Thanking Forward [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting

Well, it’s the week of Thanksgiving and the last week of the month, so our month of thanks, much like the battle depicted in this sneak peak of Exalted 3rd Edition art above, is almost at an end. I’m going to give some thanks for things yet to come, and for the people who will get us there.

– It might not be the popular thing to do, but thanks to CCP. Not only for continuing our license and being open to us pitching a schedule through 2017, which is always good news, but for the whole fact that they were willing to trust us with shepherding the WW game lines three years ago. That was a big jump to make, but they wanted to do right by the WW fans and trusted us to follow through.

– Thanks to our amigos in blood at By Night Studios, for introducing our Onyx crew to a great group of folks and players who are engaged in the live action side of our hobby. I’ve been able to talk with fans and creators I might not have had a chance to due to their connections between the X by Night conventions and now Mid Winter in January, where I’ll be Guest of Honor and have a whole day of panels- more on that in December’s blogs, and the good will created by BNS‘s focused and professional handling of the new live action V20, and soon W20, rule books.

– Speaking of the 2016-2017 schedule, that is certainly something important we’re looking forward to, and I must give thanks to all the line developers who have already pitched their ideas for their game lines, and the writers whose turn it now is to pitch their product ideas. These are the folks who enable us to innovate and grow the White Wolf lines in particular, and I am always in awe each Pitch Season at the sheer wealth of ideas I get to read through.

– Not to be forgotten are Dave Brookshaw, Stew Wilson, and Neall Raemonn Price, who took upon themselves the massive work needed to create a dice-pool system for Scion and the Trinity Continuum. The work they are doing will pave the way for the greatness of both those game lines in this coming next year.

– I’m grateful to be able to work with Eddy Webb on Pugmire, and with Rose Bailey on Cavaliers of Mars (and the select handful of you other amazing creators I’m talking to about similar projects), because these are the people who enable Onyx Path Publishing to be the sort of “house of ideas” I’ve always wanted to be a part of. It’s really hard to balance growth and creativity and giving current fans more of their favorites, but I think Onyx is headed in the right direction because of these creators trusting us with their game-babies.

– I’m also thankful to be able to reconnect with writers and artists stretching all the way back to our early years at WW and bring them with us into this new era of RPG publishing, and right now in the immediate future that includes the artists from the classic Wraith: the Oblivion run. If any of you out there in the ether know of, or are friends with, a classic Wraith artist, please let them know we’d love to have them contribute to the Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition. I’ve talked to a lot of our classic artists, but there’s a larger number of them unaccounted for than with our previous 20th books. Point them to richt@theonyxpath.com. And Wr20 also was great for giving me a reason to talk much more with my old friend Rich “The Deadguy” Dansky culminating in what is always the most intense of experiences as we work on the Deluxe Wr20 Kickstarter that we expect to go live next week at 12 Noon EST on Tuesday, December 2nd.

– And, of course, but never to be taken for granted: all of you. My heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you who have supported us so far and who are excited for what we’ve got coming up. Kickstarter backers, Twitter followers, Open-Dev commentators, Facebook friends and likers, Forum posters, Mailing List subscribers, all of you who talk to me every week on this blog, and those of you in our community who don’t yet interact with us other than by buying (and hopefully enjoying) our projects. You are all great and the reason we can look into the future and expect even more fun and fascinating developments yet to come.

So in return for your incredible support, we’ve been working with our friends at DTRPG to put together some Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday sales to express our appreciation:

– Black Friday, November 28th only, we’ll have the Changeling the Dreaming 2nd Edition PDF on sale for $4.99, as well as additional blackened special offers.

– From Black Friday, November 28th, through Cyber-Monday, the 1st of December, all Scion PDFs will be 25% off.

– Cyber-Monday, December 1st only, the God-Machine Chronicle PDF will be on sale for $4.99, and there will be other techno-special offers as well.

– Finally, we will be sending out to our Onyx Path Mailing List subscribers a coupon code for a free copy of the original Trinity rulebook good from Thanksgiving, November 27th until mid-December, as our way of saying how much we appreciate you folks who knowingly signed up for more of our insane communications! You might be gluttons for punishment, but we love you for it!

Speaking of the combination of punishment and love, our ongoing project 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)

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

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

Cursed Necropolis: Rio (Mummy: the Curse)

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

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

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

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

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

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

Demon Storytellers’ Guide (Demon: the Descent)

Redlines

Mummy Fiction Anthology (Mummy: the Curse)

Exalted 3rd Fiction Anthology (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

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

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

Second Draft

Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition, featuring the Firestorm Chronicle (Promethean: the Created) – Playtesting

Development

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

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

World of Darkness Dark Eras- Vampire chapter (WoD Dark Eras)

Sothis Ascends (Mummy: the Curse)

Fallen World Chronicle Fiction Anthology (Mage: the Awakening)

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

Editing

Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition, featuring the Idigam Chronicle (Werewolf: the Forsaken)

Exalted 3rd Edition core book- From Holden: editing is still working methodically through the Charms chapter. (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Firestorm Chronicle Fiction Anthology (Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition)

V20 Lore of the Clans (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

Development (post-editing)

World of Darkness Dark Eras core book (WoD Dark Eras)

Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition core book (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE