The Dog Days of August…Sorta. [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

As Gen Con looms ever closer and most of us at Onyx Path and a really big chunk of our tremendous freelancers look at spending a week getting to talk face to face with each other and all of you attending in Indianapolis, we’re also looking at a bunch of things that are happenin’ here at Onyx Path central. As you might have guessed from the photo, Pugmire has started shipping to backers of its Kickstarter. The photo is especially nice because it shows pretty much all of the physical rewards in one shot! Besides being great for the Pugmire backers, this is also pretty big news for Onyx Path publishing as a whole. This is our first totally new game line we’ve taken from idea to the published work. To have it turn out so well, and to have so much of a Pugmire community already playing and reading…well, that’s immensely gratifying and bodes well for our future projects. And if we are doing well in general, that means that the chance of us producing more projects for your favorite game lines goes up, too. Additionally, as I mentioned last week, Pugmire will be something folks will start seeing in their Friendly Local Game Stores before the end of the year, and that is an experiment that could open up a lot of possibilities.

You might note below in the project progress report section of the BLURBS!, that Deviant: The Renegades is now officially in the First Draft stage of writing. (That’s the logo and CofD-style skull above here).

Deviant has been a long time getting to this stage, and someday perhaps Dapper Dave Brookshaw will talk more about the ups and downs of getting it here, but suffice to say that the Dapper One busted his hump to pin down as many parts of the setting and rules as he could and really prep this game to be something special.

As a refresher, here’s the gist: you’re a human being who was remade by a shadowy organization (could be one madman, could be a vast international cabal), with all manner of powers … which are linked to mutations and curses. The bad stuff.

Deviants range from wild and uncontrollable psychics to savage human-animal hybrids to abominable mixes of man and machine to creations of surgical horror. You’re out for revenge against the powers that created you… and they’ve got no idea how hard you’re gonna hit them.

Here’s the text we’ve used before:

You woke up…different. Someone changed you; on a slab, an operating table, an altar. By luck or by fate, you escaped. Hunted by the ones who made you, they hold all the cards. Except one thing, what they don’t know is that a fire burns within you because what they did wasn’t right. What they don’t know is that YOU’RE hunting THEM. Deviant presents a game where the victims of experiments band together to bring down the monolithic organizations that twisted and warped them.

We are in the last week of the Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2 Kickstarter, and we’d love to get the next Dark Era added to the book before the fabled 48 hour warning! With the Eras we have, that will be expanded by another line, and the ones we expect to add from backer Reward Tiers, this is already set to be a sweet book. But getting some Eras in after the 48 hour scramble would mean a sweet book and a Dark Eras 2 Companion book, and that would really add to the fun. So tell your friends, tell perfect strangers, just let folks know that the more backers we get the better the chance is for more Dark Eras!

You also might have noticed, if you’re the noticin’ type, that pretty much all of our Exalted 3rd projects have started moving forward these last few months. Some of that is certainly the very hard and dedicated work of our new developers, Eric Minton and Robert Vance, and some is due to the same sort of changes to our infrastructure I’ve remarked on all this year. We just had a great Skype conference with our EX3 devs, and they had many ideas they pitched for further ways to develop the line. Some totally new projects and some ideas for projects requested by our always exciting Exalted community. The trick for us is to balance what experienced Exalted players need/want, what we need to do to bring newcomers into Exalted, and what kind of a schedule we can put together that does both of those things while not letting the “big books” take too long to see the light of day. Yes, we have always had a lot on our plates, and those plates are not only full, but we are juggling them as fast as we can! And by juggling, I really mean trying to deliver the very best quality projects while still respecting the situations our creators go through in their lives as they are trying to create that high quality. Like I mentioned last week; there’s also another balancing act of getting our projects into the best venues for not only all of you to buy them, but also so that our community will grow, while not letting Onyx get caught in a bad deal. The making of art and entertainment is integral to what we do, but nothing will get published if we make too many bad and unprofitable deals. Lots of those spinning plates. You’ll hear more about that, and new projects, and all sort of stuff at and during Gen Con as we announce things, reveal this year’s brochure, and generally make pests of ourselves all over social media.

And now you can get these books in the Barnes and Noble Nook store too!

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/ You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens! ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM: This Wednesday we will be adding new Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras shirts to our RedBubble store! Now you can support your favorite game lines in their historical versions! Satyr Phil Brucato beckons you once more into the Annex of Mage: The Ascension with this 300 page follow-up to M20. The M20 Book of Secrets is NOW on sale in PDF and PoD versions at DTRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/214133/M20-Book-of-Secrets More Than Magick For mages who think they have everything, this trove of treasures expands upon the wealth of material presented throughout Mage: The Ascension’s 20th Anniversary Edition. New Traits, new rules, essays, answers, information… the Secrets are revealed within. Enter the Annex Building upon the M20 core rulebook, this Book of Secrets features updated rules and setting material, such as… An M20 FAQ Genres & Resources

Matters of Focus Justice & Influence

New Abilities, Archetypes, Merits & Flaws

Expanded Rules for Combat, Resonance, Wonders, Computer Systems, and More This Ascension Continues…

Chomping it’s way to you comes the Dagger of Spiragos adventure PDF for Scarred Lands! This second in the Spiragos trilogy for levels 4-6 is now in both 5e and Pathfinder PDF versions on DriveThruRPG.com! PF: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/211004/Dagger-of-Spiragos-Pathfinder 5e: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/211012/Dagger-of-Spiragos-5e

The Titans’ Relics Must Be Destroyed!

Artifacts from the fallen titan Spiragos have been recovered, and forces are at work that would see them used for ill. The Dagger of Spiragos and the Ring of Spiragos are now in the player characters’ hands — and they must do what they can to rid Scarn of the foul relics of the titans, whatever the cost!

What Came Before

Dagger of Spiragos is a sequel to the 2014 Gen Con Scarred Lands Special Preview adventure, Gauntlet of Spiragos (available as a free download on DriveThruRPG. com and RPGnow.com). It is also the second adventure in the Spiragos Saga, with Ring of Spiragos, the dramatic finale, as the third and culminating title.

In Gauntlet of Spiragos, the PCs traveled to the legendary Chasm of Flies, where they discovered a tribe of spider-eye goblins who possessed relics of their fallen master, Spiragos. Now, with those items in hand, the PCs travel to the city of Fangsfall, where they must seek aid in destroying the foul objects.

But others wish to possess these items, too,

Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion PDF and physical book PoD versions are going on sale Wednesday on DriveThruRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/211504/V20-Dark-Ages-Companion Travel the long roads and deep seas in search of power and experience danger, or tackle the wilderness to hunt monsters and face death. Settlements large and small dot the black expanse with the promise of sanctuary, life, and community. These bastions of civilization present cold comfort, when playing host to vampire warlords and sadistic Cainite faiths. Whether led by a Prince, a coordinated belief, or hounded by monsters from without and within — no domain is truly the same as another. Dark Ages Companion includes: • Domains scattered across the world, from small fiefdoms to massive cities. Bath, Bjarkarey, Constantinople, Rome, Mogadishu, and Mangaluru each receive coverage. • Apocrypha including plot hooks, new Paths, and mysteries to explore in your games. • A how-to guide on building a domain within your chronicle, including events and servants necessary to make a domain as functional or dysfunctional as you wish. • A study on warfare in the Dark Ages period, so combat in your chronicles can gain authenticity and lethality. From the Primordial to your Chronicles, Beast‘s Building a Legend has risen in PDF and PoD formats on DTRPG.com!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/212252/Beast-Building-a-Legend

CREATING A CHRONICLE IS REWARDING…

…so why should the Storyteller have all the fun?

The whole troupe should get in on the action, making for a chronicle that reflects the preferences and predilections of all the players.

Building a Legend is a guide for doing exactly that — making a cohesive chronicle, starting with character creation, for Beast: The Primordial. It includes advice on creating Storyteller characters, folding in real world history, and populating the Primordial Dream.

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina (Vampire: The Requiem Elizabethan London 1593). We have shared the world with monsters for millennia. In Elizabeth’s London, vampires built their own empire brick by bloody brick while Elizabeth I cemented her grip on newly Protestant England. Carefully balancing demands from those with Catholic and Lutheran sympathies, she forged a police state. Yet London emerged as a thriving cultural center, and from the crucible emerged a Kindred society forever changed.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/178595/Dark-Eras-Requiem-for-Regina-Vampire-the-Requiem-Changeling-the-Lost

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG!

What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/214130/Thousand-Years-of-Night

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up.

Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing.

There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: To The Strongest (Mage Death of Alexander 330-320 BCE). In the rise and fall of Alexander the Great’s Empire, armies marched and cultures clashed. In the birth pangs of Hellenistic civilization, Awakened sorcerers all over the ancient world met, fought, and joined together. In the chaos of Alexander’s assassination and the wars that followed, Cults became Orders amid conflicts still burning in the present day.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/208162/Dark-Eras-To-the-Strongest-Mage-the-Awakening

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG!

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Three Kingdoms of Darkness (Changeling and Geist China 220-280). Famine weakens the empire, and war splits it apart. It is an age of ambition and strife, where the hungry dead walk the earth in great numbers, and the Lost must rely on their own kingdoms. Warlords and commoners, ghost-speakers and orphans — who truly serves the Mandate of Heaven? On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/211949/Dark-Eras-Three-Kingdoms-of-Darkness-Changeling-the-Lost-Geist-the-SinEaters

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Wolf and the Raven (Werewolf and Geist Vikings 700-1100). The Viking expansion across Europe comes at a pivotal time in history, as new faiths rose to challenge the old and new ways threatened to sweep ancient tradition aside. The Forsaken sail with raiders and explorers, seeking new lands to claim and new spirits to conquer, while Sin-Eaters walk the battlefields bringing the honored dead to their final rewards. The world grows larger and more dangerous by the day, but there are great rewards for those brave enough to fight for them.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/210621/Dark-Eras-The-Wolf-and-the-Raven-Werewolf-the-Forsaken-Geist-the-SinEaters