My Kind of Town, Chicago Is! [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

Chicago! By Night! What an evocative title that was in ’91. We had seen nothing like it for any of our games. The web of vampire NPCs and their sheer variety could have been overwhelming, but instead it was fascinating. We wanted to keep reading and to learn as much as we could about them, and the vampire society they were enmeshed in.

The gorgeous Coterie Charts were, of course, that perfect bit of visual aid that we needed to refer to during reading – and even more importantly, during playing. Who is she? Do we know who she’s connected to? Does she hate that guy we’re sort of working for?

It added the context, the structure, that we had only been imagining based on the core book. Now we could see how the ideas fit together in one city.

My group was lucky as I had been given the text early in order to playtest and so I could do art and the logo for the book. We got to roam those streets on the lookout for Capone earlier than most, but we also didn’t get to see Josh Timbrook’s full collection of gorgeous and evocative character portraits, so it was interesting to see his depictions later on.

After over a decade of D&D, Chicago by Night was definitely the book that made me fall in love with Vampire: The Masquerade.

Which worked out OK.

Y’know?

Naturally, considering the above, when given the chance, we at Onyx Path pitched for a new version of Chicago By Night. Three times! We pitched it for V20, we “pitched” it during our plans for our new edition of VtM, and now, we pitched and are doing the Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition version!

Third time’s the charm, or, I guess, the discipline.

The V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter goes live at 12 noon Eastern US time tomorrow, Tuesday the 30th (if all goes well, and the many weird-ass things that can screw this up don’t happen). This is a KS to create a beautiful traditionally printed version of the book that we will use as a springboard to get the books into stores.

Backers will get sections of the text of the book all through the Kickstarter, and I understand that our Kickstarter Concierge James Bell and Chicago developer Matthew Dawkins have cooked up a whole series of reveals for that info. Plus, they’ve been working on ways to incorporate backer input without slowing down the book’s progress. We really want to get it out to backers and then into stores as fast as we can.

Certainly, more along the model of Cavaliers of Mars which was delivered a year early to backers, or Monarchies of Mau, on track to be shipped in November, some four months earlier than estimated.

Plus, the text we are revealing to backers is finished text, approved by White Wolf, and set to take a copy edit but then go right into layout. We know folks are concerned about changes to the text that has been previewed, and we’re setting this up so that situation doesn’t happen.

As for what those sections will contain, well, they’ll present Chicago as it exists NOW in the World of Darkness, and we’ll be continuing to follow Matthew’s preference for writing that provides story-ideas and hooks in every paragraph. Locations that have explicit ideas for play attached to them, and we’ll have Lore Sheets that build out the secrets of the Kindred of Chicago.

In fact, I’m really looking forward to our Chicago Lore Sheets providing that same feeling of “proof of concept”, of a concrete structure, that the original CbyN did for VtM first edition.

And, then there’s the Lasombra.

Their V5 clan write-up will be in there, as well as the shadowy revelation of their current status and plans within plans. We’re thrilled to be able to be the ones who reveal them to our community, and from what I’ve seen, you are going to be very pleased indeed.

So that’s a huge milestone for us this week, and something we’ve been working feverishly on, but we have a few other things to point out that came up in our meeting today that are happening this week of spooky weeks.

V5 is not the only vampire game in town, as the Guide to the Night for Vampire: The Requiem 2e in Advance PDF form goes undead on DriveThruRPG on Halloween, along with our regularly scheduled Exalted 3rd monthly PDFs.

If we can do it this week, we’ll also be delivering the Backer PDF for Matt Forbeck’s long awaited Exalted 3rd novel to backers!

Before the month is done, you owe it to yourselves to check out the deadly discounts at the HalfoffWeen sale at IPR, and the Halloween sale at DTRPG. (See below in The Blurbs!)

Finally, if you missed last Friday’s interview with Jason Carl, V5 producer and current marketing chap at White Wolf, this is a great week to hear all about the man who’s an expert on both Vampire and wine. And a whoooole lot more as his interview with the Terrifying Trio on the Onyx Pathcast proves. Check that out here, or on your favorite podcast venue: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/e/episode-23-interview-with-another-vampire-jason-carl/

Coming up this week, our Dream Team goes into details on their Dream Games. You know, the projects they would most like to create if time, money, legalities, or common sense were not concerns!

Maybe they’ll make some games we can publish, and add to our existing collection of:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Lo the darkness that lies like a pall over Chicago. The V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter arises in October! We will be opening the casket on October the 30th at 12noon Eastern US time! Because we know the 2nd Inquisition is out there, let’s establish a fallback plan so if anything happens to delay this, we’ll do it at noon on Halloween, Wednesday the 31st! We’re also working on the Kickstarter for They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCFBtS!), which has some very different additions to the Storypath mechanics we’ll be explaining during the KS. They take an excellent 50’s action and investigation genre game and turn it to 11!

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

And our latest, the dice for Werewolf: The Forsaken 2e:

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

(Kindle, Nook) Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

And we’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

For the most horrific day of the year, this Wednesday, Halloween, we are releasing the Advance PDF for Vampire: The Requiem 2e Guide to the Night!

And we haven’t forgotten our monthly Exalted PDF releases! They too will be coming out on DTRPG this Wednesday!

CONVENTIONS! Matt, Monica, Bill, Crystal, and other Onyx Path writers and

developers will be at GameHoleCon in Madison, WI November 8th – 11th

running demos of Pugmire, Scarred Lands, and more!

https://www.gameholecon.com/ Rich, Lisa, Matt, Eddy, Dixie, Danielle, and other Onyx Path writers

and developers will be at PAX Unplugged in Philly, November 30th –

December 2nd running demos of Scion, Monarchies of Mau, Exalted, and

more!

http://unplugged.paxsite.com/

Start getting ready for our appearance at MidWinter this January in Milwaukee! So many demos, playtests, secret playtests, and Onyx Path Q&As you could plotz!