New Logo?

Last night, I started playing around with a new design for my logo. The old one- honestly, I don't even know where it came from. When I started producing PDFs through Otherverse Games, Mark set me up with the logo. I'm not sure if he designed it, or shopped it out. It's an okay logo as far as it goes, but I've had one problem with it:

The old Otherverse Games logo is blue and white, which means it clashes badly with the red, white and black 3.5 OGL and Pathfinder Licensed logos I've been using it with. So I designed this logo myself- the reds and golds call the Choicer nation to mind. Not sure if the logo is 'there' yet, but some form of this design will be on the revised Otherverse America Core Rulebook.

CHRIS

What's Coming?

Hey, right now, I'm mostly waiting on Otherverse America's last pieces of art to trickle in. The black and white sketch is an image of a genetically modified supersoldier from Amanda. I'll be using him as the cover piece on the Sexually Transmitted Future sourcebook, which will focus on genetic engineering. I'll also use the guy as a spot illo in the Otherverse America core rulebook. My theory on artwork is: I've bought it, use it.

This last week I've been watching the 4th season of NCIS on DVD and between episodes writing some new fiction for the Game Master's Guide. I've been working on a bunch of shorter projects for Psi-Watch- mostly different gearbooks, as well as a new advanced class for Galaxy Command and an optional player race for Otherverse America.

That last one will be entitled "The Wiccae" and it's basically a pulpy, sci-fi version of Gerald Gardner and Margret Murray's theory that a hidden witch-cult has existed in Europe since pre-Christian times and still survives today... well today being the time (decades ago) when they were writing.



The Wiccae came together on a whim. I call it an optional race because it's alot less realistic than the rest of Otherverse America, and I don't consider it 'really' in canon. However, hidden races of mankind with cool tech has a long provenance in sci-fi, especially in comics. These guys are a fun, cool, done in one PDF that puts a slightly different spin on Otherverse America and the central conflict between Pagan and Christian. I have a feeling the Wiccae will have more impact on home campaigns than on the setting's metaplot, but that's okay.

The art is again by Amanda Webb. The illustration was originally commissioned for the core book, to illustrate the Cord Witch object philosophy. But looking at it, I realized it worked perfectly for this hidden witch-cult concept. Anyway, look for all this soon, and the core rulebook before the summer is over.

On another note, I got a bunch of art from Louis yesterday, and I know where we stand in terms of art resources with Pirates of Bronze Sky. I've got most of the setting's unique races illo-ed already, and there's alot of steampunk, piratey stock art available to fill in gaps. I'll be using alot of Sade's CGI artwork for Pirates of Bronze Sky- she's even got a neat set of airship stock illos.

In addition, I'll definitely be having Amanda do some commissioned pieces- she really wants to draw sky pirates! In terms of the text, doing it as a solo release means it will look different than it did as a work for hire project for Louis. It will remain a human centric setting, but I might add another non-human race or two, and since I'm not under any word count restrictions, I plan to pump everything up a nudge: add more feats, more equipment, more skyships, cooler guns, neater spells, more history and culture.

Numbers

Okay, a brief update on the Otherverse America campaign setting. I put together a complete draft, consolidating all the chapter files I'd had lying around for the Otherverse America ultimate edition, to get an idea of the size of the thing. Right now, as a 12 pt Times New Roman word document, Otherverse America Unlimited Edition tops out at 330 pages, which mean the illustrated core rulebook will likely be in the neighborhood of 400 pages! In terms of word count, the document runs about 150K words. This sucker is going to be HUGE!

The Otherverse America Game Master's Guide which includes a complete monster manual, plot hooks for days, and suggestions about running the campaign, tops out at about 120 pages. It might swell a bit, because I want to add some more fiction to it.

So expect at least 500 pages of kick ass transhumanist pagan-flavored cyberpunk this summer.

Oh, the illustration on the right is Choice Meredith, a superspy/assassain/terrorist aligned with the Choicer nation, and one of the settings big villains. I got the illustration from Vic Shane, through the RPGnow product shown below. I figure that for $10 bucks I got a cool B&W illustration. I'll be using Vic a bit more to fill in gaps, and give me a deeper art roster. Ten fucking dollars. I'm amazed- don't know how long he'll have this product up, but I'll take advantage as long as I can.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=86441

Anyway, talk to you later.
CHRIS

Things Change

Somethings plans change, and this right here, is one of those times.

Last year, I did a huge amount of freelance work for Louis Porter for his Pirates of the Bronze Sky campaign setting. The quick description of the setting is "Imagine the American Revolution taking place amid floating sky islands orbiting Jupiter." I had tons of fun working on it, and incorporating lots of real world historical facts, some nicely pagan subtext and tons of cultural details.

Louis was planning on releasing it on July 4th of this year.

That won't be happening, but something else will be.

I'll be taking over Pirates of Bronze Sky and releasing at as a new campaign setting for Otherverse Games. Right now, I think I've got one of the best and most diverse suite of campaign worlds of any D20 or PFRPG Publisher. I've got cheesy space-opera (Galaxy Command), sexually disturbing modern magic (Black Tokyo), 90s style superheroism (Psi-Watch) and political sci-fi (Otherverse America). Now, with Pirates of Bronze Sky joining my roster, I've got steampunk fantasy covered.

My one regret about the agreement I reached last night with Louis to take over the publishing rites is that I probably will not make the July 4th release date he originally planned. In the deal, I'll get all the art resources Louis has collected to date for Pirates, some of which I've seen and some of which will be new to me. After I get ahold of his image files, I'll go through my collection of stock and existing art, decide what I can pull for Pirates. After that, I'll need to start filling any holes I find in my art roster- sooner or later, I'll get Amanda, Alex, Mark, Felipe, Scott and the rest of my crew to do some illustrations for the setting.

At this point, there's still a bunch of work to be done. Now that the setting's mine, I want to go back through the manuscript, see if there's anything I'd change working for my self rather than working work-for-hire. I doubt there will be, but you never know. If Pirates of Bronze Sky follows the same pattern Otherverse America has, as art trickles in, I'll add more content based on ideas that have sprung up.

I'll still be releasing Otherverse America first. That's going to be my biggest summer release. I might be able to stretch it, rush things a bit to make the July 4th release date, but I'm hesitant to do so. I'd rather do Pirates right than fast.

Anyway, leave me some comments if you're excited about this.
Blessed Be,
CHRIS

Fantasy Firearms- locked, cocked and ready to rock

My second big fantasy release of the spring, Campaign Overlay: Fantasy Firearms is up for sale at RPGNow. It expands on some freelance work I did for Skorched Urf Studios a couple of years back, and introduces gunpowder, and a fantasy explosive called draksmoke to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The book has three new races, a couple of new gods, a ton of new spells, dozens of new magic and mundane items, and a new 20 level core class: The Gunwitch.

Anyway, if you enjoyed Fursona, go check it out.

Also, look for a bunch more D20 Modern stuff. I've been on a Psi-Watch kick lately, as I wait on the last of the art to come in for Otherverse America. You'll be getting some fun products out of the deal. After the revised Otherverse America corebook comes out, you might see a glut of Pathfinder PRG material. I've got some fantasy content on the back burner, but don't want to talk about it too much now.

Enjoy the week, and Blessed Be
CHRIS

Those who bought your book also purchased....

One thing I really like about RPGnow's web design is that it shows other products purchased by customers who've picked up one of my PDFs. Every few days, I like to check in on my newest releases, see what else is being purchased along with my PDFs and try to figure out WHY.

So with my Powered Hero release set (The Powered Hero Basic Class, Fundamental Forces and Tactical Upgrade 2107), I see gamers are picking up a pretty nice set of firearms cards- consolidated and easily printable versions of the various guns in D20 Modern (from Pangenre LLC), and some Star Trek D20 Modern stuff (from the Amarillo Design Bureau. Man, I don't know who's playing with that mix of content, but I figure that's one kick ass campaign.

CHRIS

The Bibliography

Here is a preview of the Media Guide and Bibliography as it will appear in the upcoming Otherverse America campaign setting. The following include lots of non-fiction reference I drew upon while writing Otherverse America and works of fiction- books, movies, comics and even other games that I feel capture something that feels like Otherverse America in some intangible way.

Media Guide

As unique a setting as Otherverse America is, running a campaign in it can be difficult. The sourcebooks not only reference this revised corebook and the D20 Modern ruleset, but they also require an understanding not only of neo-paganism but Evangelical Christianity. For readers unfamiliar with either subculture, building the world might seem a bit daunting. Here’s a list of recommended media and partial bibliography of Otherverse America.

Non Fiction (Paganism)
The Goddess: An Illustrated Guide to the Divine Feminine; Shahrukh Husain, 1997
Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess though Art, Magic and Tarot; Vicki Noble, 1983
Magic in Ancient Egypt, Geraldine Pinch, 1994.
Pagan Rites of Passage; Pauline & Dan Campanelli, 1998
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology; Arthur Cotterell, Rachel Storm, 1999
The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets: Barbara G. Walker, 1996
Witchcraft Today; Gerald Gardner, 1972
Wiccan Warrior, The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca; Kerr Cuhulain, 2000

Non Fiction (Abortion and Evangelical Politics)
Caught in the Crossfire: A Year on Abortion’s Front Line; Sue Hertz, 1991
Perfect Enemies; Chris Bull, John Gallagher, 1996
Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism; Patricia Baird-Windle, Eleanor Bader, 2001
Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War; James Risen, Judy Thomas, 1998
A Woman’s Book of Choices; Rebecca Chalker, Carol Downer, 1992
Why I Am An Abortion Doctor, Dr. Suzanne Poppema, 1996
Slacktivist Website. http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/

Fiction
The Burke novel series (Strega, Down in the Zero, ect), Andrew Vachss, 1985-present
The Enigma Variations, John Maddox Roberts, 1989.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, 1985
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1982
Neuromancer, William Gibson, 1984.
The Night’s Dawn Trilogy; Peter F. Hamilton, 1996.
Rainbow Six and others; Tom Clancy, 1998

Games (Pen and Paper and Electronic)
Aberrant, White Wolf Games, 1999
Final Fantasy X and X-2, Square-Enix, 2001, 2003.
The Metal Gear Solid series, Konami, 1998-2009
Rifts, Palladium Games, 1990
The Street Fighter series, Capcom, 1992-present

Graphic Fiction
Battle Angel Alita and others, Yukito Kishiro, 1994-present
Daredevil vol 1, issues 236-291, Ann Nocenti, Rick Leonardi, John Romita Jr.
Ghost in the Shell, GITS II: Man/Machine Interface, Shirow Masamune, 1991-2004.
Iron Man: Extremis, Warren Ellis, Adi Gradnov, 2003.
Legion of Superheroes vol 4, Tim & Mary Bierbaum, Keith Griffen, 1990-1995
The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the 21st Century, Frank Miller, Dave Gibbons, 2010
Spiderman 2099, Peter David, Rick Leonardi, 1993-1997
The Red Star, Christian Gosssett, 1999-2004
Transmetropolitian (esp Vol. 2: Lust for Life), Warren Ellis, Derrick Robertson, DC Comics
The Ultimates, Volumes I & II; Mark Millar, Brian Hitch, 2000-2003
X-Men: X-Tinction Agenda; Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, ect, 1991
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills; Chris Claremont, Butch Guice, 1981.
X-Men: Second Coming; various, 2010.

Film and Television
13 Days
Aeon Flux (film and TV series)
A Few Good Men
The Aliens film series
Appleseed
Avatar
Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi Channel series)
Blackhawk Down
Boondock Saints
Cyborg
Death Proof
Enemy at the Gates
Final Fantasy: Advent Children
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
The Golden Compass
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Iron Man
If These Walls Could Talk
La Femme Nikita
The Matrix Trilogy (especially Reloaded)
Minority Report
Rambo (2008)
Repo: The Genetic Opera
Robocop
Silent Hill
Serenity
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Species
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Transformers (2008)
Way of the Gun
The X-Men Trilogy (especially X-3)

Blessed Be,
CHRIS

Second Art Preview of April

While I was writing the last post, I received an email from Amanda. This was attached. You're looking at my new desktop wall paper.

CHRIS

First Art Preview of April

Just thought I'd share some more Otherverse America artwork with you. These two pieces really brought a smile to my face. The top piece is a fairly standard Choicer soldier, done by Scott Holmes. Scott's pretty new to Otherverse Games, contributing this piece, as well as an illustration to the Powered Hero Basic Class PDF. That book, by the way, is selling pretty well. It's been in the top 25 of RPG now for the last week, and along with Before the Adventure looks like it'll stick around the top 100 for a good couple of weeks.

Since Powered Hero Basic is selling well, look for a follow up release, the Fundamental Forces PDF to hit later this week.

The bottom illustration is the inked version of the "Super Dolfie Loves Mommy" illustration by Amanda Webb I posted a couple of days back. Again, I can't stop cracking up at the little chibi Lifers- that's something I never expected to see for my characters, but now that it's out there, I'm loving.

Okay, a bit more news. Like I did with the Powered Hero basic class, I'm going to pull the expanded Basic Class talents for Otherverse America into a standalone PDF, about 30 pages in length. My rationale is simple: I've already paid for lots of art for Otherverse America, that's laying fallow until the final pieces some in. Gamers really like character builder options, so put some of that new art to use in a shorter PDF that will sell and sell and keep the momentum I began with the Powered Hero basic class going. Also, by chopping this out of the new core book, I might be able to chop the core book into something of manageable size.

Anyway look for "Tactical Upgrade 21o7" soon at the usual spots. It'll have dozens of new talent trees for the attribute-keyed Basic Classes: about 15 general new talent trees that can be chosen by any character and 6 talent trees per faction unique to the Lifers and Choicers.

Hope you like it.

Blessed Be,
CHRIS