Hopefully, as I write this, our good friend Eddy Webb is recovering from his ear operation and everything went well. Knowing him, he’ll be tweeting his status as you read this. But with Eddy away, I’m taking over the Monday Lunch Meeting blogs, Mwa Ha Ha Ha! But without Eddy, there’s not much real conversation here, so I’ll jump right into the updates:
- Like we mentioned all of last week, but which I’m repeating here: the announcement at GenCon was that my new company, Onyx Path Publishing www.theonyxpath.com, has been creating and selling all the nWoD, cWoD, and Exalted projects you’ve been enjoying since January as we’re the official licensee of those tabletop lines from WW/CCP. And we’re really excited about the schedule for the next year. Also, we have plans for reimagining Scion and the Trinity Universe (or Trinity Continuum? What do you think?) of games, as we now own those lines outright.
- The Deluxe W20 Kickstarter hasn’t started yet as I received so many interesting ideas at GenCon that I sent a few of them out for pricing in order to include them as rewards. Also, and this was something we emphasized time and again during the Kickstarter panels at GenCon, shipping these big books continues to be a challenge in terms of pricing. Right now, I hear that any package over 4 pounds will be at least $50 for shipping to Europe, and W20 is sure to be at least that, as was V20. So, ouch! I need to incorporate that pricing into the reward tiers.
- Speaking of Kickstarters- and it seems everyone in paper RPG-land is- the Deluxe V20 Companions have all shipped except for a few broken addresses that I’m fixing right now. It was a longer and stranger trip than Justin and I planned, but that’s what happens when you do something for the first time. What’s amazing is that we did this pretty much ourselves with a talented pool of freelancers and outsourced printing and shipping. But what’s important is that it’s a damn pretty book and a book worthy of putting next to V20 itself. And if you didn’t back the Deluxe Edition, the PDF and PoD versions are on sale now at DriveThruRPG.
- Blood Sorcery for VtR may just hit this week on DriveThruRPG, but I think it more likely to go live early next week. We were real close on hitting the schedule here, but it all depends on how fast I can see a proof copy of the PoD book.
- The Silent Knife novel will definitely slip to September, but we do have an ePub version we’re testing right now so we can give folks more access to one of the first tasty bits of fiction we’ve had out for Vampire in a few years.
- Mummy the Curse is still in layout. Check out the Making of Mummy panel on the Onyx Path Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheOnyxPath And we’re still looking at getting a KS going for Mummy once the W20 one goes live.
- The Left Handed Path for nMage and Convention Book: NWO for cMage are both being art directed and edited.
- The God Machine Chronicle Anthology stories are all in Matt McFarland‘s hands and his team is working on writing the game book right now as well.
- I owe John, Holden, and Geoff signature character sketches for EX3 which is powerfully coming together. Holden and I will be talking this week so I can get a bit more detail on where things stand.
- W20 Changing Breeds and Rage Across the World are being written, and Justin is furiously developing Hunters Hunted 2 for V20.
- We have had amazing response to, and gratifying interest in, what we have planned for Scion, Trinity, and Cavaliers of Mars. I know Russell Bailey is full steam ahead on the Cavaliers main book, and I’ve had emails and calls all last week and into this from writers and developers who’d love to help with reimagining the other two lines. More as we have it, and mostly on the Onyx Path site.
- The WW Forums were down this last weekend for no reason we know of, but they are back up now and should be OK barring crazy weather blown up from Hurricane Isaac.
Reason To Drink: Let’s hoist one to the health of Eddy Webb, may his ears be ever hearful, and his hair be ever curly. Get well soon, buddy!
Silent Knife comes on e-pub, and that’s nice. But a PDF version is also coming out, right?
Of course- have no fear! From here on in, unless we say otherwise and it’ll be big news if we do, everything will be PDF/PoD. We want the EXTRA utility and access of ePub formats as well, though. And fiction in particular benefits from added formats.
Thanks for the attention and the awesome job, Richt!
It was good to get the info on what was going on. Imagine it was nerve racking not being able to say much about it.
Mummy seminar was great. Earmarking cash for that and trying not to work Icke/Graham ideas into it. Blood Sorcery is almost out of the oven too? Nice.
(Aeon Continuum?)
Trinity Continuum news is super exciting. Always dug the post cyber-punk/Blade Runner vibe. Aberrant gets read constantly, the sprite just realized it is a game. More Advneture! yes..
Any chance of super deluxe trinity, plastic folder and ring bound?
Very exhausting dancing around without being able to explain to folks why things are happening as they are. I’m quite sure we’ll do a deluxe set of books for the Trinity Continuum (still trying that on for size). The ol’ plastic ring binding? Lots of negative press at the time, you know- lots of folks hated the size, hated the perception that the ring binder was less sturdy than the standard binding. We did win a printing industry award for it though
With regard to the character sketches for EX3, do you think we’ll get a ‘The Making Of’ for this edition? I absolutely love the one that came with the giant, nigh-invincible special edition hardback.
The early character sketches/comments were my favorite part.
And best wishes to Eddy! I hope he recovers swiftly and without complication.
Thanks- glad you like the Making Of book. It’s definitely on the list of possible rewards for EX3. Maybe as a stretch goal.
I like “Trinity Continuum,” myself.
“Trinity Continuum” makes it feel as if it’s focusing entirely on Trinity, rather than the other lines. Plus, calling it Aeon gives it the feel of a longer game, something that stretches over an extended period of time. A conspiracy that drops out of nowhere, but has existed for centuries. I think that idea.
The “Trinity Continuum” would contain three games: Adventure!, Aberrant, and Æon.
I also like Æonverse*, myself, but Trinity Continuum sounds cool enough.
*) Especially if the Trinity game regains its Æon moniker.
Æonverse is cool, but I love how Trinity Continuum sounds, too.
I am all for Trinity Continuum. Go for it! And glad there are also new ideas for Scion!
Where to start…
Great panels. They each had a lot of passion coming across about both the direction of the company and the material. Hearing both the old school WW voices and touching on fans turned writers was fantastic.
Putting money away for the Mummy Kickstart, can’t wait to see it go live.
A happy and quick recovery Eddy.
What’s the progress on the Book of Nod (Restoration Edition)? Still due for an August Release?
How come the shipping for the W20 to Europe is so much more expensive as the shipping for the V20 has been? If I recall it correct most shipping options did cost ~ $25 per book, with an overall price like $125 per book.
Yeah … 50 bucks for book … its a large sum … hope that V20-Europe will help.
If anybody can confirm the shipping costs of V20 to Europe that would help. I wasn’t involved with the distribution of V20, so don’t know what was charged.
I looked my order up at the old Webshop.
This is what it states:
View Order #114001
Order Date: 7/5/2011 7:52 PM Order Total: $125.70
Shipment Information
Ship To: xxx
BELGIUM Status: Waiting to Ship
Shipping Method: USPS First-Class Mail International Package
Qty SKU Item Price
1 25801 Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition $99.99
1 SHIPPING USPS First-Class Mail International Package $25.71
If you like I can search if I stored the mail confirmation somewhere and forward it to you.
No- this alone is great for me to show the current shipper- Thanks!
Glad to see you taking this seriously. I fully intend to buy into the W20 Kickstarter but as a Brit that level of shipping cost on top of an already high cost for the book will be hard to justify to myself let alone to my partner in the face of other bills.
Wow that 50$ shipping might easily break the deal for many europeans. And you have a lot of friends over here. I remember it beeing around 25$ as well when i ordered V20.
Maybe you could think about a real big pack option. So for example one guy from germany could order 5-10 books and only pay one time for postage. Im not sure if thats cheaper because theere will be customs duty as well, but maybe a solution can be worked out.
Im sure there will be a way for german fans to unite if there would be such an option.
Yeah, so I mentioned this on Twitter, but thought I’d reiterate it here. If the shipping is going to be 50 bucks, then I think you should definitely make some more Eurocentric/Non-US tiers. A physical copy of the book is what I want, but anything that will increase the cost of shipping is going to be too much for me on grad school funds. So having tier options with digital additions in recognition of that fact would be cool.
Raising a glass to Eddy’s successful recovery!
I’d accept $50 for shipping *if and only if* it’s tracked and insured (e.g. UPS courier). If you’re expecting me to pay $50 for shipping that’s not, then you’re getting royally screwed by whoever’s estimating shipping for you. I’d probably still pay it, but I’d be very unimpressed.
ipsi- I’ve seen the shipping rates and those are the numbers. But I really am not satisfied in just those flat rates and am reaching out for a variety of solutions. Unfortunately this takes time and I won’t put up the W20 KS until I know what charges have to be for our many fantastic nonUS fans. Phil- I’m seriously thinking that if the shipping is really that high, it’s also going to be higher than previous KS books for the US community as well, so everybody would need some sugar.
I’d be happy if it that was the pricing for a courier (and I might even prefer that option – I do *not* want W20 to go missing!), but I’ve just had a look at DTRPG, and for example, they’d charge ~US$30 for shipping V20 (Hardcovor Color) and V20 Companion (Hardcover) from Europe (I believe) to New Zealand, with shipping weight of 6.281 lbs. It’s ~US$46 for UPS Express Saver shipping.
So yeah. Not sure who you’re using for shipping, but from here it looks like you’re getting the shaft…
Again, that’s from the UK and my original shipper estimates are based on US to elsewhere pricing.
True, though New Zealand is several thousand miles further away from the UK than it is from the US. It’s pretty much on the opposite side of the world… Anyway, I’ll leave it here and trust that shipping won’t be too extortionate
So, since you are doing mostly digital books, this means you will change the format to better read on computer screens and e-readers?
DZ- That’s a direction I’m very much interested in exploring. There are a few factors that weigh in here when we talk about changing to a single column format (for example as one kind of screen friendly change) to better enable reading on pads. One, is that we are still putting out PoD versions and single column 8.5″ x 11″ sucks for readability. And PoD books are a cornerstone of our relationship with the WW and just general tabletop audience. They like books (I like books), and books you can read. A lot of the WW community like books just like we did with traditional printing because they have a very strong attachment to doing their gaming a certain way. So we have to transition in such a way that we’re still creating the products folks love as books with the PoDs and providing PDFs that many fans also want identical to their traditional books or PoD versions.
We have started to explore a PDF format better suited for screens and a PoD version that is in traditional book format with the two Falling Scales SASs and hope to continue to head in that direction with different projects in the next couple of years.
Thanks!
I like that you’re exploring both options. If I was rolling in dough, I would always choose PoD because I love books (too). So even though I buy PDF products, I mainly do that to slip paying for the international shipping. I will someday have more money and when I do, I’d be bummed if I couldn’t order new TOP or WW products as books.
Phil- Just FYI, DTRPG who does our PoDs works with a PoD printer that ships to Europe etc from their plant in the UK, so the shipping costs aren’t as much as they’d be from the US. Don’t know if that helps or not-
Another problem with PDF versions is that there are A LOT of different devices with different screen resolutions and formats that can display PDFs.
I know that because im working as a game designer for mobile video games. So having a standard PDF size wont work. You probably would have to layout different PDFs to satisfy all customers, but thats pretty expensive to do.
Markus- absolutely true, and there’s also the fact that folks use different readers as well. So there’s a wide potential for problems, but it’s a growing industry right now and hopefully some standards will lock in further down the line. But like you say, it’d be crazy to try and redesign a book for every spec. One step at a time.
Whoa.
I had an inkling that you guys were taking over the publication, but it’s still awesome to see it in black and white.
Nevertheless i have the V20file in my ipad and i can read it just fine. I only have to be patient when loading the next page because the file is so big