Thanks, Turkey! [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

Such a great holiday is the Thanksgiving! Now, maybe I’m just a contrarian at heart, and so love it all the more as it gets buried under the dual tidal waves of pumpkin-spiced Halloween and sparkly consumer-frenzy Christmas. (For our non-US friends, Thursday is the Thanksgiving holiday where US families get together for dinner, watch US football or stream marathons, and often have to deal with family members they are thankful they don’t see more often. Most of us will be taking Thursday and Friday off this week to celebrate and recover.)

For the last couple of years, I’ve done a “thankful” blog this time of year. Sometimes asking our creators and/or the Onyx Path crew to contribute their thanks. This year is a little different, but I’m going to start out the same as we always do. because this really can’t be said enough times:

We are all so thankful that all of you reading this are part of our energized, often demanding, but always amazing, community. We could not be doing what we’re doing without your support!

And I am so thankful for the efforts of our burgeoning Onyx Path crew, who work their asses off each and every day applying their hard-won professionalism and skills to enable Onyx Path to grow and create even more amazing projects. I could not have imagined five years ago how these people would dedicate themselves to my crazy dream.

Which brings us to all of our creative teams and freelancers out there who word by word, and picture by picture, build out the bare bones of our ideas into the projects and game-lines you follow and love. I am so thankful we continue to grow and can bring more and more of these talented people of all kinds into our strange little corner of publishing.

Which brings us to the big one, and why I decided to make this Thanksgiving a bit more personal.

I am so thankful that I have been able to make beautiful visuals and stories and games in the tabletop RPG business going on 30 years this month!

I feel like Jeremy Pivin’s character in Grosse Pointe Blank: “Thirty! Years! Man!”

Three decades of drawing, painting, designing, layout, reviewing portfolios, picking paper stocks, sending sketches to artists, and greenlighting cool projects I’ve been able to help come to fruition. (There has also been a metric crap-ton of meetings, and budgeting, and schedules. And yelling, oh so much yelling. But y’know, not enough to take away from the above.)

What a gift, what a fantastic lucky guy I am to be creating in this business built from what might be the most creative hobby ever. Not kidding: I am incredibly thankful.

Now, I really didn’t realize the amount of time I’ve been so fortunate to be doing all this until meeting up with Stew and Steve Wieck, and the whole early WW crew that attended the Grand Masquerade, in New Orleans a couple months ago. But that meeting led to reliving old times, as you might imagine.

Thus: In 1986 Stewart Wieck, a young yet tall student, put an ad in Dragon Magazine looking for illustrators for his White Wolf Magazine. And a fresh out of art school aspiring RPG illustrator/designer/graphic novelist/filmmaker with a desperately anemic moustache hopefully sent in his portfolio. (Hopefully as I’d already been rejected by the ADs at Dragon earlier that month and was a bit dejected.)

And Stew…liked…my art. He took the little submission piece I did of a white wolf mauling a dragon, as I was and am all about the subtlety, and immediately dropped that into the next issue, and sent me a list of illustrations they need for the issue after that. We were off and running and really never looked back.

White Wolf Magazine‘s circulation grew and so did the range of illustrations. Folks saw my art there and hired me to do art for their games. Stew needed me to start handling the art direction of the mag, so I stepped up to do that. Vampire exploded onto the scene, White Wolf grew, reduced, grew, merged with CCP, the dark years came and the potatoes grew no more, and I founded Onyx Path.

Which is as minimalist a description of decades of hard work and utter madness as you could ever look for.

So, to put it all together. I’m thankful for 30 years of loving what I do for a living, and I’m thankful I can look into a future that just sings with possibilities for all the fantastic and fascinating RPG projects that are coming. Here’s to 30 more!

Thank you all!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

We’re exploring card game Kickstarters, packaging, and components, for Prince’s Gambit.

ON SALE!

On Tuesday November 22nd, we lead into the holidays and celebrate the 25th anniversary of Vampire: the Masquerade by making the V20 PDF the Deal of the Day on DTRPG! 70% off!

Starting this Friday morning and running until late Monday the 28th, on DTRPG’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale, our core rule books and fiction anthologies (on DriveThruFiction.com) are 15% of all PDFs/electronic formats! And as a special way of saying thanks to those who most appreciate tearing into a turkey, the W20 core book PDF is the Savage Discount on Friday at 50% off!

Keep an eye on our FB, Twitter, and other social media,for other sales and deals!!!

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? 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/

Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition comes to life in both PDF and PoD physical book versions this Wednesday on DTRPG!

You are a pilgrim now, one of the Created. You rose to life from dead flesh or inert matter, under the ministrations of one of your own, or a mad scientist, or perhaps just the power of the Divine Fire. You wander the world, sometimes alone, sometimes in the blessed company of your own kind, driven by memories of events and facts you never knew, all in the service of one Great Work…

…to be human.

Humans don’t make it easy, though. The Divine Fire that animates you burns too bright, blinds people, and scorches the land if you linger too long. It masks your disfigurements and makes you appear human, but that mask slips and people see your hideous, true form. The Pilgrimage is a long, difficult road, but it is yours, and you know, somehow, that the salvation of the New Dawn waits at the end.

This book contains:

The complete guide to playing a Promethean in the Chronicles of Darkness

Reimagined Lineages and Refinements, and a redesigned system for Transmutations

A more detailed approached to the Pilgrimage that presents players with more control over their characters’ path

New challenges on the road to humanity, including deranged, greedy alchemists

With a snarl, W20 Shattered Dreams is now on sale on DTRPG in both PDF and PoD versions! Grrrrrrr! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/194649/W20-Shattered-Dreams

The Past Laid Bare

Shattered Dreams presents an in-depth look at the prehistory of the Garou and Changing Breeds, including both the threats they had to face before circumstances drove them to war and the War of Rage itself. Rather than one answer, it showcases many time periods and many ways in which the War could start, so that players and Storytellers can make prehistory their own. It also presents the circumstances surrounding the Second War of Rage, giving players the chance to take part, either as Garou Conquistadores or as the Fera desperately trying to fight off an invasion. Finally, the included chronicle structure allows modern characters to visit these crucial moments of history in an effort to stop the Wyrm’s most powerful minions.

Shattered Dreams contains:

• The first ever look at the World of Darkness before the War of Rage.

• The ways the Wars of Rage could start, and how enterprising characters could change what happened.

• Two chronicle frameworks that bring modern characters to the past, replete with new Abilities and new Storytelling tools that make the players the center of much larger stories.

With a howl, W20 Kinfolk: A Breed Apart will be on sale on DTRPG in both PDF and PoD formats! Awooooo! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/194952/W20-Kinfolk-A-Breed-Apart

Born to Run

The Garou are born of two kinds: humans and wolves. These are their Kinfolk — those “of the blood.” These special people — whether of two legs or four — carry in them the hope of the Garou: the promise of future generations. Although Garou are born to Kinfolk, nobody knows they’re different until they undergo their First Change. Until such a blessed (or cursed) time, they are just like their more mundane Kin. Most live as humans, suffering the foibles of humanity, all the while hoping they’re secretly special, that they harbor the wolf within. Even though that wolf will never howl for the majority of Kin, they’ve still got a vital role in the war, aiding the effort from behind the lines.

Kinfolk: A Breed Apart contains:

Overview of the Kinfolk, both kenning and callow, including some of the Fellowships founded by Kinfolk to aid the Garou cause — and to protect themselves from their cousins’ Rage.

Character creation for playing Kinfolk, including new Skills, Backgrounds, Merits and Flaws, as well as special Kin rites, Gifts, and fetishes.

Guidelines for running Kinfolk chronicles, as well as in-depth information on the Kin-Fetches, the unique spirits used by Garou to watch over their distant cousins and warn the tribes if one of them should undergo the First Change.

NOTE: If you have already purchased the Advance PDF, you will be automatically updated to the final PDF and receive a link to enable you to purchase the PoD at a discount designed so that your total price matches our usual PDF and Print combo offer.

Exalted 3rd Edition Charm Cards! In PDF and PoD physical card sets! Back on sale this week on DTRPG!

There are a lot of cards, and we have to offer them alphabetically through three sets:

Set 1: Archery – Investigation http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192228/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Charm-Cards-Set-1

Set 2: Larceny – Resistance http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192229/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Charm-Cards-Set-2

Set 3: Ride – War http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192230/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Charm-Cards-Set-3

You’ll need all three sets to have all of them.

You can also order them by individual Charm type on the site.

For sale in PDF, ebook, and physical book editions at DTRPG.com: The Endless Ages fiction anthology! Vampire: the Masquerade fiction featuring all-new, original, stories written to evoke the distinct feeling of each of VtM‘s four editions! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/193199/V20-The-Endless-Ages-Anthology

Celebrating 25 years of personal horror, the eighteen stories in Endless Ages range in style and aesthetics from the very first edition of Vampire released in 1991, all the way to the latest books put out for the 20th Anniversary Edition.

“The Becoming” has stories grounded in the lonely struggle for morality. “Gothic-Punk” stories focus on sensuality and the conflict between young and ancient vampires. “Signs of Gehenna” shows what happens to Kindred society as it teeters on the edge of apocalypse. Finally, “Modern Nights” juxtaposes all of these concepts to present a comfortable illusion of status quo in a world of conspiracy.

NOW the long awaited opportunity to own Mage: the Awakening 2nd Edition as a physical book is at last at hand! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/181754/Mage-the-Awakening-2nd-Edition

You are a mage, one of the Wise. You see, know, and explore what others can’t imagine, from the depths of the human soul to the hidden corners of reality. Armed with your spells, driven by an addiction to Mysteries, you delve into the secrets of the world. Knowledge has a price, and the dangers are many.

This book contains:

The complete guide to playing a mage in the Chronicles of Darkness .

. Reimagined Paths, Orders, and powers to create your Awakened characters and their allies, including an updated version of the most comprehensive free-form magic system in gaming.

Five example settings across the world, from Los Angeles to Salamanca, each with a central Mystery.

A brand-new look at all the strange places of the Fallen World, from the Lower Depths to the Emanation Realms, and what mages might find within.

CONVENTIONS!

Onyx Path will be at Mid Winter Con 2017 in January in the lovely city of Milwaukee. Come brave the cold wastes to game and cavort with us! Please keep an eye out on the MidWinter site for announcements as to our very special beta test and Play With The Creator special events! http://www.midwintergamingconvention.com/

Matthew “Gentleman Gamer” Dawkins and Dapper Dave Brookshaw will be representing Onyx Path at Dragonmeet in London on Saturday, Dec 3rd, so if you are in the area and want to have a chat with either of those gentlemen, please do pop by and say cheerio!

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)

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

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

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

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

CtD C20 Jumpstart (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Ex Novel 2 by Aaron Rosenberg (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Redlines