That’s right! Our Monarchies of Mau Kickstarter goes live at 12 noon Eastern US time tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th!
But wait – I imagine I hear you say – what, I say, what in tarnation is Monarchies of Mau?
Designed by Eddy Webb, Monarchies of Mau is the companion game to Pugmire, but rather than playing uplifted dogs you play uplifted cats. We stress that this is a companion game and not a sequel, because it is complete unto itself, but set in the same fantasy world that Man has left. The land of the Monarchies are to the east of Pugmire, through the forest, and there is an uneasy peace between the two domains. So you can play either game or both.
While Pugmire‘s tagline is “Be A Good Dog”, we are using “Trust Your Instincts”, for Monarchies of Mau. Cat society is a patchwork confederation of noble house led city-states, the Monarchies, where politics both ties the Monarchies together, and threatens to tear them apart.
And, of course, outside the cities lie adventures and dangers as well with the ruins and creatures of the absent Old Ones posing grand challenges for the cats. In these wilds Champions and Footpads, Mancers and Ministers, Trackers and Wanderers all vie to prove that they are the Best Cat.
Eddy and I had a lot of fun creating Monarchies of Mau this past year, and we’ll be going into more detail here and in Updates as the KS runs.
Our Pugmire Kickstarter last year was an immensely surprising and gratifying campaign, with some amazing additional projects coming out of the Stretch Goals, and we have lots of great ones lined up for the Monarchies of Mau KS. And just like we did with the Pugmire KS; backers gain access with the very first Backer Update to the Monarchies of Mau Early Access PDF: an abbreviated version of the rules. So you can start playing right away.
Meanwhile, I hear there was a lot of fun and lots of announcements last week at World of Darkness Berlin! Both Matt McElroy and Matthew Dawkins have told us some fantastic highlights, including some very interesting opportunities for Onyx Path, and we’ll go into more detail in the weeks to come.
One of the big shout-outs in presentations was for our own Beckett’s Jyhad Diary as the starting pad for the upcoming Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition, which was very cool to hear, since Matthew Dawkins and everybody’s favorite, Neall Raemonn Price, worked really hard with the new White Wolf to provide all sorts of clues and allusions to the V5 meta-plot.
You can still “pre-order” the PDF and/or the Deluxe hardcover version on our Beckett’s Jyhad Diary BackerKit site here: https://deluxe-v20-becketts.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
So, a big shout-out in return to all of the new WW gang: Martin, Karim, Jason, Dhaunae, Shane and Tobias, as well as all the convention hosts, who showed our guys such a great time! And a huge shout-out to Ken Hite, who was announced as V5‘s lead developer, and Mary Lee, its art director!
Also, while I’m shouting, to all our friends who attended, danced, drank, and demoed, and especially Justin Achilli, Mark Rein*Hagen, and Jason Andrew from By Night Studios!
Finally, I just wanted to point out our unsung heroes here at Onyx Path: our editors. Editing for tabletop RPG books is an unholy mix of technical editing, setting knowledge, and fiction editing, and our dedicated editors have been doing amazing work!
One of Rollickin’ Rose Bailey’s first efforts for Onyx Path was to rebuild our pool of talented editors, and already we’re seeing Dixie Cochran and Carol Darnell perform heroic deeds of editing skill that very often take very good text and make it great, or pull together a paragraph with errors that just slipped through.
Thanks to them and all of our editors for their eagle eyes, and dedication to clean text!
If only we had time each Monday for them to go over this blog text…but that way lies madness!
BLURBS!
KICKSTARTER!
We’re going live at 12 noon Eastern US time next Tuesday, the 16th!
See you there! It’ll be purrfect!
ON SALE!
ON AMAZON:
We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!
BUNDLE OF HOLDING:
The Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition Bundle of Holding is in its LAST WEEK, and what a fantastic deal they have on our V20 line of PDFs! Plus, a percentage of every sale goes to charity! Here’s the link, check it out: https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Vampire20th
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/
You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages!
Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion Advance PDF glides in this Wednesday on DriveThruRPG.com!
Bill Bridge’s new W20 novel, The Song of Unmaking, is on sale in PDF/ePub/PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/208366/W20-The-Song-of-Unmaking and in ebook form on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VM2S3D/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1494441226&sr=1-1 !
The fabric of reality is cracking. Fissures appear in thin air, glowing with balefire. Something is scratching on the other side, pressing, beginning to break through….
The Wyrm’s corruption finds its way into the hearts of humans and Garou alike. Even an ultra-rational techno-cratic scientist can fall sway to its lies. Channeling his hate and resentment through the most sophisticated machine ever created, Basil Czajka has turned a tool designed to peer deep into the heart of the quantum universe into a nursery for the hatching of a horror — a creature whose birth cry is destined to unmake Gaia’s Song of Creation.
The only ones standing in his way are One-Song, a bro-ken-down old Theurge, and Lord Albrecht, whose heed-less anger might be the very weapon the enemy needs to crack the egg and free the Unmaker.
The Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Companion has arrived in PDF and PoD physical book versions at DriveThruRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/207879/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Dark-Eras-Companion
The Dark Eras Companion presents eleven new Eras for the Chronicles of Darkness. Stretching from Ancient Rome and Egypt through the Black Death, the Thirty Years War, the Reconstruction, and the Russian Revolution, the Companion showcases even more of the secret history of this eldritch world. Included in each era are “snapshots” of the various supernatural creatures, including vampires, changelings, mummies, and demons. Also included are lists of inspirational media to help you put these Eras in context for your troupe.
Open the Dark Eras Companion and take another look back in time.
V20 Lore of the Bloodlines awaits in PDF and physical book PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com!
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/207392/V20-Lore-of-the-Bloodlines
Lore of the Bloodlines is a single volume (created via Kickstarter) that revisits some of the bloodlines in Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, providing story hooks, character concepts, history, and bloodline-specific rules. The secrets of the Baali, Daughters of Cacophony, Gargoyles, Harbingers of Skulls, Kiasyd, Salubri, Samedi, and True Brujah are now yours.
Lore of the Bloodlines includes:
• The history, lore, and nightly practices of nine bloodlines, told from the perspective of the Kindred themselves.
• New combo Disciplines, powers, Merits, Flaws, and other rules specific to each bloodline.
• Revisions and updates of more classic Vampire: The Masquerade material to V20.
Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes for Beast: the Primordial, PoD and PDF versions is now on sale on DTRPG.com!
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202615/Night-Horrors-Conquering-Heroes
This book includes:
- An in-depth look at how Heroes hunt and what makes a Hero, with eleven new Heroes to drop into any chronicle.
- A brief look at why Beasts may antagonize one another, with seven new Beasts to drop into any chronicle.
- Rules for Insatiables, ancient creatures born of the Primordial Dream intent on hunting down Beasts to fill a hunger without end, featuring six examples ready to use in any chronicle.
From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Beneath the Skin (Demon and Skinchangers 1486-1502 Aztec Empire). Ahuitzotl sits on the throne at the height of the Aztec Empire, overseeing his sorcerer-priests’ sacrifices and the endless flower wars his jaguar and eagle warriors carry out in his name to keep the altars well-supplied with victims. The gears of the Aztec Empire turn smoothly and inexorably, but not everything is what it pretends to be. Skinchangers take the shapes of animals to run the wilds or bring down human prey, the Unchained cobble together identities from stolen lives, and stranger things still lurk in the deserts and jungles beyond the walls of Tenochtitlan.
On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/206028/Dark-Eras-Beneath-the-Skin-Skinchangers-and-Demon-the-Descent
From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Into the Cold (Demon: the Descent 1961 Berlin). East Germany erects a wall against its Western counterpart, turning West Berlin into an island within its own country. As the Cold War heats up, demons find themselves the targets of increasing human scrutiny, and begin to realize that the God-Machine’s plans didn’t end with the War.
On sale now in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/206081/Dark-Eras-Into-the-Cold-Demon-the-Descent
Beasts are added to Hunter: the Vigil with Hunter: Tooth and Nail, coming atcha in PDF and physical book Pod versions on DriveThruRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204066/Hunter-Tooth-and-Nail
Tooth and Nail is a bonus chapter/companion book to the previous released Hunter: Mortal Remains that explores antagonists inspired by the Beast: the Primordial RPG.
Hunter: Tooth and Nail includes:
- Fiction and story hooks to bring these beasts of legend to your Hunter: The Vigil chronicle.
- New bestial Dread Powers.
- New Compacts and Conspiracies which hunt the monsters, but also sometimes hunt the zealous heroes that hunt as well.
CONVENTIONS!
Discussing GenCon plans. August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Every chance the booth will actually be 20? x 30? this year that we’ll be sharing with friends. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s).
In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: https://www.gameholecon.com/
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)
- Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
- M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)
- DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)
- The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Redlines
- Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
Second Draft
- V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
- GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)
- Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
- Scion: Origins (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)
- WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)
- Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)
Development
- W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
- SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)
- Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)
- Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)
- Book of Freeholds (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
- BtP Beast Player’s Guide (Beast: the Primordial)
- M20 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)
- Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)
Editing:
- Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition
- Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Post-Editing Development:
Indexing:
ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:
In Art Direction
- Beckett’s Jyhad Diary
- W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook – AD’d
- Cavaliers of Mars
- Wraith 20
- W20 Changing Ways
- Ex3 Monthly Stuff
- Storypath Brochure
- VDA Jumpstart
- Scion Origins
- C20 Jumpstart
- Ring of Spiragos
- Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Waiting for the artnotes to arrive
In Layout
- M20 Art Book – In progress…
- Monarchies of Mau EA – PDF ready for KS.
- Gen Con Stuff
Proofing
- CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology
- M20 Book of Secrets – 2nd Proof
- BtP Building a Legend
- VTR: Thousand Years of Night
At Press
- Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.
- Dark Eras: To the Strongest – PoD proof on the way.
- EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart – PoD proof on the way.
- C20 Anthology – Files uploaded and processing.
- C20 – Out to backers, gathering errata.
- Pugmire – At Press
- Pugmire Screen – At Press
- Pugmire Cards & Dice – At Press, proofs on the way
- Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – At Press
- Dark Eras: The Wolf & Raven– PoD proof on the way.
- Dark Eras: Three Kingdoms of Darkness – Uploading files.
- Dagger of Spiragos (5e) – Out to backers.
- Dagger of Spiragos (PF) – Out to backers.
- V20 Dark Ages Companion – Advance PDF out Wednesday on DTRPG.
- Monarchies of Mau EA – Ready to roll out with KS
TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Monarchies of Mau! Mew.
Woohoo. I’m not so interested in World of Darkness but it does sound like they’re getting on their feet, so that’s good. Also nice to hear how Beckett’s seems to be the jumping point, good on everyone involved.
I passed over Pugmire but the Monarchies has my interest, would you suggest looking into Pugmire for more setting information, or do you think it will likely be contained in Monarchies stuff? I’m guessing Pugmire pdfs or something will be available as an add-on in the KS.
Reeeeeallly looking forward to a Thousand Years of Night, though, and hoping Werewolf gets something new. It’s my favorite and the writers have been killing it (like, writing excellent stuff, in a good way).
Well, Monarchies will have the setting from the Cats’ point of view and more about their area of the world, while Pugmire focuses on the Dogs’. And yes, there are a couple of MoM + Pugmire rewards. If you just want a Pugmire PDF, though, the BackerKit is still open for “pre-orders”.
The Monarchies of Mau Early Access is listed as being both in First Draft and At Press. Is that an error?
Fixed.
I like that things are going this well. I wish I had enough time and money to check all onyx path projects out but currently that’s not the case. Thankfully the work you did with CofD is amazing. I love the fact that unlike with other game series the core book really gives you everything you need to play over long periods of time. I hope future projects will stick to this “core book completion”.
Speaking of Future Projects. How is Scion doing? I know that I won’t get the PDF this month but I am hungering for news.
Also… thanks to those editors.
Like Neall noted in the Scion Backer Updates, it is going well, but slower than he’d like. Mostly due to arranging the availability of the various experts he has reviewing the text for accuracy, I think. Should have another Backer Update going up soon.
Is the V20 Dark Ages Companion something Kickstarter backers get or was that separate?
It is a separate book, and so will be available to everyone, whether they backed V20 Dark Ages or not.
**Warning, this post has sarcasim, humor and is meant to be taken as constructive criticism. The easily offended and those that prefer playing in the World of Abient Lighting, read at your own risk.**
Is Mage the Awakening still a thing? Core book has been out over a year and then… nothing. I guess I am getting old, I thought buying games lead to furthering the game line.
Feels like every 3rd week I get a feed from my Exalted kickstarter account about new progress being made on “Weasle the Unkempt.” Exalted 3rd ed, the game that fans dumped over $500,000 of support behind in 2013, “…can’t give you any specifics right now but we might have something to speculate on GENCON… 2025.”
“Jaberwoky”, the game I never knew I wanted to play, gets airtime every week from the Monday Meeting Notes. Signs of Sorcery for Mage the Awakening, a platinum title on DTRPG, has been listed “in development” hell since October of 2016 with nary a comment from dev or publisher in almost an Atlantean Age.
I have loved WW/Op games for decades but the last few years just feel like a strain. The ills that have plagued Ex3 and Wraith20 do not feel as if they are being fixed. If anything they seem to be leeching over into other product lines. Whats going to be announced this week? Some writers C64 tapedrive backup went down and lost all the capitalization from the last index so the book will have to be rewritten from the original translation in old Enochian? Shit happens, that is the way of the world but I thought managment was there to set milestone, keep projects moving foreward, and (occasionaly, not perpetually) spin some damage control.
Onyx Path puts out some damn high quality products (barring the layout and editing glitches of Ex3) that are so nice I spend extra $ just to buy pod copies of most books so that my originals will NEVER touch the game table. But new books have to come out to keep the game line ALIVE! I want to buy more books for Ex3, M20, Mage Awakening, Scion and Abberant. I want to see those games grow and flourish! I know Op is not the old WW. Expecting new material to be published every 30/60 or even 90 days for every game line is a dream of days long past. But if a game line can not realisticly support putting out one new book a year (not a DELUXE vXX, a fatsplat, but any book of 95+ pages with art) then maybe that game line should be put on hold (and that hold be made public knowledge!) until a time that it can receive the focus it is due.
Years ago this use to make me angry. Later it made me frustrated. Now, now I am just starting to feel ambivilant. Ambivilance, that is a word I NEVER thought I would associate with WW/Op.
Specifically, we’ve talked a bit in these comments about M2 and Dave Brookshaw has noted how he is juggling projects during a trying time for him, but you might have missed that.
In general, for our first five years of business we were concentrating on Returning, Rejuvenating, and Revising for WoD with the 2oths, CofD with the 2nd Editions, and EX3 with being its new edition. A lot of our thinking was to dispel the acidic idea that “White Wolf Is Dead”. During that time our model of developer-run hubs of creators was sorely tested and the one area that was the sorest was the idea of giving the creative team the time it took to make their project awesome. I’m not walking that back, and our emphasis is still going to be on the highest quality projects, but as I said in my blogs in January, we now have grown to a size and specifically towards having folks actually in Onyx that can assist developers or assist structuring replacement developers if that is necessary.
We’ve already made some changes (that have freaked out some of our community) specifically to address the concerns you are voicing, and are assisting several devs towards finishing up and/or structuring their projects. In some cases, you’ll be seeing things pop forward, and in others, it may take longer depending on just what the problems are that have to be surmounted.
But surmount them we will, as we have every other challenge these first years have thrown at us. To look at two of the projects you mentioned: Exalted 3rd has shipped its Deluxe books and accessories, and we’re starting to get movement on the remaining Stretch Goal projects, while at the same time we have moved in a new development team that is active and responsive to our community. We’ve also added a couple of releases that can be coming out monthly and that don’t tax the new devs so they can concentrate on digging out of the project hole they inherited. Making these changes has not been without upset and controversy, but we made them with the good of EX3 in mind.
In the case of Wraith20, we have worked with Rich Dansky to finalize the text he has worked so long and hard on, even after the latest of his freak accidents, because I truly believe that no one could have stepped in and given Wraith fans the 20th Anniversary celebration edition they deserve. That text is finally all in editing in its completed and formatted state, and we are working with RichD on a battle plan to tackle the other Wraith20 projects that came out of the KS.
In the case of Ex3, drastic changes were made in order to keep the line rolling, and in the case of Wraith20, our assistance was enough to get RichD to the finish line with his text. All of our lines are getting the same efforts from our internal team here at Onyx Path, and for those lines or projects that don’t require it, we’re giving them boosts and support in other ways, like through talking about them on this blog every week.
Out of curiosity, why is pre-order in quotation marks above in reference to Beckett’s Jyhad Diary?
Because we really don’t do true pre-orders like in the old days, but a fair number of our community members would expect the BK pre-orders to function exactly the same way as they did then. Don’t want false expectations, because Kickstarter and BackerKit are different animals, and we’re still working out the nuances of how they can work together for us.
Hi Rich,
Have you worked out how the individual exalted pieces are going to be rolled up for purchase? I want all of them, and also want the collected PDF, but don’t want to pay for them twice so I haven’t purchased the first on yet.
Also, I’m super excited to see Arms advance to editing. You never lost mine, but I think getting it out along the stated schedule will go a long way to regaining confidence.
Hey Chazz, ask me again next week and I’ll have a more concrete answer for you. Our new Exalted devs are working hard to dig out of the hole, and we’re certainly hoping that Arms and the ongoing monthly releases and excerpts will demonstrate our commitment to EX3 and providing that community ongoing regular new ideas and material for everyone to read and play with, while they bend all their efforts towards finishing the two big Realm and Dragon Blooded books coming up next.
Thanks! I’ll ask again. I’ve been very happy with the new development team for Exalted and have enjoyed engaging with them on the forum.
VtM5??? Oh yes please. Curious how the kindred would play out in modern nights. Would things still be the gothic-punk world of the 1990s? Or especially with all of the advancements that have happened – culturally, socially, technologically – something else?
Also, how do you keep the Masquerade in a time when every phone has a hi-res video camera, and can upload to social media as it records?
With the Gen Con Event Listing going up this past Sunday, I noticed there were no Exalted 3rd Ed. games being ran? Do you know if there are any plans to add an Exalted game?
Also, will any of the Exalted and/or Beast Devs be at Gen Con this this year? I would love to bring my physical books for signing 🙂
Can’t wait for Arms of the Chosen, so happy to see it in editing!
I’ll be at GenCon. If you can find me, I’m happy to sign something. 🙂
Fantastic, thank you! Are you speaking at any of The Onyx Path panels?
It’s been a while since we have gotten backer updates on the development of M20 Gods&Monsters and book of the fallen. Is everything OK? It’s just strange to me how the year started off strong with awesome updates and now it’s all quite on the Satyr front again.
If people want a taste of WoD Berlin, myself and Mike were there for Darker Days Radio as the official podcast.
We ran a live blog of the event for Beasts of War. http://www.beastsofwar.com/eventslist/world-of-darkness-berlin-live-blog/
Also, not on that link, our some more audio we recorded, in particular our talk we gave which was about Chronicles of Darkness. Or how to use it.
https://soundcloud.com/chris-handley/darker-days-radio-building-your-chronicles-of-worlds-of-darkness
The slides for it are here.
http://darkerdaysradio.webege.com/WoD-Berlin-talk-final.html#/