Monday Meeting 2!
… yeah, numbering these is going to get irritating really fast. Let’s forget that I ever used to do that.
Project Status
- Strangeness ebook — To Layout
- Vampire 20th — To PoD Layout
- Dust to Dust — To Layout
- Strange, Dead Love — Editing
- Imperial Mysteries — Development/Prep for Editing
- Victorian Lost — Still Outlining
- House Divided SAS #2 — Starting to Discuss
- Free RPG Day 2012 — Starting to Discuss
- Mummy — Working on Bible
- V20 Companion — First Draft
- Werewolf 20th — Working on Bible
Meeting Notes
- Rich talks about the wedding he went to in New York before Justin pings us on Skype. We switch over to Skype to talk to him.
- The three of us talking about never name-dropping Ian Watson again, and the possible return of Gary Madeupington to Dallas.
- V20 sales over the weekend were really good.
- A gunshot rings out on Justin’s end. He seems unimpressed, and tweets about it.
- Some discussion about getting the word out on projects like V20 Companion, and capitalizing on moments of interest as we go forward.
- (Which reminds me — I need to talk to the Ink Monkeys pretty soon.)
- I point out that I don’t believe there are hordes of fans who like just one of our games. Anecdotal evidence implies to me that there are many of like more than one White Wolf game, and the idea of just a “Vampire” fan or just a “Exalted” fans seems weirder.
- Rich mentions that he thinks Mage 20th would do really well, if we were to do it. This leads to a lengthy discussion and debate about how such a hypothetical game would be made, and I reiterate some of the discussions I had at Grand Masquerade on the topic.
- Back on topic, we kick around ideas on how we might be able to show community-contributed content on the PDF to people who might be interested in such things. Finding the right balance between making that kind of “director’s commentary” style material easily available but not intrusive may be tricky.
- Rich and Justin talk about getting kicked out of hotels.
- We talk a bit about how things are going with getting V20 and supporting products in the hands of translators. Discussions are ongoing (and largely outside of my earshot). As part of that, we consider the idea of moving Hunters Hunted 2 up in the schedule.
- Justin has to go, but Rich and I talk about the ongoing work to reformat the novel Strangeness in the Proportion, which is still trickier than we thought.
- Finally, Rich and I talk over the Mummy bible before we kick it into the next round of discussion.
Reason to Drink: On October 3rd, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe was found in a gutter in Baltimore under mysterious circumstances. If it’s good enough for Poe, it’s good enough for you.
“The three of us talking about never name-dropping Ian Watson again”
Aw.
Never heard of ya.
Mage 20th would be awesome, it’s a long wait (2013) but worth it!
It will complete the trilogy 😀
Thanks for the update Eddy.
Yeah. I will buy V20 and W20 just so there’s an M20, if needs be. 😉 Does want.
I’m not going to lie — whether we do an M20 does depend somewhat on how well W20 and other Onyx Path classic World of Darkness books do.
Of Course Eddy, if the books don’t sell, it’s almost impossible to produce the others.
I’m waiting for my copy of V20; and can’t for seeing some of W20!
And most certainly I’m buying all Classic WoD books from the Onyx path; but I know that doesn’t guarantees Mage 20th edition.
So, let’s cross fingers and hope for the fans to walk the path 🙂
Nice ending, Andres. 🙂
Thanks Rich!
I remember when I get to the last page of the V20 PDF, and saw the Onyx titles… it was glorious; breathtaking; a nostalgic backlash 🙂
eeee M20. I’m already looking forward to W20, so the idea of M20 is very exciting. (almost as exciting as revised Changeling… >.>)
It’s very cool to see books for -my- games being published again, and actually makes me more willing to try NWoD, as strange as it sounds. 🙂
Good to hear that that gunshot didn’t apparently hit any of you, guys.
I think it’s fantastic you have actually talked about this. Which languages are being considered? Will the translation projects be open development too so that we can avoid the awful translations we got in the past?
I don’t have any information on details — only that translations are being talked about in other parts of the company. Since individual translators conduct their translations as they see fit (they are basically licensing the material from us), it would be up to them whether they are open development or not.
Distribution-wise it would be great if translations would be a product of an open development process supervised by you guys as most licensees don’t publish their stuff as PoD on DrivethruRPG (most are still very cautious concerning digital distribution really).
Even in the case of the Brazilian Portuguese edition it would be very effortless getting myself a copy sent here to Portugal (because of taxes and shipping cost and all) as Lightning Source has printers in UK. And I wouldn’t mind if you published an European Portuguese edition of V20, though… I would love it! 🙂
On the other hand, the body of work already translated by the licensees gives them the needed experience in avoiding some translation pitfalls they may have knowledge of in the past. And possibly gives them the ability to do it faster than others could.
I am going to hurt you, Mariano.
I still wake up in the dead of night screaming at the memories (repressed) of the horrid translations of Vampire to portuguese.
Also. Mage 20. Yes, please. YES PLEASE. YE–you get the idea.
….changeling20pliztoo? *hopeful*
Thanks for maintaing this blog (and the podcast). It’s always good for the fans to be able to watch how things are developing. (It also minimizes the doom-and-gloom crowd who say White Wolf is dead.)
You’re right about the bleed-over effect in terms of game appeal. Due to my enjoyment of CWoD, a friend talked me into getting in Exalted when it first came out, and I immensely enjoyed the game at the time. Real-life issues took precedence and so we never got back into it. I plan on it, even if it’s with a new group.
And M20? I’m thinking that I don’t really need both kidneys after all, long as M20 comes out. 😉 On the topic of development, what does the bible stage mean? (Sidenote here: I’d be intrigued by a metaplot encyclopedia-style book. CWoD had so much going on, I’d love to be able to see it all compiled. Just a fan-boy’s idea.)
The bible is the document in which the goals and needs of the project are spelled out, so we can communicate our vision for the book to freelancers (and, ultimately, to the community during open development). In smaller projects this is covered in the outline, but a bible needs to cover a lot more ground, so it’s much more focused on what the direction of the book is and why it’s going in that direction.
Woooo! monday meeting is back.
Looking forward to having the ink monkeys back also! 🙂
I’ve followed quite a few of white wolfs lines over the years, exalted might be my favorite but our group allways like to try out new systems.
*Stands and speaks solemnly* Hi, I’m Virtueboy, and I’m an Exalted addict. *People mumble ‘Hi Virtueboy’*
“Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to kick the habit since 2001 when Exalted first came out. I don’t truly aim to try. I don’t really see any point in continuing this farce of a meeting. So. Who brought their d10s?”
*everyone waves their hands ecstatically*
Yes, yes you do.
Well, at least insofar as some of us are eagerly anticipating the return of the Ink Monkey’s blog. Which has been promised since the change in webhosts this spring.
Just sayin’. >.>
I would like to see something for demon the fallen as well, I always thought the game got cut way to short and there was still a lot of area to explore for it
“I point out that I don’t believe there are hordes of fans who like just one of our games. Anecdotal evidence implies to me that there are many of like more than one White Wolf game, and the idea of just a “Vampire” fan or just a “Exalted” fans seems weirder.”
Speaking as a White Wolf Superfan From Back In The Day, I think that used to be the case. At this point though, I actually know very few people (actually, no one) who actively follow multiple lines. The closest I see are folks who own the core books from multiple lines (usually from Vampire/Mage/Werewolf/Changeling/Exalted), and, just maybe, some of the peripheral books from one of them. Nothing that’s going to result in sustained sales, though.
Blackwell about covered it. While there were several now discontinued lines I enjoyed at once, the only one I still care for at all is Exalted. And I can tell you that everyone in my present playgroup is largely the same.
I imagine other playgroups also have a single game they favor. So your generalization may be incorrect, Eddy. Sorry.
Sure, there are plenty of people who prefer one to the exclusion of any other game. However, after talking to hundreds of fans over the years, that still appears to be the minority view. But I appreciate continuing to get data – it helps to refine things!
I very respectfully suggest that you consider your sample bias. Obviously, I have no idea who you have talked to or when, but I can’t imagine that the White Wolf fans who choose to engage with members of the company are representative of the market as a whole.
If people who actively follow all or most of your lines are the majority of your market, I will eat my hat.
Thanks for the thought!
I will send you my $$$ for WW20 and M20 now, if that would help get M20 kudos =P. I am not even a big Werewolf fan, but if it will get some momentum behind M20, sign me up!
nothing like being late to the party.. M20, Yes Please! on the one condition that you get Jonathan Tweet involved! He IS Mage: the Ascension … all the way back to the ancient days of Lion Rampant Games’ Ars Magica… to do M20 w/o JT would be heresy!