Oh, the Humanity! [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting

Sometimes the tormented artist look like in Efrem Palacio’s piece from V20 Lore of the Clans is exactly what is on my face while working on a piece of art. But these days, that expression is more likely to appear as I read online how I, or Onyx Path, or one of our creative team-mates, is ripping off folks, or is unprofessional, or doesn’t care enough about Game X, or is just plain lazy. Now to be fair to our community, these sorts of comments are far, far, in the minority, and really it’s not the critical words (Worms, Roxanne!), it’s the nasty, personal, attacks that come with the words. As we all talked about this in our meetings today, let me share with you our concerns.

These past four years, we at Onyx Path have tried to shift the way we as creators and publishers communicate with our community of players with things like these blogs, the Open Dev Process, our social media, and many of the rewards and such in our Kickstarters. We have shown an unprecedented amount of transparency compared to any time period in White Wolf‘s lifespan, and we are proud of that. Not because it is good for business, we frankly are still not sure about that, but because we genuinely like this kind of give and take and project building with all of you. Our creators all have different ways and comfort levels with how they do it, but the connection, the immediacy, is exhilarating. We can do this because we are not some giant corporation, or even like White Wolf was during its day. We are all human beings embarking on a creative journey together with each project.

The openness and honesty with which we try to deal with all of you at all times is based on respect, and that respect must be a two-way street. Part of what we’ve tried to do these past four years is to leave a lot of leeway for posters here and on our social media to complain, since no, we’re not perfect, and there certainly have been growing pains as we ramped up. Plus, when we and you actually communicate about why a business practice, section of a book, or an entire book doesn’t work for you, Onyx Path gains a lot more insight than hiding in an ivory tower.

Talking with you and learning from criticism builds better and more creative projects. This is a good thing and we are more than capable of dealing with criticism of our work. However, there is no reason to expect us to “deal with” being insulted and accused of whatever heinous acts a poster can dream up.

This culminated in my posting about these very concerns on the Exalted forums in the weekly thread quoting from the Exalted updates below. Here’s the stickied post: http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/467503-forum-policy-an-important-reminder

Every week someone made a similar kind of thread about the updates, and just about every week the insults and nastiness posted caused the thread to be closed and suspensions assigned by our tireless Mods. So I posted the linked post, and almost immediately someone posted in response that considering how frustrated backers are with EX3 being late that we really just have to “take it”.

That poster was issued a suspension (not a perma ban as was rumored). Because even if you don’t literally attack us, saying it is OK for others to do so contributes to the idea that this behavior is the norm, should be expected, and again, that no matter how I or the creative teams feel, we need to smile through the abuse. Basically, that poster denied how I and other creative folks here feel. That’s not right and it’s not something I’ve ever done with any of you.

Two. Way. Street.

So in the final analysis, this thing we do is what we want to do. We love making new games and creative settings and rejuvenating all these amazing White Wolf game lines. We want to share the process of how we do these things with you as we do them. (If that peek behind the curtain doesn’t matter to you personally, that’s cool, we expect and enjoy the many ways folks interact with us). Just bear in mind that no one can wade through constant nastiness and keep up their enthusiasm, energy, and creativity. Think about the effect your wicked bad-ass put-down post is going to have on us before you post.

That is how we always try and treat you. We are not a corporation of faceless mooks. Those insults and accusations aren’t hitting some PR or Marketing department, they are hitting the very creative people who directly make these projects. You know who we are. You know me and Mirthful Mike, Rollickin’ Rose, Impish Ian, and Fast Eddy Webb. You know the Devs: Matt, David, Dave, Matt, Stew, Colin, Neall, John, Holden, Justin, Bill, Ethan, John.

We are human and we make mistakes, have personal lives, strive to do what many have claimed is impossible and refute the “White Wolf is dead!” crowd, and have pride in our work. We’re human beings and we do not deserve spite. We are all human beings embarking on a creative journey together with each project.

A journey down the Onyx Path.

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And now, the BLURBS!

Sothis Ascends, the final book of Mummy: the Curse’s originally planned supplements is on sale as an Advance PDF and we are assembling errata for final PDF and PoD physical book copies are available: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/146995/Sothis-Ascends

It includes:

• Comprehensive information on the mundane and supernatural world during each of the three prior Sothic Turns, Mummy’s pivotal eras of historical play — the Cannibal Hymn (2371 BCE), the Mighty Despair (910 BCE), and the Return to Dusk (551 CE).

• A wealth of new material for Storytellers, including characteristics of a Sothic chronicle, features of the latest Sothic Turn, a secret society of the Deathless, a new kind of Utterance, and two new types of story framework — the interwoven chronicle and the parallel chronicle.

• “Pearl of Ascent” — a complete Mummy story that Storytellers can run alone or as the climactic final act in a three-part series called The Avarice Chronicle.

The Deluxe V20 Lore of the Clans Kickstarter hit its funding goal in about 24 hours, and is now pushing towards goals that will add Appendixes to the book itself and Bloodlines to a separate extra book called, logically enough, Lore of the Bloodlines. But the Stretch Goals are just one part of the fun, as backers have been sending in selfies and liking our Facebook page in order to boost the Achievements counters and get some extra rewards! If you want to see how the V20 Clans and Bloodlines are given more depth and expanded on to the present day, check it out at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/deluxe-v20-lore-of-the-clans

I was just told that Today Only, Monday April 6th, until 8pm Pacific Time, our T-shirts will be 20% on our RedBubble site! Sometimes RedBubble does a surprise sale, and today is one of those days! The discount code is BANANAS.

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And now, new project status updates!:

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)

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition) (Going for open development soon.)

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

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

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

M20 Anthology (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Demon Translation Guide (Demon: the Fallen and Demon: the Descent)

nWoD Hurt Locker (World of Darkness 2nd Edition)

Pugmire (Be a Good Dog.)

CtL anthology (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

WoD nWoD 2e core (World of Darkness 2nd Edition)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Redlines

Mummy Fiction Anthology (Mummy: the Curse)

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

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

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

Cursed Necropolis: Rio (Mummy: the Curse)

Demon Storytellers’ Guide (Demon: the Descent)

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

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

Second Draft

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

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

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

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Development

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

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

Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition, featuring the Firestorm Chronicle (Promethean: the Created) Being playtested.

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

“Sardonyx” System Rules (Base rules set for Scion and the Trinity Continuum)

Editing

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

MtC Dreams of Avarice

Development (post-editing)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE

In Art Direction