You’ll be Superamalgamated!
And you’ll be Superamalgamated!
And you’ll be Superamalgamated, too!
We’ll all be Superamalgamated!
The original is a line used by Johnny (William Harper Littlejohn) – one of Doc Savage’s team of adventurers sometimes called the Fabulous Five – in the Doc Savage pulp novels. I admit to adding a little Oprah-style excitement to the above, though. Which, of course, brings us to:
We’re heading towards finishing the second week of the Trinity Continuum: Adventure! Kickstarter and things are looking great! Thanks so much to all of you who have pledged and pushed us to achieve nine Stretch Goals when I write this, including two sets of Ready Made Character, a Jumpstart, and the start of both the TC: Adventure! Addendum companion book and Thrilling Tales which take the Tales of the Aeon Society radio drama and turns each chapter into a playable adventure!
And we’re not even half-way over!
In keeping with last week, I’d like to continue to try and touch a bit on why the pulp genre seems like such a rich genre for TTRPGs to me. It’s less about the time period in terms of aesthetics – although Art Deco buildings and zeppelins are very cool – or even the powers – although they really ran the gamut of powers if you look at all of the pulp novels that came out – and more the possibilities of that time.
Could hypnotism “cloud men’s minds”? Could a city of intelligent gorillas be hidden by their advanced technology? Could a regular human, through daily scientific exercises, train up to the limits of human power? Could a “shock to the system” paralyze someone’s face and leave them able to mold their faces to impersonate evil-doers?
We probably have some doubts about these things now, but then, in those novels, those things were possible. And if they were possible, that was enough to form the basis of flights of the imagination as evil-doers met the smashing fists and knock-out bullets of our heroes. (Or in the case of The Shadow, twin streams of deadly slugs from his matching .45s – he was The Shadow, after all).
I showed you some actual pulp magazines from the 1930s last week, but I do keep referring to pulp novels this week. That’s because, with the advent of paperback books post-WW2, the pulp magazine stories were republished in paperback form. My copy of The Man of Bronze, the first Doc Savage story, has a 1964 copyright date.
Hmmm, right around the start of the Marvel Age of comics which were greatly influenced by the pulps Stan Lee had read in his teenage years.
These paperbacks extended into new generations an interest in the pulp genre, and it’s because of them that we first published Adventure! and now TC: Adventure!. How is that, you ask? As a picture is worth a thousand words:
I’ve added to the collection over the years, but the core was dozens of paperbacks amassed by my grandfather, a pipe-coverer who liked to read thrilling adventures during his lunch breaks and always had a paperback in his lunch pail. There were a crap-ton of Doc Savage novels, and a hefty bunch of a less-successful pulp series called The Avenger, and their dramatic covers fascinated me as a child, while their exploits thrilled me as a young teen.
It was from them that I back-tracked to The Shadow, and eventually sideways into Weird Tales, and Conan, etc. What was great for TTRPGs is that both of the series my grandfather collected featured pulp hero groups that often propelled the story as much as the main lead character. It’s a lot easier to dial back that main character for TTRPGs (or make the leader a slightly bemused time traveler who isn’t always there) so that all the players are important, than with something like (sorry, Eddy) Sherlock Holmes’ stories.
So, when I hear pulp, that’s what I think of. This generational treasure trove of wild ideas and adventures. And for those Adventure! fans out there, my grandfather never went on any safaris, but his name was Jack Tallon.
I mentioned throughout the M20 Victorian Age campaign on Indiegogo that the next stage of the efforts would be on BackerKit. Then we opened up the BK portion to be a continuation of the Indiegogo campaign so that folks who weren’t able to join there could still be involved as backers, and so the Stretch Goals could still be achieved.
So, we’re almost ready and we’re looking forward to hearing from all of you who missed the campaign as the BackerKit “Pre-order store” will be up and running on WEDNESDAY – here’s the link:
https://victorian-mage-ttrpg.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
Our Superamalagorgeous Meeting!
No big announcements this week, folks – sorry! But we did have plenty to talk about.
Like everyone’s reaction to the Scion TV development announcement – which was fantastic, and much appreciated! Glad folks are excited about it and already theorizing on what it’ll be about. Hey, we don’t even know for sure yet! We just know it’s a long road still for our friends at J&K as they put together their pitch and start pitching! Here’s to us getting a home run!
(Which I know is an inaccurate use of the metaphor, but all metaphors are true. That’s a saying, right?)
Dixie wants me to let all of you know that she’s been thrilled to add several more editors to our team thanks to my mentioning us looking for them a few weeks ago, here on the MMN blog. So, that still goes: we are still looking to expand our editing crew. Apply on our website if you think it’s something you’d be great at!
Sales-wise, we’re doing something this next week that I don’t think we’ve ever pulled off before, but we’re not afraid to dare the fates: it’s a triple-venue sale of Cavaliers of Mars books and the Screen at DTRPG, IPR (Indie Press Revolution), and Studio 2 all at the same time! Links below in the Sales area!
We did a bunch of discussing of our plans for the 2021 Onyx Path Virtual Convention coming in June. We have a tentative line-up of times for Actual Plays, demos, and panels, and now we’re looking at just what games should be featured. And for the panels, we have a few must-haves like What’s Up With Onyx Path?, but what other topics do we need to examine in the panels?
If you folks have thoughts on what sort of panel topics you’d like to see, please do go ahead and give us your thoughts in the Comments below. No guarantees that your idea will be used, but we would rather put in the effort to pull a panel together that we know some of our audience is going to be into than to just roll with more of our usual silly banter!
I mean, that’s gonna happen anyway!
Thanks, and as always, we appreciate it each and every time you take the time to let us know what you think. After all, we’re all together in this wild quest to visit:
Many Worlds, One Path!
BLURBS!
Kickstarter!
The Trinity Continuum: Adventure! Kickstarter has been running a few days short of two weeks, and we have already achieved 9 Stretch Goals including two sets of Ready Made Characters and a Jumpstart, plus two chapters each of the TC: Adventure! Addendum (hide-outs and strange new life) and Thrilling Tales – a book of adventures from the Tales of the Aeon Society audio drama!
Join us for two-fisted action in a world on the cusp of World War Two! Check it out! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-adventure-tabletop-roleplaying-game
Onyx Path Media!
This week: The Trio once again AGAIN delve deep into our mailbags for their third informative and hilarious foray into the messages and missives sent our way by all of you inquisitive fans!
As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/
Polyhedron interviewed the incredibly talented Danielle Lauzon and Eddy Webb regarding the Adventure! RPG! Do check out their interview right here: http://metahedronstudios.com/polyhedron/2021/4/1/polyhedron-ep-129-are-you-ready-for-adventure?
Jumpstart month continues for Onyx Path media! We’re running one of every Jumpstart we can for our games, introducing them to new players and putting them in the hands of GMs skilled at some games, but new to these ones! We would love it if you checked some of these out, to maybe get acquainted for the first time with some of our games! Check out the schedule and tune in!
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, there’s a bumper harvest of videos scheduled for you:
- Trinity Continuum: Adventure! – Vorpal Tales
- Scarred Lands – Dead Man’s Rust – Red Scar Gaming
- Scion – Become as Gods – Powered by Astral
- V5 – Styx & Bones – Table Goth
- Changeling: The Dreaming Jumpstart Pt. 2
- PICK OF THE WEEK – They Came from Beneath the Sea! Jumpstart – Haunted Chronicles
- Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Jumpstart – Vorpal Tales
- Trinity Continuum: Aberrant – Utopia North – Dork Tales
- Scarred Lands – Pirates of Bloodwater – Devil’s Luck
- Hunter: The Vigil – Anomalies Unbound – Devil’s Luck
- Vampire: The Requiem Jumpstart
- CofD: Dark Eras: The Wyrd West – Haunted Chronicles
The pick of the week for this week is the They Came from Beneath the Sea! Jumpstart! Not only are the Haunted Chronicles gang an incredibly entertaining group of roleplayers, but I have a certain amount of bias regarding Beneath the Sea!…. Check out their game!
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:
Scion – Become as Gods – Episode 7 – https://youtu.be/zUn-Kx4wgV4
Hunter: The Vigil 2E – Stuffed – Episode 10 – https://youtu.be/O2xaTitKb3c
Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale – Episode 12 –https://youtu.be/TomvgUQ4dn8
Changeling: The Lost – Spreeepark – Episode 1 – https://youtu.be/r_Pgpld3ez4
Scarred Lands – Dead Man’s Rust – Episode 1 Part 1 – https://youtu.be/5m-zpmnHOkQ
Scarred Lands – Dead Man’s Rust – Episode 1 Part 2 – https://youtu.be/_vttHIZhD8k
Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!
Over on ExalTwitch they’ve been running some amazing games of Exalted, and even have a show wiki for viewers to follow along! ExalTwitch: Academy is set in The House of Bells, a prestigious school for Dragon-Blooded Exalted of the Realm to train in the ways of war. The chronicle follows three young Dragon-Bloods as they try to prove their worth to their fellow students, their Houses, and themselves.
Their most recent VOD, Episode 11 (“Shooting Stars”), is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDvribovJLI
The playlist for the series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zb3M2x8PJk&list=PLsZP95-GZNa0ynoCIVyliNF5rypCHvh0M
The show wiki, with synopses, character descriptions, etc: RPGClinic Wiki | Fandom
The amazing Scarred Lands Purge of the Serpentholds crew now run their games over on Roll the Role! Do give them a follow and a subscribe, because their gaming is among the most entertaining I’ve seen: https://www.twitch.tv/rolltherole
Wards & Witchcraft continue their wonderful Mage: The Awakening chronicle which you can watch right here:
The wheel spins round and the awakened return to where they began, changed. The land has been changed too, by a fated spell tied to a deck of tarot cards. Parallax meets a stranger tied to him by oaths. The cabal has their fate read. Death is in the cards. https://youtu.be/ialgoceJCWY
A Bunch of Gamers continue their violent Werewolf: The Apocalypse actual play!
After the raid the packs finally return to the Sept of the Five Mirrors to complete their mission. The packs prepare to venture back into the Umbra and search for a Path Stone, an item of power used to creating moonbridges. The packs will be reminded that the Umbra is a place where metaphor and symbolism come alive as they move through the various paths on their journey.
https://youtu.be/kRdbgsib7yM
Vorpal Tales have been running a separate Mage: The Ascension chronicle over on their Twitch channel! It’s not metaplot heavy at all, so it’s an excellent intro to the world of Mage, with a splash of KULT: Divinity Lost cosmology (by our friends at Helmgast!). Do check out their first few episodes here:
Session 0: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/896291755
Session 1: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/905550817
Session 2: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/914628656
Vorpal Tales also have a bunch of their own games they’d love for us to tell you about!
Trinity Aberrant Four-Part Short Story completed (they call in reinforcements and kill like half of Team Tomorrow) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/965801778
Mage: The Ascension / KULT: Divinity Lost crossover: a mage got their avatar shredded by Nephandic Gilgul but he was wolfkin and Fenrir decided that was not how his story would end and forced a late stage First Change. Drama. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/967146916
Vorpal Tales also completed their Deviant: The Renegades chronicle right here! Escape from Orochi is one to watch and is only four parts long: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9fUj4KdqE4DH0SDiea0olEa5cfqoRGKV
Ekorren continues their excellent Exalted 3rd Edition series over on YouTube! You can find their latest video right here: https://youtu.be/ND1hqs716ks This video is all about streamlining rules, simplifying resource management, and making challenging fights!
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!
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.)
Virtual TableTop!
Two Virtual Tabletop adventures: the Gauntlet of Spiragos and the Dagger of Spiragos for Scarred Lands on Astral TableTop and DriveThruRPG!
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.
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 and Dagger of Spiragos. Create character sheets, craft maps, or just jump right in to connect with your friends and start your adventures!
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:
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
Here is the Studio2 portion of the Cavaliers of Mars Sale!:
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!
Here is the IPR portion of the Cavaliers of Mars Sale!:
https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/
As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!
Here’s the DTRPG portion of the Cavaliers of Mars Sale!:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/saleguide.php
On Sale This Week!
Wednesday features the compiled “big book” of Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad for the Scarred Lands 5e setting! Physical book PoD and PDF available only on DTRPG!
Conventions!
Because dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, we don’t yet have a list of upcoming physical conventions. Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!
As announced, the 2nd Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention will be coming to you live this June!
A collection of World of Darkness podcasters are putting together an online convention called TryItCon the weekend of May 14th-15th geared towards just getting to try new games. They’re figuring out what games to offer and are looking for both players and GMs that would be interested in participating.
If you have a game you’d like to try, ask for it: https://forms.gle/mt5eY3QRQhY3WXD26
If you’d like to help storytell/guide for the bonanza, ST applications are here: https://forms.gle/URAagdGn7rnaufgr6
A schedule will be available in mid-April.
For more information, please visit https://www.tryitcon.com
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)
- The Hedge (Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition)
- Tasty Bit: Zeus in a Bar (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Tasty Bit: Car Lifting Competition (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Tasty Bit: Les Fantomes (Trinity Continuum)
- Apocalyptic Record (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Vigil Watch: The Kelder Mountains (Scarred Lands)
- M20 Lore of the Traditions (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- TC: Adventure! Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)
Redlines
- Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Tome of the Pentacle (Mage: the Awakening 2e)
- Ghost Hunters Jumpstart w/RMCs (WoD 20th)
Second Draft
- Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)
- No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)
Development
- Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)
- Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)
- Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- They Came From [Classified]! (They Came From…!)
- They Came From [Classified]! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)
- The Paranormal Investigator’s Handbook (WoD 20th)
- Once and Future (Scion 2nd Edition)
Manuscript Approval
- Realms of Magic and Mystery (was Terra Incognita) (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Post-Approval Development
- Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)
Editing
- Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)
- Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)
- M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
- Yugman’s Appendix: People of Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)
- CtL2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)
- Heroes in a World of Horror! (They Came From…!)
- Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)
- Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)
- Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Legacies of Earth (Legendlore)
- Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
- Scion Fiction Anthology (Scion 2nd Edition)
- M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)
- They Came From Beyond the Grave! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)
- Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Monsters From the Crypt! (They Came From…!)
- TC: Aeon Novella: Meridian (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
- Proteus Nova Compendium (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
- They Came From Beneath the Sea! Jumpstart (They Came From…!)
- TC: Aeon Novella: Dawn (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Tasty Bit: Pets (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Trinity Continuum: Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)
- Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)
- They Came From Camp Murder Lake! (They Came From…!)
- Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)
- Trinity Continuum: Anima
- Tales of Depravity! (They Came From…!)
Post-Editing Development
- Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)
- 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)
- Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)
- V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
- N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
- Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)
- V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
- Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
- M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)
- Onyx Path Brochure 2021-2022
Indexing
- Mummy: The Curse 2e
- Deviant: The Renegades
Art Direction from Mike Chaney!
In Art Direction
- WoD Ghost Hunters (KS)
- Legendlore – checking with just a couple more artists.
- Scion: Dragon (KS)
- Masks of the Mythos (KS)
- Scion: Demigod – AD’d.
- They Came From Beyond the Grave!
- TC: Adventure! (KS) – KS going.
- M20 Victorian (KS)
- Dead Man’s Rust
- M20 Technocracy Jumpstart
- Exalted Essence (KS) – Artwork continuing, Maria working on logo designs.
- V5 Trail of Ash and Bone
- V5 Forbidden Religions
- TC Mission Statements
- TC Aberrant N!WE
- M20 Technocracy Dossier/Companion
- M20 Rich Bastards Guide – AD’d.
- Hundred Devils Night Parade – Fulls contracted.
- Squeaks In The Deep (KS) – Just need the KS map & ye olde logo.
- Players Guide to the Contagion Chronicle
- TC Prometheus Unbound
- They Came From Camp Murder Lake! – Art notes in.
- Realms of Magic and Mystery – Art buy configured.
- Saints and Monsters – Art buy configured.
- TC: Anima – Art buy configured.
- TC: Assassin – Art buy configured.
In Layout
- M20 Technocracy Reloaded – Should have proof shortly.
- TC Aberrant Jumpstart
- Mummy 2e Screen – Collage done, working on charts.
- Deviant Screen – Getting Maria on Collage.
- Spiragos Collected Adventures
- Hunter: The Vigil 2e – roughed in and over to Josh as art comes in.
- Tasty Bit: Heroes of the Waste (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)
Proofing
- Deviant – In Indexing.
- Mummy 2 – In Indexing.
- LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition) – Inputting errata.
- Vigil Watch Compiled – Advance PDF errata input.
- Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness) – Advance PDF errata gathering.
- Children of the Blood – Backer PDF out to backers, amassing errata.
- TC: Under Alien Skies
- Heirs to the Shogunate – Proofing.
At Press
- V5 Cults of the Blood Gods – Printer finished, shipping to KS fulfillment shipper.
- Aberrant – Printer finished, shipping to KS fulfillment shipper.
- TC: Aberrant Screen – Printer finished, shipping to KS fulfillment shipper.
- V5 VTT Tokens – Prepping for going live.
- Geist: One Foot In the Grave – PoD proofs ordered.
- The Complete Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad – PDF and physical book PoD versions on sale this Weds on DTRPG!
Today’s Reason to Celebrate!
Because Impish Ian is so excited by this (and also because we didn’t have a release anniversary that hit today): Happy First Contact Day! It’s the day in 2063 in Star Trek history when humans first officially met the Vulcans.
I need to comment that, while not a pulp, Star Trek is all about Adventure! Ok, it’s in space, but deep down it’s all about exploration of the unknown, finding new cultures and exotic places and punching imperialists (Klingon empire, Romulan empire, Caldacian empire, etc). Kirk is nothing but a two fisted hero guided by his guts and a superior sense of correctness (also a pretty lousy commander).
Happy -42nd First Contact day!
Absolutely. Gene Roddenberry as well as many of his writers were familiar with pulp fiction, whether directly or through the works of others who were directly influenced – ala my comment about Stan Lee. Roddenberry was far more working with the idea of Horatio Hornblower in space than harder science fiction or even the military he had been a part of. So the captain was presented as much more like a sea-faring captain with very limited communication with his superiors. Not sold on your comment about Kirk’s command skills, though, as presented.
A captain that is part of every single landing party, thanking with him all the commanding staff with him is a bit lousy. Picard and Janeway have a much more solid position in the bridge.
But as you said, he is a “Space faring” captain, working with far less communication to the chain of command than Picard (Janeway is In a far different condition).
They explained this nicely in Babylon 5, and I believe it’s an actual military tradition: Sinclair had to log a minimum number of flight hours. As the commanding officer, he got to take his pick of all the juiciest missions. So he’d leave routine patrols to everyone else, but if anything interesting happened, he’d hop in a starfury.
Similarly, Starfleet officers probably need to log a minimum number of away missions, and Kirk gets to decide which of those missions are his.
I remember reading a magazine article when TNG first came out that stated there would be more resemblance to military protocol and specifically called out Riker leading most away missions as an example. That was likely due to Gene Roddenberry’s reduced role for the new series.
Also, Ian, nice call-out for Babylon 5. Still my favorite televised space opera.
When do you usually start you art buy? with both Clades and Devoted in editing, would love to see some parallelism
Ideally, we get art notes while books are being edited so the artists can do the art while the editing is happening, and then both edited text and art hit together. That is what we try and do, but depends on the dev and the art director pulling those things together.
Happy First Contact! As to panel propositions, maybe ‘Inclusion in RPG’? What to look for, what to miss out, how portray minorities in games?
Good one! Thanks!
Oh shiiiiiiiit, Yugman’s Guide POD!
Any chance Many Faced Strangers in approval might mean backers get their desperate clutching hands on the manuscript in the near future?
Yay, Yugman’s!
I don’t think we’ll be releasing Many Faced Strangers just as a manuscript, so it’ll go through Editing, Layout, and Proofing and all to create the PDF.
Cmon! We’ve waited so long for anything new!
Our goal right now is to get you new things on a regular basis. We were getting that process on track at the end of 2019, and then 2020 hit and screwed that up. Now that we can finally return to getting the process to work, anything that isn’t that process – like diverting effort towards sneak previews – is suspect. Not impossible, but not going to help get you the finished product quicker.
Heirs to the Shogunate is currently being proofed. Depending on how many proofing passes need to happen we could get that pretty soon. So, if you backed What Fire Has Wrought, that is indeed something to which you can look forward.
Will TC:Assassins have its own supliments like Adventure will or is it a one shot?
We’re still mulling that over.
As long as you make the setting as awesome as you guys normally do, we will want more books. Trust me.
Hey!
First I would like to thank your entire team for Children of the Blood. It was interesting and full of small hints of what is happening in the WoD. It was an amzazing read and much of the art was top notch and the reast was (only!) really good!
I am looking forward to the last two books for CotBG kickstarter.
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I hve 2 questions: Do you now if they will arrive before the summer? and is it possible to POD them?
Thanks! As a regular thing, we don’t give out estimates on release dates, so please do keep an eye on the MMN blog progress report, and we also regularly release as both PDF and PoD. There are very few exceptions to this, and specifically, we were unable to release our V5 material when the Blood Gods Kickstarter was running – but that limitation was lifted, and so all of the Stretch Goal projects will be available in both PDF and PoD!
So I see Many Faced Stranger moved into approval stage…
What’s the odds that when the manuscript is approved that we loyal backers get a preview of it like we did with Hiers of the Shogunate ;)?
Please see my reply earlier in the comments, thanks!
There’s no art I’ve seen quite like a Dragon-blooded headbutting a skeleton. It’s divine.
Sometimes you just have to use your head! Enjoy the veal, and drive safely!
Excited about the pace of releases here.
Randomly, on the subject of Onyx Path properties in other medias, you know what would be awesome? If Onyx Path partnered with the people who made Fire Pro Wrestling to get us an XWF / N!ternational Aberrant-themed wrestle/fighting game!
That would be a lot of fun! You know anybody over there?
I would love to see a panel on storytelling dark material for those of us that are not naturally inclined to such (my wife says my Werewolf games are set in the World of Insufficient Light).
Also, perhaps Dixie, Eddy, and Matthew can live stream a Mario Cart game where the drivers are TC: Adventure! characters (complete with 1930’s accents).
I will certainly mention these as ideas- thanks!
My first RPG was Exalted, and I have loved it since I learned to play nearly twenty years ago. I’ve always loved the lore, but the 3rd Edition system is by far my favorite. If I wanted to send a thank you email to the Exalted team, where would I send it?
theonyxpath@gmail.com and we’ll get it sent to the relevant folks- thanks!
*ctrl + F, types “M20”. Sees 9 results in the project list. Smiles.*
Great to see the line continuing to be extended.
Indeed it is!
Hey Richt, maybe I didn’t read it and you’ve already answered this… will all the stretch goals bonus be included for people who pledge Victorian Mage on Backerkit? I didn’t arrive to the Indiegogo campaign and would love to get in now 🙂
For 60 days after the BK page goes live, the idea is that we are continuing the campaign. So, yes, it’ll be however it was in the campaign whether you backed then or in BK during that two month window. Hope that helps!
It does! Thanks for the quick answer