And I don’t mean the ones in Mage 20th…

But before we wave fond farewell to all the gaming conventions of 2016, and before I start blabbing about the ones in 2017, let me share with you some thoughts about just what Onyx Path did, and why, at our recent spate of cons over the Labor Day Weekend.

First of all, that pic above is our booth at the Grand Masquerade 2016 in New Orleans. Pictured from left is Booth Manager Bill Bodden, who did a fantastic job helping folks and answering questions all four days, as well as doing the set up and break down, and driving halfway across the country with our books and booth. Next is a vagrant straight off the hot and humid streets. Then the Gentleman Gamer himself, developer Matthew Dawkins, who flew over the pond to lend his painfully dry wit and games-mastering skills to our little band. And last but certainly not least, we have Mighty Matt McElroy, who also did the driving and loading for the booth, and was in what seemed like a zillion meetings.

These guys can attest to one of the points that I want to bring up about why I often talk about us attending conventions: they give us a chance to talk to folks who still do not know who Onyx Path is, what books we make, or that you can get them online or in select stores. Despite 5 years of business, we are still spreading the word!

 

 

Part of the reason might have been that Grand Masquerade, specifically, is much more of a Live Action Role Playing venue, and so there are attendees who have focused their gaming on LARPing only, and just don’t know or need to know what Onyx Path has been creating and publishing. Which is certainly part of the story, I think, although we do run into attendees at Gen Con who aren’t aware of us. So while we sold almost everything we brought, and we brought a fair bit, what we were most glad about were the number of folks we could introduce to Onyx Path and our game books. (To be fair, there were also people there who didn’t know about the new White Wolf Publishing, or who was who in terms of us or By Night Studios.)

So, quick recap: there is a new company called White Wolf Publishing who bought the rights to the old White Wolf‘s game lines. They have not yet put out any projects, but have big plans. The companies that are publishing the WW game lines under license from the new WWP are By Night Studios for Live Action gaming, and Onyx Path Publishing for tabletop RPG gaming.

Speaking of the old White Wolf gang, a bunch of the past owners and CEOs and stuff were at Grand Masquerade as well. Here we are with 3/5s of the new White Wolf:

Standing from left: me hunched over, Mark Rein*Hagen, Stewart Wieck, Mike Tinney, Steve Wieck, Travis Williams, Justin Achilli. Sitting, from the new WW, are Karim Muammar, Dhaunae De Vir, and CEO Tobias Sjogren.

Twenty-five years later, and it was just like back in the day. This photo was taken right after our “old WW” panel, wherein we tried to simultaneously look back on decades of decisions and events and analyze them, and also crack each other up. Before that panel was a new WW Q&A panel, which I understand was a bit more rambunctious with many direct and concerned questions from the audience.

There were many events, parties, dinners, and meetings. Dave Martin and The Wrecking Crew both ran many tabletop games for us and also recorded podcasts (I’ll let you all know when they start airing the ones we recorded at NOLA).

I had five or six game pitches at me (or promised to pitch), and even a typical “I’ll just take a seat in the hotel lobby (bar) by myself for a second” became a meet and greet between old WW friends, convention attendees, and new business friends. Which was awesome and friendly and fun. The By Night Studios gang were absolutely fantastic and welcoming and a special tip of the hat to their CEO, Jason Carl, who they must have cloned because I saw his unflappable and friendly face everywhere settling the usual problems for an event this size, and asking what he could do to make the show better.

Here we are again at the end of the “Dining With Darkness” dinner for special attendees, and I include this pic because it includes both Shane Defreest, who is now with the new WWP, and also Greg Fountain, who was one of the best marketing gurus old White Wolf ever had, and a wonderful person in general:

L to R: Stewart, Mike, Mark, Steve, Justin, Shane, Greg, me. And finally one more pic, of the remaining ex-WW gang who came down for the event, at dinner in the hotel restaurant, which was excellent:

I don’t know how he did it, but Matthew Dawkins managed to take this picture during the only time during the meal we were not laughing uproariously. That’s me, my partner in crime for decades Aaron Voss, and Chris McDonough who bravely led the fight for as long as he was allowed trying to bring the WoD MMO to life.

Meanwhile, in Canada, these two lunatics spread the word about Onyx Path with our brochures, running Pugmire games, and by sitting on panels at the Fan Expo Canada in Toronto. A good time was had by all:

Meanwhile meanwhile, Mirthful Mike had a birthday, and Rose held down the fort and stepped in to write last week’s MMN blog. Hope you all caught that and her recollections of how Cavaliers of Mars came to happen.

So now, old-home week in NOLA is over, the summer of conventions has passed, our projects begin to move forward again, and so does Onyx Path. This week, we are putting up for sale one of the Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras chapters as a discrete PoD physical booklet to see if folks would enjoy being able to get physical copies of just the chapters they are most interested in. We’ll be putting up these Dark Eras chapters when we can, as we see how this experiment goes. This week, it’s A Handful of Dust, the Promethean Dark Era.

Next week I’ll tell you about a couple of fantastic changes to our company, and we should be looking at the Scion 2nd Kickstarter starting sometime next week, too. Until then, here is some beautiful art, and a teaser pic of another project that is ready for backers:

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

We’re looking at our KS campaign for Scion 2nd Edition going live next Tuesday or Thursday. We had a run of delays, but those have been worked out now. I think. More news when we have it!

 

 

ON SALE!

 

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: https://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

 

 

 

 

 

On sale this Wednesday from DTRPG: the Promethean Dark Eras chapter A Handful of Dust!

 

 

Now available from DriveThruRPG in PDF: Mage: The Awakening Condition and Numina Cards.

Part of the new Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition rules, Conditions add an additional layer of consequence and reward to certain actions in the Chronicles of Darkness.

Various things within the course of a game can cause Conditions. These include exceptional successes, supernatural abilities, and really any situation where the Storyteller thinks they can be used to heighten the drama of a game.

Also available in this deck are brand new Numina cards featuring these rules from the Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition rulebook for ease of reference at the table.

 

 

 

A Festival of Blades, the swashbuckling new Jumpstart advance PDF for Rose Bailey’s Cavaliers of Mars available on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/191678/A-Festival-of-Blades-A-Cavaliers-of-Mars-Jumpstart

Live, fight, and love on Mars, a world of red death and strange mystery, a world of savagery and romance.

Includes: 

• A complete adventure set in one of dying Mars’ greatest remaining cities.
• The innovative DEIMOS rules, for high-flying, swashbuckling adventure.
• Four pre-generated player characters, ready to get into the heart of the action.

 

 

Behold the Miracles of the Solar Exalted! Originally a backer reward for the EX3 Kickstarter, but now so much more, with additional Charms written by the developers just for this book! For sale now at DTRPG in PDF and PoD versions! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/184596/Miracles-of-the-Solar-Exalted

This book contains over 80 new Solar Charms embodying a range of concepts and stories dreamed up by players of Exalted and meticulously crafted and balanced for inclusion at any and all tables.

Fire an arrow and let it become a waiting judgment upon the wicked. Unleash a sword stroke that can overwhelm the blade of Heaven itself. Train your loyal beast companion into an unstoppable colossus. Effortlessly seed the battlefield with inspiring words alongside arrows and blades. Empower your spirit familiar with the light of your anima. Tame a hurricane with your music. These miracles and more may be found within.

 

 

 

What was once unliving now arises! The Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition Advance PDF is now available at DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/189395/Promethean-the-Created-2nd-Edition

You are a pilgrim now, one of the Created. You rose to life from dead flesh or inert matter, under the ministrations of one of your own, or a mad scientist, or perhaps just the power of the Divine Fire. You wander the world, sometimes alone, sometimes in the blessed company of your own kind, driven by memories of events and facts you never knew, all in the service of one Great Work…

…to be human.

This book contains:

• The complete guide to playing a Promethean in the Chronicles of Darkness
• Reimagined Lineages and Refinements, and a redesigned system for Transmutations
• A more detailed approached to the Pilgrimage that presents players with more control over their characters’ path
• New challenges on the road to humanity, including deranged, greedy alchemists

NOTE: This is the Advance PDF version. A final PDF version and PoD versions will be available at a later date. If you have purchased this Advance PDF, you will be automatically updated to the final PDF and receive a link to enable you to purchase the PoD at a discount designed so that your total price matches our usual PDF and Print combo offer.

 

 

 

The Tales of the Dark Eras , the Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras fiction anthology is now on sale at DriveThruRPG in PDF/electronic and PoD versions! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/187316/Tales-of-the-Dark-Eras

Walk through the ages…

As a companion to Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras this anthology reveals secrets of the mystics, whispers rumors of the dead, and shines a light into the darkest corners of the world. Includes historical stories based within the shadowed past of Vampire: the Requiem, Mage: the Awakening, Werewolf: the Forsaken, Changeling: the Lost, and other Chronicles of Darkness settings.

In the Chronicles of Darkness…

Explore the shadows with tales by Howard Ingham, Malcolm Sheppard, Pete Woodworth, Renee Ritchie, Jess Hartley, Monica Valentinelli, Danielle Harper, Matthew McFarland, Mike Tomasek, Eric Zawadski, Meghan Fitzgerald, and Dennis Detwiller.

 

 

CONVENTIONS!

Onyx Path will be at Mid Winter Con 2017 in January in the lovely city of Milwaukee. Come brave the cold wastes to game and cavort with us!

 

 

 

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And now, the new project status updates!

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

• Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)
• CtL fiction anthology (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)
• BtP Building a Legend (Beast: the Primordial)
• Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
• Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
• M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• BtP Player’s Guide
• V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
• M20 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
• VtM Beckett’s Jyhad Diary (Stretch Goal Content)
• GtS Geist 2e core

 

Redlines