A Potpourri of Social Media Snippets

Monday Meeting, News

Had a good talk with Eddy, no real news of anything changing in our relationship with CCP, and some stuff approved. But he did have some commentary to add as we talked about some of the widely-scattered places I posted last week. It was just one of those weeks where I needed to explain what Onyx Path is up to, and worth sharing here I think because the questions these folks asked me are relevant to just what we’re doing as a publisher.

From Mark Rein-Hagen’s Facebook page, Mark suggested that he’d like to see us get small print runs of books in stores (you are going to note this as a theme in these). This is one of those moments where I take the approach that I’m educating a certain amount of the readers and its a good chance to reconnect with parts of the WW community that maybe haven’t kept up on things since the End Times:

Onyx Path Publishing is definitely still evolving what we can and can’t do to get WW books and other projects out to fans. We have some constraints that we can’t change, and others- like diving right back into the RPG distribution system- wouldn’t be good for us right now. I also love a great game store, and so we’re trying different methods to get our books in to them. The Retailer Tiers in our KSs, for example, and the beta-program we are doing with providing Retailer discount off our PoDs, are initiatives that do work with how we’re set up.

Also, another poster brought up pushing towards more electronic game-aids, and more electronic publishing beyond PDFs. One of my pet ideas, as long time readers of this blog know, so this was a good chance for me to let folks know that we’re not just about the books but are also looking forward:

I agree with you 100%. We just did our first ePub version of an RPG book with Anarchs Unbound as a special treat for backers of the KS, but that format will be available for everyone when AU goes on sale at DTRPG. It’s just the first expansion into that area, as the layout is very different and so we’re essentially recreating the book for that format, which meant we had to change our usual book creation process. But, as a first step, we think its worth it for exactly the thinking you lay out in your post. There is so much more we can do in the creation-space between a PDF and an App- we just have to get there while still satisfying our community who is looking for book books.

And finally, also in that FB conversation, we had a poster mention that they were a huge fan of Trinity and Sword and Sorcery and wished we’d revive those. Well, that was too good to pass up in terms of getting some plugs in and some knowledge passed on:

Since you bring them up- we are working on new editions of Scion RPG and the Trinity Continuum, and Stewart Wieck and I are partners in bringing back the Scarred Lands from Sword and Sorcery. Really looking forward to getting to the serious creation part of all three lines.

So that was that bunch of snippets, and then I did an interview that you can check out in all its “glory” on the Twisted Tales blog here: http://twistedtalesevents.blogspot.co.uk/ Here’s just one excerpt on the same sorts of topics above:

How do you see your stewardship of this property through Onyx Path Publishing?

RT: In many ways, its a continuation of my years and years with White Wolf, so there’s certainly a happy familiarity there. At the same time, oddly enough, I actually feel like the strictures of our license from CCP (the company that owns the rights to WW’s games) enable us to be more creative and to try more new things than ever before. My goal with the WW properties we are licensed for- nWoD, cWoD, and Exalted- as well as with the settings we bought outright- Scion, the Trinity Continuum, and Scarred Lands- is to refresh the games and reinvigorate the community. All of these lines have fans- wonderful, devoted, fans- but they haven’t had much to get excited about for years. So the first thing we needed to do, and are still doing, is to let the community know who we are and that we’re going to revive the great games they love. A 3rd Edition for Exalted helmed by the most absolutely devoted to Exalted guys I know. 20th Anniversary Editions and then continuing new releases for the classic, “we’re never publishing stuff for them again”, World of Darkness. And retooling the entire nWoD set of game lines with the Chronicle books. Kickstarter was an unexpected huge bonus venue for getting the word out and generating excitement, so that was nice, and I pretty much hear every day from a past fan who is thrilled to discover that their favorite game is either already getting new, improved, books, or will soon. Your shift to digital releases and print-on-demand is a response to the changing nature of the publishing industry. Has this given you greater creative freedom than back in the glory years of White Wolf? RT: Absolutely. As much as we at White Wolf snarled and snapped and tried to push the boundaries of art in roleplaying while still being a functioning company, we were faced with limitations because of the traditional distribution set up and needing to function within it. And the bigger we got, the tighter those constraints bound us. Because if you lose a distributor when you’re small because they object to your content (and call you a bunch of “faggots and satanists”), you’re losing orders for maybe a dozen books. But lose one at our 1998 size, let’s say, and that’s be hundreds or even thousands of orders. So we had to pump out the books at a pace we all agreed was brutal, and had to hit the delivery dates or we’d be hit with a penalty reduction in orders. Or books had to be this size, or this format, or they wouldn’t get the same push into stores. I think Ethan Skemp coined the phrase “Production Treadmill” and that was what we were on. And our insanely dedicated and just plain crazy WW crew did it and did it and still were able to make some incredibly awesome books. But if you had to choose between adding more time to make something even better, or hitting the deadline- well, the book went to press. Which is not to say that we never held anything back to improve it, we did time and again, but it was with the idea that we were squeezing blood from a stone to do it. That all just wears creative people down. With digital and PoD publishing (and with our Kickstarter efforts too, actually), we are now directly delivering our projects into the hands of the fans. This gives us the creative freedom to experiment and the direct feedback to know if the people we are creating for like what we’re doing. There are limitations to some of what we can do, because of the still evolving nature of digital and PoD publishing, but those downsides keep getting removed as that form of publishing keeps growing and maturing. We have even managed to create a beta-program to provide discounts for PoD books for retailers, and retailer tiers on our Kickstarters, so we’re even finding ways to get our books back into stores. But in ways that actually don’t disrupt the business of getting cool projects out to fans.

And finally, I wanted to reprint this response on the View From The Path blog I made to a long time WW supporter and store owner who expresses a bit of pain over the decision we made at WW (and Onyx Path has continued with) to remove our products from the distribution/retailer chain- his post and my answer came in late in the blog’s week so a bunch of folks might have missed it:

White Wolf did not get out of the traditional distribution system in order to spite retailers such as yourself. We got out because it was broken in ways we, from our end, could not fix. Sales numbers kept dropping, even though we knew there were fans and stores out there who wanted our books. Eventually, the cost of the smaller print runs we ran based on those numbers became prohibitive- would you have had us fulfill your, let’s say generously, 20 book order, by printing three thousand books? It didn’t make sense, but at the same time electronic sales were rising dramatically. It made sense to move our efforts in a growing direction. Now let’s fast forward to the now, and because we have always appreciated and loved game stores, Onyx Path continues to try and find ways to reconnect and get some of our books into retailers’ hands. We have Retailer Tiers in all of our Kickstarters, and we have a beta program to give discounts on our PoDs to Retailers. Are the margins as good as back in the day- no, nether of these methods of physical book creation are inexpensive, so we can’t give as large a discount. But we are trying to reach out as far as we can go without toppling over. Similarly, it’s our thinking that the Mage20 Free RPG Day Quickstart will help Retailers in the program by letting the fan base from the M20 Kickstarter know that these printed QSs are only in your stores for several weeks. Hopefully they will pop in for that and stay for your other wares. They already know how to get our products online. How we integrate stores into what we are doing is still a work in progress, and I’d love to hear more ideas of how we can do more.

So, I share these with you to sort of illustrate how it continues to be important for Onyx Path that we get the word out further. Even though most of you ultra-cool types pop by and read this weekly rambling (because let’s face it: people who read this blog are just better people overall), there are still tons of gamers, old WW fans, and folks who’d be interested in checking out our awesome offerings if they knew about the projects we have ongoing here. Plus, as Eddy pointed out in our conversation today in response to the idea that we need to get books in stores, we now have an eternal and always open online bookstore with DriveThruRPG. No more missing out on the last copy of your favorite game book, or driving half across the state only to discover that store owner was too sick to make it in that day and open the store. Get a hankerin’ for some Changeling– you can preview almost all the published books for either Dreaming or Lost, and order either an instant PDF copy, or have a fine physical copy printed and sent to you, right then.

The other important reason, for me at least, to go over these points, is that there is an entrenched, “what we’re doing today must be what we do next year”, viewpoint that needs to be shaken up so that folks understand that one of the goals we have for Onyx is to never rest on our laurels, but always be evolving. Whether that is in how we get our projects to fans, or in how we run our Kickstarters, or who prints and ships our Deluxe books, or even the sorts of creators we work with or worlds we publish. We’re small specifically so we can move in whatever direction makes sense. Believe me, I’ve seen what happens when you get too big to maneuver.

Believe me, these are books in progress:

– Mummy the Curse – Cursed Necropolis DC- PDF, physical copy PoD, and PDF/PoD combos version are on sale on DTRPG. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/129144/Cursed-Necropolis-DC

– Book of the Deceived (MtC): Redlines. “Almost off my desk” says CA Suleiman. But not quite yet as of this writing.

– Exalted 3rd Edition: From Holden: “Craft is DONE, meaning all 25 Abilities have now been drafted. After John finished Craft, during a review of the Charm set, we discovered that a power outage had eaten about 1,500 words of Lore Charms, which were re-written this week as well. This coming week, we’ll be catching up on the playtest results and making adjustments to various Charms in accordance with the feedback there. On other parts of the book, the coming week’s work will be focused primarily on sorcery and Evocations.”

Zub’s EX3 Comic: PDF and physical copy PoD and PDF/PoD combo version on sale at DriveThruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128873/Exalted-Tale-of-the-Visiting-Flare. Both EX3 novels are being worked on, and notes went back on Matt Forbeck’s synopsis. The EX3 Music Suites are at a standstill right now until our composer gets through his full time job commitments.

– V20 Hunters Hunted 2: European shipper is shipping the remaining packages to Europe. I press them for a list that confirms this news, but folks are definitely finally getting their books judging by the many relieved messages I’ve received.



– V20 Anarchs Unbound : Mirthful Mike is putting the last touches on the final PDF, ePub, PoD and then the Deluxe print files. I’ve ordered PoD proof copies. Going to try and get Reward PDFs out this week.

– V20 Rites of the Blood: layout is starting for it.

– V20 Dark Ages: Scribes are scribing 2nd Drafts and some 3rd Drafts. David Hill has delivered some art notes. Talking about the art for this this week, particularly the full page pieces.

– V20: Ghouls: In redlines.

– V20 Red List: In final draft stage. There may be a Dev blog coming for this this week, or that effort may go towards finishing it for editing.

– 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 Blood Diaries (Bloody Missive Collections) of the Clans: Writing.

– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: European shipper is shipping the remaining packages to Europe. I press them for a list that confirms this news, but folks are definitely finally getting their books judging by the many relieved messages I’ve received. All Heavy Metal Deluxe W20 backers have been contacted via KS for address confirmation- if you didn’t get the message or still haven’t replied- run to your computer right now and get back to me through the “Contact Me” button under my photo on the W20 KS site. Mike Lee has delivered several new chapters this week of the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel for Bill to review. The White Howlers Tribe Book is in editing, needs art notes, and we’re looking at getting the comic done. W20 Wyld West: I ordered the PoD proof, but there may be a slight delay because Mirthful Mike ain’t no spller.

– W20 Changing Breeds The Deluxes are ready to go to the shipper- I just need to have confirmation that their shipping materials will work with our book- they are sending me one. The Changing Breeds Fiction Anthology: I ordered and am waiting for a PoD proof.

– W20 Book of the Wyrm- The Kickstarter went live last week and funded within 24 hours. We’re having a lot of fun with the Pentex Board Nominees posting their schemes and campaign platforms, and have already passed several Stretch Goals including the creation of a Pentex Employee Indoctrination Manual, a Wyrm KS t-shirt discount, and added Fallen Changing Breeds to the book itself- said topic of extra text being chosen by the backers themselves.

– W20: The Umbra: In post-second draft development.

– Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition- Satyr Phil has one more appendix 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. Go to your friendly local RPG store and ask for it- if they will have it, return, return, return on that date and get it. Buy other things at the store because they gave you the M20 QS. Go…gooooo…

– Trinity Continuum: System Doc being assembled by Joe Carriker. He says system development is really hard and apologizes for the delay. The first new piece of art in YEARS has been commissioned. nothing to see here, yet, move along.

– Scion: Waiting or sketches for the Scion: Origins cover. New character piece coming in maybe this week. Nope not this week. Next week?

– Demon: The Descent: Demon Seed Collection is in 2nd Drafts. DtD Seattle is in editing. 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: Is approved by CCP, but we are still missing the full page art.

– Hunter: Mortal Remains: The PDF and physical copy PoD and PDF/PoD combo are on sale at DTRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/129193/Hunter-Mortal-Remains

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

– WtF: The Idigam Chronicle: 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: Hunter: Mortal Remains skull shirts are up on our RedBubble site.

Reason to Drink: To artist Jeff Holt whose book signing piece above (and in the W20 Book of the Wyrm) manages to make Bill Bridges look scary.