Does the Elemental armor tag for the water element allow the armor's wearer to breathe underwater or ignore movement penalties for being submerged?

https://theonyxpath.com/its-a-coven-innit-monday-meeting-notes/

Or more properly: Curseborne CovenANT!

(Pretty sure coven and covenant come from the same root words meaning a group come together in order to benefit from their combined power…for evil! Just kidding about the evil part – just used it for dramatic effect).

But our backers certainly have come together (Thanks, folks!) to enable our Kickstarter campaign to plow through its first week at almost 150% backing (I haven’t checked since I started writing this blog) and to achieve a new Curseborne novella and having started the Advanced Spells PDF Stretch Goals!

The great thing after a week goes by during one of our crowdfunder campaigns is that there’s enough of the text released to the backers that many, many, comments and discussions sprout up all over social media, and Curseborne Covenant is producing a bumper crop (of evil?)! It gives us a chance to get a feeling for what elements of the project are really working for people, and conversely what things ain’t!

So here’s Matthew with a bit of a topic roundup:

Hello all, it’s Matthew Dawkins, one of Curseborne Covenant’s co-developers!

I thought I’d come on to the blog to discuss some of the material we’ve seen already in the crowdfunder manuscript!

The Tattered World: I’ve seen a lot of folks at work discussing the Fae side of Curseborne Covenant, especially now they’re learned of some of the various Outsider factions that exist in our game. The Fae, the Archons, the Nitheryne.. Maybe more. Not just that, but I participated in an excellent discussion about the transition detailed in this chapter “from crews to conspiracies”, and how to elevate your own games to that level of play. The greatest praise I’ve seen has been the rules and guidance for creating your own liminalities and Outsides! If you’ve enjoyed these sections, please let us know!

Conspiracies: This is the chapter that’s driven most of the discussion so far, and I can’t say I’m surprised. The material here is incredibly strong and really drives this tier of Curseborne play, introducing a host of new playable conspiracies, some nice, some decidedly not. That’s been a part we’ve had to spend a little bit of extra time communicating, as some of our backers were under the impression that every conspiracy would be accessible from every Family and every Lineage. While the vast majority are indeed accessible to all, there are a handful for more specific styles of play. That said, I’d love to see a Battleground(GROUND) Angel in service to El Imperio Eterno.

Families: Another chapter that’s generated a lot of chatter on Discord and Reddit is the Shadow Families: those Accursed Families who work (willingly or not) for the Fae. These ones have really captured the collective imagination, with a lot of happiness about the bat-like Whisper Thieves. As with the conspiracies, some folks are unsettled by the corrupted/disruptive nature of some of these Families, but as far as I’m concerned this is a good thing. The Fae Families may as groups be working against Accursed society, putting them in an adversarial role for many campaigns, but all that means is you can run your Curseborne games from a different perspective, pushing them as protagonists or having characters who are part of the Family, but not sharing their ideals.

And let’s be honest, I’ve so far not seen one Heir played in Curseborne who loves their Family, so why should a Bone Collector or a grim from the Black Ledger?

Keep the chatter going over on your preferred social media! We’ll unlock more stretch goals if we let more people know about the book.

Matthew is also continuing his excellent series of vids examining various aspects of CB Covenant:

Cursebinding: https://youtu.be/t8r4ssNEA_o

The First Shadow: https://youtu.be/lQh0aEnljdc

The Mirror Market: https://youtu.be/IQxouxUmZkI

Besides the ongoing crowdfunder, we have tons of additional news about various aspects of Curseborne, so let’s get right to it!

The Curseborne Community Content program is unlocking this week at Storypath Nexus, so we’ve reached out to several creators to prepare materials for launch day! Here’s what they have to say about their forthcoming releases:

Melody Haren Anderson

“Chrysalis of the Unbroken is about a liminality that is a story that echoes backward from a future that could be and has lead to a cult that wishes to bring it into being. They are zealous antagonists for the Accursed that consider the world and it’s people little more than resources to be harvested.

I’m proud to have been asked to be part of this release and wanted to share an idea I had a few weeks ago inspired by a joking comment made by a friend that I realized would be a perfect jumping off point for a world of curses.”

Awkward GM Corbin

“Living on the Edge is a collection of narrative focused Supernatural Edges and Role Paths. It has thematic abilities such as what if your Dead character’s primary vessel is an inanimate toy, animal corpse, or a literal skeleton.

Much of the book is inspired by the themes within each of the Families and Lineages. Like if Keepers of the Broken Vine are the gardeners of Paradise then their gardens on Earth must have some magic properties. I am very grateful to Onyx Path Publishing for letting me work on this for the official launch because I’ve been following the game before it was officially announced. There will definitely be a Game Jam in the near future, if my schedule pans out!”

Sean Creef

“Myroslav’s Myriad of Wonders is a collection of 25 relics, artifacts, and heirlooms from magic lighters to potent magical aids.

Awful Antagonists Volume 1: Monsters is a grouping of monstrous adversaries ranging from Shiver to Nightmare, with a bonus Shattered Space.

I like to run lots of games, so I have more ideas than I ever know what to do with, so I let them out on paper to share with others. And it’s a thrill to be putting out new Curseborne content!”

Ryan Wheeldon

“Chestnut Grove Library  is an attempt to provide a way for a Crew to meet and have a location in common where they could meet useful SGCs, outside of the traditional bar while also adding a handful of thematic spells and providing a safe space for ritual casting that might have a cost attached.

It’s partly inspired by my desire to encourage library usage as a third space in an increasingly disconnected world, and partly by the feeling that library stacks can contain anything and take you anywhere.”

Wow! What a great start to the CB CC program – and such diverse topics to explore on top of it!

Definitely clean your butt.

Some good general advice noted during our Monday Meeting today.

We’ll share equally valid advice, and answer your questions, this Friday on Reddit! Yep, we’re doing one of our very popular Ask Me Anything sessions for a couple of hours starting at 10am US Eastern time this Friday the 16th on the r/rpg Reddit channel.

Join us, won’t you?

While I could have put this info about the Curseborne Compact Edition up above, I really want y’all to see this as a very different project for us and one that we’re hoping will be super-useful to you! So it needs a little room down here away from the other main CB stuff to breathe a bit.

Part of that is that we made this CB Compact Edition in order to ease the burden that some folks expressed of having a) a big book, and b) a big book that was designed to immerse readers in the brand-new Curseborne setting. Which it was, at the time. But some folks wanted something a bit more tightly focused on direct info, and we heard you. It’s also smaller, so it’ll be easier to haul around and refer to!

But, as always, I like to have you folks hear about these things from the creators themselves, so here’s Matthew again:

Curseborne Compact Edition is coming out this week, so I wanted to briefly tell you why you might want to pick it up, even if you already own Curseborne!

Where Curseborne itself is the fully loaded version of the game, with massive amounts of lore, rumours, setting material, and subjective thoughts and opinions from characters in the world, Curseborne Compact Edition is the version that’s been cut back to the bone. It has all the mechanics, it has all of the same playable options, and it doesn’t shortchange you on anything needed to play. Instead of rumours and opinions, it has objective truths about the Accursed and their various powers. 

Curseborne Compact Edition serves as a “just the facts, ma’am” version, presenting the Families in new and authentic ways. What’s more, there’s new material in there too, from story hooks and Edges, to status effects, tags, and locations in which to set your game.

In short, for those of you who really loved Curseborne and want a streamlined version for your gaming group, this is for you. And for those of you who found the lore of Curseborne too subjective for you to get into, this is also for you.

Not one spell has been missed and every Family is included. Keep your eyes open for all the secrets and easter eggs I ferreted away in there, too!

Here’s Travis on Twitch:

This week on Twitch, Mike Athey is completing his Trinity Continuum: Adventure! Air Circus! actual play, with the penultimate episode airing tonight and the finale airing on 10/19 at 8 PM EDT! If you’ve missed the story so far, fear not! Episodes are rolling out on our YouTube channel each week on Tuesday at 8:30 PM EDT!

Usually I wrap these blogs up with more publisher-y stuff or things that I’m working on, but I’m gonna use the space today to share some pics that Mirthful Mike Chaney shot and sent to me of the “hard proofs” of Curseborne sent to him by our printer. That term is what’s used for actual physical proofs vs viewing PDF proofs online, which are “soft proofs” We thought you might enjoy seeing these:

Oh, we’re so close now!

It’s just so great to see all the parts of a project come together – and we’re really looking forward to getting these all bound up and gorgeous and headed your way, wherever you are in the:

Many Worlds... One Path!

I was in the process of assembling a character for The World Below and got the idea of making their Dawn and Dialectic sort of opposed: have the character be born in The Crystal City, but their Dialectic come from some sort of tie to the darklings who currently besiege it.

What gives me pause a bit is that narratively speaking multiple dialectics can involve darkness and the Dark proper. The Myceli Dialectic is specifically called out as the one most in tune WITH the Dark, but darklings are not a fungal creature. The Plutonic Dialectic shares many of the same darkness-based powers, but it's explicitly "the Abyss' Dialectic" and darklings also aren't Abyssal or some other undead creature. I understand darkness is also considered an element in the game, and thus the Elemental Dialectic could technically work as well, but it feels like a bit of a reach.

So I thought I'd ask other players/STs about the nuances between the Dark and the Abyss and where darklings fall in that distinction, to better understand them so as to better capture that natrative tension of wanting to save your home but feeling a spiritual bond to what's trying to destroy it. Thanks in advance for any illumination (ha HA!) you decide to share!

Hey Scarred Lands fans! I've just published Atlas of Fenrilik on the Slarecian Vault, a system-neutral description of the different regions of the frozen continent! Includes a few subterranean regions (which would incidentally work quite well for The World Below, I think)

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/588445/atlas-of-fenrilik

For those keeping up with the Covenant Kickstarter which of the newly introduced Shadow Families is your favorite at the moment?

Personally I'm leaning towards the Black Ledger at the moment, I really like everything about them though I'm also quite fond of the Whisper Thieves partly because of them being werebats

I'm a little confused about how a shield works in The World Below. From what the rules for equipment say on Page 146, a shield is technically a weapon with the Shield tag, rather than a separate class of item. This makes sense, as shields are indeed as much an offensive tool as a defensive one historically, but does that mean you require the Dual Wielder Thesis (Page 175) to adopt a "sword and board" style of fighting?

The text of Dual Wielder seems to only cover attacking with two weapons at the same time, rather than attacking with one while using the shield to provide light cover, which is covered under Moving in the Action-Adventure rules on Page 136. Can a character HOLD two weapons to use one as a shield without the Dual Wielder talent, if they only plan on using one weapon to attack at a time?

I got to thinking about this after reading about the Companions of Lallarak Community on Page 77 of Ed Greenwood's Monstrous Ecology, which states "They look dimly on those who go without means of obvious offense and defense, holding special disdain for those prone to dual-wielding weapons." If you need Dual Wielder to even USE a shield/weapon with the shield tag with a regular weapon in your main hand, then that seems a little contradictory (and limits the options for a would-be Companions character, since they'd only be able to qualify for Dual Wielder by having The Company of Artificers as their Guild).

For me, I'd love to see some Family specific edges that emphasize the feel of each of them. Like how Chimarae have their true form slipping through constantly.

I'd like to preface this by saying only up to the descriptions of each lineage in the first chapter of Core Book. I know I should probably finish reading before asking this question. But I'm a bit impatient. And I do feel a self conscious asking it. So based on my interpretation of what I heard the Fea would be playable in later supplements. And based on said interpretations I thought this supplement they would be introduced to would be covenant, But there seems to be five new playable families that are evil (or eviler) versions of the lineages which are heavily tied to the Fea but are not them. And from what I understand about what I heard about Curseborne Covenant I haven't heard any anything about playable Fea. So my question is Are the Fae going to be playable?

What do you mean only the Greeks can shapeshift?! That’s Loki’s whole thing!

Curseborne Covenant introduces a new group for the characters to ally themselves with: the conspiracy. These formidable factions eat away at the fabric of Accursed community, a secret wrapped within a secret. They’re a way for elder Accursed to while away the years, grow their own powerbase, control the “lesser” Accursed, and spread their own particular brand of curse. While some conspiracies have lofty goals, others are decidedly less altruistic in their pursuits. The rest, well, they make the others seem like saints by comparison.

Conspiracies are central to Curseborne Covenant, and each one represents a mystery deeper than any the world of Curseborne has explored so far. Each conspiracy acts as both a moral imperative and a social group for a character to attach themselves to. By pursuing these routes, the characters get to explore their own rapidly expanding worldview and start pulling the strings themselves. Doing so allows them to unlock the real power behind their curse, placing them into a whole new level.

HEad over to Kickstarter and back Curseborne Covenant!