This Here Shattered Dreaming Ya Got There. [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

So first off, the Deluxe W20 Shattered Dreams Kickstarter campaign kicks off on THURSDAY, October 22nd at 12 noon Eastern US time.

We wanted to add a couple of things to this and needed a couple of extra days to bring it together right. For both Werewolf the Apocalypse Garou and the Fera from Changing Breeds, as it takes a long look at the War of Rage and other violent and unfortunate encounters between our shapeshifters throughout history right to modern times. Big news, big fun, tell your friends!

This Kickstarter was part of what we talked about today, as well as the Beast KS, the V20 Lore of the Clans KS, Dark Eras KS, Wraith and Changeling 20th KSs, and most especially the Exalted 3rd KS. A lot of links are going to be rocketing to the backers of those KSs in the days to come! The thing is, we are constantly reviewing our processes and performance with our KSs. Not for the relative monetary success, but our success in giving you all a great experience. And when I say us, I’m talking about the Onyx Path core team of maniacs, not the developers and writers and artists. They are a different part of the KS experience, and one we have to try and incorporate into our overall plans, but ultimately every creative team has different levels of interaction with the Kickstarters for their projects.

Which brings me to what Eddy and I talked about in our first meeting of the day (the actual Monday Lunch Meeting at noon). I’ve talked a lot about how every project is different for us, we treat each one as something special. Mostly, that has come up when talking about the difference between our methods, and why we’ll let projects take longer if we think that’ll make them better, and the deadline-driven, “production treadmill” that was the method used by White Wolf in its heyday. I think I’ve earned the right to critique that process as I was one of the most savage implementers of hitting our deadlines there was, but the bigger difference to consider here is that Onyx Path has incorporated changes into our methods of creating your books that might not be obvious from the outside.

For instance, we don’t mandate a specific development process to our Devs. We need certain things to happen in terms of how a book’s text needs to be set up when delivered to the editor and to the layout artist, or how art notes need to be sent to Mirthful Mike, but that’s basically to ease the hand-off to other folks in the process. How the developer works with writers is something we prefer to leave open for the developer to put together based on their work habits and how the project intersects with their professional and personal life.

Again, despite the immense footprint our game lines have in the minds and history of RPG gamers, Onyx Path is really a small publishing company. This is because the tabletop RPG area is simply not a large niche in publishing in general, but it is also by design. Our developers are all freelancers and most have regular day jobs that may or may not impose unexpected demands on their time. I like Onyx to be flexible enough to allow them the freedom to configure their methodology in ways that work best for them in order to compensate for the other demands on their time.

As Eddy and I talked about today, leaving our developers to work backwards from what we need from the text in order to match it to the editing and layout needs has usually resulted in superior books crafted with creators who are allowed to create as they need to and without needless oversight by “corporate”. Sometimes, our devs do get lost in the weeds and need a bit of an assist to pull a book together, which we do, and it really helps when they let us know the actual situation they are dealing with. That should be one of the first lessons any freelance creator ever learns: “Talk to the client!”. Our devs say this very thing to their writers, Mirthful Mike and I say it to our artists, and just like in those situations, when our devs get stuck and let us know, we can almost always figure out a way to make it work.

Of course, sometimes, a project just goes off oddly and needs to be reviewed, revised, and maybe re-staffed. That’s a tough call, as I prefer to try and find ways to keep the original team together, but it happens. Fortunately only very rarely, but it happens. So there is a possible down-side we’re aware of.

Being flexible with our developers also means that they can try out other processes and methods, and in fact, I encourage that sort of experimentation. I’ve been in work environments where failing because of experimenting was seen as a failure, pure and simple, and I want our creative teams to feel confident that they can try for something new and amazing with their art. And also with how they make that art. As Eddy pointed out, he just came off a project where the dev went into second drafts and traded one writer’s draft to another for comments. This trading went on throughout the whole crew of writers and is designed to get different eyes on the text, but it’s a very different way to handle the project. (And I imagine requires a team of writers who are neither shy nor overprotective of their writing.)

Some developers like the tried and true method of having a dialogue individually with each writer over their work, while others like the open conversations you can get on a project mailing list between all the writers. And some are maniacs like Satyr Phil Brucato and write most of a 700 page core rulebook by themselves. 🙂

What I’m saying is that there’s no set-in-stone method that Onyx Path uses and we think it makes for excellent creative work, but it does require us and our community to understand that when I say every project is different, that’s not a hand-wave, excuse, or rationalization. It’s policy.

Also, if you didn’t peek below, we’ll be getting a lot of our backer PDFs and Advance PDFs out in the next couple of weeks, like Beast: the Primordial, and the M20 How Did You DO That?! stretch goal, and, oh…Exalted 3rd Edition!

BLURBS!

We’ve started doing special blogs every day this month to celebrate October as the Month of Nightmares. Look for more snippets from various projects and notes from the developers on why they bits are their favorites and what went into them, as well as special sales. These will happen all October leading up to Halloween – because you know that’s our favorite holiday!

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

Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition: The Dark Ages is NOW available in PDF and PoD versions at DriveThruRPG.com! This massive full color tome is part of the V20 line but does not require V20 to play and enjoy.

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’re still working out panel concepts with the MidWinter gang, but expect at least one session where we ask for your feedback for Vampire 4th Edition. In the meantime, check out the show here: http://www.midwintergamingconvention.com/

Rich will be walking the floor at Illux Con in Allentown PA next week to talk with artists. If you are an artist attending, let me know at richt@theonyxpath.com and we’ll chat there.

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

Cavaliers of Mars

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes (Beast: the Primordial)