It’s probably no secret to y’all that from about the beginning of the year, we’ve had some strange things happening to our online communication. Links being added to this very blog after I set it to publish. Emails showing up that made no sense.
I mean: less sense than usual.
Maybe it all started because we entered our 13th year of operating as Onyx Path Publishing? Is it a curse, or maybe something else is up? There’s even some glitches in last Friday’s Pathcast near the end!
And all the “mothy” stuff. I mean, what is that? There’s even some sort of contest or poll the moths link to, so hmm? I haven’t followed any of these links – I’m not sure I ought to for either business or personal reasons – but here’s one for you to check out if you are OK with venturing into the unknown: https://www.curseborne.com/
Even today, Matthew and I were chatting after the Monday Meeting and my computer just turned off. It didn’t crash, really, it just…stopped.
Which has been par for the course for poor Matthew – which you know if you’ve been reading these last weeks about all his technical issues. Just check out this week’s Onyx Path News vid down below for another example.
Yet, with all these odd glitches and kinda scary interactions happening, please be assured that everybody here at Onyx Path is Just Fine. We are Calm and Carrying On. Whatever all this may or may not ultimately mean, Don’t Panic and if the uncanny moments get to be too much, try and step back and remember that ultimately, we all exist in the Real World.
Seriously, we’re here to have fun, and make and play games. At least, that’s my intention. Some of our games are straight-up funny like They Came From, some are more serious but still basically light-hearted like Pugmire, others have scary moments but aren’t specifically horrific. And some are all about the darkness. Fear Not!
(Except when you’re playing, then you go to scary town all you want!)
And Now, To Business:
Our Reprint Repro a-Go-Go successfully went-went-went last week, and we had a really nice turnout for a two-week long shorty reprint crowdfunder. Folks who backed are definitely getting a deal, and we’re thrilled to have some early adopters to the short campaign concept. However, we didn’t receive enough support to enable any additional books to go to press with this batch – as prepping all that is a bit more involved than our three reprint books and therefore also costs more – but fear not, that doesn’t mean we won’t get more traditionally printed books into stores, it just can’t happen with this print run.
We’ll be returning to the Realms of Pugmire with our next crowdfunding campaign, which we expect to get rolling in February and which will be on BackerKit. It’s for the Curious Cats of Mau, which is the second edition version of Monarchies of Mau.
If you missed last year’s Realms of Pugmire crowdfunder, and some folks certainly seemed to miss it with all the GOL, or LGO, or whatever controversy all over the internet, then this’ll be your chance to see how Eddy has not only updated Pugmire into its second edition, but also the Onyx20 ruleset, and then the Curious Cats!
All of the cat houses and families of Mau will be there, with all brand new art, and an increased focus on the Monarchies themselves!
Meanwhile, Mirthful Mike has been hard at work laying out Trinity Continuum: Aether and sent me this spread for you to get a sneak peek at:
Hard to believe but the Onyx Pathcast on Friday, March 1 will be the 300th episode! Wow! A huge round of applause for Eddy, Dixie, Matthew, and Danielle, all the Pathcast guests, who have talked and joked, analyzed and digressed all these years!
Check it out as it’s going to be a Very Special Episode as the gang will be playing a Very Special game!
Then, on the March 8 episode, I’m going to join the crew as we look back over the years, and look forward into our magic looking glass for what’s coming in the future! They might gather listener questions again, even! Let’s hope all these weird events have calmed down by then…
Here are some MMN Blog followups to previous posts:
After this week our new traditional printer will be closed for their traditional New Year holiday. The February holiday is pretty much a constant, and something we had to be aware of and work around even during the White Wolf days. Fortunately, Mirthful Mike has staggered out our projects going there so that the two weeks shouldn’t cause too much of a shift with any of our books.
A couple of blog readers responded in the Comments that they’d be interested in the MMN blog having more info on our Community Content programs, so here’s the first step in that direction, a note from Travis Legge about the Storypath Nexus Game Jam!
Last week we announced the Storypath Nexus Game Jam. Details can be found at this blog post. We’ve already seen a great deal of buzz, especially over at the Storypath Nexus channel on our Discord, where folks are already talking about project ideas and coordinating collaborations!
On Tuesday at 8 PM EST Corbin, the Awkward GM, will be hosting an informative stream on our Twitch channel, detailing the process of publishing books to the Storypath Nexus to support the Storypath Nexus Game Jam! This will focus primarily on walking the audience through the steps of setting up their title, but will also provide an opportunity for folks to ask questions about the Game Jam.
On Thursday at 7 PM EST, Liam Conway will host a Game Jam Discussion, diving into each of the game lines eligible for consideration in the Game Jam. This will provide a brief overview of those lines and offer the audience another chance to ask questions about the Jam.
Whether you’re a veteran community content creator, or considering your first offering as part of the Game Jam, these streams promise useful information to help bring your vision to life!
Please do take the chance to check it out; there are some delightful projects up there made by our community, and it’s really heartening for creators when you can show them support!
More to come in the months ahead, in terms of spotlighting all of our Community Content sites: Storypath Nexus, Canis Minor (for Pugmire), and the Slarecian Vault (for Scarred Lands)!
Taking a cue from another reader, I’ve cut out a lot of the VTT pictures and extra text to provide a more focused VTT section this week. Let me know if that’s a problem for anybody – and I do expect it to get more entries this coming year as our VTT offerings continue to increase.
So that’s about it this week – fingers crossed we don’t get more strange happenings affecting our:
Many Moths, One Path!
Blurbs!
Crowdfunding!
Next up on BackerKit Crowdfunding: The Curious Cats of Mau for Realms of Pugmire!
Onyx Path Media!
This week: Dixie, Matthew, and Danielle talk about games they’re playing and running!
As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue!
Please check out our attached media schedule for the videos on our Twitch channel this week! In particular, keep those eyes open for our Storypath Showcase, where we give an excellent profile of our various Storypath games and how to play them!
MEDIA HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK:
We’re overhauling our YouTube channel to make sure games (actual plays, deep dives, beginner’s guides, and so on) are easier to find, so please do head on over to the channel and give it your support! Take a look at a show you’ve not checked out before, give us a subscribe, and leave your feedback! https://www.youtube.com/@TheOnyxPath
The Onyx Path Moth discusses recent and upcoming moths! You can find it on our YouTube moth (click the moth to be informed when we go live!) but if you missed the last moth, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdFj3vImxnw
Virtual Tabletop!
They Came From Beneath the Sea! on Roll20 VTT!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/22308/they-came-from-beneath-the-sea
The Scion: Origin and Scion Hero Compendiums are now available on Roll20!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/publisher/1716/onyx-path-publishing
Scion is just the start! They Came From Beneath the Sea! and other
Onyx Path RPGs are in development for Roll20 virtual tabletop!
The first of our official Scion sheets designed for Foundry VTT are
now available! https://foundryvtt.co
Looking for more virtual tabletop resources? We have a selection of
Tokens, Encounters, and more available now at DriveThruRPG! https://bit.ly/3SnrNJ7
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!
Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books, dice, and screens? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/
We have some CofD Screens on discount on IPR:
As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles in PDF and PoD versions at DriveThruRPG.com!
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).
Check out Melody Through the Mirrorshade Lens and Facets of Truth, as well as Trinity Continuum: Terat and The Hollow Courts on Kindle in the Kindle store!
On Sale This Week!
Here are some super additions for TC: Anima to make your game more fun going on sale this Weds on DTRPG!
TC: Anima – Terra Surge Reference Screen (PDF)
TC: Anima Wallpapers
TC: Anima VTT Tokens (Cascade)
TC: Anima VTT Tokens (Terra Surge)
Conventions!
As we are slowly returning to attending conventions in person after avoiding them during the COVID-19 outbreak, keep an eye out here for more physical and virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!
We will be repped at the upcoming GAMA Expo in March by both Studio 2 and Indie Press Revolution. We expect that there will be some…interesting…handouts for retailers at the Expo!
Game Night With Onyx Path Publishing at StartPlaying will be the last Friday of the month! Come play some of our games, especially any edition of Realms of Pugmire! (But any of our game lines are welcome all day long!)
Please spread the word about GMing games as much as
possible. Details on how list a game are at the bottom of the page in
the FAQ:
https://startplaying.games/event/game-night-onyx-path
Project Status Updates!
Our full list of projects will be available monthly on our blog! Check out January’s full list report here:
DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY
Here are the projects that moved to the next stage of production:
Red Lines
Exalted – Exigents Jumpstart
- Danielle: MJ has the first drafts of these in her hands and is furiously redding away at it.
Tasty Bit – Scion Dragon Lair #1 (March)
- Danielle: Got the first for this in, and I’m looking forward to what adventures await me inside.
Final Draft
Exalted – Sidereals Companion
- Danielle: Chazz has expertly filed the correct bureaucratic forms to move this heavenly companion back to the authors.
Mothscript Approval
Exalted – Exigents: Miracles of Divine Flame (was Companion)
- Danielle: So. Much. Exalted. John has dotted his t’s and crossed his i’s and now we wait for approval before this can move on to editing.
Scion – War Games (Titans Rising Hero and Demigod Adventures)
- Matthew: Off to Rich goes our tempestuous set of scenarios for Scion, wherein you can start, stop, and heavily skew the war of Titans and Gods!
Post-Approval Development
Realms of Pugmire – The Curious Cats of Mau (was Mau 2e)
- Eddy: Our curious cats have gained glorious approval and acclaim! Now we’ll take a breath and paws the process while we get everything ready for our upcoming BackerKit crowdfunding campaign!
ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!
In Art Direction
- Ex3 Sidereals – Comments sent back to artists.
- M20 Faces of Magick – Fulls contracted.
- M20 Forbidden and Forgotten Orders – Fulls contracted.
- M20 Victorian Weird Wonders and Revolutionary Magic – Fulls Contracted.
- M20 Victorian Bizarre Tales and Unusual Characters – Fulls Contracted.
- Curious Cats (KS) – Finals for campaign in.
In Layout
- Ex Essence Charm Cards
- DTR Clade Companion
- CTL 2e the Hedge – It’s getting Pauline’d.
- M20 Victorian Jumpstart
- TC Aether – Working on it. Got five chapters done… still have a ways to go.
- Squeaks in the Deep Companion
- Classified and Cyclops Screens – Plan is to work on these after i get all the xxs into their respective books (as that stuff is always on the tables).
- TC Anima Terra Surge Screen
- CofD Contagion Chronicles RMCs
Proofing
- Many Faced Strangers – Errata closed tomorrow.
- SCION God 2e
Indexing
- Ex 3 Exigents
At Press
- Reprints:
- Scion Origin – Book files with the printer.
- TC Core – Fixing those couple of things i missed and getting it exported out.
- TC Aeon – Taking some time to do.
- W20 Apocalyptic Record – At Studio2 and backer shipping should start soon.
- W20 Apocalyptic Record Screen & Booklet – At Studio 2.
- Exalted Essence – At Press. Going over proofs.
- Ex Essence Screen – At Studio 2.
- Ex3 Exigents – Indexing.
- TC Anima – If I can get cover specs soon enough, it’ll go with the reprints and Lore & Essence.
- M20 Lore of the Traditions – Printing.
- They Came From CLASSIFIED! – Travis inputting page XXs.
- They Came From the Cyclops Cave! – Travis inputting page XXs.
- Scion Once and Future – PoD proofs on the way.
- Ex3 Across the 8 Directions – PoD files uploaded.
Today’s Reason to Celebrate!
I know there are likely far more important things to happen this day, but this one just cracked me up: in 1985 – Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage, meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.
I know cofd isn’t the big draw that it used to be,but boy howdy am i looking forward to The Hedge and Contagion Chronicle RMCS
CofD still has plenty of devoted fans, so I’m not sure what you’re referring to, but glad you’re excited about those two projects!
my bad,i misspoke
No worries, I just want us all to be aware that the only reason Onyx Path isn’t creating more CofD projects is that we haven’t received approval from the license holder to do so. A lot of online speculation and theories spin up out of, basically, posters’ imaginations and not reality, so…
Some posters like to create fake drama, like imagining Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki have a feud.
A lot of times, it’s less about creating it and more about passing on something picked up from other sites. How many times have we heard from somebody in our community that somebody else heard a rumor, or has a theory, or heard from an Onyx Path insider…etc, etc. So I’d rather folks ask here, or on our social media, if they hear something that affects their favorite games. Come to the source, my friends!
Not meaning that nicholas did, to clarify.
Thanks for clarifying!
I have to admit I was kinda expecting this blog post to be titled “Mothday Meeting Notes” XD
The way these interference things are going, it seems like only a matter of time until the “hackers” do exactly that!
Hi, this Monday Meeting is not filed under the category “Monday Meeting” like all the other monday meeting posts. So you can’t find it under this kind of link: https://theonyxpath.com/category/news/monday-meeting/
Thanks, fixed! Yet another odd thing, as I specifically remember hitting both those categories as I made the blog. Grrrr!
Question: is there late backer thing for TC: Aegis? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
https://trinity-continuum-aegis-tabletop-roleplaying-game.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
You can find links to our post-crowdfunding campaigns on the yearly roundup, and you can search on BackerKit. Hope that helps!
So, returning to running a COFD game… I went looking for the hedge (of course finding out it hasn’t been released yet), but I noticed that there’s a bunch of mini PDFs around the hedge that are listed published by White Wolf on drive-thru. I’d love to know more about compatibility with the upcoming book.
Side comment on that, I feel like in some ways that drive through is a bit of a mess with the whole branding of chronicles of darkness. When looking I wasn’t sure if filtering was including first edition and second edition because they’re not denoted in any meaningful way. Maybe you guys could go around and fix the “system” …
I also had an idea for you guys based on a reddit thread I saw today that is relatively new. In order to increase content and refine content, and perhaps add some content that got dropped in the second edition accidentally. Also based on the fact that you have released individual chapters on drive-thru from the dark era’s books. What if instead of rewriting some books what if you did kickstarter’s for adding chapters and updated rules to some of the existing books out there. The conversation that I saw was a complaint that vampire the Requiem second edition didn’t include any example NPCs for ghouls and such. I personally really wish you would bring belial’s brood back, and while I think that book itself still works it needs an updated mechanics chapter at least and probably some commentary on the strikes. I’d pay for that chapter or two. I suspect I’m not the only one who would pay for book “patches” (as the software industry would call them). Given how often You’ve kickstartered successfully, I think you would be fine simply to develop the Kickstarter itself and not actually start the content until it’s been a success. I don’t know that you would want to update all content like this but I definitely think there are some books that probably haven’t needed to be changed outside of adding a few viewpoints and updating the mechanics.
“I noticed that there’s a bunch of mini PDFs around the hedge that are listed published by White Wolf on drive-thru. I’d love to know more about compatibility with the upcoming book.”
If you’re referring to titles like “Beyond the Hedge” or “100 Strange Sights to See in the Hedge,” those are community-created content, made via the Storytellers Vault community content program. We don’t typically take fan content into account when creating our own material.
“Side comment on that, I feel like in some ways that drive through is a bit of a mess with the whole branding of chronicles of darkness. When looking I wasn’t sure if filtering was including first edition and second edition because they’re not denoted in any meaningful way. Maybe you guys could go around and fix the “system” …”
We don’t own the Chronicles of Darkness. All we can manage is our own account.
If you visit White Wolf’s DTRPG page and scroll down, you can see category images for their game lines, including CofD lines. Those are pretty much all 1st Edition.
If you do the same thing and scroll down on the Onyx Path page, those categories will mostly be 2nd Edition, although there’ll be a bit of 1st Edition mixed in. Basically, whatever Onyx Path has made for that game line.
“What if instead of rewriting some books what if you did kickstarter’s for adding chapters and updated rules to some of the existing books out there.”
“Given how often You’ve kickstartered successfully, I think you would be fine simply to develop the Kickstarter itself and not actually start the content until it’s been a success.”
As mentioned, we don’t own the Chronicles of Darkness. Any new projects would require approval from Paradox, and they’re not currently approving any new CofD projects.
“I would suggest that selecting a specific system on this site should show all of the books published for it as well as the upcoming titles.”
You can check our previous CofD releases here: https://theonyxpath.com/chronicles-of-darkness-products/
(or other game lines in the UfRL format /your-game-line-products, like vampire-the-requiem-products)
You can check a list of upcoming projects here: https://theonyxpath.com/schedule/
Or their status in the monthly Release Roundup: https://theonyxpath.com/release-roundup-january-2024/
A lot of your questions are going to have unsatisfying answers, I’m afraid. But really, it’s mostly the same answer: Onyx Path, us, has created and published CofD books under license from Paradox, who owns the White Wolf IPs and who control the White Wolf section on DTRPG. Because of working under the terms of the license, we can’t publish anything without Paradox’s approval- which they are no longer giving for any CofD projects. Not even patches or the like. And a fundraising KS of any type would be a disaster if we ran it and then couldn’t fulfill it since we didn’t have approval for the project being KS’d.
Similarly, we try and be clear with tagging our books on DTRPG, but there was certainly a whole confusing period during the course of the license where the IP owners would only allow us to label books as they wanted them labeled. It is pretty confusing, but that was the price so that we could do new books and the entire CofD second edition. Then add in to the mix that anything before we started making books under the license are in the WW section, and yeah, it’s a pain. But again, if we hadn’t keep pushing for publishing “New World of Darkness” and then CofD projects, the line would have been stopped thirteen years ago. So there’s that.
So are they effectively killing off CofD? You say they aren’t approving new projects so that means there aren’t going to be any new titles coming that haven’t already been announced?
Until or unless we hear otherwise, you can look into those links Ian posted to see all of the CofD projects we are working on currently. We can’t start any new ones without approval to do so.
Do we fans need to reach out to them to ensure continued long-term production of CofD products?
I’m trying to ask clearly since you’ve said they aren’t approving any new things but it’s not clear if this means that they’re bringing a conclusion to the product line.
Y’all do whatever you think you need to do. I and we (as in Onyx Path as a group) have said as much as we can about it, and we’re concentrating on bringing you folks what we have slated – I don’t have a crystal ball to know if the CofD situation will change in the future. Meanwhile, we’ve got some really great game lines that don’t require approvals from other companies, with more on the way that may be to your liking as a CofD fan!
Oh, another comment I wanted to make related to my comment about the organization of books drive-thru. I went on here looking to see if I could figure out which books had been published for Chronicles of darkness and I couldn’t figure it out on this site either. I would suggest that selecting a specific system on this site should show all of the books published for it as well as the upcoming titles.
See Ian and my answers today 😉
Wow. Well all I can say is that maybe it’s time for a new urban horror game. There’s a lot in CoFd that they couldn’t prevent you from using because the concepts overlap with a million other things… Like there’s nothing that really prevents the publication of a new vampire game as long as it’s not vampire the Requiem. Unless of course you specifically have a contract that prevents you from doing so . On the other hand there are some lines that I don’t see being able to republish in any way because their concepts don’t feel that general. I can’t think of any prior or public domain narratives that are like the god machine and even the descent.
Obviously there’s naming of things that would have to change. I was thinking of suggesting a third edition anyways. I haven’t read the story path system and so I don’t really know how well it fits, I guess I would assume that it works for this situation too.
Not noticing that you are currently publishing any other urban horror games, did I miss something?
You are correct – we don’t _currently_ have an urban horror gameline. But the future is amother thing!