Yep, it’s actually Scion 2nd Edition that we’re publishing right now, and are celebrating all this merry month of May!
Which, of course, is part of our year-long celebration of Onyx Path Publishing’s 10 Year Anniversary – each month, we focus on a different game line. It’s Scion‘s turn!
We started off the month a bit early last week by delivering to backers the PDF of Scion: Demigod early. Right now, we’re gathering the errata shared with us by our Heimdall-eyed backers, and soon we’ll be reviewing those notes and using them as needed to tweak the book. Thanks to everyone who has already or will soon contribute to the errata process!
Now that we are in May, we have already started the 10th Anniversary 10% Sale for Scion 2e PDFs over at DTRPG for about half of our current Scion 2e projects, and in a few weeks we’ll have another sale for the next batch – the other half – of great books!
It includes:
- Scion Second Edition Book One: Origin
- Scion Second Edition Book Two: Hero
- A Light Extinguished (A Jumpstart for Scion 2e)
- Heroes for the World (Ready Made Characters for Scion 2e)
- Scion Second Edition Book One: Origin (Phone Version)
- Scion 2e VTT Hero Signature Tokens
- Scion 2e VTT Origin Signature Tokens
That’s 10% of the usual price for those Scion PDFs – so 90% off regular price! That’s our way of saying thanks to all of you in our Scion 2e community. We couldn’t keep creating all of these amazing and imaginative takes on mythology without you!
And, of course, it’s also a great time to mention that we have the Scion: Origin sheet and Compendium available on Roll20 for VTT play, along with the Scion: Hero sheet and its Compendium soon to come! The official sheets are also available on the Foundry, so if that’s your preferred VTT space, we’ve got you covered!
Plus, work continues over at Jenkins and Tate, as our friends there prepare the materials for full-out pitches for a Scion TV show!
There sure is a lot going on, why we’re also as busy now as we were ten years ago when I sat down with a group of creators to talk about what we needed to do to create a second edition, now that Onyx Path owned the game line.
[Wayne’s World-style wiggly screen-lines, doodle-lee-do, doodle-lee-do, doodle-lee-dooo]
When I was told that my duties as White Wolf Production lead would be expanding from the visual side of things to the whole process from concept through writing and editing to art direction and layout, etc., one of the things I knew we needed was another successful game line. The New World of Darkness (now Chronicles of Darkness) and Exalted needed boosting, but we really needed a fresh line to demonstrate to everyone that TTRPGs were still what White Wolf excelled in.
Plus, we had to make that home run while not stopping any of our ongoing game lines, without any increases in staff or budget, and in a very limited timeline that hit the deadlines set up by the distributors to get the books in stores. In other words, business as usual for the creative teams at White Wolf at that time!
My feeling then, and now, was that the core concept of Scion takes us back to the roots of super-heroes, and the very myths that then were the inspirations for such writers as J.R.R. Tolkien. Which means that they take us back to the inspirations behind D&D and the games that came after. There’s a reason why books of deities were such a large part of early D&D, and why so many gamers, myself included, had at least a couple of books on Greek and/or Norse mythology on their shelves.
But could we make a successful game out of all that inspiration?
Fortunately, our folks jumped into the project with massive enthusiasm, with collaboration at every stage of the process. I’d name names here, but honestly, everyone on the first Scion: Hero credits page was a hero themselves throughout the process – they did make the first book, and then line, a success!
Yet, as thrilled as I was by what everyone had brought forth, I always thought we could do more with it. If only we had had the time and resources to devote to it. But at that time, at WW, it was not to be, cherie.
Which, of course, lead to my taking the opportunity to buy the rights to the game from CCP/WW on my way out of there and onto the Onyx Path. I knew it would be a mighty cornerstone for my new company – and that we’d finally have the chance to tweak some things. Just a few small changes really, was what I thought then…
[Continued next week]
May-be Monday Meeting Notes:
We’re still waiting to hear about the Exalted: Exigents Kickstarter, and right now we’re hearing stories about even longer waits from other creators. We’re not really happy about that and a few other KS-related things, so we’re looking at our options. Right now, if we want to put this crowdfunding campaign out, our best bet is to post it on IndieGoGo.
We ran the M20 Victorian Age campaign there, and by and large we all had to adjust a few things from our expectations based on KS, but it was a decent campaign that then easily worked with our BackerKit process on the back-end. So, we’ll let folks know as things progress, but there’s only so long that we’re willing to wait to get Exigents out to everyone waiting for it to roll forward.
A couple things I can say from our previous experience on IndieGoGo, and based on backer feedback, is that we would use the same goal-based setup we use on KS – so we’d have to fund that goal to get everyone’s pledges – and that they do charge you at the time you pledge.
So, folks need to be ready for that timing rather than paying after the campaign funds like on Kickstarter. James has a few work-arounds for how pledging and previews work, but we can’t work around the payment process except to let you know about the process ahead of time, to keep reminding you as we get closer to the end of the campaign, and to enable BackerKit like we always do so you can get caught up there if necessary.
So, we’ll see how things go in the days to come!
A reminder to everyone that we’re still looking for GMs to run games at this year’s Onyx Path Virtual Convention in June! You can run your game, contribute to both our con and to our charities, and even get paid for your efforts! Please check out the sign-up sheet in the Conventions section below.
Here’s a heads-up that our friends from MST3K are prepping to go totally live to the public with their new Gizmoplex app on May 6 – this Friday – and then over the weekend, with newly edited versions of the first three movies of this season. The hilarious ads for They Came From Beneath the Sea! that they made for us are running now, which really just adds to how much fun the new season is!
Plus, once you are in the app, and enter the Gizmoplex, you can find our sponsorship plaque among the many other treats in the virtual theater! It’s really a thrill to be even a little part of helping out on this classic show!
I mentioned the Scion sales that are happening this week, plus DTRPG is also having a D&D PDF Sale that includes Realms of Pugmire and Scarred Lands!
Did I mention Scarred Lands? Well, here’s something about that legendary fantasy game: Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad is now on the Fantasy Grounds VTT platform! Like I mentioned a week or so ago, we’re continuing to push into a variety of VTT venues so that our community continues to gain more and more useful tools for online play.
There is just so much in this book that can be added to any campaign, like new Scarred Lands Backgrounds, Classes, Peoples and Cultures, Equipment and Magical Items, and, of course, tons of new spells! (And if you’re not playing VTT, it’s a great read as a book, too, and available on DTRPG!)
Having helped put together the original Scarred Lands Campaign Setting: Ghelspad book, Yugman’s Guide is like a very focused, player-based, version of that first book!
Which is a lot of stuff from both the past, and these last:
Ten Years, Many Worlds, One Path!
BLURBS!
Kickstarter!
Look here for news of our next crowdfunding project: Exalted: Exigents!
Onyx Path Media!
This week:
Matthew sits down with Hiromi Cota in the first of a two-part tour of the Scion line!
As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/
Onyx Path Media now has its own blog on Tuesdays! THURSDAY THIS WEEK! We’ll continue posting our highlight of the week here, but Tuesday will be the day to visit if you want to catch up on actual plays, interviews, deep dives, and other assorted Onyx Path media!
Please check out our attached media schedule for the impressive number of videos on our Twitch channel this week! In particular, keep those eyes open for our Storypath Showcase, where we give an excellent profile of our various Storypath games and how to play them!
MEDIA HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK:
Last week Matthew Dawkins posted an all-call for YOU to submit your media (on the media blog last Tuesday). He’s now reviewed it all and wants to highlight his favourite of the submitted selection – The Deliberative Podcast – which has covered all parts of Exalted, and is certainly worth checking out: https://podtail.com/en/podcast/the-deliberative/
The Onyx Path News goes live every single week to discuss recent and upcoming releases, dive into some of our most anticipated books, and answer questions from the audience. You can find it on our YouTube channel (click the bell to be informed when we go live!) but if you missed last week’s episode, here it is: https://youtu.be/B7PjImZLKvw
Virtual Tabletop!
The Scion: Origin Compendium is now available on Roll20!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/compendiumexpansion/12522/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin
It’s native to Roll20, so not for use elsewhere, but perfect for starting your Roll20 Scion game – plus, the official Origin & Hero sheets are already available!
And the first of our official sheets designed for Roll20 are now available!
The first of our official sheets designed for Foundry VTTis now available!
As they say:
Direct Link: https://foundryvtt.com
“Foundry Virtual Tabletop is a self-hosted roleplaying
platform with support for hundreds of game systems with modern
features and a developer-friendly API. Foundry VTT is a one-time
purchase where your players connect for free using a web browser.”
More VTT offerings and projects will be arriving this year!
A Quantum Leap (A Trinity Continuum: Jumpstart),The Adventures of Teen Tomorrow (A Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Jumpstart),Quantum Entanglement (A Trinity Continuum: Aeon Jumpstart),are all on Astral TableTop.
Also on Astral TableTop is the Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb for Realms of Pugmire!
Check out Astral TableTop for two free projects: Scion 2E: A Light Extinguished and Scarred Lands: Gauntlet of Spiragos and this Dagger of Spiragos module for sale: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/336406/Dagger-of-Spiragos-5e–Astral-VTT
On DrivethruRPG, here is the main filter for all of our current VTT content:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/4261/Onyx-Path-Publishing?filters=0_0_0_45317_0
A few highlights of our platform agnostic DTRPG content:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/309127/Scarred-Lands-Creature-Collection-VTT-Token-Pack
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/317690/Trinity-Continuum-Hunt-for-the-Red-Widow-VTT
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/340327/Trinity-Continuum-Aeon-VTT-Tokens
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311578/Scarred-Lands-VTT-Separation-Anxiety
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311580/Scion-2e-VTT-Origin-Signature-Tokens
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311579/Scion-2e-VTT-Hero-Signature-Tokens
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!
Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books, dice, and screens? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/
As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles in PDF and PoD versions at DriveThruRPG.com!
The first half of the Scion 90% off Onyx Path 10th Anniversary Celebration Sale is on now!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/4261/Onyx-Path-Publishing/subcategory/8329_22322/Scion-2nd-Edition
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/saleguide.php
- It includes:
- Scion Second Edition Book One: Origin
- Scion Second Edition Book Two: Hero
- A Light Extinguished (A Jumpstart for Scion Second Edition)
- Heroes for the World (Ready Made Characters for Scion Second Edition)
- Scion Second Edition Book One: Origin (Phone Version)
- Scion 2e VTT Hero Signature Tokens
- Scion 2e VTT Origin Signature Tokens
The annual D&D Sale on DTRPG starts today. Scarred Lands and Pugmire
PDFs will be on sale along with almost 17k other D&D and OGL PDFs: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/sale.php?manufacturers_id=4261
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).
Check out the Trinity Continuum: Aeon novellas Dawn and Meridian in the Kindle store!
On Sale This Week!
This week, you can hear them. Down below, they filter upwards…the Squeaks In the Deep for Realms of Pugmire! PDF and PoD versions available this Weds on DTRPG!
Conventions!
Because dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, we don’t yet have a list of upcoming physical conventions. Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!
Tabletop Scotland is due to take place on 27th and 28th August 2022 and will play host to at least four Onyx Pathers running our games and sitting on panels live and there in the room with you! If you’re UK or Europe based, it’s an excellent con to visit and within traveling distance from Edinburgh, which takes flights from a lot of places! Consider paying Tabletop Scotland a visit. https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/
Right now, we’re planning the 3rd Onyx Path Virtual Con in June.
This year’s Onyx Path Publishing Virtual Convention page is now live on Start Playing Games:
https://startplaying.games/event/onyx-path
Check it out now for the GM sign-ups section if you want to run games during the con. More info on events and panels and all yet to come!
How to list a game:
https://intercom.help/startplayinggames/en/articles/4516071-how-to-create-and-list-a-game
And now, the new project status updates!
Our full list of projects will be available monthly on our blog! Check out April’s full list report here: https://theonyxpath.com/release-roundup-april-2022/
Development Status from Eddy Webb!
(Here are the projects that moved to the next stage of production):
Redlines
TC: Adventure! – Thrilling Tales
- Eddy: This stretch goal, converting the radio drama we made for Adventure! into a playable adventure, is in redlines!
Scion – June Tasty Bit – Making History Modern
- Eddy: Our June Tasty Bit will be covering how to make ancient myths into modern plot devices for Scion. I’m looking forward to doing the redlines for this.
Scion – Path to Apotheosis (was Demigod Scenarios)
- Matthew: I’m always keen to see more pre-written story hooks for our games, and I’ll soon be getting to see the work on this one. Very exciting!
Final Drafts
Trinity Continuum – Talents Player’s Guide
- Eddy: Redlines for this player’s guide are done and back to the writers, so more Talent goodness should be back in the Danielle’s hands soon!
Hunter: The Vigil 2e – Tending the Flame
- Dixie: I’m always happy to be able to present new factions for player characters to fight for, against, or alongside, so this stretch goal book will be a great addition!
Manuscript Approval
TC: Anima – Anima: DLC
- Eddy: Sent this up for approval, and during discussion we found some ways we can tweak the manuscript to make it even better, so we’ll have it sit here for a bit while we get that fine-tuning done.
Post-Approval Development
Scion – Dragon Jumpstart
- Matthew: This scenario looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. The perfect marrying of fantasy fantasy and urban fantasy.
Editing
Scion – Dragon Companion
- Matthew: More playable tools for Scion: Dragon! Now in editing!
Post-Editing Development
TC: Aether – Aether
- Matthew: Ooo we’re getting closer to this book coming together. This one won’t take long for me to go through, and then it’s all about art. Martians, Jekyll/Hyde, Edison, and more!
Art Direction from Mike Chaney!
In Art Direction
- Exalted Essence – Moving forward on the remaining book artwork.
- Ex3 Adversaries – Tons of sketches signed off on…
- W20 Apocalyptic Record – Moving forward on getting the remaining art for the book.
In Layout
- TCFBTG Tales of Depravity – Errata gathering.
- SCION Masks of Mythos – Setting up formats for Ron Thompson.
Proofing
- Dead Man’s Rust – Going out to backers today.
- Dead Man’s Rust VTT Assets
At Press
- Scion Demigod – KS Backer PDF out to backers, gathering errata.
- Squeaks in the Deep Screen – Files ready for Press. Working on PO with Printer.
- Squeaks in the Deep Bookmarks – Printing.
- Paranormalists Handbook – PoD proof on the way.
- Hunter: The Vigil 2e – Working on the PO details with printer and prepping the cover file. Interior files prepped and ready to go.
- HTV 2 Screen – Files ready for Press. Working on PO with printer.
- TC Panopticon – PoD proof on the way.
- M20 The Operatives Dossier – Awaiting errata.
- TC: Aberrant: Terat Novella – PoD proof on the way.
- Trinity Continuum: Assassins – Awaiting errata.
- Squeaks in the Deep – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Weds on DTRPG!
Today’s Reason to Celebrate!
I wasn’t going to go with a stack of anniversaries of different books again, but Impish Ian, our archivist, sent these in even though he’s on vacation! He’s just that dedicated, so I just can’t not use them this week:
Here’s this week’s anniversaries:
May 5 2021 – Scion Live-Action came out last year!
May 3 2017 – Dark Eras Companion turns 5!
May 4 2016 – Mage: The Awakening 2e is six!
There are some issues with introducing it as an indiegogo that I feel should be considered first.
1. Campaign exposure. Outside direct links to the campaign URL and banner that OP traditionally uses, there isn’t a standard location of OP’s indiegogo campaigns. The most available link involves using the backerkit link used every Wednesday to get to the site itself. This has also been an access issue with OP’s second KS account, which doesn’t have a specific link to it either. It can make the ongoing campaign somewhat tricker to find unless you actively look for the link, and I feel it’d been a factor in the success and reception of campaigns not hosted by the Rich Thomas account on the sidebar.
2. The switching of accounts between campaigns. While multiple accounts are useful for running two campaigns close to each other’s duration or even simultaneously, it’s harder to draw backers in when the location to donate isn’t centralized. While demand for campaigns is high and many would find it just fine, enough confusion might be caused that it could affect the amount of funding it could retain, and with a project with so much material added via high levels of backers, you want as many as possible.
I’m not saying these are guaranteed acting factors on funding performance in the alt accounts, but I believe these are significant enough to consider avoiding indiegogo or the alt KS if possible, at least for a campaign like exigents with a lot of potential draw. Just a suggestion
Thanks! Your in-depth and obviously well-considered points are excellent, and the very issues we look at when we’re considering the best way to continue to provide our community access to their favorite game lines’ new projects. We have to consider the trade-off between reach and effectiveness with just about every venue we offer up our projects in – crowdfunding, distribution to game stores, VTT venues, etc. Amazon as a sales venue has a host of issues that are similar – what trade-offs for potentially reaching new people are we, as a company, willing to make? Sometimes that’s a decision that makes sense today but needs re-evaluation next month, sometimes next year, but we’re always looking at how something like which crowd-funding venue we should use for a particular project will impact accessibility, income, word-of-mouth – all that.
So, is there an expected time frame for when the chosen campaign vehicle for Exigents will be announced (a week from now? Two?), or is it more of an “It’ll happen when it happens” kind of thing?
We won’t know until we know, but we’ll try and keep folks informed as much as possible!
Thanks for the shoutout for The Deliberative Podcast! We are eagerly awaiting putting together a big episode on Exigents!
Oh? That’s super cool news! I honestly loved the deliberative pdcast and was sad to see it end (understandably given lack of content ofc) I think one of the last things I remember was a liminal charm design theoretical. Think I even sent one in but I forget the name. Look forward to y’all’s triumphant return!
Yes, I remember your awesome Liminal Charm idea! We actually started back a couple of months ago, but we’re on a somewhat more manageable schedule now, and we’re not trying to do as much. Trying to build in protections from burnout right from the start. My hope is that we are in it for the long haul this time. It’s been weird coming back, but I think in our last episode (about XP) we finally found our old voice again.
That’s genuinely cool as heck to hear! Now excuse me as i go find your newest episodes haha
Awesome! Looking forward to it!
Would the Gamefound platform be an option ? I’ve backed a couple of board games there and really enjoyed how projects are setup.
agree. have sponsored a few things on gamefound, and their pledgemanager is builtin. also; they are game-fucused and the user experience is similar to ks, but a bit better in my mind.
Gamefound seems to have been set up to provide a next generation of crowd-funding experience, but it lacks something that both older crowd-funding sites, KS and IndieGoGo, have that we need to have: a payment option handled by the site, not by us. Otherwise, we’d love to try it out sometime for one of our campaigns.
KS is doing a great job squandering all the years of goodwill built over the last decade or so it seems. I alreayd backed Victorian Age and while IDGG lacks a lot of backer facing features KS has well…yeah I’d still back it. Agin not helping I’m kinda cross with KS for several reasons.
I hear you. I’m sure some of your concerns are the same as ours, in addition to our creator-based ones. Thanks for following us as we figure out options!
Is there another crowd funding project in the wings if Exigents isn’t a go? If so, what is it?
It’s not a question of whether Exigents is the next one, it is, but where we’re going to do it. 🙂
Is there some way to reach out to Paradox via any official avenue that we can use to tell them people want more CofD content? An email address, a phone number, etc. that we can pass around for people to message, just as a way to show our support in a way that’s appropriate?
We can only suggest their on-line sites like the WoD and V5 FB pages, and particularly their WoD/V5 Twitter accounts. Our contact is very much a business to business thing, and that’s not something we’re OK with sharing outside that usage. Good luck!