person after avoiding them during the COVID-19 outbreak, keep an eye out here for more physical and virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!

Game Night With Onyx Path Publishing at StartPlaying will be the last Friday of the month! Come play some of our games, especially Exalted Essence! (But any of our game lines are welcome all day long!)

Please spread the word about GMing games as much as
possible. Details on how list a game are at the bottom of the page in
the FAQ:

https://startplaying.games/event/game-night-onyx-path

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Project Status Updates!

Our full list of projects will be available monthly on our blog! Check out November’s full list report here:

Release Roundup: November 2023

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY

Here are the projects that moved to the next stage of production:

First Drafts

Scion – Mythic Shards

• Matthew: An exciting new Scion project leaves the starting blocks and races forward! But what could it be about?

Redlines

Scion – Titans Rising Gifts of the Titans

• Matthew: We all love new powers to play with, and this book is full of them.

Final Draft

Scion – War Games (Titans Rising Origin and Hero Adventures)

• Matthew: And even better (for me, especially) new scenarios! As I run a lot of Scion games right now, new scenarios are a wonderful addition.

Development

Exalted – Exigents: Miracles of Divine Flame (was Companion)

• Danielle: The original drafts for this were already pretty solid, so I’m expecting development to not stretch too long past the holidays.

Post-Editing Development

Scion – Titans Rising (was Titanomachy 2)

• Matthew: Leaving editing, Titans Rising is now being reviewed by the developers before we throw ourselves fully into art.

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ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

• Ex3 Abyssals (KS) – Almost gone…
• Ex Essence Pillars of Creation – Okay… after some tweaking to artnotes, this is rolling.
• The World Below – Art buy worked up.. now gathering info on art and maps… and then contracting out stuff.
• M20 Victorian Weird Wonders and Revolutionary Magic – contacting a couple of artists to do the halfs… trying out some newer artists.
• SCION God 2e – Reviewing stuff and sending feed back.
• SCION Demigod Companion – Trying to find some new artists to work on it.
• TC With Great Power – Got another artists on halfs… and SKAN is doing up our  fancy cover. He’s done painted covers for Marvel, so…
• COFD Contagion Chronicles RMCs – Notes with Gaydos.
• CtL2e The Hedge – Should see finals in the next couple of weeks.

In Layout

• Ex Essence Charm Cards
• TC Anima Terra Surge Screen
• Ex3 Many Faced Strangers – I’ll start the layout now that Once and Future is in proofing.
• Ex 3 Exigents Screen

Proofing

• Ex3 Across the 8 Directions – Maps are being reviewed. I’m cleaning up some interior stuff and getting it ready to go to MK by end of the week.
• Scion Once and Future – A lot of hand tagging but it’s in proofing.

Indexing

• They Came From the Cyclops’s Cave

At Press

• TC Adventure – Backer copies going out!
• TC Adventure Screen and Booklet – Shipping with book to backers.
• W20 Apocalyptic Record – Printing.
• W20 Apocalyptic Record Screen & Booklet – On a truck bound for Studio 2.
• Exalted Essence – Awaiting specs for covers.
• Ex Essence Screen – On a truck bound for Studio 2.
• Ex3 Exigents – Gathering errata and marking up PDF…
• M20 Lore of the Traditions – Interior files prepped (finally) and getting specs for covers.
• Ex3 Crucible of Legends VTT Tokens 
• W20 Icons of Rage – Incorporating errata.
• They Came From CLASSIFIED! – Incorporating errata.
• HtV 2 Jumpstart – PoD proofs ordered.
• They Came From the Cyclops Cave! – Indexing.
• TC Anima – PDF and PoD go live on DTRPG this Weds.!

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Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Born this day in 1927: John Buscema; born Giovanni Natale Buscema, was an artist mainstay of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop-culture conglomerate. Buscema is best known for his run on The Avengers and The Silver Surfer, and for over 200 stories featuring the sword-and-sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. In addition, he penciled at least one issue of nearly every major Marvel title, including long runs on Fantastic Four and Thor. Big John brought a beautiful and dynamic level of fine arts training and ability into comics, despite not actually enjoying superheroes. Barbarians and swashbucklers, those he loved!