Podcast [White Wolf] Montags-Treffen, Blogcast & Darker Days

Hey Look, the Blog is Back Up! Let’s Have Lunch.

By
richt
– October 8, 2012Posted in: Monday Meeting

Eddy and I are both recovered from the Con-Crud that hit us beginning of last week, which is nice. Discussed the WWBlogs going down for a bit last week- must wailing and gnashing of teeth, but we think the solution is at hand. Lots of Kickstarter strategy and analysis, a good chat about the Requiem and Masquerade audiences and whether folks ebb and flow from one line to the other. Eddy says fans keep expecting him to choose one as favorite, but he, and most of us who work on them, think that each line has some real strengths and coolness to it- but maybe that’s because we’re digging around inside vs having to pick one to play on game night. We talked a good bit at the end about “Elementary” and while Eddy hasn’t seen it yet as he streams his video, we still talked a fair bit about modern day Holmes on TV- we’re both big fans of the BBC’s brilliant ” Sherlock”, and I maintain that the creators of “Elementary” made Watson into a woman more from a desire to differentiate from the Robert Downey movies or from “House” than from “Sherlock”. This is the stuff our conversations tend to be made up of. Also, Eddy notes that the presentation we were both working on when I was also on the WoD MMO (which is coming along quite nicely I’m told, thanks for asking) to introduce the core ideas of Vampire to the MMO teams is back on his plate and he’s putting it together. Very glad to hear it actually, as maintaining the WW vision for this World of Darkness we created is, I think, vital to the quality of what we’re all creating- either tabletop with Onyx Path, or the WoD MMO. And now, on to the updates:

- Silent Knife (VtR) and Left Handed Path (nMtA) are in review at CCP.

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) is in layout- some art is getting tweaked.

- The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) is in layout.

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) are getting written.

- Mummy the Cursed is being re-laid out after the files were damaged. These things happen. Drawing up plans for the MtC Kickstarter.

- Talking to the EX3 guys all this week. Sig character sketches need to magically get scanned in to my computer so I can share them with the team.

- Justin continues his development work on V20 Hunters Hunted 2, but has sent me some notes for art.

- Last lingering copies and details of rewards for the Deluxe V20 Companion are being taken care of.

- Sent back printer proofs for Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution, and made correction on PoD proofs.

- Obviously, the big news has been the amazing success of the Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter- wow! We have not only hit the goal but so far you guys have contributed so that we have blown past 4 Stretch Goals- headed towards the W20 Screen unlock goal now. Tell your friends this thing is happening- and how!

Reason to Drink: Woohoo and Arroooo! Deluxe W20 is going to be gorgeous!

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Orakel schrieb:

Edit: Oh, ich sehe gerade, dass meine Vorschläge für die WoD/Requiem-Listen tatsächlich aufgenommen wurden.

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My Bytes Bit
By
richt – October 16, 2012Posted in: Monday Meeting

So here’s the Monday Meeting Notes on Tuesday- we actually had the Meeting yesterday, but as I was writing this yesterday I had both my laptop and my Mac crap out. Boom. Scary moment- I thought it was my super anti-electronics power coming back. I’ve got the laptop up and working for now, and the Apple Store just called to say that the “firmware was fixed”. Good to know.

As I cast my mind back to yesterday, I seem to recall that Eddy and I discussed the art and project approvals that should be coming from CCP this week, as well as confirming a few notes from last week’s Approval meeting. All hush-hush, but you’ll be seeing the results in the next few weeks starting with the Onyx Path 10-Sided Dice Pool Dice-Roller App that we’ve been working on. This is a very basic App, but one we can build from. First changes would be skins for the various game-lines. More involved would be upgrading the functionality. We’re starting small and then building, rather than promising the moon and falling short. We’re still testing this and getting set up with the Apple store (but not the one where my Mac is sitting fixed) and we hope to go live very soon.

We also discussed “Elementary”, which as readers of this blog know all too well, was the subject of much discussion last week. This week, Eddy agrees with me: decent procedural, not much real Holmes.

Eddy also says he discovered an unknown bit of creative zip that allowed him to finish his piece of fiction for the Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology. Looking forward to reading a Noir take on the setting. My creative zip is more along the lines of getting caught up on a great many things- I’m expecting to put up a post on the revised WW Schedule over on the Onyx Path website www.theonyxpath.com later in the week. Check it out.

As for project updates, I’m cutting and pasting from last week (with a few added notes), which is not all that bad as we’re in the week I expect to resolve these into the next stage of their development:

- Silent Knife (VtR) and Left Handed Path (nMtA) are in review at CCP. Should be able to be uploaded to DTRPG for PoD approval this week if there aren’t major requested changes.

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) is in layout- some art is getting tweaked.

- The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) is in layout.

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) are getting written.

- Mummy the Cursed is being re-laid out- half of the book is finished rough layout. Drawing up plans for the MtC Kickstarter and will be talking with CA Suleiman later in the week.

- Talking to the EX3 guys all this week. Sig character sketches need to magically get scanned in to my computer so I can share them with the team. Taking a hard look at the schedule.

- Justin continues his development work on V20 Hunters Hunted 2, but has sent me some notes for art. And more notes.

- Last lingering copies and details of rewards for the Deluxe V20 Companion are being taken care of.

- Sent back printer proofs for Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution, and made correction on PoD proofs. So need PoD hardcopy new proof, and word from printer on CotR status.

- Obviously, the big news has been the amazing success of the Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter- wow! We have not only hit the goal but so far you guys have contributed so that we have blown past 6 Stretch Goals- including the W20 Screen unlock, two upgrades to Deluxe W20 itself, and two new W20 novels being written by Bill Bridges and Mike Lee respectively, and tearing towards unlocking a W20 fiction anthology featuring brand new WtA stories by such awesome writers as Bill, Ethan Skemp, and Stew Wilson. Tell your friends this thing is happening- and how!

- A couple of folks have asked about the Restoration Edition of Book of Nod. This amazingly page-by-page reconstructed edition (there were no original electronic files) will be available from DTRPG as soon as they finish a couple more internal proofing tests- they really want to make sure this version is as perfect as it was originally imagined almost two decades ago. So strangely enough, I’m not the hold-up here- but I stand with DTRPG’s crew in their desire to give you the highest quality and not to rush the book out.

Reason to Drink: It’s mid-October and the leaves are falling here signifying that the world as we know it is dying for another year… if you’re somewhere where Fall is not falling, then just have a drink already.

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Feeling Very White Rabbity

By richt
– October 23, 2012Posted in: Monday Meeting

Trying to reconfigure the current WW Release Schedule, and juggle messaging for our W20 Kickstarter- now entering its last week!- so barely had time to sit down for an hour with Eddy this week. With the help of Mike “The Machine” Chaney on art direction and layout design, a lot of our projects are being dragged kicking and screaming back to our intended release dates- or at least no further late. Some we can’t help as outside forces, evil pernicious forces, push the releases further out, and some we choose to spend more time on, but like I said in July: we’re staying flexible.

This week, Eddy and I discussed a bunch of the art in review with CCP, and making sure we were caught up with that and the Silent Knife and Left Hand Path‘s reviews. I mentioned that I’m doing the Run For Your Life zombie run again this year on Saturday with my eldest daughter- and we’re worried she might take a couple of actors out for the count if instinct tells her they’re real zombies. We went over the care and feeding of developers and how every one of our crew are both talented and passionate about making RPGs, even though they’re all raving maniacs. As always, a fair bit of our talk was about Kickstarters and new cool ideas that are being brought together in KS land. Monte Cook already has a How-To book available at DriveThru ( I need to read that and steal some ideas ). As I’m looking at the Mummy KS this week, the discussion was timely. Then it was time to run down the projects coming up so Eddy knows when things might be ready for review, and Eddy mentioned that he’s hoping to set up a couple of folks (perhaps even his wife, Michelle) at CCP to help him with keeping approvals timely:

- Silent Knife (VtR) and Left Handed Path (nMtA) have been uploaded to DTRPG for PoD approval this week. If we can roll through them, they’ll still be in time to release in October.

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) is going into final proofing. From there, to CCP for approval.

- The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) is in layout.

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) are getting written.

- Mummy the Curse is in layout proofing. Going to submit plans for the MtC Kickstarter to KS after a series of excellent chats with CA Suleiman.

- EX3 has an art bible and visual guide and is next on my list to dive into- I already know what stage the writing is at, but the graphics need to be getting a move on. Taking a hard look at the schedule.

- The Restoration Edition of Book of Nod is available in softcover at DriveThruRPG and the hard cover version will be coming soon. If you’ve never tried ordering a PoD book from DTRPG, then this is a perfect chance to see just how far the PoD process has come in terms of quality. With the new files and the PoD printing quality you can see lines of text clearly throughout the book that were obscured for decades, and details in the artwork that add so much to the imagery of this “Bible of the Kindred”.

- Justin says V20 Hunters Hunted 2 will head into Editing next week, and Anarchs Unbound is next on his slate as he sends out the outline to writers.

- Last lingering copies and details of rewards for the Deluxe V20 Companion are being taken care of.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution has finished printing, now it enters binding after I see a full dummy of the interior pages bound up. The PDF and PoD versions go on sale this week.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter continues to be amazing as more stretch goals are achieved- including the W20 Screen unlock, two upgrades to Deluxe W20 itself, and two new W20 novels being written by Bill Bridges and Mike Lee respectively, a W20 fiction anthology featuring brand new WtA stories by such awesome writers as Bill, Ethan Skemp, and Stew Wilson, and a W20 version of the Dice Roller App. With this moving into the last week it promises to get crazy as folks make their final pledges- and we’re looking at adding some surprises to amp up the craziness even further.

Reason To Drink: We survived a year since the Black Day. Some doors close, some open, some you drunkenly stumble through.

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Gonna Be Short Before Power Goes Out
By
richt
– October 29, 2012Posted in: Monday Meeting

So, Frankenstorm is here and kind of just raining right now, but we already got the call from the power company to expect loss of power for days into the end of the week. Crappy if that’s the case, but we’ll see. meanwhile, Eddy and I met and discussed his medical issues- still dizzy, going in for a check and antibiotics from the doctor- and Rescue Pug Show this weekend. I, on the other hand, raced against zombies at Run For Your Life in Maryland and emerged just barely alive- both from the zombies and how I feel today with the achys and the ouchys. Prepped for this storm all weekend and had lovely and excessive amounts of Fogo de Chao meat Sunday night at a family thing. Meanwhile, things continue apace with our books and projects- Eddy is getting us approvals on the W20 Comic by Bill and John Bridges (writer and artist respectively) and the NWO Convention Book. Again, we compared notes on systems and developers.
Looking at the schedule, there are a couple of things we need to change: we need a realistic release date for both Mummy the Curse and Exalted 3. Mummy I hope to have out this year in PDF/PoD form, EX3 has to be set in February if we hope to really give the new work John, Holden, and Geoff, are doing solid playtests and polish. I’m going to get the schedule on the OnyxPath website schedule altered to reflect these big changes as well as the slips we already have seen happen. Things are tightening up though, so that’s a good step.

- Silent Knife (VtR) and Left Handed Path (nMtA) have been uploaded to DTRPG for PoD approval this week. Waiting for PoD proofs…October still? Maybe if the storm doesn’t screw it up.

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) is to CCP for approval.

- The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) is in layout.

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) are getting written.

- Mummy the Curse is in layout proofing. Going to submit plans for the MtC Kickstarter to KS after a series of excellent chats with CA Suleiman.

- EX3 has an art bible and visual guide and is next on my list to dive into- I already know what stage the writing is at, but the graphics need to be getting a move on. Slated for Feb 2013 now.

- Justin says V20 Hunters Hunted 2 will head into Editing next week, and Anarchs Unbound is next on his slate as he sends out the outline to writers.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution in binding. The PDF and PoD versions went on sale last Friday at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter is in the last week of the Kickstarter and has been a massive success! Only three more days to pledge and get yiourself and all your friends copies. Pledge for the Heavy Metal Edition and get a book with a slab of metal on the cover punched through by Garou talons! A one of a kind collector’s item only available through this KS.
Reason To Drink: Frankenstorm: Weesa gonna die?

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Glad That Week is Over!
By
richt
– November 5, 2012Posted in: Monday Meeting

Thanks, Sandy- it was great. I’ll call you. Really. So, a week ago I mentioned I might lose power and be out of touch for a few days. Turned into almost a week. I had no internet access for most of that time and even my phone data wasn’t really working right until Friday. So every damn thing is backed up and I’ll be playing catch up until this time next week. Thanks to all of you who sent good thoughts my way or were otherwise just not the guys who kept emailing me with impatient messages and demands. So real quick:
Had lunch talk with Eddy and mostly recounted the power-outage and Wreck-it Ralph (which I took my kids to since sitting in the cold house waiting for power got old). Very much enjoyed it, and continue to love how Pixar adds depth and story to simple concepts, vs a lot of “kids” movies that start high concept and never go anywhere- you feel like you watched a cartoon whereas most Pixar films feel to me like I’ve seen an actual film. Which is how it should be. Not much else to talk about although we touched base on the W20 KS and how frustrating it was for me not to be able to message the backers as the last 36 hours went by. But things certainly turned out to be a rousing success, so maybe I should have a “power failure” at the end of the next one, too.

Like I said, not much progress:

- Silent Knife (VtR) and Left Handed Path (nMtA) have been uploaded to DTRPG for PoD approval this week. These were both revised based on PoD copy read-throughs. We’re back to square one on getting PoD copies and reviewing them.

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) is approved by CCP and a PoD version is on its way to me. Hope folks enjoyed the “trick” on DTRPG’s site over Halloween.

- The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) just needs a finished logo and it’ll go in for CCP approval this week.

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) are getting written. GMC is almost done.

- Mummy the Curse is in layout proofing. Going to submit plans for the MtC Kickstarter to KS after a series of excellent chats with CA Suleiman. And, again I’m going to try this and aim to have it up next week.

- EX3 has an art bible and visual guide and is next on my list to dive into- I already know what stage the writing is at, but the graphics need to be getting a move on. Slated for Feb 2013 now.

- Justin says V20 Hunters Hunted 2 will head into Editing this week, and Anarchs Unbound is next on his slate as he sends out the outline to writers.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution in binding. The PDF and PoD versions is on sale at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter is over and WOW! what a success! The Garou have howled! We beat our original goal by over %400 (I think… it’s math) and we’re doing W20 Deluxe, and the W20 Deluxe Heavy Metal Edition, but also 2 novels, 1 fiction anthology, a Storyteller’s Screen, the White Howlers Tribebook, and something like 6 more stretch goals that were achieved. Truly a testament to the love folks have for Werewolf the Apocalypse.

Reason To Drink: SANDY!!!

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The Finest Actor of His Generation

By
richt
– November 12, 2012Posted in: Monday Meeting

After a week of knuckling down and trying to get caught up after Sandy (not completely up to date, but made a dent in it- thanks for asking) I went out last night to see Shatner’s World and very much enjoyed seeing a man whose message was “Say yes- take risks”. Eddy and I discussed the show, how good and energized Shatner looks and acts, and the effects of fan expectations- either to an actor who has made peace with being type-cast as a fan-favorite character, or for “nostalgia” editions of game books.
Since Eddy had seen Skyfall over the weekend, these two entertainment moments gave us a chance to chatter on about the need for Anniversaries (Shatner’s 50 years performing, 50 years of Bond, next year’s 50 years of Dr Who and also, ahem, richt, and the 20th Anniversary Editions of VtM, WtA and the newly confirmed Mage the Ascension) and how you have to treat them with care. They need to be a celebration, they need to have the highest quality you can give them, and while you are giving a lot of thought to how to deliver all the parts that fans are expecting you should also be looking at how the anniversary event is also an opportunity to move things into the current era.
Shatner has recreated himself past his roles and sometimes bad career choices to a place where just being him is an event, Eddy feels that Skyfall is actually the Bond 50th Anniversary Edition vs the 24th film in Bond canon and has set the stage for a Bond relevant to our times while celebrating the eras that came before, and a lot of my talks last week about Onyx Path projects were based around celebrating an older setting, but making it great to play now.
Of course, I’m having a lot of talks with Phil Brucato about his development role on Mage20th, and I was having our very first discussions with Trinity Continuum uber-developer Ian Watson and (Trinity Continuum) Aeon developer John Snead about where we can take the whole Continuum in the years to come. More info on those specific projects as they continue to gestate. Currently:

- Silent Knife (VtR) and The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) have been approved by CCP and I need to see PoD hard proofs- maybe this week?

- Left Handed Path (nMtA) is for sale at DriveThruRPG!

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) is approved by CCP and a PoD version is on its way to me.

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) are getting written. GMC is almost done.

- Mummy the Curse is coming to me as a 2nd proof. Going to submit plans for the MtC Kickstarter to KS and hope they approve it ASAP. Things last week bogged this down, unfortunately.

- EX3 to say again: Slated for Feb 2013 now.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 is in Editing and Art Direction this week, and Anarchs Unbound is next on his slate as he sends out the outline to writers.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution in binding. The PDF and PoD versions is on sale at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter is over I’m looking at preparing the surveys to get back to folks.

-Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013!

Reason To Drink: KHAAAAN!!!

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‘Ears to you, Eddy Webb.

By richt – November 20, 2012Posted in: Monday Meeting

Eddy had some great news, health-wise. He’s had almost no perceptible hearing loss from the operations and is pretty much back to where he was earlier this year- which the doctor says is an amazing recovery. Good on you, mate! We spent far too long on a kind of dual train of consciousness conversation that went like this: Skyfall -> Updating Classic Characters -> Different Look -> Confusing Glass Room -> Kurosawa Knew How -> Nolan Doesn’t -> What was Up w/Albert Finney? -> Sean? -> Richard Farnsworth-> Hawaii 5-0 and Shelly Berman -> Too Much Batman? -> Frank Miller -> Noir Women Use Sex or Are Victims -> Sin City Not a Parody -> We Should Talk About Work. I’ll let you folks fill in the actual words we used between and inside those topics.

We’re starting to get a bit caught up, with the exception of big projects like Mummy, which is very heartening release-wise, but there are also behind-the-scenes things which are also finally happening. Some are interesting and will be broadcast as soon as it makes sense to do so, and some are dull but vital- such as getting caught up on contracts. For now- here is where things stand this somewhat shortened week (we have our Thanksgiving holiday here in the US on Thursday and Friday):

- Silent Knife (VtR) and The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) are both ready to be put on sale at DTRPG- maybe today! Two great books of fiction available in a variety of formats and just in time to give you something to do if you’re in the US and need something to read to avoid talking to Aunt Clara- the one with the mole on her eyelid.

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) a new PoD version is on its way to me as the first one had a few file errors. Which is why we do proofs before going live. Still looks good for November.

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is still being written. As some folks might have read on Twitter, God Machine is in editing and tight, tight development.

- Mummy the Curse is still coming to me as a 2nd proof. Our designer’s computer woes continue as his OS needed to be reinstalled. Never name a book with a hostile title. This is a Curse, the Eternal Struggle was actually that, etc. Still pulling together the KS.

- EX3 to say again: Slated for Feb 2013 now. Just talked with the Devs and things are moving along nicely here- because of the intricate machine that is Exalted, each change has to be carefully fit into the whole. And that is taking time. But the manuscript is coming together, the systems are in developer playtests in preparation for being sent to external playtesters, and art notes are being written soon.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 is in Editing and Art Direction this week, and Anarchs Unbound‘s outline is out to writers and on the V20 blog: http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution is in binding. The PDF and PoD versions is on sale at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter is over I’m looking at preparing the surveys to get back to folks.

- Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato is on the case!

Reason To Drink: Thanksgiving- my favorite holiday because it’s focusing to look back on a year and give thanks. Drinking because Target has people working on the holiday and Christmas shopping displays went up before Halloween. Razzin’ frazzin!

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Post-Turkey, Pre-Fir Tree

By richt – November 26, 2012
Posted in: Monday Meeting

Wow- where did November go? So Eddy and I caught up on the holiday, some positive infrastructure evolution at CCP USA, and only a little talk about Rise of the Guardians, which I was hesitant to see based on reviews and then enjoyed when dragged there by my kids. Lots of very pretty and evocative visuals (the Easter Egg monoliths were very cool), and a deeper look at the myths underlying the Guardians than I expected. Made me wonder what a Scion campaign based on the idea that you’re descended from kid myths like those would be like, and whether that’d be Scion for adults or something that parents could play with their kids. So we riffed on that for awhile.
Also a bit on protecting CCP/WW’s IP rights and why efforts are made, even for little issues, to legally enforce them- if any rights owner doesn’t actively defend those rights the law allows an “erosion” of those rights and eventually, you lose them. Of course, this is all Eddy and my layman points of view, not legal opinions. But mostly we talked about administrative issues that happen behind the scenes and then did a run-down like you’ll see below. Sorry- not our most exciting MML notes.

- We’re doing a different sort of sales thing with DriveThruRPG that started on Black Friday: basically pop-up sales that last for about an hour and are for some outrageous deal. First time trying this, it takes a lot of man-hours over at DTRPG (thanks, Matt!), and so far our feedback has been mixed. Do you folks like stuff like this? Let me know. Also- it’s still going on!

- Silent Knife (VtR) was pulled back off the release schedule when, as I read through the book, I found a couple of places where the paragraph font size suddenly jumped a couple of points. No idea why, but we had to fix that and try and get a new proof. Not a major issue, but it just looks bad.

- The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) is on sale now at DriveThruFiction (and cross available at DTRPG too I believe) and reviews are very positive so far. If you love WW Fiction, if you’re interested in The God Machine generally or interested in the upcoming Chronicle game book specifically, I encourage you to check it out. Available in our standard PDFor PoD formats but also in ePub and Mobi for fans who like to read on their tablets.

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) a new PoD version is on its way to me as the first one had a few file errors. Which is why we do proofs before going live. Still looks good for November- we will get this out as scheduled!

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is still being written. As some folks might have read on Twitter, God Machine is in editing and tight, tight development.

- Mummy the Curse is still coming to me as a 2nd proof tonight, I’m told. We still want to get an editor on creating a strong index for this before we can go on sale. Still pulling together the KS.

- EX3 to say again: Slated for Feb 2013 now. Just talked with the Devs and things are moving along nicely here- because of the intricate machine that is Exalted, each change has to be carefully fit into the whole. And that is taking time. But the manuscript is coming together, the systems are in developer playtests in preparation for being sent to external playtesters, and art notes are being written soon. Not Kickstartering this this year-we’ll get back to you on when, but Feb 2013 looks good.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 is in Editing and Art Direction this week, and Anarchs Unbound‘s outline is out to writers and on the V20 blog: http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution is on its way to the shippers from the printer- I still need confirmation that it got there. The PDF and PoD versions is on sale at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter is over and I’m preparing the surveys to get back to backers this week.

- Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato is on the case!

- W20 Changing Breeds is also in Art Direction and Editing. We have to get backer info and photographs from the w20 Deluxe Kickstarter backers so that folks who are going to appear depicted in the art can get us in photos for reference.

- Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being wriiten.

Reason To Drink: A salute to Ryan Macklin and his writing team and Mike Chaney, AD and layout artist extraordinaire, who have pulled Convention Book NWO together and worked hard to get it out on time!

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Mummy Getting All Wrapped Up…

By
richt – December 3, 2012
Posted in: Monday Meeting

Not much in the way of cultural reference in our talk today- mostly talking approval processes and schedules. Did go over a bit on the #1reasonwhy commentaries on Twitter and elsewhere as both Eddy and I have very strong opinions on the importance and value of women game designers and other creators. One of the great parts of hearing from the community during the V20 and W20 projects has been hearing the stories from fans who became so because they or a friend felt like WW’s products didn’t shut them out. And a bunch of those fans (male and female) went on to be creators in the RPG and computer game industry- where they’ve faced other struggles for acceptance and just simple respect as the commentaries make appallingly plain. Thanks to Eddy for letting me know what was going on there, and then we moved from real world issues right to the unreal world of creating paper RPGs and what’s what:

- Silent Knife (VtR) I got the new hard proof, it looks good, expect to see this made available on DTRPG this week.

- The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) is on sale now at DriveThruFiction (and cross available at DTRPG too I believe). If you want more WW Fiction, check this out and spread the word.

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) I wrote “Still looks good for November- we will get this out as scheduled!” last week and in fact we did! Yeah! Sales are excellent and we’ll see how folks like this. Check it out on DTRPG and write a review- let other folks know what you think about the first new official Mage the Ascension book in years!

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is still being written. As some folks might have read on Twitter, God Machine is in editing and tight, tight development.

- Mummy the Curse has been reviewed in second proof form, and with a few tweaks we hope to get this in front of the CCP Review Board and out to an editor for the Index. (Ha ha ha for all of you joking about WW indexes, but check out the V20 index and tell me we’re not serious about them). Still pulling together the KS- every time I get ready to submit, I get new info that makes me reconfigure the KS.

- EX3 to say again: Slated for Feb 2013 now. Just talked with the Devs and things are moving along nicely here- because of the intricate machine that is Exalted, each change has to be carefully fit into the whole. And that is taking time. But the manuscript is coming together, the systems are in developer playtests in preparation for being sent to external playtesters, and art notes are being written soon. Not Kickstartering this this year-we’ll get back to you on when, but Feb 2013 looks good.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 is in Editing and Art Direction this week, and Anarchs Unbound‘s outline is out to writers and on the V20 blog: http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution is at the shippers. Justin is signing a bunch of books as per the rewards, I signed a T-shirt and sent it to him, and I’ll have a Kickstarter Update to let our wonderful Backers know where things stand. The PDF and PoD versions is on sale at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter Surveys are out. Mike Lee is writing his novel. I looked at the W20 first proof and while there are changes, it looks sweet so far.

-Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato is on the case!

- W20 Changing Breeds is also in Art Direction and Editing. We have to get backer info and photographs from the w20 Deluxe Kickstarter backers so that folks who are going to appear depicted in the art can get us in photos for reference.

- Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being written.

- Conventionbook: Progenitors (cMtA) is being written.

- W20 Rage Across the World seems to be almost done development according to Stew Wilson- Stew is another hero pushing to get us back on schedule- check out his blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/

Reason To Drink: Unseasonably warm weather here at Onyx Path headquarters- we drink because the warmth is a lie from winter, but we love it anyway.

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Why We’re Media Junkies.

By richt – December 10, 2012
Posted in: Monday Meeting

You folks out there might notice that I start a lot of these Monday Lunch Meeting Notes by mentioning that Eddy and I talked about this show, or this book, or this game or movie, etc. That’s because we like to compare notes as to what we enjoyed in the previous week- you have to remember that when I was down in ATL working on the WoDMMO (doing very well, I hear, thanks) he and I hung out every day and even after when we were Transmedia we talked several times a day. So now we usually get this once a week opportunity to go over what’s new.

Now I could skip that part, I certainly edit other info that isn’t pertinent, but actually I think that it is of interest to understand that not only to we enjoy these things, but we look at them critically in the old use of the word- we break down what we’re enjoying into pieces that help inform us as to how drama, or comedy, or editing, or even the politics of what happened with a particular piece of media behind the scenes, can be understood and used in our own projects. For example, for years I’ve had the idea that the organizational process of creating our RPG books could be likened to the creation of a weekly comedy skit show. Lots of different creators with lots of different ideas that have to be combined correctly and with formats, a budget, and a deadline, but still the end result has to be really, really creative. Towards that, I took the time over the years to read “insider” info on SNL, SCTV, Monty Python, Kids in the Hall, etc. (I won’t go into the results of all that here- maybe another blog post on the Onyx Path site, or buy me a drink at a con and I’ll tell you more than you ever wanted to know about it.)

Today, Eddy and I started with how our daily routines are starting earlier and earlier despite us being night-owls for years and years. Job and family requirements and a willingness to bow to the needs of both and Get Things Done tends to alter your internal clock, I’ve found. In Eddy’s case, he finds he’s more creative before breakfast and the inevitable meetings start, for me, I wake up excited to get going- ever since I started Onyx Path I can’t get back to sleep in the morning as there are just too many cool things to work on. That led to talking about Full Metal Alchemist, which I suggested to him at Atlanta by Night, and how beautifully bleak and twisted it is, and then to Sports Night as another example of a series far more compelling than it might sound to those of us not into ESPN.

Eddy just finished this Aaron Sorkin beauty, and I’ve been a fan since its original run on broadcast TV (remember that, fellow streamers?). Eddy found that he was trying to figure out the protagonist of this ensemble cast- he thinks it’s Dan as he holds the conscience of the show, whereas I think it might be split between Dan and Jeremy as Jeremy seems to be speaking about Sorkin-y things more often. This led to talking about my concern that characters are often overwritten to the point where they lose important base concepts of the show itself. Case in point, the buddy relationship of Dan and Casey is not something that should have been touched as it defines why the fictional show could work. We believe that the same easy familiarity, fire from the hip, keep it light, but go intense on the things you love attitude that we see between them also makes the fictional show fun to watch- which gives meaning to the struggle for ratings and all that stuff. But writers, needing to write as it’s their job, can undercut a show’s basic building blocks in the search for more drama. Especially after the first season. We’ve all seen it happen, and we’ve seen the same thing happen with our RPGs. Just because it’s a cool idea doesn’t mean that it’s the right idea for a book or even an entire line- and the longer the run of books, the more likely one of these ideas slips in and undermines a line and players start to take off. See- told you there’s a gaming reason we talk about this stuff.

I’m reaching out to our Devs right now to ask them for pitches for 2014 WW books. What projects do they want to do for their lines, what projects might they want to do for other lines or new lines? What should our nWoD gameline be in 2014? Responses are coming in, we’ll take a look and compile what looks like a fun schedule we can make happen, and then it’ll go in front of the CCP Review Board. We need to do this now in order to have some rounds of iterations and still have something we can start using for hiring writers in time for the Jan 2014 books. And as for our current schedule:

- Silent Knife (VtR) This was the second awesome book to come out of the WW Fiction contest and it is now finally available on DTRPG and DTFiction. If you love WW fiction and would like to see more, check this out and take a few minutes to write a short review- it really helps get the word out!

- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) Check it out on DTRPG and write a review- let other folks know what you think about the first new official Mage the Ascension book in years!

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is still being written. As some folks might have read on Twitter, God Machine is in editing and tight, tight development.

- Mummy the Curse we hope to get this in front of the CCP Review Board this week and the index is being compiled- check out our Facebook page where Genevieve Podleski asks for your thoughts on the Mummy index: www.facebook.com/TheOnyxPath . The KS is with KS for OKing.

- EX3 to say again: Slated for Feb 2013 now. Looking to talk with the Devs this week to get a tighter look on where all the moving parts are. Not Kickstartering this this year-we’ll get back to you on when, but Feb 2013 looks good.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 is almost out of Editing and headed into layout as the art comes in for review. Anarchs Unbound‘s outline is out to writers and on the V20 blog: http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution is very, very close to shipping. The PDF and PoD versions are on sale at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter Surveys are out. Mike Lee is writing his novel. Waiting to see second proof of layout.

- Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato is on the case!

- W20 Changing Breeds is also in Art Direction and Editing. We have to get backer info and photographs from the w20 Deluxe Kickstarter backers so that folks who are going to appear depicted in the art can get us in photos for reference.

- W20 Rage Across the World is done development and needs to be AD’d and edited- check out the W20 CB blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/

- Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being written.

- Conventionbook: Progenitors (cMtA) is being written.

Reason To Drink: December?! Really?! Office parties are coming or are here already and you need the practice to survive them

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Probably the Last Monday Meeting Blog! (this year)

By richt
– December 17, 2012Posted in: Monday Meeting

So, I was running late with some holiday errands and our lunch meeting was somewhat shorter. We didn’t talk at all about The Hobbit, but I’m sure we will. At length. (Around 50% of my fantasy gaming characters are dwarven, and I think I can forgive Peter Jackson for allowing Gimli to be a punchline in much of LotR. But, more on that later). Today, Eddy and I went over the fact that CCP NA will be on vacay from Sat to Jan 2 or 3, so the Mummy: The Curse proof they are reviewing will probably be the last thing OK’d this year. I’m just looking at the next, maybe last but maybe not, proof of Werewolf 20th, so I don’t think that’ll be out this year. Which is unfortunate but I’m glad we had an event for this 20th year of WtA with the wild Kickstarter we had for it.

But we will be doing the Mummy Kickstarter starting tomorrow Tuesday the 18th, at 12 noon EST. It took longer than I expected for the KS approval, but we got it this morning. So this alert will give everybody almost 24 hours to be ready for it to go live so that you all can pledge the reward tiers you want. Now, we are doing something a bit different with this one and I want to explain it a bit here: unlike the last three Kickstarters we have done, this one doesn’t start out as a Deluxe project. Instead, we’re asking contributions to help us create a traditionally printed, hardcover, two-color interior book that has the same look and feel as books like the core nWoD book, or the core Vampire the Requiem, or Changeling the Lost, or other core game-line books. That way, we can keep both the goal amount and initial buy-in reward tier for a physical copy less expensive than the deluxe books we’ve done via KS before. The cost will be comparable to what VtR or CtL ran back in the day. THEN, if we can pass the Stretch Goals, we’ll add Deluxe Features like gilded page edges, silk bookmarks, and eventually a cool embossed leatherette cover treatment. (And there will be other fun Stretch Goals in there too, like with W20). So, in the interest of continuing to respond to and work with our great community, how deluxe we get is up to the backers, and there’s not such a high barrier to folks pledging for a physical copy. It’s an experiment, so we’ll see how it goes.

This will probably be the last Monday Meeting post of the year, although my intention is to post a Year In Review post in this space between now and our next meeting. I’ll look at what we did this last year, and look forward towards the great things we’ll be doing next year.

And here are some of them now:

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) is done Editing and into Art Direction now.

- Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is still being written.

- Mummy the Curse is waiting for word from the CCP Review Board this week and the index is being compiled- check out our Facebook page where Genevieve Podleski asks for your thoughts on the Mummy index: www.facebook.com/TheOnyxPath . The Kickstarter will go live at 12 noon EST, Tuesday, December 18th! Check the notes above for more details.

- EX3 to say again: Slated for Feb 2013 now. Looking to talk with the Devs this week to get a tighter look on where all the moving parts are. Not Kickstartering this this year-we’ll get back to you on when, but Feb 2013 looks good.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 is done Editing and in layout as the art comes in for review.

- V20 Anarchs Unbound‘s outline is out to writers and on the V20 blog: http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution is shipping and should be done shipping today except for a couple of Reward Tiers that need personal handling. The PDF and PoD versions are on sale at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter Compiling Surveys. Mike Lee is writing his novel. Looking at second proof of layout today.

- Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato is on the case!

- W20 Changing Breeds is also in Art Direction and Editing. We have to get backer info and photographs from the w20 Deluxe Kickstarter backers so that folks who are going to appear depicted in the art can get us in photos for reference.

- W20 Rage Across the World is done development and needs to be AD’d and edited- check out the W20 CB blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/

- Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being written.

- Conventionbook: Progenitors (cMtA) is being written.

Reason To Drink: Tis the Season. Also Thorin Motherfuckin’ Oakenshield.

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The Onyx Path: One Year in at the Janus Statue

By richt – January 1, 2013Posted in: Monday Meeting

So here we are on January 1, 2013 and Onyx Path Publishing has been in business for a year. A good time to invoke Janus and look at our past year, and a bit at what 2013 can bring.

First off, we achieved our first goal and actually announced that we were in business, and that we were licensed by White Wolf and CCP to create and publish nWoD, cWoD, and Exalted tabletop RPG products; that we are the owners of the Trinity Continuum and Scion game-lines, and that we’re interested in publishing new games like Cavaliers of Mars. An enormous amount of behind the scenes negotiating went on to get us to that announcement and it was a huge relief to finally be able to talk about this new venture. We also announced the schedule and finally everybody could see that we were serious about nWoD and cWoD living together with cool projects for both of them, and were serious about a new edition of Exalted.

Internally, Onyx’s goal for the year was to get the processes put together to deliver some great new books for the WW settings. Sure, a lot of us have over 20 years of experience, but fitting those experiences into a new business model is a brand new thing. We had to incorporate an approval system with CCP, and reactivate relationships with a lot of writers and artists that we hadn’t been able to work with for years. These were both good things, but they took time. Fortunately, we had an established partnership with DriveThruRPG to get the projects into people’s hands (or at least on their hard drives), and the ability to deliver both PDFs and excellent quality Print On Demand physical books. But I had one concern: how we were going to get Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition to folks? And then, early in the year, an answer arrived that changed a lot of how 2012 turned out for Onyx Path.

Even in 2011, Eddy, Justin, and myself, were watching with some interest a new crowd-sourcing site called Kickstarter, and in a whirlwind series of Skype meetings Justin and I decided to take the leap to doing our first KS with Deluxe V20 Companion. To me, Kickstarter is a triple win for Onyx Path: it creates, focuses, and encourages community communication, it minimizes the up-front risk in terms of both money and determining amount of interest, and it provides a framework for delivering these physical book rewards. When we started, nobody really knew much about what worked and what didn’t on KS, at least in terms of RPGs. It was nerve-wracking, exciting, and eye-opening, and as the successful funding goal was reached, it was clear that Kickstarter was an excellent addition to Onyx’s business model. The final piece of the puzzle, as it were, for the creation of our RPG projects.

So what worked this past year?

- Our Kickstarters for the Deluxe Editions of V20 Companion, Children of the Revolution, and W20 (as well as the start of the Mummy: The Curse KS) were all successful, and we’ve continued to improve on how they work, the rewards, and very importantly the stretch goals which enable us to add in new products we couldn’t have as part of the regular schedule. We’ve also continued to improve on the way we deliver those rewards to backers, with better speed and organization.​

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- We have successfully published Fiction again as part of a coherent plan to add in more fiction in conjunction with the game books- and we have added EPub and Mobi formats. Silent Knife and the God Machine Anthology were just the start of what Fiction can be. The Strix Chronicle Anthology and a passel of W20 fiction are a great part of that in 2013.​

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- Masters of Jade kicked ass in terms of interest and sales, but Shards of the Exalted Dream blew the doors out. Not only did they clear the path for EX3, but those products were a great place for John and Holden to practice their developers’ skills before the behemoth that is EX3.​

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- After years and years of asking for the books that weren’t finished as of the end of cWoD, we put out Convention Book: NWO. On time.​

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- nWoD had a set of releases that ran through several of the lines with the Werewolf Translation Guide, Blood Sorcery, Victorian Lost, and Left Handed Path. This was important in terms of illustrating how the various nWoD lines will continue to be supported even as we move into 2013’s big Chronicle books.​

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- Although not yet released, Onyx’s first electronic product, a 10-sided Dice Pool Rolling App, has been created and is in testing. Just the start of adding electronic products that enhance and support the RPG experience.​

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- We have started discussions on the re-imagining of the Trinity Continuum with Ian Watson as overall Continuum developer (the Uber-Developer) and John Snead as Aeon developer. Similarly, I’ve been in talks with Scion developer Joe Carriker and several other folks about getting it reset for a new edition in 2014. As many of you have mentioned, working out a system that allows huge differences in power levels is a goal for both groups of game designers.​

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- We have an Onyx Path website with updated info, a matching OP Facebook page, Facebook pages, blogs, and Twitter feeds for the major projects, and a weekly Monday Lunch Meeting blog for the week to week updates on where things stand. Again, the start of more and better communication between us and you.​

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- The last year enabled me to work with a lot of friends and amazingly creative folks whom I wanted to work with for years. Some of those creators will continue on with us in 2013, some will move on to other projects, and some of them went beyond expectations and have been truly instrumental in helping to build Onyx Path Publishing and will be folks that you hear about more and more through the next year.​

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What didn’t go as planned or we could do better in 2013:

- A lot of books slid out of 2012 schedule-wise, and unfortunately they were our big releases: Mummy: The Curse, W20, Exalted 3rd Edition, and a couple of V20 books. While I’ve tried to present to all you folks both the reasons for these delays in my weekly Monday Lunch Meeting blog and the fact that we have to expect that the schedule isn’t written in stone for a company just getting up to speed and which values quality over strict adherence to the schedule, it’s still not what was intended. And in addition, the delay of the first book in a line also then domino-effect delays the next books.​

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- We didn’t communicate well with our community during the first KS for the Deluxe V20 Companion, and our failure there left a bunch of folks feeling angry and cheated. Which was and is the exact opposite of our intentions in doing the Deluxe editions in the first place. We wanted to provide a Deluxe version of the small follow-up book to V20 that we were already doing once we heard so many V20 fans wanted a matching version. Again, although I explicitly said the KS’s were an experiment and a learning process, that doesn’t make anyone feel better about that particular book. I’m hoping that folks can see how we applied what we learned (through backers’ comments and the post-release retrospective we did live) to the next couple of Kickstarter campaigns we did.​

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- More Marketing! And I don’t mean gimmicks or tricking people into sales, I mean more and better communication and getting the word out to the far-flung fantastic fan-base of ours. There are still a significant number of folks out there who have written off WW as dead, who don’t even know that the books they love are available as PDFs on DriveThruRPG as well as in Print On Demand versions of physical books that are as easy to order as a book from Amazon. And that there are new books for the WW game-lines they followed. Never mind anything about these Onyx Path guys. Now that we have a working creation process for the games, my intention in 2013 is to up Onyx’s visibility and build on the start we’ve made via more convention presence, more ads, and more demo team activity.​

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- More utility on the Onyx Path website. We cross-post, but there are still broken parts there that need fixing, and I need to get more content up there. Ian Watson, Web Sire, has some cool ideas for things we can add as well.​

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So there you have it. In general, I’m thrilled by the positive response so many of you shared with me this last year for the mere existence of Onyx Path Publishing, and even though it was a bumpy year that didn’t go perfectly as planned, I think that we are off to a great start. (Of course, I haven’t been through a full year up through tax season, so maybe I’m over confident). Some seriously great books are getting ready to come out in early 2013; we have some awesome books later in the year including Demon: The ???, and Mage20th, and more that I’ll let you in on later this month, and we’re pitching the 2014 Schedule to CCP. Thanks to some valiant efforts by the likes of Stew Wilson, Matt McFarland, Rose Bailey, Ryan Macklin, C.A. Suleiman, and especially my clutch hitter, Art Director and Graphic Designer Mike Chaney, books are being pulled back to release dates that at least resemble the Schedule. Good stuff is a-comin’.

RichT

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First Monday Lunch in 2013, Now With Added Fiber.

By richt – January 9, 2013Posted in: Monday Meeting

Welcome to the New Year, friends!

Most of what Eddy and I discussed was housing in Atlanta (a lot of friends are shuffling housing and jobs), and the WW 2014 Schedule. We’ve got some pretty great submissions from the Developers (which is how a year’s schedule is put together: interested parties pitch their ideas and I take those delicious ingredients and try to make them into an awesome dish for the year). Can’t tease you folks much right now, because I need to submit the line-up to CCP for approval, but I promise I will once things are OK’d. And we caught up on the holiday activities we each were involved in.

I will share with you folks a bit of internal structuring that started Monday as well, in that after Eddy and I were done I convened another meeting with the folks who are currently involved with running or putting together the pieces behind the scenes of Onyx Path. These aren’t the Devs, but the guys who enable us to get projects done, out the door, and into your hands (tablets). I would consider a fair number of the Devs to be vital and engaged with not just their lines but Onyx Path as a whole, and will I’m sure invite them into this new weekly meeting as needed, but my purpose with this particular meeting is to look at the week ahead and make sure that we’re all on the same page with graphics, web communication, marketing (as much as we currently are doing), and the business of building up Onyx. I really feel that we were stumbling along enough last year that this year we need to be in at least one weekly mind-meld, like my meetings with Eddy.

And here now, the news:
- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) is in Layout and some art is being CCP Approved.

- Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is in post-writing Development.

- Mummy the Curse is approved by the CCP Review Board and the index is almost done- illness over the holidays delayed things. The MtC Kickstarter was funded after about 33 hours and has passed the 300% funding milestone. 10 Stretch Goals have been achieved, including a Screen, a fiction Anthology, two city books, Washington DC and Rio, and a passel of other cool stuff. If you haven’t checked it out, we have 28 hours to go before it closes!

- EX3: Had a couple of fantastic talks with the Devs and they are still pushing hard to complete this by February. One of our talks was just about the Deluxe EX3 Kickstarter, and if we can pull it off it should be the most amazing one yet, really integrating the Reward Tiers and Stretch Goals with the launch of the new edition. This is still something we want to Kick-off in early February.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 is done in layout and ready for me to proof today, with most of the art in for review. We are going to try and get its Deluxe Edition Kickstarter live early next week.

- V20 Anarchs Unbound‘s writing is in various stages of completion and red-lining.

- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution is done shipping except for a couple of Reward Tiers that need personal handling. The PDF and PoD versions are on sale at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter Compiling Surveys. Mike Lee is writing his novel. Proof is at CCP for Approval. Aileen is working on the Storyteller Screen and Wallpaper. Trying to find the best way to deliver the classic PDF rewards (and then the W20 PDF itself) to KS backers.

- Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato has started assigning writers and has started writing his part.

- W20 Changing Breeds is also in Art Direction and Editing. We have to get backer info and photographs from the w20 Deluxe Kickstarter backers so that folks who are going to appear depicted in the art can get us in photos for reference.

- W20 Rage Across the World is in Art Direction and Editing- check out the W20 CB blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/

- Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being written.

- Conventionbook: Progenitors (cMtA) is ready for Editing and Art Direction.

- Mage Translation Guide has begun being written.

- W20 Book of the Wyrm is being written and red-lined.

Reason for Drinking: Last weekend WW founder Stewart Wieck was married in Houston. Congrats, Stew! I had a great time and was out every night with Mike Tinney- which might also be so much drinking that we never have to have a drink again. Right.

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The Mummy has Arisen, and the Hunters Hunt, Too.

By richt – January 15, 2013Posted in: Monday Meeting

Eddy and I had just the night before played in his “Better Off Dying” V20 chronicle over Google, so there was less jocularity than usual since we’d had a pretty good time at the game. We hadn’t played in months since “Season One” climaxed with a war against the Sabbat in Cleveland, and it was great to see everybody again (real people and their characters as well) and to welcome in a bunch of new players. This got Eddy and I talking about how far online tabletop tools have come in just a year- certainly something Onyx Path is interested in exploring. Along the same lines, I was interested in his thoughts on Chrome vs Firefox, and whether an iPad would make a better mobile communication station for me than my iPhone (I must confess that while I hoped the phone would let me email and check stuff while on the run, it has such limitations due to size and keyboard teensiness that I think I’m being failed by that plan). Feel free to comment on either of those things if you have thoughts about why I should go with Chrome over Firefox, or whether the iPad is worth investing in so I can do things like, let’s just say, Update Kickstarters while stuck in an airport for 6 hours.

Speaking of which, our Mummy: The Curse Kickstarter wrapped up last week and I have to say, I was thrilled with the response. We really have no way of knowing how much reach we’re getting with the social media marketing we’re doing, but the response to Mummy was great. It certainly indicates there are tons more folks out there we can still get our projects out to. We got hammered a bit on just how, and how much, we released the info about what was actually in the Mummy: The Curse book itself, and while we felt like we scattered tons of info on the infrawebs, it’s true that you can’t expect folks to search all over the place. So towards that end, we’ll be putting up the Deluxe The Hunters Hunted II Kickstarter for v20 in the next couple of days, and in the main descriptive text we include a link to 99% of the text pre-edit and art/layout. Certainly, giving you all a chance to read pretty much the whole thing is something we haven’t done before on KS, so I’m interested to see how people react. Will reading the text inspire folks to opt to back the Hunters KS for the PDF, or the Deluxe copy, or will they figure they got the info they want and not chip in?

We talked a fair bit of business about the 2014 schedule and to share generalities, one of the complications for 2014 are the two sets of changes to 2013 that impact the next year. First, we have the schedule slide that occurred through 2012. Even though a lot of the projects in 2013 are holding their release date positions, the fact that some major projects fell into 2013 does create a need for cleaning up and rearranging things. Then there are the extra projects we’ve committed to creating coming out of the Kickstarters. While most of them have no hard release dates as yet and have creators assigned to them, we still need to slot them into the schedule and get folks working on solid deadlines. That being said, the projects we can add are an awesome feature of the way Kickstarter is set up and I’m really glad it allows us to add in fiction and screens and city-books that we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. So, to make a long story short, we’re still working on the 2014 WW Schedule to submit to CCP.
And away we go:

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) is in Layout and some art is being CCP Approved.

- Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is into Editing.

- Mummy the Curse is approved by the CCP Review Board and the index is almost done- illness over the holidays delayed things. The MtC Kickstarter is over and 10 Stretch Goals have been achieved, including a Screen, a fiction Anthology, a novel, two city books: Washington DC and Rio, a “Book of Nod” style book containing the words of the Arisen known as The Heretic, and a passel of other cool stuff. We’re waiting for the OK from Amazon Payments that every backer who can pay has, and then surveys will go out to the backers. Some people have asked, so let me repeat here: the Kickstarter is pretty much the only place to get one of these traditionally printed MtC books; we will not be taking orders or shipping these into stores outside the Kickstarter campaign, which is over. There will be Mummy: The Curse PDF versions (a single book, plus the Players, Storytellers, and SAS sections as individual files in a “virtual boxed set”) and what promise to be very nice looking physical PoD versions over at DriveThruRPG.

- Exalted 3rd Edition: Another big talk about the Deluxe EX3 Kickstarter, and if we can pull it off it should be the most amazing one yet, really integrating the Reward Tiers and Stretch Goals with the launch of the new edition. I’m working with my old friend Maria Cabardo, one of the most talented designers and art directors in the business (or any creative business actually-Google her) on integrating the Devs ideas with a bunch of brilliant artists that she works with as well as on a new Exalted logo and map. Our intention is to have some smashing new pieces ready for the EX3 Kickstarter in early February.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 layout is on the next round of tweaking and proofing, with most of the art in for review. We are going to try and get its Deluxe Edition Kickstarter live this week (if KS gives us the OK).

- V20 Anarchs Unbound is in post writing Development. I think Justin has been posting some things, or will soon, on the WWBlogs.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter Compiling Surveys. Mike Lee is writing his novel. Working on a new proof after some adjustments from CCP. Aileen is working on the Storyteller Screen and Wallpaper. Going to reach out to most of the backers expecting classic WtA PDFs today and get them their download links from DTRPG. Putting the W20 KS Stretch Goal projects into the schedule.

-Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato has started assigning writers and has started writing his part.

- W20 Changing Breeds is also in Art Direction and Editing. We have to get backer info and photographs from the w20 Deluxe Kickstarter backers so that folks who are going to appear depicted in the art can get us in photos for reference. We had one piece of art that needed revision as a truly buff and menacing Kitsune just wasn’t right- although it looked damned scary.

- W20 Rage Across the World is in Art Direction and Editing- check out the W20 CB blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/

- Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being written.

- Conventionbook: Progenitors (cMtA) is off to Editing and Art Direction.

- Mage Translation Guide has begun being written.

- W20 Book of the Wyrm is being written and red-lined.

Reason for Drinking: I’ll be drinking Saturday night (and please feel free to do so where ever you are) at my “surprise” 50th BDay party. Hah! You can not surprise me! I have the wisdom of the ages <hack> <cough> <ptwoie>

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Mid-Winter of our Disk Content

By richt – January 22, 2013
Posted in: Monday Meeting

First off, Eddy was one of the guests at the Mid-Winter convention where he spread the word about Onyx Path (including a presentation with Matt McElroy) and was his usual LARPy self. He shared a couple of things that happened there with me besides the overall good things convention attenders had to say about Onyx Path‘s efforts with both cWoD and nWoD. One was an awful tragedy that occurred as someone not at all connected to the convention plummeted from an upper floor and right into one of the general gaming areas. No gamers, or their kids, were physically hurt by this tragic event, but still it sounded like a close thing. I’m always amazed that any of us old White Wolfers survived our many, many years of foolishness at conventions (I’m actually not sure Justin actually did survive). Also, Mid-Winter was the site of the announcement that By Night Studios would be CCP‘s licensed partner for the creation of new Mind’s Eye Theatre products and I can’t imagine that line being in better, more loving hands! As I’ve mentioned before, I really feel like the MET line deserves a team that really lives the Live Action experience and I was worried that gathering such a team, even though we could do it, would be stretching Onyx Path’s resources just a bit too far. So glad our compadres at By Night are running with it.
We talked a fair bit about how wild it is that Onyx Path Publishing has been operating for a year, and how for me the oddest part is yet to come as I prepare tax info for last year for my business for the first time. This session with the CPA will really reveal how well the company did last year and with that info we’ll chart the course for next year. More marketing? Another actual employee? Company polo shirts?
OK, that’s all biz talk and you all aren’t here for that, but for this:

- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) is in Layout and some art is being CCP Approved.

- Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is into Editing.

- Mummy the Curse‘s index is being laid in. The MtC Kickstarter is over and it seems like most if not all of the payments have been verified by Amazon Payments so surveys will go out to the backers this week. Now, rather than waiting for the Surveys to get back with the Backer Credits, we’re going to get the PDF version out as soon as it is ready to the Kickstarter Backers, and then add in the Backer Credits and everyone can get an Update. For folks looking for this to go up for sale of DriveThru, the Mummy: The Curse PDF will be available a few days after the Kickstarter Backers get their links (they will be different files that we need to prepare). Then we’ll start on prepping the PoD and regular printed Kickstarter Reward versions. Lots o’Mummy is arising.

- Exalted 3rd Edition: I’m working with my old friend Maria Cabardo, one of the most talented designers and art directors in the business (or any creative business actually-Google her) on integrating the Devs ideas with a bunch of brilliant artists that she works with as well as on a new Exalted logo and map. Our intention is to have some smashing new pieces ready for the EX3 Kickstarter in early February.

- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 layout is on the next round of tweaking and proofing, with most of the art in for review. So, we submitted the proposed KS for HH2, and got a message from Kickstarter that was concerned about whether we could handle doing so many so quickly (like we haven’t talked about that ourselves). I sent them back an email explaining how we have had two successful KSs that we learned from and are confident our track record indicates that we can handle this. So far, no word in reply, but also no denial of the KS. More news when I got it.

- V20 Anarchs Unbound is in post writing Development. I think Justin has been posting some things, on the WWBlogs.

- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter Compiling Surveys. Omigod have I been doing that. Mike Lee is writing his novel. W20 to the indexer. Aileen is working on the Storyteller Screen and Wallpaper. Bill is preparing the W20 Anthology outline for prospective writers. Putting the W20 KS Stretch Goal projects into the schedule.

-Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato has started assigning writers and has started writing his part.

- W20 Changing Breeds is also in Art Direction and Editing. We have to get backer info and photographs from the w20 Deluxe Kickstarter backers so that folks who are going to appear depicted in the art can get us in photos for reference. We had one piece of art that needed revision as a truly buff and menacing Kitsune just wasn’t right- although it looked damned scary.

- W20 Rage Across the World is in Art Direction and I think is done Editing- check out the W20 CB blog notes: http://whitewolfblogs.com/w20/

- Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being written.

- Conventionbook: Progenitors (cMtA) is off to Editing and Art Direction.

- Mage Translation Guide has begun being written.

- W20 Book of the Wyrm is being written and red-lined.

Reason for Drinking: My actual birthday on Friday.

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