The Curious Cats Of Mau crowdfunder goes live on BackerKit on this Tuesday the 20th at 2pm EST!

Ah yes, I remember working on the concepts and concept art for first edition Monarchies of Mau book and crowdfunding campaign more than a couple of years ago! It was awesome, and a bit challenging, to now look at the world of Pugmire from the point of view of the Cats after being immersed in helping to create the Dogs’ society with Eddy.

How to best show a worldview that was cat-centric as we understand cats and their ways. Yet still make them cool and compelling. At one point Eddy said he thought of Mau society as more like that of Vampire, so we went darker with the art. I mean literally darker – more interiors and night scenes vs the outdoorsy adventuring we presented for Pugmire. The addition of a Necromancer class because cats like to play with dead things. Giving each of the Monarchies a different clothing style and color palate. Realizing that my range of character sizes for the concept art was much narrower height-wise than the Dogs. Stuff like that.

But that was then, this is now!

Now we are presenting the Monarchies of Mau as a part of the Realms of Pugmire (the game world, not the kingdom) in The Curious Cats of Mau, and drawing on years of playtests and playing – on top of the strong base we put together with first edition – to give folks the chance to enter the Monarchies, and anywhere else the Cats are, afresh!

And here’s Eddy now to lay some game creator thinking on yer brains:

Curious Cats of Mau is going to launch soon! I sat and chatted with some of my Pathcast cohosts about the changes on the episode last Friday, and my codeveloper Lauren Roy will talk about even more in the upcoming episode this week, but if you’re a busy cat (hey, someone has to knock things off the shelves), here’s a short version:

• Realms of Pugmire uses the new Onyx20 system. But don’t worry — it’s really just the natural evolution of the first edition! Now that it’s moved further away from the original, Open Game Licensed-based system, however, we’ve been able to make some much-needed refinements such as rebalancing the combat math, incorporating years worth of playtest data and errata, and expanding spells to be more flexible and dynamic.
• One of the big changes is that I was able to add in a whole new template character creation system. Instead of full character creation rules (which is also available), you can simply pick some options that sound interesting and make your character very quickly. You can even roll randomly. In testing, you can make a complete character in ten minutes! And Curious Cats have their own templates as well.
• Another big change for Onyx20 is the introduction of morale. Which enemies are a touch tougher across the board, that’s counterbalanced by the ability to push them into running away or not attacking. Sometimes this happens in certain circumstances, but there are also some abilities that force a morale check. And there are rules for making friends!

But enough about Onyx20 — let’s talk cats!

• Curious Cats of Mau, unlike Monarchies of Mau, is a supplement rather than a full game in its own right. Which means it inherits all of those design improvements, but also it means we don’t need to reprint a lot of similar rules.
• Taking out those redundancies means we have more room for even more things! A total of eight callings (including two that were previously introduced in Pirates of Pugmire), brand-new spells for *three* spellcasting callings, an entire campaign of three linked adventures, and much more!
• Finally, there’s a lot more exploration of the monarchies themselves, including the updated political situation with the Ruling Council. There’s even more intrigue for heroic cats to engage with.

There’s a lot more to dig into, but you can see everything if you back the Curious Cats of Mau crowdfunding campaign at any level!

You can jump right in NOW, or jump in tomorrow Tuesday the 20th at 2pm, with this link: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/onyx-path/curious-cats-of-mau

As Eddy notes, the first Curious Cats of Mau episode of the Onyx Pathcast was last Friday, and now this Friday will feature a follow-up that includes developer Lauren Roy! You can hear from their own mouths all about the fun of creating Curious Cats, and more details on just what the book will be featuring!

If you want to see how it plays, there’s the Rats In the Tavern Actual Play on Wednesday at 9pm on our Twitch channel, and Eddy has also been sitting down for interviews with other podcasters and those links will be posted on the crowdfunding campaign page on BackerKit as they land.

Let’s make some new memories!

You’ll Understand What Happiness Is…

…it’s the rest of the things we talked about at our Monday Meeting today!

To begin with, we were given an update on our Storypath Nexus Game Jam by Mr. Travis Legge, which he paraphrased for all of you, here:

We’re heading into the home stretch for the Storypath Nexus Game Jam, and we’ve seen quite a bit of excitement as this contest has progressed! The Game Jam Judges have been showing up each Tuesday and Thursday evening on our Twitch channel to run workshops, walk viewers through setting up their products, and talk through concepts for the game lines under consideration for the Jam. These sessions have been generating quite a bit of excitement and buzz! Discussion in the Storypath Nexus channel on our discord has shown several promising ideas in the works from the community! If you’re looking for inspiration or some folks to bounce ideas off of, the Storypath Nexus channel is a great place to start!

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The first two releases have already made their way onto the Storypath Nexus store at DriveThruRPG! You can pick up New Beginners from Mateus Luz, focused on playing children in the Trinity Continuum and A New Calling – Fluid from Nicolas Milioni which presents a Calling centered around constant change. With just over a week left to get in your submissions, now is the time to get on it!

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Submissions for the Storypath Nexus Game Jam end at 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, February 28th! Full rules and details can be found on our blog here!

Phew! There are actually a lot of ideas being thrown around – and I think the judges are going to have a tough time because of a wealth of riches, there!

(Not to be confused with The Wealth of Rich’s – which I am still on the lookout for!)

And again, just a reminder that there are actually two Game Jam episodes scheduled for our Twitch: Tuesday at 8pm for a Creation Workshop, and Thursday at 6 for a They Came From specific session.

While I’m talking Twitch and staring at our schedule in the Media section of The Blurbs, below, there’s a Character Creation Demo for making At The Gates characters scheduled for Saturday at 11am. Of course, you already know that At The Gates is the newest fantasy game line for the Earthbane Cycle, following hard on the subterranean heels of The World Below!

At The Gates was created by Danielle Lauzon, and is powered by our Storypath Ultra System – which she was also the chief architect of! It’s been designed to be almost an opposite in feel and subject matter from The World Below, which you’ll definitely be able to tell if you sit in on the demo Saturday! Plus, Danielle is working on an abbreviated Ashcan introductory version right now – so expect that soon!

Here’s some sales info we talked about today, starting with the big sale at IPR on CofD books and Screens. These are the traditionally printed books that we did overruns of after their respective crowdfunders, and the sale prices are actually really nice – check them out!

Right now, TC: Adventure! is soliciting for retail stores at Studio2, so if you haven’t yet gotten yours and want to support your Friendly Local Game Store – go right in there and get them to order you a copy! (Or wait a few weeks and they might have it, so ask ’em to save you a copy!) It’s been a while since we were able to get a new book into stores, so we’re really thrilled to be able to offer this option to y’all!

We’re continuing to explore getting more of our books on the Amazon
marketplace and it looks like two more books will be live sometime
this week? The Scion Jumpstart and the Panopticon novella… we think, but they are notorious for not letting folks know exactly what’s live and when.

Look for them here:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Onyx-Path-Publishing/author/B07BMKYHKJ

As I mentioned last week, the first Friday in March brings us the 300th episode of the Onyx Pathcast! And I’ll be recording #301 with Dixie and Danielle this week. They’re sure to pummel me with hard questions as we look at the state of Onyx Path, and if you want to help them devastate me please feel free to Comment your question below, or drop it onto the Pathcast channel on our Discord!

On the fluttering eerie pest front, it seems quiet right now. Finally! But I wrote that last week too, and then Mirthful Mike got derailed for at least a day by his power going out!

So, knock on moths, no problems so far this week and we can concentrate on creating our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

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Blurbs!

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Crowdfunding!:

The Curious Cats of Mau
for Realms of Pugmire

COMING TOMORROW! Tuesday the 20th at 2pm EST on BackerKit Crowdfunding!

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/onyx-path/curious-cats-of-mau

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Onyx Path Media!

This week: Curious Cats Deep Dive Part II with Dixie, Matthew, and Lauren Roy (co-developer)!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue!

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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:

For those of you short on time, check out some of our YouTube Shorts! Highlighting wonderful parts of our games one snapshot at a time: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNRTdSDh6-XQvrgmgnBToRNfCbN0pies

The Onyx Path News discusses recent and upcoming releases! You can find it on our YouTube channel (click the bell to be informed when we go live!) but if you missed the last episode, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTfENqQm5PM

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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

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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:

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

We have a fantastic Chronicles of Darkness sale over at IPR this month:

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

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!

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On Sale This Week!

Where are you in Creation? Check out Across the Eight Directions for Exalted 3rd Edition! It goes live with both the PDF and hardcover PoD versions at DTRPG this Weds!

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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!

Matthew and Eddy and a few of our other Onyx Path creators will be attending and even running games at UK Games Expo in May.

Game Night With Onyx Path Publishing at StartPlaying will be THIS Friday the 23rd! Come play some of our games, especially any edition of Realms of Pugmire! (But any of our game lines are welcome all day long!)

Here’s an Onyx Path Game Night event that has open seats:

https://startplaying.games/adventure/clfdj5qob000j08l8eb74ecgh?session=clp1g6vqq000g08jqas0344n7

And here’s a link to give anyone $10 credit to play games on Start.Playing:

https://startplaying.games/referral/clog9y0v10006ju0968iev95m

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

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Project Status Updates!

Our full list of projects will be available monthly on our blog! Check out January’s full list report here:

Release Roundup: January 2024

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY

Here are the projects that moved to the next stage of production:

Final Draft

Tasty Bit – Scion: Dragon Lair #1 (March)

• Danielle: Coyote is moving this along. There aren’t a lot of edits, so I’m expecting finals to be fast.

Development

The World Below – Ed Greenwood’s Monstrous Ecology of The World Below

• Matthew: I’m letting this one rest a while before revisiting it for development. This Monstrous Ecology contains all those lovely little bits of bestiary detail that I enjoyed from AD&D, way back when. And new player ancestries and Theses, too!

Post-Approval Development

Exalted – Exigents: Miracles of Divine Flame (was Companion)

• Danielle: Approved! Yay! Now off to editing!

Post-Editing
Development

Branch Riders – Branch Riders

• Eddy: The Branch Riders have come back from their excursion into the realm of Editing! The operators in the Nexus are now going over their findings, in preparation for launching a new mission in the near future….

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ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

• Ex3 Sidereals – Got Mel’s stuff in. 
• Ex Essence Tomb of Memory (Jumpstart) – I’m gonna ping Mel to see how she’s doing.
• M20 Victorian Weird Wonders and Revolutionary Magic – Fulls Contracted. Sending the halfs over to Paradox for approval.
• Curious Cats (KS) – Crowd Funding begins on Tuesday!
• Branch Riders (KS) – Got artnotes. Going to get Gong to do them up.

In Layout

• Ex Essence Charm Cards
• DTR Clade Companion – Gonna see if Pauline wants to lay this out while waiting for the Changeling proof to be done.
• M20 Victorian Jumpstart 
• Squeaks in the Deep Companion
• Classified and Cyclops Screens – Once I can get around to dealing with the cards and prepping the books for PoD, this is my next thing.
• CofD Contagion Chronicles RMCs
• February Tasty Bit – Going to hand it over to Dixie.

Proofing

• Many Faced Strangers – Awaiting errata.
• SCION God 2e – Character sheet done… and going off to Hiromi to be filled in.
• TC Aether – Adding in corrections and prepping for 2nd proof.
• CtL 2e The Hedge – I’m giving it a once through and then I’ll forward it on.

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 – Working on corrections and tweaking out anything that would get flagged in Pre Press.

• W20 Apocalyptic Record – Shipping to backers.
• W20 Apocalyptic Record Screen & Booklet – Shipping to backers.
• Exalted Essence – At Press. Proofs should be all done by meeting time.
• Ex Essence Screen – At Studio 2.
• Ex3 Exigents – Indexing.
• TC Anima Terra Surge Screen
• TC Anima
• M20 Lore of the Traditions – Printing.
• They Came From CLASSIFIED! – XXs and index in…. just have to do the cards.
• They Came From the Cyclops Cave! – XXs and index in…. just have to do the cards.
• Ex3 Across the 8 Directions – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Weds on DTRPG!

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Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

To stay with our Mau crowdfunder theme, on Saturday it’ll be eight years since we released the Early Access doc for Pugmire! (That’s over 55 years in dog years.) Plus today is the 4th anniversary of our creation and release of Chicago By Night for V5!