And We Shall Know No Fear [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

Yes, we are back from a multi-convention weekend! That’s Eddy Webb and I, center to right, with a bunch of crazy maniacs (ie: game designers) at our Game Design Panel at Save Against Fear in Harrisburg. As always, it was a fantastic panel with questions ranging from when to alter an existing design or to go off on your own with something new, all the way to how to deal with Imposter Syndrome.

Since, this is a frighteningly common confidence smasher for game designers, I share with you the most useful answer from the panel: when the voice in your mind starts suggesting you are but an imposter and unworthy of being included as a true designer, give the voice a name, and an annoying voice. Once it is personified, you have the distance to try and deal with it. Try telling that person, the voice, to shut up if only because they have an annoying tone to their voice.

As always, we’re just game creators, and what worked for some of us might not work for you.

Eddy was very pleasantly surprised at how many folks knew and loved Pugmire at the con, and I heard a lot more people than I expected referencing the Onyx Pathcast, which is also really satisfying.

But most satisfying of all is that attendance came just short of doubling since last year. So we know that we’re not just walking around and talking to folks about Onyx, but that we’re helping the con grow – and as it grows it can raise funds and awareness for the Bodhana Group and its mission to help folks in therapy via tabletop gaming.

While Eddy and I were feeling good, Dixie Cochran was at HLG Con in Atlantic City, NJ. Jokes about the venue aside, Dixie not only represented for Onyx and met with writers and devs as well as fans, but she stepped up and DJ’d their big party! I have proof:

We’re talking multi-talented here!

So, yes, we are still going to cons. We have GameHoleCon and PAX Unplugged into early December, and then our big Onyx Path Summit at MidWinter Con in Milwaukee in January. Very hard to believe we are coming up on a year since our last Summit.

We’ve been evaluating our convention presence all this last year, and altering our strategy in ways you should note next year in terms of which cons and how we attend them. We might add some more to our schedule, but we are most definitely going to change things like whether we have a booth and/or panels, and what games we emphasize based on the kind of convention we’re attending.

Since we’ve mentioned the idea that games can help us in life, and mentioned Eddy and Dixie, let’s also include Matthew Dawkins and I’ll suggest that if combine all that you get last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast!

Our terribly terrific trio tackle the topic of how the games we play can influence our lives with stories of both how gaming has affected their lives, and how your games could affect you. Their personal stories are poignant and I think a lot of our community can relate to the challenges they faced growing up, and how gaming helped them surmount them.

The Pathcast crew also bring up the afore-mentioned Bodhana Group and the iThrive project as initiatives to bring therapeutic thinking into a process we already know is happening as it happened to our trio.

And me. And probably you. Gaming does good things for us and to us. Like any art, it changes us.

Here’s the link on PodBean, and you can also get it on your favorite podcast venue: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/e/episode-22-what-you-can-get-from-rpgs/

In other less serious news: the first episode of Homeward Bound, the Pugmire Twitch broadcast from Saving Throw Show was a howling success!

The second episode is LIVE Tuesday at 6pm PST/9pm EST, running on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/savingthrowshow

And if you want to catch up on the first episode, it’s now available on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjOaW8ix5nQ

Finally, a reminder that we’re still running a half-off sale at Indie Press Revolution (see below for links) of our Kickstarter Deluxe and Prestige cover press overruns. This sale runs the rest of October, and then there’s a very good chance that these special versions of these books will no longer be available. No pressure, but as much as we love them, we can’t keep copies around forever.

Oh, we have so many projects that are SO CLOSE to getting into your hands, from all of our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Lo the darkness that lies like a pall over Chicago. The V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter arises in October! We’re also working on the Kickstarter for They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCFBtS!), which has some very different additions to the Storypath mechanics we’ll be explaining during the KS. They take an excellent 50’s action and investigation genre game and turn it to 11!

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

And our latest, the dice for Werewolf: The Forsaken 2e:

ON 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).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

And we’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

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/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

Ha ha haa! Welcome to our red planet…and en garde! Cavaliers of Mars swashes its PDFs and buckles its PoDs at DTRPG this Wednesday!

Return now to dying Mars in its last age of glory. A world of flashing swords and choking sands, of winking courtesans and lantern-lit canal cities. Mars, where romance and heartbreak are two sides of the same obsidian chit.

Cavaliers of Mars includes:

• A vibrant setting with cultures, careers, characters, and dozens of locations, all organized to get you right into the world of Mars!

• An all-new system combining your character’s motivations, history, and beliefs with strategic swashbuckling action!

• Astrology, crafting, psychic powers, and much more!

CONVENTIONS! Matt, Monica, Bill, Crystal, and other Onyx Path writers and

developers will be at GameHoleCon in Madison, WI November 8th – 11th

running demos of Pugmire, Scarred Lands, and more!

https://www.gameholecon.com/ Rich, Lisa, Matt, Eddy, Dixie, Danielle, and other Onyx Path writers

and developers will be at PAX Unplugged in Philly, November 30th –

December 2nd running demos of Scion, Monarchies of Mau, Exalted, and

more!

http://unplugged.paxsite.com/