And “Coming Soon” is completely true! Those rodents won’t wait and are gonna be here on Thursday, July 16th – THIS THURSDAY – at 2pm EDT on BackerKit!
https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/eb4c97ab-69d6-464c-890c-cd68c755a730/landing
There’s just so much stuff, including a huge dungeon-based campaign, in Lair of the Rat Kings that our bullet points in the visual above just can’t really express the sheer amount of cool and useful rules and lore! But thankfully, here’s Pugmire creator Eddy Webb to expand on the graphic’s abbreviated points of interest (totally without squeaking):
Oh man, another Realms of Pugmire crowdfunder is coming soon, and I’m so excited! This is a HUGE campaign that attempts to homage the megadungeons I used to play and run when I was younger (without all the tedious mapping). This week I’ll give you a glimpse of what’s in the book. Check it out!
What is this book about?
Lair of the Rat Kings is a full campaign sourcebook detailing a new and exciting part of the realms of Pugmire: The Underneath. It contains not only everything you need to know about the Underneath, but also has information about making rodent player characters (along with their psychic powers), advice on how to run a subterranean campaign, a complete adventure, and a massive number of locations, set pieces, and encounters.Here’s a synopsis of what’s in the book.
• Introduction. An explanation of Lairs of the Rat Kings and what you’ll find in it.
• Chapter One: Rodents. This chapter gives more information on rodents in Realms of Pugmire, and then helps players create mouse or rat player characters. Following this chapter, players can choose what rodent to play, and contains all the information players need to put on their character sheets. If a player is struggling with inspiration, or time is of the essence, they can use the template creation rules at the end to quickly roll up a rodent character and start playing right away.
• Chapter Two: Psionics. Some rodents have unlocked the powers of their minds. This section includes rules for psionicists and the abilities they can use in play, along with information about new types of masterworks for Realms of Pugmire: inventions and psionic fixes.
• Chapter Three: Bones of the World. This is full of advice for the Guide on how to run the Underneath as a giant underground adventure, along with suggestions and expanded advice on exploration and survival, as well as rules for exciting encounters in which a group of heroes battles a single foe. It also contains great information about various villages and other interesting locations within the Underneath.
• Chapter Four: Enemies. This chapter offers characters for the Guide to use as enemies, foils, and maybe even allies in their adventures. It also has more detailed information on the dangerous and chaotic Cult of Labo Tor, as well as statistics for key non-player characters useful for Lair of the Rat Kings.
• Chapter Five: Lair of the Rat Kings. A massive chapter of campaign information. Along with a collection of encounters useful for spicing up any campaign in the Underneath, this chapter contains an entire adventure (“Authority Ends at the Tunnel Mouth”) suitable for both dog and rodent characters. There are also four set pieces, which together lead through the mystery of the missing Rat Kings and the secrets of the shadowy Dr. Brainstorm Masters (PhD, MD, QED).
Thanks, Eddy! This is a ton of cool info about Lair of the Rat Kings – I’m looking forward to hearing what backers have to say once the manuscript starts to be delivered as it goes live on Thursday, the 16th, at 2pm EDT!
Something Eddy didn’t touch on is the nature of the campaign: we are once again rolling out a PDF and PoD crowdfunder much like the Pugmire Unleashed one that was completed for backers last week and will be on sale this Weds on DTRPG! Yep, we have delivered that one before starting this one!
We think that being able to include you all in the crowdfunding effort and being able to deliver the projects to you without printer and shipping woes – and without chaotic tariffs – is a very workable crowdfunding method that we hope you too enjoy!
Be there or be the cheese!
Other non-squeaky stuff:
Well, maybe a little squeaky.
Here’s Travis who usually speaks without sounding like a mouse, but these are strange times, so maybe a squeak slipped into his Twitch reporting?
This weeks’ Twitch schedule is full of Adventure!
Tuesday morning Comrade Bubbles returns with a new episode of Behind the Screen! That’s right, keen-eyed readers, I made an oops and listed it as being last week, but it is, in fact, tomorrow at 9 AM EDT when Comrade Bubbles will be delving into their latest community content release for Trinity Continuum: Adventure!
On Wednesday at 7 PM EDT things take a turn for the terrifying with a new installment of Curseborne: Accursed in Boston from Awkward GM Corbin!
Thursday at 3 PM EDT Dotryguide Tom Murr returns for another episode of Guiding the Path! Hit him up for tips and tricks for telling tales with the Storypath Ultra system!
Finally, on Mondays for the next several weeks, we will see Mike Athey return to our Twitch channel at 9 PM EDT for a thrilling tale of aerial adventure with Trinity Continuum: Adventure! Air Circus! Don’t miss out on this wave of programming!
On Weds, keep an eye out for Pugmire Unleashed, yes, but also for the start of the huge Xmas in July Sale over on DTRPG! We’re going to have lots and lots of our projects in the sale – so a great time to pick up those missing PDFs in your collection!
Here’s Travis again, with more info about his projects combining the Scarred Lands and the Savage Worlds system:
The Scarred Lands Player’s Guide for Savage Worlds is now out to Kickstarter Backers in advance PDF! Errata will continue through 7/22 at NOON EDT, at which point we will start getting the book ready for press! I am also getting things underway for the stretch goals we’ve unlocked during the Kickstarter campaign, including the Edge and Power cards, Adventure Atlas (working title) and the Blood Sea (SWADE) books!
But that’s not all! Matthew Dawkins and I are taking the first baby steps to bring forth The Gluttonhold Gambit which will be the first original Scarred Lands campaign designed for Savage Worlds!
The Gluttonhold Gambit is a proposed five-chapter Plot Point Campaign chronicling the horrifying resurgence of Gaurak the Gorger, titan of consumption, corruption, and insatiable appetite. Designed for progression through every major Savage Worlds Rank — Novice through Legendary — the campaign aims to combine grotesque body horror and wilderness exploration with political paranoia and fast-moving clashes.
The campaign begins with isolated incidents of strange illness and mutation across frontier settlements near the Titanshome Mountains. What first appears to be a plague tied to fatlings and contaminated food supplies slowly reveals itself as the first stage of a catastrophic rebirth ritual. Deep beneath the mountains, Gaurak stirs within a prison of stone and grease, while ancient fatling devotees emerge from subterranean vaults with designs to aid their titanic master’s escape!
There will be more news on this and other Scarred Lands developments soon! In the meantime, you can still squeeze in a late pledge for the Scarred Lands Player’s Guide for Savage Worlds on Kickstarter for a limited time!
Just reading the pitch for approvals was disgusting – but what can you expect from the warped minds of Travis Legge and Matthew Dawkins?
Of course, one of the things that usually happens after the Monday Meeting is that a couple of folks will get together after the meeting to nail down the details of an effort or a project that is better discussed away from the Monday Meeting with all of us there – even though we first started talking about the subject during the MM.
This keeps us from getting too bogged down in how to do something after deciding as a group it needed to be done.
Today, it was Travis and myself going over details of a couple of things like the Scarred Lands plans as he mentions above, and also how to roll out the next wave of Curseborne vids. But Travis and I are also both chatty nerds, so we also covered the rise of Marvel Comics, the artist hovels that comic book artists worked in before the Marvel Age (including the classic story of the artist who couldn’t find a desk in the packed, cigarette-smoke filled, room where the other artists were inking and penciling away so he retreated to the bathtub with a drawing board across his knees).
Which somewhat unnaturally led to my early years at White Wolf and having been presented with a bunch of piles of first edition Werewolf: the Apocalypse art and sketches and a smattering of artist leads (it was a whole thing), etc and going from getting that book out and then jumping right into VtM 2nd Edition. Long story short, and no squeaking, I was drawing Clan symbols on the floor and handing them up to Chris McDonough to scan in to use in the layout, while Josh Timbrook would come running in with Clan art for their spreads as he finished them. And then those would get scanned in and dropped into the Clan spreads.
VtM2 was the first book we did entirely electronically, and we were outputting our own film of the interior for the printer to put together for their presses. This was a huge thing, and incredibly crude and slow by today’s standards, and at one point Chris and I were working around the clock in shifts to get the pages out to film and then cleaning up those films to the standards the printer needed.
We were sweaty and exhausted and covered with the foul-smelling chemicals from the machine that ran the films. We were reeeaaallly irritable.
But it worked, and by doing that we saved a lot of time at press so we could get the book out on time.
And I’m still thrilled when Travis says it’s his go-to favorite edition core.
That wasn’t quite 35 years ago (see last week’s MMN blog), but it’s always something I look at as we continue to create new editions of our many game worlds – which of those is going to be the one that gamers years from now will point to as “the one”? Could be any of our:
Many Worlds… One Path!
Blurbs!
Crowdfunding!
Meep! Meep! Enter, if you dare, the Lair of the Rat Kings! Coming July 16th at 2pm EDT!
You can sign up here to get notified when we start – so you don’t miss a whisker of the campaign!
https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/eb4c97ab-69d6-464c-890c-cd68c755a730/landing
Onyx Path Media!
Check out our attached media schedule for the videos on our Twitch channel this week!
On today’s Onyx Path News, Matthew waxes lyrical about the Branch Riders Facilitator’s Guide and Lair of the Rat Kings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJZ1AjqoAPs
Over on The Gentleman Gamer YouTube channel, Matthew talks RPG horror stories, this one being a disruptive player during a campaign of The World Below. How to handle these monstrosities: https://youtu.be/rgecYAoVq6s
Tales of the Pantheons continues their superb take on Scion right here!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffCO_X3NMMk
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
As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles in PDF and PoD versions at DriveThruRPG.com!
X-Mas in July is launching on Wednesday and we’ll have a lot of our projects on sale across several sites!
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!
Available to non-backers for the first time! Pugmire Unleashed is the Realms of Pugmire Player’s Guide with a slew of new PC types and creatures! PDF and PoD versions this Weds on DTRPG!
On Sale Last Week!
A very special guide for running Branch Riders, with special sections for licensed therapists who want to incorporate BR into their sessions using the Bodhana Method! PDF and PoD versions only on DTRPG!
Conventions!
Here’s where you can find out more info on physical and virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!
Gen Con, July 30th – August 2nd (Studio 2 will have our books and more).
Twin Cities Con – November 20th – 22nd (Looking into running panels, and 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 June’s full list report here: https://theonyxpath.com/release-roundup-june-2026/
DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY!
Here are the projects that moved to the next stage of production:
First Draft
Infernals Companion (Exalted)
- While Infernals gets art notes, the stretch goal book for Infernals is off to first drafts!
Final Draft
SPU Tasty Bit – Magic (September 2026)
- Our Tasty Bit covering a new and flexible magic system needs a few refinements to its spell formulae in final drafts.
Essence Enhanced (was Extended) (Exalted Essence)
- Another Exalted stretch goal book moves ahead. This one was for the Essence Player’s Guide campaign, and it’s at final drafts as well.
Editing
Blood on the Dance Floor (Curseborne Jumpstart from Player’s Guide KS)
- The second jumpstart for Curseborne has passed approval, and after some tweaking is ready for editing!
ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!
In Art Direction
- Ex3 Infernals – Art buy configured.
- TCF Witchford – Still looking for appropriate artist for the fulls.
- TCF Witchford – Looking for appropriate artist for the fulls.
- Curseborne PG – Contracted.
- Curseborne Covenant (KS) – Contracted.
- Curseborne Solo – Contracted.
- TC Steam Wars – Need to confab with Matthew about remaining art buy.
- Monster Kingdoms – Finals in the works.
- Jadestorm (BK) – Art contracted.
- Lair of the Rat King (BK) – Crowdfunder assets and page done – good to go for Thursday!
Layout Queue
- Curseborne Compact Edition
- Ex Essence PG – Layout starts this week… last week got sidetracked by crowdfunding.
- Curseborne Screen – All part of my Curseborne Round Up.
Proofing Queue
- Curseborne Community Content Stuff
- Making of Curseborne
- At The Gates – Inputting fixes from Danielle. Some minor layout tweaks… but no major fixes.
- Curseborne Tangled Webs – Second proof.
At Press
- They Came From the RPG Antho – Shipping from printer to fulfillment shippers.
- Curseborne – Trying to wrap up some of the peripheral stuff and getting things ready to go.
- Izzy Curseborne Novella – PoD Files uploaded.
- Ex3 Alchemicals – Page XXs.
- Curseborne Jumpstart – Page xx’s.
- TCF Cyclops Cave Jumpstart: Weapons of the Gods – Page XX’s and PoD Prep.
- Pugmire 2e Unleashed – PDF and PoD versions on sale Weds on DTRPG!
Today’s Reason to Celebrate!
For those of you following the football championships…not the Super Bowl – the World Cup – today in 1930: The inaugural FIFA World Cup begins in Uruguay. 96 years of football/soccer scrambles to the top!
“This devastation left your cities to be burned
Never to return, never to return…”
— Tobias Forge and Tom Dalgety, “Rats”