As you might have guessed by looking at the big ole logo up there, this week I’m headed off to the Mid Winter convention in Milwaukee as Guest of Honor. This is my first time going, but both Fast Eddy Webb, and Mighty Matt McElroy have spoken so highly about how it is becoming much more of a broad focus gaming con in recent years (I believe it has very strong roots in the local live-action community) and how it’d be a cool place for Onyx Path to attend, that I’m really looking forward to checking it out. Thursday gets me in there, and since I haven’t been to Milwaukee since the last time Gen Con was held there, we’ll be headed out to the legendary Maders German cuisine restaurant- where many a raucous White Wolf Gen Con dinner was held back in the day. (Poor Josh Timbrook was served a pork shank as big as his head!) Just had to go back for some salty bread and a boot-shaped glass of weissbeir.
Friday is pretty much a day of panels for myself and Eddy, as we go over the cool releases Onyx have planned through 2015 and maybe some hints for ’16, and ends with a Pugmire playtest session that we’re both really looking forward to.
11am: What’s Up with Classic World of Darkness
12noon: Crowdsourcing Panel
1pm: What’s Up with By Night Studios? (I won’t be on their panel, but just plugging friends here)
2pm: What’s Up with Onyx Path?
3pm: The Art of the World of Darkness
5pm: (What the hell is) Pugmire?
7pm: Pugmire playtest
Saturday I’m hoping to walk and talk to folks, play in a game or two, and I’m betting there’s a dinner and/or party that night. So if you are there, and want to chat, I’d love to talk with you – whether fan, retailer, or game industry professional.
Meanwhile, we ended the Deluxe Wraith 20 Kickstarter last week at almost $300,000, which buys a lot of ashtrays, and I’d like to thank everyone who participated. It is really heartening to see how Wraith has stuck with folks for so long. Truly a testament to how WW‘s “darkest” game got under people’s skins and stayed there. We’re pulling together the video and graphics for our next KS, the Dark Eras Prestige Edition Kickstarter, right now.
The Onyx Path crew talked about Gen Con and our plans for it this year. Yes, we really need to start this far out from the end of July, as panel descriptions are due end of this month.
At lunch, Eddy and I discussed the inevitable moments that occur as your pet reaches old age. (If you are a pet owner, you know the painful adjustments and ultimate decisions we were discussing). That did lead us, as we waxed emotionally about our furred friends, to something he and I have touched on previously, which is the idea that Pugmire, while ostensibly a slightly light-hearted adventure RPG, actually contains similar moments of pathos and understanding of the human condition. We think, and playtesting will prove whether we’re reading too much into things, that the pet/owner and animal/human connections free up players to deal with a different kind of storytelling in a similar way that “you play the monster” changed the expectations of roleplaying when Vampire and classic WoD first came on the scene. Not exactly the same way, mind you, and the stories you can tell are liable to be very different, but there are expectations and assumed roles built into Pugmire that we hope lead to some truly engaging moments.
So as we look towards the new year of 2015, and actually 2016 as CCP just this afternoon approved our schedule for 2016-2017, we at Onyx Path have a few Resolutions we’d like to share.
From Mirthful Mike Chaney:
- Update the Art & Design Blog at least once a month (OP related)
- Learn After Effects (OP Related).
- Enter the Gen Con Painting competition
- Wear a shirt with buttons and non-camouflage shorts at Gen Con (of course all my shorts and 90% of my long pants are either forest, snow, or urban camouflage).
From Rollickin’ Rose Bailey:
- Get the schedule more closely under control (OP related)
- Keep up regular updates for Cavaliers of Mars (OP related)
- Learn the basics of InDesign (personal)
From Monica “The Marketeer” Valentinelli:
- Get somebody new hooked on Vampire: the Masquerade.
From Fast Eddy Webb:
- Build an Onyx Path Vampire: The Masquerade development team that reflects the quality level and modern tastes that VtM deserves.
- Continue to be better about inclusivity without aggression in my work.
- Design and pitch a game that isn’t an RPG (possibly using one of the Onyx Path properties).
From RichT:
- Be more hands-on. It’s great I now have talented people to delegate to, and there’s been a lot of publisher stuff I’ve needed to do these last few months, but that has taken away from my fun posting with you all, and actually working on projects. The Gauntlet of Spiragos cover art was a breath of fresh air…need…more…
- I too want to learn to create animations. My buddy and fellow Art Director Jon Hodgson created the awesome animated sequences for our 2015 Gen Con video, and I want to be just like him.
- Mage 20, Exalted 3rd, WtF2, V20 Dark Ages, MtAw2: I need to make these go out to all of you. They are crowding Promethean 2, Wraith 20, Beast, and CtL2 and Changeling the Dreaming 20th are feeling them crunching towards them too.
- Play more, in every sense.
It’s a new year, so feel free to share your personal resolutions in the comments, or the resolutions you’d like us to make! (I can’t believe I asked for that.)
And now, a word of warning: I am fighting off a fever and I think I got all of these updated to this week’s updates but maybe not (ugh):
DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (Projects in bold have changed listings)
First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)
- W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- M20 Book of Secrets (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Cursed Necropolis: Rio (Mummy: the Curse)
- Secrets of the Covenants (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition) – In Open Development
- Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Demon Storytellers’ Guide (Demon: the Descent) Extension to writers was given.
- Beckett’s Jyhad Diary (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
- “Sardonyx” System Rules (Base rules set for Scion and the Trinity Continuum)
- M20 Anthology (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
Redlines
- Mummy Fiction Anthology (Mummy: the Curse)
- Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- W20 Shattered Dreams (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Mage: the Awakening 2nd Edition, featuring the Fallen World Chronicle (Mage: the Awakening) – In Open Development
- W20 Novel by Mike Lee (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)
- V20 Black Hand: Guide to the Tal’Mahe’Ra (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition
Second Draft
- Beast: the Primordial core book (Beast: The Primordial)
Development
- V20 Red List (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
- V20 Ghouls (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
- World of Darkness Dark Eras- Vampire chapter (WoD Dark Eras)
- Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition, featuring the Firestorm Chronicle (Promethean: the Created)
- M20 How do you DO that? (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
Editing
- Sothis Ascends (Mummy: the Curse)
- Exalted 3rd Fiction Anthology (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Development (post-editing)
- World of Darkness Dark Eras core book (WoD Dark Eras)
- Exalted 3rd Edition core book- From Holden: “All files are now with Maria” (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Fallen World Chronicle Fiction Anthology (Mage: the Awakening)
- V20 Lore of the Clans (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)
ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE
- Sothis Ascends – Notes and contracts sent out, art in the works.
- Book of the Wyrm 20 – Awaiting confirmed specs from printer.
- DAV20 – Same- Still awaiting proofing notes. Sto working on the colored heraldry stuff. All the B&W stuff is in (which is what I need for the book itself). Mark’s fulls are in and approved.
- T-Shirts – DA Clan Heraldry ones are ready to roll out. I’ll work on more once M20 is in the proofing phase.
- Art O’ The Changin’ Breeds – Mage showed up. Once I get it into proofing (and DA into second proof) I’m going to try and wrap this up.
- Umbra – PDF and POD on sale: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/139920/W20-Umbra-The-Velvet-Shadow
- VTR II – On sale at DTRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/123898/Vampire-the-Requiem-2nd-Edition
- Fallen World Chronicle Anthology – Second proof.
- Firestorm Chronicle Anthology for Promethean 2– Advance PDF/eBooks versions up at DTRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/141741/The-Firestorm-Chronicle-Anthology
- WtF 2 – Got files up for Sto to start on. Yanner’s pieces are in, so Sto should be able to get started. I am going to do up the first chapter to give him a better idea of what we are looking for (and how layout with “holes” works).
- Scarred Lands – Cover for [REDACTED] getting tweaked out. I think all he has to do is add the heraldry to the paladin shield…
- Wraith 20 – KS is done.
- M20 – Fixing Spreads, creating logos for Crafts, and retro-fitting Technocracy logos to fit on the pages (including that Void Engineers abomination I had to remake).
- Dark Eras – Got Sam’s finals in and the VtR chapter AD’d finally. I don’t know if Cathy can complete the full by the 15th as that would have only given her a week to gather reference and put the piece together. Logo is done and I’m working on a mockup for the cover this week when I can’t stand looking at Mage.
- V20 Lore of the Clans – Notes and contracts sent out, art in the works. Did lose a guy over the weekend, so I need to find someone to fill in. Nothing to panic about.
- EX3- RichT here, once again tagging onto Mirthful Mike’s report: hard to believe, Maria and I are still looking at occasional final pieces as they drift in. She is working to create a rough layout this month.
REASON TO DRINK: I’m looking for a Safehouse.
Is “Beast the Primordial” part of the NEW World of Darkness, Classic World of Darkness or both?
If it’s part of the NEW World of Darkness, my next question is: Would there ever be a new CLASSIC World of Darkness game line?
As Rich explained way back at Gencon 2014 and a few times since, Beast is for the new World of Darkness. New game lines for the Classic World of Darkness aren’t out of the question, but I believe they’ve said they aren’t going to seriously discuss it until the ‘big five’ 20th Anniversary Edition books are out (Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Wraith, and Changeling).
Thanks!
Beast was announced during Gen Con’s “What’s Up With the New World of Darkness” panel and discussed there. You can catch Matt McFarland talking about it a bit if you look it up on our YouTube channel.
We’re not closing the door on the possibility of more CWoD lines, but we don’t want to do it at least until we’re done with the current run of 20th Anniversary releases.
Cool Thanks!
EX3- RichT here, once again tagging onto Mirthful Mike’s report: hard to believe, Maria and I are still looking at occasional final pieces as they drift in. She is working to create a rough layout this month.
Is it possible to give us a better idea of how long, in general, the layout process for this book will take? I don’t have any experience with graphic design and layout, so I don’t even know what ballpark to be looking at for the rough estimates and guesses. Is Winter 2015 still on the table for KS backer pdfs or should I be planning for spring?
Not in this case, I’m afraid. Maria is creating a new design format, and until we see how the text flows into that and how many pages this thing looks to be roughly hitting, we really don’t know. Previously, I had expected to be able to estimate, but we have to remember that she was specifically brought on board to give us a fresh new visual design to match the new edition, and she has never worked on Exalted before. So she may nail the look first time out, or we may need to go back and forth as I educate on the look. But yes, Winter is still possible for the backer PDF.
Excited to see the M20 pdf! It seems so close now!
Getting there. We still have some ways to go, but getting closer.
Yeah, but we will have it by March right?
Dark Eras KS.
I swore off Kick Starter. Now you’re dragging me back in!
Mwa Ha Ha Ha! Exxxxxcellent…
Does Rose have any idea when she’ll share the next Open Dev on Secrets of the Covenants with us? C’mon, I’m jonesing for a hit of that juice.
… preferably for the Invictus…
Awesome! Any ETA for when the Dark Ages Kickstarter will begin?
Dark Ages ended last fall. If you mean Dark Eras, it’ll be posted when it’s ready. There’s very little that we do that has strict ETAs.
We want to start before January is over, but no set date until the pieces all come together. Thanks!
I shall prepare my Era of Peter Pan, I’m very excited about this opportunity.
This is all I can say about the m20 PDF being close and all the M20 stuff coming down the pipe..
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view6/3983617/daniel-bryan-yes-o.gif
🙂
oh…oh my god. why wasn’t an ashtray a stretch goal? that would be bloody amazing.
We don’t know any ashtray manufacturers.
The only thing stopping me just throwing money at the screen is the knowledge of the act’s futility.
Probably wise of you.
also in hindsight: i kinda wish redesigning the Technocracy logos were planned ahead of time for M20. That bit above really put that in my brain and I feel that is a missed opportunity. Not that the old ones were really awful (I’m being diplomatic), but they were the least interesting of all the logos in all of the lines.
Some of the Technocratic Convention Logos were great, I think. When the Iteration X Revised book was published I noticed the logo on the spine and because it was very small, an optical illusion effect made it look like a small spider’s web. I’ve looked at it that way ever since.
The Progenitors logo is the best because it very vaguely looks like the diagram of a Nucleic Acid + DNA-binding Protein complex. Very cool.
The Void Engineers’ logo is appallingly bad.
The Syndicate’s logo is far too on the nose
The New World Order’s is boring.
Hallelujah! At last, someone else who sees the obvious. The Progenitors’ logo is the only one that’s worth anything. The Syndicate’s is, indeed, far too pointed, and the other three are too abstract to really represent anything. Wholesale redesign is badly needed.
M20, like the other X20 projects, is primarily a nostalgia edition, so not really the optimal place for redesigning symbols.
Symbols and logos are staying as they are from the previous editions of the Technocracy books. They are only getting tweaked as the logos (titles) needed some tweaks such as texture and some geometry clean up.
With any of the 20th Anniversary Editions, we kept the logos and symbols as they were originally in order to maintain the continuity with how folks first perceived them. Mike is only tweaking them now for technical graphics reasons which should not change them in the eyes of most people.
If the backlog of Mage 20, Exalted 3rd, WtF2, V20 Dark Ages and MtAw2 achieved sentience and became a Beast, what kind of Beast would it be and which heroes would it attract?
Namtaru. Probably Hunger for the Hoard. Might attract a Hero who was a frustrated editor or something.
Tire, im guessing Satryos and the other creators of Mage, Vampire and such, a sort of creation turns on creator type of thing..
I’m not sure our creative guys self-identify as heroes. Maybe Justin Achille, he’s a white hat kind of guy.
Man, I was so bummed I couldn’t toss anything at the Wraith Kickstarter. It was always my second-favorite CWoD game, right after Mage. I can at least console myself with the knowledge that it was both well-funded, and in the best possible hands it can be in.
Well, thank you very much! Also, you’l be able to get the regular version from DTRPG once the book is completed.
What’s this about pitching a non RPG game using op property? Cause id vote for vampire masquarade bloodlines 2, for president 2016. Kickstarter + Steam greenlight? Sounds like win to me. Mmmmm World of Darkness bigger than skyrim cmon!!
Not a video game. The Onyx Path license does not allow for video games based on the World of Darkness and Exalted IPs, and Onyx Path really isn’t geared up to handle video game development on the level of a AAA game.
Even with it’s flaws Bloodlines is one of the best games I’ve played! If Onyx ever gets a chance to remake that magic I’d be all over that in a heart beat!
I certainly appreciate your trust and belief, but we gotta be real here. Onyx Path is set up to, and has its expertise in, making tabletop RPG games in book formats. If we stretch to do fiction or card games or dice rolling apps or something that can also take advantage of our set-up and skills, that’s a decent jump for us right there. Even a tablet game would juuuust be feasible, but a next generation of Bloodlines? The economics and processes of making AAA video games are alien to the way book projects are created, as we learned during our time on the WoD MMO project.
Oh sure, I can totally appreciate that Onyx Path isn’t in a position make video games with it’s current skill set and experience (and that you may not be interested in taking the company down that path). Just like I wouldn’t ask a software developer to write an opera. Especially one that doesn’t like operas. 😀
It starts to look like WtF2 is not even going to be a February release. 🙁
Dunno, we have to see how Sto does with the layout. Don’t give up the ship!
Please record the panels as you did with the previous convention in Summer!
We will try!
If Promethean 2e finishes before Awakening 2e, will it release first? I know it seems like an odd question but I’ve watched bemused as it has overtaken its older brother in its development stage and pondered it. No rush on either game, I’m eager to have them but only when their respective teams feel they’re ready.
The long and short of it from last weeks comments was that several people on the team had serious setbacks of an unfortunate and tragic nature, which necessitated the development being put on the back burner for a while.
It has, but Promethean is likely to stay at its current place for a while, because a) Awakening really *should* come out first, b) we need more time to playtest some things and c) I have other fish to fry for a while.
That’s a deeply satisfying answer to my dissatisfaction with not having some 2e Mage and Promethean to chew on. Getting it right is better than getting it fast!
Matt’s absolutely right in his reasons, although “a” is really the least important, and we’ll just see how things go. Mage: the Awakening 2 certainly shouldn’t be allowed to a logjam just because its first edition hit before first edition Promethean.
The games are closer together than status would appear – Mage front-loaded a lot of playtesting than Promethean is now doing – but a) honestly never occured to me. If Promethean is ready first, it should come out first.
Hum, I don’t know if it is a mistake or not, but it seens that M20 How Do You Do That went from editing back to development.
Not a mistake. It did drop back.
Everyone seems to be getting sick. Tis the season.
Feel better Richt!
Already do! Thanks!
Yeah, sorry Rich.
Everyone I know is dropping like flies through seasonal snot.
As for Eddy’s non-RPG Game; I’d love to see a Masquerade version of Prince of the City.
Only trouble with that is it would truly be a Kickstarter-only kind of deal, unless DriveThru later released the board/cards/tokens via PDF that you could print out yourself.
Another idea a friend and I talked about was a Living Card Game version of V:tES, although I have no idea who holds the rights to that IP.
It hit me, but I’m getting past it.
Board games in general are tough. They require a lot of resources, cost a lot to make, and unless you have a real connection to the board game market and reviewers and such, they basically are just adjuncts to whatever line they are based on instead of being considered as “real” board games on their own merits. Of course, like many things, Kickstarter does shift the issues around some.
Yeah, a high-quality board game might be out of scope right now. But then again, things may change in a year. There are companies that do some smaller PoD game products outside of just cards, so for all I know the goalposts might shift by the time I’m ready to pitch something to Rich. But I don’t know if that’s A) the right move for Onyx Path and/or my own company, B) the best idea for a WoD product (which has a certain expectation of quality), or C) where my brain’s even going to be at when I’m designing.
VtES LCG is something that’s occasionally mentioned in Fantasy Flight fandom circles, I believe. Nothing official was ever stated, but I did read a couple of times that people seem to believe there was an actual attempt for Fantasy Flight to produce a VtES LCG, but it never materialized.
Whatever the case, VtES was certainly a very excellent game, and one of only two card games that actually thrived when played by more than two players (the other being Game of Thrones LCG, of course). An LCG-style card game based on Requiem (or even new WoD in general?) that would be a modern take on VtES is something that I’d very much love to see. And I doubt I’m the only one.
A World of Darkness variant of Munchkin might be amusing or one of those randomly generated board games I’m seeing pop up. I played a survival horror board game complete with characters with different stats that had to survive a haunted house that was created during play by each person choosing a direction and drawing a card to be the next piece. Each room had random treasures, traps, enemies and curses.
See my comment above. Board games are tough, and I’m not sure doing a funny card game for WoD is the right tone for our audience. But the potential for some sort of card game is certainly possible.
Well, there’s Munchkin Bites, that is kinda close to it. 🙂
There’s always Mwahahaha! 2: The Revengenation of Dr. Dookie.
sigh Mage 20 anniversary so close and yet forever out of reach, how many more weeks till the backers can have the pdf? The waiting is killing me.
Just as a curiosity, have you guys looked into using your existing relationship with Red Bubble to offer mobile phone cases? I reckon it would be attractive to quite a few members of the fanbase to be able to buy a decent case with a clan logo, or a classic bit of art on it. If you ever do decide to go down that route consider me an easy sale for a Tremere logo case.
Sign me up for this. I’d buy a phone case for sure.
That’s less a RedBubble thing and more a CCP thing. Our license for merch currently allows us to make shirts. That’s all. We could theoretically do phone cases and such with our own properties, but nothing we’re licensing from CCP.
Fair enough. Possibly something to consider if the licence comes up for renegotiation. I can’t see CCP pro-actively chasing that market but a revenue stream for Onyx Path is a revenue stream for them.
Have any conversations been had recently with CCP regarding getting the license for more than just shirts?
CCP is surely not doing anything in those regards.
By the way, any news on Changeling, both the Lost and the Dreaming?
Both are pencilled in for the fall at the earliest, so neither of them are really at a point where they’d show up in the project updates above.
My resolutions are to write more (I want to finish the first version of my own mythology in 2015) and to read more.
Please have someone record the panels! It would be a big help and spare everyone from two weeks of hearsay and unnecessary questions.
Is it just me who’s noticed that the OP Blogs have slowed way down since the new year?
I don’t think I’ve seen an Open Development Blog in 2 weeks.