Ghost Lake Preview
Ghost Lake
Here's a little Gods and Icons preview from Connor Marvin. This and other Unhallowed Places will include sections on using them for both roleplaying and combat settings.
A secluded mountain lake, referred to by locals as “Ghost Lake” due to the number of disappearances, strange lights, and terrifying stories surrounding it, is a day’s hike through rocky mountain terrain. On the surface it appears to be an ordinary lake. Under the lake, however, there is a sunken temple. A spell put on the temple long ago created an invisible bubble surrounding it. Fish still swim through this magic sphere, but once it is entered by air-breathing creatures they fall through to the temple's grounds and are able to breathe as normal.
The temple compound consists of one central building surrounded by statues. The columns of the central temple have spiraling patterns of snake scales carved in them, and the apex of the temple is surmounted by a stylized pinecone. The statues that surround the temple are carved snakes coiled around each-other into double-helixes, with stone bat-wings emerging from the snakes’ backs near the top. Strings of seaweed float from the lake floor as if in water, and sunlight filters from the surface of the lake forty feet above.
13 Rumors About Ghost Lake
- Hell fighter Lord Ikal periodically visits Ghost Lake, and each time, drops in a small, black box.
- Those who sleep in the temple enter the dreams of Aurum Rex, king of the metallic dragons.
- Dwarf King Thorbal's banished daughter, Princess Kori, hides in the temple. She’s been changed.
- A promise made in the temple must be kept, or one's very soul is forfeit.
- Visiting the temple ensures healthy children.
- A ghost dragon guards the lake.
- Infernals cannot enter the blue waters. Or leave them.
- If you swallow even a drop of the lake water, you will be inhabited by ghosts.
- Only the dead can leave the temple.
- Black cats surround the lake during full moons, hissing and spitting at the water.
- The waters heal broken bones.
- Baron Von Vorlatch the vampire necromancer, has cursed the lake.
- Dunking yourself in the lake cures all disorders of the mind.
Art by Sparrow Beurer
You can see more of Sparrow Beurer's art in The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady, on sale now at DriveThruRPG.
Art for Art's Sake
A little preview of the icon Baron Von Vorlatch for Gods and Icons. The baron rules the barony of Borgostnya for Emperor Roland. He likes the night.
And here's the new art for The Sun Below Bundle: City on the Edge and Sleeping Lady. Eventually That's How the Light Gets In will be there as well.
Gods and Icons Art in Progress
Artist Justin Wyatt (cover artist for The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady) has sent in some sketches for Gods and Icons. I took his rough for the cover and slapped a title and 13th Age Roleplaying Game compatibility license on it. Just to get a feel for what goes where. The final cover will be in color.
We'll reuse the art for the three gods above the castle in The Gods Have Spoken: Deities and Domains, as they share the same pantheons.
Of course we'll want more art, but that's what Kickstarter stretch goals are for.
Can I See Myself in your RPG Book?
As our hobby grows, I keep running into GMs and players who aren't the stereotypical gamer of the 1970s. Women, people of color, gays, trans, and even gray-haired oldies.
Which is great! More people to play with, to have fun with, to make friends with.
I have the original white box D&D set, and have been playing since the 70s. When a new player picks up a gaming book, do they see anyone that looks like their family? Images that include them? Or is there that barrier of "this is not for you."
Well, things are changing. And the lead author on The Gods Have Spoken: Deities and Domains, Vanessa Rose Phin, looks at the new 5E PHB to look at that change. Take a look on her blog. (Vanessa's also a major contributor to Gods and Icons.)
Of course this made me look at Dread Unicorn titles. Purple hermaphrodites are well represented, thank you very much. Numenera takes you out of the stereotypical RPG world in so many ways, art included. Our next titles are more in standard fantasy land, so we'll see what we can do there to make people feel like this is a game for them.
Some people have told me that if we make an effort to include more kinds of people, we could loose straight white males. Really? I think that's selling straight white males short. What if my sales are as flat as Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
Horrors!
GenCon 2014: Post Con Reflections
Guest blog by Reece Ambrose, lead artist for The Sun Below: City on the Edge.
My luck seemed to run high over the seemingly short time the convention ran, as I came across personal heroes of mine while roaming the vast exhibitor's floor. As an artist, getting to meet Larry Elmore, and Jeff Easley, was brilliant! It is through their work that I was gripped by the love of role-playing so many years ago, I hold that it is a major reason why I decided to become an artist myself.
I also met Margaret Weis, famed co-author of the Dragonlance novels, another great influence in my role-playing life, and the thing that struck me about all of the people I managed to meet was their utter lack of self-importance. All of these industry giants impressed me as humble individuals who make the RPG industry a place where imaginations can be kindled, and joy filled memories of epic adventures can be had if only we let ourselves be immersed in the fanciful realms that they've codified with elegantly designed game systems, beautifully depicted through vivid imagery, or written out in stunning prose.
The Race is On! Like Donkey Kong!
I just got back from the National Poetry Slam in Oakland, where I had a blast. My mom and I got to see my son compete. He made it to the finals in group pieces! (Poems with more than one poet performing them.) Those slam poets can do so much in so few words. They get 3 minutes to recite their poem and it's over.
This is great inspiration for me, as I'm in editing mode for The Sun Below: City on the Edge right now.
The final art is coming in. Here's the Throne Room:
Here's the first sketch Justin sent me: The Throne Room.
But what about the race? I am attempting to ship in August, and the project is still in editorial, and hasn't even started layout. But August 31st counts, right? Fingers and toes crossed!
Of course, quality first. If it's not ready, it's not ready. I'll have a better handle on the time required to ship this epic adventure soon.
Numeneraish and Numeneraocity
Like many of you, I've played a ton of different role playing games. I find it easy to make new stuff up. What I'm learning now is how to make stuff up Numenera Style.
It's all about the KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid. Numenera has simple clean rules. A Numenera adventure should follow suit. Over and over in the editing phase of The Sun Below: City on the Edge, I find myself simplifying. I don't have to create a simulation. I just have to make it fun to play. And fun to GM.
For example, I have a race of blood sucking plant people, the slithik. I have different kinds of slithiks. Do I need so many? No, cut. They all have two attacks a round, one melee, one ranged. Does that make sense? No, cut. The top leader can have two ranged a round, that works.
Sometimes its a matter of making new rules feel Numeneraish. Is that a word? Of course it's a word. Or will be in 1 billion years. :)
I created an artifact where I wanted it to have special effects, but not every time. I could say if you hit with a natural even number, then "tada!" the effect goes off. But that doesn't feel very Numeneraish. What does feel Numeneraish? Ah, if you hit with a natural 17+, then it goes off. Numenera players are already used to cool stuff happening when they roll natural 17s or better.
And so on. Got to get my Numeneraocity on.
The Sun Below: City on the Edge -- Cover Art
Here it is, the adventure cover by Reece Ambrose. We see Princess Duophrene gritting her teeth above a plant-like slithik and a purple dh'lann, all behind a floating stone head of a Praithian. In the background is Urbamorr, the City on the Edge. It's unlikely that the city, or your player characters, will survive the adventure unchanged. Will they survive at all?
Dh'lann -- Humans of The Sun Below.
Asking a dh'lann if they are a man or a woman will give you at best a temporary answer. They spend most of their time as neither, or as potentially one or the other. Then, once a moon (and yes, there is a Moon Below), they change and transition into a gender. They don't know which gender ahead of time, and a parent might be a father of one child and mother of another.
While this makes their family structures interesting, dh'lann are as human as you or I. More so, perhaps. I have heard rumors of a mental power they share, but they will not speak of this openly.
In any case they are often receptive to the Truth, and our order has had an even greater impact on them then on the alien slithik. If only we had a secure way for the dh'lann to travel to the surface of the Ninth World, I believe we would have dh'lann training as Aeon Priests in no time.
– Charis Kos, Aeon Priest
More information on dh'lann will be found in the upcoming adventure: The Sun Below: City on the Edge.
Reece Ambrose is the Lead Artist for The Sun Below: City on the Edge, and his work can be found in many other games, including The Strange™, from Monte Cook Games.
I changed the name from flann after I got feedback from the gaming community that they sounded like custard.
The Throne Room
In a scene from The Sun Below: City on the Edge, we have a preliminary sketch by artist Justin Wyatt. We see our first glimpse of King Umbral and his knights.
Things are heating up in the lands under The Sun Below.
Meet the Slithik
Here we have a work in progress by artist Reece Ambrose. This slithik just wants to be your friend. Or does she?
The slithik is one of the races unfortunate enough to have been enslaved by the Praithians. In many of the lands under The Sun Below, the slithik run their own affairs. But in Urbamorr, the Praithians still hold power, and the slithik, despite their many advantages, are all mind controlled slaves.
Well, maybe not all of them...
For a look at more art by Reece, check out his portfolio.
More slithik goodness will be found in the adventure The Sun Below: City on the Edge.
Finding Illustrators
One of the best part of working on roleplaying games is getting to work with artists. I admire great illustrations, and when they come in through my email transom, I just can't love it enough.
I have some great art already, but need more to finish up that side of The Sun Below: City on the Edge.
Here's a peak on what I'm asking illustrators:
I’m looking for more art to finish up a Numenera adventure. I have the cover art and some other illustrations already underway.
The Sun Below: City on the Edge is a licensed Numenera adventure set in The World Below, a giant tube buried deep under the surface of the Ninth World. A slow moving white sun floats along the tube near the ceiling.
Under the light of the Sun Below, the characters encounter the Praithians, psychic mummies encased in levitating stone heads. The Praithians have two slave races ripe for revolt: the Flann, androgynous purple humans and the Slithik, a nightmare cross between the Lovecraft’s Shuggoth and the Great Race of Yith. All are featured on the cover, so illustrations that include them should use the cover art as a starting point.
Numenera has a post-apocalyptic look with an important twist – the ruins and artifacts of previous ages are mind bogglingly advanced ultra-tech. This is set a Billion years in the future. If you think Star Trek, the leftover tech isn’t Federation, it’s the Q Continuum. For the people living in the rubble, it’s magic.