We had set aside today to discuss this next year’s Onyx Path brochure, and we almost forgot until the end of the Monday Meeting. Fortunately, one organized soul remembered, and so we began our talks.
I expect these to continue for a couple of weeks.
Why, you may ask – I certainly do – does it take so long to whip together a bunch of descriptions of your products and knock out a brochure or catalog?
Why indeed?
Well, first, it’s important to determine why you are even making the thing in the first place. Why do we need to have a physical takeaway from conventions for folks to refer to?
Well, that depends on what you want them to do with it after they’ve left the con, and focusing on that is a large part of our discussions.
Previously, when we first started Onyx Path, we wanted to show in print and in a concentrated way that the White Wolf game lines were not dead and buried. So we emphasized the new WW-IP projects that we were going to come out with in the year to come.
Since Eddy and I had been doing our “What’s Up With WW?” panels at Gen-Cons and other conventions prior to Onyx Path‘s creation, and continued with “What’s Up With Onyx Path?” since then, and we usually released the next year’s schedule there, we incorporated a schedule with the first Onyx brochures.
When we realized that a classic schedule wasn’t working with how we were getting the projects out, and we stopped the practice of announcing release dates, we also took that opportunity to move away from the “schedule” brochure to more of an “announcement” brochure.
This was a brochure that still emphasized all the lines, but which included the next couple of releases for the lines. No release times specified, just that we were working on them for that line.
While this was happening, we also were ramping up our own Onyx Path-owned game lines, and so including that they were coming was also part of the “announcement” focus. And that led to us realizing we needed to move from presenting the info in the brochure from “Look at those guys keep WW games alive!” to “Look at Onyx Path do WW games!”.
Which then led to Onyx Path having had enough successes with the WW-IPs, and enough new game lines with Pugmire, Scion, Cavs, Trinity Continuum, etc. that we wanted to emphasize all the worlds we had to offer.
So, a couple of years ago, we began using the “Many Worlds, One Path” tagline, and debuted it in the brochure for that year. Our emphasis was to go through all the game lines and give a feel for them in prose descriptions and visuals, and note a little bit about upcoming products – but really not much more than the title.
We figured anybody interested could get more info on our website, DTRPG, and the other vendors and social media listed in the brochure. Because that’s another thing that grew, the number of sales partners we were working with – and it made sense to use the brochure to provide contact info for all of them.
Now, we’re looking again at what we want the brochure to do. We’re still proud of all the game lines we are working on, but having so many, and adding more every year, makes it hard to choose how to set up the brochure. That’s a lot of info to provide and it is hard to minimize any of them since we know they all have devoted fans.
Why is this hard? Here’s the list of all the game lines we’re currently working on, not to mention earlier editions we created a ton of books for:
- Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
- Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition
- Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition
- Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition
- WoD 20th Anniversary Edition (Ghost Hunters)
- Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition
- Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition
- Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
- Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition
- Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition
- Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition
- Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition
- Deviant: The Renegade
- Dark Eras 2 (contains material for most CofD lines)
- Contagion Chronicle (contains info on most CofD lines for crossover)
- Exalted 3rd Edition
- Pugmire
- Monarchies of Mau
- Cavaliers of Mars
- Dystopia Rising: Evolution
- Legend Lore
- Scion 2nd Edition
- Trinity Continuum: Core
- Trinity Continuum: Aberrant
- Trinity Continuum: Aeon
- They Came From Beneath the Sea!
So what we’re thinking about now is some sort of core brochure that just describes the game line worlds, notes which system you need to play, maybe has some other useful tips that help define that line. This would be made for cons, game stores, the like, and would back up our tagline with explanation.
Then we’d use a combination of sales sheets and other info to highlight which specific projects are coming out near each con we attend, so those can be the timely takeaways, with the brochure being the evergreen one for the year.
But we’re still talking about it, and I’m sure we’ll come up with a bunch more ideas in the weeks to come. But, that’s where you come in if you have thoughts about this.
Give us a yell here in the Comments and let us know what sort of brochure idea you would find value in. What would you like to take away from seeing us at cons, or from your Friendly Local Game Store
We’d appreciate any input you can share with us, AND you’ll also be helping us define more concretely this here tagline:
Many Worlds, One Path!
BLURBS!
KICKSTARTER:
With just over a week to go in our Kickstarter for the Deluxe version of EX3‘s Lunars (that funded in less than 40 minutes) and we are well over 300% funded and have over 2000 backers! Multiple Stretch Goals have already been achieved, and we’ve just gotten started. So c’mon and get your beast-form on and join the fun
The Story Told Podcast has a wonderful interview about Lunars: Fangs at the Gate: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/bonus-episode-5-exalted-lunar-ks-interview-with-eric-minton
ONYX PATH MEDIA
This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features a fascinating interview with the one and only Deadguy: Rich Dansky! Listen in as our team pores through Rich’s memories of his time at White Wolf, and how he made the jump to be one of the most-regarded story experts in computers games, and much more besides. https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/
And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:
If YOU have a podcast, YouTube or Twitch channel, or talk about games on a blog or other website, and want to perform actual plays or make reviews of our games, please reach out to the Gentleman Gamer on the Onyx Path forum. From there we’ll share emails and get you started, so when you do start producing content we’ll be able to promote it on our blog and YouTube channel!
We have a lot of links to share with you today!
The excellent team at Devil’s Luck Gaming continues with their utterly fantastic, costumed actual play of Scarred Lands: https://www.twitch.tv/DevilsLuckGaming
Caffeinated Conquests has uploaded another part of their fun Scion story, and it’s definitely worth checking out what they’re up to: https://youtu.be/q79XooiVAes
A new addition to our list is TastiGMmaster2099, who is constructing a playlist of fantastic Chronicles of Darkness videos covering each and every gameline: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLixJK8l5vk5kMuEfYiG97O2_T39EeCycH
ForgottenDreamsGaming are another newcomer for us! On their Twitch they’ve been running V5, and it won’t be long before they’re running some more of our games: https://www.twitch.tv/forgottendreamsgaming
And speaking of V5, Random Encounter Productions progresses with their chronicle of Vampire and will likewise soon be embarking on some more of our games! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvlzHI-dywTqVIen5qfeboA
There’s more!
Blades & Blasters has concluded a Chronicles of Darkness chronicle and will shortly be on to Changeling: The Lost 2E https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWuQ35EIFeJDt1_FGnOIz3Q/featured
And let’s not forget the fine, fine, superfine folks at Red Moon Roleplaying, with their well-produced high quality actual plays of Changeling: The Lost 2E and They Came from Beneath the Sea! https://www.redmoonroleplaying.com/podcast
The ExalTwitch crew’s new Exalted3 game begins tonight at 7pm EST too, at twitch.tv/beanduck
And finally, check out one of our translation partners’ gorgeous new game Gods, as presented with this Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/731310612/gods
Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!
ELECTRONIC GAMING:
As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!
Here’s an update from the App devs:
Onyx Dice! We’ve recently released the Changeling: The Lost, Trinity Continuum: Aeon dice, and now the Geist dice. Next up on our radar is: Demon: The Fallen, Mummy: The Resurrection, Kindred of the East, Vampire Dark Ages, and Mummy: The Curse.
We have a serious issue on the Pixel and Motorola phones that prevent the user from using the app correctly. A fix is coming shortly. A temporary workaround is to minimize the app without shutting it down, and then restore it.
ON 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).
If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!
Our selection includes these fiction books:
OUR SALES PARTNERS:
We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire
We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game
Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost
Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/
And you can now order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296
And available this week! Deluxe Changeling: The Dreaming and Deluxe Beckett’s Jyhad Diary! The additional books we have after the Kickstarter ship-outs are done are now at IPR!
DRIVETHRURPG.COM:
At DTRPG…THERE IS A GIGANTIC SALE running there across 57,000 PDFs – including almost every Onyx Path product there- up to 40% off! There’s a week left, so check it out!
On Sale This Week!
This Wednesday, we’re putting up blank Scarred Lands Journals on our RedBubble store for all of our Scarred Lands community to use at their gaming tables, and anywhere else folks need to jot down ideas into gorgeous SL-themed notebooks!
CONVENTIONS
UK Games Expo: May 31st – June 2nd
Gen Con: August 1st – August 4th
Save Against Fear: Oct 12-14
GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd
We’ll also be back at PAX Unplugged later this year.
And now, the new project status updates!
DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):
First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)
- M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)
- Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)
- Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)
- Legendlore core book (Legendlore)
- Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)
- Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)
- TC: Aeon Ready Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)
- TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Heroic Land Dwellers (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)
- Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)
- Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)
- Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)
Redlines
- Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)
- Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
- Let The Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
- Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
- Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Second Draft
- Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)
- Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)
- Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)
- Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)
- M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
Development
- Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)
- Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)
- Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)
- CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)
- Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
- Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)
Manuscript Approval:
- Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
Editing:
- M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)
- V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)
- Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)
- Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)
- CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)
Post-Editing Development:
- Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
- Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)
- Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)
- Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)
- Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)
- C20 Novel: Cup of Dreams (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
Indexing:
ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:
In Art Direction
- Ex3 Monthly Stuff
- Chicago By Night – AD’d.
- Aeon Aexpansion – Sending contracts & notes to artists.
- They Came From Beneath the Sea!
- EX3 Lunars – KS going.
- Hunter: The Vigil 2
- Shunned By the Moon – Still contracted as of today.
- Contagion Chronicle – AD’d for KS.
- Scion Jumpstart – Art buy configured.
- VtR Spilled Blood – Going over notes.
Marketing Stuff
In Layout
- Dystopia Rising: Evolution
- Book of Oblivion
- Signs of Sorcery
Proofing
- M20: Gods and Monsters – Errata finishing in layout.
- Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats – Corrections being input.
- Adventures for Curious Cats – Art is arting.
- Trinity Core – Putting in Mind Meld changes.
- Trinity Aeon – Putting in Mind Meld changes.
- Ex3 Dragon Blooded – PoD files uploaded, waiting on OK to order proofs.
- Geist 2e – 2nd Proof.
- C20 Player’s Guide – Waiting on fixed piece of art to do 2nd Proof
- In Media Res
- The Realm – First proof, still need some art.
At Press
- Scion Hero – Printer proofs returned. BackerKit site orders getting locked Weds.
- Scion Origin – Printer proofs returned. BackerKit site orders getting locked Weds.
- Scion Dice – At Studio2.
- Scion Screen – At Studio2.
- Fetch Quest – At Studio2
- False Images – EX3 novel – PoD proof ordered.
TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE:
Have a tipple of your favorite beverage for gaming in memorial for Gary Gygax, who died this day in 2008. As with all creative ventures, many folks contributed in different ways to the start of TTRPGs with D&D, but Gary certainly officiated (DM’d) over its rise to the brand name of our hobby.
I notice Promethean and Beast aren’t being worked on. If you need someone to work on them I’m your guy!
A generous offer! However, the issue isn’t one of people — we have, at least count, over 200 active freelancers working with us, and we get new submissions every week. There are lots of other reasons why we might decide to let a line rest for a while, some of which we either can’t talk about in public or are out of our control entirely. But just because we haven’t put a book out for a particular line in a while doesn’t mean we won’t come back to it down the road. 🙂
Any thoughts I was forming about the brochure were immediately derailed by seeing “Scion: Dragon” in the product pipeline.
And then again by the Scarred Lands journals. I just started filling up a new composition book with Scarred Lands ideas last week. Obviously, this new journal would have been a better choice. But I’m sure I’ll need more than one notebook before I’m finished with Scarred Lands….
Very cool, but come back to your thoughts on the brochure…come back…come back…
I love the In Media Res artwork! Kudos to Tom Denmark! This is the first time I’ve seen the artwork for one of my contributions on a project featured in the Monday Meeting Notes, and I couldn’t be more delighted.
Awesome! Words into pictures = magic!
It makes me a little sad to see W20 is not currently being worked on, considering how excited I was when Tribebook: Bunyip was announced, and how the Auspice Gifts card deck was a KS stretch goal.
That being said I’m still super excited for the rest of the WoD stuff, as well as Realms of Pugmire.
Yeah, sadly it was mentioned a while ago that Tribebook: Bunyip had been shelved, mostly due in the wake of the upcoming Werewolf 5th Edition. And presumably, despite the shake-ups at Paradox, that project hasn’t been unshelved.
Correct.
New W20 books are out of our hands, unfortunately. We’re still looking at the Auspice Deck, and the W20 Making of the Art book, as projects we need to wrap up.
What does mean that ‘art is arting’ in Adventures for Curious Cats? Especially, as it is in Proofing stage now?
Means the art is currently being worked on.
Huh. Somehow I missed the fact that Ghost Hunters was a classic WoD title, rather than a CofD title. I take it that’s basically going to be “Mortals 20th Anniversary” then?
If all of your Mortals are Ghost Hunters, then sure!
you have an empty pip in the list. typo or is something missing that was intended?
With Signs of Sorcery not being a core book, will it go straight to sales pipe? Same with Contagion Chronicles or will it get a Kickstarter?
Contagion Chronicles is getting a Kickstarter; it’s currently listed as being in art direction for it.
The blog formatting was upgraded recently, and so the bullet-points seem to come and go on their own. I see a blank on the preview, but no such blank exists in my working format. So just assume a blank is nothing, a glitch in the Matrix. Signs of Sorcery will be released as a PDF and a PoD on DTRPG, Contagion is slated for a KS after we get done with the Lunars KS.
This is why I make sure to read the comments. Contagion Chronicles kickstarter is VERY exciting.
Aw, my stream didn’t make it into this week’s 🙁
Be sure to message me again with it! I receive several each week.
I don’t really know what ‘printer proofs’ and ‘Backerkit site orders’ refer to but I read that as Scion getting closer and closer to sale on Drivethrurpg so I’m excited 😀
Printer proofs are a copy sent from the printer to make sure the book looks the way OPP wants it to look. They’ll sign off on it if they like it or ask for changes if they don’t.
Backerkit site orders are (pre)orders placed either through the Kickstarter or Backerkit.
Thanks
need c20 pg….
I was curious, and apologies if this is something that’s been discussed previously, do pre-orders get shipped at the same time as backer orders or are they sent separately?
All at the same time. We try (well, really our fulfillment shippers try) to get all the packages done up and out together. On a logistics level it is so much more efficient and cost-saving.
When will the KS backers be seeing the errata’d versions of Scion Origin’s and Scion Hero pdfs? Not sure what the connotation of printing proofs returned means
Before the PDFs go live for non-backers, for sure. You can check on whether the file has been updated in your DTRPG Library. Printer proofs go back to the printer with any corrections we note, they make the corrections and send us new ones. When all is good, the presses will start rolling and the pages will get printed.
Good to know, so to confirm. We won’t be informed when DTRPG gets the updated proofs? nor will it be updated on Backerkit? We will just have to check on DTRPG for them? Is there a specific time frame for this?
I’m not an authority on whether DTRPG sends out notices or when in the cycle of prepping the books we’ll have the final PDFs uploaded and you’ll be able to get them. I _do_ know that when they are ready, all you’ll need to do is go to your DTRP Library and download them. No worries!
I *USUALLY* get an e-mail from Drive-thru when a PDF is updated. Sometimes, I don’t, but I think that is just glitches in the Matrix.
Exactly, I’ve had the same experience – so I don’t want to say that there is a definite alert or not because that’s not under Onyx’s control. But I do know that the Library registers when the file there is updated, so I give that as the method of knowing you can download the final PDF.
Sounds like you have a decent grasp of what you want for the brochure. It seems like a viable way to further increase awareness.
However, if what you want is the fan’s perspective, I can honestly say that, as a fan, I’ve always been eagerly awaiting the brochure for hints and, obviously, announcements.
Ideally, both, hints about annoucements. For example, I loved the tease reveal for “it came from beneath the sea”. I don’t know if it was intended as such but that’s how it was for me.
At the time of the brochure, I knew nothing about the game, the page that was included in that year’s brochure told very little. That intrigued me quite a bit and made sure I wouldn’t forget about that game.
Oh yes, that was definitely a Teaser Ad. I’m wondering, did you see that in a physical copy of the brochure, or in a PDF?
PDF for me. I’d love nothing more than attending a con to get a physical one one day but I’ve had a stroke of bad luck on that front.
Hopefully, this year the timing will be better. Last couple of times we tried to attend one, they were sold out hours after the dates were announced.
Well, in terms of brochures, we’ll probably debut the 2020 (really? 2020? That’s like super far in the future isn’t it?) brochure at the end of 2019 at a con. Maybe PAX Unplugged. So, you have time to get set for that one at least!
What I was aiming at, though, was one of our questions, which is what should go in the physical, printed, brochure? If you are downloading a PDF then we can put anything. We can combine several files, like the main brochure and every other press release, teaser ad, back of book ad, you name it, for our PDF brochure. Gives us some real flexibility as we strategerize.
Understood. I didn’t know the PDF wasn’t necessarily the same as what was printed for the Cons and stores.
With that in mind, I here are a few ideas just for the purposes of brainstorming. The value and complexity of each might be disputable, but even if some can’t be done, ideas spawn ideas, and so, here they are. At least, those I have time to write now. More will be coming. Wall of Text alert.
1 – Tips
In your text above you described how the brochure might “(…)describes the game line worlds, notes which system you need to play, maybe has some other useful tips that help define that line”. Which meshes well with a thought I had today about how sometimes the simplest and straightfoward of resources can be a surprisingly well of ideas and inspiration. I was reminded of how two of the thinnest Werewolf books have been maystays of my storyteller kit. They weren’t essentials, nothing that people who don’t have them would miss, but they were dang handy and convenient. I’m talking about the art of werewolf and the storyteller’s Companion. The first could be used to help establish mood and has inspired me entire story lines. The second was JAMP PACKED with quickly accessible information what would otherwise be spread around in a dozen books.
Where am I going with this? Obviously, the brochure wouldn’t be the place for an art book or a bunch of DMing tools. Of course not. However, something handy could be included for some game lines that would be an incentive to keep the brochure year round in a player or DM’s kit. Simple things like a list of appropriate music to get in the mood, or handy 1 page overview of the core concepts which DMs can show potential players as a quick-glance introduction then go “Glad you think this is cool. Hey, why don’t we meet next week? I’ll show you more of the basics and may be we could start thinking about a character”. Those are just at the top of my head, but, it’s food for thought.
2 – Community
Communities, in whatever form they have, be it forums, LARP groups, moddings or the more recent community content, podcasts and live-streams are a great way to maintaining an active and involved player base as well as expanding it. With that in mind, it might be a good idea to include some of that in the brochure. Why not highlight some cool things the community have done? May be some cool cosplay, some amazing fan-made content, shout outs to podcasts that fans might like but may not know about, point the way to exciting streams or live-campaigns of interest… that sort of things.
Oh, and here’s one from my girlfriend: Cats on the cover. Because… cats? So… art from Monarchies of Mau, may be?
Thanks, and also thanks to your girlfriend!
Hopefully, that’s the kind of input you were looking for. And sorry for all the typos.
How much longer for Gods and monsters
Whatever happened to Digital Web 3.0?
We haven’t started working on it yet.