Kevin Mayle's work on the as-yet untitled wilderness/maritime adventure that will be both included with the box and sold separately for those of you who like my adventures but have no interest in another full game.
You can see the progress of the work from the beginning in this post over on Mayle's blog.
This adventure will be a northern exploration adventure, as I've become rather amused/horrified at the tales of the expeditions to find the Northwest Passage in the 18th and 19th Century and I'm currently making my way through a book on the subject. I've got the adventure outlined, and I have plans for what the physical product will look like, but I am a bit worried about its scope and how generic it would be for an individual referee's campaign. The subject demands that there be rival powers offering rewards for certain discoveries, and the better part of an entire continent's far northern areas must be detailed (in rough form at least) for exploration. Making expedition patrons generic shouldn't be too difficult, but copping out on a specific map for an exploration adventure would be unforgivable.
And I do have to say I'm worried that I'm being a most unreasonable boss when it comes to the art on this project. I don't have the first clue how most publishers/art directors interact with their artists, so I just hope I'm reasonably handling my five million "change this!" requests that are happening per piece.
Probably doesn't help that the original instructions are vague, but I generally have only a general sense of what I want and it's only after seeing something that it comes together in my brain.
I should be getting the first prelim sketches for the main box cover soon, and I supplied that artist with a list of links for clothing references, weapon references, did half a dozen thumbnails, and have models for the figures to establish what it is I'm looking for so hopefully a lot of this "Wait, no, do that instead!" can be avoided.
As for the promised next draft of the rules, I just have two short sections to complete, and then I'm going to do a layout using my new software. It won't at all be the layout, but I figure I should practice with the software and become familiar with its basic functions so I'm not learning at the same time I'm doing final layouts. Look for that this evening.
I really like these covers. They're more evocative of something you'd see on a book (as in written word) rather than comics (either 70s indie, 80s/90s action, or 00s Manga) or videogames (which is usually comic style art). There's room for that too, but it's nice to see some genuine variety starting to emerge. :)
ReplyDeleteThe book THE TERROR by Dan Simmons was a good one. A fictionalized account of what might have happened to the 1845 expedition. I've recommended it on my blog before.
ReplyDeleteThis layout program is making my eyes bleed. Don't wait up!
ReplyDelete