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Age versus Art

I’ve been getting headaches recently. I know what these ones are. As a glasses-wearer since I was about 7 (short-sightedness), this is eye strain. Just when your prescription starts to shift out of that sweet spot, and one — or maybe both — eyes are straining to focus, albeit unnoticeably, the headaches come.

In addition to my hands, my eyes are the most important tools in the small self-publisher/freelance artist’s toolbag. Hours and hours of close drawing work and computer work are tough on the old ocular balls.

Two years ago, I had varifocals, because as I was getting older, my short-sightedness was now happily sitting alongside the need to have glasses for close up work leaving a depth of field of about 6 inches without glasses. My evolution into developing bat-like sonar is coming. I will be echo-locating my paper and pens soon.

Anyway, a trip to the opticians today did indeed reveal a prescription change, and they have my old frames to put the new lenses in. 12 days I need to wait… Vision Express?

So, I’m back to some older glasses that are not varifocal and not quite the right prescription, and I’m trying to fucking type, my head is all muzzy, and I have commissions and work to do. Haha.

Age fights artists and freelancers all the way. As I get older, I have so much more respect for artists getting older that keep on trucking!

Pray to the Eyeball God!

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Return from Espaneria plus Great Lunden Wallhanging

Espaneria

So, I’m back from Espaneria (possible spelling of The Midderlands version of Spain).
I took a week off to holiday on the south coast of Spain. Visited Gibraltar and saw some of the workforce… to be honest they were arsing around in the sun, eating fruit, pickpocketing, and picking at each other.

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(L to R) Bananafinger, Roger ‘The Melon’ Poopflinger

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We walked in to the Siege Tunnels and The Nook! An elevated cannon platform blasted out of the rock. The Nook is about third of the way up the picture. You can see two small openings for the cannons to fire out of.

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The next day, back in Torremolinos and in-between Pokemon-chasing, we saw some nice cannons at Battery Park. My first Uber was booked to get back from there!

On the flight back last night (darkness), I saw Madrid all lit up as we flew slightly east of it. It’s bloody huge!

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Shite photo of Madrid at night (reflection of me in aeroplane window, at 38,000 feet)

Great Lunden Wallhanging

Anyway, for those of you interested in keeping up with The City of Great Lunden, I ordered a wall hanging to allow me to keep track of the upcoming Kickstarter writing… Got it from RedBubble (currently set to private as it’s still WIP) — It came out lovely (51″ x 60″). It will be great in play/playtesting.

This will be available from RedBubble once the new Kickstarter goes to preorder stage.

#themidderlands #themidderlands3 #thecityofgreatlunden #cityofgreatlunden

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WitchPig Deck of Many Things

So, I knocked up some quick tables for using WitchPig decks for the Deck of Many Things. Get it here: WitchPig Deck of Many Things r1

Don’t worry if it doesn’t display correctly, the WordPress built-in viewer makes the text squiffy sometimes. Just download it and it should be fine.

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You can get the physical decks here at DriveThru:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/249894/WitchPig–The-Midderlands-Card-Game

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The Shape of Water

Happy 2019!
I’m back at the desk.

So, not necessarily RPG-related… but it kind of is. I watched the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water yesterday, having only the vaguest premise about what the film was about.

There was a unsubtle hint of green in the art direction — from the bad dude’s sweets to the jelly, the decor, the pies, almost everything. I thought about how a common colour theme really made the film seem sumptuous… It was like a 50’s, wet, fish-p0rn version of #themidderlands — obviously.

Anyway, for any of the my RPG friends that are wondering about watching it…

SoW equals

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Middermas Update

So, I’m in the middle of Christmas in the Midlands, err I mean Midderlands — so it’s Middermas, or Midderval, or Midderfest!

I’ve been catching up with some client project emails, and also checking in on gaming social media, so this is a festive rambling post.

More Dinosaurs!

A Christmas present because I asked for it. I intend to surprise my F2F group at some point with this morsel-hunting, maw-on-legs.

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A gosh-darn Schleich T-Rex
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Terrence Rex is hungry

And also, in the bargain toy bin at the post office… quality is… well… not-Scleich.
The Pterdactyl is my new flying bear mini.


A Monster 5E Humble Bundle

Also, I stumbled across this Humble Bundle, which includes a pile of goodies from my friends at Frog God Games. It’s a staggering bundle, and dirt cheap.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/5e-fantasy-dragons-dungeons-maps.

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Pay very close attention to the $1 tier, which includes a 30% coupon off Frog God Games store. That’s a no-brainer.

It also includes the map I created for Matt Finch — Uncle Matt’s RPG Studio for his World of Jordoba campaign… and you get the Player’s Guide too at the higher tier.

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MonkeyMerch from RedBubble (Coupon)

And finally…

There is a RedBubble coupon for 20% OFF sitewide… Use code BOXING20 — Expires December 27, 2018 at 11:59pm (UK time)

Why not pick up some Midderlands posters or other merch like Tshirts?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/glynnseal/shop?asc=u

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That’s it for today.
Have an awesome New Year folks! Stay safe out there.

 

 

 

 

 

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Cold Hovel (Map)

It’s time to close the shutters for a few days while I recover from a fantastic year for MonkeyBlood Design & Publishing. This was the year that we proudly grabbed a Gold ENnie Award. An astounding achievement.

None of this is achievable without you folks out there, reading this. The commission clients, product customers, fans, friends, supporters, and believers. I want you all to have the best Christmas and New Year ever.

There are piles of things in the pipeline for 2019 and beyond. Look out for another Kickstarter sometime in February, a book of Midderlands hooks, a self-contained RPG/setting about robots, a Serpentlands book, more adventures, and copious amounts of game juice. I’m itching to get started on it all.

In the meantime, have a Cold Hovel battlemap (5-foot gridded and non-gridded versions). Perfect for a cold, northern adventure. Discover what’s under the trapdoor… Don’t die.

It’s US Letter-sized (8.5″ x 11″) so print it out at 1:1.

Cold Hovel GRID r1
Cold Hovel – 5ft squares
Cold Hovel VTT r1
Cold Hovel – ungridded

So to close…

…Thank you so very kindly for all the support over this past year. I am always humbled and thankful. May you and your families have the happiest of holidays.
See you in 2019, with more game juice,

Glynn and the Team.

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Commissions Status

There has been a high demand for commission works on the run up to Christmas and afterwards, and also I need to prepare for the upcoming February Kickstarter for The City of Great Lunden – City Setting book.

I will no longer be accepting commissions unless they are for work after the end of January 2019.

I am lucky and honoured to be so busy!

Thanks, Glynn

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Behind The Walls Discussion & Color of Fungi Actual Play

John Large (Red Dice Diaries) and Johannes Paavola briefly discuss the upcoming Behind The Walls adventure which they playtested in The Midderlands setting as part of their Rose of Westhaven campaign. Check out the podcast here:
https://reddicediaries.com/podcast/podcast-episode-52-unique-foci-in-stars-without-number/

Also, the Color of Fungi was one of the winning entries in the 2017 One Page Dungeon Contest. Written by Thom Wilson (Throwigames), with art and layout by Glynn Seal (MonkeyBlood Design).
The guys at 7-Sided Die ran an actual play here: https://youtu.be/3NaOBRJEr1E

Grab the Color of Fungi below…

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The Hero of Deathtrap Dungeon

Anyone that played the Fighting Fantasy books as a kid will remember how magical they were. Turning the pages to reveal the next part of the fantastic story. Battling foes with dice and pencil.

This crowdfunding project is for a PC/Mac game — which could also make it to other platforms — and continues the story of the original Deathtrap Dungeon. Watch the intro video here: https://youtu.be/oygk9xzNAd4

The campaign ends soon, and is sitting at 65% funded. Don’t delay. Let’s do this!
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deathtrap-dungeon

Also, I’ll be doing some maps for the game when it funds…

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