Yep, we’re looking at the last few days of the BackerKit crowdfunding campaign for the Exalted: Essence Storyteller’s Guide, and now’s the time to get the word out there and get as many eyes on the campaign as you and us and we and everybody can!
We just popped over 300% funded and we’re starting to pick up serious momentum – so let’s pick up a pillar like the Exalted in the art and rampage forward!
Metaphorically, of course…
Feel free to share this last extra teaser from H, if you think it’ll help convince folks to back the campaign:
While other Exalts, Creation’s gods, and demons from Malfeas all make fantastic enemies for the Exalted, sometimes you just need a giant, fiery rhinoceros for a foe, friend, or dangerous complication.
Furnace Rhino
Created at the dawn of history to serve as living refineries of the magical materials, furnace rhinos were left behind when the Great Maker departed Creation. They still dwell in Southern deserts and the hills of Gem, grazing on rocks and scrap metal. Eight feet tall and recognizable by their folded, platelike hide of metal, furnace rhinos concentrate trace amounts of magical materials into their horns, which come to be made of solid jade or more rarely other magical materials. Though a furnace rhino’s horn is of fabulous value, the beasts radiate deadly heat and have a fierce temperament, and most hunts suffer casualties even when successful.
Primary Pool (7): Hard-headed Aggression, Batter Down Obstacles
Secondary Pool (6): Find Scrap, Detect Ambush
Tertiary Pool (4)
Health Levels: 9
Essence: 2
Resolve: 3
Defense: 4
Hardness: 6
Soak: 6
Attacks and Qualities
Enormous Size (Exalted Essence p. 316), Oppressive (Exalted Essence p. 317)
Furnace Body: The furnace rhino radiates unbearable heat. Characters at close range are exposed to a hazard equivalent to a burning building (Exalted: Essence, p.146), and at short range to a hazard equivalent to severe heat.
Iron Like Straw: Attacks against a furnace rhino reduce their overwhelming value by one. This can reduce it to zero, which makes attempts to hunt furnace rhinos with mundane spears or arrows largely futile.
Deadly Treasure: The horns of a furnace rhino contain enough magical material of one type to create an artifact weapon or suit of armor. Every piece of the animal’s body is valuable, but it must be butchered red-hot (severe heat hazard); once cooled down it becomes a solid lump of mingled minerals weighing several tons.
Weapons: Jade Horn (+2 Accuracy, +2 Damage, +2 Defense, 3 Overwhelming. Tags: Natural, Piercing, Smashing)
Tactics and Advice
Furnace rhinos are highly territorial. Their poor eyesight causes them to register most things as threats, and they respond to attacks by running down the enemy to gore and trample them. Furnace rhinos can be acquired as Familiars by someone who can resist their heat, in which case they can be taught to grudgingly endure the presence of others; they are sometimes kept as war-mounts by ifrit lords.
Wow – talk about charging forward! What an extremely timely excerpt!
Our next crowdfunder should start in July, and it’ll be for the Lair of the Rat Kings for Realms of Pugmire. This is both a look at the mice/rats folks, plus an in-depth look at the whole cavern/dungeon lives they lead, and then a pretty big, even “mega” underground adventure for any and all Realms of Pugmire characters!
More word on that and definite dates coming soon!
We’re still learning all about the capabilities of the Scion Nexus on Demiplane, and we hope a lot of you are giving it a try, too. The team over there – and you can meet two of them on the vids from the Onyx Path Virtual Con‘s panels this year – are still fine-tuning and responding to input. If the Scion Nexus goes well, we’re hoping to move forward with more of these sites for our other game lines!
Campaigns for Scion Nexus went live today, as well. This blog post from before Scion Nexus was added explains how Campaigns work on Demiplane:
https://www.demiplane.com/blog/campaigns-have-arrived
Briefly, Campaigns for Scion Nexus allows:
- The ability to create a group for your table.
- Story Guides can manage which titles and content sources are available for Character Creation.
- SGs (and players) can view and edit character sheets of players who are permitted.
- You can import existing characters into Campaigns that are already built on Demiplane
And the blog post also lets on how they will be expanding Campaigns moving forward!
I have a note that we’ve PDFs included in two different sales over on DTRPG: we’ve got TC: Aegis projects in their Cyberpunk Sale, and we have a PDF in each of their Pride Bundles!
Links below in the Sales Partners part of The Blurbs!
Here are a couple of News bites from Travis:
This week, Comrade Bubbles returns to the channel on Tuesday at 9 AM EDT for a new episode of Behind the Screen focused on They Came From… and Curseborne: Accursed in Boston will be taking a week off for family business, while Tom Murr will be returning to the channel on Thursday at 3 PM EDT for another installment of Guiding the Path!
If you caught the Startplaying panel at Onyx Path Con, you saw storyguide Tsire Divyn mention an upcoming At The Gates actual play! We are pleased to announce we’ve received the promotional art for the stream, Where the Gods’ Eyes No Longer Shine which will be premiering on Friday, June 19th at 6pm EST at https://www.twitch.tv/geekioshow
And just in the nick of time as I finished up this blog, here’s Jolly Jack Berkenstock with news about Branch Riders and the Origins Game Fair:
Jolly Jack Berkenstock here to again remind you folks that The Bodhana Group will be at Origins Game Fair this week in Columbus, OH. Our focus of course will be revealing Branch Riders to the Origins crowd for the first time and recruiting as many Branch Riders as we can to the Nexus! We will be selling print copies of the Core Rulebook, Condition Cards and Exposure trackers – all a Branch Rider needs to start battling the Blight! We will also be selling sets of our branch Riders themed minis – only available through Bodhana!
We will also be selling copies of Wizards, Warriors and Wellness, in both RPG and Board game varieties and discuss our programs and mission. Come share your story of how gaming has helped you. To help us further fundraise, we will be offering many other products to help raise money for our goals including ducks, t-shirts, and our new line of dice motivational techniques from punishment to reward! Anything from electric chairts and acid barrels to flamingo floaties, otters and therapist couches.
Please help us celebrate our launch at Origins by spreading the word, visiting us at Booth 1502! And while you are there also visit our booth partner StickerDoodle Games and designer Gene Koo as he showcases his game Bonsai Dairy!
Remember team… Eight Realms… One Mission!
If you missed the reveal during the Curseborne Covenant panel during the Onyx Path Virtual Con, here’s a graphic treatment for the logo:
A heads-up that I’m out next Monday, so the Delightful Dixie will be writing and compiling the MMN Blog next week! Thanks for filling in, Dixie, and please everybody: play nice while I’m out!
After all, at the end of the day and inna final analysus, we are all here in order to enjoy our:
Many Worlds… One Path!
Blurbs!
Crowdfunding!
LAST DAYS On BackerKit: Exalted Essence Storyteller’s Guide! Over 300% Funded!
Follow this link to join over 920 backers!
https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/56e7c5a3-11a9-4eba-8c46-a4c306b51e57/landing
Onyx Path Media!
Check out our attached media schedule for the videos on our Twitch channel this week!
On today’s Onyx Path News, Matthew goes all the way into the Danger Zone and the final days of the Exalted: Essence Storyteller’s Guide crowdfunder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1fNeA2wewU
And Matthew continues with his taboo subjects in RPGs with the lovely topic of racism: https://youtu.be/W9t5t6WZCGU
Tales of Pantheons continues their excellent Scion actual play right here, so do check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwH28-9I-qI
Virtual Tabletop!
Check it out now! The Scion Demiplane Nexus! Click here for Early Access:
Campaigns for Scion Nexus went live today as well. This blog post explains how Campaigns work on Demiplane:
https://www.demiplane.com/blog/campaigns-have-arrived
Scion Demigod Available on Roll20 NOW!
The Scion: Origin and Scion Hero Compendiums are now available on Roll20!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/publisher/1716/onyx-path-publishing
The first of our official Scion sheets designed for Foundry VTT are now available! https://foundryvtt.co
They Came From Beneath the Sea! on Roll20 VTT!
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/22308/they-came-from-beneath-the-sea
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!
Select Chronicles of Darkness Screens and Monarchies of Mau books,
screens, and dice 50% off at Studio 2:
https://studio2publishing.com/collections/onx-onyx-path-publishing
Some more deluxe books have popped up on Studio 2, with more on the way.
https://studio2publishing.com/collections/onx-onyx-path-publishing
As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles in PDF and PoD versions at DriveThruRPG.com!
We have a couple of Trinity Anima PDFs in the Cyberpunk Sale at DTRPG:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/4261/onyx-path-publishing?promo=1000760
And we also have a PDF in each of the two Pride bundles at DTRPG:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/featured_promotions?promotion_id=RPG_26_TGOI
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).
On Sale This Week!
Not sure how to get started with Scion: God? Here’s a divine Jumpstart that could be the answer to your prayers! In ideal PDF and PoD forms this Weds on DTRPG!
On Sale Last Week!
Now available in both PDF and bullet-resistant physical book PoD versions! Get to duh DTRPG site!
Conventions!
Here’s where you can find out more info on physical and virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with!
Origins Game Fair, June 17th – 21st (We’ll be in the Studio 2 booth)
Anime Midwest, July 3rd – 5th (running demos and maybe a panel)
Gen Con, July 30th – August 2nd (Studio 2 will have our books and more)
Project Status Updates!
Our full list of projects will be available monthly on our blog! Check out May’s full list report here: https://theonyxpath.com/release-roundup-may-2026/
DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY!
Here are the projects that moved to the next stage of production:
Final Draft
Storypath – SPU Tasty Bit (July 2026) Revenant Farmer Story Seed
- Another Tasty Bit focusing on one of the settings in the back of the Storypath Ultra Core Rulebook. This one is a story seed, but also contains a great example of how to scale combat as needed.
Exalted – Liminals
- Liminals, recently announced at Onyx Path Con, is now heading off to final drafts!
Development
Curseborne – Curseborne: Covenant
- More conspiracies, you say? Well this comes from the Razors of Mercy: The world is sick, and you’re one of the symptoms. All of Creation is diseased, and each of us is a tumor, inflicting pain and sucking away vitality. So why try to make things “better?” It’s kinder to ease the pain by hurrying the ending. And if we have to hurt a few people like you along the way to help put reality out of its misery, then that’s a small price to pay.
Manuscript Approval
Curseborne – Blood on the Dance Floor (Jumpstart from Player’s Guide KS)
- Our second Curseborne Jumpstart (not the one we just crowdfunded, but the one that was a stretch goal for the Curseborne Player’s Guide) is now ready to be looked over for approval!
ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!
In Art Direction
- Ex3 Infernals – I swear I will get that over to you today Eddy.
- Curseborne PG – Getting splats and the remaining halfs AD’d out. 75% of it is contracted.
- Curseborne Covenant – Getting some more art in for KS… cover situation is good, last full on the way, last of the halfs in the works.
- Curseborne Compact Edition -If I don’t have my art for MK or Essence PG in soon, this is my next quick project.
- Monster Kingdoms – With Gong… should be all done by mid July.
- Ex Essence STG (BK) – It’s a goin! At least until Thurs!
Layout Queue
- At The Gates – Working on the Magic chapter and using the styles Danielle came up with for the stat blocks… very nice.
- TC Aeon Tasty Bit Omnibus #2
- Izzy Curseborne Novella
- Curseborne Screen – Gotta get back to the printer with specifics on the screen…which means i gotta dig through a lot of emails from 2024.
- ATG Bookmarks
Proofing Queue
- Curseborne Community Content Stuff
- Making of Curseborne
- Pugmire 2e Unleashed – Working on second proof.
At Press
- They Came From the RPG Antho – Shipping from printer to fulfillment shippers.
- Curseborne – Reviewing printer quote stuff. Now we navigate the murky waters of getting books and the peripheral stuff printed up.
- Ex3 Alchemicals – Awaiting errata….
- Branch Riders Facilitator’s Guide – PoD proofs ordered.
- Curseborne Jumpstart – Pod Prep… off track due to my left arm shenanigans.
- TCF Cyclops Cave Jumpstart – Prepping Advance PDF.
- Scion God Jumpstart – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Weds on DTRPG!
Today’s Reason to Celebrate!
On this date in 1977: after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, the first democratic elections take place in Spain. In related news today, all news services (except FOX) report that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.