Convention (not Mage) Changes [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

You can look below at the progress being made on project after project, but today I’m speaking about a different movement forward. As you can see above, Onyx Path has kind of followed in the paw prints of White Wolf in terms of how we thought about our booth at conventions. Different set-ups, but basically all designed as selling stages.

Basically: “we’re here to sell you our stuff at this booth at this con”.

But I don’t think that is our best use of having a booth. It’s a familiar use, because a lot of long time members of our community are used to stopping at the booth to buy stuff at cons. We have a transaction relationship, I guess.

Which is cool, and traditional, but not as effective ultimately as it could be. I mean. it’s not like we could have all of WW‘s or even just Onyx Path‘s catalog of books all available at the booth every time. There just isn’t enough room. (And all the vast catalog of books is on the virtual shelf that is DTRPG anyway).

The big issue though is personnel, and by that I mean that the gang we have in the booth selling books are also the folks making them. Like any RPG company, the trip to a convention means you have to Work The Booth.

And frankly, as salespeople, we make great writers and artists.

Well, duh.

All of these issues have been buzzing around in my head, as issues are wont to do, and at MidWinter in January the whole thing kind of coalesced, and I realized that I don’t want to have a selling booth. I want to have a booth where folks get to talk to the creative folks who make our worlds, and where we sell a few select and new projects. Things that are exciting because they are about that very moment in time.

But mostly, I want our folks to be able to show, not tell, how great their games are.

Which is why we’re going to make these changes for Gen Con this year, and then follow through with our con presence similarly after that.

1- We have two wonderful gentlemen who have terrific booth and sales experience, Bill Bodden and Mike Hollywood, who will be responsible for the booth in general and sales of the selected books we’ll have there.

2- This frees up our talented creators to demo their games right there in the booth. Our current plans are to continue the short (10-20 min) demos that worked out really well for Pugmire last year, as well as add longer group demos at the tables in the booth. And then, we hope, folks who enjoyed those can get in on The Wrecking Crew and friends’ games at the con. They will have something like 70 this year.

3- And, of course, we’ll continue to be available to chat, and have giveaways, and have panels and all that, so that we can all talk about the worlds (and characters) we love.

We might have a few more surprises to enhance the experience there, but overall we’re hoping this refocusing enables your time at the Onyx Path booth to be more about interacting with the folks who actually create the projects about their projects, and less about whether Rollickin’ Rose Bailey can add up your order. Would you like fries with that?

So that’s the plan, more face and game time. We’ll see how it works out.

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

ANTS! WOOF!: it’s the Pugmire kickstarter! Pledge to enable us to create a beautiful full color, hardcover, 180+ page, 7″ x 10″ core rulebook that we can also get into game stores. We’re doing lots of great stuff with this Kickstarter including both a fiction anthology and turning at least one of those stories into an audio drama. Backers can download the Pugmire Early Access PDF and get playing right away on the basic version of the game so check it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/pugmire-fantasy-tabletop-rpg

And here is a very in-depth interview that Eddy Webb had with The Gentleman Gamer where Eddy also answers all sorts of questions about Pugmire, Sherlock Holmes, his work with EarPlay, and Vampire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8ePtKD54Bg

ON SALE!

Running for one more week, there are twin Werewolf: the Apocalypse Bundle of Holding Sales going on here: https://bundleofholding.com/presents/WerewolfApoc1 and https://bundleofholding.com/presents/WerewolfApoc2 There are some great deals on these classic PDFs, and 10% of the profits of these sales go to The Bodhana Group to help promote RPGs as counseling tools.

We are waiting for the PoD proof for the Chronicles of Darkness Core Rulebook, and if we get them in time we’ll get the PDF and PoD versions up on DTRPG this Weds!

Gauntlet of Spiragos is a 5E D&D adventure for the Scarred Lands and is now available free as a PDF. Just like the Pathfinder version of Gauntlet of Spiragos, this one will eventually have a physical copy Print on Demand version as well. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171523/Gauntlet-of-Spiragos-5E-OGL-adventure

Condition Card PDFs for both Chronicles of Darkness http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171574/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Condition-Numina-and-Dread-Power-Cards and Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/171573/Werewolf-the-Forsaken-2nd-Edition-Condition-Cards are now up dealt up at DTRPG, with PoD cards soon to come!

The Demon Storyteller Guide has dropped its cover and is on sale as an Advance PDF on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/170165/Demon-Storytellers-Guide

If you are into the Pugmire KS, here 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!

Gen Con 2016 planning has started.

Here are some cons Fast Eddy Webb will be attending! Talk to him about V20 and Pugmire and Sherlock Holmes and Oxford Commas:

Cleveland ConCoction ( March 11-13, 2016 , Cleveland, OH)

, Cleveland, OH) AggieCon 47 ( April 1-3, 2016 , Bryan, TX)

, Bryan, TX) ECGC ( April 19-21, 2016 , Raleigh, NC)

, Raleigh, NC) MomoCon ( May 26-29, 2016 , Atlanta, GA)

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 fiction anthology (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (Scarred Lands)

EX3 Backer Charms (Exalted 3rd Edition)

DA Tome of Secrets (Vampire 20th Dark Ages)

VtM Endless Ages fiction anthology (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

BtP Building a Legend (Beast: the Primordial)

Scarred Lands Player’s Guide 5E: Ghelspad (Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Redlines

Mummy Fiction Anthology (Mummy: the Curse)

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition

Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes (Beast: the Primordial)

Dagger of Spiragos (Scarred Lands)

EX3 Quickstart (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Second Draft

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Scion: Alpha (Scion 2nd Edition)

Cavaliers of Mars

Development

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

V20 Lore of the Bloodlines (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

Beast Ready Made Characters (Beast: the Primordial)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

CofD Hurt Locker (Chronicles of Darkness)

Editing Dark Eras Companion (Chronicles of Darkness Dark Eras)

WtF The Pack (Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition)

V20 Ready Made Characters (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

W20 Shattered Dreams (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Shattered Dreams in-book stretch goals (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

W20 Kinfolk (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

V20 Ghouls (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

Scarred Lands Player’s Guide: Ghelspad (Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Indexing:

Beast: the Primordial Core Book (Beast: the Primordial)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

V20 Ghouls

W20 Shattered Dreams

Promethean: the Created Second



Scarred Lands PG

Dark Eras Companion

The Pack

Secrets of the Covenants

Necropolis Rio

W20 Kinfolk

In Layout

Mage: the Awakening Second

V20 Black Hand

Proofing



Ex 3 core book – From RichT: Sent last notes on the fixed PDF from the Devs to Maria and next getting an index for it.

– From RichT: Sent last notes on the fixed PDF from the Devs to Maria and next getting an index for it. Dark Eras

At Press

Pugmire Early Access

M20 Deluxe Edition

Chronicles of Darkness Cards

Gauntlet of Spiragos 5e

Forsaken 2 Condition Cards

Chronicles of Darkness

Demon Storyteller’s Guide

Beast Screen

Truth Beyond Paradox

Lore of the Clans LtD Edition

Lore of the Clans Screen

Dreams of Avarice

Special- projects on hold in the art and production area until an external factor is resolved

Wraith 20 – Can’t go further until art notes come in, still being developed by Rich Dansky.

Can’t go further until art notes come in, still being developed by Rich Dansky. Pentex Employee Indoctrination Manual – Some added and amended text needs to come in.