Onyx Path Publishing is a publisher of

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...

s that produces company-owned and creator-owned games as well as licensed products.

History

The name "The Onyx Path" and the company's logo appeared on

White Wolf A white wolf or Arctic wolf is a mammal of the ''Canidae'' family and a subspecies of the gray wolf. It may also refer to: Organizations * White Wolf (band), a Canadian heavy metal band * White Wolf (band), white power oi band from the USA * Whi ...

products and their message board in early 2012. There was some speculation about their meaning before the company went public with their plans during

GenCon Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

in August 2012.Fantasy Heartbreaker Blog
/ref> The company was founded in January 2012 by White Wolf Creative Director Richard Thomas, and is licensee for Paradox Interactive's ''

World of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', '' Werewolf: The Apoca ...

'', ''Chronicles of Darkness'', and ''

Exalted ''Exalted'' is a high fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally published by White Wolf Publishing in July 2001. The game is currently in its third edition. It was originally created by Robert Hatch, Justin Achilli and Stephan Wieck, and wa ...

''. The company also bought the ''Trinity Universe'' and ''Scion'' gamelines from

CCP Games CCP hf., doing business as CCP Games, is an Icelandic video game developer based in Reykjavík. Novator Partners and General Catalyst had previously collectively owned a majority stake in the company, and in September 2018, CCP was acquired by ...

. As such, Onyx Path Publishing released the titles that were previously announced by White Wolf for the 2012/2013 schedule. Onyx Path make books available through DriveThruRPG electronically (as

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

files) and physically via DriveThruRPG's

print on demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

service, with selected products available via traditional print in game and book stores. In addition, Onyx Path Publishing has used the

crowd funding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by cro ...

service

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

to raise money for deluxe editions of some of their new products. The homepage of Onyx Path Publishing provides guidelines to send in material, in case one would want to have their own game published by them. They also provide contact links on their website for people who wish to submit writing, editing, and art samples, and get hired to work for Onyx Path.

Game Lines

Onyx Path Publishing have since their founding published a wide variety of

tabletop role-playing games A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...

and

card games A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

, some owned by themselves, others under license to the listed third parties.

Onyx Path Publishing

Scarred Lands Scarred Lands is a post-apocalyptic fantasy campaign setting in which characters live in a world recovering from a devastating war between gods and titans. Initially published by White Wolf Publishing under its Sword & Sorcery brand using the d20 ...

The Scarred Lands setting received an update for 5th edition ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'' and ''Pathfinder'' with Onyx Path's ''Scarred Land's Player's Guide'', ''Creature Collection'', and ''Dead Man's Rust'' mega campaign, and is supported via the Slarecian Vault community content hosted by DriveThruRPG. The Scarred Lands setting puts players in the roles of characters in the world of Scarn, recently following an epic war between gods and

titans In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Ga ...

leaving the world damaged magically and environmentally as a result of the divine conflict.

Scion Scion may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities Scion, a playable class in the game ''Path of Exile'' (2013) Atlantean Scion, a device in the ''Tomb Raider'' video game series *Scions, an alien race in the video game ''Ba ...

Onyx Path published a 2nd edition of the ''Scion'' roleplaying game, in which players take on the roles of gods' children from across multiple global pantheons, such as the Theoi, Aesir, and

Kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

. The game takes characters from Origin level, where they start as blessed but mostly mundane humans, through to Hero, Demigod, and God levels of power. Onyx Path have taken Scion away from its traditional material with ventures into playing the children of

Lovecraftian Lovecraftian horror, sometimes used interchangeably with "cosmic horror", is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is named a ...

Great Old Ones American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) created a number of fictional deities throughout the course of his literary career. These entities are usually depicted as immensely powerful and utterly indifferent to humans who can barely begin to c ...

in ''Masks of the Mythos'', and

dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

in ''Scion: Dragon''. Scion is supported by the Storypath Nexus community content program.

They Came From...!

The ''They Came From...!'' series of cinematic roleplaying games are each based on different media genres, parodying

cult classics A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...

via tabletop roleplay. Players take on the roles of characters in cult favorite movies such as ''

Plan 9 from Outer Space ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a theatrical preview screening on March 15 ...

'' and '' Manos: The Hands of Fate'', and can use cinema logic to have their protagonists break through cheap sets, insert missing reels to escape impending danger, and use deleted scenes to justify the presence of unlikely items. They Came From...! has so far produced the 1950s sci-fi influenced ''They Came from Beneath the Sea!'', the 1960s and 1970s horror influenced ''They Came from Beyond the Grave!'', the espionage genre influenced ''They Came from LASSIFIED'', the fantasy feature influenced ''They Came from the Cyclops's Cave!'', and the slasher movie influenced ''They Came from Camp Murder Lake!''. ''They Came From...!'' is supported by the Storypath Nexus community content program.

Trinity Continuum

The ''Trinity Continuum'' games take place at different points in the past, present, and future, and place the protagonists as Talents, Psiads, Novas, Daredevils, and Aethernauts. In these roles, they fight against conspiracies, alien invasions, and supervillains (among other threats) across a slew of genres as the characters demonstrate superheroic abilities and must weigh the benefits of developing power with the responsibility of wielding it. The ''Trinity Continuum Core'' was followed by ''Trinity Continuum: Aberran''t, in which the protagonists are mutated superheroes in the near future; ''Trinity Continuum: Aeon'', in which the protagonists exist in a far future sci-fi era of psychics and aliens; ''Trinity Continuum: Assassins'', in which the protagonists are trained killers; ''Trinity Continuum: Adventure!'', in which the protagonists take on the pulp heroic roles of the 1930s; and ''Trinity Continuum: Aether'', in which the protagonists bend the laws of reality in a Victorian age where all the characters and events of 19th century fiction are real. The ''Trinity Continuum'' is supported by the Storypath Nexus community content program.

=
The World Below ''The World Below'' is a science fiction novel by British writer S. Fowler Wright. It was first published in 1929 by Collins. The novel was originally intended as a trilogy, but the third part was never written. The first part was originall ...

= ''The World Below'' TTRPG was announced in 2021 and is mooted to be a fantasy roleplaying game in which the protagonists are descendants of people who survived a great cataclysm on their world's surface, and are forced to survive, explore, and build lives in their new subterranean homes. The game's creator,

Matthew Dawkins Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...

, cited influences such as

J.G. Ballard James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass medi ...

, ''The Platform'', and ''

Hollow Knight ''Hollow Knight'' is a 2017 Metroidvania video game developed and published by independent developer Team Cherry. In the game, the player controls the Knight, a nameless insectoid warrior, who explores Hallownest, a fallen kingdom plagued by a ...

''.

Paradox Interactive Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an independen ...

World of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', '' Werewolf: The Apoca ...

Onyx Path are one of the licensees for Paradox Interactive's ''World of Darkness'' game, once owned by White Wolf/CCP. Onyx Path produced seven books (''Chicago by Night'', ''Let the Streets Run Red'', ''The Chicago Folios'', ''Cults of the Blood Gods'', ''Trails of Ash and Bones'', ''Forbidden Religions'', and ''Children of the Blood'') for ''Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition'' before they were repackaged as games by industry peer, Renegade Games, and otherwise focus on creating content for ''Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition'' and ''Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition''.

Chronicles of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', '' Werewolf: The Apoca ...

Onyx Path are the sole licensee for Paradox Interactive's ''

Chronicles of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', '' Werewolf: The Apoca ...

'' game, once owned by White Wolf/CCP. Onyx Path have released 2nd editions of '' Vampire: The Requiem'', '' Werewolf: The Forsaken'', '' Mage: The Awakening'', '' Promethean: The Created'', '' Changeling: The Lost'', '' Geist: The Sin-Eaters'', '' Hunter: The Vigil'', and '' Mummy: The Curse'', as well as the games '' Beast: The Primordial'', '' Demon: The Descent'', and '' Deviant: The Renegades'', along with sourcebooks for each game line.

Exalted ''Exalted'' is a high fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally published by White Wolf Publishing in July 2001. The game is currently in its third edition. It was originally created by Robert Hatch, Justin Achilli and Stephan Wieck, and wa ...

The epic fantasy roleplaying game of ''Exalted'', in which players take on the role of Solar champions with devastating powers, has received a 3rd edition from Onyx Path, along with additional player character options in the form of ''Dragon-Blooded: What Fire Has Wrought'', ''Lunars: Fangs at the Gate'', ''Sidereals: Charting Fate's Course'', and the upcoming ''Abyssals''.

Rose Bailey

Cavaliers of Mars

Game designer Rose Bailey worked alongside Onyx Path to create her RPG about playing in a romantic Mars of flashing sword, choking sands, winking courtesans, and lantern-lit canal cities. ''Cavaliers of Mars'' has gone on to spawn sourcebooks such as the location and adventure book, ''Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel'', and ''Esoterica of Mars'', covering characters plots, factions, and new rules for the game.

Michael Pucci

Dystopia Rising: Evolution

Michael Pucci licensed his game of zombies, apocalypse, mutation, and survivalist mentality to Onyx Path to produce as a tabletop roleplaying game following many years as a Live Action Roleplaying Game (LARP). ''Dystopia Rising: Evolution'' was funded through Kickstarter, and has subsequently been made available through DriveThruRPG and in traditional print, along with sourcebooks including ''Helnau's Guide to Wasteland Beasties'' and the ''Trouble on Steel Pier'' adventure.

Caliber Comics Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is ranked as one of America ...

Legendlore

The ''Legendlore'' comic by Caliber Comics led to a collaboration between Caliber and Onyx Path and their publication of the ''Legendlore'' role-playing game, using the system from 5th edition ''Dungeons & Dragons'' to convert the plots and principles of The Realm - as presented in the comic - into game form.

Pugsteady

Realms of Pugmire

Game designer Eddy Webb and his company, Pugsteady collaborated with Onyx Path to create the tabletop role-playing games, ''Pugmire'', ''Monarchies of Mau'', and ''Squeaks in the Deep'', in which you play

anthropomorphized Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

animals (primarily dogs, cats, rats, and mice) in a far future setting where humans have disappeared and the uplifted animal protagonists are tasked with exploring the mysteries of their unusual world. A 2nd edition of ''Pugmire'', named ''Realms of Pugmire'', was funded on Kickstarter in 2023.

References

External links

* {{Rpg-stub White Wolf Publishing Role-playing game publishing companies Game manufacturers American companies established in 2012 Horror book publishing companies Publishing companies established in 2012 de:White Wolf#The Onyx Path

History

Game Lines

Onyx Path Publishing

Scarred Lands Scarred Lands is a post-apocalyptic fantasy campaign setting in which characters live in a world recovering from a devastating war between gods and titans. Initially published by White Wolf Publishing under its Sword & Sorcery brand using the d20 ...

Scion Scion may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities *Scion, a playable class in the game ''Path of Exile'' (2013) *Atlantean Scion, a device in the ''Tomb Raider'' video game series *Scions, an alien race in the video game ''Ba ...

= The World Below ''The World Below'' is a science fiction novel by British writer S. Fowler Wright. It was first published in 1929 by Collins. The novel was originally intended as a trilogy, but the third part was never written. The first part was originall ...

Paradox Interactive Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an independen ...

World of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', '' Werewolf: The Apoca ...

Chronicles of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', '' Werewolf: The Apoca ...

Exalted ''Exalted'' is a high fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally published by White Wolf Publishing in July 2001. The game is currently in its third edition. It was originally created by Robert Hatch, Justin Achilli and Stephan Wieck, and wa ...

Caliber Comics Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is ranked as one of America ...

References

External links

Scion Scion may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities Scion, a playable class in the game ''Path of Exile'' (2013) Atlantean Scion, a device in the ''Tomb Raider'' video game series *Scions, an alien race in the video game ''Ba ...

=
The World Below ''The World Below'' is a science fiction novel by British writer S. Fowler Wright. It was first published in 1929 by Collins. The novel was originally intended as a trilogy, but the third part was never written. The first part was originall ...