And if I do want to write it down, I can do it in one of our many fine blank journals with covers specific to our game lines on our RedBubble site! Yay!
Actually, not really my thing, but a bunch of our community seem to really like them, so it’s cool that folks now can get journals decorated with appropriate graphics and images from their favorite setting(s). And making these items of merchandise, as well as shirts and hoodies and phone cases, etc, is not only pretty simple for Mirthful Mike to put together, but is something that he can do to take a break from the more involved graphic design, layout, and art direction he does.
Many of our merch items are something the Mirthful One gets an idea for and puts together because he thinks that it’ll be cool for somebody “out there”. We all have our ways of reinvigorating our creative efforts, and this is one of Mike’s.
Which I can’t complain about, since the RedBubble merchandise has been great for making sure that we continue our New Things For Sale Every Wednesday pattern that we’ve been doing almost as long as Onyx Path has been around. (We like giving you all something new every Wednesday to have fun with if it sounds good to you). With a ton of new projects getting started, including a lot of Kickstarter Stretch Goal projects, and with our schedule-killers, like Wraith 20 or Signs of Sorcery, getting finished, and with us now putting some KS’d projects into stores before DTRPG, there have been big gaps in terms of when things are releasing.
Which is why having Mirthful Mike pop up at the Monday Meeting and say that he has another idea for a RedBubble item is such a break for all of our processes: we get cool items for Wednesday but none of our creative teams have to crunch in order to deliver one of their projects for that day.
<Insert “clever” segue here>
What I do use blank journals for, is to write down notes when I’m at conventions. Sometimes meeting notes, sometimes brainstorms, sometimes just random thoughts. One series of pages are the ad campaign for Pugmire, all designed in a burst of inspiration in the bar at the MidWinter convention. But, I’ll send an email to myself if it’s something I need to act on soon; the journal is more to let me review my notes later if I need them.
I’ll also make notes about the conventions themselves, like whether the booth location or set-up was working, or the overall tone of the con; were attendees excited or was this the same-old, same-old. Were we seeing a lot of folks from past cons, or new people? That sort of info, useful for deciding whether the convention was a good fit for what we were trying to do there.
We’re always looking at our con strategies and deciding how or whether we should attend. We’re really trying to make sure that the specific convention is actually paying off for us. One might be where we focus on showing off WoD games, another might be where we stress Scarred Lands and Realms of Pugmire to a crowd mostly into D&D-style games.
Right now, Mighty Matt McElroy is finalizing plans for PAX Unplugged and Game Hole Con in November, but individually we have some other appearances happening:
Monica Valentinelli will be a professional guest at Great Falls Gaming Convention in Montana this first week of October. http://gfgr.org/guests-of-
Eddy Webb will be speaking at SIEGE in Atlanta to talk about Kickstarters. His panel is Oct 6 at 2pm. Info on the show is here: https://siegecon.net/
Dixie Cochran will be at High Level Games Con in Atlantic City, Oct. 12-14, where she’s on the panel “Women in Game Design,” and running Eddy’s developer bootcamp, and also DJing the Pandaemonium blockbuster LARP Friday and Saturday night!
Eddy and I will be at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, I’ll be on panels and kibitzing, and we’ll sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.
Dixie will then be at Metatopia in Morristown, NJ, Nov. 1-4 where she’ll be playtesting, hanging out, and possibly doing a podcasting panel!
Then we’ll slide right through the holiday season into mid-January at MidWinter, where we’ll be having our annual Onyx Path Summit, where we’ll actually all get to see each other in person and have some fun, and one of the topics will be our convention attendance for 2019. We’ve learned a lot this last year, and will be de-emphasizing some conventions quite a lot, and adding demos and playtests and attendance to some others.
We do this because conventions, for us, aren’t planned to make us cash, but to further our communication and outreach with all of you and the gamers out there who don’t know us. It’s part of our overall efforts, that include more online presence and actual play gaming.
For the latter, a shout out to our friends at The Story Told RPG Podcast, who are wrapping up their coverage of Changeling 20th at http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/ I hear that Scion discussions and interviews may be coming soon!
For the former, our own Onyx Pathcast just put out an episode Friday where the Terrific Trio talk creative influences in their work from other pop-culture media, and this Friday they are trapped in the world of Neall Raemonn Price, as they interview the red-headed stranger himself. As always, available on PodBean https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/ or on your favorite podcast venue.
So when you write about us in your journal, and you will, be kind. We are but poor strutting players dedicated to creating for you:
Many Worlds, One Path!
BLURBS!
KICKSTARTER:
Lo the darkness that lies like a pall over Chicago. The V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter arises in October!
ELECTRONIC GAMING:
As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now 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 both rolling and rocking!
Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:
http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en
Three different screenshots, above.
And our latest, the dice for Werewolf: The Forsaken 2e:
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 you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!
Our selection includes these fiction books:
- Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)
- Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)
- Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)
- Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)
- Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)
- Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)
- Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)
- Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)
- Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)
- V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)
- Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)
- Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)
- Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)
OUR SALES PARTNERS:
We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!
https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire
Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/
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/
And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296
DRIVETHRURPG.COM:
This Wednesday we have Vampire: The Requiem blank Clan Journals materializing at our RedBubble store!
CONVENTIONS!
From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:
Monica Valentinelli will be a professional guest at Great Falls Gaming Convention in Montana the first week of October. http://gfgr.org/guests-of-
Dixie Cochran will be at High Level Games Con in Atlantic City October 12-14, running a Women in Game Design panel, Eddy’s RPG Developer Bootcamp, and possibly making a surprise appearance at another event!
And now, the new project status updates!
DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST 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)
- C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
- M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)
- Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)
- City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)
- Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)
- Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)
- Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)
- Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)
Redlines
- Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)
- Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
- Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)
Second Draft
- Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)
- Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)
- CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)
- V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)
Development
- Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)
- CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)
- Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)
- Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)
- Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)
- M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)
- In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)
- WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)
- Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
Manuscript Approval:
- Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
Editing:
- Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)
- Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
Post-Editing Development:
- Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
- Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
- Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)
- Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau) (With Eddy)
Indexing:
ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:
In Art Direction
- Dystopia Rising: Evolution
- M20: Gods and Monsters – AD’d and Contracted.
- Geist 2e
- The Realm
- Trinity Continuum (Aeon and Core) – Contracted.
- Ex3 Monthly Stuff
- Chicago By Night – KS art sketches and finals coming in.
- Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats
Marketing Stuff
In Layout
- Trinity Core
- Trinity Aeon
- Ex3 Dragon Blooded
Proofing
- Scion Hero – Need Neal’s 2nd proof changes.
- PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented – Corrections over to KT.
- Scion Origin – Doing Neall’s errata changes, and swapping out the font.
- VtR: Guide to the Night
- Fetch Quest – Package design done
At Press
- Monarchies of Mau – Printing. Dice and buttons printing.
- Cavaliers of Mars – At Studio2. PoD proofs coming.
- Wraith 20th – Prepping the Deluxe files.
- Monarchies of Mau Screen – At Studio2.
- Cavaliers of Mars Screen – At Studio2.
- Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.
- Scion Dice – At Studio2.
- Cav Talent cards – PoD proof coming.
- Lost 2e Screen – Prepping files.
- Prince’s Gambit core deck and booster PoD – PoD proof coming.
- Changeling: The Lost 2e – Prepping files for printer.
- Requiem Clan Journals – Going on sale at RedBubble Wednesday!
TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Today is the first day of October, and the first of Inktober which starts tons of artists around the world doing an ink drawing each day of the month. I’m doing it, and it’s fun!
On the Realm, do you have any details? Like, are we waiting on sketches? Finals? Is that on hold while artists are working on other projects?
I don’t want to pry or push or anything, I’d just like a better sense of where that project currently sits, like we got for DBs with the “Finals coming in” notes and stuff.
I post pretty much all the info that Mirthful Mike gives me each week. Those are the updates he’s comfortable in giving out. He used to pretty much update each project each week, but a few members of our community began posting accusatory and nasty comments based on the amount of effort and speed _they_ thought he should be spending. He was not happy, and when the Mirthful One is unhappy, all of Onyx Path is unhappy because Mike is our Scotty on the Enterprise. He keeps things running and is our miracle worker. And you know what happens when you rush a miracle… So I respect his wishes and only post the info he sends – although our discussions are far more in-depth and encompassing.
Are there any new Werewolf the Apocalypse 20 Products planned?
Books like Beckett‘s Diary or Dark Eras would be awesome!
We have some ideas still pending. A lot relies on WW’s plans for W5.
Will we still be getting Tribebook: Bunyip? I see it’s no longer listed under upcoming projects.
We’ll let you know if work starts on that – no worries.
Awesome. Thank you.
I’ve been using one of the journals to write up and draw horrible depictions of ephemerals I come up with when away from my usual gaming stuff.
Nice! You’ve turned it into your Bestiary.
Well. Look at changeling getting ready to print. Does that bode well for the pod and the backers pod discount?
Setting the C20 players guide in Manuscript Approval is amazing. There are so many juicy tidbits in that book I am really looking forward to finding into my games.
Hi! I have a question. I’m picking my brains out trying to get CoD books without having to pay three, four times in international delivery. Is there any other place (other than Drivethrurpg, that is) where I can get a reasonable deal for these books?
It is a pity that, being CoD my favorite gameline, I still don’t own a single core book in my book shelf.
Seconded! After paying Canadian exchange [out of your control, I know] and shipping, the cost of PoD books for CoD is just way too high – and I don’t have any either, for just that reason. Is there any way to spread a little love to Canada?
Unfortunately at the moment DriveThruRPG is the only source to purchase our books in either PDF or PoD.
Other solutions involve teaming up with a bunch of others to order a number of different products together, and save on combined shipping, or trying the secondary market, like eBay.
Richard, I can’t help but notice that you were an artist for the Rage collectable card game?
Yes, I certainly was. RAGE, VTES, Arcadia, Doomtown, Feng-Shui, a couple of BattleTech and Netrunner cards besides the Magic art, IIRC.
Is Guide to the Night in the process of proofing or just in the queue to go through it next? Eager for that book!
It’s currently in the final proof with Danielle.
Greetings Everyone,
Might I ask what is the best medium to discuss the Onyx Pathcast? I sometimes attempts to launch discussion on particularly interesting topics from the episodes or answer questions that were specifically asked to the fans and can’t seem to find the correct place to do so.
My best guess is on the forums, but there isn’t a separate section for the pathcast.
Thanks
Perhaps we should look into adding a bit in the forums for the Pathcast. I can’t point you somewhere for discussion right now, though we’re best reached here or through Twitter for direct questions.
Hi Dixie!
Thanks for getting back to me. If here is the place, I will copy/paste what I tried to post on the forum. This was in response to the 20th episode.
“Hello Onyx Pathcast!
First off, great episode! I just ate it like candy. When you said it was almost over I literally went “What? But it just started?”, sure enough, reality did not agree with me. So, thanks for that very entertaining hour and great ideas for new shows to watch! Also, Buffy FOREVER.
Now, to answer your question, when you asked us to post ideas for topics. Here are my thoughts.
1 – Thought experiments/Experimental Game Design
May be it’s just me but I love hearing about how you approach design problems and your core design philosophies. As an extention to that, I think it might be interesting to do discuss experimental game design. For example, if you were free of any concerns for page count, budget and marketability, what would your dream game look like? What next-big evolution to how we approach gaming, tell stories or design games would you like to usher in? How would you adapt a seemingly incompatible type of game to tabletop? For example, Eddy once mentioned Castlevania – an exploration focused game – how exactly would you tackle adapting that? How would you adapt something like Myst? It’s already been adapted, but, how would you do it? For example, amazing as the adaptation is, it ignored the puzzle element of the video games, is this something you would have done? How would you integrate them as a core mechanic?
2 – Inheritence
In episode 19 with Phil, there was a very interesting question near the end. You asked, if he hadn’t inherited mage, if he had been in charge from day one, how different would it have been? That was a brilliant question and a fascinating topic that could be reused. How would Justin have done Vampire if he’d been in charge from day one? How would Ethan have shaped Werewolf? What about the current generation of developers working on the 20th editions and the 5th editions, what would they have done differently if they had been in charge 20+ years ago?
Similarly, how has working on those games influenced their approach to later games. In what ways has years of working on Vampire, Werewolf, Mages, etc. shaped the way they designed their next games where they were in charge from day one.
Hope this is of some use to you guys and thanks again for a consistently entertaining podcast.”
These are both really cool ideas, and I’m definitely happy to both discuss some of the things you mentioned (schedule depending) and also ask that question of more folks. Thank you for listening, and yes, Buffy forever! 🙂
Awesome! 😀
Can we get more information about Deviant: The Renegades?
I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve seen/heard anything.
Seconded! I’m very interested in this one.
Well, with the text being in Redlines it’s really tough to pull excerpts until the changes are being implemented. I’m sure once they’ve finished that stage, there will be time and stable text that can be shared.
Cool! If this one goes to Kickstarter, I’ll be one of the first backers.
Have you looked at coming to any of the cons in California? Like DunDraCon in February or KublaCon in May, both in the San Francisco Bay Area.
West Coast is toughest for us since none of the core Onyx folks are based out there. Midwest to East Coast (and Canada) and then across to the UK means that we look at those locations first. Sometimes some of our demo team friends will hit cons in the western part of the US/Canada, though.