Onyx Colored Thanks

Monday Meeting, News

Above you’ll see a gorgeous new piece of art from W20 Umbra that Mirthful Mike sent my way. One of things I want Onyx Path social media to do more of is presenting more examples of the amazing art we are getting for all of our projects. It doesn’t really match the theme of this week’s blog, but what the hey, I’d rather a beautiful illustration that will soon grace the pages of one of our books than another silly pic of Eddy Webb I altered in PhotoShop.

Speaking of Eddy, and the rest of the Onyx Path gang, we did not have our meetings this Monday (today). Our very good friend (and ex-president and CEO of White Wolf) Mike Tinney’s father passed away last week and today was the service and wake, which I attended. See below for how these sorts of priorities are part of what Onyx Path is all about. We’ll have the meetings Tuesday and Wednesday this week, but this blog must not be delayed. As it happens, pretty most of our projects are still at their stages from last week’s update, so a delay wouldn’t have changed anything.

Speaking of me, and by now you know I will, here’s the link to an in-depth interview I had with Jess Purdy over at GamerXP: http://www.gamer-xp.com/walking-the-onyx-path-with-rich-thomas/ We talk about how Onyx got started, and why we’re doing the 2nd Edition nWoD books, Kickstarter, and the trials and tribulations of Exalted 3rd.

Now to this weeks Thanks in our month of thanks giving. Last week I looked as far back as pre-Vampire the Masquerade at some moments that made me grateful for gaming and the lessons learned. This week, I’m looking closer to now with thanks towards the Onyx Path projects and moments that make OP so much a joy to be part of. Of course, these example will be from my owner and founder point-of-view, but please add in your own thoughts in the comments:

– This year’s Gen Con was a project unto itself, and standing there looking at all the hard work and planning pay off as folks came in and out of our very own booth and had a chance to talk with our creators was the sweet, sweet payoff. And it’s going to be even sweeter next year when we can improve on this first try.

– The Werewolf Translation Guide. Onyx Path just wasn’t real until I saw our logo on the back cover of our first book. Goosebumps.

– Kickstarter, for all that it is exhausting to run and for all the pains it brings, growing pains and otherwise, still was and is such a game changer for Onyx Path in terms of the speed with which we could bring on books to revitalize the WW game lines. My original plans, before we pulled the switch to Kickstart V20 Companion, were a lot more restrained. A lot more like the release schedule in 2011 with a few key books added. Using Kickstarter, the word got out about Onyx Path a lot faster than I had ever hoped, and that support enabled further and bigger projects.

– The God Machine Chronicle and Blood & Smoke: The Strix Chronicle releases. Personally, I never know if a direction I come up with is truly the right one for the game lines. I thought we needed a default chronicle and updated rules, but your response to those changes was so heartening, and the creative teams led by Back Hat Matt McFarland and Rollickin’ Rose Bailey respectively delivered a hundred times better than I could have imagined. And then, as a cherry on top, we got the chance to continue these and the other nWoD lines into true 2nd Editions.

– Like I mentioned above, being able to run Onyx Path in ways that reflect how I think we should work as a creative-driven house of ideas. Part of that is the business, but part of that is when the business parts give way to the needs of our lives. We have a built-in flexibility and understanding of the toll that being super creative 24/7 takes on our creators. I’ve seen, and have fallen into the trap of, creative burnout too many times in this business not to realize that there must be a better way to do all of this. Hopefully, with Onyx Path, we can keep our priorities straight. Matching projects with writers and artists I’ve known for years who need to create again, or who need a freelance project right then, or sending out a freelance check early so one of our team can pay rent the month they were robbed, gets balanced by my whole Monday Meeting crew understanding I need to postpone our regular Monday meetings in order to honor the passing of a dear friend’s father. Our work is important, but so are our lives.

There’s a million more Onyx-y things I’m grateful for and most have to do with our amazing creative folks, and our equally amazing community (youse guys), but those thanks are coming up later this month. Right now, the updates need listing:

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 How do you DO that? (Mage: the Ascension 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)

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)

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

Fallen World Chronicle Fiction Anthology (Mage: the Awakening)

Editing

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

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

Exalted 3rd Edition core book- From Holden: he’s expecting a run-down of what remains to be edited by the editor this week. (Exalted 3rd Edition)

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

Development (post-editing)

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

Idigam Chronicle Fiction Anthology (Werewolf: the Forsaken)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE