Wow! Was that a wild five days. Plus travel.
Eddy and I shared a room again this year, so it sorta counts as a Monday Meeting. But because everybody has been playing catch-up on sleep and emails and notes, I have no Updates nor any real meeting notes this week. Instead, let me talk about Gen Con and how Onyx Path did there this year. Our goal this year was to continue to ramp up enthusiasm for, and awareness of, Onyx Path and our license to publish WW games. You folks all know what we’re up to, but there are lots of gamers who don’t. So we had Onyx staff shirts, signage, biz cars, and stacks of the physical version of this:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/118000/Onyx-Path-2013-2014-Publishing-Schedule
We also had things to show off: copies of the Strix Chronicle Anthology and Hunters Hunted 2 PoD proofs, a sexy copy of the correctly embossed Deluxe Mummy: The Curse that was shipped to my hotel by the printer on Friday, and a few print-outs of this:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/118271/Demon-the-Descent-Quickstart
Booth traffic was brisk, no doubt helped by having the Monte Cook sharing it, and as far as I can tell there were a lot of folks getting really excited by seeing the WW game lines getting attention and new releases again. So, I think we got the message across there.
Then there were the panels as well, which were a lot of fun. We had so many freelance creative folks there that are working on projects that there was often little I needed to say at the “Onyx/WW Q&A”, or the “nWoD” and “cWoD” panels. Great questions, lots of enthusiasm. And then there was the “What’s Up with WW/OP” panel- or the “Eddy and Rich Show”, that we’ve been doing for years now. Once more we revealed the new schedule until next August 2014, and it was great when I mentioned that the “schedule isn’t fixed in stone, but more of a…” and half the audience said “framework!”. He, he- some folks have been paying attention- thanks for that. We also announced that we are indeed doing Wraith 2oth Anniversary Edition for later next year with my friend Rich “Dead Guy” Dansky developing the game he is so well known for. I thought it would be a surprise to announce it at that panel- but pretty much everybody expected it- that didn’t stop the cheering, but now I need something else to use as a surprise. Also got some very nice excited comments and questions over the Scion 2nd and Trinity Continuum listings, so that’s very heartening to hear since those are Onyx‘s babies now.
I was also one of the Industry Guests of Honor again, which is pretty cool in that I get to sit on panels with great and talented folks from other companies that I rarely get to talk to like Jon Hodgson, art director at Cubicle7, the inimitable Stan!, and my old friend Nicole Lindroos, from Green Ronin. Most importantly, for our purposes here, I get to talk to people who really don’t follow this blog and our other efforts and let them know what Onyx Path stands for. I was on a “How to Run a Successful Kickstarter” panel with Stan! and afterwards a nice guy came up to let me know he was going to specifically buy some stuff at the booth because he was impressed by my enthusiasm and business direction (which was pretty amazing since this was the tail end of the con and energy was something I barely had left). But most importantly, to me, was the “Sexism in RPG Art” panel that I found out that both Jon and I had proposed. What a fantastic meeting of minds in that room. You could tell a lot of folks there were scarred veterans of internet wars over the topic, but in that room there was a pervasive sense of trying to improve the representation of body types, races, and genders in gaming art and nobody went for someone else’s throat. Because sometimes one person’s “sexy” is another’s “sexist” and it’s easy to lose the idea that we’re all people when you only see a name on a screen. Which was indicative to me why the RPG industry might be able to lead the way towards hanging up the old chainmail bikini. At least at Onyx Path, we’re going to try.
Another cool thing was that the Exalted developers, John and Holden, and myself had two meals with our Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition backers who had pledged for just that sort of a meal with us. It was a little hard to talk at the Saturday night dinner because they had one of those open to the dining room kitchens and the noise was loud, but lots of upcoming parts of their plans for EX3 were revealed during the wave of questions from the backers. Sunday was a fair bit quieter as we were tucked into a round table in the back of that place, and while there was some duplication of questions, mostly new topics were covered. Also, this time, I thought to tweet a few random quotes (wish I’d thought of that the night before), here are a few completely out of context:
“Camelot is going to eat people, whether you want it to or not”!
“Speaking of excesses, how are limit breaks going to be handled?”
“Now I want to roleplay a lemur!”
I was so busy that I really didn’t get a chance to walk the floor, although I did see lots of old friends including artist Jeff Menges who was the spearhead for the Magic the Gathering artist retrospective book “The First 49” that I was honored to be included in, Dave Martin whose Wrecking Crew were demoing WW/Onyx games in the old church/train station combo building, and Jeff Combos whose Hollow Earth Expedition RPG is a joy to see being issued again. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of people I’d have loved to talk to, and I very badly missed a scheduled podcast- I am so sorry!- that Eddy was able to fill in for. I did do one podcast there for NerdTangent that they dragged me to after most of a night drinking. I had to though, as those young Canadian punks were talking smack about Tim Burton’s Batman. I think they’re going to run it sometime in the next four or five weeks, but it was an ugly drunken brawl of a “discussion” with no-hold-barred action and insults. Of course, I destroyed them with logic (one example was pointing out how stupid they were in general) and eventually the one named Todd actually was knocked unconscious by my devastating devaluation of their thesis. Also, on another late, late, night, I played D&DNext and did another podcast talking about favorite comic book artists.
Downsides? Our sign was small, our brochures needed to get into more folk’s hands, and our AV needs to be professionally done as it’s not fair to Eddy to make him try and do the AV work every year. I thought his broken mic meant we had no recording, but Evil Ian Watson may have found a source for some record of at least one of our panels- we’ll let you know if he can get that posted.
So go ahead, ask questions about the con or the schedule- I have at least 20% of my brain working again.
Reason To Drink: After last week, you have got to be kidding- my booze hump is full.
Truly great to hang out with all of you again. And Wraith is why I got into gaming in the first place.
(that, and Matt McFarland’s essays on Wraith)
It was fun- thanks for stepping in for Joe on the Scion talk, and generally helping out.
I’m glad that the con was so fruitful for you guys. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, and I noticed that those big stacks of books at the booth got smaller pretty quickly.
That they did- we know that part of our “mission” is to get fans aware that these books are being created and are available at DTRPG, because there are a fair number of WW fans who are still not aware of what Onyx is doing because they only know what shows up in stores/Amazon. Thanks for the support and positive vibes (and stuff) you brought!
Whoot! Info from Gen Con. 😀
Even if we don’t get product status-reports, I’m glad to see a report on some of the stuff I missed.
In this day and age of cell-phone videos and stuff, I’m surprised that none of the panels got video, or audio done from folks in the room. :-/
Still, glad to see you and Eddy are recovering. How’d Holden enjoy Gen Con?
Check out the cobbled together video Ian made: http://youtu.be/fq76822ciWI
And this one of our Onyx Path theme music- someday we’ll get an animation with it: http://youtu.be/vMXN2nT1aB0
Holden seemed to have a great time, as did John and his gal, and we had just the best time with the EX3 KS backers and a great EX3 talk late into the evening.
Glad it was awesome. Sad I missed info on Scion. :p
Welcome back Richt!
Y- there will be tons more as things develop- and thanks!
Congrats on a great Gen Con. I’m going to gush for a moment. As a long time World of Darkness fan, I can’t help feel a bit proud of you guys and being a WOD fan. I seems like, within the RPG hobby, Onyx is turning some heads, especially with the ambitious schedule and the World of Darkness feels like it’s coming back…well, it never went away, but it feels relevant again.
But in the end, the work speaks for itself, God Machine, Mummy, Werewolf 20, all quality stuff. So looking forward to Demon. Congrats again.
In the end, that excitement is why I schedule such an ambitious number of books right now- we know that a lot of them will jostle all over the months, as do you if you have been following this blog or my “View From The Path” notes on the Onyx Path website. But we want the community to know that we want to do these projects and do them well, and because there are so many great fans of the various lines, we have to push hard to get all these different books for all these different lines started and being worked on.
Thanks!
“a sexy copy of the correctly embossed Deluxe Mummy: The Curse that was shipped to my hotel by the printer on Friday”
Pics or it didn’t happen! 🙂
Blah blah, my fourth least favorite internet phrase. 🙂
Seriously, I’ll be posting pics for the backers via a Mummy KS Update today.
Sounds good: It would put a lot of backers at ease to actually see what to expect, instead of getting just vague promises which are more or less starting to read like “yeah, yeah sure it’s done at at June -maybe, on a second thought make it August -August 2014.”
Make that tomorrow- Friday, I have more news to share from the printer coming in.
OK, generally, I read these sorts of posts as if the writer had the best intentions and I’m just moody and reading it negatively. 99% of the time that’s the right way to go. But, you know how people have triggers? Well that use of “unacceptable” in these sorts of contexts does it for me. You probably didn’t know that, as there’s no reason you should, but nevertheless there’s no way I can answer your question as phrased, sorry.
If it helps, Rich, I saw the word UNACCEPTABLE and went back and read the whole thing in Lemongrab’s voice.
LOL It does, Simon.
I have to agree the phrasing was not optimal. In consideration of all the hard work that goes into those books, tact is of the essence.
That being said, if you would allow me Richt, i’d to rewrite this in virtue of the fact that the core of the question may be relevant to many mage fans.
Here goes: within the limits of what is safe to say at this moment. Are there plans for future M20 supplements beyond the current schedule for long-time M20 fans to look forward to?
And for my personal interests. Are there any chances for wraight supplements?
Thanks. And I fully understand if it is too early to answer any of this. Please keep bringing the awesome.
There are, of course, a whole bunch of M20 supplements that Phil and I want to do. But from what we learned with W20, Mummy, and EX3, the corebook’s Kickstarter will produce a bunch of cool projects via the Stretch Goals and so we have kept the schedule after M20 more open than with those other cores. Some of the projects that could come out of the Deluxe M20 Kickstarter are projects Phil pitched but I didn’t think worked on the regular schedule, so you’ll have a happy developer if we get there. And bear in mind that the schedule is only until Aug 2014.
As for Wraith…we just announced the book itself, it’s going to be a Kickstarter for the Deluxe. We’ll see what happens.
Makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
I had a blast at GenCon myself and enjoyed the panel an awful lot! I look forward to Mage and Wraith 20 myself, though I have to admit the project I’m most looking forward to is still a while off. Dreaming 20, omnomnom ;).
Plus, it was great to get a chance to see Eddy in the wild @ the DTRPG Booth 😛
Glad to hear it! And Eddy…he’s always in the wild. 😛
Your tone is very demanding and antagonistic, which is why people may not be willing to respond to you immediately. Please police yourself in the future.
If Phil’s off the project, he’s still being unusually prolific given his constant posts on the M20 Facebook page.
I was a backer of the great Magic: the Gathering art retrospective kickstarter.
I know they haven’t shipped any books out, so I’ll be taking my Rage cards for signing in case you’re a guest of honor at L.A. by Night, Rich.
I do wish the convention would update it’s info by now since it’s getting close to the date. Or when panels for the guests will be at what days.
Hopefully, more artists will be guests of honor there. I know Jeff Rebner showcases his work with Hyaena Gallery in L.A.. However, despite them always showing up for the Monsterpalooza convention in Burbank, I know that I’ve haven’t seen Jeff there. I was lucky enough to meet and get my Rage cards signed by Jason Felix at Monsterpalooza, though.
Well, thanks for backing that book too! I expect to be at LAbyNight as we’re just wrapping up scheduling details. Dunno what things I’m going to be doing yet. Both Jeff and Jason are great guys- I don’t, however, get the impression that Jeff gets out to shows much.
Sounds awesome. Been playing V20 for well over a year now with one group… looking forward to more stuff from cWoD, and I love the POD program. I was bummed I couldnt make it to GenCon, but I will be at DragonCon. Will you all be at DragonCon?
Individuals may, but as a company, we’re not.
I’ve been going back, getting, and reading some of the non-Werewolf novels lately. So I’m going to ask this question: Are you guys planning on getting Richard Lee Byers to work on any unnamed stretch goals for the Wraith 20th Kickstarter?
His Wraith novels were pretty awesome. So it would be cool to see him work on something again.
I’m talking to Rich Dansky next week, and fiction possibilities are on the agenda. I expect he’d like to edit/develop a fiction book himself and pick the writers, so I’ll ask about RLB.
I am so excited for Demon after going through the Quick-Start. Any idea on when we might see a Kickstarter for it? I assume there is one planned… I hope there is one planned. Please let there be one planned, because I really, really want to through money at it.
*throw
I type better when I’m not half asleep, I promise…
Well, it could be something like “Surprise! Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary!”
The classic WoD needs it’s beacon of dreaming!