What Day Is This…Tuesday? What Happened to Monday?

Monday Meeting

Wow, yesterday really was a blur. Mostly because the last three days before that were devoted to getting the Deluxe Werewolf the Apocalypse Twentieth Anniversary Edition shipping spreadsheets ready for the three shippers we hope can provide excellent service for all of our backers in the US and around the world. Without costing us twice what we were originally quoted over a year ago when I specced out the Deluxe W20 Kickstarter. Which would really wreck the whole “Stretch Goals get paid for out of the extra money” idea, and could make the whole KS campaign unprofitable. Which it really has to be if we want to keep on making all these great games and books.

So yes, shipping is that big of a danger to our well-being if it’s not really anticipated and then controlled. Which means I was staring at a lot of spreadsheets- I get one for each KS Reward Tier- and over 270 address changes that needed to be input manually. Those changes took Friday through to dinner Saturday (I was stopping for meals) but I just kept rolling through the weekend after that to then bring all the various corrected sheets into formats the shippers could easily read. This is definitely not the fun part of Onyx Path (nor is it anything I ever had training in, just what I’ve learned over the years), but it has to get done. Also during that time, I was making tweaks to the Demon: The Descent Prestige Edition Kickstarter page, which should be over at KS for approval by the time you read this.

And then, after posting this blog, I’ll be downloading all the Deluxe Hunters Hunted 2 spreadsheets from that KS, and inputting those address changes, and compiling those shipping sheets. Not really thrilled that these two ship-outs are timing out to land on top of each other, but I am talking to our shippers about whether they could send those backers who backed both projects their rewards together.

These two KS ship-outs, as well as the Demon KS, are part of the breaking log-jam I mentioned last week, and you’ll note a few of the projects below are also moving apace, but the biggie for us is the move of the White Wolf Forums to our forums here at Onyx Path Publishing. We think this is a great thing for everybody- the community gets a site that has new features and a team dedicated to evolving the forums even further, the fantastically dedicated and tireless WW Forum Mods who have come over to moderate our forums and who now have up to date moderation tools, Onyx Path gets even more of a connection with the WW community, and CCP can be sure that the WW forum community is going to be well taken care of without them having to pull manpower away from EVE or the WoD MMO.

But, I’ll admit that I do have a bit of mixed feelings, too. The WW Forums were such a part of WW‘s development as a company and the first real exposure most of us old-timers had to the nascent power of the internet. I hired guys based on their comments and analyses on the forums (and almost didn’t hire Holden for Exalted because he had been such a brat in his posts). We learned how nothing posted ever really goes away, and how different personae appeal to different folks, like Justin’s acerbic “tough guy” or Ethan’s reasonable but firm “good guy”. And now our journey as a community continues down the Onyx Path. I think, and hope, that this signals the start of even more dynamic discussions, revealing write-ups, and awesome attempts at anger management. 🙂

It was, in fact, nostalgia that Eddy and I talked about on Monday besides the business stuff of approvals from CCP. As V20 Developer, he has noticed that for a lot of fans their fondness (or fiery, white-hot, hatred) for a given product, or chapter, or piece of art, or paragraph, or rules snippet, is more about what is remembered and not necessary what’s actually there. Which we all do, really. As an avid nostalgia TV watcher, I can tell you that most of X-Files is not as good as I remember (although there are absolutely stunning episodes), and that Gilligan’s Island is nowhere near as stupid as my teenage self considered it (maybe because Gilligan looks like a genius compared to the average reality TV cast member). But Ultraman is still cool.

So when we work on a book steeped in the lore of over twenty years of reading and playing, it isn’t always the best direction to look at those earlier books so much as to get a feel for what players and fans remember of that project. Our Open Dev Process has been great for letting us hear how and what the community feels about any given aspect of a project. At the same time, just pandering to that nostalgia- whether accurate or not- doesn’t let us grow creatively either, and can result in us staying away from potentially cool projects that grow the setting and are valuable to the whole fan-base.

Case in point: I just got Eddy’s pitch for Guide to the Tal’Mahe’Ra, a Sect book for the Black Hand. For years we heard how Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand was our shark-jumping book, and how it skewed EVERYTHING away from the real WoD. But then, maybe just to be contrary, Justin reread it and actually… liked parts of it. Enough to pitch it to me a year or two ago, and Eddy has picked up that ball and has re-pitched it for 2015. So I think we have to appreciate and enjoy the nostalgia folks have for our past, but not let it freeze us into creative immobility.

Projects- Some Not Immobile:

– Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle (VtR) One more piece of art coming in, cover art finalizing, in Layout. Here’s a visual teaser though: http://theonyxpath.com/mirthful-mikes-old-time-art-blog-blood-smoke/

– Mummy the Curse – Leaving these notes up for one more week, in case backers missed the last Update on what to do: Deluxe and Screen: Books and Screens are all shipped out- if you backed and did not get yours yet, please contact me via that little button next to my picture on the KS site. The MtC Ready Made Characters Pack PDF has been sent out to backers- we’re gathering comments on the PDF- like all Onyx Path backer rewards from Stretch Goals, this will later be available in PDF and PoD formats on DTRPG. Cursed Necropolis DC is being finished up by the writers.

– Exalted 3rd Edition: While John hunkers down to rewrite the Charms chapter he is also changing some of the ways he’s been doing these to enable more to get finished, the rest of the team is working on a couple of EX3 chapters that continue to be finalized for Editing: Thrown is getting wrapped up. Big effort on Chapter One: The Exalted and almost done. Last bits of Chapter 4: Traits, so that goes to Editing. Both EX3 novels as well as Zub’s EX3 Comic are in progress, Zub’s script is done and cover elements are up for review, and the EX3 Music Suites are being scoped out. Just FYI, John had to return to the doctor today for more tests as his neck is still hurting.

– V20 Hunters Hunted 2: Deluxe is done being printed, and I’m assembling shipping files as above. HH2 Fiction Anthology text is in editing.

– V20 Anarchs Unbound is in layout and we are still putting the pieces together for its KS, but that’s been delayed until after the Demon KS (see above).

– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: Regular Deluxe W20 and Screen is getting ready for shipping- see above. The Heavy Metal Deluxe W20 prototype was approved and they are slowly assembling and binding the books by hand. Mike Lee is submitting chapters of the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel to Bill for dev review. Bill has the W20 Anthology stories in layout. Jess Hartley has submitted the White Howlers Tribe Book to Stew Wilson for development notes, and the W20 Cookbook is done in editing and back with Stew for review- just FYI: Stew is out at an almost 2 week long conference for his day job, so progress on all these items has been slowed.

– Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has Phil is wrapping up the last sections of the book. Check out our continuing M20 art blog by Mirthful Mike Chaney: http://theonyxpath.com/mirthful-mikes-art-blog-mage-20th-anniversary-preview-3/

– W20 Changing Breeds Sent out the Kickstarter backer PDF in the month we estimated delivery, as well as links for the wallpapers and classic WtA PDFs. We will gather those comments and fixes once Stew gets back from his conference. The Changing Breeds Fiction Anthology is being contracted by developer Jess Hartley.

– W20 Rage Across the World: In layout. The PDF will go to Deluxe W20 backers first as an appreciative gift for their patience, and then up on DTRPG.

– Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) the PDF is live on DTRPG. The PoD files were not approved, so we fixed them and once again they are waiting for approval.

– Conventionbook: Void Engineers (cMtA) is available as a PDF on DTRPG, and like Guildhalls above, it has an errata thread on the forums- let us know if you find anything.

– W20 Book of the Wyrm is being art directed and is layout. Three names: Spencer, Ellis, Rebner.

– V20 Rites of the Blood: is in editing, art finals rolling in.

– Under the Darkening Sky (classic Dark Ages): In editing. Done being art directed.

– Trinity Continuum: We now have a whopping big Aeon outline and a Trinity Continuum Core Book outline and writers are writing. Systems discussions with the Scion devs have been loud and impassioned. There is now a spirit of cooperation and common ground moving towards system ideas being hammered out.

– Scion: Systems discussions with the Trinity devs have been hot and heavy. See above.

– Demon: The Descent: 2nd proof correx are in, and we’ll be submitting to CCP for approval as well as getting the files to an indexing expert. Demon Quickstart PDF is free on DTRPG and the PoD version is Now LIVE. The Demon: the Descent Kickstarter campaign needs one final OK and then we’ll be submitting to KS on Weds.

– Hunter: The Something About Monsters: Writers are writing. Because he was already done with his section, Matt McElroy asked David Hill to help with the development and help bring this book home.

– Book of the Deceived (MtC): First drafts are coming in to CAS, who is red-lining away.

– nWoD: Dark Eras: Writers are writing.

– V20 Dark Ages: Scribes are scribing. Check out the discussion on the WW Forums and these very blogs.

– DtD Players Guide: Flowers Of Hell?: Being written at the end of a corridor blocked by sliding metal doors.

Reason to Drink: Paperwork…