How did we get here so fast? So many projects- we need to warp time to cover them all.
Like a Time-Lord even. Look at me, the king of segues- so Eddy and I talked about Dr. Who at today’s Monday Lunch Meeting, and as we’ve discussed in the past we’re both kind of “meh” on the show right now. Now as frequent readers know, we both think Moffat is an amazing writer- I rank “Coupling” up there as one of the best written comedies ever- and we’ve been pretty vocal in our praise of “Sherlock”. But maybe his puzzle-box seasons are a bit too referential (and even reverential) to the previous storylines. I’m missing Davies’ huge moments and sense of fun and drama. Eddy feels like we’re not part of the stories so much as being pulled along through Moffat’s puzzle-knot and his tighter than the norm scripts have set us up to expect every damn plot point to be explained- which both limits the drama and is really not quite Dr. Who and gets folks uptight when he doesn’t tie some things up. Interestingly, we both referred back to Davies’ first year as a truly tight and focused new start for the Dr., and how Eccleston delivered the idea of alien-ness so well. Point being, we look at and often pick apart the creative process and just what is delivered out of that process as a matter of professional interest- although we’re only working on getting to 25 years with our White Wolf projects, not 50 like Dr. Who, the question of creative and authorial tone in the scene, the chapter, the episode, the book, the series, the game-line, the franchise, is one that we face at Onyx Path as well.
We only talked a little bit about Kickstarters- which is a surprise considering the crazy ride we’re having with the Deluxe Exalted 3rd KS. Well, maybe not ups and downs like roller-coasters, more like being simultaneously expanded and contracted by massive forces of the universe. We’ll be starting the W20: Changing Breeds one soon, and I’m actually looking forward to the tighter focus on that one book. What I mean is, we’re really starting to see a kind of division between the “new game” KSs that are essentially a core book that heads up a line, and the “supplement” book KSs, where the book itself is the focus. New game ones are bigger and we find that we can use the Stretch Goals to add all sorts of auxiliary projects that help expand the line beyond just the game books- fiction, music-suites, PDFs of books that wouldn’t have been produced, for example. And that is really such a great thing that Kickstarter can enable beyond the Deluxe book itself. The supplement books seem to create more interest from the backers in Stretch Goals that focus on adding to the book, and only a secondary interest in extra products. Far secondary. Which makes a lot of sense, but is good to see reflected in what we can actually demonstrate with data.
Also we talked spoilers and Game of Thrones. You know what I mean.
Updates about the Present, based on Past messages that you like to know the Future:
– Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) is in layout.
– Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle (VtR) This is smashing into Rose’s work on Demon and so we re-prioritized her to push the Demon text to editing and for art notes.
– Mummy the Curse – Book and Screen are at press.
– Exalted 3rd Edition: Kickstarting like crazy: We funded in 18 minutes, we have 800% funding and are the #1 funded tabletop RPG KS. Headed towards 3,600 backers and those backers have blown through 18+ Stretch Goals. There will be lots of Updates via the KS that reveal pieces of what will be in EX3, so keep an eye out for those too. There’s also the map and new art there. The EX3 KS ends Saturday!
– V20 Hunters Hunted 2: Preparing files for press- getting an OK on the cover treatment from the printer this week. Justin’s working on redlines for the Anthology writers- all but two of the final drafts are in.
– V20 Anarchs Unbound is in editing and we are getting art for it.
– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: At press. Mike Lee is almost done the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel. The Storyteller Screen files are at press with W20. Bill has prepared the W20 Anthology outline and contracting prospective writers. The Skinner is approved and the PDF is going out to the KS backers ASAP. Jess Hartley is writing the White Howlers Tribe Book and the W20 Cookbook is being outlined. Check out some news here: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/2013/06/03/white-howler-gifts-and-a-recipe/
–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. Very early sketches for the fulls look awesome. Getting art notes out to a ton of classic Mage artists.
– W20 Changing Breeds is in layout. Stew finished his KS Video voice-over. I’d really like to get the KS ready for Kickstarter review and approval over the weekend, but that depends on available time. Will have up to date info next Monday, and as before, we’ll give 24 hour notice before it goes live.
– W20 Rage Across the World: Most of the art is in but two more pieces need to come in.
– Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is into editing and art notes are on their way to us.
– Conventionbook: Syndicate (cMtA) in layout.
– Conventionbook: Void Engineers (cMtA) is ready for editing.
– Mage Translation Guide went live and is doing great on DTRPG.
– W20 Book of the Wyrm is being written and red-lined. Check out the W20 blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/
– V20 Rites of the Blood: is being written and is in Open Dev on the blogs: http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/
– Trinity Continuum: Looking at the schedule to start setting up writing. John Snead is chasing me through the internet. He almost caught me but I started talking about genre emulation and got away. I might read his outline this week. Gonna get more feedback on the outline, but looks good.
– Scion: Talked to Joe Carriker about the project and broke his back with its awesomeness. When he gets up, we’ll talk about Scion: Origin. Gonna get Joe to share a call with Ian and compare Scion and Trinity notes.
– 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. Text is being readied for editing and Rose is trying to get art notes together. The subtitle has been agreed upon and check out Matt McFarland at Origins for info on that. We’re looking to create a Demon Quickstart to roll out before the game itself as we’re not sure the finished book will hit Gen-Con- but the Quickstart can. If we go with that strategy, we’ll delay the Demon Translation Guide in order to work on the QS.
– 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. Real soon.
Reason for Drinking: Starting to feel like summer is really here.
I missed an episode of A Game of Thrones during the second season and just never caught up after that, but I could more or less guess what had happened when I heard the Internet was raging earlier today.
Suffice to say, this is why Solars pick up Socialize Charms.
An amazing sequence both in the book and the show.
If you’re getting the okay on the HHII cover treatment this week, does that mean that you’ve already given the the okay on the W20 cover treatments?
I hope we get to see both soon. 🙂
Me too- the existence of one project moving forward should never be connected to other projects’ momentum.
Another awesome update chock full of presents. 🙂
Thanks, we try.
Wait, does this mean that Demon is now going to come out BEFORE B&S? I don’t know how I feel about Strix getting pushed to the backburner…
So they should delay everything else to get B&S out?
I don’t know if anything is getting delayed at all, its unclear from the meeting notes. Its entirely possible they’ve switched rose over to do Demon quickly so that it can run under its own steam for a bit and then she’ll come back home to Vampire. The notes say they need text for editing and art- art can eat up a big chunk of time. I understand if there needs to be a little rejiggering. Now if WW is going to switch streams completely, finish Demon and THEN come back to vampire, I’m frustrated and confused. Why would demon get such priority over vampire?
I of course say this as someone who is far more interested in B&S than Demon, others might be excited they’ll get demon on time even if it means another delay in the seemingly jinxed production process for Vampire. I’m not one of them.
1 – Time:
Seriously. The older I get the more I feel like this. I seem to recal years being, you know. Yearly. Long. Now, they just fly by before I could have a taste.
2 – Online Features:
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. And things like the upcoming Dice Roller makes me think there might be some interest. So, here I go. How about developing apps or online tools to help run White Wolf or Onyx Path games?
For example, and I mean this with as much respect as I can towards those who may have worked on those books. But, let’s be honest. It can be very hard and time consuming to quickly create an random unimportant enemy or NPC when the stats and powers are all over the place. This first struck me when trying to create enemies for Orpheus, and then even more so in Scion. You literally need stuff all over each and every books. I think a tool to create “Fomori/BSD/Scion/Bane/whatever Generator” ready to print with quick info on each powers would seriously help storytellers everywhere. If only to have all the powers to chose from in one place.
It would also be really nice to have an app to store all your character (as well NPC or enemies for Storytellers) sheets. It could easily double as a handy solution to the age old LARP problem of needing to roll dices, or draw cards or whatnot. Just tap on your Dex+Brawl and let the app tell you how well you did.
Any chance we’d see things like that one day?
3. Scion
Scion: Origin, eh? Any chance we’ll hear about that sometime in the next few months?
As usual, thank you Richt for this nice update. 🙂
1- Yeah. But at least its not boring.
2- I’m personally very interested in how electronic media can enhance our RPG experiences. Onyx’s progress in the direction of electronic game-aids, apps, etc has been A LOT slower than I wanted, mostly because just getting all three parts of the WW legacy of product lines going has been our focus. But we keep making little deals and Marvelous Mike Chaney has been relentless in exploring new programs for ePubs and the like.
3- Probably.
1- True that!
2- That is excellent news! Thanks for answering and good luck in that field.
3- All hail mighty Richt, Bringer of Good News.
BTW, I know this may sound like a random offer from a guy you barely know, but if there’s any way at all to help out with the electronic media side of things. I’m in. May be try it with my troupes? Write down suggestions? Whatever might help make this a reality.
Also parroting others, I’m a programmer, currently enrolled working on my BS/IT with a software engineering focus. I am certainly interested in software projects and would be willing to help if there is anything I can do from a remote location.
I was wondering about OPP’s recent success with Exalted and other books. (Congratulations.) First off, on the Mage 20 Facebook page, Phil Brucato said that he wouldn’t be able to blog like the W20 people because unlike when the W20 Kickstarter started with salaried writers and a support staff, that wasn’t the case with him and his small team and time blogging took away from writing time. If OPP continues to be profitable, will you be able to hire support staff or even a M20 developer (Phil, I hope)?
Second, with the WW licenses proving profitable in the PoD model, will CCP try to take them back either by a merger/buyout or revocation (if that is possible)? You might have a good relationship with Eddy Webb and others at CCP top levels, but shareholders might insist. At a certain revenue level, I imagine that OPP paying licensing fees out of its profits which are then taxed at CCP would cost more than it’s worth.
Well, this points back to some of my previous blog posts about how folks need to understand that Onyx is committed to allowing our creative teams to function as those teams need to. Phil doesn’t feel like he and his team of writers can engage on the blogs while working so hard on writing M20, while Stew Wilson and Eddy are trying to keep up a steady stream of updates and snippets of what they are working on. Nobody is wrong as determining where best to devote the time and effort has to be worked out on a project by project, and team by team, basis. Where will Onyx be able to grow and expand into? No way to say, but that’s sort of the point of the whole Onyx Path metaphor: it’s dark and we can just about see the path we’re on as it glints darkly in the darky-ness.
As for your second point- while I appreciate your concern and interest in the what-if’s of corporate policy, there’s not really much I can say here. On a big picture level- who knows what could happen tomorrow? Stay on the Path.
The schedule page on the OPP site needs updated to reflect that it’s now June. Just so you know.
I’m ok with Demon getting pushed down the schedule some. I’m still processing Mummy and God Machine, it’ll nice spending the Summer playing with those and not have to be concerned with getting up to speed on Demon right away.
And, if the push down the schedule means a Demon quick starter, I’m all for that. For me, the quick starter have been a valuable thing (I see the Free RPG day give away as a QS for Blood and Smoke). I missed having a QS for Mummy.
Also, concerning the Free RPG day book. I was talking to the owner of the local game store (The Realm Games and Comics in Brea, CA) and he was surprised that there is a Vampire book in the give away pack. On top of that, he heard about the success with the Exalted kickstarter and suddenly he wants to know all about the latest with Onyx Path. Kinda funny. Anyway, we’ll be running VtR at The Realm on that day, so it’ll be fun.
Best of luck, you guys are doing the Lords work 😉
Reading through the comments here has left me confused. Has either the Strix Chronicle or Demon: the Matrix Resurrected actually been delayed?
Hi !
You could think about getting in contact with RealmWork (from Lone Wolf Dev.).
http://www.wolflair.com/index.php
I am going to plan and manage my future WoD campaignes with this tool – and it would be just great if the’d support WoD out of the box.
I’m thinking about a possibility to import SAS modules or they could include templates for WoD NPC etc.
So I just backed Exalted 3rd. 🙂 Yay!
Hey, I’m totally lost here without White-Wolf forums. Has the site gone down?
WW is apparently the subject of repeated DoS attacks from… somewhere. They’re having a rough time sorting it out.
Really? I know that on the 2nd they were down because of an attack that exploited a weakness in their system (which they reported was fixed.) Since then I haven’t heard of any others. Do you have a source that details just what has been affected by any other DDOS attacks?
So far, other than a nightly downtime each night, the White-Wolf.com forums have been pretty lag-free (compared to what they had been a month ago.)