Getting Ready to Lay Out Witches of the Blue Skies

I just got the last pieces of art for the upcoming Witches of the Blue Skies and I'll be laying out that sourcebook starting this evening. It should be up for sale by mid-week.

To the right, we have the text free cover by Amanda Webb. I really like she captured the spirit of Strike Witches, but made the protagonists a little older and a bit tougher looking.

After Witches hits RPGNow, expect a follow up PDF bestiary for Black Tokyo, which I'll be releasing a few months ahead of a huge POD version of the Black Bestiary. I'm also still hard at work on a POD version of Enchantments of Black Tokyo, and a lot of the illustrations I commissioned for Witches will find a final home in Enchantments.

Also, I'm working on what will likely be a massive PDF campaign guide to Black Tokyo, bringing a lot of new depth to the setting and really upping the nastiness of the setting villains. Anyway, Black Tokyo Unlimited had about 60-70 pages of pure world information: the Kansai Region chapter by itself is nearly that size. I'm going region by region, and I'm going to save the city of Tokyo for last because that single city gets its own chapter.

You know how the original Pathfinder Gloriaran campaign setting was a 30 page pamphlet, than a 96 page guide, than a 300+ page hardback? That same evolution's happening here. I'm having a lot of fun working on Black Tokyo basically.

Anyway, the revised setting guide is a ton of fun, though its pretty dark writing. BT is a horror setting at its core, though it can venture in anime slapstick or superheroic territory at times (as Witches attests) there's always a really nasty undercurrent there. So I'm adding some truly horrific touches. The Amakaze are more evil than ever- and their evil is more specific, more personal. The storyline in Yamagata Prefecture is probably the darkest thing I've ever written, and that's saying something.

Part of the revision process is a reaction to my Tournament of Rapists release.  Setting villain Taru Tsuyoi is an even bigger part of the world, with more involvement in various schemes at different areas in the campaign world. There's a lot more opportunities for players to encounter Tsuyoi or his Rape Pure minions and put a bloody end to them. I realized the sheer visceral reaction of fans to this guy, made him an excellent master villian, a campaign defining threat on the order of the Amakaze or the Ubume Empress, so why not play him up?

Anyway, some more previews later.
CHRIS