The roaringly successful HandyMaps Buildings & StructuresKickstarter ends this Saturday.
Over 750% funded, funded in 3 hours, and two of four stretch goals unlocked, with the third in easy reach. Don’t miss out on these really useful cards.
The project is creating a set of twenty-two (22), double-sided A5 cards showing illustrative elevations and floorplan layouts for buildings/structures. The map cards can be used as player handouts or tools for game planning by Game Masters.
Stretch goal unlocks currently have the set increased to 24 cards.
Welcome to the fourth installment of Creator’s Corner!
This is where we let another small RPG publisher or freelancer loose on the blog in the spirit of supporting each other and spreading the word. The RPG scene is filled with amazing creatives and products and this is me doing my part by trying to help ‘raise the tide to lift all boats’.
#supportsmallrpgpublishers #creatorscorner
Please support these folks if you can, check out what they do, and if you can’t support directly, please help share this post.
If you want to post in Creator’s Corner and let the good RPG folks in my feeds know about you and your products, then drop a message to glynn@monkeyblooddesign.co.uk with the subject: Creator’s Corner submission.
Thank you for stopping by and supporting the creatives in the scene, Glynn
In the spirit of transparency, Sean and I have worked together previously.
Without further ado, over to Sean Christopher Richer and a look at some of the awesome stuff he is putting out there! —
HELLO I’M SEAN, FOUNDER OF ORBITAL INTELLIGENCE, LLC. We formed to start bringing ridiculous ideas to life. We focus on super weird, super strange, and extremely playable, content.
How’d we get here? Let’s jump back to when I was a child, back when satanic panic was a thing. I wasn’t allowed to play Dnd, and couldn’t tell you what edition it was in the 90s in Canada. (but somehow I played spellfire… I don’t know how that worked)
I did however hit the library hard, and going through Robotech art books I eventually stumbled into the palladium stuff. Which became the first game I’d run. This led to RIFTS, which pretty much raised me (and all things palladium for that matter). I wanted nothing more than to make a sourcebook for RIFTS (Siembieda if you’re reading this, HIT ME UP).
So what do we do now? We are trying to crank out as many zines as possible, while maintaining quality. It’s difficult, but we wouldn’t be able to do it without frequent collaborators. MonkeyBlood Design has done all of our layout so far, and I plan to keep it that way! Endmusik (Michael Weeks, friend and frequent musical collaborator) did our company logo!
A setting that focuses on “the drop”, an event where giant tentacled aliens burst forth and set up shop on earth (or wherever). It’s super Gonzo, and you can play 20 foot aliens from the get go. It was initially going to be savage worlds, then MCC, but DCC seemed like the correct home for over the top Aliens and Bat gods. Just about everything mutates, and has a separate tentacle die that levels with them.
WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A ZINEQUEST KICKSTARTER IN FEBRUARY FOR STRATOSFIEND ISSUE 2 WE WILL BE BACK TO TALK ABOUT IT IN DEPTH!
This setting is a mess of collage art, mind-rending art, and layout to match it. It contains new character backgrounds (including sentient gravel), new bestiary entries (including a demonic elf on the shelf, and sentient toast), and A NEW ADVENTURE WHICH FOCUSES ON A WORLD THAT IS SLOWLY TURNING INTO CHITIN WITH EVERY DAY THAT PASSES AND DOOR THAT IS ENTERED. Glynn KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK on this one. Matching each piece of art, with even crazier layout.
This one is equal parts cosmic dread simulator, 1 player funnel, and a love letter to *cough* Dawson’s Creek. I used to put every new character background that I see for Troika through its paces. How many seconds did YOU last on the creek? In some cases you may be hit in the face by a frisbee, in other cases the sentient creek consumes you and everyone you know. In other cases, perhaps you just didn’t do your homework? Or lost your love.
If you have itch troika products, let’s talk and get a bundle going! I’d love to pair up!
The tragedy that begot ternwillow; a love letter to idyllic fields through the lens of [Redacted] of Green Gables and end of [Redact]-elion (TROIKA).
(Jackknife, Brains, and Ironsights (Ronnie) by Chin Fong)
Come spring 2020, you will start to hear about the town of Ternwillow, and how these brave pilots helped fight back horrors of humanity itself. Spoilers, they perish. All stories and play are told in the form of flashbacks, and stories of what happened. As players try to piece together what exactly the tragedy was.
We are creating set of twenty two (22), double-sided A5 cards showing illustrative elevations and floorplan layouts for buildings/structures. The map cards can be used as player handouts or tools for game planning by Game Masters.
I’ve had some pretty amazing #rpgloot turn up in the last week or two, and as I am unable to contain myself any longer, you get to hear about it. Let’s rock!
Old School Essentials
After a barn-storming Kickstarter campaign, all-round nice-guy Gavin Norman delivered a long-anticipated B/X ruleset which he has lovingly re-crafted using dweomercraft and pixie dust. What arrived is exactly what I expected and more from someone that pays attention to details. The art is beautiful and layout is beautifully-functional. None of my work in here, I’m sad to say.
I backed the Kickstarter campaign at the Thief level.
Here’s a shit-ton of photos of what turned up:
Cha’alt
Venger and I have done a LOT of work together in the past, and it was going to be the best thing we had worked on to date. I did the layout and cartography along the way.
I’m blown away by what turned up. It’s like a coffee table book you’d find in an office — well, a gonzo, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi office, but I’d put it on my coffee table as there’s not much to cause offense in here graphically (I counted just two actual nipples — on a monster). In terms of making an impact on a final project, I’m glad that I did this – it is a lovely, lovely book. Why not snag a copy if you can, Venger’s got some here: https://vengersatanis.blogspot.com/2019/10/chaalt-hardcovers-arrive.html
I backed the Kickstarter campaign at the Hardcover level because I tend to back projects that I work on out of principle (not all though, as sometimes I just don’t have/never played the systems, shipping is a bit of a mare, depends on finances, I don’t tend to do PDF-only stuff, or all of the above).
Anyway, here’s a slime-ton of photos of the book:
Forbidden Lands
And finally, Fria Ligan ran the Forbidden Lands – The Bitter Reach Campaign and Reprint campaign, and I backed this at the FORBIDDEN LANDS SECOND PRINTING level, as I was a doofus, and never backed the original Kickstarter. I think I was having ‘Why the fuck do you need another set of rules you don’t play, but need on your shelf’ fatigue.
After the first Forbidden Lands Kickstarter, I began playing in a Coriolis: The Third Horizon game, so I’m dialled into the D6 dice pool system it uses (same as Tales From The Loop, Mutant Year Zero, etc). I enjoy playing it and when I saw the second printing drop I thought; “I need an OSR fantasy-feel to my D6 dice-pool game.”. It’s a lovely box set
Once again, here’s a shit-ton of photos of what turned up. None of my work in here. The poster map is gorgeous and I love the idea of little stickers to put on it!
I’m buried in all sort of things at the moment… but I figured it would be a good idea to give an update on some of the key MonkeyBlood Design & Publishing stuff I’m progressing/planning for those interested…
HandyMaps – Buildings & Structures
So, I am putting the finishing touches to a new Kickstarter for another HandyMaps campaign to be run on Kickstarter. The draft preview is up already, so click that Remind Me on Launch button to get an email when it goes live:
Launch is tentatively planned for 10th Dec 2019, but will very likely come forward.
I’ve been working on a couple of extra structures (suggested in the feedback) which will become stretch goals… two cottages and a stables. All your favourite Great Lunden locations will be included (Clopetra’s Needle, Gael’s Sanctuary, Dourgul’s House, etc)
Ryecroft – A Cemetery-Crawl
Another project that will come to Kickstarter early next year is Ryecroft. I’ve been posting about this tentatively already, and it’s moving along nicely. I have the awesome Juan Ochoa working on some art, and also pleased to have the fabulous Jon Hodgson working on the cover. Really excited to see this coming together.
It will be an OSR (S&W Complete) cemetery location which will be mostly devoid of the undead trope, instead focusing on the insects and vermin that thrive there. It’ll have lots of Midderlands references whilst not being a specific Midderlands product.
Definitely check out the Spikepit podcast, it’s great stuff!
Super-Secret Big Project
I’m currently in negotiations with a large 3PP about a secret project that might take place early next year. You won’t want to miss it. Keep your fingers crossed it happens.
Midderlands Dice Bags and Storage Boxes
So, Midderlands Dice Bags are in the UK, currently processing through customs, so they will be up on the store very soon by December… Also, The Midderlands storage boxes will be a thing around December, also up on the store. Somewhere to finally keep all your Midderzines, maps, cards, and bookmarks in one place.
Treat yourself this Christmas!
The Bats of St. Abbans
The great Richard Marpole (Midderzines and Adventures in Great Lunden story) is currently working on an adventure called The Bats of St Abbans. Here’s the cover art so far. No release date as yet.
Midderzine Issue #4
Tentatively in progress. My challenge is to deviate from my usual Serif PagePlus and Affinity Publisher layout tools, and use InDesign instead… I’ll need that just in the the Super-Secret Big Project happens. I’ve made a good start, and a couple of great folks have expressed a desire to contribute content.
Trollfang, Serpentlands, Lost Machines, and a Midderlands Megadungeon…
All these are in the pipes but progressing at less speed than the other things above.
I don’t currently have any solid plans for a reprint of it due to the outlay cost, and the time it will take to pay back the investment… so…
If you haven’t dived into The Midderlands setting yet, and think you might want in… You might want to consider it while I’m running the 11% discount on the webstore through until end of November! (Checkout code: OMGWTF11)
My next project is the cemetery-crawl of Ryecroft. Work continues in between commissions. This will be a forthcoming Kickstarter as well as a HandyMaps – Structures
The MASSIVE OSR Humble Bundle featuring The Midderlands and a metric shit-ton of other top-level gaming stuff is ending the middle of this coming week.
It’s the last chance to get $624 USD of digital stuff for $18 USD.
Transparency Disclaimer: I vehemently hate McDonalds. Long story about parking fines. I do like KFC though.
Support the Small Publishers by promoting their stuff
While everyone is choking on gristle from the corpomeat burgers, in an attempt to level up their Cholesterol Cleric character playing CorpoMeat: The RPG, maybe spare a thought for the small publisher who doesn’t have the skills of a team of viral marketers at their disposal, or the money to persuade gaming celebs to do their bidding with wads of $$$s… (Don’t kid yourself the RPG is free… it’s trying to get you to buy fast food, which is not free).
Newt Newport and D101 Games
Newt at D101 Games is a solid guy trying to make a living doing something he loves, and I really enjoy and admire his enthusiasm. Instead of a fast food meal over the weekend, why not head to the Backerkit Preorder Store for the Tales From the Sorcerer Under the Mountain Kickstarter, which is now LIVE!
If you missed the Kickstarter, you can still get in on the action, PLUS loads more stuff. You can get a metric shit-ton of RPG stuff from Newt, and none of it will subliminally or otherwise make you eat at any particular fast-food retailer*
