Seeing it released is an incredible moment for all the writers, artists, editors, and layout bods who worked on the book.
The deluxe Kickstarter editions — both “regular Deluxe” and Heavy Metal — will be coming soon. Rich Thomas is working closely with the printers and they’re printing the interiors. The best place to get info on that is the W20 Kickstarter update page; Rich is in close contact with everyone involved, while I’m focused more on the new books in the line.
In case you missed it in the Monday Meeting Notes, or indeed don’t read the Monday Meeting Notes, this little bit might be of interest (emphasis mine):
Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: Corrections [for the Deluxe edition —Stew] are with the printer. The W20 PoD proofs are great- we’re going to go live with this on DTRPG this week maybe even tomorrow.
I’m also looking over the PDF proof of Changing Breeds and it looks amazing. Got to get it marked up and checked over, but my first impression is wow!
Edit: I updated the recipe below.
Wow. It’s been a long time. I can only apologise; I’ve been a little overwhelmed with projects, including Blood & Smoke for Vampire: The Requiem, a story for When Will You Rage 2, and a whole bunch of other stuff. That’s no excuse for not posting here, though.
So what’s been going on? Rich is waiting on the third round of W20 PoD proofs from DriveThru, and is getting the interior of the Deluxe W20 to match his color notes. Both the Deluxe and Heavy Metal covers are being prepped for proofing. As always, the best place to look for Deluxe W20 info is the Kickstarter update page.
In case you haven’t seen, we’ve launched the Kickstarter for the Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition. It hit its goal in 18 minutes, which is just insane. Naturally, it’s racking up the stretch goals.
Speaking of stretch goals, I’ve not forgotten the W20 stretch goals. We’ve got the first drafts of White Howlers coming in soon, and I’ll be sure to get some great excerpts up here for you. I do want to get a bit more of a conversation going about what’s in the book, but I’d much rather the writers do their thing without me constantly leaning over their shoulder. Hopefully, I’ll be able to bring a bit more of a dialogue here with White Howlers.
But what about the W20 Cookbook? Glad you asked! Below the cut is the introduction and recipe for the Bone Gnawers, ripped right from my current draft. Continue reading
W20: Changing Breeds is out of editing and in Chaney’s hands. This is a beast of a book — no pun intended. The original outline was for 90,000 words. That didn’t last very long. I talked to Rich about upping that to 120,000 words. We ended up at near as damnit 135,000 words — fully half as much again as the original wordcount. And now my eyes are bleeding.
In celebration of completing the Editing Pass of Doom™, I’ve included the introduction to the Ajaba below the jump.
In other news, I’m going to be a guest at Conpulsion in Edinburgh — an easy con to get to as it’s right on my doorstep. I’ll be running some Werewolf: The Apocalypse, including an exclusive sneak preview of the Skinner SAS! Hope to see some local Werewolf fans there!
From speaking with Rich it’s clear that I really should give you fine people an update on one of my pet projects: the W20 Cookbook. This is one of those projects that came out of left field — I joked about writing one with some friends on Google+ during the Kickstarter campaign, and before I know it Rich asked if he could include it as a stretch goal. I’d be a fool to say no, really.
Let’s preface this by saying I love food, and I know I’m not the only one. Matt McFarland regularly cooks for his group in the style of Chopped. David Hill released a cookbook for his post-fantasy RPG, exploration of the culture of the world through its food. And on a more personal level, a whole lot of freelancers — Werewolf and not — sent me jealous email and tweets. It’s clear that though I really want to do the cookbook, I’m not the only one who wants to see it.
On the one hand, a cookbook is a great way to get a look at a culture through how it eats and what it eats. Werewolf: The Apocalypse is a fiercely multicultural game and I want a chance to reflect that in the recipes used in the book. The Children of Gaia and Bone Gnawers both cook big pots of food that can feed a lot of people. The Glass Walkers eat on the go or order in, and they’re epitomised by food that’s available the world over, adapted to the local palate. Even the Red Talons have to admit that meat tastes better when cooked (all hail the maillard reaction), but what would a tribe of lupus choose to accompany their meat?
At the same time, the people who play Werewolf aren’t the same people who first picked up the game, even though they have the same name and date of birth. Time changes us all. In those first few years of gaming, I could live on ramen and Ginsters pasties, Haribo and Dr Pepper. These days, I cook for my family and bribe my gaming group by cooking dinner. My tastes have changed — food’s not just fuel to stay up for three days straight, it’s something to enjoy. Few things beat eating a slice of bread with the same hands that kneaded the dough, or feeling the sizzle of a steak as it hits the pan. I could go back to Haribo and pasties, but I find that I don’t want to. I’ve changed as a person — and I’d be very surprised if I was the only one to feel that way.
For all that I want the W20 Cookbook to function as an in-world artefact, the sort of thing that a Garou or Kinfolk chef might compile as a way of examining the culture of each tribe through the food that they eat, I also want it to be practical and useful for the people who will use it, which means including vegetarian and pescatarian recipes that are appropriate for the Garou. I’m cooking each recipe multiple times, using both normal and US measurements. I may have a passion for food but I also have a tiny kitchen and a limited set of equipment. I won’t put anything in the cookbook that I couldn’t do at home. I’m also trying to make the ingredients the sort of thing that people could find in a well-stocked supermarket. I want people to cook the recipes in this book. I’m not the same person I was when I started playing Werewolf: The Apocalypse, I can’t survive on the same level of junk food that I could as a teenager. And if nothing else, my players are less likely to flake if I bribe them with dinner. I hope it inspires people to do the same.
The outline I’m currently looking at includes 20 recipes. One for each tribe of the Garou Nation, one for each Lost Tribe, one for each of Hakken, Boli Zhouisze, and Siberakh, and one for the Black Spiral Dancers.
As a pet project, I’m working on it in parallel to other books. Jess is hard at work writing Tribebook: White Howlers — oh, yeah, have an outline — and once I’ve got this last little bit of Changing Breeds done I’ll be working with our consulting developers on the next Book of the Wyrm pass.
If you backed W20 on Kickstarter, you should soon see a link to the PDF coming your way. Rich is sending the emails in batches, so it might take a little while for yours to arrive.
AS Rich mentions in the latest Kickstarter update, the Index is going into the book now. Once that’s done, every Kickstarter backer gets a PDF to make sure that their name is in right. At the same time, we get files sent off to the PoD and Deluxe printers.
I don’t want to say how long this last step will take. If I say “by X”, it’ll end up being the day after X just to make us look bad.
But it’s coming.
As I mentioned in the last entry, I do have some news! So let’s get on with it.
Book of the Wyrm is finally redlined and back with the writers.
RAGE Across the World is out of editing and in Chaney’s capable hands for layout.
The White Howlers Tribebook outline is done, and I’ve got a writer on board. I need to confirm a few things about the comic and get contracts out, and then we are go. Once everything’s confirmed, I’ll get the outline posted up.
If you weren’t following the Hunters Hunted II Kickstarter, you might not have seen that one of the stretch goals was a section on Project Twilight. I’ve got that sent off to Eddy, and I’m sure it’ll bring back some fond memories. “Bob Schnoblin’s Pyramid of Satanic Power™” and all.
(I have some actual news coming as soon as I finish these redlines, I promise)
Last night we had a three-hour Hangout with myself and the Book of the Wyrm consulting developers. We talked about a whole lot of things, from mechanics of corruption to the Wyrm getting in to payday lending and the return of Günter Häagen•Däaz, the Man With Too Many Umlauts. And at this point, you guys should really have a chance to look at the outline to get an idea of what we might have been talking about.
I’m now going to compile the notes from our discussion into the redlines that go out to each writer. Good news for all of them: the first drafts are all really good, and I’m sure the finals will be even better.
Once that’s done, I need to check the edits on both Book of Changing Breeds and RAGE Across the World, then get on down to writing an outline for the White Howlers Tribebook. In that neat way projects have of linking up, some of the ideas for the White Howlers have come out of John Mørke’s Black Spiral Dancers draft for Book of the Wyrm. I love it when a plan comes together.
I’m aware that I’m now talking about books that are three and four down the line, and Changing Breeds hasn’t yet seen the light of day. It’s getting a very thorough edit, and that’s no small task. If you recall the outline, we had the whole book being 90,000 words. The chapter on the Changing Breeds themselves is at 95,000 words. It’s going to be impressively meaty.