Thanks For the Requiems… [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting

Well, looky there, it’s the cover for Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition, featuring the Blood & Smoke Strix Chronicle. As we are getting ready the new PDF and physical book PoD files, I just want to remind everyone that already purchased a PDF of Blood & Smoke: The Strix Chronicle that we will be updating the B&S listing on DriveThru and updating your B&S PDF with this new VtR 2nd Edition PDF at no cost to you.

Additionally, at 12 noon EST on Wednesday, November the 19th, we will stop selling the PoD version of Blood & Smoke: The Strix Chronicle and will be replacing it with the PoD version of VtR2. So, if for any reason you didn’t already get a B&S in physical book PoD form, you have until Wednesday at noon. After that we will be getting proofs of the PoD books, and once those are OK’d both the PDF and PoD versions of Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition will go live at last!

Our weekly meeting was mostly about the upcoming Wraith 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter (this week? maybe?) and the start of Pitch Season: that magical time of the year wherein we solicit pitches from our devoted developers and writers for projects. We’re first getting in pitches from our line developers for cWoD, nWoD, and Exalted, and then we’ll be asking those wacky writers. We also chatted about upcoming sales on DTRPG, and our con presence next year.

Lots of bits that led to talking about what currently we are thankful for in week three of our Month of Thanks:

– As per my lead-in paragraph, I’m super thankful that we are so close to getting out our first nWoD 2nd Edition, and I think Rose agrees on this one. Part of that is also being grateful that CCP was willing to re-examine the 2nd Edition idea and give us the green light for what I’ve considered for years to be a needed evolution of the lines. And we are actively working on nWoD 2nd core, Werewolf, Mage, and Promethean 2nds, and Changeling the Lost 2nd is revving up.

– I am grateful for the gang that meets every Monday to manhandle this crazy business into submission (or at least cooperation). Some employees, some consultants, some volunteers, but all pulling Onyx Path along, often by sheer force of will, a helluva lot faster and coherently than I could alone. And, in fact, a couple of them have some thanks of their own they’d like to share.

First, Eager Eddy Webb:

* Thanks for Onyx Path taking the risk on an owner/creator property like Pugmire. * Thanks for the V20 fans for continuing to show that open development doesn’t have to be a train wreck. * Thanks to Kickstarter for providing a way to give high-quality deluxe books to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get them (due to market forces).

– I also would like to thank Kickstarter in an abstract way, because it exists as a site, and a process, and without it we would certainly not be able to create the beautiful limited edition versions of our books we’ve been having so much fun with. But more specifically, I want to thank all of our Kickstarter project supporters, the newbies and the veterans, who rise up out of the darkness each time we do one and support the KS with what they can. In many cases, this has been a bumpy road, and I appreciate that so many of you have kept backing as we’ve developed more and better ways of making Kickstarter work for us.

And Maniacal Matt McElroy:

As a new Onyx Path Developer this year I’m thankful for the advice and

encouragement of experienced developers like Matthew McFarland, Justin

Achilli, Eddy Webb, and David Hill for showing me the ropes and

welcoming me to the team. I’m thankful for all of the teamwork from Rich, Mike, Rose, Ian, and

Monica (and now Lisa) for building Onyx Path each week. I’m also thankful for all the hard work of the freelance writers,

artists, and editors. Mostly, though, I’m thankful for all of the

enthusiastic energy and feedback from the fans because without them

these games wouldn’t matter at all…

– So grateful for the wealth of projects we are currently working on. All three of the WW game lines, plus the system team actively working on our new dice-pool system for Scion and Trinity. (Working name The Sardonyx System. Yes? No?) Plus Scarred Lands gave me a chance to finally publish The Gauntlet of Spiragos adventure I wrote, and Cavaliers of Mars and Pugmire are in active creative discussions. Such a variety of Good Stuff, yet all of it has that certain spark that makes a project special.

And here is Mirthful Mike Chaney:

I’m thankful for the support of our fans in all of our publishing endeavors. Without that support we couldn’t have done some really cool books like the Deluxe Hunters Hunted II, Prestige Edition Demon the Descent (so shiny it hurts), Deluxe Anarchs Unbound, or the Deluxe Mage with Lenticular Tarot Card (and tons of other upcoming cool stuff). I’m thankful that I am able to devote 100% of my creative energies to Onyx Path and it’s various and expanding IPs. That has in turn given me the opportunity to design some truly awesome books (Vampire Dark Ages 20 and Mage 20) and expand the various ways we are able to deliver Onyx Path IPs. That’s a very big thanks to both Rich and all the fans. I’m thankful we will be revisiting the Scarred Lands. I spent my first three or four years in production working on Scarred Lands and getting to revisit it is like seeing an old friend after a decade apart. I’m most thankful that despite two decades of various shenanigans, I still get to work with my friends making games that people still love to play. As of today, I’m at 260+ White Wolf or Onyx Path publications and I fully intend on making that 600+ one day.

– Like the Mirthful One, I’m also thankful that in a crazy world, I get to actually have fun at work with people I actually like, making these amazing and evocative games and books, and selling them to a community that loves them just as much as I do.

– Which brings us to all of you who read and post comments on this blog. I am grateful and somewhat humbled (no, really, it could happen) by your attention and commentary. Much like our Kickstarter community, and the eagle-eyed fans who post in our advance PDF errata threads, and the Open Dev blog posters, and the folks who review our projects online, and all the community that doesn’t write much, but is out there supporting us – we couldn’t do this without you. Angry or glad, impressed or disgusted, frustrated or thrilled, you let us know what is working with our crazy ideas and which are just plain crazy. Thanks, indeed! It’s kind of weird to ask anybody here to contribute thanks as I feel like that’s kind of asking folks to tell us how great we are, y’know? So instead please add in anything recently you’re glad we did (or didn’t do) if you have any thoughts in that direction.

And here are some thoughts and the direction is towards publication:

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (Projects in bold have changed listings)

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

Beast: the Primordial core book (Beast: The Primordial)

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

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

Cursed Necropolis: Rio (Mummy: the Curse)

Secrets of the Covenants (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition) – In Open Development

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

V20 Black Hand: Guide to the Tal’Mahe’Ra (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition) – In Open Development

W20 Novel by Mike Lee (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

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

Redlines

Mummy Fiction Anthology (Mummy: the Curse)

Exalted 3rd Fiction Anthology (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

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

Mage: the Awakening 2nd Edition, featuring the Fallen World Chronicle (Mage: the Awakening) – In Open Development

Second Draft

Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition, featuring the Firestorm Chronicle (Promethean: the Created) – Playtesting

Development

V20 Red List (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

World of Darkness Dark Eras- Vampire chapter (WoD Dark Eras)

Sothis Ascends (Mummy: the Curse)

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

Fallen World Chronicle Fiction Anthology (Mage: the Awakening)

M20 How do you DO that? (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Editing

Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition, featuring the Idigam Chronicle (Werewolf: the Forsaken)

Exalted 3rd Edition core book- From Holden: editing is working methodically through the Charms chapter right now. (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Firestorm Chronicle Fiction Anthology (Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition)

Development (post-editing)

World of Darkness Dark Eras core book (WoD Dark Eras)

Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition core book (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE