And besides the giant scary rock-lady in the art, most of the rock we’re talking about is JADE!
Not yet through its second week on BackerKit, the Jadestorm crowdfunder has moved past 300% funding and multiple Stretch Goals, including just having achieved the first ever Jadestorm novella!
Those of you who have received and read through the Curseborne short stories and novellas can attest to how greatly fiction fleshes out any new setting, and Jadestorm is no exception! We know a bunch of backers are not as enthused about any kind of non-game info SGs, but don’t worry, we have plenty of those SG rewards coming, too!
Today we have two more Jadestorm excerpts/previews from Emma! Enjoy:
Burning Bright, Casting Shadows
As the 66 Malefic fell throughout the Infernal War one generation ago, their essences shattered into cinders: fragments of Jade containing portions of infernal power. These cinders still embed themselves into mortals who find them, killing those who can’t withstand the might of the devils but imbuing survivors with unthinkable power.
In Jadestorm, you are a Jadebearer who holds one or more of these cinders within yourself. You’ll select one of nine Nether Paths while creating your character, each representing a cinder of the nine most powerful Malefic. You might gain more cinders later, but you will be an incredible hero who straddles the worlds of mortals and devils even from the outset of your journey. Your cinder grants you the capacity to use Sorceries — a dizzying array of spells similar to The World Below’s system of the same name — and Chains, which are Storypath Ultra’s first method of throwing large fistfuls of dice to achieve truly devastating effects.
Yet as your concord carves a path through the Jadestorm, you’ll all be forced to answer a weighty question: what are you willing to do for power? Cinders are fragments of Malefic power, after all, and no devil wishes to grant you power out of the kindness of their heart. They are always a source of strength, but they also beckon their wielders toward darkness with promises of even greater power. Merely holding a cinder comes with challenges no matter how hard you resist its whispers, as shown by this portion of Mir’ya’s Nether Path:
Jade of the Mourning DepthsPsychopomps know honoring the dead brings power. Bittersweet smiles, flowers
atop a grave, and quiet prayers have great impact when given compassionately.
This isn’t mere belief; Mir’ya’s Jadebearers see how the spirits hang on their every word and action.
Nonetheless, even the steadiest of minds find her empathy difficult to bear. They feel the emotions of the dead as strongly as each spirit does all at once, in addition to their own. They bear the memories of places and times they have never known. Most difficult of all, they hold the broken dreams of entire civilizations, of an Eos before the Infernal War, of a peaceful world that might never be.Tricks of the Trade
The long and rich tradition of wuxia is Jadestorm’s central inspiration, and many of the genre’s most recognizable images and tropes are how its heroes fight. In Jadestorm, your character’s fighting style is defined by their Discipline Path, the means through which they channel the power of their cinders into sword, Sorcery, subterfuge, and more. The nine Disciplines include many genre mainstays such as the princely Sword Saints, the peerless martial artists known as Silver Claws, and Inkbinders who use calligraphy to amplify their Sorceries.
Because many Jadebearers use the power of their cinders to heighten the arts they already studied as mortals, you’ll also find infernally empowered versions of more common professions inspired by core elements of the wuxia and xianxia genres.
Here are the introductions to two of Jadestorm’s varied Disciplines: one you’ll recognize, and one that heightens a common profession to a status befitting the genre:
Cloud Dancer
Cloud Dancers strike with the freedom of a falcon and the agility of a monkey. Every movement flows like water; every plan shifts like wind. All who witness the Cloud Dancers fight know these masters of spears, staves, and other polearms are Eos’ most graceful warriors.
Cloud Dancers exchange the devotional practice of Eos’ other martial combatants for the unrestrained freedom and beauty of the fight. Although they
lack the straightforward prowess of more traditional warriors, none would have it any other way. To the Cloud Dancers, every battle is a beautiful stroke of self-expression.
Glamourweft
Eos has many names for those who master the art of song and story: bards, minstrels, troubadours. Yet only when blessed with the power of Jade do
performers reach their true potential, channeling the infernal power of the Malefic through otherworldly melodies and rapturous tales. Cinders transform each creation into a thread in the sublime tapestry of life, of Eos, of fabled Nirvana.
These Jadebearers are no mere bards plucking beauty from the cosmos, but a wellspring of beauty themselves: Glamourwefts.
Glamourwefts know all emotions are as beautiful as they are powerful. The most evocative art confers the greatest power, regardless of whether it evokes joy or sorrow. Only by understanding, accepting, and invoking their own love and pain do Glamourwefts achieve performances befitting the heavens.
Matthew has also put together a vid that goes into the Jadestorm setting timeline here, for those of you looking for more details and the background of the world:
It’s actually from the sermon on the mount… or Radagast the Brown…
We’d be a lot more careful in our sourcing if we were gonna publish that line. But amongst ourselves in the Monday Meeting, citing a source for a remark can often be more free-wheeling!
We were all happy to have Matthew back at the MM, and he regaled us with stories of talking about and playing our games at this con. So I asked him to write up a bit of that to share with our loyal MMN Blog readers!
I’m freshly back from gorgeous Italy, where I attended FabCon by Lokendil, Italy’s greatest gaming convention (held in the beautiful city of Fabriano)! While there I got to meet loads of fans of our games (especially Curseborne, The World Below, and our work on the World of Darkness), and encountered loads of enthusiasm for Jadestorm. It was a lovely trip where every gamer I met was just filled with happiness for our games and a real pleasure to meet.
It was also a convention where I could barely understand much of what was said (my Italian is basic level, but I did try to learn some in the months before going) but everyone, including the non-English speakers, was so kind and welcoming it didn’t matter. I also had a fantastic translator to help me at two of my panels.
At the con I got to speak about folk and urban horror (with a focus on Curseborne) on one panel, the skill of running games and managing players (with a focus on The World Below) on another, and the evils of magic and its corrupting nature (with a returned focus to Curseborne) on the last! I also, not coincidentally, ran three games: Curseborne, The World Below, and Curseborne. Funny how that works out.
As always, it’s a sheer delight to visit Italy. The food is great, the weather warm, and the people friendly. Though I could do without all the bastard sand fly bites.
I very much recommend a trip to FabCon if you ever get the chance!
Thanks Matthew! It sounds great, and thanks for spreading the word!
If Matthew’s talk about playing our games at conventions stirs a curiosity in you, we have seats open for gaming at NovaOpen, coming up in just a few days, and GameHoleCon in October – links below in the Conventions section of The Blurbs!.
Here comes Travis’ weekly blurb about our Twitch shows!
This week on Twitch we have a new episode of Guiding the Path with Tom Murr at 4 PM EDT on Thursday, and Mike Athey will return to the channel on Monday at 9 PM EDT for a new installment of Trinity Continuum: Adventure! Air Circus!
Last week Awkward GM Corbin brought Curseborne: Accursed in Boston to a close! Keep an eye on his YouTube channel as he will begin uploading episodes there!
We are always looking for new content for our Twitch channel, including lore dives, actual plays, and chat shows! If you are interested in creating content for the Onyx Path Twitch please reach out to us via the content creator form at https://forms.gle/aqTBztswhRQLMADd9
As you may have noticed, we’ve been in the process of archiving the Onyx Pathcast on YouTube for a while now. It seems a few episodes have been lost to the ages, so we wanted to reach out to the fans to see if anyone has copies of them saved locally! We are looking for the following episodes:
Episode 153: Squeaks in the Deep Dive to the Underneath!
Episode 177: Gen Con Storypath Q&A
Episode 183: Ack! Antagonists!
If you have any of those saved, please reach out via email to Travis at raymonddidit@gmail.com or let us know in the comments below!
I simply can’t believe that today is the last day of August, which for a long time meant it was the end of Summer. No signs of cooler weather yet where we are, but the pumpkin and cinnamon scents coming out of every store suggests that Fall, my favorite and the scariest time of the year, is right around the corner!
We’ve got a bunch of spooky fun coming up in these next two months, with the Curseborne Covenant Kickstarter in October being a big part of that! But not the only thing we’re excited about as the shadows lengthen and the temperature, like a once-warm body, slowly cools. All happening in our:
Many Worlds… One Path!
Blurbs!
Crowdfunding!
Prepare for the Jadestorm!
Over 300% funded and not even halfway over!
You can check it out with this link – JOIN US in the STORM!
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/onyx-path/jadestorm
Onyx Path Media!
Check out our attached media schedule for the videos on our Twitch channel this week!
This week on the Onyx Path News, Matthew discusses Jadestorm, Cybernetics, and Scarred Lands: https://youtu.be/bUJ__5xIkyQ
Over on The Gentleman Gamer YouTube channel, Matthew breaks down the timeline of the eponymous Jadestorm from the Jadestorm RPG: https://youtu.be/5mNWODACJEg
Virtual Tabletop!
Check it out now! The Scion Demiplane Nexus! Click here for Early Access:
Campaigns for Scion Nexus went live last week as well. This blog post explains how Campaigns work on Demiplane:
https://www.demiplane.com/blog/campaigns-have-arrived
Scion Demigod Available on Roll20 NOW!
The Scion: Origin and Scion Hero Compendiums are now available on Roll20!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/publisher/1716/onyx-path-publishing
The first of our official Scion sheets designed for Foundry VTT are now available! https://foundryvtt.co
They Came From Beneath the Sea! on Roll20 VTT!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/22308/they-came-from-beneath-the-sea
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!
Select Chronicles of Darkness Screens and Monarchies of Mau books, screens, and dice 50% off at Studio 2:
https://studio2publishing.com/collections/onx-onyx-path-publishing
Some more deluxe books have popped up on Studio 2, with more on the way.
https://studio2publishing.com/collections/onx-onyx-path-publishing
And don’t forget to let your local game store they can order direct from Studio 2! Details here: https://studio2publishing.com/pages/retailers
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).
On Sale This Week!
The first of two Exalted Essence novellas, Even the Heavens Will Burn, is available in PoD and electronic versions this Weds on DTRPG!
Plus, we’re giving out more Community Content tools to enable folks to create their own projects on the Storypath Nexus CC site! Here’s the SPU Layout Templates and SPU Artwork and Assets Packs!
On Sale Last Week!
This month’s Tasty Bit PDF all about Cybernetics in the SPU rules is available now on DTRPG!
Conventions!
Here’s where you can find out more info on physical and virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!
Nova Open (September 2nd – 5th): Check out these Curseborne games to play there:
GameHoleCon October 15th – 18th): Check out these Curseborne games to play there:
Twin Cities Con – November 20th – 22nd (Game Room demos).
PAX Unplugged – December 4th – 6th (Studio 2 will have our books and more).
Project Status Updates!
Our full list of projects will be available monthly on our blog! Check out July’s full list report here; https://theonyxpath.com/release-roundup-july-2026/
DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY!
Here are the projects that moved to the next stage of production:
Manuscript Approval
SPU Tasty Bit – Martial Arts (October 2026)
- Our October Tasty Bit is about enhanced mechanics for emulating a wide variety of fighting styles. It’s being approved!
Curseborne Covenant
- Nobody usually cares about dead astronomers. But when they find one crammed into the telescope at the observatory where she worked, that raises a few eyebrows. The cops got nothing, and they got double nothing when it comes to figuring out how the body got all the way up there.
- Most of it, anyway.
- But that wasn’t just any observatory. Those things don’t come cheap, especially these days. Which means you follow the money, and you start finding things. Links to other observatories that got built. Chairs endowed at universities for astronomy profs. Scholarships handed out like they’re going out of style, which they kind of are.
- And bodies. Lots of bodies.
- You start putting the pieces together and there’s a pattern. What does it mean? Nobody knows, at least not yet. But somebody’s trying to build something, and somebody’s trying to knock it down, and nobody else even knows enough to start thinking about which side they should be on.
- Might be worth finding out, don’t you think?
Post-Editing Development
SPU Tasty Bit – Magic (September 2026)
- Speaking of Tasty Bits, our detailed look at magic systems in SPU is back from editing!
ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!
In Art Direction
- Ex3 Infernals – With Navella.
- Ex3 Champions of the Divine Flame – With DAC.
- Ex3 Liminals – Crowd funding artwork contracted.
- Curseborne Covenant – Prepping KS graphics.
- Curseborne Solo – I think all I am missing is one of the fulls.
- Curseborne PG – More stuff incoming.
- TC From the Shadows – Contracted… fingers crossed it all holds this time.
- TC Steam Wars – Got splat artist approved… so getting the notes out for that. Also confirming what stuff Larry is doing on his end.
- Pugmire Adventures – Artwork contracted.
- Lair of the Rat King – Getting the art buy together.
- TWB Underworld Adventures – Art is in and maps are wrapping up.
- TWB Into the Dungeon JS – Prepping art buy.
- Jadestorm (BK) – Ongoing.
Layout Queue
- Curseborne Compact Edition
- Monster Kingdoms
- Curseborne Screen – Making final tweaks to back of Screen.
Proofing Queue
- Curseborne Community Content Stuff
- Ex Essence PG – 1st proof a goin’.
At Press
- Curseborne – Press files created… Cover, endpages, interior, EU thing… all that jazz.
- Curseborne Jumpstart – Just waiting on cover cutlines…should get them this week.
- Making of Curseborne – Just waiting on cover cutlines…should get them this week.
- Curseborne Slipcase – Awaiting cutlines from printer.
- Curseborne Dice – Getting those rolling along.
- At The Gates – Working on this now that Jadestorm is running and Curseborne press stuff is as far as I can get it.
- TC Danger Skies – PDF going out to KS backers this week.
- Essence PG Novella 1 – Murder on the Divine Carriage – Inputting backer errata.
- Essence PG Novella 2 – Even the Heavens Will Burn – PoD and electronic versions on sale this Weds on DTRPG!
- SPU Community Content Assets – Out this week!
Today’s Reason to Celebrate!
Today is the birthday of Kim Kashkashian, an American violist. She has spent her career in the U.S. and Europe and collaborated with many major contemporary composers. In 2013 she won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. She is recognized as one of the world’s top violists. I spotlight her here celebrating her achievements in that I’m quite sure she has had to deal with a lot of bizarre messages due to her name being so similar to the other Kim K.