Advanced Fantasy: looking for proofreaders! (Plus a toad)
almost 5 years ago – Sat, Jun 22, 2019 at 02:55:34 AM

Hey everyone,

Just a quick note about the next steps with the Advanced Fantasy books:

• The text and layout are finished.
• I'll start commissioning illustrations at the start of July.
• Once the orders have been locked down in BackerKit (July 26th — see this update), I'll be sending out the pre-release PDFs to everyone who's ordered them.

In advance of sending out the pre-release PDFs, I'd like to do a round of intensive proofreading, in order to iron out as many glitches as possible, as soon as possible.

What's Involved?

At this stage, I'm looking for a few main kinds of feedback:

• Simple textual errors: Typos, missing words, etc.
• Consistency errors: Text that should be italicised, terms that should be capitalised, etc.
• Wording clarity: Any areas that could be explained in a clearer or more concise manner.
• Rules clarity: Any mechanical elements that seem unclear.
• B/X-ness: Anything in the new books that seems out of balance with B/X. (I've had a lot of great feedback on this topic over the last 6 months, from proofreaders and playtesters, but I'd like to do one last round of checking through, before finalising everything.)

When?

I'm looking for people who would have time to read through Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells and give feedback by next weekend (June 29th).

If you'd like to help out, please get in touch! (Comment here or send me a private message or email: [email protected].)

Here's a Toad, Just for Fun

I just got some wonderful illustrations in from Stefan Poag last night (which will be included in the next update to the pre-release PDFs), including this delightful toad/person.

All for Now

Until next time...

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Art and discord!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Jun 20, 2019 at 01:26:15 AM

Hi everyone,

Time for your regular Wednesday insight into the ant-like activity that's going on with Old-School Essentials! People who like art updates will be especially pleased today.

A Glimpse Behind the Scenes

First of all, I thought it would be fun to share something completely unrelated to the Old-School Essentials game, but vital to the process of bringing it into existence as a finalised product! As we're producing a total of 9 different books for this Kickstarter (count em! — that's not counting the limited edition Rules Tome as a separate thing, by the way), there's a lot to manage and to keep in mind. One of the biggest things, of course, is producing all of the artwork for those 9 books. This is a very involved process, not only for the illustrators who are creating the artwork, but also for me keeping track of who's doing what, which illustration is going where, etc.

To help keep track of all this, I've been using a Trello board where each card is an individual illustration and the column it's in indicates its current status. Here's how it looks as of right now!

(Those are just the columns for pieces that are in progress. There are more columns to the right for pieces that have been finished.)

You might now understand the significance of those little weird letter codes in the illustration spaces (the grey boxes) in the pre-release PDFs!

Art Plate Sketch from Rachel Quinlan

You've probably seen the beautiful piece by Rachel Quinlan on page 211 of the Rules Tome and page 75 of Classic Fantasy: Monsters? Well, Rachel now has a second piece in the works.

This piece is for the magic section of the Rules Tome and the Classic Fantasy: Cleric and Magic-User Spells book. The final piece will depict a sorceress magically opening the gateway of an evil temple. The preview below shows half of the sketch — the sorceress performing her ritual. I thought there was so much wonderful detail in there that it was worth sharing just this half of the sketch.

Referee Screen Sketches from Peter Mullen

Next up, we have more news on the referee screen panels! I now have complete sketches for two out of the four panels of the screen. Feast your eyes:

I'm not sure whether I described the overall concept for these referee screen panels or not. I don't think I did! Here's the plan:

• Panel 1 (leftmost): The secret lair of a dungeon boss.
• Panel 2 (first image above): Minions of the dungeon boss worshipping. Adventurers sneaking in to attack.
• Panel 3: Adventurers battling minions of the dungeon boss.
• Panel 4 (rightmost, second image above): Adventurers just entering the dungeon.

So the four paintings will form a continuous diorama across the front of the screen. Classic stuff!

More Artists Coming on Board

I've been in discussion with some new artists this week, who'll hopefully be joining the Old-School Essentials fold!

• Mustafa Bekir (B&W): Brings that delicious UK old-school vibe, conjuring memories of the Fighting Fantasy books that many of us grew up on:  https://www.instagram.com/spevna_studio
• Pauliina Hannuniemi (colour): Creates beautiful and evocative fairytale-inspired pieces: https://www.instagram.com/pauhami, https://pauhami.bigcartel.com

Necrotic Gnome Discord Server

One final piece of news: we now have an official Necrotic Gnome discord server! Personally, I'm very new to discord, but I know it's a very popular platform with gamers and that there's already a thriving old-school community there.

Join us here! https://discord.gg/YprM5nq 

All For Now!

Until next time...

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Necrotic Gnome live interview on Tuesday, BackerKit lock-down on July 26th
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Jun 17, 2019 at 01:46:51 AM

Hi everyone,

Just a very quick update today to share two pieces of information.

BackerKit / Pre-Order Lock-Down Date: July 26th

Firstly, a very important date for this campaign: all of your orders in BackerKit will be locked on July 26th (at 20:00 in the evening, Berlin time, in case anyone's counting the seconds). This means that after this date:

• You won't be able to switch pledge level.
• You won't be able to add or remove add-ons.
• The pre-order store will also be closed.

Important note about shipping addresses: Even after orders in BackerKit are locked down, you'll be able to update your shipping address. The shipping addresses will only be locked when we're preparing to ship out the physical rewards (October, according to the plan). We'll let everyone know when this is imminent, in case anyone needs to change their shipping address at the last minute.

Necrotic Gnome Live Video Interview: June 18th

As part of Aethercon 2019, myself and a couple of collaborators will be doing a live video interview, moderated by Richard Coates of Shiny Games! I'll be joined by Yves Geens — author of the upcoming adventure The Fungus That Came To Blackeswell — and Mish Scott — illustrator of the Winter's Daughter adventure which many of you have ordered as an add-on in BackerKit.

The chat will focus on a few things:

• Dolmenwood, Necrotic Gnome's weird fairytale campaign setting.
• The Fungus That Came To Blackeswell, the new adventure set in Dolmenwood.
• Plus general assorted RPG geekery.

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzifzlQdIcg 

We'll be starting at:

• 20:00 Berlin time.
• 19:00 UK time.
• 14:00 NYC time.

Would be great to see some of you there! I believe it should be possible for viewers to ask questions via the chat.

(For anyone who can't make it, the video will be available to watch online, at a later date.)

All For Now

Until next time!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Pre-orders, Rules Tome cover, more monster art!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 01:18:12 AM

Hi everyone,

It's time for the Wednesday update!

BackerKit Surveys, Pre-Release PDFs

84% of backers have now completed the survey, which is great going!

A few small notes on the topic of the surveys and the pre-release PDFs:

• Add-on PDFs: These will be sent out at the earliest after BackerKit orders are locked. The reason for this is that I won't be able to get a finalised list of who's ordered what until then. This includes the pre-release Advanced Fantasy PDFs, which a few people have asked about.
• Lock down: I've not set a concrete date for locking BackerKit, but it'll be in about a month from now. What this means is that everyone's orders will be finalised, and it will no longer be possible to switch pledge level or choose add-ons after this point. (Though note that it will still be possible to update your shipping address right up until we're preparing to ship.)
• Pre-release PDFs: This morning I sent out a third wave of pre-release PDF download codes, this time to backers who completed the BackerKit survey since the weekend. I hope everyone in the third wave is enjoying their shiny new PDFs!
• Can't find your survey link?: Just to repeat an important message: if anyone can't find the BackerKit survey in their email, please go here to recover it: https://old-school-essentials.backerkit.com

Pre-Order Store Open Now!

For anyone who wanted to get in on Old-School Essentials but who missed or couldn't back the Kickstarter: the pre-order store is open! Please pass this link on to any friends who might be interested in the game:

https://old-school-essentials.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders 

Everything that was available during the Kickstarter can be pre-ordered, with the exception of the limited edition leatherette Rules Tome.

Peter Mullen Cover Art!

So, as I promised on Monday, here's a preview of the finished cover art by Peter Mullen! This is the piece that will be on the Rules Tome, the Black Box, and the Core Rules book.

Note that the background colour isn't final. I'm still playing around with different colour combinations for the various books in the Black Box. It's a tricky process, finding colours that work with each image, that form a coherent set, and that look distinctive and "iconic" enough that they'll work with future genre rules / spells / monsters / treasures books in the Old-School Essentials line.

The original green colour that I had planned (see the product mockups in the campaign description) just didn't work with this painting, though, so that and other shades of green are definitely out for this cover.

Monster Art

I wanted to share previews of a couple of pieces of new art that have come in recently.

First up, a piece from Johannes Stahl that I got in this morning (and unfortunately just missed being included in the PDF updates that I sent out earlier!).

Secondly, a piece by Peter Saga. See if you recognise what it's a reference to ;)

All For Now

Until next time! For cutting-edge news and friendly old-school banter, join us at the Necrotic Gnome community over on MeWe! https://mewe.com/join/necrotic_gnome

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

Limited Edition Rules Tome Mockup!
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Jun 10, 2019 at 02:58:16 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.