Dev Update - Vampire NEXUS Early Access

[joshuamsimons]

From 6/28/2022 Dev Update

Latest Updates

Currently in development:

• Pathfinder NEXUS - Phase 2 of Early Access
  • Live: Feat Action Icons
  • Tomorrow: Content Release
    • Outlaws of Alkenstar Adventure Path
  • (WIP) Character Engine
    • Visual Scripting > Ancestries > Classes.
• Team Update
  • Fond Farewell to Megan (ClassicMegan in chat)
  • Welcome to Mellie!
• Vampire NEXUS - Early Access
  • The Corebook, Camarilla, and Anarch Sourcebooks are live now. Chicago by Night and Cults of the Blood Gods are available for pre-order.
    • This is the first-ever official digital toolset for the World of Darkness.
    • Character Tools: character builder, digital character, and lore sheets are all coming later this year.
    • We have partnered with Renegade Games to make it so when you buy a digital book from us, you will get a code to get the hardcover from them. The bundle will also be available on Renegade’s store soon.

Upcoming

• Pathfinder Nexus
  • Dark Archive, Adventure Paths are the next releases.
  • Character Management is currently in development.
    • Data and Engine Building
• Vampire Nexus
  • Chicago by Night and Cults of the Blood Gods are the next releases.
  • Character Management
    • Currently in the design phase.
• Children of Éarte - Tonight at 6pm!

[gideon]

If we buy the Ultimate Bundle, I would like the chance to purchase Hardback + Codes for future books. Even better if at the 25%. But I am assuming we would have to choose between getting the book + code or getting the discount on digital purchase?

Thanks! Very excited for this toolset.

[akaaelius]

So as someone who owns all the physical books and PDFs already, I’m going to have to re-buy them all over again here? And if so, does that mean as the below quoted material I’m getting an additional hardcover copy?
Can you also tell me what kind of ‘paid ST tools’ I’ll be getting?
" We have partnered with Renegade Games to make it so when you buy a digital book from us, you will get a code to get the hardcover from them. The bundle will also be available on Renegade’s store soon."

[BadEye]

@gideon

If we buy the Ultimate Bundle, I would like the chance to purchase Hardback + Codes for future books. Even better if at the 25%. But I am assuming we would have to choose between getting the book + code or getting the discount on digital purchase?

I’ll explain several points about how the Ultimate Bundle, previously purchased content credit, and the hardcover + digital bundles work below. It’s all a little complicated - there’s not much of a precedent for how something like this works - but we’re doing what we can to make it as good to fans as possible!

If you buy the Ultimate Bundle, you will unlock all of the NEXUS digital sources available on Demiplane (as one would expect). Once you own a digital source on VtM NEXUS, the option to purchase the hardcover + digital bundle becomes unavailable for that book, as you would then simply go to Renegade’s store and purchase the hardcover directly. It is naturally better to purchase the physical / digital bundle, as you will receive a discount for buying them together.

If you own the Ultimate Bundle, that secures a 25% discount on all future NEXUS digital sources for Vampire: The Masquerade, which will be reflected in the prices of all those future digital books.

Let’s say a new book releases on Demiplane - The Second Inquisition as an example that’s not currently available - it would have a NEXUS digital source and a hardcover + digital bundle available for it.

If you already own the Ultimate Bundle, but you want to pick up the hardcover + digital bundle for The Second Inquisition, you will not receive the 25% discount from the Ultimate Bundle for that purchase, but this is because the hardcover + digital bundle is already discounted and we can’t stack the discounts - we’re already reducing the price of that bundle as low as we can get to still make it available. So you are still getting a discount, just not directly from the Ultimate Bundle.

You will, however, still get previously purchased content credit for that hardcover + digital bundle purchase equal to 50% of the bundle cost. So for a $70 bundle, you would get credit for $35 - a higher amount than if you just bought the NEXUS digital source by itself. This is important because that means you can still buy the hardcover + digital bundle for all future books where it is available, but then if we introduced a (hypothetical) digital-only product, you would “keep pace” with the running compiled total of the Ultimate Bundle, and since you technically get more previously purchase content credit for the hardcover / digital bundle, you would pay even less for that hypothetical digital-only product (or anything else that might exist in the future that didn’t have a hardcover).

So trying to summarize the wall of text above a bit, here’s a breakdown:

• The Ultimate Bundle provides a 25% discount on everything in it + all future NEXUS digital product purchases.
• The various hardcover + digital bundles already have a $15 discount applied to them, so the Ultimate Bundle discount does not stack with that.
• Purchasing a hardcover + digital bundle grants previously purchased content credit equal to half the bundle cost ($70 bundle = $35 credit), so buying these bundles will still reduce the total cost of the Ultimate Bundle as new products are released.

I hope that helps, and let us know if there are any followup questions. Thanks for the help during Early Access!

[BadEye]

@akaaelius

So as someone who owns all the physical books and PDFs already, I’m going to have to re-buy them all over again here? And if so, does that mean as the below quoted material I’m getting an additional hardcover copy?
Can you also tell me what kind of ‘paid ST tools’ I’ll be getting?
" We have partnered with Renegade Games to make it so when you buy a digital book from us, you will get a code to get the hardcover from them. The bundle will also be available on Renegade’s store soon."

We are working with Renegade to find a way to reward pre-existing fans that have already bought hardcovers of these books. We’ll provide more information on that as soon as we can. Trust me, it’s on our minds!

As for the quoted block you posted, that is a summary of a longer topic during the stream today, so no, you won’t get another hardcover. That option is simply available for those that don’t already own the hardcovers to pick them up at a nice discount.

As for Storyteller tools, the Digital Reader and Compendium that are available now in Early Access has proven to be a big help for me running VtM games already (in addition to the character builder and sheet coming later this year that will help players and Storytellers). As for others beyond that, we have things planned that we aren’t quite ready to share the details for, but keep an eye on all our channels to see those once we are ready.

We appreciate the interest and let us know if you have any feedback as you check out Early Access. Thanks!

[akaaelius]

I’m basically looking for a virtual tabletop combined with a character/rule database. Effectively D&DBeyond but with the tools to play online as well (it looks like that’s the direction you’re headed). I hate having PDFs open, and a VTT for character sheets, and another application for video streams, I’d prefer to have it all in one place.

So if I buy the all in now, and you figure out something to compensate those of us who already own all the books, will there be some sort of reimbursement or credit applied then?

[BadEye]

@akaaelius

So if I buy the all in now, and you figure out something to compensate those of us who already own all the books, will there be some sort of reimbursement or credit applied then?

We are working to distribute a discount code that will work on individual books on Demiplane, so you might want to hold off for a few days.

That code would only be active for a short window during the launch to allow for anyone that has already made the purchases to onboard easier.

I hope to have that nailed down soon…many trains coming into the station at once and a few got delayed. Thanks!

[gideon]

I really appreciate the in-depth response! I’ll try to do whatever I can to help the system and give feedback.

[gideon]

I’m a huge fan of Foundry VTT so I’d love to see some type of official integration with that. An official integration that would be preferable than having to buy something on both platforms unless there’s some type of redemption of purchases from Demiplane or account linking.

In my opinion it doesn’t make sense for every single company to try to make its own virtual tabletop and we can just leverage purchase assets between them.

[BadEye]

@gideon

I’m a huge fan of Foundry VTT so I’d love to see some type of official integration with that.

I’m not aware of any official WoD integration with Foundry, but I can share that the first step to getting something in any VTT is being able to pull from a digital source, which VtM NEXUS provides. Buying on Demiplane happens at a more “baseline” level that can allow a variety of community-created tools to pull the information into a preferred VTT.

I’m sure we’ll see community integration before too long, and we have plans to provide some of that down the road as well. In the meantime, having all the content at your fingertips (even when you’re not in a VTT session), has proven to be a big boon for fans that have the kind of support that NEXUS provides.

We’ll highlight more about integrating NEXUS content into your preferred VTT as we get further down the road.

Thanks!

[gideon]

Thanks for your response! I know many in the community want to work on it but are afraid of breaching TOS or other legal concerns, so that is keeping them for wanting to develop a community tool due to the lack of the protection of that an OGL system would have.

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Just saw your interview on the WOD channel! Glad to have a veteran player of many years working on this. Really great stuff, very excited about the future of Demiplane(DP) and WOD. I love the idea of a platform level sub so it gets much more mileage vs a sub per system!

I do have some feedback regarding your thoughts on VTTs. I agree with you that not every type of player wants, or system needs a VTT. I think it makes sense for DP to not to try to develop its own VTT as the feature set you are creating is more than enough to run the game. There is, however, a lot of utility and great features that the VTT gives access to outside of just tactical maps. My group of GMs and players who have gotten accustomed to using VTT solutions during the pandemic. My favorite, with its player focused one-time cost for the GM, is Foundry VTT.

I want to support this platform and WOD, so I bought the big package. My hope would be to see official asset validation on VTT’s like Foundry VTT. I am encouraged to purchase content on Demiplane now that I got the 25% discount, so this is important to me as I would like my future purchases not to be “locked down” just in Demiplane. This will may also make the sting of having already bought the books easier for many people. I think this could be a killer feature of Demiplane Sub to have access to a Foundry module as well.

I know it might seem counterintuitive to encourage a solution that works with a separate product when there is some overlap (dice rolling, etc) but I know many people will pay for the convivence of having all the WOD stuff in Foundry. Rather than hand inputting the data, using a community tool, or juggling 2-3 windows at once. And I think Demiplane can serve as the conduit for that cross-platform validation, so people will be encouraged to buy there first.

I still would be happy to have a DP/Paradox sanctioned community-supported sync option if thats all we can get.

Another added benefit is if the system is officially supported/integrated, Foundry module devs will be encouraged to develop addons and enhancements, meaning the WOD playing experience is improved for all players without any development cost by DP. Although this might require DP/Paradox giving blessing to an actual system in Foundry (Ala Free League for Aliens, or Edge Studio for L5R).

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No hate or pressure, again love the project! I just want to put my 2 cents out there. Thanks for giving smaller systems badass tools like the heavyweights out there!