#So I sent some dragons I found on some sites. and he printed this one out.

[gracefireheart]

Lil' Dragon fella :]

[kent-ridge]

Is Japanese internet slang full of fish? - My washed-up linguistic theory.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at a glossary of Final Fantasy 14 Japanese internet slang a friend had sent me, and I was struck by an idea: Japanese has a really wide lexicon of fish and fishing related words. Does Japanese internet slang also have more fish related words than English internet slang does? The idea made me laugh, and that was enough to want to try to pursue it. 

The Japanese lexicon does, in fact, have a very extensive vocabulary related to fish and fishing. Masayoshi Shibatani (1990) wrote, ‘The vocabulary of a language reflects the cultural and socio-economic concerns of its speakers, and the Japanese lexicon is no exception to this truism.’ He explains that fishing was one of the primary socio-economic activities in traditional Japanese society, and therefore the native Japanese vocabulary has a great number of words and expressions relating to fish. Of course, we have a fairly wide fishing vocabulary in English as well, but Japanese goes into further detail. Shibatani gives examples of 9 different Japanese words for a fish that we would refer to simply as ‘yellowtail’ in all cases in English - in Japanese there are different words for it depending on its size.

Another wonderful piece of evidence of the abundance of fish words in Japanese is a 1940s ‘Glossary of Japanese Fisheries Terms’ that I found on the American National Marine Fisheries Service Scientific Publications Office website. In March 1947, J. A. Krug, Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior and Albert M. Day, Director of the Fish and Wildlife service, published a leaflet titled, ‘Glossary of Japanese Fisheries Terms.’ It is a dictionary of fishing terms and names of fish, including both Japanese to English and English to Japanese translations. 

The introduction reads, ‘Fish and fishing play such an important role in Japanese life that an extensive and complicated fisheries vocabulary has evolved. Each of the hundreds of kinds of fish, shellfish, and seaweed has several vernacular names, the wide assortment of prepared seafood adds many more words; and the variety of fishing gear has a large specialized nomenclature.’ Clearly, the vocabulary related to fishing in Japan was so specific that it didn’t do well enough simply to translate it to the closest English word - a specialised glossary was needed so that American fishermen could understand precisely what the Japanese fishermen were referring to. (If you, like me, are quite enamoured by historical, niche glossaries or dictionaries, you can read the Glossary of Japanese Fisheries Terms here.)

With this evidence that Japanese does have more words to do with fish and fishing than English does, I wondered if perhaps the extensive fish-related lexicon in Japanese affected the creation of slang terms, particularly internet slang terms. While there is no definitive corpus or complete dictionary of Japanese internet slang, several fish-related phrases came to mind. For example, 雑魚 zako, literally meaning ‘small fish’ is a commonly used phrase in casual Japanese which means ‘a wimp’ or an ‘unimportant person.’ This is also used in MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, e.g. Final Fantasy 14) lingo to mean ‘low-level NPC (Non Player Character) enemies.’ Of course, we have the word ‘small fry’ in English which has essentially the same meaning of ‘unimportant person’, but we do not use it in the same context in online gaming. (I have been informed that in English we might call these weak enemies ‘trash mob’ or ‘slimes’ - a reference to the slime blob enemies in the game Dragon Quest.) I also recalled that 鯖 saba - ‘mackerel’ is slang for the word ‘server’ - a lovely wordplay on the loanword sābā.

I then asked on twitter if anyone could help me to come up with some more Japanese fish-related internet words. I had a few interesting replies, suggesting 釣り tsuri (fishing) which means ‘trolling’, accompanied with 釣り師 tsurishi (angler) for ‘troll’, and エサ esa (bait) and 釣り針 tsuribari (fishhook) , which both refer to the content used by a troll to entice other users into replying angrily. Although we might also call this practice ‘baiting’ in English, and we of course have the famous term ‘clickbait’ for baiting people into clicking a link, the metaphor is further expanded upon in Japanese internet language. When a troll gets the responses they were hoping for, other net users may say something like ‘大漁だな’ tairyou da na - ‘That’s a big haul.’ 

I was also told about ウェブ魚拓 webu gyotaku (web fish printing), which is a method of preserving the content of a website in a snapshot, like the service Wayback Machine. Gyotaku is the traditional Japanese practice of dipping a fish in ink to create a print, which could record a fisherman's catch they are particularly proud of, or simply make a nice picture of a fish. (Incidentally, the web address for the website where one can access webu gyotaku is ‘megalodon.jp.')

This is not an incredibly extensive list, but I was pleasantly surprised with the number of responses I received. I also tried to come up with a list of fish-related English internet terms, but all I could think of was ‘phishing’, ‘clickbait’, and ‘catfish.’ None of these are slang as such, but created terms for phenomena that only happen online. (They respectively mean, ‘sending scam emails’, ‘using sensationalised or misleading content to entice users to click on something’, and ‘pretending to be someone else on online dating sites.’) I suppose at a stretch I could actually include ‘the net’ into my list of fishing-related internet vocabulary.

I don’t, however, think that this is enough evidence to suggest that Japanese internet slang does indeed have a larger proportion of fish or fishing-related terms than internet slang in other languages. Furthermore, even if it did, it does not necessarily prove that it is because of the wide fish lexicon that Japanese has in general.

I think my next step would have to be to explore whether other aspects of the Japanese lexicon are reflected in the creation of internet slang terms. Shibatani also mentions that Japanese has an abundance of words to do with nature, but not many body part words. (Even a novice Japanese learner will have noticed that ‘foot’ and ‘leg’ are both expressed with one word, 足 ashi, and that both ‘smile’ and ‘laugh’ are expressed with the verb 笑う warau.) 

The problem is, it is fairly difficult to linguistically analyse ‘Japanese internet slang’ as a concept, and to compare it to ‘English internet slang.’ There is no official online corpus of internet slang in English or Japanese, and it changes every day as new slang terms are created and older terms fall out of practice. The only way I can see to continue this research is to compile my own lists, either from spotting slang terms ‘in the wild’ online, or asking strangers on twitter to come up with any terms they can think of. 

Even if I could prove that the tendencies of the Japanese vocabulary are reflected in its internet slang, what would this actually demonstrate? That, somehow, the balance of this lexicon is engrained in Japanese minds and so it affects the creation of new slang terms and wordplay? Or just that there are a lot of fish words so people create fish-related associations? 

What kind of words are there more of in English than in other languages? Have we English-speakers developed a tendency to create internet slang based on… growing wheat… or… brewing… or whatever is that was traditionally engrained into English society, and therefore probably English vocabulary? Somehow, I don’t think so.

So, I was unable to come to a satisfying conclusion about my theory of fish-heavy Japanese internet slang. But I don’t think it was a complete waste of my time. It was my first foray into researching something just because I was curious and felt like it, and even though it didn’t lead me to any groundbreaking discoveries about the creation of new slang terms in Japanese, I had a lot of fun. It sparked some interesting conversations with friends and twitter strangers, and I got to read a 1940s fish dictionary. Some pretty good mental stimulation for a Wednesday afternoon in lockdown.

[fraink5-writes]

From Darkness Into the Lantern Light - Chapter 10

We’ve reached chapter 10 and the most iconic scene of the movie!! YAY!!

Thanks to @leio13 for enabling this!

Summary: Once upon a time, there was a cold-hearted queen. Although the Tsaritsa, as she was called, possessed her own divinity, she coveted the powers of the other Archons. Aiming to steal the Geo Archon’s gnosis, she sent her strongest warriors to Liyue Harbor. But just when Rex Lapis was almost defeated, he escaped to another vessel, that of a powerless baby, and was swept away to a hidden tower for his protection.

Many years after the great fight, the young and ambitious Harbinger, Childe, arrives in Liyue to grant the Tsaritsa’s desire, but, on his search for the Geo Archon’s gnosis, he ends up tangled in a mysterious man’s dreams to see Liyue Harbor’s Lantern Rite.

This chapter can also be found on Ao3 here. Without further ado, please enjoy!

"Zhongli!" Ajax sprinted across the docks. Although he tried to run his errands in under 15 minutes, the sun was already halfway gone by the time he returned. "I'm back!" Ajax held out the spear he had bought. “This is for you.” Despite its hasty creation, the spear had an impressive aura with its stone shaft and its lozenge-shaped head embellished with gold. At the base of the spearhead, a golden diamond was encrusted. It was too heavy for Ajax’s tastes, but he was sure Zhongli could wield it with ease.

“Ah.” Ajax realized that Zhongli was still hanging onto the dragon kite, which he had bought him earlier. Even though it was just an impromptu gift, Zhongli’s attachment to it brought a smile to Ajax’s face. “Here, let me hold that for a moment.”

Ajax and Zhongli swapped items, and Zhongli examined the weapon in his hands. He maneuvered the polearm gracefully as though it were made of feathers. Then he fastened it against his back where the other spear used to be. “This shows impressive craftsmanship. Thank you.”

“I hardly did anything. I just thought you deserved a better polearm than that weathered old thing.” Ajax handed back the kite string. “We should get going—don’t want to miss the show.”

Zhongli tilted his head with a puzzled look, but he followed nonetheless.

Ajax lead Zhongli to a tiny rowboat amid the large ships. Atop one of the seats, two golden lanterns were waiting. “For such a momentous occasion, you deserve the best view.” He stepped into the boat and extended his arm with a small bow. Placing his hand in Ajax’s, Zhongli joined Ajax in the boat, and they set sail. 

As Ajax steered the boat far away from the tall sails and bright lights of the harbor, Zhongli stared vacantly at the dark sea. His pursed lips curled downwards. Even as he sat on the same boat as Ajax, his mind had drifted somewhere distant. 

“Zhongli?” Ajax asked. “What’s wrong? Are you seasick?”

“Seasick? No, I am in good physical condition; however, I can’t ignore my apprehension.”

“Apprehension? What for?”

Zhongli gazed at the tiny dragon soaring alone in the night sky. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve yearned to see the Lantern Rite. Now I’m here. What if it doesn’t meet my expectations?”

“It will.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Have you been disappointed by Liyue Harbor so far?”

“No. In fact, it has exceeded my expectations.”

“Then there’s no way this will disappoint either!” Ajax seized Zhongli’s hands. “I promise. And we Snezhnayans don’t take promises lightly.”

The smallest smile floated briefly on Zhongli’s face before disappearing. “Say the Rite is everything I dreamed it would be, what happens when it’s inevitably over?”

“When it’s over?” Ajax let out a laugh. “What’s the point in worrying about that now?” In reality, Ajax had pondered over that very question many times, but he dreaded the future’s imminent arrival.

The frown on Zhongli’s face grew deeper.

“Why, the answer is obvious!” Ajax frantically changed approaches. “You find a new dream!”

Zhongli held his chin and furrowed his eyebrows. Given the chance, he would try to discover his next dream on their isolated boat.

“But you don’t have to decide that right away! Or even after the lanterns!” Ajax interrupted. “In fact, life’s greatest pleasures can only be found without a plan. The thrills, the battles—it’s in these unexpected adventures that you find yourself—and then, before you know it, you’ve discovered your new dream! That’s what makes life worth living—isn’t it wonderful?” Ajax beamed, excitement bubbling with him.

“Is that the philosophy that brought you to my tower?”

“Exactly! That’s why you shouldn’t worry about the future just yet.”

“Thank you. But I think I’ve already found one.”

“Found what?”

Zhongli’s eyes smiled gently. “A new dream.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Isn’t it too early to be concerned with such matters?” Zhongli smirked victoriously.

Ajax pouted for all but a moment. He had succeeded in cheering up Zhongli, and, for that, he could smile.

When darkness had definitively settled over Liyue Harbor, the Rite began. Starting at Yujing Terrace, the flood of light poured across Feiyun Slope and into Chihu Rock before lifting into the night sky. Thousands of golden lanterns twinkled above the city and drifted slowly towards the sea like a parade of stars, their reflections dancing across the waves. 

Ajax and Zhongli wordlessly released their lanterns into the air, but, at that moment, Zhongli’s kite escaped his grasp and flew away. To Ajax’s relief, Zhongli smiled watching the freed dragon join the vagrant lights. 

As the wind currents slowed, Ajax and Zhongli were enveloped by a rain of glowing warmth. Ajax doubted he would get the chance to witness such a spectacle again. The image, which even the gentlest breeze or raindrop threatened to extinguish, printed itself in the depths of Ajax’s brain.

But the most exquisite beauty was Zhongli. The lanterns showered his dark hair in golden light, but each lantern was only a dull reflection of the dazzling amber in his eyes. The delighted curve of his lips enchanted Ajax’s perception. Even if the light of the lanterns disappeared within minutes, Ajax would willingly forget it all if it meant seeing that face for longer.

Slowly the lamps accumulated around the small boat like a blossoming field of glowing flowers. They waltzed together in sync with the waves. When the number of lanterns in the water outnumbered the ones lingering in the sky, Zhongli’s stoic face returned. “Ajax. Thank you for showing me the Lantern Rite.”

“No problem—it was my pleasure,” Ajax forced out. “Why the sudden formality?”

“It’s time for your remuneration.”

“Re...mune...ration?” Ajax refused to follow Zhongli’s line of thought.

“I will tell you everything I know about whatever you are seeking.”

Indeed, that was the payment they had agreed on a few days ago. And after Zhongli had shared all that he knew, there was one final condition: their parting. Ajax didn’t care about the repayment; he had already found the answer, and both that answer and the future tormented him. Ajax loathed the man he was a few days ago when he made that contract. 

Then Ajax laughed, both hopeful and hopeless. The solution he came to was one he doubted Zhongli would accept, but even so, he would try. “That doesn’t matter anymore. Forget about the contract.”

Zhongli immediately frowned as Ajax expected he would. “That won’t do. Under that contract, we are bound—”

Ajax put a finger to Zhongli’s lips. “That contract was between you and Childe, remember?” His hand glided to cup Zhongli’s cheek.

“I stand corrected, Ajax.” Finally, Zhongli’s grin returned to his face. His fingers wrapped gently around Ajax’s hand. “Then, shall we create a new contract?”

“A new one?” Ajax airily laughed while brushing some of the hair from Zhongli’s face with his other hand. He tucked his hand behind his ear with a massage of his thumb. “What should it say?”

“Hmm…” In that brief pause, Zhongli’s steady amber eyes transfixed Ajax’s heart. “Will you stay by my side from now on?”

“I can agree to that.” Ajax tenderly lifted Zhongli’s face closer to his own. His lips glistened softly in the warm light. “How should we seal it?���

“Mmm.” Zhongli’s closed eyes and inviting face were his answer. His calm breaths tickled Ajax’s lips as he leaned in.

But then Ajax’s attention was yanked by a suspicious light from the coast accompanied by a masked person. Much as he wished to ignore it, he couldn’t deny its familiarity; he had worn a similar mask almost everyday until yesterday. Why now…?

“Ajax?” Zhongli’s eyes cracked open.

“I’m sorry. I…” Ajax let go of Zhongli. “Something came up that I have to take care of.”

“What happened?”

Ajax averted his eyes as he recommenced rowing. “It’ll be over soon, so please. Can you wait on the boat?”

“I understand.” Ajax had lost Zhongli’s smile; it had disappeared behind another distant frown.

After docking the boat in a hidden spot, Ajax hastily stood up. “I’ll be back soon, and then I won’t leave again.” I promise. He couldn’t bring those words to his lips as he turned and left.

When Ajax arrived at the source, he was confronted by the site of two easily recognizable agents in white and purple: Andrei and Ekaterina. “What are you two doing here?”

“It’s quite simple,” Andrei answered. “We used our diplomatic immunity to get out of prison, just as you told us.”

“About that day…” Ajax forced his cowardly eyes to regard their faces. “I’m sorry.”

“Enough of the pretexts, Master Childe,” Ekaterina interrupted. “We’re only interested in your partner.”

Ajax’s body tensed. “My partner?”

“We know all about it: the magic hair.”

Ajax seized Andrei’s collar, lifting him from the ground. “How did you find out about him?”

Andrei choked. “...The.. lady—”

“I was the one who informed them,” Yet another familiar, condescending voice chimed in, “Tartaglia.”

Ajax dropped Andrei and whipped around. “What are you doing here, bitch?!”

“How terribly rude… After I came all this way to salvage your mission. Surely, even a simpleton like you must have realized you were supposed to take him to Zapolyarny Palace—not Liyue Harbor.”

“How do you know about him?!”

“Hah! Who could know Zhongli better than his dear mother?”

[theonyxpath]

So we unwrapped the Kickstarter for Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition and WOW; we funded in less than a day, and it has been shambling along ever since!

If you caught last week’s MMN blog, I put up a bunch of bullet points describing the features and changes for this new edition, so please give that a read if you’re interested. You can also check last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast for more thoughts from Mummy 2e writer Meghan Fitzgerald, and then this coming Friday’s Pathcast is actually a deep-dive into Mummy 2e – so you can give both of those informative programs a listen, too!

And if you look below, in the Onyx Path Media section, Matthew has several links to Mummy oriented actual play streams you can check out!

If you folks recall, Mummy‘s first edition was a really early KS for us- it started in the first year Onyx Path was in business. It was one of those that we put up during the wild times of early Kickstarter, and it was also created before we had put together the 2nd Edition rules, and before the overall game world was entitled Chronicles of Darkness.

So, reeeaaal early, and in a lot of ways an atypical game line for where CofD has gone. Fortunately, we have the option to create a new edition that will bring Mummy into shambling step with the rest of second edition, but doing that well and not losing Mummy‘s unique tone and flavor is still a trick to do.

I wasn’t sure we wanted to even go down that sandy road when I received a written pitch from Matthew Dawkins as to how we could do it. I still kind of back-burnered that pitch a tad, as we had a lot of pitches at that time that needed parsing first. I guess that Matthew figured that a more direct approach was needed, so he summoned every ounce of his audio-visual power and sent me a video pitch, too!

They Came from Beneath the Sea! art by Larry Blamire

(Un)fortunately(?), that video pitch seems to have been lost to time (and me losing a chunk of files in swapping computers), so I asked Matthew for his thoughts on what he wanted to emphasize with his pitch back in the day:

When I pitched Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition to Rich, it was with the intention of making the game more accessible while adding more hooks to grab the interests of new players. I’m a big fan of utility and expansion in games. I love 1st Edition, but I found some of the content unusually dense for an RPG, whether through language used, depth of metaplot, or even the concepts behind the mummy guilds.

I asked “who wants to play an engraver when you could be playing a member of the secret police?”. It’s the same guild, but in 2nd Edition, we give focus to the part that tells you how you might play the character, and their active role in society, rather than their history. Additionally, I wanted to fix some of Mummy‘s mechanical issues while providing new play tools.

This is where the non-chronological style of play came in, explaining how experiences work for a character in 2019 (“this is the first time you’ve awoken!”), through to using it as a way to empower your cult (“your mummy was last awake in 2019 and is now awake in 1970, so he tells his cultists to back the Dallas Cowboys to substantially grow their wealth and make them grateful to him”).

The other big element was bringing immortals forward from World of Darkness: Immortals, as so many people had been asking for South American mummies and Chinese mummies, but Mummy: The Curse isn’t a game about those kinds of creature. Immortals from their previous book work as fantastic antagonists and cultists as they are, but also allow for global mummies of other kinds to appear in Mummy: The Curse.

When all was said and done, we were both very enthusiastic about what we could do with Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition, and that seems to have translated through to the excitement we’re seeing from fans about Mummy right now.

From what we’re hearing from everybody, it really sounds like Matthew and company have hit it out of the park in terms of clarifying the right things, adding the right stuff, and cutting very little in favor of re-presenting and tweaking existing aspects of first edition to fit. Thanks to everybody who is posting how much they are loving the book’s text as it’s released during this KS!

CofD Dark Eras 2 art by Brian LeBlanc

Here’s another thing I want to share (and hope you’ll be interested in), which came out of the blue during the SAVE con a few weeks ago, is this interview I gave to our friend Josh Heath about the beginning days of White Wolf in the 1990s, and very specifically about the creation of Werewolf: The Apocalypse on a visual level.

https://keepontheheathlands.podbean.com/e/interview-with-rich-thomas-of-onyx-path-publishing/

As you can hear in the interview, I dove into Werewolf as I arrived in the White Wolf offices and it was the first core book I art directed, so that time period has some pretty intense memories for me. Hope that intensity and excitement comes through in the interview!

So…

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

The Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition Kickstarter funded within a day, and is now shambling pretty quickly for a mummy towards 200% funding. Backers have already unlocked the Mummy 2e Screen as a Stretch Goal, and are now headed towards starting a whole new project, the Mummy 2e Companion!

Please check out this blog from last week for a description of all the amazing features of this new edition!

Be there to witness the majesty and terror of this new version of Mummy: The Curse!

Onyx Path Media!

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features a timely deep-dive into Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition, which is currently on Kickstarter (see above)!

The Onyx Path Twitch schedule is filling up with exciting games once again, with games of Vampire: The Masquerade, Scion, Pugmire, Hunter: The Vigil, Aberrant, Scarred Lands, Changeling: The Lost, Changeling: The Dreaming, Mage: The Awakening, and more all scheduled for this coming week!

It really helps us to have subscribers on our Twitch channel, and you can do so for free and catch premieres as they go up if you have an Amazon Prime account. Just type Twitch Amazon Prime into Google and you’ll be shown how to subscribe for free.

What’s more, we��ll drop a news episode later this week, and next week you can expect to see a Q&A regarding Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition, along with character creation and a one-shout for that game as it rolls on Kickstarter. Do check us out on twitch.tv/theonyxpath and give us a follow and a subscribe

Do you follow us on YouTube? Well, if you haven’t subscribed to us on Twitch, do not despair, as a couple of weeks after each episode on Twitch we transfer the videos over to YouTube right here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzN5jRB35OvnC-6gxnRY4gQ We already have episodes of Aberrant and Changeling up, with more to come!

If Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition interests you, but you want to know a little more about it before taking the plunge into Duat (or at least on Kickstarter), we’ve a few exciting resources for you. Some were posted last week, some are new!

The Story Told Podcast interviewed Matthew Dawkins regarding Mummy: The Curse right here: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/mummy-2nd-edition-with-matthew-dawkins

Red Moon Roleplaying played their inaugural session of Mummy: The Curse right here: https://youtu.be/AJiyP2UzLSc

And Red Moon Roleplaying have a Mummy: The Curse character creation session here, where a mummy, an immortal, and a mortal are created: https://youtu.be/GJIEAEAx2MY

Lots of Mummy goodness with more to come!

Meanwhile, our fans keep creating excellent content, not limited to:

Occultists Anonymous continues for you Mage: The Awakening fans out there (and we know there are lots of you):

Episode 56: Bad To The Bone

Songbird has called Celestial Fire to burn the body of Supay, just as Atratus felt like she was making in-roads with the Judge! Wyrd the Seer has slowed down Supay, but is it enough? https://youtu.be/inPtPBPaNCA

Episode 57: Now & Again

Atratus takes a dive into dark uncharted waters, metaphorically and metaphysically speaking. Songbird’s contemplates terrible things, while Wyrd stands guard… https://youtu.be/RBurUUf1kj4

Plus, our good friends at the Story Told RPG Podcast continue their Exalted Dragon-Blooded actual play right here: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/fall-of-jiara-episode-18

And if you’re looking for more Exalted goodness, here’s Ekorren with a video on positioning and movement in Exalted 3rd Edition: https://youtu.be/Vgc-3LNznd4

Drop Matthew a message via the contact button on matthewdawkins.com if you have actual plays, reviews, or game overviews you want us to profile on the blog!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero are available to order!

As always, you can find most of Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, The Cup of Dreams, the long-awaited fourth book for The Immortal Eyes Saga fiction for Changeling 20th goes live in PDF, eBook, and physical book PoD versions on DTRPG!

In addition, we are also offering this Wednesday the W20 Auspice Gift Deck cards in PDF and physical PoD versions from DTRPG!

Conventions!

PAX Unplugged: December 6th – 8th, in Philadelphia, PA. We’re going to have lots and lots of gaming for folks to sign up for, a lot of them featuring our game creators! 2020: Midwinter: January 9th – 12th, in Milwaukee, WI.

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (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 Essay Collection (Exalted)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Redlines

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Second Draft

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

Development

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Manuscript Approval

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Post-Approval Development

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Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

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Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

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Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

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ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

Contagion Chronicle – Sent out contracts.

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Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad – Going over the art notes and getting it going.

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In Layout

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Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today in the US, we celebrate Veteran’s Day: the day we give thanks to those who served in our armed forces in wars and battles around the world. For those of our creators, as well as anyone out there, who have served: we thank you for your service!

[shirlleycoyle]

These Are the People Making Porn Out of Your Favorite Childhood Memories

This article appears in VICE Magazine's Stupid Issue, which is dedicated to the entertaining, goofy, and just plain dumb. It features stories celebrating ridiculous ideas, trends, and products; pieces arguing that unabashed stupidity can be a great part of life; and articles calling out the bad side of stupidity. Click HERE to subscribe to the print edition.

Missy Martinez is painted hot pink in places it doesn’t seem possible to get paint: edged up to almost the inside of her vulva, across her anus, and certainly everywhere that her scene partner Brenna Sparks has put her face so far. Right now, Martinez’s anime costume, which includes a soft mound the size of a large squash glued to the top of her head, is getting between her and Sparks’ clitoris. Her six-inch foam headpiece is slipping. But she perseveres.

Martinez is retired from porn now. She set aside her 10-year career in May 2019, one year after her debut as Vagin Buu, the pornified version of Dragon Ball Z’s Majin Buu.

“You can only do the sexy stepmom or babysitter—these contrived roles that are cookie-cutter—so much,” she said. “To not take porn so literally and seriously… Sex is supposed to be fun. If you’re not laughing while you’re having sex you’re doing it wrong.”

It looked like something someone might only do on a lost bet, but ultimately, Martinez asked for this. In fact, when Lee Roy Myers, the cofounder of the porn production studio WoodRocket, asked her to star in one of his freak-show-esque parodies, she leapt at the chance.

As a die-hard DBZ fan, she considered this a dream role, pink paint and all.

“When they were airbrushing my genitals, I was like, ‘Ohhh, no…,’” she said.

Martinez is not alone; everyone I spoke to who’s been subjected to a WoodRocket costume treatment or roped into Myers’ madness said they have that moment she described—the point of no return.

There’s a controversial theory among historians that parody porn brought about the French Revolution. Robert Darnton’s “pornographic interpretation” of the events of late 18th century France suggests that smutty literature depicting the monarchy in pornographic cartoons—as just as base and sex-crazed as the subjects they thumbed their noses at—emboldened the people to revolt.

“Sex is democratic,” the sex historian (and VICE contributor) Hallie Lieberman told me. “There’s a reason why we have the saying the emperor has no clothes: It reduces him to the same status as everyone else.”

But porn-as-parody goes back hundreds of years before the 18th century. An anonymous author in 16th century Italy published Ficheide, an erotic parody of Homer’s Illiad. Another erotic text of the Italian Renaissance, La Cazzaria, featured disembodied genitals satirizing political figures, and its relative virality (or as viral as something could be in the 1500s) sent its author, Antonio Vignali, running into exile. The 1748 novel Fanny Hill, regarded as the first example of English-prose pornography, is political parody. The Pearl, a monthly pornographic magazine published in London in the late 1800s, featured parodies and was itself a parody of a family magazine. The British authorities shut the magazine down after two years, citing obscenity laws.

In the early 20th century, small porno pamphlets called “Tijuana Bibles,” which peaked in popularity during the Great Depression, contained raunchy parodies of pop culture icons like Popeye, Superman, Lois Lane, and Wonder Woman getting into all sorts of hijinks. Fast-forward to the 90s and early 2000s, and everything in the porn world exploded with the advent of the VHS tape (and porn viewing from the comfort of one’s home), including parody films like Forrest Hump and Everybody Does Raymond.

“Class and sexuality are closely associated in our society, so things we deem respectable inherently have some kind of discretion when it comes to sex,” said Laura Helen Marks, a porn scholar and professor of English at Tulane University. “It can feel exciting and fun to watch the ‘low’ genre of pornography expose the perversions and hypocrisies of mainstream media… It feels like a momentary and satisfying leveling.”

Today, we have WoodRocket. The Vegas-based studio has made a name for itself in the last eight years in part by being pseudonymous with parody porn. If you hear about a new video featuring SpongeBob SquarePants or life-size Lego figurines fucking, you can bet it’s WoodRocket’s doing.

People have been using parody, satire, and sexuality to punch up at the systems and institutions that surround them for hundreds of years. Today, things are no different. Only now, we’re punching backward, at our own nostalgia.

In the late 90s, Myers was working in a video store. He’s worked a lot of jobs since then, from camera equipment guy to executive for a pay-per-view company. But he points back to that place and time in the video store as the earliest inspiration for his current work.

“I was in the store, and I was watching Edward Penishands, and he has these horrifying giant dildo arms, and it’s so ridiculous… It’s so gross, and weird, and funny, and I don’t know what parts were supposed to be intentionally funny or not,” Myers said of the film, directed by Paul Norman. “But it always stuck in my mind like, Oh, if I could do this, that would be amazing.”

For years, Myers worked roles he can only describe as “a job.” He’s never felt suited for the nine-to-five grind. But during programming and production gigs, he was making a lot of friends and connections in the adult industry. One of them was Scott Taylor, founder of a porn studio called New Sensations, who in 2008 was looking to take the studio in a comedic direction—and tasked Myers with making an erotic parody of the same nine-to-five grind he felt trapped in. Myers came up with The Office: An XXX Parody, the first of eight pop-culture television parodies he’d churn out for New Sensations that year.

“Fuck yeah, man, that sounds fucking ludicrous”

Things snowballed from there. By 2012, Myers had a front-row seat to the adult industry’s seismic shift from VHS tapes to DVDs and then to something else entirely. The internet was changing everything, and suddenly fewer and fewer people were willing to shell out money for smut. They could get it for free, on any number of tube sites filled with stolen clips and full films.

Instead of fighting against this unstoppable sea change, Myers and his industry partners started thinking of new ways to ride the wave of free internet content while still making enough profit to keep paying for cast, crew, and the lights. After years of hustling out dozens of porn parodies for other studios, Myers founded WoodRocket in 2012, with the goal of bringing comedic, silly porno to the mainstream—for free.

Myers is Canadian, and defines his directing style as “scary public access television,” with shows like The Hilarious House of Frightenstein influencing his low-budget, single-room sets and makeup that looks like it’s been applied by an overly enthusiastic high school theater student. WoodRocket launched its first film, SpongeKnob SquareNuts, in January 2013, with a press release complete with a “safe for work” trailer and a link to the full, X-rated film on WoodRocket.com.

From top to bottom: Aladdick, Dragon Boob Z, Mr. Rimjob's Neighborwood, The Loin King, Red Dead Erection.

This included a theme song that would toe the line of parody homage without crossing into copyright infringement. For that task, and most WoodRocket musical scores and lyrics, Myers has entrusted the Brooklyn-based sound designer David DeCeglie.

When Myers approached him to write the parody version of the iconic SpongeBob theme song, DeCiglie still remembers his response: “Fuck yeah, man, that sounds fucking ludicrous.”

And it was. Within an hour of the film’s release, the newly launched WoodRocket website crashed under the server load of people clicking to watch it.

The runaway success of the studio’s first original parody was doubly shocking, because Squarenuts was the “most fucked-up thing to date, at the time,” that Myers and his crew had made. The construction of the giant square costume was the work of Tom Devlin, who’s been involved with WoodRocket since the beginning. The directive from Myers, Devlin told me, was to make it look kind of like Pizza the Hutt from Spaceballs. In other words, like an actor is trapped inside a repulsive homemade costume that swallowed him whole. The result was a poly-foam fabrication glued onto a box.

“It was just… creepy.” Devlin said. “It was really hard for him to move around, and really hard for him to perform. But it just adds to the weirdness and uncomfortability of the parody.”

“He looked like a monster,” Myers said, of SpongeKnob. “And, you know, it was funny—or at least, we found it funny—and people either loved it or hated it. But they watched it.”

Devlin and Myers share a similar ethos: Don’t think too much about how the performers will perform. Just make the costumes and see what they do in them.

“Sometimes it’s not about whether or not the actors can be comfortable. It’s about what is the silliest thing we can put out there,” Devlin said. And at this point in the studio’s reputation, a performer signing up for a WoodRocket shoot knows what they’re getting into.

Rizzo Ford’s role as “Dikachu” in Strokémon XXX is unforgettable. She looks like one of Dr. Seuss’ cartoon mice if it ran into traffic. Her head hangs a little. She hunches forward. The mass of foam latex and thick yellow and black paint molded to her head and nose is forcing her to breathe through her mouth and keep her eyes partially shut.

“Dikachu! Dikachu, Dikachu,” she squawks. She and “Fisty,” whose pubic hair is shaved and dyed into a neon orange landing strip to match her anime-orange hair, are together going down on “Gash,” played by Tyler Nixon. As I watch the video online, I’m legitimately concerned about her ability to come up for air.

“I feel like comedy and porn should go hand in hand,” Ford told me. “Sex is silly. We make silly noises with our mouths and bodies. I think that by having comedic porn it normalizes things that might make us embarrassed if they were to happen with a new sexual partner.”

Ford not only survived this shoot, but would do it again “in a heartbeat” even after taking multiple showers and soaking in a tub to get all that makeup off.

“He’s not going to stop being Super Mario because his flying raccoon dick is out"

There’s really no preparing oneself for the process of a WoodRocket costume and makeup session.

Just ask Will Tile, who answered a casting call to be a WoodRocket extra in 2018, for Red Dead Erection. Just a few months prior, he was a virgin in the adult industry, looking for a new way to make a living. He’s since played a cop in Dick Hard (the Die Hard parody) and a lip-syncing genie in Aladdick, released May 2019.

When he got to the set of Aladdick, Myers told him to head to makeup. “I’m thinking they’re just gonna like, spruce me up,” he recalled. Instead, he spent half an hour getting spray-painted bright blue from the waist up.

Tile thought he could get into porn and be “one of those big scary black male performers,” nondescript beyond a stereotypical male performer, virtually anonymous at his level. But after Aladdick, things changed. “That’s when everything went to hell. That’s when everything went straight to shit,” he said.

Now he can’t walk onto most sets without someone pointing out that he was the genie. Or a cop. Or Simba. Or a reptilian creature from Ten-Inch Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Tile’s mom has even seen him painted blue and half-naked in a porno.

Tile is an ex-Marine, a former wildland firefighter, and an EMT-in-training, so his family is accustomed to worrying about him. Now they can rest easy knowing he’s perfectly healthy and happy, playing a cop with a glued-on mustache or a raunchy blue genie.

“For two years they had to worry about me coming home in a box, if I came home at all. And then when I took the wildland job, it was like, ‘Is he gonna get burnt up, or fall off a cliff and die?’” he said. “Now they’re like, ‘Oh, porn? Yeah, that’s fine.’”

Tommy Pistol’s erect penis juts out from a green spandex bodysuit. He’s moaning from inside a fully enclosed alien mask, while April O’Neil and Lauren Phillips—two glittery trespassers who look like they’ve wandered out of a Burning Man camp onto Area 51—caress each other and his body, laid flat on a surgical table. He waggles the long, floppy fingertips of his bodysuit in pleasure.

Pistol’s been friends with Myers since 2010, when they met during production of a Sex and the City parody for New Sensations. He’s played a variety of roles for the company since then, and somehow keeps ending up playing characters that involve poking his boner through the most unsexy full-body costumes.

Having convincingly good sex for the camera is a feat of athleticism even on a normal set. Having sex while in character as a childhood memory is a whole other thing.

“If you came to see Super Mario fucking the princess then you’re going to see Super Mario fucking the princess,” Pistol said. “He’s not going to stop being Super Mario because his flying raccoon dick is out.”

Lance Hart, who played “Mr. Rogers” in the studio’s most recent film, Mr. Rimjob’s Neighborwood, said that even this mindfuck of a role was easier than wearing a heavy BDSM mask or leather apron, as he’s had to do in other movies.

“It’s definitely a little weird when something felt really good and I needed to moan but also pretend to be Mister Rogers, but I’m kind of into it,” Hart said.

Adding to the ego-death exercise of wearing a glued-on mustache and painting one’s butthole neon, WoodRocket’s studio is in Las Vegas, where to film, they have to cut off the noisy air conditioning. Full body paint, elaborate costumes, and hours of rigorous sex when it’s over a hundred degrees has made for some interesting moments.

“With this job, it can’t just all be buttholes and elbows. You can actually get to do the good stuff"

“I’m pumping away, and I can feel myself about to pass out,” Tile said, recalling his role as Simba in The Loin King, where he and Kira Noir wore thick, fuzzy lion hats and gloves during their sex scene. “I’m like, I’m about to pass out on set. This is how I go out.” He didn’t, and made it through to the cut, and said he would still do it all again.

Holly Myers recently started stepping in to direct films for WoodRocket. With Holly behind the camera, the movies are no less hilarious, and she still takes a lot of care to make performers comfortable and safe.

“Generally, I try to keep the mood on set light and positive,” she said. “We are already asking them to put themselves in front of a camera to have sex—already a brave step—then going beyond and asking them to do it in a potentially uncomfortable costume, while staying in character.”

During Martinez’s headpiece-impaired performance of Vajin Buu, they stopped and reshot new takes at least five times when the paint and glue started slipping. She said, “It’s like, ‘Cut, OK, same intensity, aaand go!’ when I was in the middle of an orgasm or leading right up to it.” It’s challenging, not just physically, but mentally.

“We always know it’s not going to be easy, no matter how much you adjust things,” Myers said. [Porn] is not like real sex, it’s opening up and making sure the camera and lights get in there… I’ve heard it described as fucking around a corner.”

But it might also just take a special kind of performer to work through the giggles, and the discomfort, and the sweaty paint. Pistol said he feels like sex in these costumes comes “weirdly natural” to him. “It honestly keeps me sane after doing this for so many years,” he said. “Laughter is my therapy… I understand jerking off at home while laughing out loud isn’t for everyone. But comedy porn breaks down barriers.”

At this point (or likely, a lot earlier), you may be wondering who gets off to this stuff? Is there an audience craving a sexualized Mister Rogers? Are there people out there who are horny for a grotesque Pikachu, or a nightmare simulacrum of SpongeBob with a hard-on?

That question is flawed from the start. First of all, yes, undoubtedly, there are people who seek out WoodRocket because they’ve always had a Lego fetish or the like. But humor has always been a part of porn. Sex is fun and, often, funny.

“Humor and porn share a lot of similarities,” Lieberman, the porn historian, said. “The end goal of both is an involuntary physical reaction: an orgasm or a laugh. We watch comedy and we watch porn to experience pleasure.”

To laugh along with the people in porn can be a subversive act, said Marks, the porn scholar. “Within the context of a sex-negative, censorious society, pornographic material is politically antagonistic—unavoidably so and regardless of intention—and this frequently means poking fun.”

For the performers themselves, doing a parody shoot can be a release they don’t get in other studios. For Tile, having WoodRocket as his first studio experience showed him a different way of performing—one that most people don’t associate with porn. “With this job, it can’t just all be buttholes and elbows,” he said. “You can actually get to do the good stuff.”

I’ve seen a lot of the buttholes and elbows and painted labia that WoodRocket has put into the world, but there’s still one work of theirs that I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch. Mr. Rimjob’s Neighborwood opens with Hart lip-syncing, “Welcome to my neighborhood, where we’ll ruin your childhood,” and I fear it would be true. I loved Mister Rogers as a kid.

There was a moment during production of Mr. Rimjob, Myers told me, when he did hesitate. The man has likely ruined hundreds of childhoods with his releases, and this was the one that gave him pause.

“As we started getting closer to making it, it was the first one where I started to feel a little regret,” he said. “I grew up watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I was a PBS kid in the late 70s and early 80s… but, I thought I could do it in a way that it’s not really him, it’s spoofing the genre as much as it’s spoofing the ‘land of make believe…’ I don't think it’s insensitive to him being who he was as a person.”

It turns out there are only three things Myers said he’ll never touch in future WoodRocket productions: anything that’s intentionally punching down, anything where the characters doing the fucking aren’t clearly over 18, and any more Donald Trump stuff. He’s “so tired of that,” he said. Everything else is fair game.

“We have to find a balance,” Myers said. “Actually, I don’t know if there is a balance. But we had to find a balance between porn and whatever that was. And so we, in the process, created our own balance, and it’s something different to everybody.

“So some people will love it. Some people hate it. Some will be disgusted by it. But I think everybody can agree that we’ve ruined everyone’s childhood.”

These Are the People Making Porn Out of Your Favorite Childhood Memories syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[kootenaygoon]

So,

The RDCK had issued an evacuation alert for Shambhala, and nobody gave a shit.

The night before I’d texted Chris Armstrong to see if Jimmy was any closer to making a decision about what to do with the forest fire but didn’t get a straight answer. He told me he’d have a story for me in the morning, all terse, but then I was woken up at 8 a.m. the next morning with an emergency alert from the local government. Holy shit, I thought. This is really happening. I quickly smoked two joints and gave myself a deodorant bath, then half-jogged to Steph’s trailer to give her the news. On the way I called Ed and talked through priorities. He was at his computer, so I could alley-oop any interviews or information to him back in the Star office. My mind hummed with the possibilities. I felt like a fucking war correspondent.

“I need you to take this seriously, Will. This is a real emergency, it’s not a joke,” Ed said. “I need you to stop acting like this is some big adventure.”

“This is a big story, that’s all. I’m excited.”

“Excited is fine, but I need you to be professional and thoughtful and responsible right now. I know you’re at Shambhala, but we need you operating at 100%. Do you understand me?”

“Totally,” I said. “I’m bringing my A-game, Ed. I promise.”

He informed me that Black Press wanted me to go Facebook Live on the grounds. Like a TV reporter. I’d never used Facebook Live before, though I loved the idea, and Ed explained that someone from the digital team had already offered to walk me through it. Her name was Ashley Wadhwani, and I’d met her a couple months earlier at the digital retreat. She was nakedly ambitious and hyper-competent, in her early 20s, and she clearly knew what she was talking about when it came to social media. I stood outside Steph’s trailer while she patiently took me through the steps over the phone. 

“We’ll be supporting you on our end, sharing your feed once it goes live. You just have to text us to let us know the videos coming.”

“And how long are we looking for here? Like a minute?”

“A minute and a half max. They’re good for a short interview, or you could just kind of introduce yourself and give the basics of the situation. It could be we end up doing a few different videos today.”

“Okay, I can do that. I knew there was a reason I went to theatre school.”

When I came around to Steph’s entrance she was already awake, drinking coffee with her feet on a wooden coffee table. She had an amazing party endurance, and didn’t look any different today than she did yesterday. Meanwhile I felt haggard and half-conscious, far shy of the state I’d promised Ed to be in. Steph hooked me up with some coffee and listened bemused as I caught her up with everything.

“I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it,” Steph said. “I honestly can’t believe this is happening. Everyone said it was going to be fine.”

“Well, apparently it’s gotten worse.”

“The evacuation could be more dangerous than the fire. Fuck.”

After I poured some bottled water over my head and brushed my teeth with my finger, I asked Steph if she would film my Facebook Live segments. I was planning to do an introduction, an interview with social media manager Britz Robins and then an interview with Chris or Jimmy. I’d sent out a flurry of texts, trying to get this all arranged. I decided it would be funny to do the segments in my paint splatter tights, but I threw on a hoodie for the sake of modesty. Steph giggled with excitement as I repeated the instructions Ashley had given me. 

For the first Facebook Live video, I introduced myself just outside downtown Shambhala then waved for Steph to follow me inside. I was monologuing about what I saw, pointing out the omnipresent smoke, when I realized a topless woman was walking straight toward me. I quickly waved my arm over the camera and swept Steph in the opposite direction. The ultimate broadcast ended up having a half-second R-rated moment, but the crisis was averted. I was vibrating with excitement as we headed over to the main headquarters, to where I knew the deliberations were being held in an upstairs office. After doing some more filming, I decided I was going to make myself a pest. There was no other media on site, so I was the only reporter seeing this from the ground.

“I’m just going to park here until someone sees me,” I told Steph, taking a seat on a bench outside the office. “They’ve gotta come out eventually.”

“I think I can hear someone yelling,” she said.

It was over an hour later that Chris Armstrong finally appeared in a nearby doorway. He didn’t look anything like how I imagined him. He was thick-jawed with an expansive chest and tree trunk arms, wearing a black shirt with SECURITY across the chest. He glanced around to see if anyone else was waiting, then motioned me over with a finger. He seemed on-edge, like he’d just finished reaming somebody out, but he didn’t say anything as he led me to a small pasture shielded from the rest of the festival by the headquarters. Standing nervously in the grass was Jimmy, clutching a newly printed piece of paper in one hand.

“Hey man, thanks for seeing me. Everyone’s all confused about what’s happening,” I said to Jimmy, reaching out to shake his hand.

“We’ve been having a bunch of negotiations. But we’ve come to a decision.”

“Okay, and?”

“We’re going to be shutting down one day early, out of an abundance of caution.”

Chris jumped in. “He’ll be reading what’s printed on that paper, and nothing else. That’s all we want to share officially, is that clear?”

Jimmy nodded at Chris, and he backed off. I could feel their exhaustion. Chris’ phone rang and he took it, leaving me with Jimmy. I’d been fascinated by the dude for years but had never really gotten legit face-time with him. As far as I was concerned, he was the single most important artist in the Kootenays, though he would never describe himself that way. He carried himself like someone who considered himself to be a typical dude, nothing more. A servant to the purple magic.

“They want me to go Facebook Live with this, so it would be good if we found an attractive backdrop. Like maybe up there?” I said, pointing up into a control room that overlooked downtown and the Pagoda stage.

He nodded.

As we were walking up the stairs, Jimmy’s phone went off. He held up one finger and stood a few feet away, whispering into the receiver conspiratorially. It sounded like he was arguing with his significant other but I knew who it was: Andrew Bellerby from the RDCK. They were hashing out some of the details of whatever deal they’d concocted. They concluded and Jimmy walked over to sit down for his interview. The dark circles under his eyes were immediately apparent as I held up my iPhone. He looked reluctant to be there, like he didn’t understand why he was the one who had to make this decision. It was like seeing a slaver led before Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons for judgment.

Jimmy looked over me and smiled, relieved.

“I’m really glad that it’s you here, man,” he said.

The Kootenay Goon

[johnsaye]

Planetary Motion

What a strange week, all kinds of things to do. For someone in my shape, you think I’d have just one boring day after another, but I don’t. Things are as fast-paced as I can ever think of. I’ve got on average of seven home health visits per week, two physical therapy sessions, two occupational therapy sessions, two more visits from a home health aid to help me take a bath and an extra nurse’s visit to help me through whatever I’m dealing with at the moment, although that’s going down to once per two weeks now, and then on top of that I’m doing my best to write every day. Kids are in school, I’m going each week to any number of doctor’s appointments from general practice and pain management all the way to neurology, wound care or urology as needed, and I’ve got a wonderful cat, Penelope, who naps on me a lot lately. Sometimes I just flop when it’s time to get back into the bed in the evening. 

Writing

Planning a whole galaxy of planets for world building it is tough work. Maybe I’ve gone too far? I decided as I’ve stalled a couple of times while attempting to begin writing a space opera style story that I wanted to know what all the major planets I wanted to include were. I decided that I just wanted to begin with a few (seven) individual solar systems that were habitable. I could make up stories that took place in those locations for days, and for a while considered having a single solar system where all the action happened. I thought it might be this solar system, with a future Earth at the center, but decided to stay away from that. I wanted light speed, or rather faster than light speed travel as a part of it, so I needed different places to go. So I picked a number and seven seems to be the right number, though I think maybe eight, just because I like the number eight. 

I want to know where everything is, where all the civilizations arose, who knows who, how many intelligent species are out there traveling the spaceways and what all their relationships are. Where are the natural resources, where can people, human or otherwise, live. What is the power or land grabs like. Which groups want single rule per planet, who wants a big empire spanning many planets (and habitable moons and dwarf planets.)

I’ve been working out where my barren and forest moons are, and where large quantities of rock are, and large ones that don’t qualify as planets, but might be good as a pirate base or something. The next step I want to take is to start pinpointing where intelligent spacefaring civilizations started. I want to know where didn’t leap to the stars on their own and where they did, and who first contacted them and whose side they might be on in a conflict. 

I’m barely scratching the surface of these worlds, but I ‘m finding that as I visit each character and planet, they all have a story to tell, and they want to tell me. Scenarios seem to bubble up that want to be stories, now I just have to figure out who is the lead character, because several of them keep raising their hands and want to be featured. 

Health

I had an interesting visit to the urologist this week. It’s not my favorite thing to talk about, but being a (recovering?) paraplegic fir this length of time has caused some issues to come up I wasn’t expecting. For instance, bowel movements have slowed way down, and apparently, I keep catching urinary tract infections because my bladder doesn’t empty as it should. Too much information… I know. I think I’m doing well, but it seems my bladder isn’t emptying fully as it should, and if I allow my blood sugar to spike the organisms already hanging out down in there go Ya-Ha! They have a little party and boom, I’m back up UTI alley. 

I’m very grateful for the chair Medicare just sent me, because it reclines all the way back, which allowed the docs at urology access to my butt. Got a shot in both cheeks with an antibiotic and another prescription for some additional ones to finish this garbage off. 

Twitch

In website news, I’ve integrated twitch into the right-hand panel of the site. I’m toying with a twitch as a way to interact with people. To be literally present Live on camera on my website at times. I’m pretty isolated out here. My wife is my best friend anyway, so it’s the best of both worlds there, but I don’t get to see many others who aren’t doctors, nurses or therapists, and I just wonder if this is the way to stick my neck out there. I miss being able to bring my Dungeons & Dragons books to the lunchroom to see who says hello. Today everything’s digital, so if this is it, then this is it. I was also considering doing the first draft of this year’s NaNoWriMo book on camera. I’m still thinking about that. 

Star Wars

Holy Cow! The Mandalorian is coming to Disney Plus in November and all I have to say is ‘Take my money!’ That’s just all there is to it. The trailer dropped and I’ve been going over it and over it again, maybe not with the depth that some will, but I’ve looked at it my fair share, and like many things from Lucasfilm, I think this is going to be a game-changer in what you can do in science fiction on television. I imagine it won’t be too long before every YouTuber at home has a motion capture suit and the ability to render detailed characters from their basement green screen setup. 

The fact that they are doing this now likely means they’ve mastered this technology among others over the last several movies, to make it affordable to produce quickly for something with the number of episodes to qualify as a television series. Pretty awesome stuff. I’m looking forward to the Mandalorian when it premieres. 

Reading

I can once more read the Catcher in the Rye! J. D. Salinger, someone I thought growing up to be a brilliant writer and mind disappointed me in his age to be one of the most famous hold-outs when it came to delivering his work through any other channel except for print. I’ve loved The Catcher in the Rye for many years, going through Holden Caulfield’s mind as he gathers himself up to return home again after getting ousted from yet another prep school. Salinger refused to release the book in another format, no audiobook, no movie adaptation, and especially no ebook. 

No movie, okay I can get that. It’s hard to get into a good first-person book as a movie without the lead sounding like a film noir detective, so there you have me. I don’t understand not having an audio version though, because among the disabled, as I am now, it cuts the story of from such a large group and that I don’t understand, and denying the ebook? What’s that about? In a world where the bookstore is no longer out there somewhere, but in everyone’s pocket, that seems like a poor business choice. ‘Oh but I love the smell of paper!’ No— you mean mold. Grr. He held out. When he died I found out he left instructions not to release them, and then his son held out… until now. The ebook version has been released. Maybe he needed the money? I don’t know, but I’m glad he did. 

My hands are still incapable of holding a book or turning pages, but I can read anything on my kindle app with the swipe of a stylus. I am very glad to be able to read the book again and have it in my virtual library. An audiobook is apparently still off the table. Maybe eventually. 

I still wonder, where do the ducks go when the pond freezes over? Even though I live in the south where the ponds never do. 

It’s interesting though since reading they were going to do it on the BBC website, they published that sucker to kindle quick!

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-49330560

Therapy

My therapists were excited that we won the eBay auction for an EasyStand XT, though the auctioneer doesn’t seem very interested in shipping it, and we’ve withdrawn our offer. (Because they freaked out when they figured out they didn’t account for shipping the thing…) We’ll see what eBay wants to do about that, but I very much dis;Ike it when people don’t know what they are doing. I feel for them. I’m sorry they haven’t got the wisdom to think about what shipping would cost. The bad thing is I would have happily paid extra for the shipping and worked out a deal. 

My second plan to get one is to go to my local supplier and start working a deal with Medicare for a new one, I’m going to have to pay to ship anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. I’m going to get one either way. It’s just now I’m waiting a little bit longer. That’s all. 

I see myself using one of these days as I get the strength back into my legs for standing up again. I used one of these in the hospital a few times. I need one now. So I’m going to make it happen. 

https://easystand.com/product/png50209-evolv-xt/

source https://www.johnsaye.com/planetary-motion/

[char27martin]

Understanding “The Call”: Perspective from an Author and Agent on Representation

I went about searching for an agent in the usual way—using online sites. My search focused on trying to gather information about agents who represented works in my chosen genres: picture books, middle grade humor, young adult, and historical romance.

After I polished my query letter, I sent it off to some possible agents. I didn’t know a lot about the process then, but I know now there were definite reasons why I signed with the agent I did, and I am happy with my decision.

Melody Delgado has been a published writer since 2000.  Her short stories have appeared in national magazines such as AIM (America’s Intercultural Magazine), VISTA, and CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE LATINO SOUL. She has published two picture books. TEN ROARING DINOSAURS was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and DO YOU KNOW HOW I GOT MY NAME? was recently published by Little Debbie/McKee Foods. Her YA inspirational, historical romance, ROYALLY ENTITLED, was released digitally by Clean Reads in May, 2017. It is the first in a three-book series called The Brides of Brevalia. A humorous children’s novel, OOPS-A-DAISY, is coming to print on September 5 of this year and is also the first in a children’s series, The De La Cruz Diaries. It will also be published by Clean Reads.

A few months after sending out a few queries, I received an email and a phone call from Cyle Young of Hartline Literary. We had a lengthy, but informative discussion on the phone. I felt he answered all my questions sufficiently. He also asked pertinent probing questions about my writing, which helped me gauge his interest. Since I write so many diverse genres, I knew it would be easier to work with one agent who would be able to represent everything that I write. Some agents only represent picture books or fiction, but not both. Others only represent adult novels or strictly nonfiction.

I knew Cyle and I would be a good fit, because he represents many genres and every age group.

Hartline Literary Agency has a long history in the industry. Their favorable reputation was another major factor that influenced me to want to work with them. Cyle provides in depth teaching videos for his clients. The videos cover topics from “How to Polish Your Manuscript” to “How to Present Your Manuscript or Proposal for Submission.”

I felt I would be in good hands if I signed on with Cyle and Hartline.

Like many authors, I have lots of friends who are writers and I am active in online writing communities. The number one frustration I hear from other writers concerning agents is a lack of communication and availability from their agents after signing on with them. Many authors have no idea which publishers their book is being shopped to or even if their book is being shopped at all.

Cyle has been great about keeping me in the loop. Recently, Cyle and I had an offer from two different publishing houses for my middle-grade novel, OOPS-A-DAISY. It was reassuring to know I was in good hands. We exchanged several emails and had multiple phone conversations regarding the details of each offer. He listened to what my preferences were and then acted accordingly. While I was thankful to get any offer—much less multiple offers—one of the important factors for me regarding my novel was that it be available in print and not just digitally, since many young readers find out about books from libraries and bookstores. Cyle listened to my request and made this happen for me.

During the negotiations, I mentioned to Cyle that I had started writing follow-up books to both of my novels that he sold, ROYALLY ENTITLED, an inspirational, historical, YA romance, and OOPS-A-DAISY, a humorous middle-grade novel. Thanks to great communication, he not only was aware of what I was working on, he was able to push for two series contracts. He essentially turned a two-book deal into a six-book deal.

While I depend upon my critique group and other writers to help me get my manuscript ready for submission, it is good to know there are resources available to help me in my publishing journey. I also appreciate knowing that my agent is on top of trying to actively sell my manuscripts, keeps me in the loop with specific details, listens to and considers my preferences, and negotiates the best deal possible.

[New Agent Alerts: Click here to find agents who are currently seeking writers]

The Agent’s Perspective

Representing Melody Delgado was an exceptionally rare scenario for me as an agent. I don’t often represent authors who I have not met in person. Not because I don’t want to, but because many authors don’t understand how to sell themselves in a cover letter or proposal. I find it is much easier to mentor writers who I have already developed a relationship with at a writing conference or retreat. But as you will see, Melody captured my attention and she spoke to my interests, and I became her agent.

Cyle Young is a force-sensitive dragon rider trapped in the modern world. When he and his three muggle padawans aren’t racing chocobos, they search for a magical wardrobe or time stone that may help them return home before The Nothing, Skeletor, or Skynet takes over this dimension. Cyle credits his 20+ writing awards to his discovery of the “One Ring to Rule Them All.”

He lives in the Midwest and when he is not shopping manuscripts for Hartline Literary Agency, he can be found lounging in his hammock beside the tranquil Grand River.

Within only a few days of becoming an agent with Hartline Literary Agency, I received an email from Melody about a historical romance novel entitled ROYALLY ENTTLED. The story was set in the Kingdom of Brevalia and my mind instantly conjured up images of Princess Diaries. I don’t know why—but that’s what I thought about. Even though I was a 37-year-old former Division 1 football player, I loved that movie and Melody’s book blurb kept pulling me further into her cover letter.

When I read on, I discovered that Melody was a published picture book author with Houghton Mifflin. That revelation was enough to garner an immediate response. Not only do I know the company, I love the books that they have published. As an author, if you’ve been published with a large publishing house, it is always important to let an agent know.

When I read about Melody’s TEN ROARING DINOSAURS, my interest went off the charts and I couldn’t wait to speak to Melody about her picture book.

I also noticed in the letter that Melody wrote for Chicken Soup for the Soul, which I considered another valuable asset. If other significant publishers have already reviewed an author’s work and deemed it to be of enough quality to invest hundreds to thousands of dollars in, that speeds up my review process.

Melody mentioned in her opening statement that she also was under contract for another novel. All of this information helped me decide to send Melody a request for a phone conversation. On the phone, we immediately connected and both realized that she’d be a great fit for my unique client pool.

My relationship with Melody has gone smoothly. She has continued to hone her craft as an author and she follows my advice and instructions. We speak as often as necessary to communicate the status of her submissions and Melody continues to stay abreast of the industry and publisher’s editorial needs.  Every agent dreams of having clients that are as responsive as Melody, and I am lucky to have her as one of mine.

The biggest literary agent database anywhere is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the most recent updated edition online at a discount.

If you’re an agent looking to update your information or an author interested in contributing to the GLA blog or the next edition of the book, contact Writer’s Digest Books Managing Editor Cris Freese at cris.freese@fwmedia.com.

          The post Understanding “The Call”: Perspective from an Author and Agent on Representation appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/understanding-call-perspective-author-agent-representation

[theonyxpath]

We’ve been mentioning our smash-hit Onyx Pathcast here and all over our social media, and I’m thrilled to say that our team of podcasters; Eddy Webb, Matthew Dawkins, and Dixie Cochran (no e), are at it again with this week’s episode that will be found here on Friday: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

The team is really just getting started, and in two weeks they’ll have an interview with Impish Ian Watson, our community manager, and uber-dev for the Trinity Continuum. He’s no slouch on classic White Wolf  lore, either! Thanks to all you who sent in questions for the team to toss at Ian.

We’re just getting set up to record the next interview, and I think this might be the team’s first big mistake. They’ll be interviewing yours truly, and that can’t be anything but trouble. Potentially hilarious trouble, but trouble nonetheless.

You, yes you, can help them, though.

Please give them some questions to ask me in the comments here, and that way they can come to the interview pre-armed and let the chips fall where they may. Interestingly, Fast Eddy Webb has recused himself from this interview as he claims he already knows all the answers I might give. (Which is fair, for years we did the What’s Up With White Wolf/Gameline/Onyx Path panels at conventions together. So he might already know my likely responses!)

      Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition illustration by Ken Meyer, Jr

    A couple more things, but not a lot. I don’t know about anybody else, but right now the pollen is starting to waft here at Onyx Path central, and I’m feeling a bit zombie-like. Stupid allergies.

Thanks to everybody who checked out and “liked” our friends at the Bodhana Group‘s Facebook page. They do good work, and have great potential to help more kids and adults via gaming, so please stop over and check out what they’re doing: https://www.facebook.com/thebodhanagroup/

We’ll be having a sale at IPR (Indie Press Revolution) on Chronicles of Darkness Prestige Editions like Demon, Mummy, Beast, and Dark Eras, starting May 21st. Most will be 40% off, so if you’re in need of a fancy edition of the core books for those lines, that’s your chance!

      Pan’s Guide illustration by Pat Loboyko

    We’re reviewing the “How to Play” videos for the Fetch Quest Kickstarter, and Jaunty James Bell is starting to pull the KS page together. You can see some of the cards in the Blurbs! section below. This is going to be an experiment of a KS for us, as Fetch Quest is a fun, collaborative card game for all ages set in the Realms of Pugmire. As Eddy says:

I really want to make a card game that allows people to experience the realms of Pugmire in a new way. Fetch Quest is portable, easy to learn, and encourages cooperation and teamwork. Not only does it seem to be a fun game in its own right, but I hope it’ll be a great product to play when you don’t have time for a session of the Pugmire RPG, or to get new players excited about Pugmire as a whole.

We really hope that all of our intentions come across, and the KS is a lot of fun for all, but it is really hard to gauge these things when we move into uncharted waters and do a card game. Prince’s Gambit was a different sort of game, with a very different play-style, and I think it appeals to a different sort of player, so even that is hard to use as a template for how Fetch Quest will do.

We’ll see in a couple of weeks (hopefully May 22nd).

      Page from Cavaliers of Mars.

      Work on projects for all sorts of our game lines, old and new, continues apace – like for the Cavaliers of Mars core rulebook pictured above. Meanwhile, I’ve been negotiating contracts for all sorts of things, licenses mostly, but also reviewing pitches new books, projects, and game lines. Some of those pass from me over to White Wolf for approval if the pitches are for projects in their settings, and others – the majority right now – are ours to chart the course of.

Many Worlds, One Path!

    BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Now that the massive Dragon-Blooded: What Fire Has Wrought Kickstarter campaign has triumphantly finished, we’re prepping for a puppy of a different color with Fetch Quest, the adventure card game set in the Realms of Pugmire!

    As we try and find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

The devs have added a whole bunch of new game lines’ dice and rolling bg’s and got caught by a bug Apple needed to fix, so be sure to update your app and soon that should be fixed.

There’s been tweaks to all elements of the UI, you can now preview every die type in the store, and you can use multiple die types per roll! Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

(The Solar Anima special Dice above)

  Promethean: The Created and Demon: The Descent dice on a Demon: The Descent tabletop

  Hunter: The Reckoning and Mage: The Awakening dice on a Mage: The Awakening tabletop

      ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

Our latest offering is the Mage 20 Cookbook, now in a convenient Kindle ebook version! https://www.amazon.com/Mage-Cookbook-World-Darkness-Enlightened-ebook/dp/B07C71BRDC/

Nook version is coming soon!

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

  Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  Andand six more more:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

  And even more books are now on Amazon and the Nook store!:

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

And here are the Champions of the Scarred Lands fiction anthology and the Huntsmen Chronicles anthology for Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition!

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

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! And Screens…so many Screens!

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

Wave 3 of our extra Kickstarter projects is now on sale at IPR!

Here are the direct links for the Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Prestige Edition: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Dark-Eras-Prestige-Edition.html

Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Storytellers’ Screen: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Dark-Eras-Storytellers-Screen.html

Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Deluxe-Edition.html

Ultra-Deluxe (Orichalcum) Exalted 3rd Edition: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Ultra-Deluxe.html

Exalted 3rd Edition Storytellers’ Screen: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Storytellers-Screen.html

EX3 Chibi Bookmarks: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Chibi-Bookmarks.html

Deluxe W20 Shattered Dreams: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/W20-Shattered-Dreams-Deluxe-Edition.html

W20 Shattered Dreams Storytellers’ Screen: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/W20-Shattered-Dreams-Storytellers-Screen.html

Plus price adjustments on M20, Book of the Wyrm, Anarchs Unbound and a few other projects!

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

DTRPG.com continues its D&D Sale with nice discounts on Scarred Lands and Pugmire books!

    Book of Freeholds for Changeling 20th Anniversary Edition arrives this Wednesday in PDF and physical book PoD versions at DTRPG.com!

They are the center of Kithain culture, the havens and shelters required when times get grim. They are dreams made manifest, and hopes kept burning. From the Mythic Ages to the present day, freeholds have been the linchpin around which the changeling world turns. Learn the history of freeholds as they wind throughout Kithain history. Discover the lost Treasures that bind the fae and their homes together, soul-to-balefire. Study the dangers, the threats, understand the duties and responsibilities, and then gather your motley to claim your birthright.

The Book of Freeholds contains:

• Two new freehold Archetypes

• Four new Glade Archetypes

• Full rules for the creation of freeholds and Glades

• 11 fully developed freeholds and Glades

• New chimera, Treasures and Oaths, and more

        To celebrate the opening of the Slarecian Vault for Scarred Lands, we’ve put four Scarred Lands posters on sale via DTRPG.com. These 12″ x 18″ posters feature both classic SL covers with Hollowfaust and the Blood Sea, and new images from the new book, like the SL PG cover wrack-dragon, and a hearty band of adventures well met and ready to divvy up their magical treasure.

      Ask the darkness, and it shall answer: the Beast: The Primordial Player’s Guide PDF and physical book PoD versions will answer your questions now on DTRPG.com! http://drivethrurpg.com/product/236135/Beast-Players-Guide

The Beast Player’s Guide expands on the material presented in Beast: The Primordial, with additional information on the Families and Hungers, what it feels like to be a Beast and experience the Devouring, and how to commune with the Dark Mother. You’ll also find two new Families and two new Hungers!

The book also includes a plethora of new Atavisms, Nightmares, Merits, and Birthrights, as well as systems for creating smaller, subservient versions of the Horror, new forms of Inheritance, and details on the mysterious Obcasus Rites.

        There are some things that even a Demon fears – Night Horrors: Enemy Action for Demon: The Descent has arrived in PDF and physical book PoD versions: http://drivethrurpg.com/product/236133/Night-Horrors-Enemy-Action

“Fighting the Machine is like fighting the ocean. You literally cannot hurt it. Doesn’t matter how much poison we dump into the ocean. We’ll only kill the things in it. We’ll never kill it. Same with the God-Machine. Kill angels, traitors, stigmatics, cultists, cryptids, whatever, you’ll never hurt the Machine Itself. No, that doesn’t mean we stop trying. You stop trying, you drown. Screw that.”

—Mr. Bliss, Guardian Inquisitor

Night Horrors: Enemy Action includes:

• Dozens of Storyteller characters, including Unchained, angels, exiles, cryptids, and stigmatics, for use as antagonists, allies, or just inspiration

• Multiple plot hooks and story seeds for your Demon: The Descent chronicles

• A brief look at cults in Demon, including the Ten Thousand Names of God, a secret society fueled by the God-Machine

      When you need a Changeling 20th character and a way to get started with C20: here are the C20 Ready Made Characters in PDF and physical book PoD versions! Available on DriveThruRPG.com! http://drivethrurpg.com/product/225641/C20-Ready-Made-Characters

Running a one-shot game of Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition? Starting up a chronicle with new players who aren’t sure what to play? Looking for some examples of how the various kiths might look?

Thanks to our generous Kickstarter backers, these thirteen ready-made characters cover each of the Changeling kiths. Each character is provided with background, roleplaying suggestions, art, and some potential motleys and story seeds — everything you need to immerse yourself in the Dreaming!

        Coming NOW as both PDF and physical book PoD on DTRPG, we reveal The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb, a Jumpstart adventure for Pugmire. www.drivethrurpg.com/product/232337/The-Secrets-of-Vinsens-Tomb–A-Pugmire-Jumpstart

A cat living in Pugmire disappears, but neither the police dogs nor the cats of the Cat Quarter know why. When zombies attack the heroes, however, all signs point to an invasion by the Monarchies of Mau. But how does this intrigue tie into the lost tomb of the first king of Pugmire?

The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb is a Pugmire story for three to six characters. This jumpstart contains all the rules and characters you need to play — just grab some dice and go! You can also use this adventure with the full version of Pugmire.

The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb contains:

• An evocative and mysterious setting that’s both family friendly and deep enough to create compelling stories.

• A summary of Pugmire’s traditional fantasy rules system. It’s designed for streamlined play, with an emphasis on cooperation and action over competition and violence.

• A complete adventure for a Guide to run for three to six players. Also useful for Guides running a full Pugmire game of first or second level characters!

• Six ready-to-play characters, so you can jump into the action.

Can your good dogs discover the secret of Vinsen’s Tomb?

        Appearing now on DriveThruRPG are the PDF and PoD physical book versions of Arms of the Chosen for Exalted 3rd Edition! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226224/Arms-of-the-Chosen

Take up the panoply of legendary heroes and lost ages, and awaken the world-shaking might of their Evocations. Before the dawn of time, the Exalted wielded god-metal blades to cast down the makers of the universe. In an ancient epoch of forgotten glories, Creation’s greatest artificers forged unimaginable wonders and miracle-machines.

Now, in the Age of Sorrows, kingdoms go to war over potent artifacts, scavenger princes risk everything to uncover relics of the past, and the Exalted forge great arms and armor on the anvil of legend. These treasures are yours to master.

Discover the mystical power of the five magical materials and the secrets of creating your own Evocations. Wield weapons of fabled might and don the armor of mythic heroes, making their puissance your own. Claim Creation’s wonders: the miraculous tools of the Chosen, living automatons, flying machines, hearthstones, and more. And unleash the mighty warstriders, titanic god-engines of conquest and devastation, to once more shake Creation with their footfalls.

      CONVENTIONS!

Matthew Dawkins, Steffie de Vaan, and Mighty Matt McElroy will be at the UK Games Expo in early June running games and talking shop with fans and retailers.

Prep is also underway for Gen Con 2018 in August, which takes place in Indianapolis, IN. In addition to our booth presence, be sure to check out the games and panels in the Gen Con Event Schedule.

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will be speaking at Broadleaf Writers Conference (September 22-23) in Decatur, GA. He’ll be there to talk about writing for interactive fiction, and hanging out with other writers who have far more illustrious careers. http://broadleafwriters.com/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference-speakers/

Eddy will also be a featured guest at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

If you are going and want to meet up, let us know!

  And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (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)

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

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

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau)

  Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Guide to the Night (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

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

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

  WW Manuscript Approval:

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

  Editing:

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

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

  Post-Editing Development:

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Hero – Getting that rolling.

Trinity Continuum – Got notes and text for both Aeon and the Core. Also… workin on it.

Wr20 Guide for Newly Departed – Everything with Gaydos.

Geist 2e – We have a nice window to get KS art.

The Realm

M20 Gods and Monsters

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Wave 2 art in progress

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Wraith 20 Screen – I’ll pull this together while doing errata. I got the list from Dansky of what tables to pull… just want to make sure they are right.

Fetch Quest – Working on the logo.

EX3 Dragon Blooded

Changeling: the Lost 2 – With Josh.

  Proofing

Cavaliers of Mars – Splats and map should be in by end of the month.

Scion Origin – Sending Sheet stuff to Mr. Gone. Dropping in the art I got in.

Boggans – Going to WW for approval.

Monarchies of Mau – Some art still coming in while this is proofing.

  At Press

Beckett Screen – At shipper.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – At fulfillment shipper. PDF and PoD physical book versions on sale at DTRPG.

Prince’s Gambit – Being sent to the US, expected at fulfillment shipper this this week.

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary– Deluxe edition printing now.

Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.

Wraith 20 – Errata being input.

SL Champions of the Scarred Lands Anthology PoD – PoD proof coming.

Pugmire – Pan’s Explorer’s Guide (or whatever) – PoD proof coming.

Book of Freeholds – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Wednesday!

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Today is the birthday of Randall “Tex” Cobb, who had a career first as a boxer and then as an action film actor. He had a bunch of appearances, but his ultimate role was that of Leonard Smalls, the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse, in Raising Arizona. He’s that antagonist, the one that just keeps coming and destroys all around him as he does. Excellent inspiration for any game. And, he has dark secrets – is he the personification of evil, or of the negative impulses (the Shadow) in H. I. “Hi” McDonnough’s psyche?