#Steve Wieck

[shadowron]

Atlanta, CAS, from the Neo-Anarchist’s Guide to North America for Shadowrun (1st Edition)

Atlanta seems like a cool town.

It’s not a place in which I’ve spent a lot of time. A place I’ve been to when on the way to other places -- the dreaded transfers in Hartsfield-Jackson airport, stuck in traffic on I-75 on the drive to Florida.

In 2050 it’s not only the seat of county and state government, but also the CAS federal government. It distinguishes itself from other Sixth World metroplexes in still maintaining their own police force and not shopping it out to Lone Star or Knight Errant. 

This section was written by Stephan Wieck, author of Queen Euphoria, co-founder of White Wolf, and Georgia Tech alum. It, refreshingly, focuses not on how the Shadowrun metaplot infused itself into Atlanta, but rather how Atlanta evolved from then until now. None of the usual suspects of Megacorps are mentioned at all, instead we are given details about:

Global Business Computers

Shaw Textiles

Coca-Cola™ Company -- Frag you, Pepsi!

Hisato-Turner Broadcasting --  because someone has to show reruns of The Jeffersons

Cord Mutual Insurance

Wait, why should we care about them?

Lots of checkerboard backgrounds.

Cord Mutual Insurance, largest insurance company in the world, winner of the clandestine Insurance War in 2035, has a 500-story tall building. The current tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, with 168 stories and a height of 828 meters. At the same scale, the Cord Mutual tower would have a height of 2.5 km, or about a mile and a half high. Drek.

���I’ll walk the thin line for you.”

Another place of interest: Fulton County Stadium – abandoned by sports teams in 2024, there was an attempt to turn it into a new Epcot:

Researchers covered the coliseum with an experimental biotech membrane that was supposed to photosynthesize to produce food, turn solar radiation into usable energy, and purify the air it released into the domed interior of the coliseum. In effect, the coliseum was an experimental model for enclosed cities of the future.

How well did that turn out? After corporate sabotage and funding cuts, the project collapsed and the homeless (known as “domers”) moved in. By 2045, we have this:

On seemingly random nights, the masses crowd back into the dome to view a kind of gladiatorial battle in which an outside domer tries to dethrone an insider. The domers refer to the special battlefield where these fights occur as the killground.

“Two men enter!”

This is much more awesome than its current fate (demolished in 1997 and made into a parking lot).

That dude is totally grabbing her tit.

[faradaysketches]

Wieck, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. August 2021

[oldschoolfrp]

White Wolf: Temples, Demons, & Ships of War, supplement for the Eternal champion series of RPGS -- Stormbringer, Elric!, and Hawkmoon (Steve Purcell cover, Chaosium, 1987)

[gershwinn]

Zachary Levi and Cole Sprouse to Star in Music-Driven Comedy ‘Undercover’

Shazam star Zachary Levi made the news official today about the upcoming music-driven family comedy film Undercover on his Instagram. Lionsgate is reuniting with Mandeville Films for the movie which will also star Cole Sprouse, and be directed by Steve Pink, who previously directed such music-driven movies as Hot Tub Time Machine and wrote the seminal classics High Fidelity and Grosse Point Blank.

Mandeville Films’ Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman are producing, their $1.8 billion-grossing credits including such family hits as Lionsgate’s Wonder, and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and The Muppets. Undercover was written by Amy Talkington, with revisions by Jonathan Igla, Diablo Cody, Chris Hazzard & Michael Fontana. Jonathan Levine serves as executive producer. Alex Young serves as an executive producer for Mandeville Films.

Levi will play Jack, a down-on-his-luck rocker-turned-father, who, to make ends meet, secretly joins a group of young musicians in a wedding cover band led by misfit Ben, played by Cole Sprouse.  Things start looking up for this ragtag band, but when Jack’s secret gets revealed, he rediscovers what’s truly important in life while teaching Ben to find his own voice as a musical talent. Commenting on the announcement, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group President Nathan Kahane said, “Like School of Rock and Pitch Perfect, Undercover is a movie that unites audiences with the way the cast interprets and performs familiar songs. Not only is it hilarious and charming, but it’s going to be a blast to see personalities like Zachary and Cole own their performances of so many classics.”

Added Lionsgate’s President of Motion Picture Production Erin Westerman, “We’re thrilled to be working with Steve Pink and reteaming with our friends at Mandeville on Undercover. Just like they did so beautifully with Wonder, they have a focused sense of the kind of entertainment that will connect and resonate with family audiences. Zachary and Cole are perfect for this film and their addition to our cast pumps the volume way up!” Lionsgate’s Meredith Wieck and Aaron Edmonds will oversee the production for the studio, which begins this April.

Levi was last seen in New Line/DC’s Shazam!, which grossed $365M WW, and he just wrapped production on Kevin MacDonald’s Prisoner 760 opposite Benedict Cumberbatch and Jodie Foster.  He also starred in Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: The Dark World. Other credits include the Amazon award-winning series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, for which he took home a SAG Award for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series for his recurring role in season two of the series. He also starred in NBC’s Chuck. Levi was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for She Loves Me in 2016. He was also the co-lead (with Mandy Moore) in the Disney animated musical Tangled.

Sproue recently seen starred in Lionsgate/CBS Films’ breakout box office success Five Feet Apart, which grossed over $90M WW. He can also be seen starring on The CW’s hit series Riverdale as Jughead.

Source: Deadline

[theonyxpath]

Titanomachy art by Michel Giorgi

The Kickstarter for They Came From Beyond the Grave! finished up last week with a massive surge of pledges in the last three days. This enabled us to achieve several more Stretch Goals than we expected, which is definitely the best way to end up with a Kickstarter!

Thanks to everyone who backed and spread the word about the project!

Looking at the number of backers, in addition to the pledge amount, we are absolutely thrilled to see that this second game in the series surpassed our first game, They Came From Beneath the Sea!. We kind of thought going in that the subject matter might line up with the interests of large portions of our community, so if that’s why TCFBtG! did so well, that works for us!

It certainly looks like a third game in the series might come moseying down the trail…

But before we get to that new game, whatever it is, and its inevitable Kickstarter, here’s a reminder that next week on Thursday the 3rd we are starting the Kickstarter for Scion: Demigod! More on that next week as I give you the rundown on this latest core book for Scion and how its Kickstarter is going to be verrrry different than the KS for Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero!

Be there. Aloha! (As Steve McGarrett used to say in the 70s).

Titanomachy art by Felipe Gaona

I’m really thrilled to be able to reveal today that on Wednesday, in addition to our releases for sale, our Scarred Lands adventure The Gauntlet of Spiragos will go live as an offering on the Astral TableTop virtual tabletop venue!

This is thrilling for me for a couple of reasons.

First, as long-time MMN Blog readers know, I’ve been beating the drum for us to make more of our worlds available on the various VTT venues that folks use to play online with their friends for years.

Now that the idea of playing TTRPGs online has really caught on, and the tools to do so are getting better and better every day, it’s satisfying to see that my impulse to push in that direction is more and more considered a viable direction for us to put effort towards.

(There’s more info on Astral TableTop below in the Blurbs!).

It’s also thrilling for me because Gauntlet of Spiragos is an adventure I wrote because I had to do something creative in the TTRPG space while I was working on the late, lamented, WoD MMO.

Many a weekend I spent crouched over my laptop wresting with the writing and bouncing ideas off my housemates and my good buddy Aaron Voss. In fact, it was started during the onset of 4th Edition D&D, and edited into 5th Edition thanks to the keen eye and gaming knowledge of editor Scott Holden.

This was before Stewart Wieck and I bought the Scarred Lands IP from White Wolf, even. I just needed to create something that I could pull together without endless meetings and huge teams and giant budgets like the WoDMMO.

To see it now being reconfigured to work not as a book but as a VTT adventure is just amazing and I’m hoping that folks enjoy playing through it!

Terra Firma art by Shen Fei

Speaking of creating games, last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast featured Dixie, Eddy, and Matthew spinning the “wheel of game concepts” and creating game pitches on the fly. The birth of new game ideas, with the three of them rocking the cradle. I think they managed to pull together nine of them, and honestly, each one could make for a viable game – and some are real gems!

I think they’d love to hear which ones sound the best from folks listening, so please do check out last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast and drop them a comment as to which games you personally would be interested in playing.

Who knows, maybe they’ll convince me to green-light it!

Not so much a green light, but more in the lines of a blue light special, here’s just a reminder that the sale over at IPR on our 20th Anniversary Deluxe Editions and accessories is in its last week, and we are still participating in DTRPG‘s Cthulhoid sale for PDFs. Plus, I hear that we’ll be offering some sales on selected Scarred Lands PDFs over at DTRPG soon, as well.

I know sometimes it seems like I’m always pushing you to sales in this space, yet I do feel obligated since we actually do talk about business stuff in our Monday Meeting from which I derive these notes.

We do have fun and talk about the creative aspects of what we do AND necessarily we talk about schedules and sales and productivity and marketing and everything that goes on behind the scenes to make our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

Coming next week, September 3rd at 2pm EDT: Scion Demigod Second Edition!

Onyx Path Media!

This week: playing off of Eddy’s extremely helpful productivity sessions with developers and writers, the Trio will be talking about the ever-gushing tide of workflow on all of our many amazing projects!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

For anyone new to our media section, you can find us running and playing games over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath pretty much every day of the week! Plus, if you’d like your games hosted there, just get in touch with Matthew Dawkins using the contact link on matthewdawkins.com.

Please give our Twitch channel a follow, as you can find a huge number of videos of all kinds of games being run!

This week on Twitch, expect to see these games and streams running:

Scarred Lands – A Family Affair

Technocracy Reloaded – Vorpal Tales

Danielle’s RPG Development Workshop

Hunter: The Vigil – Cold Cases Forsaken Spaces

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Vampire: The Masquerade – Boston by Night

Chronicles of Darkness – Tooth and Claw

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games and subscribe to us on Twitch, over at twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Hunter: The Vigil – Hometown Heroes Episode 3 – https://youtu.be/R8FxrD_Pul4

Legendlore Actual Play w/Steffie de Vaan – https://youtu.be/6mBiaNcgaG8

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds S1E12 – https://youtu.be/F-ib8M5_ZvI

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale Episode 4 – https://youtu.be/5mThqtWBCQg

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – They Came from Devil’s Reef 1/2 – https://youtu.be/TV0hJ75qOy0

Hunter: The Vigil – Uptown Shadows Episode 2 – https://youtu.be/WJUgs2qp1g8

Realms of Pugmire – Paws and Claws S2E12 – https://youtu.be/d5KQ-jmQxZE

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Tom Murr starts up a They Came from Beneath the Sea! audio drama over on his YouTube channel as of today! Radio ReScience Episode 1: A New Beginning, can be found right here: https://youtu.be/AT2DqzlBMLM

Systematic Understanding of Everything is a new Exalted Explainer Podcast by Exalted Dev Monica Speca and Exalted Writer Chazz Kellner that is breaking down Creation in 45 minute chunks in preparation for Exalted Essence.

Their most recent episodes are available over on https://www.exaltcast.com/, with their newest covering the stunning Sidereals!

The Story Told Podcast continue their new chapter in the Fall of Jiara Exalted chronicle, and you can find a series of interludes focusing on their characters right here: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/fall-of-jiara-24-between-rebellion-and-courtship

Chris Allen continues his excellent chronicle of Werewolf: The Forsaken over on Paleo Gaming’s Twitch channel. Do check out Very Angry Dogs! https://www.twitch.tv/paleo_gaming

Two new Occultists Anonymous episodes for you fans of Mage: The Awakening! Find them right here:

Episode 122: Power Issues  The cabal begin their plans for striking out at Seattle with investigations and some political maneuvering. Of course, they need to leave something for the newbies to work on too…+ https://youtu.be/nHKSoj8t_8U

Episode 123: It Was Only a Kiss Atratus reaches out to a known associate of Mr. Graves and the cabal join together to investigate the dream that Atratus had just a night before. https://youtu.be/fjDtAWkv3jU

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

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.)

We’re told that the App Dev is currently creating an updated version for the latest devices, so keep an eye open for those!

Virtual TableTop!

Introducing a Virtual Tabletop adventure: the Gauntlet of Spiragos for Scarred Lands on Astral TableTop!

Scars of the Divine War, which ended less than 200 years ago, have still not healed. One such scar is the Chasm of Flies, a rent in the earth created when the titan Spiragos the Ambusher was smote down by one of the young gods, Vangal the Ravager. Now, the Chasm is inhabited by spider-eye goblins and their spider allies, but it is also thought to be the resting place of powerful artifacts from that elder age.

Gauntlet of Spiragos is a Scarred Lands adventure designed for 1st level characters, although it can be easily modified for characters of up to 5th level.

Astral TableTop is the easiest way to play any tabletop RPG online, free. Astral already supports popular systems like D&D and Pathfinder, and Astral can support virtually any tabletop roleplaying game. Get started quickly with built-in support for most popular game systems. Whether you’re brand new to TTRPGs or a veteran tabletop gamer, Astral‘s ease-of-use and built in automation is designed to streamline gameplay.

Astral is browser-based and uses the latest technology to streamline your storytelling experience. Connect with your party online and run your campaigns however you like. Astral offers tools optimized for phone, tablet, and desktop devices, no installation required.

Build epic battlemaps using Astral‘s enormous collection of scenery, props, and tokens or upload your own. Pro users gain access to over 12,000+ assets and fresh new packs every month. Add weather, visual effects, triggers, and so much more with easy-to-use tools

Build your own adventure, or choose from pre-generated game kits like Gauntlet of Spiragos. Create character sheets, craft maps, or just jump right in to connect with your friends and start your adventures!

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 provide our traditionally printed books out into your local game stores. Game stores can order via their usual distributors, and can also contact Studio2 directly. And individuals can check out our projects via the links below!

You can pick up the traditionally printed Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau main books, screens, and the official dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

Now, we’ve added Chronicles of Darkness books such as Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

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

Our Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition books are also available from Studio2 in the US: https://studio2publishing.com/products/vampire-the-masquerade-chicago-by-night-sourcebook

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 and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order

It’s the final week of the DOG DAYS OF SUMMER SALE!

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

The Cthulhu Mythos sale at DriveThruRPG continues this week, and we’ll have some God-Machine PDFs included in the sale!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, the Scarred Lands PDF series of Vigil Watch continues with Part 4 – The Iron Court detailing the roving city of the Iron Court, home to the Ironbred, and provides the first deep dive into Ironbred culture in the Scarred Lands! Only on sale on DTRPG!

Over at our RedBubble store, we are now offering safety masks emblazoned with the Trinity Continuum: Aeon order symbols!

And as noted above, on Wednesday the Scarred Lands adventure The Gauntlet of Spiragos will be offered on the Astral TableTop virtual tabletop venue – the adventure plus maps plus tokens all within the easy to use Astral TableTop interface. You can access the adventure and pretty much start playing!

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

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)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion Fiction Anthology (Scion 2nd Edition)

TC: Aeon Novella: Dawn (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

TC: Aeon Novella: Meridian (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Legacies of Earth (Legendlore)

Redlines

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

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

Second Draft

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

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

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

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

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

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

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

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

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

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

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

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

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

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

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

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

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

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror – LeBlanc art in and getting fulls.

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – KS page to Paradox for approval.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – Sending out art notes and finding new artists, too.

Legendlore

Technocracy Reloaded

Cults of the Blood God

Scion: Dragon (KS)

Masks of the Mythos (KS)

Scion: Demigod (KS) – Graphics are done and I think the page is pretty much ready.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS)

TC: Adventure! (KS)

Geist: One Foot In the Grave

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

Trinity Core Jumpstart

Aberrant

Proofing

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

TC Aeon Terra Firma – Sent back to Josh, looking good.

Scion Titanomachy

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – Inputting corrections.

Pugmire Adventure – Need map finished.

At Press

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Pirates of Pugmire – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Dark Eras 2 – Files printing.

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet – Files at press.

Contagion Chronicle – Press prep.

Contagion Chronicle Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Lunars Wall Scroll Map – Shipping to KS fulfiller from printer.

Lunars Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Prepping files for PoD and press.

Scarred Lands Creature Collection – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

From the sublime to the ridiculous: today is the birthday of Stephen Fry, English actor, journalist, producer, and screenwriter in 1957, and one year later in 1958 is born Steve Guttenberg, American actor and producer.

[robertgoudie]

Vampire: Elder Kindred Network 20th Anniversary

By 1997, Vampire: the Eternal Struggle had already suffered through three torturous years of existence. Magic: the Gathering creator, Richard Garfield, had designed the game to improve upon the flaws he saw in Magic’s design and Wizards of the Coast was expecting to release another wildly popular game. Confidence was high at Wizards and they released the game with an absolutely massive print run of 170 million cards to avoid the shortages experienced with Magic’s first printings.

Unfortunately, the multiplayer nature of the game along with its complexity and lengthy playtime, served as high hurdle which prevented it from being a hit. Some of the mistakes seem obvious now after over two decades of CCG history. Jyhad, as it was then named, was released with “starter decks” that were not pre-constructed theme decks but were instead a nearly random assortments of cards. The game was also played without a time limit so it was not uncommon to have a single game last several hours while eliminated players sat idle.

Despite the overprinting and the many boxes of unsold cards, Wizards still believed in the game and decided to re-release it with a new name, new card backs and a better graphic design to make the game easier to learn. However, despite the good intentions and renewed commitment, the Vampire: the Eternal Struggle re-launch still failed to gain a large foothold with fans. In fact, many of the remaining fans quit the game over the renaming, believing the changed card backs to be a ploy to get players to again purchase cards they already owned. V:TES hung on through the Dark Sovereigns expansion, then Ancient Hearts and even two printings of The Sabbat but had ultimately failed to turn a profit. One thing was certain, though, the players still playing the game were absolutely fanatical about it. The same qualities that made the game a hard sell to some, made it even more attractive to others.

In December of 1997, the player community engaged in email discussion on Wizards’ VTES-L listserver, decided to organize with the purpose of keeping the game alive with fans and to maybe someday get some new cards printed. Giving credit where it is due, by this time Netrunner had already come and gone at Wizards and its loyal fans had organized their own Players’ Organization. We took our early direction by simply copying the structure of the Top Runner’s Conference. Next we voted and selected Vampire: Elder Kindred Network as our name. I was nominated to be the first V:EKN Chairperson–whatever that meant–and there were not any complaints so I accepted the role. 

By January we went to work to show that V:TES had some very specific qualities that then Brand Manager, Ryan Dancey, had said were lacking from V:TES. We quickly organized world-wide competitive play with player ratings and encouraged volunteer Clan Newsletter Editors to write about how to play different clans. Our first ratings system made use of a home-brew Javascript ELO calculator created by L. Scott Johnson. Player ratings were calculated by hand prior to Stephen Buonocore’s creation of The Archon.

A lot of what we did early on was to stalk high-level Wizards employees online or during public Q&A sessions to try to get them to support the game more. Surely, they could spend some of their Magic fortune to continue to support their out-of-print games with just a few cards here and there. Right?  

Only a few months later, V:TES players became concerned about a new policy at FRPG (now a Wizards subsidiary that was managing the growing list of out-of-print CCGs) which prohibited games with blood and gore. Dancey also said that V:TES had reached the end of it’s lifecycle. Players were not sure if that decision was due to the new morality policies or due to the game’s poor sales. Things got tense when Dancey publicly posted that he found V:TES’ vampire backstory to be morally reprehensible. One thing was certain, we knew that Dancey was NOT the guy we wanted to be in charge of deciding our game’s future.

Fortunately, we weren’t the only ones offended by Dancey’s comments. Remember that many of the early Wizards team put a lot of time, energy and love into V:TES and I spoke personally with some of them. We bombarded Wizards from all angles and they agreed to discuss the matter internally at a meeting in March of 1998.  

By May of ‘98, Wizards was now working with the V:EKN on several areas of common interest. Wizards had also agreed to resume sanctioning V:TES organized play, listing events on their website and providing, at times, limited prize support via Wizards volunteer liasons Eric Cagle and, later, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes. One of our “big” ideas was to organize tournaments around the world for the same weekend. I believe our first event, Crusade: World, consisted of a whopping 18 tournaments. We eventually worked our way up to having about 30 Princes (aka local player representatives) running demos and tournaments in their respective cities. Contrast that with today’s V:EKN, where there are hundreds of V:EKN Princes representing 39 countries, and it is clear to see how much growth there has been.  

Wizards had grown weary of having to manage rulings and errata for V:TES as our players completely devoured every well-intentioned official NetRep Wizards would assign. Clearly there was no way for Wizards to assign a casual V:TES fan from their Customer Service team to handle answering complex rules questions. Along the way, new NetReps would be assigned but they were never up to the task at hand. Wizards’ solution, eventually, was to give L. Scott Johnson (aka LSJ aka the “Rulemonger”) some leeway in issuing rulings without Wizards’ input. Scott began as a cataloger of official rulings but was respected by the original Wizards Rules Team members so his appointment here made good sense. As was our modus operandi by now, Scott took the liberty of completely overstepping his authority and made a whole pile of changes that we, the players at large, were waiting for. Wizards slapped our wrists a bit in a conference call after the fact but it was really too late. The game was ours now. We could feel it.

Over the next few months we organized a letter writing campaign (yup, snail mail) and were pushing Wizards to print one sheet, maybe 100 cards, spread across all of their out of print games. We figured we would get a third of that and could reprint and fix problem cards like Return to Innocence and Tomb of Ramses III. By November of ‘98 we learned that Ryan Dancey was no longer the Brand Manager for V:TES and Wizards agreed to print “a handful of new cards” in 1999. Not a full expansion but it was progress. Things were looking up!

Instead of the 30 or so new cards we expected, 1999 brought the unexpected news of White Wolf and Wizards reversing their existing licensing agreement, allowing White Wolf to resume production of V:TES. Steve Wieck from White Wolf was impressed with the little community we’d built and was confident the game could be profitable in the right hands. For the next decade, White Wolf and the V:EKN would work closely together to ensure the game’s health.

It’s great to see the V:EKN still representing players these 20 years later. V:TES and the V:EKN have been through so much together and I hope there is much more history to be written for both.

-Robert Goudie

[andtheiramazingfriends]

“July 11 2017 UPDATE:I spoke to Stewart’s brother Steve Wieck today, and he confirmed that he will be taking over the responsibilities entailed in fulfilling the Talislanta Savage Land Kickstarter campaign. Included in the campaign are numerous products, from custom dice to a digital soundtrack, graphic novel, poster-sized map, art prints, and five versions of the TSL RPG.

Over the next 2-3 weeks, Steve will be sorting out the details on these components, to determine the status of each of them. He and I will keep in touch throughout this process, and as soon as I get any updates from Steve, I’ll post them here.

Thanks again to all of you for your patience, and for your kind condolences. Both are very much appreciated. :)“

- Stephan Sechi, updating on the Talislanta kickstarter page. 

[scifi4wifi]

White Wolf's Stewart Wieck Died Sword in Hand

White Wolf’s Stewart Wieck Died Sword in Hand

Gamers are mourning last Friday’s death of Stewart Wieck, one of the co-founders of  the game company White Wolf.  He was only 49.  His family and friends agree how appropriate it was that he died with a sword in his hand.

Stewart Wieck [image via White Wolf’s Facebook page]

His brother and collaborator, Steve Wieck, released the following statement:

Yesterday my brother Stewart Wieck died. He had…

[faradaysketches]

Thatched Bus Shelter. Wieck, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. August 2021

[theonyxpath]

Above you can see two of the sentient species in Cavaliers of Mars, illustrated in lovely b&w line-art by the multi-styled talent of Andrew Trabbold. That was a decision we made a couple of years ago, actually: to have all the interior art in Cavs by rendered line-art. The style works just right as it references both the old pulp-era illustrations and the early art in the tabletop RPG hobby.

Is going black and white line-art going to alienate current day gamers who are used to and demand full-color interior art? Well, it probably does limit the appeal of Cavaliers of Mars in terms of a more broad-based audience, but we knew that would happen with this sort of game anyway.

When Rose and I first started throwing ideas at each other the Gen Con after she pitched me the “canals/Venice” line, as explained last week, we were kind of brainstorming, kind of riffing off each others’ ideas. It became clear to me as the ideas started clicking together organically, that Rose had a very specific vision that she wanted to give full reign to rather than holding back for “business” reasons.

In fact, the label “Fantasy Heartbreaker” was mentioned pretty early in our discussions as a point of pride. (Note Rose’s Patreon page.)

For me, I tend to think of games like Cavs as beautiful jewel-boxes where every design decision is made to reinforce the overall feel and themes of the game. The world, the rules, the system, the visuals – all given consideration as an intrinsic piece of the whole.

This was a huge part of the appeal to me for publishing Cavaliers of Mars. If you look at Scion or the Trinity Continuum, they are designed to enable a lot of access points and ways to play, with built-in ways we can further expand the game to appeal to more people. (WoD, CofD, and Exalted, are also designed to “go big”). I like that Onyx Path can publish Cavs, apply our high production values as always, and help Rose create the focused game she imagined.

As we have done before, you can check out whether that approach to Cavaliers of Mars works for you by reading the KS page and the ongoing Updates, or by backing the project and you can read the complete text via a link in Backer Update #1.

    VtR: Half Damned illustration by Felipe Goana

    Besides discovering our jewel-box of a game, backers of the Cavaliers of Mars Kickstarter also discovered the newest member of the Onyx Path team in the person of our Kickstarter runner, Jammin’ James Bell, when they read their first Update. James will gradually be taking on more and more of the extremely varied responsibilities of running our Kickstarters – which is a huge weight off my shoulders and greatly appreciated!

Since James is entirely focused on our Kickstarters, we’re looking forward to his many years of customer service and business management experience to really pay off for our backers.

Hiring on James was one of the awesome things to come out of GenCon this year, much as with bringing Fast Eddy Webb on full-time as announced last month. I was really busy finalizing a lot of ideas for improving Onyx that we had been putting together all through the year, and we have a bunch more of them to reveal in the months to come.

Now, this announcement didn’t really come out of GenCon, but Steve Wieck and I did discuss a bit what was the best way to handle the Scarred Lands game-line with the passing of Stew Wieck. It was after the con that I tendered an offer to purchase Nocturnal Media‘s half of the rights, and last week that offer was accepted. Onyx Path now owns Scarred Lands outright, and we are all absolutely thrilled to be able to continue to create new projects for one of the very best settings to come out of the d20 days.

Onyx and Nocturnal are still linked together to fulfill the SL Kickstarter, but after that is all achieved, we’ll be moving forward into the Scarred Lands based on the plans I was developing with Stew, but on our own.

    Wraith20 illustration by Mark Kelly

    Finally, I just wanted to shout out to Mighty Matt McElroy, who flew out at the last minute to the studios of Geek & Sundry last Friday to join a taping of their One Night Only show focused on tabletop game publishing. Matt represented for Onyx Path, together with a panel of fellow game creators, and he says the whole thing was absolutely polished and fascinating. I understand you can find the show on their ProjectAlpha site with a 30 day free trial: http://ift.tt/2fBHzlF

If you check it out, let us know what you think and we’ll pass your feedback on to the Geek & Sundry folks!

Until next week:

Many Worlds. One Path.

    BLURBS!

ON SALE!

KICKSTARTER:

  The Cavaliers of Mars Kickstarter funded and has been rolling along nicely past 500%, including a variety of Stretch Goals! For more on the thinking behind the game see above, and here is the link: http://ift.tt/2jF6HdQ

  ON AMAZON:

  We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!

And now you can get these books in the Barnes and Noble Nook store too!

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology

  And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology

  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 going up on Amazon and the Nook store on Wednesday!:

Vampire: The Masquerade Dark Ages: The Cainite Conspiracies

World of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies

Scarred Lands: The Walled Warren

    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!

http://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

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://ift.tt/1pOsnTb

  ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

  EX3 Music Suite #1: Fanfare for the Chosen sounds off long and proud on DTRPG on Wednesday!

We’re also releasing the five EX3 Electronic Wallpapers only previously available to EX3 Kickstarter backers on DTRPG on Wednesday! And you completely underline this Exalted day: our monthly dose of creatures from the Thousand Devils Night Parade will also be releasing!

      From out of the Dreaming, the C20 Jumpstart: Yours To Keep PDF and PoD are now live on DTRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2fmlF3s

There is magic hiding everywhere. You just need to know where to look.

You are a changeling, a faerie soul hiding in a mortal body, fighting the chill of Nightmares and the oppressive weight of Banality with the pure creative power of Glamour. You have lived many lives, but the story of this one? It outshines them all.

In this hidden world, knights in steel and leather clash sword to sword outside the homecoming dance, dragons fly between skyscrapers, and fantastic castles rise from suburban lawns. A world of magic, intrigue, and adventure, and now that your fae side has awakened, it’s your world too.

“Yours to Keep” includes a rules and setting overview, as well as pre-generated characters and a complete introductory scenario for Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition. It’s perfect for jumpstarting a new Changeling chronicle!

    The PDF and PoD versions of C20 are now on DriveThruRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2w4Eq2m

Twenty years ago, White Wolf published Changeling: the Dreaming, the fifth of their promised five game-lines that together comprised the World of Darkness. Seen by some as a lighter, more fantasy-based setting in the modern-day, and by others as the darkest game White Wolf had yet created, players had to face the question of what happens once creativity and magic fades from their world.

This 20th Anniversary Edition of Changeling: the Dreaming returns to that deceptively bright yet terrifying world and both compiles and completes the concepts of the previous two editions. Led by veteran White Wolf and Onyx Path developer “Blackhat” Matt McFarland, our writing team consists of longtime Changeling creators like Ian Lemke, Jackie Cassada, Nicky Rea, and Peter Woodworth, as well as familiar names such as John Snead, Maggie Carrol, Matthew Dawkins, and Krister Michl. One and all are dedicated to making Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition the most playable edition yet – while not losing the wonder, awe, and majesty that Changeling is known for.

A revised and up to date look at the World of Darkness through the eyes of the Kithain – what has happened to the Dreaming in the last 20 years, and what is the state of Glamour and dreams?

Rules for all of the kiths including in 2nd ed, plus fan favorites from other books: selkies, piskies, clurichaun, and both Arcadian and Concordian sidhe.

Rules for the Gallain: The inanimae, the hsien, the Nunnehi, and others!

An overhauled and reimagined system for fae magic, including new Arts and the powerful but dangerous practice of Unleashing!

New full-color beautiful artwork as well as classic Changeling illustrations including remastered full page pieces of the kiths by Tony Diterlizzi.

    �� Now available, this all-new Trinity Continuum: Aeon poster, featuring the art we used for the cover of the StoryPath Booklet at this year’s GenCon! http://ift.tt/2y2MOkm

And this version for art lovers is without the logo: http://ift.tt/2xt4ngk

      From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: After the Fall (Demon: The Descent Constantinople 1453-1458). The Ottoman conquest shatters Constantinople…and also the God-Machine’s grip on it. Unchained flock from all over the world to seek their fortunes in rebuilding the city. But is the Machine really gone, and if it is, can the Unchained face the horrors it drove into the shadows?

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2y1ZoAe

      Calling all Good Dogs! The Pugmire Core Rulebook PDF is now available on DTRPG.com!

http://ift.tt/2wAaAp3

And the actual physical book, screen, and dice, are available to order on the IPR and Studio2 websites!

Studio2: http://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

      From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: A Grimm Dark Era (Changeling: The Lost Grimm’s Tales). With the publication of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, the Lost find themselves subject to the strength of stories, to a degree never before seen. As numerous stories reach greater audiences, the power of tales redefine what it means to be a changeling. Here, we explore a shift in the veil between fiction and reality, and find changelings who escaped by embracing the odd rules of the fantastic.

http://ift.tt/2iD3wTu

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG!

        Satyr Phil Brucato beckons you once more into the Annex of Mage: The Ascension with this 300 page follow-up to M20. The M20 Book of Secrets is NOW on sale in PDF and PoD versions at DTRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2tKyJtb

More Than Magick

For mages who think they have everything, this trove of treasures expands upon the wealth of material presented throughout Mage: The Ascension’s 20th Anniversary Edition. New Traits, new rules, essays, answers, information… the Secrets are revealed within.

Enter the Annex

Building upon the M20 core rulebook, this Book of Secrets features updated rules and setting material, such as…

An M20 FAQ Genres & Resources

Matters of Focus Justice & Influence

New Abilities, Archetypes, Merits & Flaws

Expanded Rules for Combat, Resonance, Wonders, Computer Systems, and More

This Ascension Continues…

        What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://ift.tt/2sV8lZR

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up. Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing.  There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more!

          CONVENTIONS!

Fast Eddy Webb will be running Pugmire during the online convention Gauntlet Con: http://ift.tt/2sSctbs which runs from Oct. 20 – 22. Here is the sign-up link for the event which will be live-streamed. Currently three of six seats are still open: http://ift.tt/2xt3HaM

  In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. November 2-5: http://ift.tt/2xsOnuzMonica Valentinelli (Hunter: the Vigil 2e, Dark Eras), Manda Collis (Exalted 3e), Scott Holden (Scarred Lands), Matt M McElroy (Operations Manager) and other folks from the OPP crew will be there!

  Also in November, the Onyx Path crew including Rich, Matt, Lisa, Neall, Dixie, and Meghan will be at the first ever PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, November 17-19. http://ift.tt/2kBzmfv

  Planning ahead for 2018, we’re heading back to Midwinter Game Convention in Milwaukee, January 11-14, where we’re going to be bringing a big crew of many of your favorite Onyx Path designers and we’ll be running demos and making some special announcements at the show!  http://midwintergamingconvention.com

  And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

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

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

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

Monarchies of Mau (Monarchies of Mau)

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

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

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

  Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

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

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Scion: Origin (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  WW Manuscript Approval:

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  Editing:

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

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

  Post-Editing Development:

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

C20 Ready Made Characters (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook – Art at WW for approval.

Cavaliers of Mars

W20 Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Origins

Ring of Spiragos

VtR Half Damned

Book of Freeholds

DtD Enemy Action – AD’d… contracts and notes sent out.

C20 RMCs – Finished with sketches.

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Prince’s Gambit – Remaining art is arting.

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary – Layouting.

Wraith 20

Beast PG

M20 Cookbook – Working on it after Beckett is done.

  Proofing

VDA Jumpstart – At WW for approval.

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – 1st proof.

Becket’s Jyhad Diary – First half proofing with Dawkins.

  At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – On a boat to the US. PoD files processing (see above).

Dark Eras: God’s Own Country – PoD proof on the way.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – Errors discovered at GenCon, getting fixed.

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition) – Deluxe Edition cover and Screen in the works.

C20 Jumpstart PDF – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Wednesday!

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology PDF

Art of Mage – Prepping for PoD this week.

Pugmire Trick, Condition, and Initiative Cards – PoD proofs ordered.

Exalted 3rd Music Suite #1 – On sale this week.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: A couple of days ago, our friend Murray the pug, inspiration for Pugmire and Eddy Webb’s very good dog, passed away suddenly. Let us salute and celebrate his life, and the long shadow cast by a very little guy.

[theonyxpath]

Scion Origin art by Shen Fei

    Okay, maybe not so brief! Things are in crazy going to GenCon mode now!

A few things to catch up on since I was out last week, and then I’ll talk more about GenCon, or #GenCon50 as I’m told the preferred hashtag goes, after that.

  First, White Wolf‘s Storytellers’ Vault went live and oh boy is it rocking!

What, I say, what, is Storytellers’ Vault, you say?*

Why, this little ol’ thing*: http://ift.tt/2vtvPqh

*Read these lines in a Foghorn Leghorn voice, for no particular reason.

Basically, it’s a site that enables you to create V20 (and the earlier editions of Vampire: The Masquerade, too) supplements using pre-created formats and a wide variety of art used in WW books over the years. You price it and then put your book up for sale on the site and retain half of what people pay for it.

Which is a pretty sweet royalty!

Already, a talented handful of Onyx Path freelance creators have stepped up to offer their projects. Folks like Bill Bodden, Jacob Klunder, Crystal Mazur, and Mike Tomesek. Last I checked, Jacob’s Denmark By Night was ranked top on the site! Which doesn’t even touch on all the folks from our community who have also already contributed projects!

Very exciting, and just the start as White Wolf intends to add game lines and settings to the Vault as soon as they can roll them out with the same quantity and quality of formats and graphic and art selections.

Speaking of other game lines, we’ll be creating our own site for community content for Scion as we had announced about a year ago during its Kickstarter, and Fast Eddy Webb and I have finished up the plan to open up a community site for Pugmire and its world. And I expect a similar setup for the Trinity Continuum as that massive universe rolls out.

But again, those will not be on the Storytellers’ Vault, as that’s only for WW-owned game lines.

    While I was out last week, our Deluxe printer sent me this nicely framed Guttenberg Award, which we received for the Ultra-Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition cover. We won the Outstanding Technical Achievement in Finishing/Bindery for coming up with and producing the etched First Age glyphs in metal (Orichalcum?) and binding that onto the front cover.

The Guttenbergs are printing industry awards, and are really indicative of the amount of care and innovation that go into the creation of our books, both from our Onyx Path team and the teams at our various printers. Plus, we really couldn’t create these award-winning projects without our community contributing their pledges during Kickstarters towards allowing us to innovate like this. Thanks!

I also received notice that our V20 Bundle of Holding from awhile back was able to give the RPG Creators Relief Fund the ability to enable the most claims since its founding. http://ift.tt/1uhPKBC

We are incredibly thrilled to have been able to help this cause that is near and dear to our hearts thanks to all of your purchases. Next, in September, we have plans to run a Werewolf20 Bundle of Holding with the International Wolf Rescue as our designated charity. Even in these dark times, and coming from these dark settings, it is so very good to know that we can help at least a little.

    Snippet from the Trinity Continuum Storypath Brochure cover.

    Which brings us, at last, to GenCon50.

First, what will you be able to buy at our booth? Oh, so many books.

Easy to carry and economical Fiction Anthologies, and the Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras individual chapters if you want to try a taste of another era or gameline. The Tomb of Dreams adventure for Exalted 3rd. Our Storypath rules primer brochure with a focus on the Trinity Continuum this year. And this year’s Onyx Path brochure that runs through all of our gamelines and teases a few as yet unrevealed…

Here are the brochures waiting to be loaded for transport to Indy. Note that in 2013 we only had ten small boxes of brochures total to take!

We’ll have all manner of larger books for sale at the booth, including lots of Demon: The Descent and V20 Dark Ages books, and Mighty Matt McElroy, our GenCon maestro, has mentioned throwing a few sales into the mix during the con.

Specifically, we’ll have the M20 Book of Secrets and the Secrets of the Covenants for Vampire: The Requiem available, so “secrets” must be our thing this year.

But, and this is just such a crappy segue, it’s no secret that Pugmire will be making its non-Kickstarter debut at our booth, and we’ll be selling the book as well as the Screen and Dice until our supplies run out. We’ll also have copies of the Monarchies of Mau Early Access rules.

So if you are coming with the whole family, now might be a great time to page through Pugmire right there where creator Eddy Webb can answer any questions you might have.

Eddy will be one of the many creators at our booth hoping to have a chance to talk with folks, as well as demoing our games. Keep an eye out for that red-bearded rascal and Scion developer Neall Raemonn Price!

And if you are an aspiring artist, graphic designer, cartographer, Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds content creator, or any kind of visual creator, Mirthful Mike Chaney will be holding portfolio reviews every day at 2pm. Now’s your chance to contribute to our amazing visuals!

Our booth is #501:

And we’re in a really great spot this year. We’re also sharing our booth with Nocturnal Media, and White Wolf. Onyx is closest to the doors. Because of Stewart Wieck’s death, and how that shook up his company, we don’t really know exactly what Nocturnal will be bringing to the show, but we’ll be promoting Stew’s legacy by having some proof copies of Scarred Lands books, and developer Scott Holden is slated to run some SL demos.

I hear that my old friend Mark Rein-Hagen may be visiting at the White Wolf side of booth #501 to playtest his new Vampire board game, and most of the WW coterie will be there talking about V5.

They’ll also be talking about their plans at a couple of panels, but more on that in a sec.

Onyx Path‘s panels are a Freelancing for Onyx Path panel at 1pm Thursday in Grand Central Ballroom C in the Crowne Plaza. Please attend if you’re interested in doing any sort of freelance work for us; development, writing, editing, art. We are always looking for excellent folks for our projects.

The next day, there’s a What’s Up with the White Wolf IPs? panel on Friday at 11am in Penn Station C in the Crowne Plaza. This panel will cover WoD, Chronicles of Darkness, and Exalted 3rd.

Now, we had a bit of a scheduling snafu with this panel, as White Wolf has a panel on V5 at the same time in a different location. They are not happy about this either, but in the giant Tetris game of scheduling, GenCon just never thought to avoid scheduling our two panels simultaneously. So we’re exchanging “reps” to sit in on the other company’s panels, and hoping that somehow everybody can get the info out they’re trying to.

Also on Friday, but not conflicting with any similar panels, is What’s Up with Pugmire, Cavaliers of Mars, and Scarred Lands? at 1pm in Victoria Station A at the Crowne Plaza. These are the game lines that we work together with the owners of the IPs on, and is a great chance to talk directly to those folks. With the Cavaliers of Mars Kickstarter coming up in the weeks after GenCon, it’s a perfect time to talk to Rose about the project.

Finally for Friday at 6pm in ICC room 105, GenCon is holding a White Wolf Retrospective that will delve into the early days of White Wolf, from the Magazine through the first industry-changing editions of the World of Darkness games and beyond. I’ll be there with Mark Rein-Hagen, Lisa Stevens, and Steve Wieck, talking about the start of it all, and sharing stories about the company, the projects, and Stewart Wieck (who was originally scheduled to be on the panel as well).

Last, but in no way the least, we’ll have a What’s Up with Scion and Trinity? panel at 1pm Saturday in Penn Station B at the Crowne Plaza. We’ll talk about our plans for these two beloved lines, the upcoming Trinity Continuum Kickstarter, and the Storypath System rules engine that both lines operate on. Rumor has it that a third game line will also be announced at this panel…

One more thing to mention, and that is that for the first time this year, the demo team maniacs at The Wrecking Crew have an Onyx Path and White Wolf room completely dedicated to our games. They will be running the new V5 adventure, written in large part by our friends Matthew Dawkins and Jason Andrew, and just tons of Onyx Path game scenarios (I think over a hundred) for you to enjoy!

Even if the program says they are sold out, go ahead and pop in to ICC room 145 and see if there is a cancellation- those folks want you to have a great time and work really hard to make that happen for you. And here’s a handy map graphic:

Expect a lot of news, noise, and pics of the booth this week. And shrimp cocktails. So many shrimp cocktails…

  BLURBS!

ON SALE!

  ON AMAZON:

  We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!

And now you can get these books in the Barnes and Noble Nook store too!

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology

  And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology

  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)

      Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

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!

    ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Lily, Sabre, and Thorn (Changeling: The Lost Swashbuckling France 1600s – early 1700s). In the Age of Reason under the reign of Louis XIV, enlightenment went hand-in-hand with court intrigues. The Sun King’s court influenced a time when changeling freeholds gained increasing unity and communication. It is a time of adventure, deception, betrayal, and passion — the roar of cannon, the rustle of silk, the ring of steel. The joys and sorrows and outrageous fortunes of the swashbuckler — these are all too well-known to the Lost.

On sale in PDF and PoD versions at DTRPG.com this Weds!

    Satyr Phil Brucato beckons you once more into the Annex of Mage: The Ascension with this 300 page follow-up to M20. The M20 Book of Secrets is NOW on sale in PDF and PoD versions at DTRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2tKyJtb

More Than Magick

For mages who think they have everything, this trove of treasures expands upon the wealth of material presented throughout Mage: The Ascension’s 20th Anniversary Edition. New Traits, new rules, essays, answers, information… the Secrets are revealed within.

Enter the Annex

Building upon the M20 core rulebook, this Book of Secrets features updated rules and setting material, such as…

An M20 FAQ Genres & Resources

Matters of Focus Justice & Influence

New Abilities, Archetypes, Merits & Flaws

Expanded Rules for Combat, Resonance, Wonders, Computer Systems, and More

This Ascension Continues…

      Chomping it’s way to you comes the Dagger of Spiragos adventure PDF for Scarred Lands! This second in the Spiragos trilogy for levels 4-6 is now in both 5e and Pathfinder PDF versions on DriveThruRPG.com!

PF: http://ift.tt/2uvy38a

5e: http://ift.tt/2uS6FDT

The Titans’ Relics Must Be Destroyed! 

Artifacts from the fallen titan Spiragos have been recovered, and forces are at work that would see them used for ill. The Dagger of Spiragos and the Ring of Spiragos are now in the player characters’ hands — and they must do what they can to rid Scarn of the foul relics of the titans, whatever the cost!

What Came Before 

Dagger of Spiragos is a sequel to the 2014 Gen Con Scarred Lands Special Preview adventure, Gauntlet of Spiragos (available as a free download on DriveThruRPG. com and RPGnow.com). It is also the second adventure in the Spiragos Saga, with Ring of Spiragos, the dramatic finale, as the third and culminating title.

In Gauntlet of Spiragos, the PCs traveled to the legendary Chasm of Flies, where they discovered a tribe of spider-eye goblins who possessed relics of their fallen master, Spiragos. Now, with those items in hand, the PCs travel to the city of Fangsfall, where they must seek aid in destroying the foul objects.

But others wish to possess these items, too,

      Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion PDF and physical book PoD versions are going on sale Wednesday on DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pX42dq

Travel the long roads and deep seas in search of power and experience danger, or tackle the wilderness to hunt monsters and face death. Settlements large and small dot the black expanse with the promise of sanctuary, life, and community. These bastions of civilization present cold comfort, when playing host to vampire warlords and sadistic Cainite faiths. Whether led by a Prince, a coordinated belief, or hounded by monsters from without and within — no domain is truly the same as another.

Dark Ages Companion includes:

• Domains scattered across the world, from small fiefdoms to massive cities. Bath, Bjarkarey, Constantinople, Rome, Mogadishu, and Mangaluru each receive coverage.

• Apocrypha including plot hooks, new Paths, and mysteries to explore in your games.

• A how-to guide on building a domain within your chronicle, including events and servants necessary to make a domain as functional or dysfunctional as you wish.

• A study on warfare in the Dark Ages period, so combat in your chronicles can gain authenticity and lethality.

      From the Primordial to your Chronicles, Beast‘s Building a Legend has risen in PDF and PoD formats on DTRPG.com!

http://ift.tt/2u1BBkU

CREATING A CHRONICLE IS REWARDING…

…so why should the Storyteller have all the fun?

The whole troupe should get in on the action, making for a chronicle that reflects the preferences and predilections of all the players.

Building a Legend is a guide for doing exactly that — making a cohesive chronicle, starting with character creation, for Beast: The Primordial. It includes advice on creating Storyteller characters, folding in real world history, and populating the Primordial Dream.

        From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina (Vampire: The Requiem Elizabethan London 1593). We have shared the world with monsters for millennia. In Elizabeth’s London, vampires built their own empire brick by bloody brick while Elizabeth I cemented her grip on newly Protestant England. Carefully balancing demands from those with Catholic and Lutheran sympathies, she forged a police state. Yet London emerged as a thriving cultural center, and from the crucible emerged a Kindred society forever changed.

http://ift.tt/2sl0Zh4

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG!

      What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://ift.tt/2sV8lZR

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up. Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing.  There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more!

        Curated by Matthew McFarland, developer of Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition and featuring authors such as Myranda Kalis, Wren Handman, and Peter Woodworth, this C20 Anthology of Dreams is on sale in electronic/PDF and physical copy PoD formats on DTRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2snBT0X

We dream, and we tell stories. We dream of love and the sort of person who might complete us. We dream of horror and wake breathless. We dream of magic, of flying through the air, or breathing underwater. We dream of fantastic vistas and amazing monsters.

We dream, and then we wake, and we tell stories. Our dreams create the Kithain, the changelings. Our stories are sustenance.

  CONVENTIONS!

Gen Con 50 IS THIS WEEK!!!! August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Our booth will actually be 20? x 30? this year that we’ll be sharing with Nocturnal Media and White Wolf. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s). FYI, the con is almost entirely sold out for the first time ever! Here’s the map again of where we’ll be:

  The week after GenCon, you can find Matt, Monica, and Naughty Neall Raemonn Price as Guests of Honor at Geek.Kon http://www.geekkon.net/ starting on Friday, August the 25th, in Madison, WI.

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: http://ift.tt/RIm6qP

  And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

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

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

Monarchies of Mau (Monarchies of Mau)

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

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

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

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Scion: Origin (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

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

  WW Manuscript Approval:

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

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

  Editing:

M20 Cookbook

C20 Ready Made Characters (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

  Post-Editing Development:

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook – Ellis is working on painting everything up. Finals coming in.

Cavaliers of Mars

W20 Changing Ways – AD’d and Contracted.

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

VDA Jumpstart

Scion Origins

Ring of Spiragos

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Finals continue to come in.

Beast PG – Finals rolling in for most of the stuff.

VtR Half Damned – AD’d and Contracted.

Book of Freeholds

DtD Enemy Action

C20 RMCs 

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Prince’s Gambit – New Cards out for playtesting.

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary 

Wraith 20

  Proofing

M20 Art Book – At WW for approval

  At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e

Dark Eras: Lily Sabre and Thorn – On sale Wednesday in PDF and PoD on DTRPG.com.

Dark Eras: A Grimm Dark Era

Dark Eras: God’s Own Country

Dark Eras: After the Fall

VTR: Thousand Years of Night

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition) – PoD uploaded and processing…

C20 Jumpstart PDF – Out to backers… errata gathering.

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology PDF

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: I was on vacation last week and caught a bunch of fish with my kids. I like catching fish (we released them back).

[theonyxpath]

This is the blog post I never, ever, expected to have to write.

My friend, Stewart Wieck, co-founder of White Wolf Magazine and White Wolf Game Studio, creator of Mage: The Ascension, and founder of Nocturnal Media, was finishing a light session of fencing last Thursday when he was struck down by a heart attack and died.

Even writing the above, putting it into cold black and white words, just rips me apart.

And frankly, that list up there of his accomplishments doesn’t even touch on the reality of the man, of his grace and kindness. It doesn’t speak of passion for writing, and creating, and learning. Of his dry wit and his silly side.

Most of all, it doesn’t speak of the sort of man who can decide that he was going to create in a field he loved, tabletop RPGs (back when we just called them RPGs, as there were no others), and made it happen step by step while inspiring others to come to his side and storm the walls of heaven.

Or the TSR castle at Gen Con, for those of you who remember that!

    This looks suspiciously like Stew in a Gen Con ballroom.

  I was one of those people, and in 1986, I sent in art in response to an ad Stew posted in Dragon Magazine looking for illustrators for his upstart White Wolf Magazine. We shared a love of comic books, genre fiction, and RPGs, but were really little alike. Except we both kept our commitments. I delivered the art, issue by issue as the circulation increased, and once Stew saw that I was going to do that with the same quality and regularity as he put forth in getting the writing in and the magazine out, he handed over the art direction duties to me as well.

We had a bad spot when a marketing guy Stew had begun working with to propel the magazine into what was supposed to be a huge increase in circulation ran out with all the ad payments. I thought the magazine was over. But Stew went back to every advertiser and somehow convinced them to pay again so that the issue could be printed. I couldn’t have done it, but that was Stewart Wieck – he could explain what needed to happen, and he was so sincere and so obviously a good guy, that people would jump in to help.

Without the magazine, Stew wouldn’t have been working closely with Lion Rampant when they were looking for a CEO to keep them rolling. I remember him calling and asking whether I thought he should accept their offer. I thought it was a no-brainer as he had “just graduated college, and a game company wants you to be their CEO? If you keep them afloat, you’re a hero – if you can’t, then nobody could have”.

Stew went one step better, though, and became a partner with Mark Rein*Hagen instead of just the CEO. Oh, and part of the deal was to change the company name to White Wolf Game Studio. Also, Mark had this interesting idea for an RPG: something to do with playing a vampire…

  Stewart and Mark in Stew’s office at WW.

  Now, I say that kind of lightly, but the reality is that without Stewart adding both his creative talents (vampires being descended from Cain is just one of his contributions) and his head for business, it is entirely possible that Vampire: The Masquerade would never have been published. And beyond that, his wit and grace and patience provided a center to the WW creative team – a calm in the center of a storm of egos, passions, and crazed creative impulses that could have torn the young company apart.

For years, Stew had the idea that I needed to come down to Atlanta and art direct the company, and for years I let him know that I would need a real salary that we both knew just wasn’t possible. I had a little girl I was raising by myself, and was working a full-time job, and teaching, and doing freelance work, of which WW was my biggest client.

In December of 1991, he called me up, and the first thing out of his mouth was, “Rich, we can do it. Vampire is huge, we are reprinting it as fast as it is selling out, and next year it’s time to bring you down here.”

Which was great, except, like I said, I was raising my little girl by myself, I had a house and dogs, and all of my support systems were where we were. As well as a girlfriend that I had been dating for only a month. To put it bluntly, I was scared shitless. But I trusted Stewart Wieck. He had never let me down. He told me it would be OK.

We were in ATL and I was in charge of all WW visuals and production in May of ’92.

  Keith Winkler, Stew, Ken Cliffe and his chest, Steve Wieck, and me at a WW company retreat.

  White Wolf grew, exploded really, and Stew was not just riding herd on all of the expanding crew, he was creating the third game in the World of Darkness, Mage: The Ascension. A game where you change the world by exerting your will and beliefs upon it. Go figure that’s what this guy would come up with.

With three wildly successful games powering the company, and his equally creative and business-savvy brother Steve brought on as CEO, Stewart decided to pursue his dream of WW also being a fiction publishing house. New fiction work for our RPG lines, and also new experimental offerings that might not have been published by the mainstream houses. And my favorite part, republishing the giants that he and I had read so avidly in our early years. Fritz Liebers’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, the legendary Harlan Ellison, and the ultimate delight of working with Michael Moorcock and republishing his Eternal Champion novels, including the legendary Elric. Also known as the White Wolf. We had come full circle.

Always, it was Stew who made the deals possible. Stew who juggled what could be done with what needed to be done, and who any of us could go to for a calming talk when things got too crazy. I certainly did!

    But nothing lasts forever. Working with writers took up time for writing. And if anybody deserved a chance to recover their personal Muse, it was Stew. He was still connected to WW and working on projects, still always, always, available to talk over phone or email (we would have loved Skype then), but he stepped back from the day to day struggles.

Until, several years ago, he was back! Back with Nocturnal Media, a new company he founded. We immediately went in together on buying the Scarred Lands property from CCP as we had both helped create it back in the day and wanted to team-up again like we had done so many times. And the Stew who could pull publishing deals together returned as well, as both older creators and younger became part of Nocturnal‘s creative circle.

This year at Gen Con, he and I were looking forward to sharing our booth space, our respective companies shoulder to shoulder, he and I shoulder to shoulder once again.

But it was not to be.

Over the years, Stew and I exchanged so many messages. Emails and letters and packages. But most importantly, for years and years he’d send me a message on the anniversary of my first wife’s death, just to let me know he remembered. He always signed them, “Your friend, Stewart Wieck”.

Goodbye, my friend.

        BLURBS!

  KICKSTARTER!

Dark Eras 2 goes live Thursday, July 6th at noon Eastern US time! Once again, help us decide on which Eras and which game-lines should fill up this Prestige Edition book!

    ON SALE!

ON AMAZON:

  We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!

And now you can get these books in the Barnes and Noble Nook store too!

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology

  And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology

      Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

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!

    ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina (Vampire: The Requiem Elizabethan London 1593). We have shared the world with monsters for millennia. In Elizabeth’s London, vampires built their own empire brick by bloody brick while Elizabeth I cemented her grip on newly Protestant England. Carefully balancing demands from those with Catholic and Lutheran sympathies, she forged a police state. Yet London emerged as a thriving cultural center, and from the crucible emerged a Kindred society forever changed.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions Wednesday on DTRPG!

      What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://ift.tt/2sV8lZR

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up. Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing.  There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more

      From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: To The Strongest (Mage Death of Alexander 330-320 BCE). In the rise and fall of Alexander the Great’s Empire, armies marched and cultures clashed. In the birth pangs of Hellenistic civilization, Awakened sorcerers all over the ancient world met, fought, and joined together. In the chaos of Alexander’s assassination and the wars that followed, Cults became Orders amid conflicts still burning in the present day.

http://ift.tt/2tmTVl6

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG!

  From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Three Kingdoms of Darkness (Changeling and Geist China 220-280). Famine weakens the empire, and war splits it apart. It is an age of ambition and strife, where the hungry dead walk the earth in great numbers, and the Lost must rely on their own kingdoms. Warlords and commoners, ghost-speakers and orphans — who truly serves the Mandate of Heaven?

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rp8hPL

    From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Wolf and the Raven (Werewolf and Geist Vikings 700-1100). The Viking expansion across Europe comes at a pivotal time in history, as new faiths rose to challenge the old and new ways threatened to sweep ancient tradition aside. The Forsaken sail with raiders and explorers, seeking new lands to claim and new spirits to conquer, while Sin-Eaters walk the battlefields bringing the honored dead to their final rewards. The world grows larger and more dangerous by the day, but there are great rewards for those brave enough to fight for them.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rUjKtX

      Curated by Matthew McFarland, developer of Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition and featuring authors such as Myranda Kalis, Wren Handman, and Peter Woodworth, this C20 Anthology of Dreams is on sale in electronic/PDF and physical copy PoD formats on DTRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2snBT0X

We dream, and we tell stories. We dream of love and the sort of person who might complete us. We dream of horror and wake breathless. We dream of magic, of flying through the air, or breathing underwater. We dream of fantastic vistas and amazing monsters.

We dream, and then we wake, and we tell stories. Our dreams create the Kithain, the changelings. Our stories are sustenance.

    Now on DTRPG, the EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart PDF/PoD jumps up for sale!

http://ift.tt/2qdriZU

Once, in the time before the gods forgot their names, when the world was flat and floated on a sea of chaos, there was an age of gleaming cities, untamed wilderness, enlightened devils, greedy spirits, and mighty heroes. This was the age of the Exalted, champions empowered by the highest of gods.

Tomb of Dreams will jumpstart your group’s Exalted game—all you need to start playing Exalted Third Edition is this book, pencils, and 10-sided dice. Included here are the game’s core rules, five pregenerated characters, and a self-contained scenario that can start a new campaign or that Storytellers can use in an ongoing chronicle. And for groups that already have the Exalted Third Edition main rulebook, Tomb of Dreams will serve as an introduction for new players and a quick reference during play—anyone intimidated by that prodigious volume need only read Part 1 of this book to get started.

What legends will they tell of your deeds?

        Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion Advance PDF is now on sale on DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pX42dq

Travel the long roads and deep seas in search of power and experience danger, or tackle the wilderness to hunt monsters and face death. Settlements large and small dot the black expanse with the promise of sanctuary, life, and community. These bastions of civilization present cold comfort, when playing host to vampire warlords and sadistic Cainite faiths. Whether led by a Prince, a coordinated belief, or hounded by monsters from without and within — no domain is truly the same as another.

Dark Ages Companion includes:

• Domains scattered across the world, from small fiefdoms to massive cities. Bath, Bjarkarey, Constantinople, Rome, Mogadishu, and Mangaluru each receive coverage.

• Apocrypha including plot hooks, new Paths, and mysteries to explore in your games.

• A how-to guide on building a domain within your chronicle, including events and servants necessary to make a domain as functional or dysfunctional as you wish.

• A study on warfare in the Dark Ages period, so combat in your chronicles can gain authenticity and lethality.

        Bill Bridge’s new W20 novel, The Song of Unmaking, is on sale in PDF/ePub/PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2qXQH9f and in ebook form on Amazon: http://ift.tt/2qpQM2V !

The fabric of reality is cracking. Fissures appear in thin air, glowing with balefire. Something is scratching on the other side, pressing, beginning to break through….

The Wyrm’s corruption finds its way into the hearts of humans and Garou alike. Even an ultra-rational techno-cratic scientist can fall sway to its lies. Channeling his hate and resentment through the most sophisticated machine ever created, Basil Czajka has turned a tool designed to peer deep into the heart of the quantum universe into a nursery for the hatching of a horror — a creature whose birth cry is destined to unmake Gaia’s Song of Creation.

The only ones standing in his way are One-Song, a broken-down old Theurge, and Lord Albrecht, whose heed-less anger might be the very weapon the enemy needs to crack the egg and free the Unmaker.

    The Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Companion has arrived in PDF and PoD physical book versions at DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pygIL7

The Dark Eras Companion presents eleven new Eras for the Chronicles of Darkness. Stretching from Ancient Rome and Egypt through the Black Death, the Thirty Years War, the Reconstruction, and the Russian Revolution, the Companion showcases even more of the secret history of this eldritch world. Included in each era are “snapshots” of the various supernatural creatures, including vampires, changelings, mummies, and demons. Also included are lists of inspirational media to help you put these Eras in context for your troupe.

Open the Dark Eras Companion and take another look back in time.

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

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: http://ift.tt/RIm6qP

      And now, the new project status updates!

    DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

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

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

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

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

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

C20 Ready Made Characters (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

  Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

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

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

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

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

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

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Scion: Origins (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

  WW Manuscript Approval:

  Editing:

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

Book of Freeholds (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

BtP Beast Player’s Guide (Beast: the Primordial)

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)

V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

  Post-Editing Development:

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

    Indexing:

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary 

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook

Cavaliers of Mars

Wraith 20

W20 Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Storypath Brochure

VDA Jumpstart

Scion Origins

Ring of Spiragos

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Sketches coming in.

Beast PG – AD’d and contracted.

VtR Half Damned – getting artists lined up

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

M20 Art Book – In progress…

Prince’s Gambit – New Cards out for playtesting

Gen Con Stuff – 2017 Brochure and 2017 Storypath Brochure

C20 Jumpstart

  Proofing

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology

  At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Pugmire – Shipping to fulfillment shipper.

Pugmire Screen – Shipping to fulfillment shipper.

Pugmire Cards & Dice – Shipping to fulfillment shipper.

Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – Printing.

Dagger of Spiragos (5e) – Out to backers.

Dagger of Spiragos (PF) – Out to backers.

V20 Dark Ages Companion – PoD proofs coming.

BtP Building a Legend – Files uploaded and processing.

Monarchies of Mau Early Access – PoD proofs ordered.

Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina – PDF and PoD on sale this Wednesday on DTRPG.

Dark Eras: Lily Sabre and Thorn – PoD files uploading.

M20 Book of Secrets – Errata ending this week.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – Advance PDF on sales on DTRPG, gathering errata.

      TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: To absent friends.

[theonyxpath]

So, it is one month before Gen Con.

Gen Con50th, actually.

You can see on the map above our 20′ x 30′ space, that we are sharing with our associates at Nocturnal Media and White Wolf. Our booth will have all sorts of books and other items for sale, an ongoing demo table that we intend to have a constant run of demos happening on every day that you can sit in on, and a further couple of tables for impromptu demo sessions.

Nocturnal will be right next to us, and they’re bravely trying to arrange demos and they will have products to sell, and White Wolf is next to them, and will have new news about V5 and related products, and I hear they may have other goodies especially for Gen Con.

Back at our Onyx Path booth, you’ll find Boppin’ Bill Bodden and Mike Hollywood running the booth under the baleful eye of Mighty Matt McElroy – they are the guys that with the know how as to what and who is where when it comes our products for sale and the rest of the team.

At different times, Mirthful Mike Chaney, Onyx‘s ever-lovin’ art director will be there helping out, and he has portfolio reviews scheduled if you want us to look at your artwork. Impish Ian Watson, our webmaster and Trinity Continuum guru will also be at the booth a fair amount of the time and he’d love to talk Trinity!

Development producer Rollickin’ Rose Bailey will also be in the booth between developer and translator meetings, and she might just have some Chronicles of Darkness and Cavaliers of Mars wisdom and demos to share with you. Naughty Neall Raemonn Price will be representing for Scion and just about any other of our games as he seems to know them all, and Matthew “Gentleman Gamer” Dawkins also has a wide knowledge of our games to share, particularly V20, as well as his new secret project he’ll be demoing at the booth!

Scarred Lands developer Scott Holden will be there, and we’re hoping he’ll be running demos as well as showing off the advance copies of the printed SL Players Guides and Wise and the Wicked 2. More news on Scarred Lands below.

Look out for Hunter: the Vigil 2nd developer Monica Valentinelli dropping in when she can, as well as other writers and devs who will try and drop by in between their busy schedules at other booths, like Black Hat Matt McFarland, Danielle Lauzon, Bill Bridges, Dixie Cochran, and many more.

Of course, I’ll be popping in and out of the booth talking to folks between panels and meetings. Catch me in a quieter time and I’ll be glad to sign some Magic cards (for a small gratuity).

    V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary art by Michael Gaydos

    Did I say panels? Well, of course we’re doing our famous panels for Gen Con again this year!

  THURSDAY *SEM17109310: Freelancing for Onyx Path Crowne Plaza Hotel Indianapolis-Dwtn-Grand Central Ballroom C in Indianapolis, Indiana 1:00pm in EDT

FRIDAY

*SEM17109313: What’s Up With Onyx Path’s White Wolf RPGs?

Crowne Plaza:: Pennsylvania Station C in Indianapolis, Indiana

11:00am in EDT

*SEM17109314: What’s Up With Pugmire, Cavaliers, and Scarred Lands?

Crowne Plaza Hotel Indianapolis Grand Central Ballroom A in Indianapolis, Indiana

1:00pm in EDT

*Gen Con 50 Track: The Embrace of Night: White Wolf in 1991

ICC (Indiana Convention Center) RM 105

6:00pm in EDT

SATURDAY

*SEM17109317: What’s Up with Scion and Trinity?

Crowne Plaza Hotel Indianapolis-Pennsylvania Station B in Indianapolis, Indiana

11:00am in EDT

As always, times and rooms are subject to change by the lovable scamps at Gen Con.

And if you want to actually play our games, look out for our Onyx Path gaming room, once again run by the legendary Dave Martin and his dedicated and dangerous Wrecking Crew and associates.

This year, since it will be crazy with all the 50th Anniversary activities and crowds, how about you let us know in the comments here if you’re going? We’ll make sure to do something special for you if you do get to stop in and say hi!

    War Elephants by Melissa Uran for Hundred Devil’s Night Parade

    In the run-down of the booth I did above, I mentioned how Nocturnal Media is bravely going to soldier on as best they can, and of course, I was talking about that in reference to the untimely passing of my good friend Stewart Wieck, Nocturnal‘s founder. His death has unfortunately had ramifications on the many directions he was hoping to take Nocturnal Media‘s game lines, but I understand that a bunch of them will still be available in their booth.

The most direct effect on us at Onyx, on a business level, is that we’ve had to step into Stew’s huge shoes (I mean that literally and figuratively – he was a big guy) and take over fulfilling the Scarred Lands Kickstarter and all the projects we started with that.

For the present, I’ve been delving into how Stew had structured the SL Kickstarter and BackerKit, and working with Steve Wieck and Stew’s family to make sure the printing and shipping of all those projects keeps moving forward. We won’t be able to sell the Scarred Lands books at Gen Con as Stewart hoped he’d be able to arrange, but we’ll have advances and demos, like I mentioned above.

Towards that, we’re releasing the PDF for the Dagger of Spiragos, the second part of our Spiragos adventure trilogy, this week. Our KS backers have already received theirs (if they were supposed to get them), so now everyone can check it out. On a personal level, I loved painting those skeletal gators on the cover! (See below in the BLURBS! for more details).

For the future, since Scarred Lands was always a game world we co-owned and which Stew and I always intended as something we’d have fun working on together, this is kind of a bittersweet experience. But, the world is still one of my favorites, and we still have lots of plans for bringing this new version of SL to a new audience, as well as to our community from the D20 days.

We’ll be announcing some of those plans at and around Gen Con, so keep an eye out!

Finally, I just wanted to shout out to our new friends at Studio2, who are currently packaging and prepping our Pugmire backer rewards ship-out! I’ll tell you more about these folks in a later blog, as I’ll let you in on the very awesome way they are going to work with us in the very near future.

      BLURBS!

  KICKSTARTER!

Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2 is funded!

Now, help us decide on which Dark Eras and which game-lines should fill up this Prestige Edition book! We’re starting with The French Revolution for Vampire: The Requiem and Demon: The Descent, The Great War – Western Front for Geist: The Sin-Eaters and Werewolf: The Forsaken, Light of the Sun – Europe 1600s for Deviant: The Renegades and Mage: The Awakening, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World for Changeling: The Lost and Promethean: The Created, Rise of the Last Imperials – China for Mummy: The Curse and Hunter: The Vigil, and One Thousand and One Nights – Islamic Golden Age for Beast: The Primordial and Vampire: The Requiem.

We’re voting on which two game-lines should be featured in the Golden Age of Piracy right now, so yo-ho-ho and grab a cutlass and join us!

ON SALE!

ON AMAZON:

  We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!

And now you can get these books in the Barnes and Noble Nook store too!

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology

  And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology

  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)

      Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

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!

    ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

Chomping it’s way to you comes the Dagger of Spiragos adventure PDF for Scarred Lands! This second in the Spiragos trilogy for levels 4-6 arrives Wednesday in both 5e and Pathfinder PDF versions on DriveThruRPG.com!

      Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion PDF and physical book PoD versions are going on sale Wednesday on DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pX42dq

Travel the long roads and deep seas in search of power and experience danger, or tackle the wilderness to hunt monsters and face death. Settlements large and small dot the black expanse with the promise of sanctuary, life, and community. These bastions of civilization present cold comfort, when playing host to vampire warlords and sadistic Cainite faiths. Whether led by a Prince, a coordinated belief, or hounded by monsters from without and within — no domain is truly the same as another.

Dark Ages Companion includes:

• Domains scattered across the world, from small fiefdoms to massive cities. Bath, Bjarkarey, Constantinople, Rome, Mogadishu, and Mangaluru each receive coverage.

• Apocrypha including plot hooks, new Paths, and mysteries to explore in your games.

• A how-to guide on building a domain within your chronicle, including events and servants necessary to make a domain as functional or dysfunctional as you wish.

• A study on warfare in the Dark Ages period, so combat in your chronicles can gain authenticity and lethality.

      From the Primordial to your Chronicles, Beast‘s Building a Legend has risen in PDF and PoD formats on DTRPG.com!

http://ift.tt/2u1BBkU

CREATING A CHRONICLE IS REWARDING…

…so why should the Storyteller have all the fun?

The whole troupe should get in on the action, making for a chronicle that reflects the preferences and predilections of all the players.

Building a Legend is a guide for doing exactly that — making a cohesive chronicle, starting with character creation, for Beast: The Primordial. It includes advice on creating Storyteller characters, folding in real world history, and populating the Primordial Dream.

        From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina (Vampire: The Requiem Elizabethan London 1593). We have shared the world with monsters for millennia. In Elizabeth’s London, vampires built their own empire brick by bloody brick while Elizabeth I cemented her grip on newly Protestant England. Carefully balancing demands from those with Catholic and Lutheran sympathies, she forged a police state. Yet London emerged as a thriving cultural center, and from the crucible emerged a Kindred society forever changed.

http://ift.tt/2sl0Zh4

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG!

      What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://ift.tt/2sV8lZR

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up. Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing.  There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more

      From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: To The Strongest (Mage Death of Alexander 330-320 BCE). In the rise and fall of Alexander the Great’s Empire, armies marched and cultures clashed. In the birth pangs of Hellenistic civilization, Awakened sorcerers all over the ancient world met, fought, and joined together. In the chaos of Alexander’s assassination and the wars that followed, Cults became Orders amid conflicts still burning in the present day.

http://ift.tt/2tmTVl6

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG!

  From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Three Kingdoms of Darkness (Changeling and Geist China 220-280). Famine weakens the empire, and war splits it apart. It is an age of ambition and strife, where the hungry dead walk the earth in great numbers, and the Lost must rely on their own kingdoms. Warlords and commoners, ghost-speakers and orphans — who truly serves the Mandate of Heaven?

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rp8hPL

    From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Wolf and the Raven (Werewolf and Geist Vikings 700-1100). The Viking expansion across Europe comes at a pivotal time in history, as new faiths rose to challenge the old and new ways threatened to sweep ancient tradition aside. The Forsaken sail with raiders and explorers, seeking new lands to claim and new spirits to conquer, while Sin-Eaters walk the battlefields bringing the honored dead to their final rewards. The world grows larger and more dangerous by the day, but there are great rewards for those brave enough to fight for them.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rUjKtX

      Curated by Matthew McFarland, developer of Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition and featuring authors such as Myranda Kalis, Wren Handman, and Peter Woodworth, this C20 Anthology of Dreams is on sale in electronic/PDF and physical copy PoD formats on DTRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2snBT0X

We dream, and we tell stories. We dream of love and the sort of person who might complete us. We dream of horror and wake breathless. We dream of magic, of flying through the air, or breathing underwater. We dream of fantastic vistas and amazing monsters.

We dream, and then we wake, and we tell stories. Our dreams create the Kithain, the changelings. Our stories are sustenance.

    Now on DTRPG, the EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart PDF/PoD jumps up for sale!

http://ift.tt/2qdriZU

Once, in the time before the gods forgot their names, when the world was flat and floated on a sea of chaos, there was an age of gleaming cities, untamed wilderness, enlightened devils, greedy spirits, and mighty heroes. This was the age of the Exalted, champions empowered by the highest of gods.

Tomb of Dreams will jumpstart your group’s Exalted game—all you need to start playing Exalted Third Edition is this book, pencils, and 10-sided dice. Included here are the game’s core rules, five pregenerated characters, and a self-contained scenario that can start a new campaign or that Storytellers can use in an ongoing chronicle. And for groups that already have the Exalted Third Edition main rulebook, Tomb of Dreams will serve as an introduction for new players and a quick reference during play—anyone intimidated by that prodigious volume need only read Part 1 of this book to get started.

What legends will they tell of your deeds?

            CONVENTIONS! GenCon IS COMING. August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Our booth will actually be 20′ x 30′ this year that we’ll be sharing with Nocturnal Media and White Wolf. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s). FYI, 4-Day passes have sold out! First time ever! Here’s the map again of where we’ll be:

  Next week, at RopeCon (the world’s largest volunteer run convention) in Finland, Monica Valentinelli, the Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition developer will be running a game of Doubting Souls, the Hunter Dark Era she wrote for Dark Eras 1 as well as talking about freelancing and game design. Matt McElroy will be running a high-powered Dread Names, Red List V20 game, and they both will be there talking about their work and Onyx Path. http://ift.tt/2tkNsuA

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: http://ift.tt/RIm6qP

      And now, the new project status updates!

    DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

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

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

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Monarchies of Mau (Monarchies of Mau)

  Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

C20 Ready Made Characters (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

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

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

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Scion: Origins (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

  WW Manuscript Approval:

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

  Editing:

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)

V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

  Post-Editing Development:

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

Book of Freeholds (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

BtP Beast Player’s Guide (Beast: the Primordial)

    Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary 

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook

Cavaliers of Mars

Wraith 20

W20 Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

VDA Jumpstart

Scion Origins

Ring of Spiragos

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Finals rolling in shortly.

Beast PG – Sketches coming in.

VtR Half Damned – Getting the contracting and what not wrapped up this week.

Book of Freeholds

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

M20 Art Book – In progress…

Prince’s Gambit – New Cards out for playtesting.

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition) – PoD and Deluxe print files being prepped.

  Proofing

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology – wrapping up this week.

C20 Jumpstart – Inputting Corrections.

  At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Pugmire – At fulfillment shipper, making rewards packages.

Pugmire Screen – At fulfillment shipper, making rewards packages.

Pugmire Cards & Dice, Pins – At fulfillment shipper, making rewards packages.

Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – Printing.

Dagger of Spiragos (5e) – PDF out on DTRPG this week.

Dagger of Spiragos (PF) – PDF out on DTRPG this week.

Monarchies of Mau Early Access – PoD proofs coming.

Dark Eras: Lily Sabre and Thorn – Wrapping up and getting files uploaded. Got super sidetracked by errata inputs and Gen Con prep.

M20 Book of Secrets – PoD proofs arriving.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – Wrapping up errata input.

Storypath (Trinity Continuum) Brochure – At press.

Gen Con 2017 Brochure – At press.

      TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: One month to Gen Con!

[theonyxpath]

Flashback: 2001's Making of Exalted video, originally included on the limited edition CD-ROM.

Look how young Rich looks!