Since we’re between Kickstarters, I just wanted to use this break and mention how we’ve been handling conventions all last year and through this one.

Usually, I make a lot of noise throughout the year as we attend con after con, but then 2020 happened. And the effects of that continue to affect us. Which means a lot fewer posts about conventions.

Yet that doesn’t mean that cons are any less important to us than they were; just that like so many things, we’ve had to adapt and adopt new methods. Of course, one of those was attending online conventions. We’ve been at several cons that other folks have put together, either as Onyx Path or as individuals, and generally those have been really fun experiences.

Which is important, because those fun experiences built up the idea that we can enjoy talking with and playing with folks virtually, even as previously our most favorite parts of in-person conventions were those same things.

For example, we’ll be officially attending TryItCon online the weekend of May 14-16th. The intention of this convention – run by a lot of folks you would recognize from our Twitch streams – is to provide a venue where folks can try out games that they are interested in.

Not only is this a great raison d’etre for an online convention, but they are also donating the very nominal attendance fees to the Helen Keller Foundation and the first $1,500 in ticket sales are being matched and donated as well.

They still have Onyx Path games with seats open – a full list of those game lines are below in the Media section – and their full schedule is here: https://tabletop.events/conventions/tryitcon-2021/schedule#?query=

Of course, just a month later we’ll be running our own Onyx Path Online Virtual Con and we’ve based how we’re setting this one up on the feedback folks gave us in our Community Survey (remember that?) and on how things went during our first of these last year.

We’re reeeeeaaallly close to having a link and a schedule all worked out – just not close enough for those links today. I AM pretty sure that our opening ceremonies will be at 6pm EDT on Friday June 11th, and that we’ll be running a What’s Up With Onyx Path? panel at noon that Saturday the 12th. We have some announcements planned for that one!

As for when we can see you all in person, the earliest would be December-ish, if PAX Unplugged is happening physically this year AND if we feel like all the vaccinations and social distancing plans have come together so that our crew have some confidence that attending won’t put them at risk.

I mean, “con-crud” is one thing, but Covid….

A related thing I wanted to mention, is that we are still affected as a business by the pandemic. Right now, our Kickstarter fulfillment shipper is trying to get both V5: Cults of the Blood Gods and Trinity Continuum: Aberrant reward packages out, and they have to do it in multiple stages like they did mid-2020 because they still have restrictions due to Covid.

What I’m sayin’ is that the effects are still shock-waving throughout the world, even if some of us have been vaccinated and have started reclaiming whatever passed for normalcy before all this hit!

If you’re still waiting for your rewards, try and have a little patience. They could be on the last shipment to go out. They could get caught up in slow deliveries, or they could get rerouted inexplicably. They could certainly get caught in customs, who are also undermanned and dealing with new procedures in a lot of countries.

Finally, hey, how about the beautiful art up there at the top? Seems pretty “Essence-ial!”

Here’s More Stuff We Talked About At The Meeting, Today:

As you might have figured, we talked a bunch about both of the upcoming online conventions mentioned above.

At the last minute before writing this, we discovered that our friends at Noble Knight Games are having a huge Spring Sale including a bunch of our books: https://bit.ly/3nK5kYN

One of our possible next Kickstarter campaigns is for Squeaks in the Deep for Pugmire, and last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast “deep dive” into the book has already generated a ton of response. People seems really excited by what has been revealed so far, like the whole mice and rat “underworld”! Please check out the Pathcast as well as the Squeaks Actual Play sessions and interviews that Eddy is doing – and the sessions being held at our con in June!

Finally, we chatted a fair bit about the next They Came From! game. I know, I know: we haven’t even revealed the actual title of They Came From [CLASSIFIED]! yet, but we got on a roll during a product line meeting. So, yes, there’s a fourth core game that we’ll talk more about after [CLASSIFIED] starts prepping for its crowd-funding campaign.

In fact, we even came up with a supplement to [CLASSIFIED] during that same meeting, so we wanted to report on the developments to the whole team at the meeting today. We are good with providing a little bit of mystery to all of you wonderful people, but our team really needs to know when these sorts of ideas get proposed.

Sometimes that just informational, the classic “so we’re all on the same page” info-sharing, but we also want to hear from the rest of our team if they detect a problem with the idea. We’ve had a bunch of “huh, never thought of that” moments over the years, and none of our team are too proud to re-examine an idea if there’s an unforeseen objection.

That’s just how we do what we do as we help each other along to our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

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BLURBS!

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Kickstarter!

Like I mentioned above, we’re still pulling together the graphics for our next couple of crowd-funding campaigns. More when we have it!

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Onyx Path Media!

This week: Here they go on a Deep Dive UP into the powerful atmosphere of Exalted Essence! Find out all the answers – every single one – to all of your questions about this new way to get into Exalted 3rd!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

TryItCon online is running a number of OPP games the weekend of May 14-16th and has open seats still available for Changeling: The Lost, Beast: The Primordial, Dark Ages Fae, Demon: The Fallen, Demon: The Descent, Changeling: The Dreaming, Mage: The Ascension, Mage: The Awakening, Exalted, Trinity Continuum: Aeon, and Vampire: The Requiem and Masquerade.

The full schedule is here: https://tabletop.events/conventions/tryitcon-2021/schedule#?query=

All badge proceeds are going to the Helen Keller Foundation and the first $1,500 in ticket sales are being matched and donated as well.

For anyone new to our media section, you can find us running and playing games over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath pretty much every day of the week! Plus, if you’d like your games hosted there, just get in touch with Matthew Dawkins using the contact link on matthewdawkins.com. 

Please check out our attached media schedule for the impressive number of videos on our Twitch channel this week!

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Scion – Become as Gods – Episode 10 – https://youtu.be/5PdQWowesmI

Scion – Become as Gods – Episode 11 – https://youtu.be/9-9VOMMWo80

Scarred Lands – Dead Man’s Rust – Episode 5 – https://youtu.be/4tNWB-IOqW4

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale – Episode 16 – https://youtu.be/9US1tzjUHI0

Vampire: The Requiem – Reap The Whirlwind Jumpstart Episode 1/2 – https://youtu.be/krrv1uZ693k

Vampire: The Requiem – Reap The Whirlwind Jumpstart Episode 2/2 – https://youtu.be/U7880WDj8uk

Squeaks in the Deep – Virtual Horror Con Playtest Episode – https://youtu.be/UZPnV9Obg_0

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

If you’re fans of Exalted, you’ll want to check out https://swordofcreation.net/. Sword of Creation is a brand new forum for the Exalted community, aiming to let conversation breathe and give a platform for people to showcase their homebrew, art, podcasts and other fan content. They’re aiming to run regular contests for fan works and for the launch of the site they’re even offering $20 prizes for the best homebrew and character designs people have to offer.

McStabber Studios run a whole hell of a lot of our games over on Twitch, so here’s one of their YouTube playlists for Wraith: The Oblivion: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNJbJLVC_ivx1SSy-J_PoeN9Aa6UWYDnA As a lot of people talk about not knowing how to play Wraith, this would be a good place to start!

Ekorren continues their excellent Exalted 3rd Edition series over on YouTube! You can find their latest video – on Making Better Stunts – right here: https://youtu.be/tOSHES7Ycm8

The Exaltcast continues its fantastic show introducing you to the wonders and horrors of the Realm and its various inhabitants. The next episode is for the South of Creation – https://www.exaltcast.com/2021/04/19/smoke-ascends-to-heaven-the-south/ –  The South of Creation is dense with varied kingdoms in a dozen equatorial climes. Monica and Chazz talk Chiaroscuro‘s ruins, Paragon’s creepiness, diamond deserts, and the First and Forsaken Lion‘s desire to just play Warhammer 40K. 

Over on ExalTwitch they’ve been running some amazing games of Exalted, and even have a show wiki for viewers to follow along! ExalTwitch: Academy is set in The House of Bells, a prestigious school for Dragon-Blooded Exalted of the Realm to train in the ways of war. The chronicle follows three young Dragon-Bloods as they try to prove their worth to their fellow students, their Houses, and themselves.

Their most recent VOD, Episode 15 (“Weapon of Choice”), is here:https://youtu.be/uqMCFjlODcQ

The playlist for the series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zb3M2x8PJk&list=PLsZP95-GZNa0ynoCIVyliNF5rypCHvh0M

The show wiki, with synopses, character descriptions, etc: RPGClinic Wiki | Fandom

Wards & Witchcraft continue their wonderful Mage: The Awakening chronicle which you can watch right here:

What lies down the throat of the world snake? One member of the cabal risks life and limb to find out. Separated the rest of the coven enjoy a party winding down and receive gifts.   https://youtu.be/iqe6zlNowpo

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

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Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! The dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

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Virtual TableTop!

Two Virtual Tabletop adventures: the Gauntlet of Spiragos and the Dagger of Spiragos for Scarred Lands on Astral TableTop and DriveThruRPG!

Scars of the Divine War, which ended less than 200 years ago, have still not healed. One such scar is the Chasm of Flies, a rent in the earth created when the titan Spiragos the Ambusher was smote down by one of the young gods, Vangal the Ravager. Now, the Chasm is inhabited by spider-eye goblins and their spider allies, but it is also thought to be the resting place of powerful artifacts from that elder age.

Astral TableTop is the easiest way to play any tabletop RPG online, free. Astral already supports popular systems like D&D and Pathfinder, and Astral can support virtually any tabletop roleplaying game. Get started quickly with built-in support for most popular game systems. Whether you’re brand new to TTRPGs or a veteran tabletop gamer, Astral‘s ease-of-use and built in automation is designed to streamline gameplay.

Build your own adventure, or choose from pre-generated game kits like Gauntlet of Spiragos and Dagger of Spiragos. Create character sheets, craft maps, or just jump right in to connect with your friends and start your adventures!

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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 from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

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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!

You can pick up the traditionally printed Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau main books, screens, and the official dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

Now, we’ve added Chronicles of Darkness books such as Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Our Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition books are also available from Studio2 in the US: https://studio2publishing.com/products/vampire-the-masquerade-chicago-by-night-sourcebook

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

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

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On Sale This Week!

On Wednesday it’s time to act godlike with the LARP rules for Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero! Both in individual PDF and combined hardcover PoD versions available at DTRPG!

Scion Live-Action is a live-action roleplaying game (LARP for short) that concerns the creatures and persons of myth and legend and how they interact with the World, a place where all myths are real and all stories have weight. Fate is its own force in the World, and the characters in this book are feeling its first touches upon their souls. Whether mundane or supernatural, Scion Live-Action is the story of people in a liminal space where myth begins to be real and immediate. 

Scion Live-Action features:

• A completely new system designed from the ground up for live-action roleplaying.

• A new take on the World focused on LARP.

• Character creation rules for heroic Scions, pre-Visitation Scions, and Denizens of the World.

• Storyguiding advice for running Scion Live-Action.

Contains both Scion: Origin Live-Action and Scion: Hero Live-Action. No additional books required!

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Conventions!

Because dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, we don’t yet have a list of upcoming physical conventions. Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!

As announced, the 2nd Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention will be coming to you live starting Friday, June 11th and running until Sunday, June 13th (including a special post-con Jackbox gamefest Sunday night hosted by Dixie)!

A collection of World of Darkness podcasters are putting together an online convention called TryItCon the weekend of May 14th-15th geared towards trying new games – including a lot of ours! We’re also setting up a few Onyx Path specific panels right now – more on those when we have the times!

More info about both these conventions in the Media section and the blog itself, above!

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And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from 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.)

• Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)
• Tasty Bit: Car Lifting Competition (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Panopticon Novella (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• Scion: God (Scion 2e)

Redlines

• Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Tome of the Pentacle (Mage: the Awakening 2e)
• The Hedge (Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition)
• M20 Lore of the Traditions (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• Apocalyptic Record (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
• TC: Adventure! Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Second Draft

• No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Development

• Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)
• Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)
• Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Tasty Bit: Les Fantomes (Trinity Continuum)

Manuscript Approval

• The Paranormal Investigator’s Handbook (WoD 20th)
• Once and Future (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Ghost Hunters Jumpstart w/RMCs (WoD 20th)

Post-Approval Development

• Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)
• Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Vigil Watch: The Kelder Mountains (Scarred Lands)

Editing

• Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)
• Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)
• M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
• Yugman’s Appendix: People of Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)
• CtL2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)
• Heroes in a World of Horror! (They Came From…!)
• Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)
• Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• Legacies of Earth (Legendlore)
• Scion Fiction Anthology (Scion 2nd Edition)
• M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)
• They Came From Beyond the Grave! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)
• Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Monsters From the Crypt! (They Came From…!)
• TC: Aeon Novella: Meridian (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
• Proteus Nova Compendium (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• TC: Aeon Novella: Dawn (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• Tasty Bit: Pets (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• Trinity Continuum: Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)
• Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)
• They Came From Camp Murder Lake! (They Came From…!)
• Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)
• Trinity Continuum: Anima
• Tales of Depravity! (They Came From…!)
• They Came From [Classified]! (They Came From…!)
• They Came From [Classified]! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)
• Tasty Bit: Zeus We Just Wanna Talk! (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Realms of Magic and Mystery (was Terra Incognita) (Scion 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development

• Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)
• They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)
• Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)
• N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)
• V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
• V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
• Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)
• Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• They Came From Beneath the Sea! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)

Indexing

• Mummy: The Curse 2e

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Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

• Scion: Dragon (KS)
• Masks of the Mythos (KS)
• Scion: Demigod – All notes out to artists. Still need to lockdown 1 more artist for Pantheons.
• They Came From Beyond the Grave! – Sketches coming in.
• TC: Adventure! (KS)
• M20 Victorian (KS)
• Dead Man’s Rust
• M20 Technocracy Jumpstart
• Exalted Essence (KS) – KS graphics figured out.
• V5 Trail of Ash and Bone – Bugging artists.
• V5 Forbidden Religions
• TC Mission Statements
• TC Aberrant N!WE – Talking with artists.
• M20 Technocracy Dossier/Companion – Starting on this.
• M20 Rich Bastards Guide – Finals almost all in.
• Hundred Devils Night Parade
• Squeaks In The Deep (KS)
• Players Guide to the Contagion Chronicle
• TC Prometheus Unbound
• They Came From Camp Murder Lake!
• Realms of Magic and Mystery
• Saints and Monsters
• TC: Anima (KS) – Reaching out to artists for the two different art styles.
• TC: Assassin

In Layout

• Deviant Screen – Working on it.
• Spiragos Collected Adventures
• Hunter: The Vigil 2e – Josh working on it as art trickles in.
• 21-22 Onyx Brochure – looking good so far.
• WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – putting together the layout.
• Legendlore – revised text coming in end of week.

Proofing

• Mummy 2 – In Indexing.
• TC: Under Alien Skies – 2nd proof.
• Heirs to the Shogunate – Dev Proof changes being input.
• M20 Technocracy Reloaded – Errata gathering from backers.
• TC Aberrant Jumpstart

At Press

• V5 Cults of the Blood Gods – KS fulfillment finishing.
• Aberrant – KS fulfillment started.
• TC: Aberrant Screen – KS fulfillment started.
• Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness) – PoD proofs ordered.
• Children of the Blood – PoD proofs ordered.
• Vigil Watch Compiled – PoD proofs ordered.
• Mummy 2e Screen
• Deviant – Need printer specs.
• LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition) – PDFs and PoD versions on sale Weds on DTRPG!

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Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Dark Eras Companion was released four years ago today, and there are plenty of things that were released later this week, like Mage: The Awakening 2e, and there’s also May the Fourth Be With You Day, and Cinco de Mayo. But nothing for May 3rd. So let’s celebrate May 3rd, a perfectly good day that is probably trying really hard!