The pause that refreshes. What a difference a week makes. Our Monday Meeting crew feel like a weight has been lifted; an attitude change echoed during several meetings with a whole bunch of our creators over the last few days.

It feels good. Folks deserve that feeling.

But no resting on laurels here, or on anything else for that matter, we have lots of things to do and create!

First off, a reminder to fill out our Onyx Path Customer Survey 2020 ASAP as we’ll be taking it down sometime this week!
https://forms.gle/k6J1UMV3h5fCx3FD9

Your feedback and info from this survey is something very important to us, and we’d love to hear from you! We are really looking for more of an understanding as to the demographics of our community, and while we’ve had gut-level and experience-based ideas of who we are creating for and talking to, this is a chance to get some codified info.

From there, we can start parsing the info you, and everyone else who responds, send us. And speaking of feedback, here are some things we’ve noticed already.

A few folks have asked if we want responses based strictly on Onyx Path OWNED games. No, please feel free to respond based on any games we make books for. If our logo is on it, g’head. And if you are responding based on 25 years of playing Vampire no matter who is publishing it or owns it, that’s fine too. The questions were specifically designed towards getting us certain info, and the “favorites” questions aren’t that granular.

A few people expressed concern (and a couple were pretty angry) over the age and pronouns questions in particular. Well, first of all, please don’t answer any question that you have an issue with as the Survey deliberately isn’t one of those where you have to answer every question, yet if you do, you’re really helping us to understand the sorts of people who are in our community. We’ve seen that it’s actually pretty difficult to find a way to categorize our community.

I mean, besides generally awesome!

And because it is so wide-spread demographically-speaking, it is also hard to communicate to everyone when we have something cool we want folks to know about. We have to post about it here, and on Twitter (because that’s one part of our community’s favorite social media), and on Facebook (because that is another part of our community’s favorite social media) – but not just on our FB page, we have to post on specific other pages devoted to different game lines, too.

Makes me long for the days of reaching almost all gamers everywhere by putting an ad in Dragon Magazine!

Now we also have to get notices up in the Discord channels, and we’re also seeing folks get their info from Twitch and our YouTube postings! So, with such a segmented community in terms of communication, it is also sometimes hard to get a good overall look at it as a whole rather than thinking that our community is the sum of one social media circle.

Hence this survey.

What Else Was Discussed At Our Happy Meeting Today?

While all sorts of other things were happening, our folks attended two virtual conventions over the weekend.

Eddy ran several games of Realms of Pugmire at Virtual GameHole Con, which was the first time in a year he had run anything in public. Which can be pretty scary, especially if you aren’t used to doing it virtually. He says he felt kind of ragged during the first one, but rolled right into the second. If he was running Pirates of Pugmire, I’d say it sounds like he got his sea-legs back!

I’ve sat in on Pugmire games run by Eddy, so I’m sure everybody had a great time despite how Eddy might have been feeling on the inside!

Our Exalted Essence developers attended Metatopia Online and had the opportunity to beta-test all sorts of things for Essence. Besides the expected actual play, I understand that Monica Speca ran a session just for character creation – which is a great idea. A lot of times I just want to make characters instead of actually playing them!

We’re expecting more formal playtest data from our devs as they assemble the comments and all, but from what I heard the largest part of negative feedback was in clarifying how things were written, rather than folks finding broken or bad rules. And most of all, attendees really seemed to like it!

We ran through the status of those projects getting prepped for Kickstarters, specifically Dead Man’s Rust for Scarred Lands, whose Kickstarter page I just started setting up with James, our Kickstarter Concierge. Pretty sure Rust will be our last KS in 2020. But, right now, I think the start of 2021 looks like the start of an excellent string of Kickstarters.

You might remember that last year we ran a Wolfenoot Sale for the holiday based on “A celebration of canines, kindness, and humans who embrace both.” Well, this year we are joined by a bunch of other companies’ animal focused RPGs on DTRPG!

We’re putting the PDFs of the core books for Realms of Pugmire and Werewolf up at 50% off, and the other books in their lines will be 20% off from November 10th to the 26th.

Besides those points, we are also energized and excited to tackle the many ongoing projects you can see below in the Project Progress reports, the many projects still being conceptualized that you’ll be hearing more of in the weeks/months to come, and a whole raft of pitches and other surprises we’re just starting with.

And with that run-down of today’s meeting, I need to get back to coloring up the next of these Scion Dragon symbols I’ve been working on. They don’t make or break a game book, but I sure love adding in those other aspects that make a book cooler and a world come to life. In fact, not just one world, but:

Many Worlds, One Path!

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Blurbs!

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Kickstarter!

Coming up next: Dead Man’s Rust for Scarred Lands

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Onyx Path Media!

This week: Our Trio look at games: work, research, and play!

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

It’s a new week for Onyx Path Media, with a lot of exciting shows coming up on our Twitch channel! Please do check us out and give us a follow.

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. 

This week on Twitch, expect to see these games and streams running:

• Scarred Lands – A Family Affair
• Scarred Lands – Frostlands of Fenrilik – Vorpal Tales
• V5 – Cults of the Blood Gods – Styx and Bones
• Contagion Chronicle – No Time for Reality
• Pugmire – How the Pirates Stole Yuletyme
• Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale
• Scarred Lands – Vigil Watch
• Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous
  
• Scion – Heroes for the Holidays – Dork Tales
• Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds
• V5 – Cults of the Blood Gods – Thy Kindred Come
• Hunter: Unbound Anomalies – Devil’s Luck Gaming

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games and subscribe to us on Twitch, over at twitch.tv/theonyxpath

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:

Onyx Path Customer Survey 2020 – https://youtu.be/a2350qIFPmM

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale – E20 – https://youtu.be/JmgIMGI7z9E

Vampire: The Masquerade – Boston by Night – Game 4 – https://youtu.be/V6e2WrbHxHQ

They Came from Beyond the Grave! – Vorpal Tales – Episode 4 – https://youtu.be/Ke05VZe3P0c

Scion: Demigod – Strange Days – Episode 3 – https://youtu.be/eRLN7nQZxJo

SaFECon2020 What’s Up with Onyx Path? – https://youtu.be/vIqW7gnCBPo

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale – Episode 8 – https://youtu.be/QSPpWe4Sv_k

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

Systematic Understanding of Everything is a fantastic Exalted Explainer Podcast by Exalted Dev Monica Speca and Exalted Writer Chazz Kellner. You should check it out, because frankly, it’s brilliant.

Their most recent episodes are available over on https://www.exaltcast.com/, with their newest covering the Seat of the Scarlet Empire. https://www.exaltcast.com/2020/11/02/seat-of-the-scarlet-empire-the-blessed-isle/

Occultists Anonymous continue their wonderful Mage: The Awakening chronicle right here:

Episode 141: Questioning Fate 
Wyrd and Borseen summon forth a Moira to get insight into the deal they’ve made with Fate. Songbird begins to forge a symbol of their crafting skill.  
https://youtu.be/Pin-4DkGecQ

Episode 142: Ashes of the Past 
The cabal’s planning meeting is interrupted by a visit from Moonkeeper who brings some concerning news.https://youtu.be/gS1ecqDEY0A

Before we leave the Mage: The Awakening train, we’ve got a new series to show off to you! This one’s from Wards and Witchcraft, and you really do want to check out episode one right here:

Session 1: Fated Shore
Mona, an Obrimos reality mechanic of the Mysterium, is on a mission to “fix” the fallen world. What will she do when her long-time companion, Parallax, is the force tearing the world to the abyss? Fate intervenes and adds a third. Will this new Necromancer keep the balance or usher in disaster?https://youtu.be/YCdn7P7B0m4

Have you been missing Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition? Well miss it no more, as The Lamias have you covered with The Ruins of Warsaw, a V20 chronicle! Please enjoy episode one right here: https://youtu.be/AlO7ahlPIRk

If you’re interested in Chronicles of Darkness, please check out McStabber Studios on Twitch, as they run a host of games including the Haunted Chronicles. Give them a follow – it costs you nothing! https://www.twitch.tv/mcstabberstudios

More Exalted with The Story Told RPG Podcast‘s Dragon-Blooded actual play, the Fall of Jiara! If you’ve not checked them out before, give them a listen from episode one. If you’re happy to dive right in here: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/fall-of-jiara-30

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! Our 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.)

We’re told that the App Dev is currently creating an updated version for the latest devices, so keep an eye open for those! The App was also pulled down from the Apple store in order to make some required updates – it’ll be back there soon!

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Virtual TableTop!

Introducing a Virtual Tabletop adventure: the Gauntlet of Spiragos for Scarred Lands on Astral TableTop!

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.

Gauntlet of Spiragos is a Scarred Lands adventure designed for 1st level characters, although it can be easily modified for characters of up to 5th level.

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.

Astral is browser-based and uses the latest technology to streamline your storytelling experience. Connect with your party online and run your campaigns however you like. Astral offers tools optimized for phone, tablet, and desktop devices, no installation required.

Build epic battlemaps using Astral‘s enormous collection of scenery, props, and tokens or upload your own. Pro users gain access to over 12,000+ assets and fresh new packs every month. Add weather, visual effects, triggers, and so much more with easy-to-use tools

Build your own adventure, or choose from pre-generated game kits like Gauntlet 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

Later this month, IPR is having Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales with a special focus on Storypath System games!

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

Wolfenoot Sale is coming up soon on DriveThruRPG. We’ll have all of
the Realms of Pugmire and Werewolf corebook PDFs 50% Off and
everything else in those lines 20% off for 11/19 – 11/26.

And as always, later this month, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales are coming our way with a special focus on Storypath System games!

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On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday we take a stand on Terra Firma for Trinity Continuum: Aeon with PDF and PoD versions available on DTRPG!

Terra Firma expands the setting of Trinity Continuum: Æon by revealing some of the many wonders and secrets found on Earth and Luna, while also providing Storytellers with the material they require to set exciting campaigns on either of these two worlds. 

Terra Firma requires both the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook and Trinity Continuum: Æon to play. Inside, you will find:

• Further information about 10 nations previously discussed in Trinity Continuum: Æon, including a detailed look at an important city in each nations. 
• Details on threats facing Earth, including revolutionary movements, dangerous cults, and criminal gangs.
• An exploration of some of the strange, and often deadly, mysteries found on Earth and Luna — from the ancient and terrible Gorgon Karst caves beneath eastern Europe to the bizarre Hadley Rille Anomaly on Luna. 
• New technologies used on Earth, examples of the many strange and powerful relics of the Nova Age, as well as new Edges and Paths specifically for the inhabitants of Earth and Luna.

And also, A Quantum Leap, the Trinity Continuum: Core Jumpstart Advance PDF springs out at you, also from DTRPG!

“Potential is everywhere. You can’t really see it, but you can feel it. And all you really need to do is reach out, grab that potential in your hand, and bend it to your will. Nothing goes wrong if you just use your potential. I know it sounds easy. I can’t really tell you how to do it. But when you do, you’ll just know.”

— Janeka Spencer,
Neptune Foundation first responder

This jumpstart has everything you need to start playing an adventure in Trinity Continuum, including:

• All the rules you need from Trinity Continuum

• A full adventure, “A Quantum Leap,” ready to run

• Five ready-made characters for players to pick up and play

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Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

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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)
• No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)
• TC: Aeon Novella: Dawn (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• TC: Aeon Novella: Meridian (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• Once and Future (Scion 2nd Edition)
• They Came From Beneath the Sea! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)
• Tome of the Pentacle (Mage: the Awakening 2e)
• They Came From Camp Murder Lake! (They Came From…!)
• They Came From [Classified]! (They Came From…!)
• They Came From [Classified]! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)
• Realms of Magic and Mystery (was Terra Incognita) (Scion 2nd Edition)
• The Hedge (Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition)

Redlines

• Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Tales of Depravity! (They Came From…!)
• Monsters From the Crypt! (They Came From…!)
• They Came From Beyond the Grave! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)

Second Draft

• Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)
• Trinity Continuum: Anima
• Scion Fiction Anthology (Scion 2nd Edition)

Development

• TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)
• Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)
• Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)
• M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)
• Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
• Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Manuscript Approval

• Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)
• Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• Legacies of Earth (Legendlore)
• Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Post-Approval Development

• Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)
• Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Editing

• Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)
• Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)
• TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)
• The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)
• Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)
• Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)
• N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
• Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)
• V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
• M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
• The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
• V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
• Peoples of the Crossroads Continent
• M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)
• Yugman’s Appendix: People of Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)
• V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
• CtL2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)
• Heroes in a World of Horror! (They Came From…!)

Post-Editing Development

• W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)
• Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
• Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)
• Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)
• Legendlore core book (Legendlore)
• Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)
• They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)
• Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Indexing

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Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

• WoD Ghost Hunters (KS)
• Hunter: The Vigil 2e
• Mummy 2 – AD’d.
• Legendlore
• Scion: Dragon (KS) – Art for KS in progress.
• Masks of the Mythos (KS) – Ready for the KS.
• Scion: Demigod (KS)
• They Came From Beyond the Grave! – ADing rest of the fulls.
• TC: Adventure! (KS)
• Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness) – Awaiting artnotes.
• Monsters of the Deep – Art still arting.
• M20 Victorian (KS) – ADing rolling. Looking at logo design.
• TC: Under Alien Skies – ADed. Checking in with artists this week.
• Heirs to the Shogunate – ADed.
• Dead Man’s Rust (SL KS) – KS art remaining is incoming.
• Children of the Blood – ADing.
• M20 Technocracy Jumpstart – Working on this.

In Layout

• Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad
• Vigil Watch
• M20 Technocracy Reloaded – Current focus.
• Deviant – Getting files over to Josh for layout.
• Geist: One Foot In the Grave – Travis is on it.
• Tales of Aquatic Terror

Proofing

• Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs – Errata closed.
• Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)
• Aberrant – Backer PDF out for errata.
• V5 Cults of the Blood Gods – At Paradox for approval.

At Press

• TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – KS shipping.
• They Came from Beneath the Sea! – KS shipping.
• Pirates of Pugmire – KS shipping getting started.
• Pirates of Pugmire Screen – KS shipping getting started.
• Dark Eras 2 – KS shipping.
• Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet – KS shipping.
• Contagion Chronicle – Printing.
• Lunars Wall Scroll Map – At KS fulfiller.
• Lunars Screen and Booklet – At KS fulfiller.
• Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Deluxe printing. PDF and PoD on sale at DTRPG.
• TC Aeon Terra Firma – PDF and PoD versions on sale Wednesday on DTRPG!
• V5 Let the Streets Run Red – PoD proofs on their way.
• Trinity Core Jumpstart – Advance PDF on sale Wednesday on DTRPG!

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Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Obviously, celebrations have gone off across the world after the US elections. Today, though, we also celebrate the life of one of the great “nerd ambassadors”, Alex Trebek, lauded host of Jeopardy. Before there was the Lord of the Rings or Marvel movies, or Game of Thrones, Alex Trebek brought style and aplomb to using your big brain to answer trivia questions. He helped make knowing all sorts of little bits of information something useful and more accepted. And he did it without apologizing and with humor. Thank you, sir, you will be missed.