Another stretch goal bites the dust!
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, Apr 25, 2019 at 09:23:45 AM
Hey everyone,
As you've probably already spotted, we have crossed the €75,000 mark! This means that the project is over 500% funded, which is pretty amazing!
It also means that those 21 pre-gen characters which I'll be rolling/writing up (and yes, I do intend to roll them fair and square, 3d6 down the line!) will all be graced with a character portrait!
I've not yet decided whether to commission a selection of artists to do these portraits, or whether to find a single noble soul with the mettle to tackle them all. In principle, I think I'd favour the latter, for the sense of consistency it'd give. To be determined, though. (I think the decision will largely depend on how the artists feel about the job.)
Now, on to those full-colour art plate stretch goals! (I'm still looking into the feasibility of also including these pieces in the Black Box, in some form. I'll keep you posted.)
Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome
Advanced Fantasy preview: cover sketch, the bard class, and the druid spell list!
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 09:52:27 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
A couple of questions for you all
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 09:07:20 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
€70K! And about future stretch goals...
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 09:02:13 AM
Hey eveyone,
Wow! We just passed €70,000!
This means that we've unlocked the third set of pre-gen characters – those of Neutral alignment. We'll now be producing a total of 21 pre-gens: one for each alignment / classic character class combination. It's going to be a lot of fun rolling all of them up and writing their backgrounds! If you've not seen them already, I'd recommend checking out the set of pre-gens that I created for the Dolmenwood campaign setting, last year. I intend to imbue the Old-School Essentials pre-gens with the same level of quirky character.
The final stretch goal related to pre-gens is up next: at €75K we'll commission character portraits for all of them! These will form a super nice set of characters for use in one-shots, as a quick-start option for players, or as NPCs.
Of course, I've also been thinking about stretch goals beyond €75K. At these heady heights, quite honestly, we're entering into the territory of completely unplanned stretch goals. This means that new stretch goals are requiring some extra planning and research. At this stage, I have two more stretch goals semi-planned. Here's what I can reveal at the current juncture:
- The next two stretch goals will be at €80,000 and €90,000.
- If we reach those levels of funding, we'll commission a set of full-spread, full-colour art pieces for the Rules Tome. (The exact number of pieces added per stretch goal is still to be determined.)
- The art style of the Rules Tome will generally remain traditional B&W line-art, but these larger colour pieces scattered throughout the book will add an extra level of fanciness.
- I'm still in communion with the artists whom I hope to commission, so I can't reveal everyone for definite yet. The general plan is to bring some completely fresh influences into Old-School Essentials, by working with artists who've not been involved with the project previously or who are outside of the typical OSR scene.
- To whet your appetite, I can say that the following artists have been confirmed: Olivia Politz, Sam Mameli, and Tom Kilian. (Alright, Tom has contributed pieces to Old-School Essentials before, but I thought the opportunity to commission him to do a full-colour piece was not to be passed up!)
- As you can see, I'm going for a set of illustrators with diverse approaches to fantasy art. I'm in contact with 4 or 5 more artists, so will keep you all posted as more are confirmed.
- For backers who've pledged for the Black Box but not the Rules Tome, I'm looking into whether it'd be feasible to print the extra art as a small folio to add into the box. (I don't want to increase the page count of the rules modules in the box. They're intended to be as slim as possible.)
More news when it's fresh!
Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome
Rules Tome sneak preview: table of contents
almost 5 years ago
– Sun, Apr 21, 2019 at 01:28:04 PM
Hey everyone,
You've all had a look at the free Old-School Essentials Basic Rules by now, right? The Basic Rules book serves two purposes. Firstly, it acts as a free sampler of Old-School Essentials, to entice the curious. Secondly, it provides those already in the know with a glimpse of the style and layout of the new game. But of course the Basic Rules are just an aperitif, and you are no doubt keen to get a glimpse inside the Black Box and the Rules Tome proper!
As the campaign description notes, we'll be sending out the near-finished PDFs to all backers, once the campaign is over. So it's only a few weeks until you'll get to see everything (minus the finalised artwork). But in the meantime, I thought it'd be fun to share some previews.
First off, let's start at the beginning! Feast your eyes on the table of contents from the Rules Tome.
Here we see the complete Classic Fantasy content of the Old-School Essentials game, melded into a single, cohesive, A5-sized tome. Taken as a whole, this book represents a complete retro-clone of the classic Basic/Expert game, and the culmination of the work of the last 2+ years of my life! It is truly a moment of great pride for me to finally see this all coming together into the deluxe format that I envisaged when I started work on this project back in 2017.
I'll post more previews as the campaign progresses, including some exclusive previews for backers only.
Now, let's see if we can smash the next stretch goal, eh?
Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome
