#recent developments in a very popular ip have forced me to think about how creators treat the deaths of major or main characters

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

Might be a hot take but a major character’s death is really only as good as the weight and the treatment that the narrative gives it. Sure, any author has the ability to write death as they see fit. But whether the consumer (of any given form of media) is actually able to emotionally connect and resonate with the departure of someone who has occupied a good chunk of narrative space very heavily depends on how it’s treated within the story. If it’s a major character, the narrative needs enough built-in breathing space. As in, the consumer doesn’t have to fill in the blanks as to how the death impacted the plot or the remaining characters. Let the narrative do that for them, and that would actually allow the consumer to better react and relate to that major death (sadness, anger, joy, etc). Allow the rest of the characters (who were impacted by the deceased) to react to their parting. Let them engage with the death in a manner that helps justify the character’s inclusion in the narrative to begin with. Make it clear how the character’s life and (especially) their death relate to the larger themes of the story. Because most consumers aren’t stupid. We don’t want our hands held at every waking moment, but we also don’t want our investment in a story to be insulted just for the sake of a cheap shock. Give us time to breathe and grieve. And respect that we have put in a lot of emotional investment in a story and its characters, and we deserve to have that acknowledged.

[punkrockbuttrfly]

So I got tagged by @electrick-indigo to answer some questions about the fanfics I write

How many works do you have on AO3? 68. Most of those are things I write during Fictober challenges, so I’ll need to write something before October this year so I can have it be a nice number for a while

What’s your total AO3 word count? 152,901

What fandoms have you written for? Doctor Who, Classic, New and Big Finish (including Gallifrey and Bernice Summerfield), Kingdom Hearts, Power Rangers (show and comics), Star Wars, Metal Gear, Red Dwarf, The Mechanisms, Among Us, Undertale, and Untitled Goose Game. Most of those fandoms I’ve only written one or two fics for, most of them are Doctor Who related and also that one anonymous fic we don’t talk about but if you’ve read it you Know

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Somehow Untitled Goose God is my most popular (for Untitled Goose Game, obvs) despite it being probably my shortest piece written in like 20 minutes inspired by a piece of friend art. After that is Revelation of the Laundry (New Who), The Standards of Trust (Star Wars, probably ongoing assuming I ever finish it), Time and Space to Study (New Who) and finally The Sevateem’s New War Cry (Gallifrey).

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? I try to, because I thrive on validation and am desperate for people to prop up my considerable ego. I like it when people tell me what they enjoyed about my story, and also half the time inspire an even better idea that I can write later. I’m really nothing without an audience to crib jokes from.

What is the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Honestly I can think of a few but the one that I’m going to promote is actually my most recent fic, Who commands, a Toy obeys (Doctor Who, The Mechanisms) where the Twelfth Doctor meets the Mechs’ own Toy Soldier and ends up having yet another emotional crisis, as 12 tends to do a lot.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written? Well I did just talk about my Doctor Who/Mechanisms crossover, but I’ve also written a couple more. I wrote a Gallifrey/Red Dwarf one and a Power Rangers Time Force/Doctor Who one and that’s the extent of my crossovers, though I’m not opposed to writing more.

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Not really. I’ve had a few people comment to say they disliked an integral part of the story and then say nothing else, but I don’t think that qualifies as hate. Though tbh if they did I’d just laugh, like, how do you not have anything better to do? I know my writing isn’t good, that’s why I’m writing fanfic for fun to get better at it so that eventually I might be able to be good at writing.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Not so far, though I’m not opposed to the concept. I just wouldn’t really know where to start.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No, and I doubt I will, although again if it did happen I’d just laugh. Like, of all the wonderful creators you could be stealing from, you picked me? Surely you must have better taste.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not yet. I’d like to, mostly because in theory it will get me to stop procrastinating and do a thing, and also I’d love to develop a concept with someone else with a different perspective and ideas. In theory I’m meant to be planning a co-written fic with someone, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut spoons are in very short supply and it’s sort of not gotten off the ground yet (sorry!)

What’s your all-time favourite ship? I don’t do favourites really, and half of my “favourite” ships are canon anyway and I haven’t written much or anything for that ship. Based on the shipfics I have written probably my most prolific one is either Narvin/Leela or Liv Chenka/Helen Sinclair (which is now definitely not canon as of Stranded).

What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? Considering that The Standards of Trust (linked above) is supposed to be a series of stories across Ahsoka’s life but I’m taken a huge amount of time to watch The Clone Wars already and also I refuse to watch her solo spinoff series because of bullshit casting decisions, I don’t think I’ll ever “finish” it.

What are your writing strengths? I have absolutely no idea. Why do you people read my writing? This isn’t even self-deprecating, I genuinely want to know what y’all like about my writing because I have no idea.

What are your writing weaknesses? Second verse, same as the first. But also my spoons deficit and tendency to procrastinate hard, but that’s hardly exclusive to me, that’s something most writers struggle with.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? Never done it, probably won’t do it in any substantial capacity. I’ve tried learning languages before and I’m spectacularly bad at it, so I’ll most likely never have the proficiency to do it well enough to confidently publish something like that.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Doctor Who. Also Gallifrey. The Macqueen Master battled Narvin. The Resurrection of Fear was the first fanfic I ever wrote after not having applied myself to writing fiction for a very long time beyond a couple of drabbles as a teenager, so it’s not very good, but hopefully it can serve as a demonstration of progression.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written? Beyond the Stars, the followup to the Beyond the Grid arc of the Boom Studios Power Rangers comics that I wanted so much that I decided to write it myself, enough that hopefully soon I’ll get back to actually writing it, but this is one WIP I am determined to finish. By the end it’s going to be novel-length, and while it’s based on a non-original IP, it’s meant to be standalone enough that hopefully anyone can read it without needing context. Besides, do you need more context than “gay superhero found family space opera”?

Tagging @being-of-rain, @alison-is-a-lesbian, and @floptopus

[theonyxpath]

Dystopia Rising: Evolution illustration by Jonothan Reed

  Every once in a while, I need to take a week’s worth of this blog and do kind of an Onyx Path Publishing primer.

Just go through our history, who we are, and how and why we do what we do. Usually this sort of “Who the Hell is Onyx Path?” blog is necessitated by external forces; by an influx of questions or misapprehensions here or on other bits of our social media.

And this is no exception.

This installment is brought to you by the letter V and the number 5, in fact.

The recent release of White Wolf‘s Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition (v5) has increased the number of folks stopping by here – hi, nice to see ya! – and with WW planning to continue to push further into new venues and media, I’m not thinking we’re going to see less folks confused by who we are and how we relate to White Wolf and V5.

And it is totally understandable that who we are and what we do is not obvious, particularly if you are used to the way the original White Wolf operated as a business. So, first I’m going to talk about Onyx Path‘s evolution through the last six years, and then end with reminding folks that our new Kickstarter campaign for our new game Dystopia Rising: Evolution starts on this coming Wednesday.

So, if you’re an long-time reader and know all this, please feel free to skip down to where I remind folks that our new Kickstarter campaign for our new game Dystopia Rising: Evolution starts on this coming Wednesday.

    Scion: Hero illustration by Enzo Lopez

    Okay, everybody else, skootch closer and I’ll tell you a tale. It’s a longer than usual blog post, so get comfortable.

In 1991, a gaming company called White Wolf published a ground-breaking tabletop RPG called Vampire: The Masquerade. It was massively influential and popular. More World of Darkness game lines came out every year, then other game worlds like Trinity and Exalted got lines, and the original WW kept expanding and then contracted big-time. In an effort to spur sales, the World of Darkness was ended in accordance with all the prophesies presented in the various lines, and a New World of Darkness set of game lines began publication.

Unfortunately, while the initial sales of the core rulebooks for each New World of Darkness line were huge, the overall trend of declining sales was not stopped. In an effort to keep publishing and also to evolve into the electronic games market, White Wolf merged with an Icelandic MMO (massive multi-player online game) company named CCP, and began work on a World of Darkness MMO.

For too many reasons to go into here, but maybe I will someday, eventually the project stalled and CCP laid off a lot of the US office, which meant they laid off most of the original White Wolf staff. (Later, the WoD MMO was canceled).

Which is where Onyx Path enters the story.

Onyx Path, that is, not me. I entered the history of WW many years earlier and had, in fact, been with White Wolf for years before Vampire: The Masquerade came out, and was responsible for all the visuals (art, layout, printing) for every project we created. As the WoD MMO was ramping up and our TTRPG publishing conversely was slowing down, they asked me to come over to help with the MMO. While the herculean efforts to make it were occurring, a few of us also put together a side project and convinced CCP to OK its publication.

That project was a special return to TTRPGs: an omnibus edition of VtM celebrating the 20th anniversary of its publication, which is now known as V20. Even with relatively little outreach and selling it from our own webpage, it did pretty darn well.

Even more importantly from my point of view, it reminded me how much I loved making game books.

So when the big layoffs came, I was faced with watching folks who I had hired into WW, some of them more than a decade before, and who had devoted that time to the company, lose their jobs. For me, it was time to go, but I wanted to not just go but to return to TTRPGs and not as an employee, but with my own company.

Thus, in 2012, Onyx Path Publishing was born!

With the feedback from V20 indicating that there were a lot of folks still interested in WW‘s Intellectual Properties (IPs) as TTRPGs, Onyx Path negotiated licenses to create new TTRPG books for the World of Darkness, Exalted, and New World of Darkness game lines. Onyx Path bought outright the Scion, Trinity, and ultimately Scarred Lands game lines that had been originally created and published by White Wolf from CCP.

It was never my intention to try and be the new White Wolf, even if there weren’t still people at CCP who needed to approve what we were doing with the license and might be a tad miffed if I started announcing that. You see, by the time I left, I was WW‘s creative director and responsible for not just visuals but every phase of creating our games. I knew the pitfalls we had fallen into previously and intended Onyx to follow a different Path.

With that in mind, we started with PDFs and then very quickly added physical book Print on Demand (PoD) versions as well via DriveThruRPG.com. The advent of Kickstarter enabled us to create Deluxe books and later books that were traditionally printed in other ways. Getting those books to backers was a challenge, but we kept on with fulfillment shipper after shipper.

Structurally, Onyx Path worked off of the Developer/Writer/Editor to Art Director/Graphic Designer book creation track that we had perfected during the WW days. Our processes were those processes, because that was what the folks I was working with and I knew best. And those creative folks were mostly developers and writers from the olden times of WW, along with some newer folks who were fans of those days. It was great to make books with Justin Achilli, Phil Brucato, Ethan Skemp. and many more folks again, as well as artists I hadn’t worked with in over a decade.

We followed that path of creating new projects for the WW IPs and in a few years I was able to add some new game worlds by working with creators on more of a partnership basis. Thus were Pugmire and Cavaliers of Mars brought onboard. So we had the licensed IPs from WW, these creator-owned lines, and the game lines we owned. I was able to hire some folks on as full-time staff, like Mirthful Mike Chaney as art director and numero uno layout artist, and Rose Bailey to help our developers.

Other than them, though, everyone else was (and pretty much still are) freelance contractors, most of whom have other full-time jobs and create what they create in their “spare time”. Despite that, their devotion to their game lines has been amazing and very gratifying. And while we hammered through a lot of challenges with deadlines, Onyx still published some amazing books and games, revitalizing WoD with our 20th Anniversary lines, Exalted with its 3rd Edition, and 2nd Editions for the Chronicles (New World) of Darkness.

    Exalted 3rd Hundred Devils Night Parade illustration by Melissa Uran

    Hold it. Something realllly important happened right at the point we started those 2nd Editions.

CCP sold all of what remained of White Wolf to a Swedish computer game company called Paradox Interactive, and they spun off a new company called…White Wolf! And why not, they bought the name along with all the IPs, after all.

We talked, we tweaked processes to work with how they needed them to be, and we continued with our Tabletop RPG licenses of the WW IPs. Current White Wolf is a lot more hands-on than CCP, as befits a company that want to build those game lines into RPGs plus other venues like computer games and other media like TV and movies. They have a lot more feedback for us on our licensed projects with them, they helped us rebrand the New World of Darkness into the Chronicles of Darkness to better differentiate the lines from WoD, and then, and then…and then they created the latest edition of Vampire: The Masquerade in-house: V5.

So, to be clear: until we started working on V5 Chicago By Night, we at Onyx Path really didn’t contribute anything to V5 directly. WW wanted it to be their baby, and we totally respect that as creators ourselves.

Continuing our clarity moment: we do not own WoD, Chronicles of Darkness, or Exalted – White Wolf does. We can’t OK your screenplay based on your Mage game, we can’t fire that guy who looks like Dracula at WW, and we pitch to WW book ideas for the game lines we have a license for, but they are the ones that OK them so we can work on them. We are one of what they hope to be hundreds of licensees, and WW is at the hub, licensing.

With the way WW is working with licenses, we at Onyx Path may or may not know about another one of the licensees, but we don’t know who is working on a license from White Wolf until WW tells us. We aren’t involved with who gets a license, who they or WW hire to work on a project – we only call the shots on the projects we’re creating under the WW license.

As of this writing and for as far into the future as I can see, Onyx Path is independently owned by your Uncle RichT, and I continue to look at building Onyx to last as a publisher forever, basically. It is a challenge, as we don’t have a safety net of a parent company or investor we can fall back on, so I’m very careful about how and where we expand.

With what I hope is some ongoing strategic thinking, evolution of our company continues.

We currently have four full-time staff members: myself, Mirthful Mike, LisaT in our business office, and Mighty Matt McElroy as our Operations Manager. Rose Bailey left early this year and has already produced about 14 zillion games you can get in on through her Patreon and on DTRPG.com.

Before Rose left, we were already evolving how to work with our developers and writers. We had changed and raised our pay rates, and then began to look at the challenges faced by our freelance creators. While it was obvious that trying to make the old WW processes work just wasn’t ultimately going to get us where we needed to be, we needed to be in a position where Onyx Path could provide more hands-on mentorship for our developers.

First, I lucked into being able to create a role doing just that with Eddy Webb, who had been involved with Onyx Path since the beginning, but now he was set to be our first full-time freelance developer “at-large”. In other words. Eddy was going to work with those developers who needed another dev to cover some of the very diverse responsibilities their position encompasses.

As Eddy and I were working out just what this new thing entailed, Matthew Dawkins approached me wanting to be more involved with Onyx Path. So he became our second of these contracted but full-time devs. And then, with Rose leaving, she suggested an outstanding editor who was kicking ass to step up, and Dixie Cochran became our third development overseer. Meanwhile, I talked James Bell, who has huge customer service experience, into running our Kickstarters full-time.

When you see a game line start to move forward with more and more timely releases, when you just have a blast being part of one of our Kickstarters, when you listen to our weekly Onyx Podcast for more news and insight into what we’re up to; these are the folks doing that.

As a company ethos, we believe that everyone should be able to enjoy and be represented respectfully in our projects and social media, and that, in the words of Buckaroo Bonzai, “we don’t have to be mean”.

I realize that this runs counter to a lot of the internet, but within our social media we do try to live up to that.

Just to come back to the evolution of Onyx Path in terms of our business, we are still working to license to other companies our existing game worlds for a variety of new projects that allow folks to enjoy those worlds in other ways, and to obtain licenses to other worlds that we think can be transformative TTRPG experiences as well as a lot of fun to play.

In fact, our new Kickstarter campaign for our new game Dystopia Rising: Evolution starts on this coming Wednesday.

We continue to offer PDF and PoD versions of our projects on DriveThruRPG.com, and at least our fiction so far on Amazon and the Nook store. Because we have been able to forge excellent relationships with Studio2 Publishing and Indie Press Revolution for post-Kickstarter sales, we have been able to start offering our physical products into retail channels in a way that is healthy for our business model. Studio2 is also able to put the books they handle for us onto Amazon, so you will see more and more of our projects there.

Just look below for even more venues for our projects.

Finally, because we actually do think of the worlds we create as springboards from which we can create art, we’re very proud to be working with several groups of folks who are dedicated to gaming as a therapeutic tool to help people around the world. Our friends at the Bodhana Group and iThrive are out there trying to make the world a better place. There is no doubt in my mind that gaming, and particularly roleplaying games specifically, has changed many lives for the better. I’ve just heard so many stories over the years about just that, and I’m proud the worlds we’ve created have made a difference in the real world.

    Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition Tormented illustration by Vince Locke

    OK, That’s who we are and what we do. You can all sit back now, lecture-time is over.

Oh yeah, please don’t forget that our new Kickstarter campaign for our new game Dystopia Rising: Evolution starts on this coming Wednesday. (And there’s even more info in the Blurbs! section below).

Finally, always remember this when you think of Onyx Path Publishing:

Many Worlds, One Path!

  BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

  Dystopia Rising: Evolution art by Mark Kelly

Our next Kickstarter will be for Dystopia Rising: Evolution starting on Wednesday the 22nd at 2pm EDT.

Dystopia Rising is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game that quickly grew into a live-action sensation. Now, Onyx Path is pleased to update the live-action setting with Dystopia Rising: Evolution, a tabletop roleplaying game that presents a fresh and exciting take on the post-apocalypse genre.

Dystopia Rising: Evolution will be powered by Onyx Path’s Storypath system, and includes all the rules you need to play as a survivor in the post-apocalypse, including rules for creating characters for up to 24 different Strains, variations on humanity that survived the Fall. It also has details on the powers of faith and psionics, along with advice on running action-adventure stories, webs of personal intrigue, or procedural investigations. And, finally, dozens of antagonists, including a variety of zombies and raiders to use in your series.

Throughout this Kickstarter campaign, we will be posting complete previews of the Dystopia Rising: Evolution manuscript as backer-only updates.

  ELECTRONIC GAMING:

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

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

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

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

Three different screenshots, above.

  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 you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

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

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

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

  OUR SALES PARTNERS:

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

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

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

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

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

SPECIAL W20 and M20 SALE! Huge savings on our Deluxe printing overruns until 8/31! ONE WEEK LEFT!

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

    This week we are responding to the many, many messages asking for V20 Dark Ages Journals! So expect those to go live on our RedBubble store on Wednesday!

    CONVENTIONS!

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

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

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

  Dixie Cochran will be at High Level Games Con in Atlantic City October 12-14, running a Women in Game Design panel, Eddy’s RPG Developer Bootcamp, and possibly making a surprise appearance at another event!

    And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

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

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

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

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

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

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

  Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

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

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

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

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

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

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

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

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

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

  Manuscript Approval:

  Editing:

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

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau) (With Eddy)

  Post-Editing Development:

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

  In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – Working on banners for the KS. Art is in for the video and KS page.

VtR: Guide to the Night

M20: Gods and Monsters – Leblanc already has sketches in.

Geist 2e

The Realm

Trinity Continuum (Aeon and Core)

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Sketches and color roughs continue to come in and even some finals from Gunship.

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Scarred Lands Trilogy Novels – Converting to PDF and PoD.

Fetch Quest – New cards contracted…. will be in by September 15th. KS backer shirt out.

  Proofing

Scion Hero 

Cav Talent cards

PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented

  At Press

Changeling: The Lost 2e – incorporating errata and getting it ready for indexing.

Monarchies of Mau – Printing. Dice and buttons printing.

Scion Origin – Errata review and incorporation.

Cavaliers of Mars – Finishing printing.

Wraith 20th – Prepping the Deluxe files, still poking printer for cover specs.

Monarchies of Mau Screen – Printing.

Cavaliers of Mars Screen – Printing.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.

Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Today is James Marsters birthday, and so let’s wish a great one for Spike! Arguably the best of the bads from Buffy, and role model for thousands of Vampire: The Masquerade characters!

[honeybadgerradio]

Miss USA the Terrible Terrible Equalist - Polecat Cast 113

Miss USA! Marvel cancels BLM book! Tanzanian Gem Mining? All this and more on the Polecat Cast!

Show notes:

  A Woman Gets Yelled At For Saying She’s an Equalist… for the 129th Time Polecat Cast – May 16th, 2017

Summary

            Dear Honey Badgers… dear fans listening to our show… how many times have you heard this story before? A woman is asked if she considers herself a feminist and responds with some variation of “no, I’m an equalist/egalitarian.” Following this, legions of online slacktivists - without any capacity for self-reflection - criticize said woman for saying feminists are anti-men.

            Yeah? So you’ve heard about this before? Let’s talk about it again for the 129th time. Kara McCullough, from D.C. was crowned the new Miss U.S.A. last Sunday. Now, to all the gentlemen in the audience… tell me if this doesn’t sound like your dream woman: 25, naturally curly black hair, nuclear scientist, a great body AND is capable of individual thought by saying she’s not a feminist?

            I mean… SIGN ME UP. However, naturally… because she decided to make her thoughts on feminism known (plus her thoughts on why healthcare is, in her view, a privilege), every newspaper in America had to write about this terrible slight against her gender.

            If you type in Kara McCullough’s name into Google you’ll find titles like the following:

SALON – Miss USA Kara McCullough thinks unemployed shouldn’t have health care PEOPLE – Miss USA Kara McCullough sparks controversy for her stance on health care CNN – Miss USA: Health care ‘a privilege,’ not a right (Linda Stasi) NY Daily News – Brainiac Miss USA Kara McCullough says some really idiotic things

            You get the point. Naturally, following all of this, Kara did a complete reversal on her health care stance the following day, saying that health care is actually a right. She seems to have stood firm on her equalist position. However, that hasn’t stopped the professionally offended from reminding her that if it weren’t for feminism, she wouldn’t be where she is right now.

            Fellow Honey Badgers, should we remind these SJWs that if it weren’t for republicans, the slaves would have never been emancipated in America and that they should show some god damned respect? 

Source: https://ca.style.yahoo.com/miss-usa-winner-kara-mccullough-says-shes-equalist-not-feminist-twitter-not-happy-171016820.html

    The Crew is Through

By Mike J.

It seems that not even social justice warriors want to buy Marvel's "Black Panther & The Crew", which is set to cancelled after only two issues. The comic, which features popular black superheros such as Luke Cage, Storm, and Black Panther, tells a story set in a future Harlem where the police force has been replaced by private security contractor controlled robots that seem to mostly target blacks. 

The aforementioned superheroes take the fight to the corrupt system while learning about prominent figures in the Civil Rights Movement. But as with other social justice themed comics, there just doesn't seem to market for them right now. Ta-Nehisi Coates, the comics creator, states the comic will finish it's current six issue run before ending for good with poor sales being cited as the reason. 

This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who has been following Marvel comics for the past few years. These stories with painfully forced diversity and social justice narratives just aren't profitable, a message echoed by Marvel’s Senior Vice President of sales, David Gabriel. Hopefully the rest of Marvel comics can figure this out as well, at least if they want to retain what remains of their core audience.

Sources: https://heatst.com/culture-wars/marvel-exec-claims-forced-diversity-female-led-comics-responsible-for-slump/ https://heatst.com/entertainment/marvel-cancels-ta-nehisi-coates-black-lives-matter-comic-due-to-poor-sales/

   Woman  acted as a man to get work - until she was accused of rape

by L Kemlo

A recent piece on BBC Magazine tells an amazing story of a Tanzanian women who made a fortune “acting like a man” until she was accused of rape.

Pili (“Pee-ly”) Hussein was one of 38 children (her father had six wives). She ran away from an abusive husband at 31 and went looking for work in a small mining town. Pili wanted in on the money being made mining for a rare, violet-blue gemstone called tanzanite. Unfortunately, women were not allowed in the mining site.

Pili transformed herself into “Uncle Hussein”. She told the BBC, "I acted like a gorilla, I could fight, my language was bad, I could carry a big knife like a Maasai. Nobody knew I was a woman because everything I was doing I was doing like a man."

After a year she struck it rich, uncovering two clusters of the gemstone. She bought new homes for her family, and eventually started her own mining company. One day a local woman reported she had been raped by miners. "When the police came, the men who did the rape said: 'This is the man who did it,' and I was taken to the police station," Pili says. At the police station she revealed her secret, asking the police to find a woman to physically examine her, to prove that she couldn't be responsible.

Her fellow miners were hard to convince, as was a future husband when most in the town were accustomed to regarding her as a man. "They didn't even believe the police when they said that I was a woman," she said. However, Pili did eventually succeed in finding a husband and started a family.

Today Pili owns a mining company with over 70 employees. The three female emloyees work as cooks, not miners, as Pili explains, “Some [women] wash the stones, some are brokers, some are cooking," she says, "but they're not going down in to the mines, it's not easy to get women to do what I did."

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39705424

  Mass Effectively Shelved

By Mike J.

After a controversial debut and a very rocky first few weeks, "Mass Effect: Andromeda" can't seem to catch a break. Even after the initial round of patches, gamers still regularly report bugs and glitches, some even insisting that the game plays worse once patched. 

All this negative press mixed with lackluster review scores and a low amount of physical copies sold has given EA much to think about in terms of the future of the series as well as the future of Andromeda's primary developers; BioWare Montreal. Despite EA management voicing support for the series and the studio behind it, Mass Effect as a series has been put on hold for the foreseeable future. This coupled with BioWare's new IP being pushed back until April of 2018 and the shift of BioWare employees over to EA Motive, presumably to work on the new Star Wars Battlefront title, spells out an uncertain future for the company. 

With no major DLC or season pass planned for the game, those who remain at BioWare Montreal continue to work on future patches and multiplayer content for Andromeda or the as of yet named new IP planned for next year.

http://windowsreport.com/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-05-issues/https://www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/69j3yw/patch_105_combo_damage_table/http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-27-mass-effect-andromeda-physical-launch-sales-down-on-me3 https://gamerant.com/mass-effect-andromeda-dlc-cancel/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/mass-effect-reportedly-on-hiatus-changes-made-at-b/1100-6449945/

Check out the latest Honeybadgers episode.

[breakingtheglasses]

Miss USA the Terrible Terrible Equalist - Polecat Cast 113

Miss USA! Marvel cancels BLM book! Tanzanian Gem Mining? All this and more on the Polecat Cast!

Show notes:

  A Woman Gets Yelled At For Saying She’s an Equalist… for the 129th Time Polecat Cast – May 16th, 2017

Summary

            Dear Honey Badgers… dear fans listening to our show… how many times have you heard this story before? A woman is asked if she considers herself a feminist and responds with some variation of “no, I’m an equalist/egalitarian.” Following this, legions of online slacktivists - without any capacity for self-reflection - criticize said woman for saying feminists are anti-men.

            Yeah? So you’ve heard about this before? Let’s talk about it again for the 129th time. Kara McCullough, from D.C. was crowned the new Miss U.S.A. last Sunday. Now, to all the gentlemen in the audience… tell me if this doesn’t sound like your dream woman: 25, naturally curly black hair, nuclear scientist, a great body AND is capable of individual thought by saying she’s not a feminist?

            I mean… SIGN ME UP. However, naturally… because she decided to make her thoughts on feminism known (plus her thoughts on why healthcare is, in her view, a privilege), every newspaper in America had to write about this terrible slight against her gender.

            If you type in Kara McCullough’s name into Google you’ll find titles like the following:

SALON – Miss USA Kara McCullough thinks unemployed shouldn’t have health care PEOPLE – Miss USA Kara McCullough sparks controversy for her stance on health care CNN – Miss USA: Health care ‘a privilege,’ not a right (Linda Stasi) NY Daily News – Brainiac Miss USA Kara McCullough says some really idiotic things

            You get the point. Naturally, following all of this, Kara did a complete reversal on her health care stance the following day, saying that health care is actually a right. She seems to have stood firm on her equalist position. However, that hasn’t stopped the professionally offended from reminding her that if it weren’t for feminism, she wouldn’t be where she is right now.

            Fellow Honey Badgers, should we remind these SJWs that if it weren’t for republicans, the slaves would have never been emancipated in America and that they should show some god damned respect? 

Source: https://ca.style.yahoo.com/miss-usa-winner-kara-mccullough-says-shes-equalist-not-feminist-twitter-not-happy-171016820.html

    The Crew is Through

By Mike J.

It seems that not even social justice warriors want to buy Marvel's "Black Panther & The Crew", which is set to cancelled after only two issues. The comic, which features popular black superheros such as Luke Cage, Storm, and Black Panther, tells a story set in a future Harlem where the police force has been replaced by private security contractor controlled robots that seem to mostly target blacks. 

The aforementioned superheroes take the fight to the corrupt system while learning about prominent figures in the Civil Rights Movement. But as with other social justice themed comics, there just doesn't seem to market for them right now. Ta-Nehisi Coates, the comics creator, states the comic will finish it's current six issue run before ending for good with poor sales being cited as the reason. 

This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who has been following Marvel comics for the past few years. These stories with painfully forced diversity and social justice narratives just aren't profitable, a message echoed by Marvel’s Senior Vice President of sales, David Gabriel. Hopefully the rest of Marvel comics can figure this out as well, at least if they want to retain what remains of their core audience.

Sources: https://heatst.com/culture-wars/marvel-exec-claims-forced-diversity-female-led-comics-responsible-for-slump/ https://heatst.com/entertainment/marvel-cancels-ta-nehisi-coates-black-lives-matter-comic-due-to-poor-sales/

   Woman  acted as a man to get work - until she was accused of rape

by L Kemlo

A recent piece on BBC Magazine tells an amazing story of a Tanzanian women who made a fortune “acting like a man” until she was accused of rape.

Pili (“Pee-ly”) Hussein was one of 38 children (her father had six wives). She ran away from an abusive husband at 31 and went looking for work in a small mining town. Pili wanted in on the money being made mining for a rare, violet-blue gemstone called tanzanite. Unfortunately, women were not allowed in the mining site.

Pili transformed herself into “Uncle Hussein”. She told the BBC, "I acted like a gorilla, I could fight, my language was bad, I could carry a big knife like a Maasai. Nobody knew I was a woman because everything I was doing I was doing like a man."

After a year she struck it rich, uncovering two clusters of the gemstone. She bought new homes for her family, and eventually started her own mining company. One day a local woman reported she had been raped by miners. "When the police came, the men who did the rape said: 'This is the man who did it,' and I was taken to the police station," Pili says. At the police station she revealed her secret, asking the police to find a woman to physically examine her, to prove that she couldn't be responsible.

Her fellow miners were hard to convince, as was a future husband when most in the town were accustomed to regarding her as a man. "They didn't even believe the police when they said that I was a woman," she said. However, Pili did eventually succeed in finding a husband and started a family.

Today Pili owns a mining company with over 70 employees. The three female emloyees work as cooks, not miners, as Pili explains, “Some [women] wash the stones, some are brokers, some are cooking," she says, "but they're not going down in to the mines, it's not easy to get women to do what I did."

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39705424

  Mass Effectively Shelved

By Mike J.

After a controversial debut and a very rocky first few weeks, "Mass Effect: Andromeda" can't seem to catch a break. Even after the initial round of patches, gamers still regularly report bugs and glitches, some even insisting that the game plays worse once patched. 

All this negative press mixed with lackluster review scores and a low amount of physical copies sold has given EA much to think about in terms of the future of the series as well as the future of Andromeda's primary developers; BioWare Montreal. Despite EA management voicing support for the series and the studio behind it, Mass Effect as a series has been put on hold for the foreseeable future. This coupled with BioWare's new IP being pushed back until April of 2018 and the shift of BioWare employees over to EA Motive, presumably to work on the new Star Wars Battlefront title, spells out an uncertain future for the company. 

With no major DLC or season pass planned for the game, those who remain at BioWare Montreal continue to work on future patches and multiplayer content for Andromeda or the as of yet named new IP planned for next year.

http://windowsreport.com/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-05-issues/https://www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/69j3yw/patch_105_combo_damage_table/http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-27-mass-effect-andromeda-physical-launch-sales-down-on-me3 https://gamerant.com/mass-effect-andromeda-dlc-cancel/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/mass-effect-reportedly-on-hiatus-changes-made-at-b/1100-6449945/

New Honey Badger stuff