Here we are again, still getting by like so many of you, through the Covid-19 pandemic. In our continuing effort to dish up some entertainment as everybody is handling the changes to their lives, on April 1st we unveiled the new Onyx Path logo!
Created by Mirthful Mike Chaney, our art director and designer extraordinaire, I’m told that “Wreck-em Rich” ringing his infamous silver bell is going to be our new mascot – for a lighter, funner Onyx Path for these dark days!
If the date it was posted doesn’t make it obvious, this was just a bit of fun. I know a fair number of our freelance creators certainly got a kick out of it!
Which is really the point. We all need little bits of silliness and fun right now, and as I talked about last week, a lot of our Monday Meetings have been looking into ways we can provide even more support and encouragement for fans and freelancers alike.
Here’s a few of them:
This week, we continue the massive Exalted Sale over on DTRPG, with really deep discounts on the earliest PDFs!
Over the weekend, a lot of our creators joined in on Gehenna Gaming‘s Virtual Horror Con. In fact, here they are: Daniella Lauzon, Meghan Fitzgerald, Eddy Webb, Steffie de Vaan, Dixie Cochran, Meredith Gerber, Mike Tomasek, Jacqueline Bryk, Jacob Burgess, Josh Heath, Rachel Judd, Crystal Mazur, Neall Raemonn Price, James Mendez Hodes, Sam Araya, Joshua Doetsch, Justin Achilli, and Amy Wilkins.
And those are just folks who freelance create for us, there were a lot of other super contributors too, but if I missed anybody- let me know. These folks were on panels and ran and played in games, and by all accounts, it was a fantastic time – very professionally run – and something like $7K was raised for Covid-19 relief efforts!
Gehenna Gaming is already posting links to the virtual events, so if you missed the Con, you can still view actual plays of your favorite games, as well as panels discussing a wide variety of topics concerning horror and gaming – from our stuff, to other game lines, to writing horror in general.
I’m personally looking forward to checking out the panel about horror game design with both Justin Achilli and Jason Carl on it!
You can start with these links:
Gehenna Gaming Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gehennagaming
Main YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/gehennagaming
Gehenna Gaming main website: https://www.gehennagaming.com/
Chronicles of Darkness Mortal Game: https://youtu.be/EdPfkI0FLFk
Trinity Continuum: Aeon Game: https://youtu.be/j7masQukyjQ
Mage: The Awakening Game: https://youtu.be/13UtpbAFAfk
Back in January, which seems very long ago in a faraway land right now, we had the Onyx Path Summit. One of the resolutions from that Summit was for us to host something like a virtual Developer Town Hall meeting. A large-scale, on-line, meeting that our many devs could call into and we’d be there to discuss, well, things.
What we really wanted to put together was a venue where our devs could directly talk with Eddy, Dixie, Matthew, Matt, and myself about whatever might be concerning them. Tomorrow, we’re implementing the first couple of these, because we really feel like waiting until we get through all this is missing an opportunity to allow our folks, many of whom are self-isolating, to have human contact (virtually) when we all need it most.
And it’s contact with folks in similar situations. We’re all trying to figure out how to create in this current situation; how do you work in a crowded house, or even should you in the face of whatever domestic situation you now have?
I, myself, am looking forward to hearing from everybody!
Last week’s Onyx Pathcast where the gang did 5 minute pitches of our games – sort of a “Sell Me On Game X” sort of thing – proved so popular that they had enough requests from listeners to do two shows.
So they did.
The Return of the 5 Minute Pitch Returns will go live on PodBean and your favorite podcast venues this coming Friday, the 10th, and so if you missed part 1 (The Return of the 5 Minute Pitch) you can catch that and get caught up easily. These are excellent explanations of the game lines, along with much jocularity as our hosts try to say everything they need to before the 5 minute alarm goes off.
Finally, I just want to point out that we have a bigger than normal list of YouTube vids below in the Onyx Path Media section, so if you prefer to watch gameplay and panels on YouTube rather than Twitch, we’ve got you covered.
We do still have plenty of Twitch programming, although several troupes have needed to take a break because of the impact of the virus, and a lot of other folks have contacted Matthew with their broadcasts for the week. So please, zip right down into The Blurbs! and check those out if you want something game-oriented even if you can’t play right now.
After all, you can play, watch, read, read about, and generally lose yourself in any of our:
Many Worlds, One Path!
Blurbs!
Kickstarter!
We’ve cancelled the Legendlore Kickstarter for the time being. While we wait for that happy day, here’s a fantastic Legendlore interview with developer Steffie de Vaan, hosted over at High Level Games! https://www.highlevelgames.ca/blog/legendlore-rpg-from-onyx-path-publishing-an-interview-with-steffie-de-vaan
We’ll get Legendlore back on KS as soon as we can, and meanwhile we are building the M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter!
Onyx Path Media!
This week, it’s the Return of the 5 Min Pitches Returns! There were so many of our game lines mentioned by our audience for inclusion that the gang needed to make two shows! Here’s the second part, so you can join the gang as they “speed date” a smorgasbord of our games, giving out highlights and their ideas – all for your viewing pleasure and edification!
As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/
As mentioned above, Virtual Horror Con took place to great effect over the weekend! If you haven’t already do check out their website https://www.gehennagaming.com/, and if you missed some of their actual plays of our games, please check them out here:
CofD Mortals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdPfkI0FLFk
Trinity Continuum: Æon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7masQukyjQ
Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13UtpbAFAfk
And Gehenna Gaming’s Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gehennagaming
If you’re self-isolating or locked down, you can always tune in to our games this week. A few of our usual hosts are having breaks due to the situation in the world right now, but we’ve got plenty coming over the next few days, including V5, Scion, Pugmire, Changeling: The Lost, Changeling: The Dreaming, Mage: The Awakening, Scarred Lands, and a Dark Eras Werewolf: The Forsaken chronicle!
This week sees a return to Vampire 5 – Blood on the Tamesis! Do check this one out, as it’s a fantastic chronicle. You can subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath to catch up with any episodes you missed!
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:
Scarred Lands AMA with Travis Legge: https://youtu.be/38fPD50puSM
Trinity Continuum Special with Danielle Lauzon: https://youtu.be/cUrct7WvykA
Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion: https://youtu.be/OaqUKvkDTxc
Trinity Continuum: Hard Holidays 2 – Holiday Harder: https://youtu.be/DeS8BGuOBKs
Pugmire: Paws & Claws: https://youtu.be/W-SxDdVuQtk
Vampire: The Masquerade: Blood City – Chicago by Night: https://youtu.be/Occ6CX68ook
Aberrant: Community Service: https://youtu.be/51-Y_Diaefg
Do subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!
The Botch Pit has performed a deep dive into the fantastic antagonists of Werewolf: The Forsaken, with this episode focusing on the Hosts: https://youtu.be/N5jtask8hYQ
The superb 307 RPG podcast has produced a series of shows based around the superb Scarred Lands campaign setting, and you can find an interview with Travis Legge, a dissection of sub-classes, a deep dive into Vengeance of the Shunned, and more, right here: https://307rpg.com Please give them your support!
More new Occultists Anonymous for all you Mage: The Awakening fans:
Episode 94: Mirror, Mirror
Returned home from Cambodia, the Rookery cabal find themselves with an Abyssal entity in their inner sanctum. They debate how to handle it while more of them start to become obsessed with it…https://youtu.be/My_WhERNAK4
Episode 95: A Blood Price
With the Abyssal entity banished from the Fallen World, the cabal begin to figure out what has happened in NYC since the death of the Prince. There are talks of repayment in blood with a vampire and warnings about the sarcophagus.https://youtu.be/nzomKjw6fQA
Roll the Role continue with their Scarred Lands Gauntlet of Spiragos actual play! Roll the Role is a fantastic show, so please do give them a look: https://www.twitch.tv/rolltherole
And the bizarrely named Scabby Rooster continue their actual play of Scion, right here on their Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/scabbyrooster
One of Matthew’s personal favourites, Devil’s Luck Gaming, continues their Werewolf: The Forsaken chronicle over here: https://www.twitch.tv/DevilsLuckGaming Please do give them a follow!
We have a fantastic Legendlore interview with developer Steffie de Vaan, hosted over at High Level Games! https://www.highlevelgames.ca/blog/legendlore-rpg-from-onyx-path-publishing-an-interview-with-steffie-de-vaan
Ekorren returns with an incredible deep dive into the Scarred Lands which you really must watch. His enthusiasm shines through in everything he says about this beloved setting: https://youtu.be/56QKuLlCCPI
And as we’re on the subject of Ekorren, if you missed it he also did a Charms for Solars video, for Exalted 3rd Edition right here: https://youtu.be/4AG2FxJi0dg
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.)
Update: the devs are working on the updates for the roller in both Android and iOS; here is the rundown from them:
1) Redo the UI for system for Android. It will look the same as the current design. My goal is to have something ready by Saturday to send out to the Facebook users, asking them if this fixes the issues. This will be a beta type thing. This will break several of the fancy dice.
2) If the above worked out and the android users give all the clear, we’ll redo the graphics system to fix the fancy dice that got broken. We’ll do another Android beta through Facebook. This might take up to two weeks, as my schedule allows.
3) If everything worked well, we’ll release to Android for real at that point.
4) Port all of the existing stuff to iOS and release on that.
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 get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire
We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game
Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost
Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!:
https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands
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
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!
As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!
This week, the Gigantic Exalted Sale is still running EXtra strong! Everything Exalted in PDFs is on sale!
On Sale This Week!
This week Mythical Denizens for Scion 2e will be available in PDF and PoD versions on DriveThruRPG on Wednesday!
Awakening to a mythic destiny brings a rush of new powers and capabilities, but it can also bring a Hero to the attention of a variety of strange and powerful beings, who seldom regard the arrival of a meddling band with warm wishes and open arms.
Scion: Mythical Denizens includes ready-made antagonists suitable to drop into existing stories, from lethal Legendary Warriors to inscrutable Fair Folk to shapeshifting Therianthropes and more.
Each antagonist included in Mythical Denizens features:
- A full background to shed light on a being’s origins and motivations.
- A complete stat block and list of capabilities for easy reference.
- Rules for new Qualities and other unique powers possessed by some antagonists.
- Story hooks to spark stand-alone sessions or easily integrate into existing games.
But wait, there’s more coming to DTRPG this week! Memento Mori for Geist 2e will be available in PDF and physical book PoD versions on DTRPG on Wednesday, as well!
The Underworld runs deep, lifetimes stacked on stolen lifetimes, all to squeeze us down to fuel, to fodder, for the bastards that built it. Sooner or later, it gets us all. It’s patient. It plays the long game, because it has eternity to wait you out, fland it doesn’t believe mayflies like us can make a difference in the end.
That’s why we’re going to win.
Geist: Memento Mori includes:
- New Mementos, including additional Vanitas and the rare and coveted Greater Mementos
- New Regalia and Ceremonies drawn from dozens of Krewes across all archetypes
- New Haunts that pulse with the Underworld’s own power
- New Haunted Locations, each with their own tales of tragedy and endurance
- New Dominions, from the regal Gilded Palace to the Neon Table casino
Conventions!
Though dates are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s our current list of upcoming conventions:
UKGames Expo: https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/
GenCon: https://www.gencon.com/
Tabletop Scotland: https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/
Gamehole Con: https://www.gameholecon.com/
PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.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)
- Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
- The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)
- Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)
- M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)
- Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)
- V5 The Faithful Undead (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
- V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
- V5 Forbidden Faiths (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
Redlines
- Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)
- Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)
- Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
- Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Second Draft
- Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)
- They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)
- Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)
- The Book of Endless Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)
- N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
Development
- Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
- Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)
- M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
Manuscript Approval
- Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)
Post-Approval Development
- Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)
Editing
- Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)
- Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)
- Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)
- Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)
- Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)
- TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
- Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)
- Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)
- LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)
- One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)
Post-Editing Development
- City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)
- W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)
- Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)
- Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)
- Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
- Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)
- Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)
- Legendlore core book (Legendlore)
- Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)
Indexing
- They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCfBtS!)
Art Direction from Mike Chaney!
In Art Direction
- Scion Titanomachy – Contracting. Waiting on a couple of artists to free up.
- Tales of Aquatic Terror – Sounds like a mission for LeBlanc!
- TC Aeon Terra Firma
- V5 Let the Streets Run Red – Awaiting art approvals.
- Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs
- WoD Ghost Hunters
- Aberrant – Contacting and contracting.
- Pugmire Adventure
- Hunter: The Vigil 2e
- Mummy 2 – ADing that out post Aberrant AD.
- Deviant – Going over the notes.
- Legendlore – Kickstarter on hiatus.
- Technocracy Reloaded (KS) – Prepping for KS.
- Cults of the Blood God
In Layout
- Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad
- Contagion Chronicle
- Vigil Watch
- Scion Companion
- Duke Rollo Book
Proofing
- Trinity Aeon Jumpstart
- Pirates of Pugmire
- TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – Inputting proofing comments.
- Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Doing up cover and getting the whole thing over for 2nd proofing.
At Press
- TC Distant Worlds – PoD proof on the way.
- Scion Mythical Denizens – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Weds.
- Night Horrors : Nameless and Accursed – Errata gathering ending.
- Dark Eras 2 – PoD proof ordered.
- VtR Spilled Blood – PoD proof ordered.
- Dystopia Rising: Evolution
- DR:E Screen & Booklet
- DR:E Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties
- Geist 2e Screen
- Memento Mori – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Weds.
- TCFBTS Screen and Booklet
- They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Indexing.
- Geist 2e Anthology – Errata gathering.
- C:tL 2e Oak, Ash, & Thorn – Errata gathering.
Today’s Reason to Celebrate!
I was going to post a bunch of celeb birthdays for today, like Paul Rudd who I just always enjoy, but then I noticed something odd on the obit list – from which I was not going to write about today. But I have to share this. Country music legend Merle Haggard’s name is on both lists today (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016). He died on his birthday, which strikes me as a very good topic for a country song! Weird facts are definitely a Reason to Celebrate!
Wooh! Exalted Essence is moving up! Hopefully a Exigents kickstarter isn’t too far away either.
Is there any chance the M20 Technocracy book could open the door for additional, non-Technocracy specific M20 books as part of the stretch goals?
I’d love to see a book sort of like Changing Ways for M20, with a focus on what it’s like to be a Mage, how they see the world, what magic feels like, what increasing Paradox feels like, what the average Mage really knows about how their magic works (do they all understand and accept the idea of consensual reality?, how they believe other mage’s magic works, etc. Does the average Hermetic or Verbena understand that Virtual Adepts and Progenitors are doing the same thing they do, and manipulate the same “forces”, just with a different set of trappings?
This sort of stuff still feels a bit muddy in M20, and the answers (when there are any) are spread over a bunch of different books from a bunch of different revisions, and often seem to contradict each other.
If White Wolf is okay with us making more M20 books, we’re happy to make them! But as Rich has said in lots of previous blogs, any new projects are case-by-case with the license holders, so we’ll have to see.
I might have missed this in a previous update, but for Ex3, is there a plan to make a compendium of all single releases of Hundred Devil’s Night Parade and Adversaries of the Righteous ? Is this what we see in the Redline and First Draft section ? I Would really like to get a PoD version of this if/when it goes out. Thanks.
is there a plan to make a compendium of all single releases of Hundred Devil’s Night Parade and Adversaries of the Righteous ? >
Yes.
Is this what we see in the Redline and First Draft section ?
And yes.
Hey guys, any chance there’ll be a V5 update for Onyx Dice? Cheers!
That’s more a question for the Onyx Dice developers; we don’t make the app in-house.
Keep on the Great Job!
One of the few nice things with the virus is that you get more time for things you hadn’t before.
Started Aeon fallen in love with the world and the systems. Clean and very customizable.
Started a full 3rd edition Exalted game. Although a bit overwhelming the world is second to none in scope and freedom of choice.
2 Suggestions
is there any way to have the great onyx path dice roller online so people can log in and use it? A discord bot would be excellent!
Can we have official editable character sheets for Aeon? There are some fan-made around but it would be very nice to have the real thing!
Thanks again for everything!
Can’t speak to the online dice roller (we’re not a software company), but as for the character sheet we did make one, and we thought we uploaded it with Aeon. Turns out it might have been a glitch with DTR, so we’re tracking it down to get that up as soon as possible!
I reuploaded them… so they should now be there along side the book PDF and the non interactive sheets.
I’ve been continually enthused by the Scion 2nd edition, since it has been released. Now that the supplements seem to be arriving, my appetite is growing for it. It has a great blend of accessible modern action and also setting depth.
Just two quick questions: will there continue to be more Pantheons (and other types of character options) coming? I am hoping to see some Polynesian/Maori and Abrahamic options, personally, but I’d like see more entirely.
I’d even like to see some jokey pantheons added – Elvis, maybe. Or maybe not.
Secondly, and this may be a long shot, are there any plans to do some sort of crossover with the Trinity Continuum? They both use the same basic system, I think, but I was wondering whether we could see something like The Avengers/Infinity War? That is, an event where multiple types of hero come together to deal with a cosmic foe?
Feel fee to ignore all this – just putting it out there, really.
Thanks for the kudos! Yes, there will certainly be more pantheons in upcoming books. Like, a lot more. Secondly, we’re not considering an official crossover at this time, but who knows about the future!