SPRIIIING!!! [Monday Meeting Notes]

Spriiing has Sprung!

SPROING!!

And like a compressed spring, the Monday Meeting also expanded to fill one of our longest meetings in a long time. Certainly the longest this year!

We had a lot to cover, and cover it we did! I’ll touch on a few of them here, but bear with me as I really can’t get into detail on most of it – we were talking plans for projects and efforts for the next couple/three years!

They’ll be announced when our plans ripen – right now they are just lil buds of Spring. (I’m all about this metaphor, today!)

So, since I can’t talk about the seeds we planted today, here are some buds in various stages of blooming:

Sharing the news today that our Trinity Continuum Players Guide crowdfunding campaign on Crowdfunding By BackerKit goes live Tuesday, March 28th at 2pm Eastern US time! See ya there!

There’s an entire episode of the Onyx Pathcast going live this coming Friday where you can hear from Eddy, Danielle, and Matthew, all about what’s going to be in the TC Players Guide! It’s a great chance to get some solid detailed info – if you want to dig in right before the campaign starting on Tues.

Squeaks In the Deep Companion art by Shen Fei

Like most of our crowdfunding campaigns, we’ll be providing backers sections of the text throughout the Trinity Continuum Players Guide campaign, as we want to be sure that backers are cool with what they’ve pledged for. This is something we’ve been doing for years at this point, and it’s something that evolved out of the way we did things in the early days of Kickstarter.

When we first started, Kickstarter was really like the Wild West in terms of how campaigns were run. There was still a lot of the original idea of backers providing funds before a work was even started, in order to enable the work of creation by contributing. That’s the first model we worked with, with the book’s text being in various stages of being written.

We soon found that no matter how we tried to clearly describe what would be in the project, folks would interpret those descriptions in ways we hadn’t intended, so we started adding more and more of the text as excerpts provided in Backer Updates and the like. While providing actual page text, the excerpts also ran into issues when development would change aspects of revealed text – because while we had excerpts, the overall manuscript was still in flux when we ran the KS.

The realization set in that our whole methodology with the timing of when we would KS needed to change, and we had to stay off of running any campaigns for a few months one year in order to get ahead and get the text around 95% done and even into editing before we ran the crowdfunding campaign. That enabled us to jump back in with the “Here’s the full text!” deal. But it wound up that if backers got the full text upon backing, that we’d have a huge explosion of talking in the first week, and then the sound of crickets for the rest of the campaign.

It was, frankly, dull – which is the opposite of what anybody wants from a crowdfunding campaign. We’ve never treated our campaigns as pre-orders, so…

We tweaked that idea just a tad and began our current practice of giving out sections throughout the campaign to our delightful backers. Now, this was all laid out in a cleaned-up version of how we poked and prodded our processes – it was a lot messier in actuality and in the KS trenches! We’re always looking to improve, after all, and sometimes that’s a slight adjustment nobody but us notices, and other times it’s loud and nasty and tough on both those of us doing it and those seeing it happen.

Sorry about that folks, it’s all a work in progress over here!

Stampede of Justice art by Aaron Riley

Speaking of progress, last Weds we released They Came From Beneath the Sea!‘s character sheets, tokens, and most dramatically, the official Compendium of the rulebook on Roll20‘s marketplace! Now you too have everything you need to play TCFBtS! online on Roll20 – virtual laughs are still laughs!

Here’s one shot of it, with more pics below in the Virtual Gaming section:

Last week, I mentioned that Matthew would be starting to post some teaser blogs delving into The World Below, and lo and behold, he actually did! His first one gives more setting and stat details for the Klo’tha, one kind of the nasty sentient creatures that prowl the tunnels:

https://theonyxpath.com/the-world-below-the-klotha/

There’s a poll going for revealing this week either the Forbidding Realm of Longdeep (an in-depth look at one of the many abandoned, ruined, alien, or hostile settlements in the World Below that you may visit, avoid, or where you’ll find yourself an unwelcome guest) or a collection of points of view attempting to answer the question of What Happened To the World Above? There’s still a chance to make your vote count before the new blog goes up!

Once and Future art by Sam Denmark

What would be an MMN Blog without one more look at the making of the cover for TC: Aegis? I know I’ve been enjoying giving y’all a look into each stage of figuring out just what would go on our Bronze/Iron Age era for the Trinity Continuum!

From these two halves, I’ll scan them in, clean them up and link them visually into one image, and then clean up anything that doesn’t look quite right – like at least one of the character’s head size! – and provide notes on reference and color for our cover artist. Next time you’ll see this will probably be on the cover mock-up for the TC: Aegis crowdfunder later this year!

Like I said, it was fun walking the the steps these last few weeks, and now those steps are starting to pass past the plants and flowers of spring that grow in our:

MANY WORLDS, ONE PATH!


BLURBS!


KICKSTARTER/CROWDFUNDING!


The Trinity Player’s Guide: going LIVE on Crowdfunding On BackerKit next Tuesday, March 28th at 2pm Eastern US time!

Here’s the link to the pre-campaign sign-up:

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/95ca375d-7d44-4b47-9cc6-df11bd469a90/landing

Sign up to get direct alerts for when it goes live!


Onyx Path Media!

This week:

Eddy, Matthew, and Danielle talk about the upcoming Trinity Continuum Player’s Guide!

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! 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 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:

Today we take a look at the good creators of Bloodroll! They’re a French channel making actual plays and other content all around the World of Darkness. They have two seasons of Vampire: The Masquerade, one season of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, one season of Demon: The Fallen, and a lot of projects incoming, including Mage: The Ascension and Wraith: The Oblivion. Here’s the link: https://youtube.com/@BloodRoll

The Onyx Path News discusses recent and upcoming releases! You can find it on our YouTube channel (click the bell to be informed when we go live!) but if you missed the last episode, here it is: https://youtube.com/live/vL_FohZgGWk


Virtual Tabletop!

NEW!
They Came From Beneath the Sea! on Roll20 VTT!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/22308/they-came-from-beneath-the-sea

Here are some more shots from the They Came From Beneath the Sea! Compendium!

And there’s also the Scion Jumpstart, all ready for Roll20 VTT fun!

https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/21165/a-light-extinguished-a-jumpstart-for-scion-second-edition

More news and links when we have them!

The Scion: Origin and Scion Hero Compendiums are now available on Roll20!

https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/publisher/1716/onyx-path-publishing

Scion is just the start! They Came From Beneath the Sea! and other
Onyx Path RPGs are in development for Roll20 virtual tabletop!

The first of our official Scion sheets designed for Foundry VTT are
now available!

Direct Link: https://foundryvtt.co

Looking for more virtual tabletop resources? We have a selection of
Tokens, Encounters, and more available now at DriveThruRPG!

Get ’em here: 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!

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books, dice, and screens? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

CofD and OGL Sale at IPR :
https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles in PDF and PoD versions at DriveThruRPG.com!

Mystery Sale at DTFiction ends on 3/22:
https://www.drivethrufiction.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!

Available Wednesday on DTRPG, we will have a wide array of VTT tokens, usable for any sort of online play! Monarchies of Mau and Pirates of Pugmire tokens for Pugmire! Vigil Watch and Blood Sea tokens for Scarred Lands! All sorts of monsters and characters!


Conventions!

As we are slowly returning to attending conventions in person after the current COVID-19 outbreak, keep an eye out here for more physical and virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!

We’ll be at the IPR booth at the GAMA Trade Show April, 24th to 28th, so let your friendly local game store know that they can talk to us there! And if you ARE a retailer, we’d love to chat with you right there!

Game Night With Onyx Path Publishing at Start.Playing is the last Friday of every month! Come play some Trinity Continuum in celebration of the upcoming Talents Player’s Guide KS! (But any of our game lines are welcome all day long!)

Please spread the word about GMing games as much as
possible. Details on how list a game are at the bottom of the page in
the FAQ:

https://startplaying.games/event/game-night-onyx-path


And now, the new project status updates!

Our full list of projects will be available monthly on our blog! Check out February’s full list report here:
https://theonyxpath.com/release-roundup-february-2023/

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY

Here are the projects that moved to the next stage of production:

First Draft

TC: Aether – Aether Player’s Guide

  • Eddy: A brand-new product for Trinity Continuum: Aether that isn’t a stretch goal! I’m sure we’ll talk more about this in the weeks ahead, but expect expanded Societies and more material from around the world!

Final Drafts

They Came From! – They Came From..?.

  • Matthew: We’re into the finals for this mysterious new entry for the They Came From! series. Comment below with what you think will appear inside!

Editing

Tasty Bit – They Came From Beyond the Grave!: Graveyard

  • Eddy: Not many changes were needed, so the writer was able to turn things around quickly! Now it’s lumbered along to editing, where it hopes to eat tasty brains.

Exalted – What Lies Forgotten novella

  • Danielle: Lauren’s Exigent, Alchemical, and Liminal trio are trekking into editing!

Exalted – A Murder in Whitewall (was Exalted Essence Novella 3 (Cole))

  • Danielle: It seems that the Getimian was unable to alter reality, and this has moved on to editing.

ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

  • Ex3 Eight Directions – Maps contracted. Reviewing sketches.
  • TCF Cyclops Cave/Classified Contracting art for Classified.
  • TCF ? KS – Larry is working on fulls. I have Luis, Dom, and Steve Ellis on the B&W halves…
  • M20 Victorian Jumpstart – Working on finding someone for the non splat art.
  • SCION Once and Future – Reviewing finals.
  • TC Anima – Reviewing sketches for MMO art.
  • TC Player’s Guide – Backerkit page done… ready for next week!
  • TC Assassins VTT Adventure – Contracting maps.
  • COFD Contagion Chronicles RMCs – Reontracting.
  • Squeaks in the Deep Companion – Contracting maps and reviewing finals.
  • MtAw Tome of the Pentacle – First set of finals in.

In Layout

  • W20 Apocalyptic Record – THIS is my focus until it’s out to KS backers.
  • Ex3 Crucible of Legends – Sending to Josh.

Proofing

  • DEVIANT Devoted Companion – At paradox for approval.
  • EX3 Surface Truths Novella – At paradox for approval.
  • SL Vigil Watch Kelder Mtns – Sending to Dixie for 2nd proof.
  • TC Stampede of Justice (Adventure JS) – I still need to interactivize the character sheet.
  • TCF Tasty Bit Compilation – Sending to Dixie for 2nd proof and figuring out the cover.

Indexing

  • TC: Adventure!

At Press

  • TC: Adventure! – Indexing.
  • Exalted Essence – Awaiting errata.
  • M20 Victorian Age – At KS fulfiller.
  • M20 Victorian Age Screen – Printing started.
  • Scion Dragon Screen – Printing started.
  • Scion Dragon – At KS fulfiller.
  • Scion Masks of the Mythos – At KS fulfiller.
  • Scion Masks of the Mythos Screen – Printing started.
  • SCION Realms of Magic and Mystery – Gathering errata.
  • Storypath Ultra Brochure – Sending to press.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today is the first day of Spring! Renewal and life and flowers and all that stuff! Yay!

21 thoughts on “SPRIIIING!!! [Monday Meeting Notes]”

  1. Comment below with what you think will appear inside!

    My best guess is that it’ll be a superhero game, probably called something that resembles They Came from the Hall of Justice! but is legally distinct from those exact words. Less MCU or Snyderverse, more Batman ’66 or Pumaman.

    Reply
  2. Hey Richt, I’m going to introduce exalted to some new friends, in about two to three months, and i was thinking about the roadmap for 2023. After eight directions and crucible of legends what’s on the horizon, in terms of supplements, for the line?

    Reply
      • I don’t want to claim that I know Leo’s mind, but I think his question wasn’t about what was is in the pipeline. Rather, he’s asking about what else is going on? Is there going to be a manse/demense book? Is there going to be a Getimian book? Is that information that you can share? Or is there some reason that you can’t or won’t?

        Reply
        • We have pretty much stepped away from announcing schedules for books until they are contracted – in which case you will see most of them pop up on the MMN blog progress report and the monthly full listing of books being worked on. Anything, for any line, that was previously in a catalog or brochure or even just mentioned on social media, should be assumed as not happening until we actually start working on it. That’s partially because of the nature of working on the game lines licensed from Paradox where we don’t have complete control over what can be published, and partially because we know that folks have been disappointed by too-early announcing. We don’t want to do that, for even the most reasonable of reasons, and we also don’t have such a large company that we can spread our attention out to include maybes – we have to focus on the gonna-happens!

          Reply
      • It is quite obvious that the new game will be They Came From GoBotron! How do we know this?

        * Eddy worked on the Transformers RPG. Rather than slaking his thirst for transforming robotic characters, this intensified it to villainous proportions!
        * As is common knowledge, Eddy secretly owns Onyx Path Publishing, and is therefore a multi-billionaire(***).
        * Eddy recently moved to the UK. This is not, as you might rightly suspect, an attempt to work closely with Matthew on the new game. Rather, it is his need to control every aspect of the game through his primary puppet, Matthew (see “villainous proportions!” above.
        * My logic is flawless, so I expect Eddy’s assassin goons to arrive shortly.

        *** At least one of these items may be a work of fiction.

        Reply
  3. Hooray for the Talent Players Guide crowdfunding campaign getting a date. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time (and I was looking forward to them when it was these two). It’s great to see the Trinity Core getting some supplement love. And an Aether player’s guide you say? Colour me interested.

    Reply
  4. will the new player’s guide attempt to bring the Trinity Core up to speed with the 2.0 cleanup you guys have been talking about?

    Reply
    • Storypath Ultra is the next iteration of the Storypath rules that have been used by a bunch of our lines, but it isn’t rolling into all those lines as a 2nd Edition. Ultra will be used in The World Below and other new lines, and we’re going to introduce Ultra to the existing lines in different ways. We can say for sure that TC books up to and including TC: Aegis aren’t going to have Ultra in them, but by TC: Aegis you should all have had a chance to look at the Storypath Ultra brochure we’ll be handing out at cons and will make available on-line, so conversion guides are very likely – unofficial or official. Beyond TC: Aegis? Answer is hazy – ask again later.

      Reply

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