Banners & Logos

Sometimes it's a "good" distraction from getting the rpg writing I need to get done doing logos/headers/cover designs for other people. It's a different sort of work that doesn't feel like work at times.

I've been working on some banner's for my fellow Hydra member Humza K. He's got the first one I did up on his blog now. It is probably more Arabian Nights-y than ideal, but it looks nice. Here are two later options I did to be more adventure-y maybe:

A while back, my friend Tim Shorts asked me to take a crack and redoing his GM Games logo. A think after a couple of passes I came up with this, sort of riffing off what he had before. Yesterday, Tim got dice with that logo and they look great. It's satisfying to see a design I did show up on a physical object:

Hydra Gets Classy

Working on a mockup for the cover to the upcoming What Ho, Frog Demons!, I got the idea of doing Hydra covers in the style of one of the Penguin Classics design. Here's what I came up with:

art by David Lewis Johnson

Art by Jeremy Duncan

Art by Luka Rejec

And an upcoming project:

Art by Jason Sholtis

What's Got this Alien So Surprised?

Could it be he's heard that Strange Stars OSR is now in layout? It's been a long time coming, (longer than I planned!) but I am happy to say I placed the manuscript and art in the hands of the very able Lester B. Portly this past weekend.

We're in the home stretch. Stay tune!

Odious Uplands

The Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter is going strong! We reached the first stretch goal last we: Odious Uplands. This describes the upper world of Operation Unfathomable: Stonespear Province, Upper Mastodonia. There's a sample layout spread and more info on the Kickstarter page.

Here's a vaguely mid-Centory travel ad I made for it a while back:

Countdown to Unfathomable!

The Kickstarter launches in just a few hours!

OPERATION UNFATHOMABLE is an internally-consistent, gonzo funhouse that runs like a subterranean wilderness trek instead of a “down the 10 foot hall and kick in a door” affair. There are random elements aplenty to keep GMs guessing as well as players. No balanced encounters to be found here, but the clever setup allows low level characters to drop into the dungeon “deep end” and still have a chance of making it out alive—if they’re smart and wary.

OPERATION UNFATHOMABLE includes:

• Underworld Phenomena: Novel environmental hazards to challenge explorers like Horizontal Cave Lightning, Whirlwinds of Unbidden Transportation, Sudden Seismic Events, and many more!
• Fractious Factions: Enter a crossroads of Underworld civilization where combat is only one of the options (and often not always the wisest!) for dealing with its denizens. The PCs can make a temporary truce with Blind Antler Men or forge an unlikely alliance with the minions of Nul the Mindless God!
• Races, Weirdos and Chaos Godlings Galore: Over two dozen new creatures, from Batwinged Dwarfs to Shaggath Ka the Worm Sultan, malevolent…and even more malevolent!
• Near-Endless Adventure: Enough NPCs, encounters, and areas to explore to keep a campaign going well beyond the initial scenario.

Strange Stars OSR Excerpt and Update

After a delay for important non-rpg stuff, I've really been putting the nose to the grindstone on Strange Stars OSR. The guys at Hydra made some good suggestions on additional content and clarification on the manuscript and I have responded to those and will have it back in their hands this week for another round of proofing. Then it will be on to layout.

Anyway, here's and excerpt (except for the photo) from the NPCs and Adversaries chapter:

ERATOAN ASSASSIN/BODYGUARD

No. Appearing: 1-3
AC: 3
HD: 2
Saving Throw: 14+
Attack Bonus: +3
Damage: 1d6+2 retractable cyberclaws or concealed monoblade 1d8+1
Skill Bonus: +1
Movement: 40’
Morale: 10
The bioroids of the pleasure world of Erato have a myriad of modifications to primary and secondary sexual characteristics, sexual performance, and biochemistry. Always seeking to expand their market share, the Eratoans have began to generate members of their clade with new purposes. Bioroids with idiopathic poison biochemistry or weaponized genitalia command a high price on the black market as assassins. The above stats represent a somewhat less exotic assassin or covert bodyguard type.

Mortzengersturm Playtests

My NTrpgcon of Mortzengersturm, The Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak is just 6 days away. This past week there were not one but two playtests of the adventure: one Friday by Jeff Call (whose art will grace the adventure when published) and one by me yesterday with a group of seasoned gamers other than my regular one. Both sessions seem to go really well and will inform some minor tweaks I'm make to the adventure at the con and also to the eventually published thing.

After spending a good bit of time this past week on the pregens, I was curious to see which one the players' picked. Sir Clangor (fighter), Minmaximus the Mighty (dwarf fighter), Wulf Howlen (barbarian), Moonflower (elf ranger), and Brother Mudwort (frogling cleric) were chosen, so both the intelligence-based spellcasters and the thief were eschewed--probably having some implications on how they made to approach problems later.

One interesting thing was how much I forgot! Having written the thing based on an adventure I ran in my regular campaign (almost a year ago now, admittedly) I didn't necessarily prep in the way I might a published adventure (Orr either my desire to adhere to adventure-as-written is stronger with my own stuff! Likely a bit of both.) and so there were so fun (to me) details and NPC bits that fell by the wayside. I didn't really effect the players' enjoyment, obviously.

Another was how things play differently in the context of an ongoing campaign than they do in an isolated adventure. I've tried with the pregens and through the adventure itself to convey the feel of the Land of Azurth, but interacting with the Clockwork Princess of Yanth Country or encountering a bunch of weird creatures with punny names plays differently depending on how much you've run across this stuff before. Again, I don't think that effects player enjoyment, but it gives me something to think about in terms of generizing an adventure enough it can be used most anywhere and without losing the flavor that makes a particular setting (hopefully) interesting, because with an adventure or adventure locale derive from an ongoing campaign, that was part of the alchemy that made it fun.

Projects Update

It's been a while since I outlined where my current rpg projects stand. This will just focus on the bigger ones (the one's I've discussed here; I always have a few slow-burn, "for the future" things, as well.) First off, let me say there's been a bit of a global delay as I got married the end of last month and I'm now in the midst of integrating houses, so progress will be slower for a bit. Anyway, let's run the list:

Strange Stars OSR: First (and hopefully the only major) round of edits/suggestions are on hand, and I've begun responding to them. All the art has been done.

Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak: Also has gone through first round of edits and art is in process. I'll be running this in Juna at NTRPGCon.

Cloud Castle of Azurth: Still in the writing process. On a little bit of a hiatus to get one of the other projects off the table.

A Sampling of the Hydra Sampler

The Hydra Cooperative is proud to be supporting ConTessa and Gen Con. As part of that port we're in the process of putting together a sampler of Hydra products and upcoming products. Above is our tenative cover and here's the Strange Stars OSR page I put together for the sampler:

Pregen PC Portraits

My con game of Mortzengersturm, The Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak (and the published adventure after all) will have pregenerated characters. The awesome Jeff Call has been working on portraits to bring the particular character of the Land of Azurth to them. Here are the first two:

SIR CLANGOR, 

A Knight of the old and famed Order of the Pennon Or.

His blazon is: Or, a chess knight sable.

Fighter (War Master)

MOONFLOWER, 

Wood Elf of the Aldwode

She is reputed to have once killed an Ogre with attitude alone.

Ranger

Thedabara the Vampire

Here's an excerpt from the upcoming Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak:

Thedabara, former chanteuse, actress, and member of the undead, is most often found in her chamber beneathed Mortzengersturm's manor reclined on her chaise, reading a book of decadent poetry, with a glass of brandy mixed with blood (her preferred way of taking nourishment, these days) in her pale hand. She has grown old in the way of vampires who do not fight back against the dwindling of unlife with ever-increasing wickedness, and so she spends most of her time in repose and reminiscence. Her wickedness is more the kind of self-absorption seen in fading celebrities, made only a little less tolerable by her tendency to violence and blood-drinking if she is not indulged or accorded the deference she feels is her due.

She drinks blood only once every few weeks and finds hunting a bother. She entertains visitors beyond Mortzengersturm (and he is a less than ideal conversational partner, as he is as much an egotist as she), much less often. She will greet any party cordially, perhaps offering them a drink (not carrying that she has no more than 4 glasses). Then with exaggerated gestures and dramatic diction, she will regale them with stories of her past exploits on the stage—so long as they will sit and listen.
It is certainly possible for a party to take their leave of her, without provoking her to petulant violence, but it will take a great deal of care.

Here's Jason Sholtis's old school stats for Thedabara:
HD 9, hp: 48, AC 2 [17] Attk: bite (1d10+ level drain) Special: change form, summon wolves/bats, charm

Project(s) Update, Or I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends

Art by Jeff Call

I haven't done a general update in a while, so here's what Armchair Planet (i.e. me) has cooking with the Hydra Co-op:

• John Till's Strange Stars Fate pdf just got updated with some minor corrections. I am waiting to check the proof of the updates to the soft cover before releasing that.
• Work continues on Strange Stars OSR with several Hydra hands (heads?) pitching in to help: Chris Kutalik pitched in with Orbital Habitat Generation rules and Robert Parker is working on improving what I've done with hyperspace nodes. They're making me look like a slacker, but I'm working, I promise!
• Jason Sholtis is taking a break from work on his Operation Unfathomable to do a playtest of the mostly complete draft of the adventure Mortzengersturm, The Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak on Google+, and Jeff Call is hard at work on the art.
• Though Strange Stars is getting priority, I'm also working on The Cloud Castle of Azurth for which Joel Priddy is turning out some great interior art.

A lot of cool stuff to come in 2016.

A Sneak Preview

Here's something that's in the works, based on my current 5e campaign. A little ways off (after Strange Stars certainly), but this cover featuring art by Jeff Call is too good not to share:

Cloud Castle of Azurth Excerpt: Cosmic Cat

Taking a little breather from my work on the Strange Stars OSR book, I worked on a few pointcrawl points in the Cloud Castle of Azurth mini-sandox All trick, no treat:

COSMIC CAT
A cosmic cat is seated or curled upon a small (2' diam.) meteorite half-buried in cloudstuff. Peaceful visitors will be favored with a look that suggests the cat’s opinions regarding the drollness of terrestrial existence. The cat will converse telepathically (it’s mind-voice has a reverse echo; its laugh has a touch of flange) and answer questions, though it’s responses will tend towardthe vauge if not the enigmatic.

Here are some random statement the Cosmic Cat may make, when appropriate (or even when not appropriate (d8):

1. Oh. it’s you. I thought perhaps I had dreamed you, but you seem material enough. Unless that’s part of the dream, or my dreams are more powerful than I imagined?
2. They once came here for amusement, you know. I suppose it’s all still very amusing, really, just in a different direction. By the time I arrived they had mostly abandoned this place, except the crazy ones. For a while at night, if I looked out over the cloud’s edge, I could see the blue glow of their ruins. That all faded away in a few centuries.
3. I had an upset stomach, so I needed a place to rest and this rock seemed comfortable enough. I had eaten one of the those inky spiders from the dark side of the moon I caught crawling down a moonbeam, and it did not agree with me. It was foul. It tastes like curdled nightmares and acrid regret.
4. How do you suppose all this stays up here on wisps of water vapor, anyway? Doesn’t seem safe. And it’s an affront dignity of other clouds. Don’t think they haven’t noticed.
5. Have you ever tasted phlox? The color, I mean. It reminds one of the evanesce of comets and ephemeralness of thought.
6. The Sun is just a dwarf, you know, made of countless little dwarfs. I met one, once. It made my eyes hurt to look at it. It was incandescent with tedious purpose, but it’s voice was warm on my skin and gave me the urge to nap.
7. There’s a giant under that castle. He’s vaster than this world, perhaps--just folded up and stuffed into something tiny. I wonder how long that mellow cage of light and colored wax will hold him? Lamps flicker, after all.
8. I wouldn’t go that way [island anterior]. You will likely either die by a fall from a great height or suffer a tiresome tea service with a chatty dragon.

The meteorite it lounges upon is of iron as cold as the void. Its cosmic inertness is such that it is profoundly anti-magical.. In a ten foot radius all spells and magical effects dissipate. Magic items kept within a five radius of it for an extended period will be drained to mundanity at the rate of a +1 or spell level every six hours.

Hydra Halloween Sale & Strange Stars Update

There's a Halloween Sale going on on drivethrurpg and rpgnow. Both Weird Adventures and Strange Stars are in it, as are the rest of Hydra's quality products.

Speaking of Strange Stars: the Fate rule book is literally all done but the contents page and last bit of prep for submission, so it should be dropping very soon. The OSR rulebook proceeds. Two complete chapters ("Factions" and "Adversaries & NPCs") are done, and a couple of others are close to completion.

Strange Stars OSR NPCs & Adversaries

I completed a chapter on the Strange Stars old school rule book this weekend--the second completely done, though a few others are close. This chapter provides Stars Without Number stats for a number of monsters, encounters, and potential adversaries from the setting. Here's a contents list:

Algosian Torture Cultist
Caliban
Boma
Eratoan Assassin
Hannibal T. Early
Hellhound
Ksaa Cold Egg
Kuath
Minga
Necromancer
Quickling
Runic Dragon
Scavenger
Slaver
Ssraad (Blue, Green, Red)
Skulker of Tenebrae
Telosian
Thrax
Voidglider
Vokun Lord
Wanderer Avatar
Xann
Zao Pirate
Zhmun Lord

My Labors

Happy Labor Day everybody.

 After the InDesign chewed up the last round of major edits, Lester was forced to reconstruct them, causing some delays, but John Till's Strange Stars Fate is back on track with just some record sheets and a last bit of clean up to go.

Here's another sample page, featuring art by David Lewis Johnson:

Speaking of Dave, he's done a great job on a painted cover illustration for another project I'm working on: an adventure set in the Land of Azurth:

What I Did (and Didn't Do) on My Vacation

Very little rpg-related, is the short answer, but I'm back and ready to resume my usual blogging schedule. I figure the best place to start is with a product update.

On the Strange Stars front: the good news first. Work on the old school gamebook is going to accelerate, thanks to the Fate book being (mostly) put to bed, vacation behind me, and Robert "Savage World of Krul" Parker's help.

Now the bad news. I had hoped to be announcing this week that the Fate book would be released in a another few days to a week, but alas, that is not to be. A file crash (which I'm told is a known issue with large InDesign files) caused us to lose the most of the last edits. B. Portly is having to put those back in a second time. My hope is that that won't take too long, but I can't give a specific timeframe.

Beyond Strange Stars, I've been planning to devote my energies next to doing a couple of adventures. In Doom's Wake is a piratical thing that I've already talked about the first playtest of here. The other is set in the Land of Azurth, my current 5e game world, and will be called The Cloud Castle of Azurth. You'll be heairng more about these on the blog, but Strange Stars will be done before either of these sees the light of day.

Fate Strange Stars Page

Here's another page from the work-in-progress Strange Stars Fate gamebook. The text is by John Till, the picture by David Lewis Johnson, and the layout by Lester B. Portly.

Strange Stars Update

Work proceeds on the Strange Stars gamebooks. John Till has finished the draft of the Fate implementation and I am in the process of editing. It's going slower than I would like due to work related stuff that won't abate until the end of April. Still, Lester is already working on the layout with what I have gotten through, and (despite my initial plans not to) I have comissioned a few pieces of new art, including a piece from "Reno" Maniquis  who did the piece that's on the cover of Strange Trails over on the sidebar.

Stay tuned.