Art Preview: More Races

Here is Amanda's design for the Ubasti- a race of genetically engineered 'working' lions that serve with the Choicer military. As smart as a human and strong as a lion, wiht incredible senses, these guys are excellent soldiers and scouts- imagine a police dog that's actually sentient. They'll be migrating to the core book

too, because they're such a fun concept I wish I had thought 'em up in time for the original core release.

Also shown are the Couriers, a race of geneticaly engineered, teleporting supersoldiers originally from the now out-of-canon APEX sourcebook. They're going into the corebook, alebit in slightly tweeked form.

The Full Conversion Cyborg race will probally be illoed with stock, but one thing I want to get- probally from Amanda but maybe from one of the other artists I've been wroking with, mostly depending on Amanda's schedule- is a big illo of all 11 of the races of the game, standing together like a police line up. Paizo has a similar illo in Pathfinder, WoTC illustrated the races in Forgotten Realms the same way. It's a neat way to show the relative scale of the different races and through the costume detailing, I can show a bit more of the world.

Anyway, talk to you later
CHRIS

Art Preview: The Races of Otherverse America

Right now, I'm getting some more art work in and thought I'd preview some of it, in various states of progress. Above are some character illos by Mark Hyzer. From left to right we've got a Neo-Witch Midwife in the midst of transforming her bionic arm into a different configuration, a Lifer Vindicator and a Lifer aligned fighter pilot. The inks and colors will be coming soon.

I'll be having Alex Garcia do some artwork for me. He actually got in touch with me last night and I'm glad of it. I've been wanting to work with him ever since I saw the character designs he did for Louis' Obsidian Twilight. Above are some rough speed-sketches he did of a Half Grey character and the Lifer terrorist, Life Tank. The Half Grey is pretty much good to go, but the Life Tank will need some extra work. I asked Alex to bulk up the guy's legs a bit, because I can't imagine this fearsome Lifer terrorist having cute little chicken legs.



This image isn't of a particular race, but it's a fairly definitive image of a Bastian soldier who has mastered the Bastian Metaform feat. Originally used in Coven of Bast, this image by Amanda will make it to the core book.












This is the Softling healer image that will either make it into the Core Book or into Sexually Transmitted Future. These creatures were originally geneticaly engineered slaves who were eventually freed and allied themselves with the Choicer Covenant (though there is a pretty large community of them in Lifer Atlanta).



This image of the Neverborn was originally in Neverborn Again, but will also migrate to the core book.

Right now, I'm waiting on a finished version of the Roe-Artemis duel, and another piece by Felipe Gaona showing a Dianic Rite priestess leading a worship service under the light of the moon.

Obviously, I'm awaiting the inked and colored versions of Mark Hyzer's sketches, and a few more peices from Alex Garcia. In addition to doing the Half Grey, he'll also be doing a racial illo of the Dreamborn Mau, and I'm very anxious to see what he can do with the tattoos on those guys.

Amanda will be doing a comic page or two showing a battle between Lifer and Choicer shell suits- can't wait to see that one, as well as some more character illos and artowrk for Battlechangers, my Transformers-homage game.

Jessica Block will be finishing up the art for Fursona, and I also sent along some Otherverse art I'd like to get from her.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The revised Otherverse America will be fucking awesome.

Happy holidays and blessed be,
CHRIS

Art Preview: The Battle of Boston

The Battle of Boston ended the American Abortion War.

It's one of the defining events in Otherverse America, but I haven't had it illustrated before. Now, thanks in large part to the profits from Black Tokyo II: Chastity & Depravity, I've been able to hire an artist to illustrate this major event.

The rough pencils above are by Felipe Gaona, who I believe I mentioned last post. It's still a WIP, but I've been staring at this thing for the last 20 minutes, absolutely blown away.

Seriously, the revised Otherverse America is going to be awesome.

Blessed Be,
CHRIS

Art Preview: Next Year's Projects

I've got quite a few projects ready to go and waiting for art, most of which will be released early next year. I thought I'd give you a preview here, let you know what to expect.


Fursona
Fursona will be an absolutely huge anthro character creation guide. The text is pretty much good to go, and I'm waiting on a few more peices of art. Here's a preview my newest artist, Jessica Block did. I found her on Fur Affinity, a furry fandom site, and her gallery is over on my blog roll.
Isn't that aye-aye anthro fucking adorable? Anyway- they'll be a quite a few similar peices and some well chosen stock, and Fursona will be out.

Otherverse America Unlimited Edition




Art is still coming in for this complete revamp of the original release. Here are some peices by Mark Hyzer, whose amazing pencil work I spotlighted a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to have as much Hyzer art as I can afford. This guy draws cyber-tech better than anybody I've ever worked with. Check out his vision of the Covenguard Advanced Class- a breed of cyborg bodyguards that protect Choicer priestesses.



Felix Gaona, another cool artist I found will be doing an action shot of two of our major setting NPCS- Roe Athene and Artemis, battling to the death in the Boston snow. I expect a rough draft of that soon, and I'll post it up here, and absolutely can't wait to see the final version.

Also Amanda Webb will (Of course) be contributing, since she's already done so much good work for Otherverse America. Take a look at her rendition of Lifer culture.




Amanda (in between taking care of her new boy, Liam) has also done some absolutely kick ass renditions of some Covenant priestesses. She keeps doing these amazing riffs on Mucha that really add alot of texture to the culture and the setting. As you can see from all this cool art, one thing Otherverse America is not is generic. It's got some flavor to the setting.

Battlechangers

Battlechangers is the name I decided on for the Transformers homage RPG. Right now, I'm about 70% finished. It's going to be a quick, fun introductory RPG based on the spirit of the G1 cartoons. If anybody wants a draft of the system to help me play test this puppy, drop me a line at christopherafield@hotmail.com

I just put in an order for some art for this one, and expect Battlechangers late spring of next year, maybe a bit earlier. It's a nice antidote to the preverse sexuality of Black Tokyo and the serious political sci-fi in Otherverse America- just good goofy fun. The system and setting is practically writing itself.

A couple of notes on the Battlechangers RPG. It's going to be a diceless system where effort and resource expenditure counts for more than luck. Character creation is point based. Assign attributes in the vein of the Tech Specs on the old Transformers box cards, then pick a role for your robot (Diplomat, Scout, Warrior, ect) that determines your skills, pick an alternate mode or two, and buy some gadgets. I figure character-generation will take about 5-10 minutes, maybe less for experienced gamers.

I'm shooting for 100 pages or so, and I've already got some idea for future splats. I'm having a great time writing this wild idea I just had last week, and I hope you'll buy it and enjoy playing it just as much.


The Black Tokyo Franchise

Black Tokyo has turned into my best selling release by far. I've got a couple of upcoming projects in that world. First off, we'll have Black Tokyo III out around year's end! Expect another 20,000 words of perverse content, including bunches of new spells, a dozen new monsters, some new races and a new advanced class- The Assault Witch- a military magic user and expert demon killer. Check out the cool artwork Amanda gave me for that one:


I've got a few other ideas for stories in the Black Tokyo universe.

1. First, I want to a Pathfiner compatible fantasy project set in the Tatakama- the parallel reality where most of Black Tokyo's gods and demons come from. Basically, think Oriental Adventures with a shit ton more tentacle rape. It'll be fun adapting some of Black Tokyo's best concepts to the new rule set, plus a project like this will definately attract some attention, both good and bad.

2. I want to do a D20 Modern sourcebook for B.T. focusing on America, and playing
gajin characters. The one problem with this, is I've already said alot of what I feel needed to be say about American culture in Otherverse America. So what kind of satire can I do in BT's freakishly sexy storyline? I'm tempted to play with the Japanese perception of Americans pretty heavily- especially how we're portrayed in anime. I've got a few other ideas, especially the basic concept of American military techno-magic, but nothing's geled yet.

I haven't started writing these projects yet, so don't expect them any earlier than late summer or early fall.

Anyway, as you can see, I've got a lot to do.
Have a good Solstice,
CHRIS

Some Black Tokyo Inspiration

Here are a couple of news stories I saw today at my usual favorite sites. They deal with some subjects I broached in Black Tokyo and BT II: Chastity and Depravity. It's kind of interesting seeing major media attention paid to some of the wierder aspects of Japanese culture.

Enjoy the links.

http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=40634

http://io9.com/5713121/i-paid-a-woman-to-be-my-friend-at-a-tokyo-maid-cafe?skyline=true&s=i

Finally, a video that should inspire anyone looking to build characters with the upcoming Fursona character builder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck14LKBI9GM

Enjoy the content.
Talk to you later, with an update on some artwork I've recieved and some info on upcoming projects.
CHRIS

Chasing Something

So I'm waiting.
I'm waiting on art for Otherverse America Unlimited Edition. I'm waiting on art for Fursona. I'm waiting on Louis to finish the edits on Pirates. Waiting. No projects on deck, nothing urgent.
I'm playing around on The Transformers Wiki. I spend two days reading the minutia of a franchise I thought I knew well, and learning the Transformers brand is a lot fucking crazier than I ever knew.

So I sit down, and start writing, and all of a sudden, the hours and days are flying by. I'm chasing something undefinable, but I'll know it when I catch it. I've had an idea.

I've seen Transformer homage games before Mecha-Morphosis for D20, Transmetals for Spycraft 2.0, a few indy games like Gear Shift that tried and never really captured the feel of the cartoon. So I'm going to take a stab at my own system.

The last time I created a non-D20 game system from whole cloth was Against the Darkness by Tabletop Adventures. ATD is one of my best selling and best reviewed products to date, easily on par with Black Tokyo and Black Tokyo II. It's one I sold to Vicki Potter a few years back, and I really wish I kept the rights to. Still, it's a game I'm proud of, espeically since I wrote the first draft in about 2 days. Yep, I had a movie marathon with my brother- the Exorcist Series and the Order (the one with Heath Ledger, not Van Damme) and I got inspired to write this thing.

So I'm feeling a similar bit of inpsiration. I'll take the next week or two and write up my Transformer homage, send it out for playtesting and gather some art and release it.

That's one thing I love about RPGnow. Even before I wrote professionally, I spent about 5-6 hours every day, just writing. I still basically pull a full shift at the end of every day infront of my lap top- even when I don't really have anything to say, I still write SOMETHING just to keep in the habit. Aside from the week I buy a new video game or DVD collection, a few days of the year dedicated to a comic con, Thanksgiving or Christmas/Yule, I'm writing. Anyway, the cool thing now, about the PDF publishing industry, is anytime I get a wild ass idea like my Transformers game, I can write for a while, put something up and make some money off it.

It's gratifying to say the least.

Anyway, talk to you later.

A very small pic of some very cool artwork.

The image above is a cell phone pick of some art I'm comissioning for Fursona. It's by a pretty great new artist named Jessica Block. I found her on Fur Affinity a couple of weeks ago, as part of an open call for furry artists for the project. I'll be adding her Fur Affinity gallery over to the blogroll at right.

I can't wait to see the color version.
CHRIS