Whippin’ It Up For The Summer

Monday Meeting

The artwork above, from the W20 Book of the Wyrm, is symbolic, but not representational, of what happens in the tabletop RPG biz every year approaching Gen Con. Sure, we started discussing our presence there in January, but now everything starts to get pulled together. And as I mentioned before, this is Onyx Path‘s first time with our own booth, so there are lots of booth set-up and personnel decisions to be made. Because we are really still pretty small, every cost has to be weighed as to just what we are buying. Things that have more than one use- awesome. Things that get our logo and name out into the crowds- awesome.

Months ago, I bought our hotel rooms, and last week the nice foam flooring pieces (black, of course) so our booth is something folks- including us- want to stand in. Over a month ago we started work on the Onyx Path Brochure that we hand out with info on upcoming projects. This afternoon, Mirthful Mike Chaney and I went over other booth needs, like the Onyx logo on dark navy blue table runners that will sit on top of the black fabric we’ll put over the tables Gen Con provides. We also are looking at mini-posters that we can use both to decorate the back wall of the booth (along with our Onyx Path banner sign from last year), and as give-aways to attendees. We have an end-cap booth this year like the DriveThru one we shared last year- right next to the entrance, so that’s pretty cool. We also looked at both paper and canvas shopping bags- prosaic perhaps, but it’s pretty great seeing folks carrying your company logo through the Gen Con throngs.

We’re also working with Gen Con on our panels again this year. I’m hoping that Eddy and I will be able to continue our tradition of semi-witty repartee at our “What’s Up” panels. This year we are doing three: “What’s Up With Classic World of Darkness?“, What’s Up With New World of Darkness?“, and “What’s Up With Onyx Path?” (which will contain discussions of Exalted, Scion, The Trinity Continuum, Scarred Lands, and more). Right now, all three are scheduled for Saturday, but they keep changing the locations, so more details when we are closer to the Con.

I’m also slated for three panels as part of the Industry Guest of Honor thing I’m doing again this year. On Thursday, I’m slated to be on a “Why Art Matters” panel at noon, and then “Return to the Castle of Gender Representation” at 3pm. Both of these panels also feature my Gen Con panel buddy Jon Hodgson, art director at Cubical 7, and we generally have a great time back and forth with the audience. On Friday at 2pm, I’ll be on the “How to Run a Successful RPG Kickstarter” panel, without Jon- but I’ll be thinking of him fondly. Come by if the topics interest you, or if you want to get in on the discussions. Also, if you can’t make it to Gen Con, but have a question you’d like me to put forward for you, just put it into the comments here and I’ll try and work it in if there’s a lull in the audience questions. I’ll share any answers on a Monday Notes blog after the Con.

Talked with Eddy, and he’s got about 14 irons on various fires between job interviews and freelance projects and a couple of ideas he wants to pitch to me. He’ll be talking with CCP Tuesday about a whole bunch of things that have come up other than art and book approvals that we reviewed today, including his attendance at Gen Con, and a couple of ideas for the Con we need CCP to weigh in on before we can talk about them.

Whipping These, Whipping These Good:

– Book of the Deceived (MtC): Post writing development. Writer given a section of the text back for tweaks, and power outage ripped away several hours of dev work that need to be redone.

– Sothis Ascends (MtC): First draft heading into redlines.

– Cursed Necropolis: Rio (MtC): First draft heading into redlines.

– Exalted 3rd Edition: From Holden: “This week has seen a lot of movement on playtest feedback adjustments, both to Phase 3 packet material, and to accumulated issues with the combat Charms– Melee is getting its final-pass (barring anything that blows up badly at the last second) revisions at the moment. Evocation development is proceeding quickly, and the rest of the Panoply chapter has been reviewed and finalized. One martial arts style has been heavily revised due to changes in dual wielding.”

Zub’s EX3 Comic: PDF and physical copy PoD and PDF/PoD combo version on sale at DriveThruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128873/Exalted-Tale-of-the-Visiting-Flare. Both EX3 novels are being worked on, and notes went back on Matt Forbeck’s synopsis. The EX3 Music Suites are at a standstill right now until our composer gets through his full time job commitments.

– V20 Hunters Hunted 2: European shipper is shipping the remaining packages to Europe this week- according to the list from the shipper, this is less than a dozen packages.



– V20 Anarchs Unbound : Reward and Add-on PDFs went out last weekend. Planning on sending the links for the backer discounted PoDs, and then it’ll go live on DTRPG in PDF, ePub, PoD and PDF/PoD combos. Getting printer quotes finalized for Deluxe version.

– V20 Rites of the Blood: layout is rolling along for it. Discussing this with Eddy and we think we’ll get this out ASAP without further delay as we try to arrange a Kickstarter for it. More KS thoughts next week.

– V20 Dark Ages: Scribes are scribing 2nd Drafts and some 3rd Drafts. David Hill has delivered some art notes. Talking about the art for this continues this week, particularly the full page pieces.

– V20: Ghouls: In redlines.

– V20 Red List: In final draft stage. There may be a Dev blog coming for this this week, or that effort may go towards finishing it for editing.

– The Making of the Art of Children of the Revolution: Out to backers who pledged for it. Creating PoD files to go with PDF for sale on DTRPG.

– V20 Blood Diaries (Bloody Missive Collections) of the Clans: Writing.

– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: European shipper is shipping the remaining packages to Europe this week- according to the list from the shipper, this is less than a dozen packages. All Heavy Metal Deluxe W20 backers have been contacted via KS for address confirmation- if you didn’t get the message or still haven’t replied- run to your computer right now and get back to me through the “Contact Me” button under my photo on the W20 KS site. Mike Lee plans to deliver several new chapters this week of the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel for Bill to review. The White Howlers Tribe Book is in layout approval, and is being scripted by Bill Bridges so that John Bridges can get started on the art. W20 Wyld West: I will be ordering a second set of PoD proofs to account for cover corrections.

– W20 Changing Breeds The Deluxes are ready to go to the shipper- I’m waiting for a new quotes as I asked for an upgrade to the shipping materials. The Changing Breeds Fiction Anthology: is live on DTRPG. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/130126/Songs-of-the-Sun-and-Moon-the-Changing-Breeds-Anthology

– W20 Book of the Wyrm- We’re only half-way through and still having a lot of fun with the Pentex Board Nominees posting their schemes and campaign platforms, and have already passed several Stretch Goals including the creation of a Pentex Employee Indoctrination Manual including a section on Magadon, a Wyrm KS t-shirt discount, and added Fallen Changing Breeds to the book itself- said topic of extra text being chosen by the backers themselves.

– W20: The Umbra: In post-second draft development.

– Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition- Satyr Phil has handed all the text off to Bill. Bill is starting his “second set of eyes” developer’s pass on Tuesday. The Character Pack book and the “How Do You DO That?” book would be next on our agenda.

– Mage 20 Quickstart: Printed and shipped for Free RPG Day on Saturday, June 21st. Go to your friendly local RPG store and ask for it- if they will have it, return, return, return on that date and get it. Buy other things at the store because they gave you the M20 QS. Go…gooooo…

– Trinity Continuum: System Doc being assembled by Joltin’ Joe Carriker. He says system development is really hard and apologizes for the delay. The first new piece of art in YEARS has been commissioned. Nothing to see here, yet, move along.

– Scion: Waiting or sketches for the Scion: Origins cover. New character piece came in last week. Sweet! Who is this character, Joe? He’s not tellin’ yet.

– Demon: The Descent: Demon Seed Collection is in post-writing development. DtD Seattle is in editing and art notes going out to artists. Heirs to Hell is almost done in layout. Demon Translation Guide is being written. The Demon Fiction Anthology + Interfaces is in redlines

– DtD Players Guide: Flowers Of Hell: Is approved by CCP, but we are still missing the full page art. Mirthful Mike is expecting it in this week as inking was being done last week…

– Hunter: Mortal Remains: The PDF and physical copy PoD and PDF/PoD combo are on sale at DTRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/129193/Hunter-Mortal-Remains

– nWoD: Dark Eras: All but one 2nd draft is in, and Black Hat Matt expects to be able to run a focused dev pass on that to get it to editing too.

– WtF: The Idigam Chronicle: In redlines. Stew Wilson is doing a remarkably regular Friday blog that focuses on specific topics for the book- lots of good discussion happening right now: http://theonyxpath.com/category/projects/werewolftheforsaken/

– GtSE: Geist Ready Made Characters: In redlines.

Reason to Drink: Great father/son bonding on Game of Thrones last night. Happy holiday, dads!