All Gen Con, All the Time!

Monday Meeting

Yes, that’s a shot of the ol’ White Wolf crew at Gen Con back in ’94 or ’95. I’m directly behind the head of the lady in the red shirt. Not the guys on either side- they were bad eggs, and you’d best steer clear of them. This might have been the year we did the original Pentex Board Meeting live performance, and/or the year Kathy and Aileen paid to have me arrested by the Klingons. Good times.

As you might guess by the way I’ve mentioned it a few times these last months, Gen Con is a big deal for us this year. Not only because this is the first year we are running and managing our own booth (previously we shared with DTRPG and the amazing Monte Cook), but because of the cultural connection to the twenty-some years I and our other contributors went as WW guys. My first Gen Con was the year I presented Stew Wieck with the cover I’d painted for White Wolf Magazine #8 (a full white wolf face snarling) that I had finished up painting in the delivery room while waiting for my first daughter to be born. Don’t worry, I put down the brush before my wife’s labor pains became unbearable (I would have lost an arm if I hadn’t). That was in 1987.

So what I’m saying is that there is a long and emotionally significant history there. For us, this year, the feeling is we want to acknowledge and learn from that history, and also build on it in ways that make sense for how we exist as a company creating tabletop RPGs in the year 2014. Onyx Path is extending and revitalizing the WW properties, and we are giving new life to Scion, the Trinity Continuum, and Scarred Lands. All projects familiar in their WW incarnations to the folks at the show. So in a lot of ways, we’re hoping that folks coming to the booth or to panels will be talking to us like we’re really continuing a conversation that started whenever it was that they picked up their favorite WW book.

What I’m saying is that we will have books and other things to sell (I mean, the booth’s not a lounge or anything like that), but that’s not the primary purpose of having the booth. We’ll have some handouts, the 2014-2015 Onyx Path Brochure, and some other sneak-peaks, but none of those are the primary purpose of the booth (although we think you’ll like them). This is a chance to have face to face time with everybody attending from our community, and that’s the primary benefit of having this booth; this destination or hub, even. So come on by!

You can talk to me about Onyx‘s plans and the olden days, you whippersnapper. Eddy Webb, Rose Bailey, Ian Watson, and Mirthful Mike Chaney will be actively running the booth, as well as volunteers from our online community. Matt McElroy will be just around the corner at DTRPG‘s booth, and fellow developers Matt McFarland, David Brookshaw, John Snead, and Colin Suleiman, have promised to stop by. We expect a whole bunch of writers and artists as well, and we’ll be setting up signing times that will be announced at the booth.

As in previous years, there will be panels that will take the info from the brochure and expand on it in ways we just don’t have room for in the booklet. This year though, we’re not trying to force Eddy, our developers and writers, and myself, to rush through a year’s worth of releases in an hour- we’ve got three panels on Saturday:

10am: SEM1459337: What’s Up With the New World of Darkness and Q&A @ Crowne Plaza Indianapolis – Downtown Union Station. You’ll want to hit this if you’re into nWoD, particularly since we have at least one major bit of news we’ll be revealing here that happened after the brochure went to press.

3pm: SEM1459343: What’s Up With the Trinity Continuum, Exalted, Scion, Scarred Lands & More! @ Crowne Plaza Indianapolis – Downtown Union Station. Anything not WoD related will be fair game to talk about here, including possibly some new non-WW games. Maybe.

4pm: SEM1459339: What’s Up With the Classic World of Darkness and Q&A @Crowne Plaza Indianapolis – Downtown Union Station. Not only where we’ll be going into much further detail on our plans to develop the lines that started it all, but where we hope you come to tell us what you want to see next.

Also, the 2014-2015 Onyx Path Brochure will be available at the booth on Thursday (if shipping works as planned), and on-line, so please feel free to load up with your questions for the panels. Get questions and comments from friends who can’t make it, too. We’ll be there to answer them all.

There are three additional panels that I’ll be on as an Industry Guest of Honor again this year that I’d love to see you at if the topics sound interesting to you. I’m not sure I’ll be able to carve out time again to do this next year, but these panels give us a chance to spread the word about Onyx Path to folks who usually don’t get involved with our stuff, and I also get a chance to talk with industry folks I normally miss in the craziness. So they’re a lot of fun to do, but cut hours out of my time spent at the booth.

Thursday at noon: SEM1465771 Art Matters: Why do hobby games have so much art in them? Novels don’t. Why do games need art to sell, and do they need art to be good games? ICC 210.

Thursday 3pm: SEM1465796 Return to the Castle of Gender Representation: Last year Industry Guests spoke about gender representation in gaming art. The seminar was packed and wonderful discussion ensued. What has changed in a year? ICC 211.

Friday 2pm: SEM1465789 How to Run a Successful Tabletop RPG Kickstarter: Kickstarter is one of the best ways to get your RPG created. We’ll look at the pitfalls to avoid along the way and the methods to create a fun, engaging, and ultimately successful KS. ICC 210.

If you are going, and want to attend some gaming sessions of our game lines, there are over 100 Onyx Path/White Wolf games being run this year, both tabletop and LARP. Over 40 by our good buddies from The Wrecking Crew and The Dead Gamer’s Society, and a lot more at all hours of all the days the con is running. We’ve got a list I’ll be linking to here in a day or so:

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Which pretty much covers the skeleton of our Gen Con plans, and expresses what we hope will happen there. In the midst of getting many things printed, ordering those foam floor tiles (black, of course), and deciphering the byzantine paperwork needs of the convention companies’ bureaucracy, I’m going to squeeze in some family time in the next couple of weeks. So our old friend, co-creator of this blog, and one-time sole writer of it, Eddy Webb, will fill in here for the next two weeks. Don’t be too cruel to him.

Regardless of Gen Con, These Projects are Worked On:

– Book of the Deceived (MtC): In Editing. Full page art is coming in.

– Sothis Ascends (MtC): Some text was re-distributed and needs further writing, otherwise in redlines. Waiting for one writer to hand in his section.

– Cursed Necropolis: Rio (MtC): First drafts heading into redlines.

– Exalted 3rd Edition: From Holden: “This week has focused on art notes to arrive this week and editing. Evocations are finished and moving to editing. Antagonists are receiving finishing touches”. Art notes = the descriptions of what needs to be illustrated created by the devs as guidance and inspiration for the artists. I should note that Exalted’s art notes require more detailed descriptions than a typical WoD description where you can say “like an alley in NY” and the artist will understand what is needed for the scene.

Both EX3 novels are being worked on, and notes went back on Matt Forbeck’s synopsis. The EX3 Music Suites are at a standstill right now until our composer gets through his full time job commitments. Intending to talk to all of these creators at Gen Con. The EX3 Fiction Anthology is being written, with the bulk of the stories currently under Dev review.

– V20 Anarchs Unbound: It is live on DTRPG in PDF, ePub, PoD and PDF/PoD combos. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/127247/Anarchs-Unbound New printer quote requests based on conversations with them and Mirthful Mike for Deluxe version were sent in and are being discussed.

– V20 Rites of the Blood: Advance PDF on sale at DTRPG. (Advance PDF designates a full PDF release, but one where we will take purchasers’ comments and fixes and tweak the files before the PDF and PoD are on sale together. Advance PDF purchasers get a discount link for purchasing the PoD version based on the cost of the PDF/PoD combo price.) We are assembling errata based on your input on this thread, and are looking to close it out this week: http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-classic-world-of-darkness/vampire-the-masquerade/192908-errata-rites-of-the-blood

– V20 Dark Ages: In post-writing Development. David Hill has delivered some art notes. Full page art notes out to artist, artist for Clan Spreads working on them. Many blog posts here on his progress: http://theonyxpath.com/category/projects/darkages/

– V20: Ghouls: In post writing development.

– V20 Red List: In final draft stage.

– The Making of the Art of Children of the Revolution: Creating PoD files to go with PDF for sale on DTRPG.

– V20 Lore of the Clans: Was Blood Diaries. Post first draft redlines. Open Development starting up with this blog: http://theonyxpath.com/lore-of-the-clans-open-development-coming-soon/

– Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: Sent a final list to the European shipper of those backers still without their rewards and he is going through them one by one. Mike Lee has delivered several new chapters this week of the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel for Bill to review. The White Howlers Tribe Book has art coming in, and the comic art from John Bridges is in progress.

– W20 Changing Breeds: Deluxes and Screens are finishing shipping.

– W20 Book of the Wyrm- A Pentex Board Member nominee list was sent to backers, and the Surveys with ballots were sent out to backers last week. Work has begun on the new content for the book besides the Board Members, and then we’ll need to begin on the Pentex Employee Indoctrination Manual Stretch Goal project.

– W20: The Umbra: Ready for Editing.

– Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition- Satyr Phil has handed all the text off to Bill. Bill is continuing his “second set of eyes” developer’s pass. The Book of Secrets and the “How Do You DO That?” book are being written. The M20 Quick Start PDF/PoD is now on sale (the PDF is free) here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/131409/Mage-20th-Anniversary-Edition-Quickstart

– Trinity Continuum: System Doc being assembled by Joltin’ Joe Carriker- I am reading new drafts of it right now, at least the combat section. He says system development is really hard and apologizes for the delay. The first new piece of art in YEARS has been commissioned. We’re doing some Gen Con things with that. Jumpin’ John Snead had to replace a writer for the Aeon core book, but says things are still coming together nicely.

– Scion: Sketch for Scion: Origins came in and WOW! Expect to see it and the new character’s art at Gen Con.

– Demon: the Descent Prestige Edition: Talking with shipper, hope to get packaging tied down and the book shipping in the next few weeks.

– Demon: The Descent: Demon Seed Collection is in editing and art notes. DtD Seattle is in layout and being art directed. Heirs to Hell backers’ PDF went out to KS backers last week- we’ll be assembling the errata and getting the PDF and PoD versions ready to go on sale. Demon Translation Guide is being written. The Demon Fiction Anthology + Interfaces is in editing.

– DtD Players Guide: Flowers Of Hell: PDF is available now: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/131419/Flowers-of-Hell-The-Demon-Players-Guide. We’ll be assembling the errata this week to prepare the PDF and PoD on sale versions.

– DtD Storytellers’ Guide: Outline done, getting writers.

– nWoD: Dark Eras: The VtR section is benefiting from a focused dev pass, while the rest of the Eras are in editing.

– WtF: The Idigam Chronicle: In 2nd drafts. Stew Wilson is doing a remarkably regular Friday blog that focuses on specific topics for the book- lots of good discussion happening right now: http://theonyxpath.com/category/projects/werewolftheforsaken/

– WtF: The Idigam Fiction Antholgy: Being written.

– nMtA: The Fallen World Chronicle: Dave Brookshaw has started his blog about the next of the updated game lines. http://theonyxpath.com/category/projects/magetheawakening/ Writing has started.

– nMtA: The Fallen World Fiction Antholgy: Being written.

– GtSE: Geist Ready Made Characters: In redlines.

– T-Shirts: W20 Tribe Symbol shirts are up, and V20 Clan Symbol shirts are on sale now, too!

Reason to Drink: GenCon forms. Part the deuce.