The Curious Cats of Mau crowdfunding campaign on Backerkit is ending in a few days, so let’s jump forward over the pit of spikes and safely to the other side on Thursday! Let’s get some more folks aware of and engaged with this delightful addition to the Realms of Pugmire and we can all soar through the air!

(Unless Backerkit‘s new pledge train feature extends the end out!) (Which then means more spikes? I may lost control of this metaphor.)

The good thing about this, the last MMN blog during the Mau BK crowdfunding campaign, is that we get one more message from Pugmire creator Eddy Webb, and this time it’s about some real value-added features in The Curious Cats of Mau book, itself!:

In all the excitement about the cool updates to the material we’re doing for Curious Cats of Mau, I wanted to mention that it also contains three entire adventures which comprise a loose campaign! Check these bad boys out!

Eventide and Dawn
After the characters halt an attempted murder, they’re hired to find out who hired the assassins and why. As they unravel the mystery, they uncover a conspiracy worming its way into the heart of the monarchies. This is an introductory adventure suitable for level 1 characters.

Enemy or Ally
Ally von Rex has learned that the characters are more than capable of disrupting her plans and that of House Smilodon. The only way to ensure they won’t meddle is to take them out. Little does she realize that by trying to deal with them preemptively, she’s given them a clue to her greater scheme. Now she’s trying to enact her plan before the characters catch up to her, and she’s throwing everything she has in their way to destroy them before she fails in her task. “Enemy or Ally” is an adventure for characters at levels 3-4. 

Forsaken Shadows Gather
When the heroes discover a plot by House Smilodon to corrupt innocent cats and infiltrate a summit where the monarchies plan to discuss how to face the resurgent Unseen threat of the fallen house, the duty to stop the worst from happening falls upon them. This is a challenging and dangerous adventure, meant for level 5-6 characters.

That means that, using absolutely nothing but the book, you have enough material for an entire campaign of about five to eight sessions. With a little work to come up with missions between those (using the books suggestions of helpful story hooks), you can expand that to take the characters from level 1 to level 6 over a dozen sessions or more, and get them ready for even greater adventures at higher level. It’s an entire campaign book of mystery, intrigue, and dangerous demonic adventure!

So, three adventures right there in the book PLUS if we hit our next Stretch Goal it’s for the Curious Cats of Mau Jumpstart: a separate project that will contain a very fast entry into the cat side of the Realms of Pugmire that you can grab and play almost immediately. Here’s what writer Travis Legge has to say about this still-to-be-achieved Stretch Goal:

We’ve announced a new stretch goal at the Curious Cats of Mau BackerKit! This is for a jumpstart that will include the necessary rules to play, pre-made characters, and a ready-to-run scenario. I’ve sent in a pitch for this and Eddy has been kind enough to give a thumbs up to it. I’m REALLY excited about this story and I’d love to work on it, but we need to hit that stretch goal to make it happen!

Please help us get there!

If you haven’t yet backed the Curious Cats of Mau, please consider doing so! If you have already backed it: thank you! Please consider grabbing a Guide Screen add-on or some dice, and please be sure to share the link far and wide over the next couple days! Tag us in your social media posts so we can reshare them and let’s see how many people we can introduce to the Realms of Pugmire! If you missed the Realms of Pugmire crowdfunding campaign you can pick up the corebook as an add-on, which makes this the perfect time for new folks to discover this wonderful setting!

Here’s a video I put up on TikTok today, talking about it. https://www.tiktok.com/@travislegge/video/7347794780132478254

https://www.backerkit.com/…/onyx-path/curious-cats-of-mau

Things That Are Happening/
Notes On How We Sell Our Stuff

In the meeting today we talked about following up on some of the questions folks asked about the release of the Advance PDF for The Hedge for Changeling: The Lost 2e last Wednesday. So I’m going to cover a couple of those questions right after I plug another chance to learn more about The Hedge on this coming Friday’s Onyx Pathcast! Dixie will be interviewing both Meghan Fitzgerald and Lauren Roy about the secrets and creation of the book!

First, we’ve been asked just what it means when we say that this is the last official CtL2e book? Basically, we have no more approved CtL2e books that we are working on, not even in secret. This was the last official CtL2e book approved by Paradox, and so we aren’t able to do more until that changes and we get the go-ahead again. Maybe someday, but that’s not our call to make.

Then, some folks were concerned because they noted a lot of “see pgXX”s in the PDF on DTRPG. Those pgXX references are all OK, expected, and the way we input pgXXs now, today, in 2024. The first release of a PDF for any of our books is accompanied by a link to an errata form – whether a Backer PDF for crowdfunded projects or an Advance PDF for those that are sold on DriveThruRPG.com. That form is so that backers and purchasers can send us any mistakes they might find, if they want to.

We then take that errata, sift through the form to eliminate duplication and changes that aren’t needed, and tweak the manuscripts to fix the salient errors. It’s at that point that the numbers that replace the XXs are entered, because if we entered those numbers earlier and then did the changes we could throw off the page numbers and it would all be a mess.

Those “errata’d” PDFs then are uploaded as the Final PDFs, which should replace your older versions in your DTRPG Library, and we use those files as the start for both the PoD and Traditional printing files.

We’re talking a fair bit about retail stores right now, and I realize that when we got bogged down while switching printers due to Covid, which then led to delays with getting our books to stores, that it may look like we stopped working with retailers. We have not, and now we’re re-energizing that whole arm of our process. Which may have thrown some folks off, and as we don’t actually want anybody confused when they want to buy our stuff, here’s a refresher:

So: Process Review #1: as I noted above, there are two initial kinds of PDFs for our books: the Backer PDFs that crowdfunder backers get as part of their rewards, and Advance PDFs, which purchasers of our PDFs on DTRPG get at first. Both of these types of PDF are tweaked after errata to create the Final PDF. Nobody has to send us any errata, but that is the last phase of the process that folks are likely to be able to contribute thoughts on until the Print on Demand physical book goes on sale with the Final PDF on DTRPG.

For some books – those that weren’t crowdfunded – that’s the last phase of publishing and it’s out there and good to go! But for the crowdfunded books that are then sent to our traditional printer for printing, there are some additional steps.

Process Review #2: So what is traditional printing anyway? Probably a bigger topic than I have room for, but in the specific sense pertaining to how I’m using it right now, it means that we send our files for the books to them set up for either an offset press where the paper unspools off a huge roll or a sheet-fed press where the paper is a stack of – you guessed it – sheets. The pages are run through either kind of press once for each of the colors you want in there, usually four. Sheet-fed allows for a wide variety of paper types, and even offset allows for different kinds of quality, like thickness and whiteness, compared to the more limited choices allowed by PoD printing.

Of course, the downside to all the options and the finer options in color quality and binding is that trad printing is set up to run a lot of books in one batch because they have to test to be sure that color #1 is landing on top of color #2 in the right way and place, and then do it again and again, and can only do that while the press is running and on the already printed pages. Once they get the colors hitting right, they let the press run for all the rest of the pages.

So that’s why it costs a lot less the more copies you are printing: the press is rolling, the paper is shooting out and the color ink is landing, over and over again. If you stop in mid run, the pressmen have to go back to the beginning, clean the press of the rapidly drying ink, etc. and that costs time and money. So ideally it runs until you run out of paper, and then there’s another set up for the next color. Rinse and repeat. PoD is the opposite, where they make a single book, then make another single book, etc. Great for your personal order from DTRPG, but expensive to print a lot of books that way.

If you’re putting books in stores, the goal is to get enough books to do a traditional print run, because of that “economy of scale”. But, traditional printers are wacky and not only are they expecting the publisher to pay for the print run of many books, they want some of that amount before they even start printing. For small companies in the TTRPG space, that upfront cost can be prohibitive. Which is why we’ve tied our trad printing books to our crowdfunding campaigns.

Process Review #3: So the books are done, how do we get our projects out to fans? PDF/PoD we covered already with DTRPG, but now we also have those available in the Roll20 Marketplace along with a growing selection of VTT accessories, sheets, game compendiums, etc.

For our traditionally printed books and screens, we fulfill the crowdfunding campaign first by getting rewards out to backers first, and then into stores. We originally just gave extra copies of our Deluxe books, the 20+ extras we overprinted just to be safe, to Indie Press Revolution to sell, and that evolved into working with both IPR and Studio2 to get our books into stores by doing actual large-scale print runs specifically to have books show up in your Friendly Local Game Store.

Which leads to:

Process Review #4: Who does what? Right, so first, yes we still work with both IPR and Studio2 (and Amazon, but they so much do their own thing that we just let them do what they do). Us mentioning one of them DOES NOT mean we are no longer working with the other unless we say we aren’t. Heck, we could even add sales partners at some point and still be working with Studio2 and IPR! I know, the mind boggles!

Sarcasm aside, it breaks down like this:

IPR sells our books and stuff to stores and the general public.

Studio2 gets our books out to distributors who then sell them to stores, and sells our books to stores themselves. Plus, they have their own store webpage and are glad to sell to the public using that and convention sales. Studio2 is also the crowdfunding fulfillment shipper for our campaigns.

And, seriously, thanks to all of you who know this already and are out there letting other fans know the reality of how we get our projects out to market! You are truly heroes in our minds, as I know your posts haven’t always been heeded by everybody. It’s often a thankless job, so let’s break that: Thank You!

Both Studio2 and IPR run sales all through the year, and here’s a tip you can share with your local store, the store gets both the sale price and their retailer discount, as well! That’s a super deal for a store, as margins in every phase of the TTRPG biz are super-tight – please mention it to them when you’re in one!

Quick sales info: RedBubble is doing a big sale today that includes our shirts and journals and everything! But hurry, I dunno if it’s just today, Monday, or longer!

One more thing it seems like I need to clarify, and that’s what purpose book projects that start out as Stretch Goals from a crowdfunding campaign serve for us at Onyx Path.

1- they come out of a campaign but we do not use them as a part of that campaign. They are extras for the game LINE, not just the game BOOK. They allow us to create just a few more projects for the line than we would have ordinarily.

So in all regards, they are part of the game line’s slate of releases, large or small.

2- Unless you actually upped your pledge without changing reward tiers or adding on Add-Ons, it’s hard to see how anybody pre-paid for a Stretch Goal. For most of them, we’re giving you a PDF, you didn’t have to pay more to get it. It’s one of the features of crowdfunding today, and we love giving our backers that extra something once we have taken the Stretch Goal projects through all the creation steps.

Hope all that stuff helps clear up some confusion and make it easier for y’all to get a hold of the projects you enjoy! If all we did was make our games and then hide them in our houses, it’d be a lot less fun! We need all of you to actually get your hands on our games and your brains into our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

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Blurbs!

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Crowdfunding!:

The Curious Cats of Mau
for Realms of Pugmire

MEOW! We’re in our last few days! And five Stretch Goals (Exclusive Backer T-Shirt, Digital Wallpaper, Redbubble Pet Designs, Cat-specific Guide Screen, and Mobile Wallpaper) achieved already!

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/onyx-path/curious-cats-of-mau

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Onyx Path Media!

This week: Dixie talks with Meghan and Lauren about The Hedge!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue!

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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:

With only three days to go on the Curious Cats of Mau BackerKit campaign, be sure to check out our Rats in the Tavern one-shot run by the talented Travis Legge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qgtx6pjgiw

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=Yn1DLEg12bM

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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

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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/

We have some CofD Screens on discount on 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!

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On Sale This Week!

Many Faced Strangers, the Exalted 3e supplement for Lunars, transforms into both final PDF and physical book PoD forms! Available this Weds on DTRPG!

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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 in June.

Game Night With Onyx Path Publishing at StartPlaying will be the last Friday of every month! Come play some of our games, especially any edition of Realms of Pugmire! (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

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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-2024/embed/#?secret=74hA03HuVL#?secret=7zx6zXjwgN

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY

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

First Draft

Realms of Pugmire – Rumble in Riverwall/The Ghost Town

• Eddy: Now that the system for Realms of Pugmire has survived much playtesting and we’ve built a couple of supplements on it, it’s time to loop back around and start working on the stretch goal adventures. These short stories will be written to each stand alone, or tie into other Pugmire adventures!

Final Draft

The World Below – Enter the Dungeon Jumpstart

• Matthew: I do love an adventure that starts in the thick of battle and this one drops you (literally) through a portal and into a certain kind of hellscape in the depths of the World Below! I can’t wait for you to see it.

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ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

• Ex3 Sidereals – Just awaiting fixes from Gong and DAC… minor ones.
• TCF RPG Anthology – Gonna get the art buy for this done up so we can get things rolling. I’d like to at least have the fulls rolling and the archetype halves in progress. I’m gonna throw as much of this at Leblanc and Luis as humanly possible.
• M20 Faces of Magick – Portraits contracted.
• M20 Victorian Weird Wonders and Revolutionary Magic – Trying to get the fulls in by end of March so we can move forward on it.
• SCION No Gods, No Masters – Already got Skan’s cover sketch in and it looks real nice.
• TC Player’s Guide – Getting the remaining art contracted.
• Pugmire 2e – Sending Notes on over to Navella.
• Curious Cats (KS) – Crowdfunding Continueth until Thursday!
• At The Gates  – Awaiting Danielle feedback on DAC art.
• Branch Riders – Getting that rolling with Gong this week.

In Layout

• Ex Essence Charm Cards
• DTR Clade Companion – Getting files over to Pauline.
• M20 Victorian Jumpstart 
• Squeaks in the Deep Companion
• Classified and Cyclops Screens – Working on those today.
• Classified and Cyclops Wallpapers – Also working on those today.
• Classified KS Shirt – Yeah… gonna knock that out today as well.
• CofD Contagion Chronicles RMCs
• Squeaks in the Deep Companion – Getting files over to Travis.
• Ex Essence Jumpstart
• At The Gates Ashcan – With Dixie.

Proofing

• TC Aether – Errata input then onto indexing.
• Scion God – Errata input and then onto indexing.
• Ex 3 Exigents – PgXXing.

Indexing

At Press

• Reprints:
• Scion Origin – Should see press proofs in the next week or so.
• TC Core – Files uploaded to AP.
• TC Aeon – Getting this done and uploaded is my priority this week.
  
• Exalted Essence – Printing.
• Ex Essence Screen – At Studio 2.
• Ex3 Exigents – Indexing.
• TC Anima Terra Surge Screen
• TC Anima
• M20 Lore of the Traditions – Printing.
• They Came From CLASSIFIED! – PoD files uploaded and prepping printer files.
• They Came From the Cyclops Cave! – PoD proofs ordered and prepping printer files.
• TCF Classified and Cyclops Cards – PoD proofs ordered.
• CtL 2e The Hedge – Errata ends on Wednesday.
• Ex3 Many-Faced Strangers – PDF and physical book PoD versions on sale Weds on DTRPG!

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Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 19th, it will be 12 years since Onyx Path published its first Onyx Path branded project: the Cavaliers of Mars Quickstart! Thanks to all of you who have supported our efforts all these years – and to many more!