Werewolves and There Wolves.
By
richt
– October 1, 2012
Posted in: Monday Meeting
Just back from
Atlanta by Night. Had a great time there- it was half talking to fans about
White Wolf projects and the
Onyx Path and half talking to old friends in and out of
CCP. Here are the results of Justin’s live outlining session for
V20′s Anarchs Unbound:
http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/2012/...archs-unbound-live-outlining-session-results/ It was a fun session with a lot, a lot, of audience involvement, which was really the whole idea. This is the first step- a mind map- of the topics to be considered in the book and next Justin will create a more standard outline based on the mind map. Go ahead and comment and add to the mix there on the blogs- it’s still a work in progress.
So, obviously, Eddy and I talked a lot about
AbN at lunch today, and the various business deals that were discussed there. We talked a fair bit about other conventions too, as I’d like
Onyx Path to have more of a presence at cons this coming year. Unfortunately, Eddy was still recovering from his ear issues and so was very selective about what parties and such he attended as he can only do so much before vertigo sets in- me and Justin were less circumspect, as I think we started off dizzy and just kept going. And we talked about the
W20 Kickstarter, which leads to this:
- So the big news is that the
W20 Deluxe edition Kickstarter goes live at
9am Eastern US time tomorrow,
Tuesday the 2nd. I was asked to announce a day in advance so that those reward tiers that have a limited number of slots aren’t filled up before folks are aware that the
KS has started. But this brings up a good point that I will digress to now:
What is Kickstarter and Why is W20 Being Featured There?
Basically, Kickstarter is a process where people can pledge money to help achieve a particular project goal. In our case, we need funds to enable the expensive cover treatments and other deluxe elements like gilded page edges and silk ribbon bookmarks that go into making the 20th Anniversary books so cool. In order to make the process more fun, there is a ladder of reward tiers based on the amount you’re willing to pledge to help us reach this goal. At first the rewards are mostly PDFs and such, but then we get into rewards which provide you with the actual book, and even higher reward tiers will enable you to get your character’s name in the Example of Play, or get original art work from Ron Spencer, or interview or play W20 with Ethan Skemp.
Now the thing is, this is a way for you to enable us to make the book in a deluxe format, and there are reward tiers where you’ll get the book, so a lot of our community sees the Kickstarter as a pre-order system like how V20 was ordered on the WW/CCP web store, or like ordering from Amazon. But it really isn’t. Those are one-and-done situations, where you place the order and the book gets shipped eventually to your door- KS can give you the chance to do so much more. There’s the KS community, with comment forums and the ability to directly send ideas and questions right to me built into the KS site. There’s the idea that you can get rewards that place you in a level of involvement with our creative process that was never possible before- particularly when tied into our Open Dev Process on the WW blogs. And there’s the sheer fact that we’re only going to make the Deluxe W20 Edition if you, the community, tell us by your pledging to do so.
But I can certainly understand folks not wanted to get into all that extra stuff- after all, we’re gamers and we love our books- and these deluxe books aren’t cheap. Just please bear in mind that we, the creators, do see this as a process and it isn’t the cut and dried way of making and distributing books that we used for 20 years- that system is simply gone. There is no more WW/CCP web store, and Amazon isn’t getting this book. Only you guys are- if you back it. And bear in mind that the PDF and PoD versions will eventually be on DTRPG even if we don’t do the W20 Deluxe. So why am I carping on this not being a Pre-Order (and why is Kickstarter itself carping on not being a store)? Because having the idea that all this is is a Pre-Order can set up preconceived notions as to what to expect based on past experiences. This Kickstarter thing is a brand new animal for us and that can create a really big gap between the experience you expect in order to get the W20 Deluxe book into your hands and the experience we are working with in working with our backers on this process of creating this W20 Deluxe Edition. For example, there isn’t really a price for a Deluxe Edition. There’s the reward tier that first contains the actual Deluxe Edition that very much seems like the “price”, but is in fact for us the lowest reward tier level we can include the actual book in and still be sure we’re covering costs. That might be a finer distinction than some might want to consider, but it’s an important one as it ties into our whole reason for going to the community for funding. If people want these editions, and so back these editions, we will make these editions if they cover costs. In the end, I carp on this because I don’t want anyone in our community upset by this- we started creating the 20th Anniversary Editions because of wanting to give back to our fans and I don’t want to have this process ruin the good feelings that make all this work worthwhile.
Finally, there was a lot of interest in Mage the Ascension’s 20th Anniversary Edition at AbN this weekend. Let me tell you what we told folks there and have been saying for a year now- we’ll make the call on M20 once we see how W20 is received. In other words, because MtA and WtA always had about equal fan interest (based on sales) our thinking is that whatever interest there is in W20 will be about the same for M20. So, if the W20 Deluxe Kickstarter does well, then M20 will be approved- no doubt about it. Some fans have said that then they’ll buy W20 just to get M20 made, and I’m really not suggesting that that strategy is the way to go. I don’t want anybody thinking we’re holding their chances for an M20 hostage by holding a gun to the werewolf’s head. What I am saying is that having actual numbers goes a long way in determining whether we can devote the time and energy to getting M20 up and running and these are the numbers that can best inform us.
-
V20 Deluxe Children of the Revolution KS is looking good. I got the proofs for the deluxe edition the day I left for
AbN, of course, and I’m looking at them now. They’ll get sent back to the printer ASAP. Waiting for the
PoD version hard copy proof- figure sometime in the next couple of days- as soon a approvals are done we’ll set the
PDF and
PoD to go live.
V20 Red List was something Matt McElroy and I talked about a fair bit at
AbN, and he’s feeling really good about how the various parts are coming together. Gathering the email discussions with artists for the
Making of the Art of CotR PDF still. Going to post photos of the proofs in the Update to backers this week.
-
Hunters Hunted 2 for
V20 is mid-way through final development as Justin pulls it together. I think. He mumbled a lot this weekend.
-
Mummy the Cursed might be. Craig is getting back to me on whether any layout files were damaged after his place was broken into this weekend. More when I have it. Going to look at the
Deluxe Mummy Kickstarter after we get the
W20 KS rolling along.
- Need approvals on
Silent Knife and
Left Handed Path from
CCP.
- Layout for the
NWO Convention Book starts this week.
- Matt McFarland is real close to delivering his
God Machine Fiction Anthology text. Is that name too dull or too long? “Cogs of the God Machine”? “Gears of the God Machine”?
- Eddy is a jerk and a loser and stinks and is a stinker because he might be late on his Noir-flavored Strix story for the
Strix Fiction Anthology.
-
Exalted 3- remember last weeks update?…same thing. Some stretches of time are like that.
Reason to Drink: Don’t need a drink, need to work and get caught up. Going to talk to each Dev this week. Will drink after the week is out (plus have enough alcohol stored in my hump from this weekend).
