Wow- where did November go? So Eddy and I caught up on the holiday, some positive infrastructure evolution at CCP USA, and only a little talk about Rise of the Guardians, which I was hesitant to see based on reviews and then enjoyed when dragged there by my kids. Lots of very pretty and evocative visuals (the Easter Egg monoliths were very cool), and a deeper look at the myths underlying the Guardians than I expected. Made me wonder what a Scion campaign based on the idea that you’re descended from kid myths like those would be like, and whether that’d be Scion for adults or something that parents could play with their kids. So we riffed on that for awhile. Also a bit on protecting CCP/WW’s IP rights and why efforts are made, even for little issues, to legally enforce them- if any rights owner doesn’t actively defend those rights the law allows an “erosion” of those rights and eventually, you lose them. Of course, this is all Eddy and my layman points of view, not legal opinions. But mostly we talked about administrative issues that happen behind the scenes and then did a run-down like you’ll see below. Sorry- not our most exciting MML notes.
- We’re doing a different sort of sales thing with DriveThruRPG that started on Black Friday: basically pop-up sales that last for about an hour and are for some outrageous deal. First time trying this, it takes a lot of man-hours over at DTRPG (thanks, Matt!), and so far our feedback has been mixed. Do you folks like stuff like this? Let me know. Also- it’s still going on!
- Silent Knife (VtR) was pulled back off the release schedule when, as I read through the book, I found a couple of places where the paragraph font size suddenly jumped a couple of points. No idea why, but we had to fix that and try and get a new proof. Not a major issue, but it just looks bad.
- The God Machine Chronicle Fiction Anthology (nWoD) is on sale now at DriveThruFiction (and cross available at DTRPG too I believe) and reviews are very positive so far. If you love WW Fiction, if you’re interested in The God Machine generally or interested in the upcoming Chronicle game book specifically, I encourage you to check it out. Available in our standard PDFor PoD formats but also in ePub and Mobi for fans who like to read on their tablets.
- Conventionbook: NWO (cMtA) a new PoD version is on its way to me as the first one had a few file errors. Which is why we do proofs before going live. Still looks good for November- we will get this out as scheduled!
- God Machine Chronicle (nWoD) and Strix Chronicle Fiction Anthology (VtR) Strix is still being written. As some folks might have read on Twitter, God Machine is in editing and tight, tight development.
- Mummy the Curse is still coming to me as a 2nd proof tonight, I’m told. We still want to get an editor on creating a strong index for this before we can go on sale. Still pulling together the KS.
- EX3 to say again: Slated for Feb 2013 now. Just talked with the Devs and things are moving along nicely here- because of the intricate machine that is Exalted, each change has to be carefully fit into the whole. And that is taking time. But the manuscript is coming together, the systems are in developer playtests in preparation for being sent to external playtesters, and art notes are being written soon. Not Kickstartering this this year-we’ll get back to you on when, but Feb 2013 looks good.
- V20 Hunters Hunted 2 is in Editing and Art Direction this week, and Anarchs Unbound‘s outline is out to writers and on the V20 blog: http://whitewolfblogs.com/v20/.
- Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution is on its way to the shippers from the printer- I still need confirmation that it got there. The PDF and PoD versions is on sale at DriveThru RPG. If you didn’t get involved with the KS for this, now is your chance to pick up this beautiful and cool book. Justin and company went all out to present awesome characters, and the art is stunning.
- Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter is over and I’m preparing the surveys to get back to backers this week.
-Deluxe Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition has been confirmed for September-ish 2013 and Phil Brucato is on the case!
- W20 Changing Breeds is also in Art Direction and Editing. We have to get backer info and photographs from the w20 Deluxe Kickstarter backers so that folks who are going to appear depicted in the art can get us in photos for reference.
- Guildhalls of the Deathless (MtC) is being wriiten.
Reason To Drink: A salute to Ryan Macklin and his writing team and Mike Chaney, AD and layout artist extraordinaire, who have pulled Convention Book NWO together and worked hard to get it out on time!
Thanks for the update.
Personally, I’d appreciate if the Exalted Kickstarter was scheduled to end a week or two before the book was published. I’m not interested in Ex3 Deluxe, but I’d like to contribute by buying my standard edition PDF (and as many other PDFs as I can afford for giveaways and such) through the Kickstarter.
Well, we’re experimenting with a couple of different timing approaches with our KSs, so maybe it’ll work out your best way. Can’t say for sure though.
You’ll be getting as much of my money as I can afford (and probably a decent chunk that I can’t) anyway, so whatever works best on your end.
Thanks for the reply.
Really looking forward to these releases. I feels good to see so much at work, and to also see updates each week that isn’t just: “Yeah guys, development.”
Any chance we’re going to get an EX3 blog?
I know a lot is going to be changing, but it’d be nice to see what exactly has/is going on.
Glad the format is working for you. I expect more as John, Holden, and Geoff, have more to show. One thing I try not to do is force a Dev style down the Onyx Path creative teams’ throats. So some Devs post and blog a lot, others are more comfortable with fewer but substantial interactions. Same thing with the Open Dev Process- some Devs like Justin really play around with direct feedback molding their approach, others want feedback on specific issues or sections of the text.
“Also a bit on protecting CCP/WW’s IP rights and why efforts are made, even for little issues, to legally enforce them”
Is this about the “Dark Phoenix” thing?
Can’t really go into the specific reason we started talking about IP rights, but after 20ish years with WW I like to hear whether what I’ve picked up is still how IP law is functioning (it is).
If I might for a professional opinion, how likely is it that the Curse will be broken this year and Mummy will see the light in 2012?
Thank you in advance!
It’ll be hard to accomplish at this point. Time-wise it can work, but then there’s the holidays. but we’re pushing for it.
Thank you for the reply, and best of luck.
The Mummy’s Curse: the blog got me interested. The panel got me excited. Design went into great depth and thought, as always. Could be I was reading a bit of Graham Hancock at the time. Looking forward to this. Let’s get this thing kicked off!
M-o-o-n that spells God-Machine Chronicle Anthology.
The Machine God, I read, has invoked much speculation from people. Really a great example of storytelling. It was presented around the campfire. Each of us made our own little story cogs and mysteries. Eventually the story takes on a life of it’s own. Everyone is literally asking what the Machine-God/story is.
The opening and chapter fiction in the NWoD is stand out. From what I hear there is something very Borealis about the book. (yea print edition and holidays). Which lead me to thinking about how Borderlands is more NWoD. That an I realize I tapped none of that series, nor Zod Wallop for games.
Onyx-Borealis. What are the chances?
We’re only just getting started with adding some fiction to the mix for the game settings- going further into fiction like Borealis is a bit down the road yet.
Quite excited for EX 3. Not much for anthologies but heard word that the God Machine one is quite good so hopefully some time this weekend I’ll give it a look see. Thanks for the updates.
Since you asked:
I’m not happy with the DriveThruRPG rapid sales. That isn’t just because I’m in another time zone, but in general, the time periods are to short and I didn’t even learn about the sales before the first of them were finished.
And I certainly don’t have time to visit DriveThruRPG hourly, or check Google+ for announcements.
If there was a schedule on what comes online, I could at least decide whether it is worth to stand up in the middle of the night to get the special offer. Or if there was such a schedule, I didn’t get the info.
In the end, I’m rather crestfallen with this kind of offers.
Thanks- I appreciate both your taking the time to comment and your frustration. We’ll be looking at all the commentary, good and bad, at a “post-mortem” to the sale when I talk to Matt McElroy during our weekly meetings. Like I said, it was a DTRPG experiment and so something we’ll be looking to refine if we do it again.
Hello!
I wanted to know if there was any news on the Kindred’s Most Wanted update by Mr. McElroy?
Also could we have an ETA on the God Machine Chronicle? Please? Or at least some art teasers? Pretty please?
Keep up the awesome work (thanks for doing this!)!
The [Release Schedule] has the most current information available for release dates.
I thought the sales were pretty good, but then that might have been because they were happening at about 8pm GMT or so, so pretty much the perfect time to catch me on Twitter and Facebook, which let me grab a couple of things for dirt cheap!
I share Heinrich’s opinion on the 1 hour length, but I did like seeing more sales. I would suggest considering longer blocks, single day sales (even if less extreme discounts) would likely work better IMO.
That said, I do think that briefer flash sales could work well (especially over the course of a weekend like this past one, and preferably preceded by an announcement that they will be coming) , but I feel that communication could stand to be improved substantially. Personally, after missing the first flash sale, I was careful to keep a close eye on the twitter updates in anticipation of the next one, and would have appreciated an update when it was decided not to have another until Monday (rather than spread out over the weekend as was originally implied).
I also noticed that the monday sales weren’t advertised on the reddit thread as we were originally told, which I would expect to upset anyone who chose to watch for them there.
Aww, I guess I’ll have to use my Atlanta by Night DTRPG coupon on Godmachine Anthology instead of Mummy
This is actually the first I’ve heard about the flash sales, so I’ll say I’m disappointed since I was hoping for some deals to pop up. Where does one find out about these things?
Thomas: I mentioned there were deals happening on TheOnyxPath.com, and posted the specific deals on our Twitter page, our Facebook Page, our Google+ page, and on reddit as they were happening.
So I have to pay attention? What’s next, feeding my cats on a regular basis?
I’ll try to keep an eye on the dreaded social media outlets. **Shudder**