Prince’s Gambit Joy! Exalted Plans! [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting, News

Kind of feel like our vampiric character pictured above in the Prince’s Gambit Intrigue deck. Crawlin’ through some tough times to get here. But HERE is quite excellent actually.

First, our first foray into Kickstarting a card game is going gangbusters, with our Prince’s Gambit KS funding goal met in the first few hours, and our backers jumping our pledge totals past several Stretch Goals that add to the deck already. There have also been some great ideas talked about for game rules variants: everything from adding rules for Anarchs and the Inconnu to rules for fewer or more players.

Because backers can download the card PDFs and rulebook, we’ve also been getting folks telling us how much fun they’ve been having maneuvering through the Intrigues and trying to discover who’s Sabbat. Which is always so great to hear! You never know if players will enjoy the game as much as you did creating it.

If you haven’t checked it out, please do, and if you like it: spread the word. With this being our first card game, we don’t have as much of a voice in card games circles, so any help letting folks know could be huge for the game!

Also, like I mentioned last week: we’ll be holding an Ask Me (Us) Anything on Reddit this Wednesday the 29th starting around 12 noon EDT. Various developers and Onyx Path folks will be on throughout the day, and Justin Achilli will pop on in the evening after he gets done his day job to talk about Prince’s Gambit. So if you want all the inside info, that’s the place to go next week!

Just want to emphasize that this is not just for Prince’s Gambit, so we’ll answer about anything!

If you can’t make it, feel free to leave any questions you’d like us to ask during the AMA session right here in the comments.

For those who have asked: we are doing something very special for April Fool’s Day. The only thing I can say, quoting Eddy Webb, is that “On Saturday, discover the latest reason why we fired Neall!”

Which leads us nicely into a decently big chunk of information for folks concerned about Exalted 3rd Edition as a continuing game line. For weeks I’ve been mentioning that we’ve been working very diligently on putting together a plan for how we’re going to handle EX3‘s releases.

(Seriously, this is a long one).

First off, I’m incredibly happy to announce that Eric Minton and Robert Vance have agreed to become the new developers for Exalted 3rd Edition. Eric and Robert have been all over EX3 in various capacities since writing began, and their involvement and love of Exalted goes further back than that.

(I’m not even sure why I’m introducing them, actually, since our long-time community knows these guys so well).

With their help, we have put together a schedule for releases that starts with getting the Exalted 3rd Jumpstart: Tomb of Dreams out to backers as soon as we can get the finished layout approved by the new White Wolf.

Next, they are finishing up Arms of the Chosen, and we expect to have the Advance PDF ready in three months.

They are also in the process of assigning the remaining writing that needs to be done on the Dragon Blooded and The Realm books. Most of the writing for both books has been completed, so once they get used to our process for hiring writers and contracting and all that, we can nail down expectations on when the text will be done. Which is really important, because we won’t be Kickstarting Dragon Blooded until the text is completely finished.

After a lot of discussion, and a fair bit of soul-searching, we’ve decided that the next two books will be Exigents and Lunars. We love a lot of the books proposed on previous schedules, and think they would really expand and enrich EX3, but we have to start getting our Exalted community the projects they need to play NOW (or close to NOW), rather than multiple years from now.

But even with Eric and Robert revved up and excited to deliver the projects I mention above, we can’t deliver these projects backwards through time. And these new devs need to learn their new jobs.

The remaining Kickstarter Rewards will be coming out in the months to come, with Matt Forbeck telling us that his novel’s finished drafts are on their way, and Aaron Rosenberg hammering away at his novel. The EX3 Essays book is being outlined and writers are being contacted, and composer James Semple has all but one of the Exalted character themes finished. He then has to create the “adventure themes” part of the EX3 Music Suites, but needed to figure out the the character themes so he could include parts of them in the adventure themes.

I’m not a musician, so I’ll have to take his word on the process.

So what we have planned are two projects that we are going to start releasing in April. That’s right, in order to provide our community with playable material now and not waiting until the Arms of the Chosen Advance PDF is released three months from now, we’re going to be releasing a section of each book each month as PDFs.

The first book, EX3: Antagonists, will feature both individual NPCs as well as antagonist groups. Each section will be smaller than a chapter, and we’ll be combining them all together as a PDF and PoD book after we have made a good number of them available monthly.

The second book will be the EX3 Bestiary, and will features creatures of all power levels. Some will be creatures the writers of the core had to hold back on, and others will be new and determined by what gaps we see from the core book that this project can fill. We’ll release these in monthly sections that we’ll combine at some point into a book, as well.

Rather than adding projects to the new devs’ already intimidating plate, both these books will be spearheaded by writers familiar with EX3, and reviewed by Eric and Robert. (Also, both books need to be approved by the new White Wolf Publishing before we officially can go ahead with them.)

Finally, our new devs will be making themselves regularly available on the Onyx Path Exalted forum, and will be releasing excerpts and development notes and text on a regular basis. In fact, here is an excerpt from Arms of the Chosen, and in April we’ll have a look at the Dragon Blooded charms:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/15xddoahzedtkwu/Arms%20of%20the%20Chosen%20Preview.docx?dl=0

Obviously, this whole message hasn’t delved into the nitty-gritty of what brought us here, and we really don’t intend to. Instead, we are celebrating a new team of creators, as well as the monumental work that John Morke and Holden Shearer were able to accomplish through some incredibly grueling times for them personally. What glories the future holds!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

The Prince’s Gambit casual vampire card game Kickstarter went live last Thursday and funded in about 3 hours! We’ve been passing alternating Stretch Goals for adding the Independent Clans and new art at a rapid clip since then, with more cool rewards yet to come. So please check it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/princes-gambit-casual-vampire-card-game and don’t forget to join us for our Ask Me (Us) Anything on Reddit this Wednesday the 29th starting around 12 noon EDT. Various developers and Onyx Path folks will be on throughout the day, and Justin Achilli will pop on in the evening after he gets done his day job to talk about Prince’s Gambit. So if you want all the inside info, that’s the place to go!

Designed by long-time Vampire: the Masquerade tabletop RPG developer Justin Achilli, Prince’s Gambit is a fast-paced social deduction game set within the world of Vampire, but which requires no special knowledge to play. Players must cooperate to gain the favor of the Prince while deducing who among them are secretly the traitorous Sabbat infiltrators.

Next, the Monarchies of Mau KS is scheduled come 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/

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages!

Beasts are added to Hunter: the Vigil with Tooth and Nail, coming atcha in PDF and physical book Pod versions this Wednesday on DriveThruRPG.com! In conjunction with HtV: Tooth and Nail going on sale, we will also be releasing new TShirts on our RedBubble site featuring the new symbols from the book!

The Secrets of the Covenants for Vampire: the Requiem 2nd REVEALED this Wednesday on DTRPG! Physical copy PoD version coming to DTRPG: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/199280/Secrets-of-the-Covenants

Vampires gather under many banners. But five have endured the tumult of Western history better than any other. The Carthian Movement. The Circle of the Crone. The Invictus. The Lancea et Sanctum. The Ordo Dracul. Each has its fierce devotees, its jealous rivals, and its relentless enemies. Now,for the first time, the covenants speak for themselves. 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.

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Fallen Blossoms (Hunter 1640-1660 Japan). Japan is moving into the Edo Period. New laws and new ways of thinking wash over the land, and with a new order come new threats to humanity. Take a look at the Vigil in a time where samurai transition from warlords to bureaucrats, Japan massively and lethally rejects outside influence, and when Edo rapidly grows into a world power.

Continuing our individual Dark Eras chapters, we offer you Dark Eras: Fallen Blossoms on in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/205483/Dark-Eras-Fallen-Blossoms-Hunter-the-Vigil

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Doubting Souls (Hunter 1690-1695 Salem). Immigrants and tribes struggled to co-exist on the Eastern Seaboard in the ever-expanding Colonies. Violent clashes, supernatural beliefs, and demonic influences spelled disaster for Salem Village and its surrounding towns, while others fought werewolves and vampires on the frontier. With so much at risk, only god-fearing men and women were deemed innocent — and those were few indeed.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204372/Dark-Eras-Doubting-Souls-Hunter-the-Vigil

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Bowery Dogs (Werewolf 1969-1979 NYC). New York City in the 1970s. Crime. Drugs. Gang violence. Vast economic disparity. And werewolves. It’s a lean, ugly time to be alive, and the lone wolf doesn’t stand a chance out there. In the end, all you really have is family.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/203762/Dark-Eras-The-Bowery-Dogs-Werewolf-the-Forsaken

The Locker is open; the Chronicles of Darkness: Hurt Locker, that is! PDF and physical copy PoDs are 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.

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Ruins of Empire (Mummy 1893-1924). Perhaps the quintessential era of the mummy in the minds of Westerners, this period saw the decline of the two greatest empires of the age: British and Ottoman. Walk with the Arisen as they bear witness to the death of the Victorian age, to pivotal mortal discoveries in Egypt, and to the horrors of the Great War.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/178801/Dark-Eras-Ruins-of-Empire-Mummy-the-Curse

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Sundered World (Werewolf and Mage 5500-5000 BCE). At the birth of civilization, in the shadow of the Fall, the Awakened stand as champions and protectors of the agricultural villages spread across the Balkans. In a world without a Gauntlet, where Shadow and flesh mingle, the steady taming of the world by humanity conflicts with the half-spirit children of Father Wolf.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202272/Dark-Eras-The-Sundered-World-Werewolf-the-Forsaken-Mage-the-Awakening

Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes for Beast: the Primordial is available now as an Advance PDF: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202615/Night-Horrors-Conquering-Heroes

This book includes:

An in-depth look at how Heroes hunt and what makes a Hero, with eleven new Heroes to drop into any chronicle.

A brief look at why Beasts may antagonize one another, with seven new Beasts to drop into any chronicle.

Rules for Insatiables, ancient creatures born of the Primordial Dream intent on hunting down Beasts to fill a hunger without end, featuring six examples ready to use in any chronicle.

The PDF and physical book PoD versions of 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.

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

CONVENTIONS!

Discussing GenCon plans. August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Every chance the booth will actually be 20? x 30? this year that we’ll be sharing with friends. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s).

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: https://www.gameholecon.com/

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: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

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

M20 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 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)

Monarchies of Mau Early Access (Pugmire)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)



Redlines