MidWinter 2017: A Story in Pictures [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

TLDR:

Myself and a whole bunch of Onyx Path folks just got back from the 2017 MidWinter convention. Why you should care: We had a great time there, which helps us get recharged to tackle the many projects were working on) and had some business meetings that may pay off this year, as well as demoing upcoming games, and meeting and answering questions with a lot of attendees (both current fans and those who we hope will be).

Also among those we chatted with were possible freelance creators who will help us continue to create these great projects and might even help us drive a few projects forward faster.

And Now, On With the Show:

Thursday most of us flew in, got settled at the hotel, and before we could blink it was time for the annual Onyx Path dinner at Mader’s. This medieval decorated German restaurant was White Wolf‘s special place to eat back in the day, so I love introducing our Onyx Path crew to its bounty of boots of beer, salty bread, and genuine German cuisine.

We were also joined by freelance writer and developer Danielle Harper and friends, and writer (and the man who keeps our booth running) Bill Bodden was just to my left at our table, so was unfortunately cut from these pics. Neall left early and heroically to run a Scion 2e demo game. I should also note that The Legend Dave Martin and the Wrecking Crew were already running a variety of Onyx Path games (although I forgot to take any pics when I visited them.)

Thursday night was mostly carousing in the hotel at the Monarch Lounge as attendees showed up and were loudly greeted. There’s a very welcoming feeling as old friends are met again, and you wind up meeting new folks that somehow you missed the last few years.

Friday, we got the booth together, had great sales, and then it was time for Mighty Matt McElroy’s Pentex Retreat LARP.

This was a one-shot using very simple rules that relied on playing your role. I was there as Black Dog Game Factory CEO, Ron Thompson, and I survived the entire thing by doing an exaggerated version of myself and one-time WW CEO Mike Tinney. There have been a lot of calls from players for Matt to run it again next year, which we’re taking as a good sign that great fun was had.

Friday night, after a lovely dinner at the steak house in the hotel, Eddy Webb ran a “friends&family” playtest for Monarchies of Mau, the cat focused follow-up and connected game to Pugmire. This went very well, although we were all rolling abysmally, and ultimately my Wanderer(Monk) cat, Halo von Siberian, did succeed in a Disadvantaged leap to kick one of the White Rats off of a roof in the adventure’s climax.

At the same time Rose Bailey was running a Cavaliers of Mars demo that I hear was filled with swashbuckling fun.

We all met up again in the Monarch to share our stories and fire Neall.

Saturday was our busiest day for activities, starting with an interview alongside Eddy that I hope to have a link to sometime soon, and a very productive if fast lunch with Rose and Matt as we discussed potential new projects and further ways to improve how we work with developers and writers. We would have done this by Skype anyway, but there were a few things that needed saying in person.

Then we began our day in the Oak Boardroom, a cool meeting room we were able to use for the rest of Saturday. First was the first-ever playtest of a secret card game project for Pugmire that Eddy has been working on. Even I had never seen the components and how it actually played. Here are a few uncredited, because it is secret, pics of the play with the prototypes:

Next was our Onyx Path Q&A, which was packed. We provided some “refreshments” and the more intimate room setting was really much more enjoyable, for me at least, than the classic front table and audience format at lot of panels use. Would do again.

Thanks to everybody who sat in and threw your great questions at us.

Finally, I sat in on the first half of the official Monarchies of Mau playtest, and these folks really got into their Cat characters. A really great sign. I also heard that the Halo in this session also kicked a Rat off the roof. Hmm, must be something about that character.

Finally on Saturday, a rare selfie by me of Neall, Danielle, Maria Cambone, one of our friends from By Night Studios who helped edit their very beautiful and big new Werewolf: the Apocalypse for Live Action play, and yours truly, after Maria managed to get the attention of the bartenders and got us drinks. She’s a lifesaver.

Thought I had gotten back to my room at a reasonable hour, but then folks started dropping by, so we talked about life, the universe, and everything for a couple more hours.

Sunday, briefly, was standing in line for twenty minutes at Starbucks because also in the hotel were several HS girl’s volleyball teams and every single one of them needed whatever drink had the most tooth rotting combination of syrups, and then getting my Chai Latte in time to meet with Matt and several other folks from other companies as strategic alliances were proposed. We shall see if anything happens this year with those things, and then it was check-out and airport and buh-bye.

I also finally got to chat a bit with another long-timer, John Wick, after more than a decade of not seeing the guy. We had promised to say hi at last year’s GenCon and that never worked out because at the bigger cons we’re all just so freaking busy. Which is another great thing about MidWinter.

Overall, this was a very successful MidWinter con for us, with tons of input from playtesters to go over, game and other proposals to review, and many friendships renewed.

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

We’re exploring card game Kickstarters, packaging, and components, for Prince’s Gambit. Justin, Eddy, a crack team of players, and our talented videographers have finished shooting the KS videos in Atlanta and are assembling edits even as you read this. Things look good, and we are all for starting the KS in late January so long as the process of pulling the KS together cooperates. If so, then Monarchies of Mau KS would be next, after Gambit.

ON SALE!

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/

The cards are alive! Conditionally. This Weds. the Advance PDF version of the Promethean 2nd Edition Condition Cards goes on sale at DTRPG!

It is now the preordained time for Dawn of Heresies, the Mummy: the Curse novel written by internationally renowned author Brian Hodge to arise! Both PDF/electronic and physical book PoD versions are now available on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198720/Dawn-of-Heresies

Open the V20 Dark Ages: Tome of Secrets now on DTRPG! Both PDF and physical book PoD versions are now available! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/197358/V20-Dark-Ages-Tome-of-Secrets

The Tome of Secrets is a treatment of numerous topics about Cainites and stranger things in the Dark Medieval World. It’s about peeling back the curtain, and digging a little deeper. Inside, you’ll find:

• Expanded treatment of Assamite Sorcery, Koldunic Sorcery, Necromancy, and Setite Sorcery

• A look at Cainite knightly orders, faith movements, and even human witchcraft

• Letters and diaries from all over the Dark Medieval World

Travel with us all the way to the Red Planet for the Cavaliers of Mars Jumpstart: A Festival of Blades, available in PDF and PoD on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/191678/A-Festival-of-Blades-A-Cavaliers-of-Mars-Jumpstart

Live, fight, and love on Mars, a world of red death and strange mystery, a world of savagery and romance.

Includes:

A complete adventure set in one of dying Mars’ greatest remaining cities.

The innovative DEIMOS rules, for high-flying, swashbuckling adventure.

Four pre-generated player characters, ready to get into the heart of the action.

The Advance PDF for Reap the Whirlwind, the Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition Jumpstart swirls into being on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/201127/Reap-the-Whirlwind-Revised-VtR-2e

You are a vampire, a junkie. Every night, you beg and you borrow and you steal just a little more life, just a few more sweet moments. But there’s a guy at the top. The Prince. He’s got everything. The money, the secrets, the blood.

Tonight, you’re going to take it from him. Tomorrow, there’ll be hell to pay.

This updated edition of Reap the Whirlwind features revisions to match the core rulebook for Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition. Text edits and rules clarifications have also been updated.

Reap the Whirlwind Revised includes:

Rules for creating and playing vampires in the Chronicles of Darkness

The first two levels of every clan Discipline, the dark powers of the dead

A complete adventure by noted horror author Chuck Wendig

This new revised Reap the Whirlwind Revised includes an updated booklet, 7 condition cards, and the interactive Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition character sheet.

The Locker is open; the Chronicles of Darkness: Hurt Locker, that is! The Advance PDF is now available on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/199275/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Hurt-Locker

Hurt Locker features:

Treatment of violence in the Chronicles of Darkness . Lasting trauma, scene framing, and other tools for making your stories hurt.

. Lasting trauma, scene framing, and other tools for making your stories hurt. Many new player options, including Merits, supernatural knacks, and even new character types like psychic vampires and sleeper cell soldiers.

Expanded equipment and equipment rules.

Hurt Locker requires the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook or any other standalone Chronicles of Darkness rulebook such as Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, or Beast: The Primordial to use.

Discover the long-awaited Secrets of the Covenants for Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition as we unearth the Advance PDF now on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/199280/Secrets-of-the-Covenants

This book includes:

A variety of stories from each of the covenants, all told in their own words.

Never-before revealed secrets, like the fate of the Prince of New Orleans.

New blood sorcery, oaths, and other hidden powers of the covenants.

We have now added a B&W PoD version of the Endless Ages Vampire Anthology to the existing full color PDF and PoD choices! 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. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/193199/V20-The-Endless-Ages-Anthology

Seek the Cainite Conspiracies, the fiction anthology for V20 Dark Ages, in PDF and PoD physical book formats! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/195704/V20-The-Cainite-Conspiracies-Anthology

This collection of short stories features tales by Vampire developers such as Justin Achilli, Eddy Webb, David A. Hill, Jr., and Neall Raemonn Price along with award-winning horror authors including Maurice Broaddus, Catherine Lundoff, and Richard Dansky.

Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition comes to life in both PDF and PoD physical book versions NOW on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/189395/Promethean-the-Created-2nd-Edition

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

CONVENTIONS!

Discussing GenCon plans. Every chance the booth will actually be 20′ x 30′ this year.

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)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

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

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

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Monarchies of Mau Early Access (Pugmire)

Redlines