From the Vats: Print-On-Demand, All Systems Go!

Yes! I hold within my hands the proof copy of From the Vats. All looks good, so, without further ado: go get it!

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/151451/From-the-Vats

Selling at-cost, currently for $3.04.

From the Vats

It's been a long time coming but, finally, From the Vats is finished!

You can download it free here.

54 pages of community-created content around the theme of bio-sorcery, including the delicious Submerged Spire of Sarpedon the Shaper by Ben Laurence, two one-page adventures, loads of monsters, and some new magic items and spells (5 new vivimancer spells from my own mind). Fully illustrated!

Many thanks to everyone for their contributions, both written and drawn! My apologies for the interminable wait!

Hope you enjoy it :)

From the Vats: Illustrations Needed!

The layout of From the Vats is basically finished now, and I can now see that there are some gaps which would be perfect for filling with some visual bio-gore. There are a couple of medium-large slots, which would be best filled with illustrations related to the content on the page:

1. A sahuagin adventuring party, exploring the submerged lair of an insane vivimancer. [TAKEN]
2. A golem constructed from the corpses of stillbirths. [TAKEN]
3. A crown composed of the fused neural fibres of several heads.
4. A depraved blend of human & arachnid (cenarch).

Then there are also a bunch of smaller, horizontal spaces which could be filled with any kind of small details: organs, blood vessels, slime-ridden webbing, egg sacs, or any other weird biological illustrations.

Then of course there's the cover. A big blank space of A5 waiting for a cool idea! (I'm very much open to proposals on this one, as I don't have anything specific in mind yet.)

Anyone up for it? This is a non-profit project, so no money's involved, just the pleasure of collaborating with other creative minds and producing something fun.

Send me a message on google+ or via email (see right) if you're interested, and I'll give you more details about the exact dimensions of the spaces and longer descriptions of the things to be illustrated.

From the Vats: Adventures & Monsters!

I've been doing a bit more work on the layout of From the Vats this morning, normalising the stat blocks of the monsters from the various contributors. (See my post from a few weeks back for an example of the monster layout I'm using.)

This section is now complete! Here's the list of monsters:

1. Ambulator (Walker)
2. Apparition Shrimp
3. Arboreal Cattle
4. Body Stealer
5. Cenarach
6. City Walker
7. Cornucopia Beast
8. Ctenophoric Maiden
9. Fishing Elephant
10. Goit
11. Gliding Beast
12. Great Ape
13. Jelly, Luminous
14. Jelly, Muscle
15. Necrohandler
16. Nervous Engine
17. Sanguinary
18. Sentry Bee
19. Smoak
20. Star Maw
21. Succubus Crab
22. Tentacled Guardian
23. Watch Hound

The supplement also contains three adventures:

• The Submerged Spire of Sarpedon the Shaper, by Ben L.
• The Sepulchre of the Clone, by Alex Schröder.
• In Corporis Malum, by Anders Hedenbjörk Lager.

Thanks again to everyone for their submissions!

From the Vats: Monster Layout

Firstly on the topic of From the Vats (the community-sourced vivimancer supplement): I feel really bad that it's still not finished! I've had all the material for ages (a year?) and have just not been able to find the time to collate, edit, and layout. Mea cupla.

But, the good news is that it's not forgotten and is indeed progressing!

Today I had a little play around with possible layouts for monster stat blocks. The bulk of the supplement consists of adventures (including Ben L's wonderful Submerged Spire of Sarpedon the Shaper) and monsters (around 20 or so, I think). I've never been that keen on the "standard" monster layout -- a big, vertical block of stats, usually with a lot of dead space on the right, followed by the description -- so wanted to try out something a bit different for the stats.

Here's an example of what I'm playing with.

I'm quite pleased with the readability, relative compactness, and exhaustiveness of it.

Any thoughts?

Project Updates: Wizards, Vats, Elementalists, Dolmenwood

A quick progress update on the major projects which I have in the works.

I've just finalised the text for the first issue of Wizardzine. In the end, I made the decision to cut back the amount of content somewhat, in order to get this thing out of the door. I think I made the mistake, early on, of getting too carried away with reams of ideas and thinking that I should elaborate them all in a single issue. This isn't necessary -- there will be future issues and I already have about 40 pages of content, which is, I think, more than enough for an issue of a zine!

As for From the Vats, it's been lingering for quite some months but I'm pleased to say that I've started with the layout now. Shouldn't be too much longer! Thanks again, everyone, for your submissions.

With both of those things looking like they'll be leaving home soon to make their own way in the world, my list of ongoing projects is getting back down to more manageable levels. The Complete Elementalist remains bubbling away on the back burner -- I'm just adding ideas to it as and when they come, taking things slowly. I must say, though, I'm really pleased with what I have so far. My intention was always to create an elementalist class with its own special vibe (which I fail to find words to describe really, but which has always been clear in my imagination), avoiding the kind of "fifty different ways to kill people with fire" cliche. (See here for some of the new spells I have lined up for the book so far.)

Finally, the Dolmenwood project with Greg Gorgonmilk continues apace. As Greg mentioned recently, we're currently working on an initial publication which will contain player-oriented content for use with the setting (or, for that matter, in any other campaign where root vegetables are a viable sentient race and druid types have a penchant for human sacrifice). You can expect in the region of 6 to 10 classes, reams of background tables, plus loads of weird spells.

So, I think that's all of the main writing / publishing projects I have underway... Apart, naturally, from the dozens of seeds of things which may someday blossom.

Fight on!

From the Vats: Monster Design Contest Winner!

The oracles have been consulted!

The winner of the vivimantic monster design contest is thus decreed:

The Sage Anders Lager

guilty of constructing the genetic Horror known as

the Body Stealer

Thanks to everyone who submitted something for the contest. We have a nice compilation of nasties which will be compiled into the From the Vats PDF.

(Apologies that it took me so long to announce the winner! Real-life busyness has abounded of late.)