This is the last week before CCP North America takes a two week Summer vacay, so Eddy and I talked about how to handle our art and book approvals during that time. My idea, that we get a free pass on anything submitted during that time, was heretical and I’m in the time-out chair right now. Actually, what we really don’t want is to load up the approval queue so that the board comes back to lots and lots of things to review and everything gets bogged down, so Mighty Mike Chaney and I will be planning accordingly to use that time to get further tweaks in before we put anything up for approval. Lots of talk about Gen Con too, as Eddy and I are gonna be roomies again as well as do our infamous “What’s Up With WW/Onyx Path” panel. Working to get signage, business cards, shirts, and a brochure all set and being printed for the show as well. We’ll be in the DriveThruRPG booth again this year with Monte Cook and his massive Numenera presence, so the joint should be jumpin’.
We talked a fair bit about how he and I have been talking about WW‘s, and now Onyx Path‘s, business model for years and years and how it seems that this is info that we can never stop talking about because it seems like its really hard to get the word out. Maybe folks don’t realize what we mean by “business model” and tune out when those two words are used because that sort of topic is boring. Much more fun to talk about the Clans and such. I don’t know really, but I do know that we are gonna keep talking about a few things- and apologies to all of you regular blog readers who already have had to read this info time and again; I’ll try and keep it merciful and quick- and first on the docket is to reiterate that Onyx Path, right now, has one full time employee, me, and utilizes the concept of development teams whose brilliant creators are situated around the world. These folk are all freelance- our developers, our writers, our designers and illustrators and editors- and a lot of our creators are not full-time freelance either (although some are) and rely on working a full-time job and do our work in the evenings and on weekends because they love creating RPGs. So that’s the first thing: Onyx Path is committed to bringing the most talented creative people to a project and we’ll bend the schedule to get the right folks creating their best work on the right project.
Second, and last for today, is something I touched on above, and that is the idea that Onyx Path is committed to quality over timeliness. We are going to take the time to make it great. This means, as we’ve been explaining since we announced our existence almost a year ago, that our schedules and dates are always best-guess estimates. Please, please, take that to heart because we are operating on that idea. I make decisions every day based on “what is best for the project”. I really wish we at WW had held to that same precept back in the day, but we had in-store deadlines that were brutal to miss in terms of the repercussions. The chain book stores in particular, being huge businesses, had penalties for failure to hit their deadlines that really forced us to make decisions that in retrospect make me wince. Does that mean we want some of these insane slips in the schedule or in Deluxe Edition delivery- no, of course not. We slip because we made a call based on quality, not because we don’t give a crap. We care about every book that is published, we care about what happens when you read through that book, we care about the experience you have as players, and we generally care about you, our readers, storytellers, and players. We think you deserve the best, and strive to deliver that.
Later, I’ll write one of these that talks about how these two parts of our business model combine with our other parts like how we deliver these books and projects to ya’ll, but for now- How about some Updates?:
– Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) is in layout. We’re waiting on a single chapter’s worth of formatting fixes.
– Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle (VtR) This is smashing into Rose’s work on Demon and so we re-prioritized her to push the Demon text to editing and for art notes. Still waiting on some final drafts.
– Mummy the Curse – Book and Screen are at press. The MtC Ready Made Characters Pack is headed to editing.
– Exalted 3rd Edition: The Devs are back to work on the book and I’m creating Reward and Stretch Goal lists so that we can prioritize now that the two-week period where pledges are being validated by Amazon Payments seems done. We won’t be flinging out the KS Surveys this week as we’ll try and use the regular contact info for a few of the Rewards we need to get started with.
– V20 Hunters Hunted 2: Not quite at press but the files are ready- getting a revised quote based on the cover treatment from the printer this week. Justin’s working on redlines for the Anthology writers- all but two of the final drafts are in.
– V20 Anarchs Unbound is in editing and we are getting art for it.
– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: At press and getting the page-edge gilding put on. Mike Lee went back and revised a fair number of chapter in the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel prior to submitting to Bill for dev review. The Storyteller Screen files are at press with W20. Bill has theW20 Anthology stories in and is formatting them for editing. The Skinner is available from DTRPG in PDF and PoD form: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/115057/Skinner-SAS . Jess Hartley is writing the White Howlers Tribe Book and the W20 Cookbook is ready for editing- which might take a while since our regular copy editors might not be as up on translating UK measurements to US ones. Check out some news here: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/2013/06/03/white-howler-gifts-and-a-recipe/
– Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has Phil Brucato writing like a maniac and developing his writers, also like a maniac. Art notes and contracts out to our full-page artist, once we have some feedback from him I’ll look a posting an art blog along with Phil’s developer notes. Very early sketches for the fulls look awesome. Getting art notes out to a ton of classic Mage artists.
– W20 Changing Breeds Kickstarter to go live at 11am EDT on Tuesday June 25th.
– W20 Rage Across the World: Most of the art is in but two more pieces need to come in.
– Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is into editing and art notes are out to artists.
– Conventionbook: Syndicate (cMtA) is having its first proof changes input.
– Conventionbook: Void Engineers (cMtA) is in editing.
– W20 Book of the Wyrm is being written and red-lined. Check out the W20 blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/
– V20 Rites of the Blood: is being written and is in Open Dev on the blogs: http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/
– Under the Darkening Sky (classic Dark Ages): Being outlined and teased by developer David Hill.
– Trinity Continuum: We now have a whopping big Aeon outline and a Trinity Continuum Core Book outline.
– Scion: Gonna get Joe to share a call with Ian and compare Scion and Trinity notes- on Tuesday.
– Demon: The Descent: Yes, that’s the title. Yay! Lots of example of play commentary including from Black Hat Matt McFarland’s play test are up on the new Demon blog: http://whitewolfblogs.com/demon/ Check it out, there are quite a few playtests posted now and they give a very interesting (if early) look at the game. Text is being readied for editing and Rose is trying to get art notes together. We’re looking to create a Demon Quickstart to roll out before the game itself as we’re not sure the finished book will hit Gen-Con- but the Quickstart can. If we go with that strategy, we’ll delay the Demon Translation Guide in order to work on the QS and create a Demon Preview booklet for Gen Con.
Reason to Drink: It gets so hot that folks think the old rules no longer apply.
I feel sorry for you that you have to keep repeating yourself about the time-tables and model you’re using. It is my belief that the vast majority of folks are understanding and eagerly awaiting the product. There are a few who are upset with the process, but I believe them to be far in the minority. You’re giving as much information as you can, and so I direct folks to here (Monday Meetings), or KS Updates when people ask “what’s going on?”
2-Week vacation? Geez. Good luck to them! Lucky bastards. 😉
Shirts for Gen Con, huh? I take it these are embroidered Onyx Path/White Wolf shirts for you guys, or are these perhaps something one could purchase with some sort of OPP/WW graphics?
Are there any special guests that might be signing at the Onyx Path Publishing booth this year at Gen Con?
Anyways, super psyched about the W20 Changing Breeds KS tomorrow! Can’t wait to see what you guys have in store!
Well, I hope I didn’t come off too “weary of it all” with needing to repeat the info, it’s more that I’m surprised when it’s obvious that there are still people out there who aren’t aware of what we’re doing. Because I feel like I talk about these same things a lot, and am boring folks with it, but then I get somebody coming at the way we’re doing things as if they, for example, think we’re WW with just a different name- same size of staff and we all work in an office together, etc. And so I realize that I’d have some of the same confusion if I didn’t know what Onyx was all about, so I think its important to go through who and what we are and how we’re doing what we’re doing and why.
Gonna have to miss the What’s Up panel (a game I’m running got scheduled at the same time) but I’ll catch up with both of you during the Con proper.
See ya there!
When is it?
But despite adopting new business model, I think you guys are producing some of the highest quality World of Darkness (and Exalted I’m sure, but I don’t keep up with that line) material that’s every been done. I hope that’s not getting lost on RPG or WOD fans, sometimes I think it is. The 20th Anniversary editions, Mummy, God Machine…all prime stuff.
It’s a result of what you mentioned above, getting off the release treadmill and doing quality over timeliness really shows in the end product.
Anyway, got a bit fanboy-ish there, as always, thanks for the update and have a good vacation.
Thank you very much for your kind words. And, I’m not going on vacay- that’s Eddy. I’m not part of CCP so I never get a break… sob.
Bummer, no vacay for you. Your vacay will come, years from now, when you slip into Torpor. When you awake, you’ll feel fresh and new.
Even though you’ve said it again and again it’s nice to see that you still stay calm and try to explain to people why things are the way they are. I must say that I’m going crazy waiting for W20 and Mummy, but I am sure that when they are ready they will be awesome.
I must say that I am very jealous of the lucky people who can get to Gencon. I’d love to get one of those shirts, pretty much regardless of how they look. I’m a sucker for t-shirts.
Looking forward to a bright future filled with darkness.
Those are Onyx Path staff shirts so folks can find us at the con and both. Not t-shirts, so you’re not missing anything. Well, except the fun and drinking and stuff. 🙂
Well, nice to see Aeon going forward, but where’s my Aberrant? My transhumanist urge just won’t be satisfied this way you know.
I both get and approve of your business model. I like errata’s but I hate needing them. Also, canon tidbits that lessens fun and enjoyment by steering you into badstrange places (or just being boring) are things that needs to be weeded out.
Maximify my fun you guys!
We’re releasing the games in the same order as originally done. I don’t want to overtask my team (or myself), so we’re staggering them rather than doing everything at once.
-The Trinity Continuum Rulebook
-Trinity Continuum: Æon
-Trinity Continuum: Aberrant
-Trinity Continuum: Adventure!
That said, we have done some preliminary groundwork with Aberrant, just not as much as with Æon.
“V20 Hunters Hunted 2: Not quite at press but the files are ready- getting a revised quote based on the cover treatment from the printer this week. Justin’s working on redlines for the Anthology writers- all but two of the final drafts are in.”
*sigh
Hopefully, soon…
After checking back, it seems that Justin has been waiting for the “two final drafts” for quite awhile now. Any specific reason for the hold up?
And I’m wondering how OP is planning on doing the estimated delivery dates on future Kickstarters.
P.S. P.S. I’m not mad. Not at the company. Not at OP. You guys have my support. Every KS book I’ve received has been top notch.
But…some employees you hire have some seriously weak immune systems. : P
Actually, in all seriousness, I really think that long-term working at creating RPGs can be pretty bad for folks’ health. It starts as a pretty sedentary hobby sitting around your gaming table, and a lot of us are readers too, so that’s another sit (sprawl) there hobby. And then you turn it into a career, so you’re in front of a computer for 8 or more hours a day because you love it. Also, it seems like a fair number of folks got into RPGs because they couldn’t get their bodies to do what they wanted in real life, often because of a medical condition, and some of them found they could express themselves with written words or pictures far better than in conversation. Put that all together and it’s a wonder we haven’t lost more creators over the years- we certainly have a large percentage with chronic health problems.
I’ve skimmed the PDF and I gotta say I see what you mean. The quality of the book is not to be questioned. It covers topics that I only hoped in my wildest dreams would be covered and that I have been wanted to read about for a while. Same thing with all of the other books I’ve read the outlines of. It feels like I’m getting the White Wolf I wanted to have 15 years ago.
As a representative sample, I spend 8 hours staring at a computer in my day job, then another 8 hours staring at a computer doing Onyx Path stuff. In between that, I do kinda want to spend time with my family, so I end up only sleeping 4-5 hours most nights. That can completely bugger the immune system on its own.
This. Very much this. I’m lucky to get to bed before midnight on a writing day, and I have a full time day job.
Please continue to make decisions based on “what is best for the project.”
I was a huge Warcraft fan from the beginning (1994) and was up through the first two expansions for World of Warcraft. But with each new expansion Blizzard released, it seemed like they had lost that method of thinking. The fact that WoW no longer boasts the number of subscribers it once did suggests I may not be alone in my feelings.
Nobody should take the above as me bashing on Blizzard. I shelled out top dollar for the Collector’s Editions of the last two Starcraft games because they still resonated as made by a group of people who loved what they were doing and not by a team with a deadline.
In short, I’ll happily wait a bit for a solid, quality project. And if a project reaches a point where it’s just too big and needs to be broken down (like the two sci-fi “shards” for Mirrors), I’ll take them as they’re ready.
A likely story! It’s much more reasonable and probable that you are EVIL DEVIL PEOPLE who want us to SUFFER by stringing out projects that never quite come to fruition, passing deadline after deadline, throwing just enough dribs and drabs out to keep us excited so that our despair is all the sweeter! You MONSTERS!!!
But, seriously, I fully endorse the “quality first” ethos, and marvel at the commitment and dedication the whole team has shown in putting in so much time, effort, and money into all projects. It’s just hard, man. Really, really hard. There’s all this cool stuff we know is coming, but never seem to get here, and it is TORTURE! So some people get grumbly. But don’t let the grumbles hamper your artistic integrity. It’ll all be for the best, in time. (I hope. Though I swear if it turns out there’s not an actual new Exalted edition coming out, and it’s all been a piece of performance art all along…)
Anyway, in conclusion: YOU’RE EVIL!!!!!!
Hello, Onyx Path is a great company and business model, all your games have a lot of success and quality. God-Machine Chronicles is an excellent and imaginative campaign setting.
any news for HH2 PDF ?
What is Hunter : Monstruous Basterds ?
Can you update the schedule on the OP site please?
Hey rich and all you hard core creators out there, I just want to say thank you. Your products keep me sane in an insane world.
I do have a question too, how long (in broad/general strokes) does the average product take to go from being at the press to being shipped?
Thanks again for the blog and updates, they continue to make me excited and eager to see what comes next!! Take care all, until next time :-)!!
I don’t think we really have an “average” product any more. 🙂 It used to be 12-18 months from final-draft date, but things have changed a lot in the last 5 years.
I might do an “anatomy of a book” post over on the W20 development blog that shows what the process is, but any timings are entirely speculative — any stage can take longer because we want to get the book right.
Rich,
Any chance we can get the Exalted update out via a Kickstarter update? A number of backers had never participated in a Kickstarter before, so may not know what to expect.
Also, It would be good to hear a tidbit from you regarding where TOP is in the process of getting the books to us via that outlet. I don’t know that all the backers are aware of the Monday Meeting blog, but even a backer update letting people know they can come here for more information weekly might go a long way to helping the backers to stay informed and involved.
The kickstarter for CB20 is LIVE. And by the Gods, and all the spirits, it is awesome! The Art presented is nothing short of amazing.
Im super excited to get my Mummy deluxe book!! Any word on what artists are being lined up for Demon??
Ha, time out chair.
I look forward to meeting some of the folks at GenCon, especially yourself Mr. Thomas. I believe that I will have to miss the panel due to the games I’m running so I hope I can encounter you at the booth.
The free RPG day preview of Blood and Smoke has left me thrilled with the rules adjustments alone so I wait in glee for the entire document. I’ve decided to use the rules in a cosmopolitan nWoD game I’m currently running, in which Vampires are a primarily antagonistic group, to ‘demo’ the changes for my players. I believe the players will be shocked and horrified by these ‘new’ Vampires.