Yes, today is April 15th and here in the US that mean’s it’s Tax Day when we have to file our income taxes. So, not really a “yay!”, which is why it’s not the topic for the Reason To Celebrate all the way down there at the end of the MMN Blog, but a big deal anyway.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into detail all about corporate taxes and quarterly payments and all that biz stuff. I’d like to think about taxes a bit less, not more! But, since most of our creators are freelancers who have to figure all this stuff out rather than having an employer do it for them, I hope you all will give our wide-spread freelance community a bit of a break if this week we have little to show in the Project Progress area.
We do have progress even if no milestones have been jumped over, though, so no worries, and at least some of our writers and artists are out of the US, so have a different tax schedule to worry about. Eddy, living now in the UK, is pretty screwed though, as he has to file in both the US and UK!
You might have noticed that I used a piece of Brian LeBlanc’s art from They Came From the Cyclops’ Cave! for our lead-in art today. I dunno if that stone guy is the taxman coming for his due on the golden apples, but that’s how it feels sometimes!
More importantly, we have TCFtCC! having just gone up on DTRPG last Wednesday, and They Came From [CLASSIFIED]! going on sale this Wednesday – so it’s a great time to remind folks that both of these books are core books for the They Came From game line, albeit two very different genres. Fantasy movies and TV in the one case, and 60s – 70s super-spies in the other. And while they’re going on sale, Mirthful Mike is getting them ready for traditional printing so we can first fulfill their crowdfunding campaign, and then so we can get both game books into game stores.
If you missed it, yep, they were both funded by the same crowdfunding campaign. We called it the They Came From Double Feature, and it seemed like a natural fit at the time with the old drive-in double features and a fun theme for the campaign!
Did it work, make sense, appeal to folks?
Dunno.
This is one of the things we do in the Monday Meeting: review and consider whether a particular way we handled things actually did what we expected. (We also do a lot of this analysis before we make decisions, too. It’s not just postmortem, we pre-mortem, too!) My question is: did the Double Feature put the emphasis on They Came From more than on the individual books?
Because these two books provide two very different spins on They Came From – as if Sea and Grave weren’t different enough, already. They really immerse the reader/player in their respective genres, and I think do that in a very focused way.
And much like the previous They Came From books, we followed through with that immersive thinking when it came time for doing the layout. Cyclops’ Cave feels appropriately like a mix of mythic, historic, and Hollywood versions of fantasy genre gaming when you page through it. Mirthful Mike’s design of the pages, colors, fonts, draws from all those influences so it’s unlike any of our other fantasy games visually.
Also, the full pages pieces of art by Larry Blamire are designed to look just like movie posters of the past – you ain’t gonna see that in D&D books!
(I’ll have a lot more to say about the design of [CLASSIFIED] next week, but let me just say that I researched the heck out of the visuals used for spy movies and TV, and did graphics and used colors I’ve never used before!)
If you want more info on how the writers and developers evoked that sort of Ray Harryhausen stop-motion fantasy/Ator the Fighting Eagle/Xena feel in Cyclops’ Cave, you can join our Discord and check it out where a lot of our creators hang out talking about the book, and/or listen to this coming Friday’s Onyx Pathcast where Dixie and Danielle debrief the book’s developer: Michele Masala.
Taxing Meeting Today:
Let’s start with a quote: “Travis is the meanest, the prettiest, the baddest low down in this town”!
I’m not even sure how we got there, it might have been during his report on how the upcoming Virtual Onyx Path Convention is going. But he seemed to like the reference, so there you go.
In the midst of our usual updates, we also fell into a long discussion on how Storypath Ultra handles when to roll the dice and when to just “do it”. We’re actually going to make sure that our wording emphasizes that the system is actually built to enable the players to develop elements of their game with rolls that both succeed and fail. This isn’t just “failing forward”, as complications are kind of staging points to add to the story you’re trying to tell.
I’m not going to go too deep into it, suffice to say that I’ve found that the unexpected results of dice rolling are a huge part of my playing as they throw something unplanned at you that can be great to react to. Maybe that’s just me, but it’s sort of why Improv folks love to do those skits where they take shout-outs from the audience. Those suggestions give you something solid to work with, and I think complications do the same thing.
Game theory aside, our CofD Bundle of Holding Sale is wrapping up, but there’s still time to get some great savings! https://bundleofholding.com
Wanted to shout out to one of our Twitch contributors and the bi-weekly show he has been running: Meet Your Makers with Phil Keeling! It’s an interview, kind of a talk show format, where Phil sits down with one of our creators and talks about what they do and their process in doing it, what their influences are, what they’re working on next, the whole thing!
Coming up this Saturday at 2pm Eastern US time on our Twitch channel, Phil talks with Kim Godwin, who has been doing some fantastic work for us across our various and sundry game lines!
Various & Sundry? Sounds like a good name for a pub. And on a Tax Day, that might be a great place to visit! Or you could enjoy non-taxable fun visiting our:
Many Worlds, One Path!
Blurbs!
Crowdfunding!:
Coming Next: At The Gates!
Check out its ashcan on DTRPG! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/475586
Onyx Path Media!
This week: Dixie and Danielle interview Michele about They Came From Cyclops’s Cave!, as well as many other They Came From games!
As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue!
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:
To celebrate the release of They Came from the Cyclops’s Cave!, enjoy this excellent actual play from our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcFFvMHtDfY
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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8StgSQGBPc
Virtual Tabletop!
The Monsters of the Deep Compendium with all of the monsters added to the They Came From Beneath the Sea! Compendium core, including Tokens for VTT play, will be on Roll20 and DTRPG this Weds!
They Came From Beneath the Sea! on Roll20 VTT!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/22308/they-came-from-beneath-the-sea
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! https://foundryvtt.co
Looking for more virtual tabletop resources? We have a selection of
Tokens, Encounters, and more available now at DriveThruRPG! 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: Dark Eras 2 limited edition (and some Screens) is 75% off over 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!
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 Melody Through the Mirrorshade Lens and Facets of Truth, as well as Trinity Continuum: Terat and The Hollow Courts on Kindle in the Kindle store!
On Sale This Week!
Allow myself to introduce myself…[CLASSIFIED], They Came From [CLASSIFIED]!PDF and PoD versions of They Came From [CLASSIFIED]! smoothly outrace, outdraw, outplay, and out style the evil organizations that are set on, dare we say it?, conquering the world! On sale this Weds on DTRPG!
Conventions!
As we are slowly returning to attending conventions in person after avoiding them during the COVID-19 outbreak, keep an eye out here for more physical and virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!
Matthew and Eddy and a few of our other Onyx Path creators will be attending and even running games at UK Games Expo in May.
We will be repped by Studio 2 (and maybe IPR) at Origins Game Fair in June.
Onyx Path Virtual Con will be June 14-16.
Game Night With Onyx Path Publishing at StartPlaying will be the last Friday of the month! Come play some of our games that night! (But any of our game lines are welcome all day long!)
Here’s a link to give anyone $10 credit to play games on Start.Playing:
https://startplaying.games/referral/clog9y0v10006ju0968iev95m
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
Project Status Updates!
Our full list of projects will be available monthly on our blog! Check out March’s full list report here:
DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY
Here are the projects that moved to the next stage of production: No movement this week, things are progressing without moving to the next stage.
ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!
In Art Direction
- The World Below – Sending out artnotes.
- M20 Victorian Weird Wonders and Revolutionary Magic – tweaking some art based on Paradox notes.
- SCION No Gods, No Masters – Just missing 5 halfs from one artist… but the rest is in.
- TC Player’s Guide – contracted.
- TC With Great Power – contracted.
- Pugmire 2e – Sent sketch feedback and requested some redos on specific pieces.
- At The Gates – Backerkit Prep.
In Layout
- Ex3 Sidereals – Art approved. Starting layout.
- Ex Essence Charm Cards – Progressing with Dixie.
- Exigents Screen
- CofD Contagion Chronicles RMCs
- Squeaks in the Deep Companion
- Ex Essence Jumpstart – Getting Travis the paragraph styles for Essence stats.
Proofing
- M20 Victorian Jumpstart – Inputting some quick fixes and getting 2nd proof over.
- DTR Clade Companion – First proof.
Indexing
- TC Aether
- Scion God
At Press
- Reprints:
- Scion Origin – Looking at proofs.
- TC Core – Looking at proofs.
- TC Aeon – Printer files uploaded.
- Exalted Essence – Printing.
- Ex Essence Screen – At Studio 2.
- Ex 3 Exigents – Inputting XXs and index… then out putting PoD/Press files.
- TC Anima Terra Surge Screen – Sending info to screen printer for quotes.
- TC Anima – Pinging printer about cover specs.
- M20 Lore of the Traditions – Printing.
- They Came From the Cyclops Cave! – Pinging printer about cover specs.
- They Came From CLASSIFIED! – Pinging printer about cover specs.
- TCF Classified and Cyclops Cards – PoD proofs on the way.
- They Came From the Cyclops’s Cave Screen – Sending info to screen printer for quotes.
- They Came From CLASSIFIED Screen – Sending info to screen printer for quotes.
- CtL 2e The Hedge – PoD proofs ordered.
- At The Gates Ashcan – PoD proofs ordered.
- They Came From CLASSIFIED! – PDF and PoD versiuons on sale this Weds on DTRPG.
Today’s Reason to Celebrate!
Couple of anniversaries, which are certainly reasons to rejoice: Today, on Apr. 15 2020, Dystopia Rising: Evolution was published, and then at the end of the week, what may be our heaviest book came out 8 years ago: Exalted 3e!
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