wizardthieffighter

What should marmotfolk look like?

The marmotfolk live in the bone mountains called The Ribs of the Father, in an uneasy equilibrium with the powerful spectrum satraps to their north. But I haven't drawn them yet! This is what is written about them:

• The Satraps mutter uneasily of th...
  2018-07-12 00:07:20 +0000 UTC View Post

Teaser: what comes after came before

While I'm working on wrapping up the UVG, I've also been working on an adjacent project. It's still only a codename and hints of pictures I've released in the past on G+ and other social media, but where the UVG is broad and long, this one is sharp and focused on the conquest and looting of an ancient city.

In the picture: Catburner Skirt, Kamini...

UVG Update 14 - The Dead Bridge and the Dark Light Passage

The Ultraviolet Grasslands continue, with voyagers reaching the Chasm that divides the great steppe from the western ridges and finally, that locus of the imagination, the Black City.

This update adds:

1. More character generation options at the beginning.
2. Encounter and misfortune rules in the introduction.
3. The...

Writing Continues and an Interlude

Hello everybody, patrons, followers, and casual visitors. Writing continues on Update 14 and it is nearly ready. All that is still waiting is a breakdown on the long-distance encounter rules and the points of interest for the Dark Light passage.

Besides the regular writing, I've been modifying some of the text, added an adapted character generato...

Over 300

Wow! I expected this, but still ... it was unexpected. I check in, and we're over the 300 mark. There is little to say here, except: well done and welcome!

I would certainly never have written this book (yes, it is long enough to be called a book now) without your support and encouragement. Thank you.

This has been an odd week here in Korea...

Intermezzo: Musica

I tend to greet everyone who joins personally, and get a bit of a conversation going ... and I've been falling behind on that. I'll get around to it. Totally.

But, till then, greetings and welcome, everyone together—here's to us having a great time together!

Meanwhile, I've compiled the music of the UVG into a post, along with a couple of...

Neon Ziggurat [Wallpaper]

Tim requested if I could share share the Neon Ziggurat in wallpaper size. Well, here it is - 2560x1440 pixels - only lightly marred by the attribution at bottom left.

Built of massive limestone blocks shaped so finely that not even an amoeba could crawl between them, it rises out of a scarred plateau. The limestone is protected by a magi...

UVG Update 13 - Of Spectrum Satraps and Ivory Plains

Welcome, patrons, to update 13!

Every sixtieth day the Grand Observer of the Rotations of the Wheels manifests precisely 217 meters due north of the third portal to hand down a Prophecy Out of Time.

Update 13 adds three areas, instead of two: the Spectrum Palace, The Iron Road, and The Ivory Plain. We are at 25 of 30, folks! The e...

OVER 100!

The poster says it all. You wonderful, crazy people, supporting a strange illustrated gamebook grown out of a mishmash of arty comic books, post-modernist sociology cross-polinated with brutalist architecture, and slow, doomy metal riffs!

Thank you so much.

How shall we celebrate?

I mean, besides the update that's nearly done, right....

$200 Boundary Breach

In less than a week since I published the free introduction, new heroes have joined in their tens, and brought us through the psychological $200 boundary. I'm still amazed and astounded and half-disbelieving that you, my patrons, vote with your wallets for my writing and my drawing. However, if the $100 boundary was a lightbulb moment of, "wow, my ...

A Free Introduction to the Ultraviolet Grasslands

Dear patrons and casual browsers.

This is a free, 78-page art-packed introduction to the psychedelic metal pointcrawl that are the Ultraviolet Grasslands. It covers less than a fifth of the complete written UVG content I have created so far with the support of my generous and incredibly cool patrons.

Yes, it is a freemium taster - ...

Update 12: The Ribs and the Cage Run

Whew! Made it! Nearly there, four more updates and the main body of the Ultraviolet Grasslands will be complete.

This was an art-heavy update. Besides the two areas - the bone mountain known as the ribs, inhabited by the marmotfolk (wtf?), and the old highway of the Cage Run - I've added eight detailed illustrations and 100 NPC voyagers to add to...

Behind the Scenes

One thing I've wanted to add for a while (but hadn't before) is a crawling biomechanical factory (the source fac in area 3, I think).<br><br>Yesterday I playtested the first half - it worked smoothly enough, though I was really surprised when the druid cat went ahead and ate the brains of the hive-mind drones to acquire their memories, ...

Playtesting Report - April 2018

(yes, the piece of art is older, but it's just there to make the post a wee bit more colorful!)

I'm running an offline group of ttrpg newbies through the UVG, and testing various subsystems as we go. As a rule, the sessions are great fun and I've been happy with several things:

- using weeks and abstract resources to create long vo...

Spring of the Yellow Water

This was one of the first points of interest I wrote up in the UVG. A thousand-foot deep submerged cavern filled with treasures and horrors.

UVG 11bis: caravans among the refracting trees

--//-- 

Yes, I know the secrets of the iron and mind
They’re trinity acts, a mineral fire
Yes, I know the secrets of the circuitry mind
It’s a flaming wonder telepath 

--//--

In this update I reformated the entire introduction, expanded the equipment lists, filed down the appendices, added cara...

Behind the Scenes (BtS): Crystal Pylon

You might recall one of the earliest points of interest, aka. mini locations, in the UVG: the Crystal Pylon. Or you might not, it's pretty forgetable:

" 

Crystal Pylon (+2 days, 150 XP): a voluptuously whorled crystal pylon lies on its side in a heavily eroded crater, the sides covered in a riot of perfumed mind-alteri...

The Caravan Sheet \m/

Greetings, dear patrons!

The February-and-March update continues to drag along slowly. You may well be wondering: what in blazes is Luka up to? Has he given up the ghost? Has he the flu, or the flux, or an embezzled fluxonator?

No, none of that.

As I've mentioned previously, the UVG has grown—a lot—and I got some friendly e...

Draft of the Map of the UV Grasslands.

"Luka! Why are you taking so long?!"

"Because I'm really busy, damnit!"

"You had one job."

"No, actually, it was more like two ..."

"I don't care."

"Fine, here's part of the reason. I want to get the damned map into working order, so the Referee can run this danged steppe from a single reference file!"

"There's too m...

Drawing the UVG

I've mostly been posting just finished updates, but ... sometimes a peek behind the ivory curtain is also interesting. A lot of my creative process is a dialogue between my drawings and my writing.<br><br>In this case, I realized I needed a better intro to the UVG. After all, the damned thing is ninety pages long. Realization hit me in ...

The Porcelain Throne in 3D

I was just blown away tonight. A good friend of mine, Peter Leban, a long time player and now a DM in his own right, is also a 3D artist and a few weeks ago he mentioned how much he loved the Porcelain Throne and how he was going to throw it at his players.

Then he asked me if he could render it in 3D, and I said, "yes."

Then I stoppe...

Cover and a revised Misfortune mechanic

Hello patrons!

One of the things that the next update is bringing is a divergence. The appendix and glossaries are becoming their own thing, while the UVG is getting a bit more rigorous structure and an introduction that should draw in more casual adventurers, and explain how to use the whole thing!

... and I've asked the estimable Skerpl...

The Grass Colossus and Vagabonds of Long Ago

This is an excerpt from a wholly different module I'm working on, that deals with the fall of an ancient city, its plunder and destruction. As I sent it off to the editor, he said, "Oh, this is set in the Rainbowlands, too, isn't it?"

I replied, "Of course it's not! It's its own thing!"

Then I reviewed it and realized that, oh, wa...