So…Close…Now…

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That’s really what this week feels like. So many things are so close to getting out to everybody.

But first, the Monday Lunch Meeting. We really hopped all over the place conversationally. First, Eddy and I talked a little game design. It’s no secret that some of the Onyx Path Dev teams are working on the re-imaginings of Scion and the Trinity Continuum, and one of the primary things they’ve been tasked with to start is how to create a dice-pool system that scales from man in the street to god-like. With that, we discussed the thrill of the dice- the visceral feeling of throwing a heaping handful of dice. Now, I get that. Seems like some folks really, really get that as the story has come back to us of a gaming group that regular rolls nigh unto a hundred dice for their upper level dice pools. A hundred! Any of you folks do that? It certainly begins to explain why I get ongoing requests for new dice sets.

I filled Eddy in on my dinner and drinks with CA Suleiman last week, as we ran through the Mummy: The Curse schedule and Reward fulfillment and what the future might bring. It was great to talk about old times, and how excited we are at Mummy‘s success. There are already several very positive reviews up on the interwebs, and according to CAS, he has some great surprises in store in the upcoming books. Because Onyx Path‘s whole structure is spread out around the world, it’s really a joy to get together and strategize or just hang out face to face. We talked briefly about the new single-volume editions of V20 available at DTRPG now that their PoD printer has both overcome the page count restriction and added a Standard and Premium options for their color printing. V20 is getting a whole new hierarchy of PoD options very soon- I have the sample one volume color hardcovers here and they look great!

Finally, we got some great news from CCP Marketing who are footing the bill to send Eddy to Gen-Con again this year. They don’t have to do this- Eddy’s not part of Onyx and is really busy with the WoDMMO, but they know that our fans have enjoyed the Rich and Eddy presentations so much for the past several years that we always have an avid audience that nobody wants to disappoint.

I know I’m going to hear that very emotion from folks as they read through our updates this week, but we really are crazy-close to getting a bunch of these out to you finally. You must hang on!:

–  God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) I’ve reviewed the second proof and now it goes into CCP for their review.

–  Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is into Editing.

– Mummy the Curse – Put in the order for the 2nd proof PoD copy- hope to see it late this week. Still waiting on a cover template from the printer now that the final page count has been settled; we’ll get those files out to start the creation of the traditionally printed KS version. Character Sheet Pack rewards went out to Backers last week, and we fixed the sheet replication issue this weekend- check your Library on DTRPG for an Updated version. CAS and I reviewed the Mummy schedule and should have harder dates for most of the Stretch Goal rewards soon.

– Exalted 3rd Edition:  Looks like this Kickstarter is happening end of March now as things come together slowly. The Devs are still in the Charms section, getting together the text we’ll be teasing with Updates throughout the Kickstarter, and getting their vocal cords tuned for the KS video which we got a script together for.

– V20 Hunters Hunted 2:  New sections are in layout and we’re getting art for them. Rather than tacking them on at the end, we’ll be adding a chapter before the Appendix as that just works better for the flow of the book.

– V20 Anarchs Unbound is in editing ad we are getting art for it. We’ll be contacting the Children of the Revolution backers who pledged to be models in AU this week.

– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition:  The backer feedback was integrated and we’re expecting to get the PoD files and maybe the Deluxe printing files out tomorrow! Mike Lee is three quarters-way through his novel.  The Storyteller Screen files will go off to press with W20 and the W20 Wallpaper went out to Backers. Bill is preparing the W20 Anthology outline and looking for prospective writers.  The Skinner is in Editing and Art Direction. The White Howlers Tribe Book is with a writer (the always delightful Jess Hartley) and the W20 Cookbook is being outlined. Check out some news here: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/2013/03/18/w20-cookbook-update-white-howlers-outline/

–Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato has started assigning writers and is churning through writing his part. 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.

– W20 Changing Breeds is almost out of Editing.

– W20 Rage Across the World: Most of the art is in but a bit continues to trickle in.

– Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being written.

– Conventionbook: Progenitors (cMtA) first proof is to Ryan.

– Mage Translation Guide is in Editing.

– W20 Book of the Wyrm is being written and red-lined. Check out the W20 blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/

– Trinity Continuum: we’re talking about the big, big picture stuff that will affect the entire Continuum as opposed to individual games/settings.

– Scion: some very impassioned creators sharing their ideas at this very early stage. Joe looked through a secret project I threw at him out of the blue. He liked it. You might like it too, it might be out in a few weeks.

– Demon: The Frutang: some example of play commentary from Black Hat Matt McFarland’s play test will be going up on the new Demon blog.

Reason for Drinking: As soon as I get the EX3 Kickstarter submitted, or Mummy: The Curse on sale, or W20 to press, I’m taking a slug for sure .

43 thoughts on “So…Close…Now…”

      • We will as we have for the last several KSs we’ve done. Usually that starts on Twitter, feeds to our FB accounts, somebody passes it on to the Forums.

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  2. Right, so April-June for exalted kickstarter start, so October-December for the pdf. I’m honestly just sad that it’s getting harder to rationalize saving money for Ex3 as the year drags on and so much other stuff presents itself. Found myself thinking the other day, ” the extras might not be all that great, all I really need is the pdf.” Which sucks because I still think it’ll be a good product, and deserving of money. Just all these misfires and push backs are killing my excitement for it.

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      • I can dig that Ian, except that the last time a schedule was released we were told the finished product would be coming in December 2012. Also, the KS has been pushed back almost two months now, assuming a start date of Feb. While the fans are willing to be patient and wait, it would be much better to give us a release date that’s realistic like April/May for the Exalted KS. This way you guys don’t also blueball your customers, or more eloquently, raise expectation levels only to have them burnout because of constantly shifting dates. I can tell you that myself and my players are a lot less excited about the Exalted KS, simply because it’s impossible to sustain enthusiasm for a product that has constantly been giving its fans inaccurate information about when projects will start.

        To be clear, the reasons for the delays are totally cool. The player base is willing to wait for the best possible product. But seriously postponing the KS by a week at a time is the worst. Just be more cautious in your dates for the project and everything will be okay. No one here will be upset if you delay the KS until late April or early May, as long as you tell us. And if it needs to be delayed further, that’s cool to, just don’t do it a week at a time.

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        • @Derptopia I completely feel for you- we hate these push-backs too.

          I have to say though, that its not the intention of this blog to be an announcement site that lets folks know about stuff that is going to happen. It’s intended as a weekly window into the ins and outs of what’s happening at Onyx Path from the recap and start of our week I have with Eddy, to the Updates of where things stand with the projects we’re working on. Sometimes those Updates will be cool and exciting, sometimes they’ll be sad and frustrating- but that just what’s happening as it happens. If that gives you blue balls, again I apologize, but what we’re trying to do is provide as total transparency to our workings as we can. People used to post that “White Wolf Is Dead!” every week on the WW Forums and elsewhere- this blog is here to say it just ain’t so.

          So if it’s killing you as things get pushed back, which I’m feeling too, then maybe just skip those parts until we do actually announce that we’re doing the KS in 24 hours. Save yourself the angst and maybe you can jump into the KS with renewed excitement.

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          • Oh, word? I totally misunderstood the purpose of the blog then. I guess because I’m more of an Exalted fan than anything else. The information about other projects, which seems awesome, isn’t being parsed properly I guess. Thanks for reading and responding.

            Since I’m assuming that you’re still reading up to this point, thanks for actually reviving a lot of these games. It means a lot to see such a dominant part of my childhood still alive and kickin.

          • Thank you as well from a month’s-long-lurker of the blog and WW Forums.

            It appears myself and the longer-established Exalted community, for lack of any other information has been treating the blog as Official Announcement Central. Thus every week the Monday Meeting Blog is refreshed like mad hoping to see “Exalted KS Details – Your Savings Accounts May Be Emptied Now” (or similar).

            If the blog should be treated as internal insight, unofficial “we feel we’re on track for such and such but don’t hold us to it,” then that is a completely different situation and can alleviate the burnout I and others have been experiencing – Consisting of a high (Monday Meeting blog today, pleaseKSpleasepleaseplease) and the crash of fallen hopes (Pushed back until Next Month… pushed back to Mid-… pushed back to Late-…) It’s not a fun roller coaster ride after the first few weeks, but that has been the perception at work.

            So I hope the conversations in the comments here can help provide insight into how the fanbase can absorb information and similar to the discovery of what works for KS and what does not, maybe even help fine tune marketing/expectation-setting by Onyx Path going forward.

          • I certainly hope you keep checking out the news of what we’re up to and all here every Monday, but I was feeling pretty bad that you were suffering about this. I promise that when we are ready with the EX3 Kickstarter about to go live that we’ll announce that sucker all over the place.

          • Most google searches are going to point people to white-wolf.com and the main website still gives an overwhelming impression that White Wolf is dead and/or idle – it’s had the same V20E splash screen for two years, the most recent news post seems to be from Oct 2011, and it takes an archaeological dig through the forums to find out about Werewolf 20.

            This blog is a fantastic window into the awesome things you guys are up to at White Wolf. Might I suggest making it easier to find? Particularly from the main website?

          • @Sean Agreed. Onyx Path has little ability to make changes on the WW site or forums. We’d prefer exactly what you’re saying, but the web team at CCP is generally swamped constantly. Onyx is continuing to ramp up and codify our communication and marketing this year and we’re very aware of the somewhat fragmented nature of how our info reaches the community.

          • Rich,

            Please don’t feel bad on my account; there assumptions made by readers, I’d say based on the fact that the audience is not accustomed to the very transparency you are endeavoring to share.

            I’d go so far as to say most everyone is used to communication which reaches outside the walls of a company to consist of a deliberate “We have major information with which to guide your purchasing interest” nature. So this will take some acclimatization.

            As I mentioned over there, it is Very cool of you to write up a whole blog on theonyxpath.com about this. Now there’s something to link to and readily enlighten others with to help bring people onto the same page. Hopefully this can cull the confusion/misplaced frustration going forward.

            Thanks for all you and your team does and keep making bang-up products!

    • Being worked on to incorporate the notes Justin gave Matt on his first draft. Matt has to work on it when he can, so it’s very much a slowly developing story. Once we have the text at a new stage, I’ll mention it. Thanks!

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    • My initial draft needed some work and along the way we discovered some new twists and secrets we could incorporate into the book. So, I’m working on it, but the day job at DriveThruRPG.com has been keeping me extremely busy with convention prep and other projects so it has delayed the writing a little.

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  6. Will all of the current premium color books get a less expensive standard color option?

    Really looking forward to the deluxe W20s going out and the M20 blog going live!

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    • We will try as the workload allows, as having all the books available in the best options available for everybody is the goal.

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    • Couldn’t resist. :3

      I do have a question about Exalted, Scion and Trinity. Are their mechanics going to be similar to their previous incarnations? Or are you fine folks going to be tinkering with them? And I mean not just minor things here and there but a major overhaul.

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      • What we’re aiming to do with all three of the lines you mention is to make sure the systems actually work to allow the kind of game play the game is designed around. That may be a tinker here and a subtle change there, or it may mean a more significant change. Exalted 3rd is probably the least likely to get huge changes so much as tweaks to the base system and more major changes to other rules sets- but that’s stuff that the Devs are still working on. We have more freedom to go further from the last incarnation of the Scion and Trinity Continuum rules because Onyx owns them, but our current direction is to have a system that a) enables scaling from the guy in the street to god-level powers, and b) then has additional pieces that evoke the setting. I like the dice-pool system WW was known for and don’t see a need to toss that, just refine it. Since we’re still so early in that part of the design process, I’d make no assumptions, though.

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    • Currently we’re not planning on a GM KS. That was a possibility, and things could still change, but there are only so many KSs that we can do in a year. We’re still experimenting with what works on and via KS, and just because a kind of project could be KS’d or has been in the past, is no indication that we will be Kickstarting it. We have to see as the year develops.

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      • I do have a few questions about your KS stuff. Has KS been helpful in gauging interest in your various WW projects? In that you can float different milestones and see what people go for.

        Are you folks planning, for the long term, to move away from KickStarter? I know that having a chunk of change up front is really helpful, but once you folks have WW/Onyx Path rolling full steam again… Have you thought about setting up your own private, KS-like service to float future projects?

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        • Amazingly helpful. I think I mentioned it here on one of these Monday Meeting blogs, but my feeling since we started our first KS about a year ago was that the upfront cash was just one facet in why KS is so good, and frankly it’s a big one, but for real value the info we can pull from talking with our KS backers and analyzing their behavior and interests is huge- and actually more important in the long run.

          Hard to say if moving from KS would be worth it until we actually get further into the future and we see how KS evolves. I saw a software bundle was being offered that allows you to set up your own crowd-funding along the lines of KS, and certainly that might evolve for us into a part of our business model, but right now, even with the restrictions KS has I still think they are a great venue for us.

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      • One think I’m secretly hoping for is that Onyx Path might move away from Kickstarter as a vehicle for new projects and start applying them to older stuff as well. For example, imagine if VtR clanbooks were electronic only and then suddenly we got a KS to pledge for full color traditional print boxed set. Or, more to the point of this conversation, if we had God Chronicle KS a year from now where we’d pledge for traditional print full color deluxe set of everything God Machine related. And so on and so forth.

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  8. You guys could kickstart only the main books, instead of supplements. I really think the main books could benefit a lot from Kickstarters, as you guys can measure the popularity of a line and perhaps even get a couple of books that wouldn’t be possible.

    But that’s how I see it, anyway. I know I would expend more money on God Machine, Strix (specially!) and Mage20 then Book of Wyrm or Anarchs Unbound. I’m cool with getting those as PODs later.

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    • Yep, good points all. The thing to remember is that we got started with KS, about a year ago, in order to create a matching Deluxe Edition for V20 Companion. Which was a product we were already creating for our standard PDF/PoD releases. It was only as other KSs showed that there were further cool things that could come out of the KS set-up that we pushed for new products and the Heavy Metal Edition for Deluxe W20. Which led to a similar set of experiments with Mummy: The Curse’s KS. With Deluxe Hunters Hunted II, I saw really quickly that the backers wanted more coolness in the book itself and were less about the extras outside the book- and that was very interesting.

      So, I dunno, maybe for GMC we will keep an eye on fan reaction and if we hear enough interest in a Deluxe we’ll give it a shot with a KS after the project is already available.

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  10. It’s interesting staying in the gaming hobby for long enough to adjust to this way of life: knowing delays will occurr. I remember when I first started out ten years ago being personally offended that a company would delay a product I was waiting for. These days, delays just remind me to focus on my preparing for my present games.

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  11. Any chance of keeping a V20 edition over two books (at some point) – perhaps one in black and white hard cover and one in colour premium – easier to read and use at table #WantsMoonOnStick

    Reply

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