It’s True, Detectives.

Monday Meeting

So today I had a lunch meeting with Eddy that started with us discovering that the last week’s worth of approvals had been sent, automatically, to his CCP email address. Said address being of the deactivated kind, and thus not working to get the art and books and t-shirt designs into the approval queue, this left us plenty of time to talk about True Detective. Finally. I waited a couple of months for this discussion, so bear with me as I indulge in the sort of media analysis Eddy and I have enjoyed for the last bunch of years.

Now, part of why this is interesting for us is exactly the ways we respectively viewed the show. I watched, eagerly, each week and caught rebroadcasts during the week (sometimes just to watch that gorgeous opening credits sequence), while Eddy has only just been able to binge watch in a couple of sittings. I followed the narrative as discrete chunks of the story in the time-honored weekly episode style, and Eddy effectively watched the entire story episode after episode. And it is absolutely vital to look at this limited series as having taken advantage of being only 8 episodes- the writing is spare and every single scene propels Rust and Marty along the storyline. Also, structurally, the way the “starting past”, the “near past”, and the “interview present” are woven together, and how much time each time period gets per episode, seems very tightly plotted to maintain some mysteries, reveal some, and uncover new ones. Just as one mystery in one time-line approaches getting cliched or too familiar, we’re whisked into another timeline. In fact, the moment that the narrative is no longer about those three time-zones but actually is about the characters’ Now is actually pretty exhilarating as you realize how much of those interwoven pasts you’ve been watching.

But I digress. My point above was actually about the changing way we’re absorbing our entertainment- specifically TV watching in this case- and how creative teams can take advantage of that rather than founder against it. Eddy and I likened it to the difference between picking up a monthly comic book, or the trade collection. That particular shift in purchasing of comics brought on a fair number of changes to the way comics were created and sold. (Which is not the only similarity True Detective has to comics- it also plays around with the dialogue not matching the visual narrative in order to give us a truthier truth than just the straight up word&action could. Alan Moore is one of the great masters of this technique in comics over the years, and in Watchmen in particular.) Recently, we’ve been seeing a lot of experiments in how to incorporate our changing viewing habits into schedules, formats, delivery methods, yet True Detectives is actually very old fashioned storytelling, but structured and in a format that allows it to really shine.

But comics. And television. Surely our conversation didn’t drift into talking about two very differently handled shows both existing in comic-book universes that both took some serious chances in order to deliver those settings to the modern TV audience? Actually, yeah- we totally geeked out on Arrow and Agents of Shield.

While we’re fully aware of the different styles of the shows and the internet meme of DC making great TV and Marvel making great movies, what I was interested in discussing was how each show mutated over the course of their first seasons- and why they took a risk of alienating viewers. SPOILERS AHEAD, TOOT, TOOT!!! Eddy had just finished Arrow S1, so he watched how they took a vigilante killer, essentially, and evolved him until he was ready in S2 to act heroic. Our feeling was that this was seen as a necessary story arc in order to move from the dark Nolan Batman movie setting to something that “makes sense” when combining the comic character with TV. So to that extent, they were concerned mostly with the needs of the main character’s development (and just possibly the appeal of the lighter touch of the CW’s programming). Here the chance they take is that viewers actually tuned in to see Ollie kill with arrows, and that they might stop watching with tamer hero decisions. So far, it seems like having nastier killer type villains show up has helped the transition, as well.

And then there’s Agents of Shield. MORE SPOILERS AHEAD! DING, DING!!! My question to Eddy was: is it worth a huge revelation that changes the nature of the show in a season, if there is an audience response that finds the earlier “non-changed” episodes dull? Is the first year of AoS like a graphic novel, and actually well-suited to how we watch shows now because with that revelation explosion we will re-stream and re-evaluate the show and are more engaged at the end of S1? Or is it poorly serving the creative team to have a less interesting premise at the beginning? To do what they did was pretty ballsy, but does it make a good show? And to flip the question, will Arrow‘s slower episode to episode evolution play well when it’s binge watched?

Which brings us to what we do. Is there a parallel between these changing entertainment habits and the tabletop RPG biz? Are there changes to how we tabletop fans consume our RPG worlds that Onyx Path can apply to better everyone’s experiences? Or are tabletop RPGs not something that can or should evolve? “In my day, I got my RPG fun out of a paper book, and we liked it that way! And by gum, I still do!” But as I’ve talked about previously, we at Onyx Path are actually doing some things to better match up with how folks are enjoying their tabletop RPGs. We have recently created an ePub version of Anarchs Unbound for V20 that is designed to be more what a gamer needs on a hand-held device- the Deluxe Anarchs Unbound Kickstarter backers already got a glimpse of the ePub version, but it’ll soon be available for everyone at DriveThruRPG.

We’ve also looked at more ways to get the word out about what we are doing at Onyx in the ways our community is getting its news. For example, here’s a clip of a KS backer opening his W20 Heavy Metal Edition for the first time from Onyx Path‘s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZXCLfxN1e0

And since we can pretty clearly see that Kickstarter is one of those new ways people are enjoying our hobby, we’ve got some interesting ideas on how to further have fun with KS. Like, keep an eye out for the Deluxe W20 Book of the Wyrm Kickstarter that’s coming up soon- we’re going to give folks a chance to participate in a Pentex Board Meeting using the KS as a way to allow backers to be nominees and possibly get voted onto the Pentex Board by other backers.

As always, we’d love to hear from you in the blog comments with ideas for what else we can be doing along these lines.

A couple of quick things, and then the Updates. First, I mentioned the W20 Heavy Metal Edition is shipping out- but one of the first finished copies was actually grabbed by our printer and entered into the prestigious Gutenberg Awards for Printing Excellence. (Not named after Steve). They were just so proud of what we’d created with the die-cut metal cover and all. Well, we went and won the award for Best Special Printing Project. This was the first time Onyx Path won this award (although I won several for WW over the years), and we’re thrilled that all the crazy hard work between us and the printer was recognized in their industry.

Finally, just a note for all Gen Con attendees: the Onyx Path panels will all be running on Saturday this year. We’re doing three of them, one each for nWoD, cWoD, and then a group one for Exalted, Scion, Trinity and more. It’s the busiest day, so you might want to sign up for them now that event registration is open. I’ll post more specific info on a separate blog later this week.

And at long last, the flat circle that is the Updates:

– Mummy the Curse – Cursed Necropolis DC- Waiting for PoD proof before making the on-sale PDF and PoD versions live on DTRPG.

– Book of the Deceived (MtC): Redlines.

– Exalted 3rd Edition: From Holden: “Craft Charms are grinding along to completion (complex set!). Antagonist drafts are being combined and collated into their final publication form– currently going over the Exalts section with a fine-toothed comb, and enjoying the mock-up Liminal Charms. We’ve also done a revised word count estimate for Arms of the Chosen this week and are considering writers for various assignments on that book.”

Zub’s EX3 Comic: PoD proof looks good, so we should be able to get versions ready to go up on DTRPG for sale this week. Both EX3 novels are being worked on, and I have a notes to get back on Matt Forbeck’s synopsis. Starting to get one of the EX3 Music Suites to a finished state, the Dragon Blooded theme but our composer got caught in a time crunch with another project which is why we haven’t gotten much done lately.

– V20 Hunters Hunted 2: US and most International missing packages have shipped. In daily communication with the European shipper on shipping and getting confirmation that they have started shipping to Europe.



– V20 Anarchs Unbound : Mirthful Mike is putting the last touches on the final PDF, ePub, PoD and then the Deluxe print files.

– V20 Rites of the Blood: is ready for layout, and layout is almost ready for it, waiting on one artist for finals.

– V20 Dark Ages: Scribes are scribing 2nd Drafts. David Hill has delivered some art notes. For the full page art: I had an idea.

– V20: Ghouls: In redlines. There may be a Dev blog coming for this this week.

– V20 Red List: In final draft stage. There may be a Dev blog coming for this this week.

– 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 Bloody Missive Collections of the Clans: Writing.

– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: US and most International missing packages have shipped. In daily communication with the European shipper on shipping and getting confirmation that they have started shipping to Europe. The Heavy Metal Deluxe W20 is done and has started shipping with more expected out this week. See the video link above. Mike Lee promises a whole slew of chapters this week of the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel for Bill to review. The White Howlers Tribe Book is in dev review. W20 Wyld West is waiting for CCP approval.

– W20 Changing Breeds The Deluxes are being finished at press and we are finalizing shipping files. The Changing Breeds Fiction Anthology is in approval at CCP.

– W20 Book of the Wyrm is in layout. This will be the next Kickstarter project in a week or two if everything times out as expected. We think this book should appeal to W20 and W20 Changing Breeds fans alike. Getting this KS together- check out the note above about some of the things we’ll be doing with it.

– W20: The Umbra: In second drafts.

– Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition- Satyr Phil has the last two chapters and two appendices to finish his dev pass on before handing off to Bill. The Character Pack book and the “How Do You DO That?” book would then be what he gets to next.

– Mage 20 Quickstart: Printed and shipped for Free RPG Day.

– Trinity Continuum: System Doc being assembled by Joe Carriker. The first new piece of art in YEARS has been commissioned.

– Scion: Both Scion and the TC above are now moving into active mode for 2014. Contracts and art notes out for the Scion: Origins cover.

– Demon: The Descent: The Demon: Ready Made Characters PDF and PoD versions are for sale on DTRPG. Demon Seed Collection is in redlines. DtD Seattle is in second drafts. Heirs to Hell is in layout and art is being done. Demon Translation Guide is being written. The Demon Fiction Anthology + Interfaces is in redlines

– DtD Players Guide: Flowers Of Hell: Need a couple more pieces of art to arrive and it is ready for CCP approvals.

– Hunter: Mortal Remains: The PDF version is selling like hotcakes (scary hotcakes) on DTRPG and the PoD version is waiting to be proofed. Thanks for all the helpful feedback, early-PDF adopters!

– nWoD: Dark Eras: Second drafts are almost all in.

– WtF: The Idigam Chronicle: All first drafts are in and 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.

– Also: Mage Tradition symbol shirts are now available.

Reason to Drink: Drinking better allows us to understand just what the hell Rust was going on about. My cocktail napkin is a flat circle.