Yes, we stumbled back to a fully attended Monday Meeting today – the first one where we were all there in quite some time with GenCon and vacations and all. A good and informational meeting nevertheless.
They’re not all that way, though. We have 50ish of them a year, and sometimes the energy level all around is low. Sometimes the upset level is really high, like if we’re all under stress or if a social media flame-war is flaring around us. Sometimes I’m the crabby one, and so I set us off in the wrong direction. Feelings get hurt when you have a lot of intensely dedicated and creative folks trying to wrestle our schedules together and make them work.
But. Not today.
A lot of that, no doubt is because we’re seeing movement on projects that, for a variety of reasons, had been bogged down for a long time. Not everything that is lagging but most of the real long-term ones, so if we can catch up on the latest and keep getting tighter on the newer projects: we’ll be rockin’.
That’s the result of the very hard work our crew put forth in the first half of the year. Not just their personal work of writing, developing, editing, but their efforts at working together and helping our freelance talent focus and push their work forward. Helping others create is, it turns out, really difficult!
(Just as examples, I’m looking at WoD: Ghost Hunters, M20 Book of the Fallen, and Signs of Sorcery for Mage: The Awakening as the most egregious examples. Even Wraith20 has gone to press and the Scion core books are working together they way we have tried so long to make happen).
Our Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter is also lurching forward right now into the wastelands of a Kickstarter’s time-frame – that very slow pledge time before things pick up close to the end. If you pledged; thanks so much and please tell your friends. If you haven’t, here are some reasons why we think this is a very cool game to play and might inspire you to check out the KS here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/dystopia-rising-evolution-tabletop-rpg
1- Characters don’t necessarily die forever when they are killed. The path to a shambling zombie starts with your first resurrection at the behest of an entity known as the Gravemind. This means, gameplay-wise, that you can play Dystopia Rising: Evolution with a sense of lurking doom ala The Walking Dead, or as a contrast, you can play balls-to-the-wall like the Mad Max universe because you can blow up real good and still come back!
Could the Gravemind be pulled from DR:E and used in any of our other games? Well, just as an example I thought of this afternoon as I thought about this blog, I’m wondering if the Gravemind could arise as a rival to the God-Machine in a Chronicles of Darkness chronicle. It is clearly messing with the order set down by the G-M…or is it?
2- As I think I mentioned last week, Eddy adapted the Storypath System to create a simple but strong system for finding, retrieving, and pulling useful items from scrap. If your thing is using your real world knowledge in a post-apocalyptic setting, this here’s a built-in framework in the game to really enable you to use that info. With physical items also being degraded by the Gravemind, being able to fabricate the things needed for survival is one of the best and integrated uses for a “crafting” system in a game I’ve ever heard of.
3- While Dystopia Rising: Evolution is definitely a grim and scary post-apocalyptic world, it is also a world where settlements are surviving and growing. There is a sense of hope and community that can serve as a counterpoint and a backdrop to the hard tales of hard survivors making hard decisions. Included are rules for those settlements and how they can work (or not).
4- You don’t have to take my word for it. As we’ve done with almost all of our recent Kickstarters, we are releasing a section of the book each week and before the end of the KS backers will be able to download the complete edited text and dig in for their favorite sections!
As if you have not heard enough about this damn Dystopia Rising: Evolution game, I do strongly suggest that if you want to know about the thinking behind the game – and this is some really fascinating, in-depth, discussions of both the reasons for the game design and the thinking behind the last ten years of the game world’s creation and growth – that you download and listen to last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast.
Eddy interviews the very people that started Dystopia Rising as a LARP over a decade ago, Michael Pucci and Ashley Zdeb, and then created a tabletop RPG version that Dystopia Rising: Evolution is the new edition of. Some of the highlights of what they discuss are:
- Eddy admits to an error in the Kickstarter
- The history of Dystopia Rising
- How Eddy and Onyx Path came into the picture
- Faithful licensing vs “throw it all away if you want”
- Disability as post-apocalypse trope
- The struggles of introducing inclusivity over the past decade
- The push and pull of abstracted social tension vs community building
- The switch from 20+ Strains to 8 Lineages
Here the link to our Onyx Pathcast page on PodBean, although you can find it at your favorite podcast venue too: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/
This Friday, the Terribly Terrific Trio will be back together and taking an in-depth deep dive into Vampire: The Masquerade, which makes sense considering our long history with it and the advent of V5, so it should be a good…no wait, dare I say it? A GREAT podcast this week! Yes!
Finally, although I added some info about this in our On Sale section below, just a word that sometime this week DTRPG.com will be running a week-long sale for 75% off of Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage: The Ascension PDFs. Not just the 20th Anniversary ones we have created, but all of them back through time.
We’re thrilled to be able to work together with White Wolf to offer you folks this chance to catch up on anything you are looking for, particularly with all the discussion featuring WoD, by new fans and long-time ones as well, due to the V5 interest and publicity.
And we’ll have another, different, combined sale running the week after this one!
There you go, so much is going on you need a scorecard to keep track of our:
Many Worlds, One Path!
BLURBS!
KICKSTARTER:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/dystopia-rising-evolution-tabletop-rpg
The Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter funded in less than a day, and two sections of the Threat Guide companion PDF Stretch Goal have been added, which is a first-person guide with mechanics to the various threats facing survivors in the DR:E world, and we are shambling forward to open up a Community Content site for the game!
Dystopia Rising: Evolution will be powered by Onyx Path’s Storypath system, and includes all the rules you need to play as a survivor in the post-apocalypse, including rules for creating characters for up to 24 different Strains, variations on humanity that survived the Fall. It also has details on the powers of faith and psionics, along with advice on running action-adventure stories, webs of personal intrigue, or procedural investigations. And, finally, dozens of antagonists, including a variety of zombies and raiders to use in your series.
Throughout this Kickstarter campaign, we will be posting complete previews of the Dystopia Rising: Evolution manuscript as backer-only updates.
ELECTRONIC GAMING:
As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now 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 both rolling and rocking!
Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:
http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en
Three different screenshots, above.
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 you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!
Our selection includes these fiction books:
- Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)
- Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)
- Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)
- Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)
- Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)
- Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)
- Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)
- Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)
- Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)
- Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)
- V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)
- Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)
- Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)
- Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)
OUR SALES PARTNERS:
We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire 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
Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/
Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: https://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/
And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296
DRIVETHRURPG.COM:
Starting later this week, DTRPG together with White Wolf and Onyx Path are having a one week massive 75% off sale on all Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage: The Ascension PDFs!
This Wednesday the original Scarred Lands Trilogy: Forsaken, Forsworn, and Forbidden by Richard Lee Byers, will now be available in PDF/ePub and physical trade paperback format PoDs on DriveThruRPG.com!
CONVENTIONS!
From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:
Monica Valentinelli will be a professional guest at Great Falls Gaming Convention in Montana the first week of October. http://gfgr.org/guests-of-
Dixie Cochran will be at High Level Games Con in Atlantic City October 12-14, running a Women in Game Design panel, Eddy’s RPG Developer Bootcamp, and possibly making a surprise appearance at another event!
And now, the new project status updates!
DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST 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)
- C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
- M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)
- Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)
- Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)
- City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)
- Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)
- Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)
- Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)
Redlines
- Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)
- Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
Second Draft
- Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)
- C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)
- CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)
- V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)
Development
- Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)
- Fetch Quest (Pugmire)
- CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)
- Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)
- Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)
- Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)
- M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)
- Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)
- In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)
- Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)
- WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)
Manuscript Approval:
- Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)
Editing:
- They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)
- Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau) (With Eddy)
- Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)
Post-Editing Development:
- Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)
- Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
- Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)
- Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)
- Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)
Indexing:
- Changeling: The Lost 2e
ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:
In Art Direction
- Dystopia Rising: Evolution – KS is going.
- M20: Gods and Monsters – AD’d and Contracted.
- Geist 2e
- The Realm
- Trinity Continuum (Aeon and Core)
- Ex3 Monthly Stuff
- Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Finals coming in.
- Chicago By Night – KS art contracted.
Marketing Stuff
In Layout
- Fetch Quest – Finishing package design
Proofing
- Scion Hero – Putting in Neal’s changes
- PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented
- Scion Origin – Doing Neall’s errata changes, and swapping out the font.
- VtR: Guide to the Night
- Lost 2e Screen – At WW for approval
- Requiem Journals – At WW for approval
At Press
- Monarchies of Mau – Printing. Dice and buttons printing.
- Cavaliers of Mars – At Studio2.
- Wraith 20th – Prepping the interior Deluxe files, cover design sent to printer.
- Monarchies of Mau Screen – At Studio2.
- Cavaliers of Mars Screen – At Studio2.
- Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.
- Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.
- Cav Talent cards – PoD proof coming.
- SL Trilogy Pt 1,2,3 – On sale this Wednesday!
TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Like every year for this week, it is worth it to celebrate the sacrifice made by all the special responders, fire-fighters, police, and other heroes who gave their lives trying to help during 911. We celebrate that they had that spark which exists in humanity that flares up in times of crisis and enables regular people to put the lives of terrified strangers before their own.
Just Curious Would Dragonlance Raistlin Be A Good Twilight Example?
I think so. Mental stats would be primary, social secondary and physical tertiary, with only one dot in stamina.
The Dragon Blooded Book says Final Art is still coming in. Is the layout finished otherwise or do they need all the art before they can start the layout?
Both. Some layout can be done with placeholders for art, other layout needs to wait for the art to be in place.
Good to see that Signs and sorcery is making progress been waiting for that a long time.
Glad to see Signs make it to the Manuscript Approval! That is definitely a book I have been watching for sometime. I am ready to purchase as soon as it is released.
We’re very glad to have it move into this phase, too!
great to see you all feeling energised and building momentum. I feel like you’re teasing me with just how close Hero is, as well as The Tormented for that matter. I know they’ll be out when they’re out though, but didn’t stop me being a mildly sad panda when I saw Tormented wasn’t going to hit DTRPG this Wednesday.
Well, don’t take the teasing as anything personal, Phil, we do it to everyone!
Any ideas on how long The Realm will come out after Dragon-Blooded? No dates, of course, but is the plan to put it out right after Dragon-Blooded, or will we wait a few months?
In general, and with no promises (which is a phrase we should trademark), we’d like The Realm out pretty hard on DB’s heels. We’re not trying to be coy, and we do want folks to get a chance to parse Dragon-Blooded, but the sooner the better is what we’re aiming for.
Any idea when we might finally see Scion? The delays in this projects [along with a similar one I backed years ago which still isn’t out] are making me really reconsider whether to put money in any future kickstarter projects – including Scion Demigod and Hero.
As the first core books of what we hope will be a long line of Scion (and Storypath System) books, it has been vitally important to take the time necessary to make sure the system and the lore hit the correct tone. This has pushed backed the stages and delivery of both Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero, but as you know as a backer, we have kept backers informed at each stage as to what has been going on and why we are doing what we are. Also, we’ve provided excerpts as quickly as we could to let backers know that these things are actually being worked on and so they can see the quality of the project.
If that sort of commitment on our part to the game line as an ongoing thing doesn’t work for your needs for a Kickstarter project, then it seems like our emphasis may not fit well with your expectations. Totally understand, and also understand if you choose not to back further Scion KSs, even though I do think that the Scion KS is going to be the last (knock wood) of our KSs where we allow the project to go live before we have the main text done. You’ll note that Cavaliers of Mars, shortly followed by Monarchies of Mau, will be shipping well before the estimated date on Kickstarter.
While I totally understand the reason for the delays (and in fact have defended them on the KS page in the past), I find myself increasingly frustrated with the pace of the progress. It isn’t just OP that is the source of my disillusionment, but the Scion delays are not helping. Perhaps I made bad or unlucky choices – that doesn’t alleviate the frustration. If the future books are, indeed, essentially done before the KS, then I will consider participating. I like the system, and support OP, but the delays in KS projects leave a sour taste.
Kickstarters aren’t to everybody’s taste. Nothing wrong with passing them by as your way you get your projects or get more involved in your favorite lines. We always _try_ and find a way to offer pretty much everything we have as part of a Kickstarter after the backers get their rewards, so it’s just a question of getting the stuff later, rather than missing out. We’d love to have you join us on any of our KSs, but not if it just doesn’t work for you.
Does Signs of Sorcery still need a bunch of art or is most of that already done? wondering how quickly it’ll make it through the back half of the process
Signs of Sorcery still has to go through the full art and layout cycle.
What is Requiem Journals? 🙂
Blank journals, but for Requiem.
When do you think Heirs of the Shogunate is intended to be done and released? Soon after the Realm is perhaps?
It’s still in first drafts, whereas the text for Realm is done and edited, so I’d hesitate to say “soon after,” though that depends on your definition of “soon.” As it will need art direction, editing, and layout, I can’t really give any estimates at this time. It’s moving along, though!
Last week, Pearl Abyss acquired CCP Games, who indirectly owns the White Wolf IP if I remember correctly. How is this affecting Onyx Path and you ?
Not at all. CCP sold the WW IPs to Paradox a couple of years ago. The new White Wolf is a subsidiary of Paradox, so CCP has nothing to do with it.
CCP sold all the White Wolf IP to Paradox Interactive in October 2015, nearly three years ago. Paradox then spun off White Wolf into its own company again.
That’s why we talk about licensing stuff from White Wolf instead of CCP: White Wolf owns the license, and Paradox owns White Wolf.
Rich goes into more detail about our history in this recent Monday Meeting Notes blog.
Would it be possible for someone to add the full story or just a link to it to the About the Path: Frequently Asked Questions section of the website?
Having it in an easily accessible place for the future rather than having to dig back through the Monday Meetings to find it would be great.
When will Deviant get its own section on the Forums?
I would imagine before we run a Kickstarter for it.