Through a Diamond Wall to December [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

So it’s the last day of November. The calm before the storm (or Firestorm, as depicted by Sam Araya in this gorgeous full-page illustration from Promethean 2nd Edition).

December looks like it is going to be just crazy, so here a few points about next month that I want to share (these came out of our talks today, in case you think I really don’t take notes each week):

1- If you haven’t yet ordered any PoD books from DTRPG, I suggest you do so this week ASAP if you want them by Christmas. Our PoD proofs are taking longer than usual to get made and shipped, so fair warned and all that.

2- We’ll be starting the Deluxe Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary KS next week, we hope. There are always a lot of moving pieces to these things, but that’s the target. It will stretch through into early January and should be just crazy as the last of the “Big Five” 20th Anniversary books.

3- Our friends at WWPublishing/Paradox will be at a convention in Germany around the 12th of the month and expect to have a bunch of announcements to make that folks will, I think, be pretty excited about. Another excellent talk with them last week, although it was all hush-hush business stuff, which included a commitment to making sure we are all in communication about what is announced and how.

4- We’re planning on starting our 12 Days of Onyx Christmas lead up to the holiday a day or two after that and right though to the 25th. Expect some sort of sale will be a part of all that between us and DTRPG.

Plus, with our approval process getting ironed out and several cool books in PoD proofing, we should have a few eagerly awaited releases popping up in December. So, it’s busy here, nevermind all the ongoing projects.

In addition to the above, Eddy and I discussed Pugmire trademarks and copyrights (and the differences between the two), and why a friend promising to kill a guy who has attacked one of us on the internet isn’t really the best answer to our social media woes. Or anyone’s, really. Appreciate the depth of feeling, but adding in your willingness to “put them in the ground” only makes the whole exchange nastier, and might open up legal ramifications if anything actually happens to the original nasty person. This also applies to dissing somebody else’s work online in defense of ours, actually.

We also talked at length about how “open” we want our own gamelines and worlds to be in terms of letting other folks write up and post stuff. I’m thinking closer to how I hear Savage Worlds does it with approved projects, than a full-on OGL, but we realized that neither of us have ever actually been in the position to even consider the options as WW had a set policy. So we will continue to chat about this.

And finally, for those of you who have missed my reporting on the way he and I discuss our media interests, we talked about this last week’s episode of Doctor Who. Truly a bravura performance by Peter Capaldi as the 12th-ish Doctor.

Not really used to adding “spoiler alert”, but after not writing one of these and you not reading one for a while, consider the warning given!

I was gratified and enraptured to see Capaldi really run with a script that gave him something to tear into, and which held together as many of Moffat’s puzzle-boxes haven’t for a while. Eddy loved how Moffat was showing and not telling and getting in huge amounts of info in small moments, like how the lights in the Tardis dim and relight as the Doctor goes through his “changes”.

We talked about the way the 12th Doctor had all last season of working his way through mannerisms and attitudes of the earlier ones, and the settings and structures of stories from those eras, which was a fair bit longer than I liked, but which culminated in this season with the guitar and sonic sunglasses. A different sort of Doctor indeed, and Eddy suggests one showing all the signs, up until this last episode, of a mid-life crisis.

For me, I can really relate to a Doctor who spends several billion years punching through a diamond wall. Let me tell you about trying to get the OK for the Book of Nod, or Adventure!, some day, or delivering the Exalted 3rd PDF to backers!

Punchin’ through to December!

BLURBS!

SALES!

Today, Cyber-Monday, DTRPG will have the W20 Book of the Wyrm PDF also 50% off!

Expect something special on Dec 25th, as we lead up through the 12 Days of Onyx Christmas, coming next month!

KICKSTARTER!

Coming in December…the Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Kickstarter!

ON SALE!

M20 How Do You DO That? is coming to DTRPG in PDF and PoD versions!

Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition PDF & Standard and Premium PoD physical book editions are NOW AVAILABLE on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/149562/Mage-the-Ascension-20th-Anniversary-Edition

The Pugmire Pamphlet we had available at Gen Con is now ready for PDF download. Read about the world of Pugmire from the enthusiastic and optimistic pen of Princess Yosha Pug, as well as notes from the gruff and worldly hunter Pan Daschund: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/153518/Pugmire-Gen-Con-Brochure

There are also six Pugmire posters available as free PDFs or $.99 physical posters, suitable for framing:

Spike Mutt: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150845/Spike-Mutt-Pugmire-Poster-6

Pan Dachshund: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150844/Pan-Dachshund-Pugmire-Poster-5

Jack Rat-Terrier: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150944/Jack-RatTerrier-Pugmire-Poster-4

Sgt. Leo Bulldog: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150843/Sgt-Leo-Bulldog-Pugmire-Poster-3

Princess Yosha Pug: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/149750/Princess-Yosha-Pug-Pugmire-Poster-2

Sister Picassa Collie: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/148516/Sister-Picassa-Collie-Pugmire-Poster-1

Start spreading the Code of Man!

CONVENTIONS!

We’re one of the Contributing Sponsors at Midwinter Con this year this January in Milwaukee! RichT, Fast Eddy Webb, and Newlywed Neall Raemonn Price will be there at our booth as well as running demo games of Scion and Pugmire. We’ll be talking more about panels, but I think you can count on a Pugmire one and a Scion/StoryPath System one, at least. In the meantime, check out the show here: http://www.midwintergamingconvention.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Book of Secrets (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

CtL anthology (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition

Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes (Beast: the Primordial)

Scion: Alpha (Scion 2nd Edition Playtest Alpha Slice)

Dagger of Spiragos (Scarred Lands)

EX3 Quickstart (Exalted 3rd Edition)