The Return of Heckin’ Gud Doggos! [Monday Meeting Notes]

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That’s right! We are just a day away from the launch of the Kickstarter for Realms of Pugmire, the second edition of the ground-breaking fantasy game so many of you have enjoyed these past five years!

It’ll start tomorrow the 24th at 2pm eastern US time over at Kickstarter!

There’s still time to sign up for the pre-Kickstarter page so that you are notified when it starts at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/realms-of-pugmire-tabletop-rpg and you can also join Eddy and maybe Dixie an hour before the KS starts on Twitch to count down to the KS launch!

Exalted Essence art by Navela Studio

We’re doing a few things differently with this version, and Eddy has been talking with a bunch of folks about his plans, check these links out:

Earlier today, I asked Eddy for some sneak peeks to how our new Onyx20 system works in Realms of Pugmire – obviously, there’s a lot more that you’ll discover by backing the KS; these are just a few doggie-treats along the way:

Tests: Formerly saving throws, you roll preferred attribute tests with a boon (formerly advantage) instead of adding your proficiency bonus. If you have an ability that gives you a boon to a preferred test, nothing happens, as you can’t have more than one boon.

Sleeping: It’s now called “napping” to better reflect that it’s not a solid eight hours of sleep. Also, if you fail your Vitality (formerly Constitution) test while napping outdoors, you gain the Exhausted condition in addition to the other “benefits” of your rough night of napping.

Healing: Characters now have the option to bind the wounds of characters that are injured but not dying. A Cunning (Heal) check at difficulty 15 restores 1d4 stamina points once per scene without spending a stamina die.

Eddy also had this exciting new feature that he wanted to share:

Making Friends
Sometimes, meeting a future friend is merely a matter of being fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. When happenstance is not quite enough, however, a check may be used to establish a new friendship.
When meeting a character for the first time, the Guide determines the disposition level of the character. This is a general guideline for how the character feels about the player characters. Usually this is Indifferent, but sometimes a character might have a reputation for being Liked or Disliked. Or maybe the non-player character is part of a group dedicated to hurting the player characters, making them immediately an Adversary. Here are the various disposition levels:
• Good Friend: A good friend will give you their favorite bone, their most comfortable blanket, the very shirt off their back when you are in need. You can rely on a good friend to help you in any way they possibly can, even if it endangers their own beliefs or safety. A good friend will make use of their own contacts to help you. You make Presence (formerly Charisma) checks with a boon with this character.
• Liked: Someone who likes you is likely willing to help you out, pointing you to where you can get resources or get ahold of their contacts. They aren’t likely to put their necks on the line for you, however.
• Indifferent: Knowing someone’s name or face doesn’t mean they care about you, one way or the other. Most people start off indifferent to one another, and only interact if their own desires can be met by doing so. If you need something from someone that is indifferent to you, you’ll probably need to bribe them or exchange a service with them.
• Disliked: Hefty bribes are going to be needed to get anything from someone who dislikes you. If you’re hurt, they’re likely to scoff and walk the other way.
• Adversary: You have yourself a nemesis, someone who wants to see you fail, or maybe even dead. An adversary will make use of their own contacts to hinder everything you do, if possible. You make Presence checks with a hindrance (formerly disadvantage) with this character.
Once the Guide determines the disposition level, you may make a Presence (Persuade) check opposed to the character’s Presence (Sense Motive) check during the first meeting or social interaction. You may attempt further checks once every week, during social interactions with the character.
Success: You move up one disposition level.
Failure: You remain at your current disposition level.
Triumph: You move up two disposition levels (up to Liked, if this is the first interaction with the non-player character).
Botch: You move down two disposition levels (down to Disliked, if this is the first interaction with the non-player character).

You might be able to tell, we’re all really enthusiastic about Realms of Pugmire – waggin’ our tails a mile a minute and we’re yip-yappin’ and everything! There are also some changes to the book’s presentation, and what we can offer during a Kickstarter – you’ll be able to see most of those when we go live, but we expect to add some surprise treats during the campaign!

Hope to see you there!

Realms of Magic and Mysteryart by Pat McEvoy

Since We’re All Dog-Tired, Here Are Some Quick Notes From the Meeting-

Thanks to Impish Ian Watson, our Onyx Path Forums are back up and better than ever! If you love using forums to talk about your favorite games, you can come right over and jump right in!

This Wednesday, our latest Tasty Bit PDF goes live, but with a difference! All this year we’ll be creating Tasty Bits that focus on locations, one per month. They’ll be appropriate for a particular one of our games, but are really usable for any of them with a description PDF and a location map. You’ll be able to use these in-person or online if you play Virtual Table Top.

Now just to drill down a little on that. Virtual Table Top or VTT is really a generic term for being able to take the files and use them to play online. You don’t need to use a specific VTT venue like Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds. That is why these Tasty Bit location PDFs are available on DTRPG and not in one of the VTT venues’ stores.

We do, however, have projects available only on those stores for play in their venues. In fact, Roll20 has both a Scion Bundle sale going right now (link below) on our Roll20 Scion projects, and a new one that will really make it a lot easier to get into the game: A Light Extinguished, the Scion 2e Jumpstart.

We hope you’ll try them out!

Exalted Essence art by Melissa Uran

Finally, in speaking of sales, we’re going to be having a huge Founder’s Day sale this Wednesday, January 25th. It’s my birthday, I’m 60 (yeesh), and so both Crossroads Continent PDFs will be free, and we’ll have a 60% sale on most if not all of our other PDFs! So if you missed our ridiculously low sales last year, here’s another chance to jump in!

All just my way of thanking all of you for making these Onyx Path years my very best in this business!

Because I do really feel like I’m in my prime, as Doc Holliday said, and looking forward to many more years creating:

MANY WORLDS, ONE PATH!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER/CROWDFUNDING!

REALMS OF PUGMIRE! LIVE ON KICKSTARTER JAN 24th AT 2PM Eastern US Time!

It’s not too late to sign up at the pre-Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/realms-of-pugmire-tabletop-rpg

Onyx Path Media!

This week:

Matthew, Eddy, and Dixie talk about the Realms of Pugmire Kickstarter, how the OGL stuff impacts it (spoiler: not much), and a bit of the history around D&D-based games in general.

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:

Our spotlight this week shifts to Theatre of the Mind Players’ actual play of Trinity Continuum: https://youtu.be/jsIhvjr-w08. This show is a fantastic way to get into Trinity, if you’re yet to make the dive into our Continuum!

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://youtu.be/s4hYukcdy2I

Virtual Tabletop!

Two new Roll20 items of interest for Scion players!

First, a Scion VTT bundle is on sale over at Roll20:

https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/19378/scion-second-edition-bundle

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

Here is a new screenshot of the upcoming They Came From Beneath the Sea! Compendium!

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/

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!

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!

This Wednesday, take a nice relaxing trip to North Herald Beach! Pay no attention to those crusty creatures coming out of the surf – after all this Tasty Bit PDF, usable for both in-person and VTT playing, is based in the They Came From Beneath the Sea! setting, and is for sale on DTRPG!

Conventions!

Because dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, we don’t yet have a list of upcoming physical conventions. Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!

Game Night With Onyx Path Publishing at Start.Playing is this Friday, the 27th! Come play some Pugmire in celebration of the 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 December’s full list report here: https://theonyxpath.com/release-roundup-december-2022/

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY

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

Redlines

Exalted – Abyssals

  • Danielle: First drafts of Abyssals have been turned in and the developers are already crowing about how much they are enjoying reading the material.

Final Draft

Tasty Bit – TC: Assassins: Art Museum

  • Eddy: This mini-scenario for Trinity Continuum: Assassins is turning out to be a nice blend of heist and intrigue. Just some quick tweaks in the final draft!

Development

Exalted – Scoundrelsong (was Damned Lies) novella

  • Danielle: This final got turned around pretty quickly. I’m happy with it’s progress and you should expect to see it move into editing soon.

Manuscript Approval

Scion – Community Content Guide

  • Matthew: If you’ve ever wanted to know how to write your own Pantheons, antagonists, Knacks, and whatnot, this free book will be a great resource for you!

ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

  • Ex3 Exigents – Getting new breakdown to Danielle so we can really get this one moving.
  • Pugmire 2e – Ready for the KS!
  • Legendlore: Legacies of Earth – I got Gong to do the fulls and DAC to do the quarter portrait splat things.
  • Squeaks in the Deep Companion – Sending this over to Maria to get back on track.
  • SL Vigil Watch Kelder Mtns – AD’d

In Layout

  • DTR  Devoted Companion – sending this to freelance designer.
  • Exalted Essence – hopefully I can get it wrapped by end of the week.

Proofing

  • SCION Realms of Magic and Mystery – Inputting fixes from first proof

Indexing

At Press

  • TC: Adventure! – Inputting errata.
  • M20 Victorian Age – At Trad Press.
  • 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.
  • Contagion Chronicles Global Outbreaks – Page XXs.
  • Ex3 Lunars Novella – Awaiting errata.
  • TC: Aberrant – Proteus Nova Compendium – PoD proof on the way.
  • Ex3 Adversaries – Fixed a piece of art that was off.
  • Tasty Bit: They Came From Beneath the Sea! North Herald Beach – PDF on sale Weds at DTRPG!

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

A few things happenin’ this week:
Today: Scion: God first edition turns 15
Jan 24: 10 years since our 5th Kickstarter, The Hunters Hunted II
Jan 25: RichT’s 60th birthday

17 thoughts on “The Return of Heckin’ Gud Doggos! [Monday Meeting Notes]”

  2. What he said. We’re seeing plenty of art for Essence, but Across the Eight Directions has been in Art Direction for more than a year now. Are we going to get any sort of update or ETA or anything.

    Reply

    • Please believe me when I say this: we want Eight Directions, and every other book you want, to come out as soon as possible. We have one of the most transparent production processes in the TTRPG business, certainly for a company producing this many releases. With that, you all get to see when projects move to the next phase of production and when they don’t, and we provide you that info each and every week, with a big recap every month.

      Reply

  3. Happy Birthday, Rich! 60 years is a big deal(and still very young).

    Also, Hunters Hunted 2 is still to this day, my favorite OP book. Hope to see more WoD books from you guys in the future.

    Reply

    • “Finished” being a relative term. Then there are still proofing stages and Backer PDF errata to go through. Then we have to have a window to print with our traditional printer and that’s something we don’t have the ability to forecast or control. So, this far out from October and it still looks good, but there are a lot of ifs still floating around.

      Reply

      • I like that it looks good. Know how little you can control about allot of the processes, it’s good to know that the ones you do have influence over seem to be working smoothly.

        Also, Happy Birthday Rich!

        Reply

        • Yep, when I say that after 30+ years making TTRPG books the situation with printing due to Covid has been unprecedented, I’m not kidding! 🙂 We can’t assume business as usual at any stage outside our own company. Also, thanks for the birthday greeting!

          Reply

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