From The Illustrating Pit

Hello, the heroes!

My apologies for being so slow to write and post this month. Yea, verily. Lessons have I learn'd from this UVG kickstarter many.

I mean, besides lessons like, "don't have a family member die while you're finishing up." Not sure what I can do about that one, but ... thank you all for your kind support and understanding on that front. Without you, this summer would have been a dark and sunless one.

Hah, there's an adventure module there - the Sunless Summer. Anagoblin Aristocrats waging a guerrilla war against the cruel war machine of the Diesel Dwarves, deep beneath the surface of Zu.

But, back ...

So, yeah, lessons.

• Get somebody else to do the layout. And we've done that. I'll post the new draft layout of Longwinter soon. You know. Along with the third and final chapter!
• Use a simpler layout, so that existing art is easier to fit into the existing content.
• Use Affinity Publisher, because for this kind of auteur layout, wow ... it beats InDesign in my book. The price-quality point is amazing.
• Uhhh ... 
• No, I think that's really all of them.
• Oh, right. If you sign up for a really intensive language course while also delivering a kickstarter, oh my god, you will have zero time left and you will be exhausted. I've been spending 6–8 hours per day for the last three weeks studying, practicing, learning ... and then coloring like mad in the time remaining. Seven more weeks and done.
• Ah, and one more. Don't be a gosh-darned perfectionist who wants to fill an entire book up with art. Just do a second book. Please.

Frankly, I'm loving the chance to really turn out a lot of art and writing, and get better at it as I go. However, I do hope I'll also learn some of these lessons.

On the plus side: only 50 pieces left to color!

Other News

• Go check out Momatoes (https://twitter.com/momatoes) - she's doing some really amazing work and her ttrpg game, ARC, looks wonderful and has some super cool mechanics. We'll be putting it out with Exalted Funeral soon.
• On the Exalted Funeral front - a new solo rpg Seekers Beyond the Shroud kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/exaltedfuneral/seekers-beyond-the-shroud) - it's looking really good, but I'll be Rimbauld (or Frank): I don't know much anything about it, since it's just been, well, me late with coloring and Matt twiddling zee thumbs.
• Also, because I suck at advertising, and because it was the mad summer ... Zzarchow Kowalski's Neoclassical Geek Revival version with my art came out on DTRPG. It has ... quite a few of my pieces in it. I get a small cut from that, so ... you're welcome to purchase it ;).
• And, coming soon, the first posts on Longwinter 3 - I'll post those here, faster and in rougher form, so ... should make some folks happy!

Ah, and SEACAT news

Finally, something about SEACAT. I'm going to release the art-free zero-edition soon after UVG. But, it's going to be structured in a pretty simple way:

• First, the mechanical skeleton, which some of you might have already seen.
• Second, the interchangeable skins for setting and theme - with character types, skills, equipment, locations, and setting-specific-mechanics. Things like the caravan mechanics.

I was thinking of making the first full skin be either for Witchburner/Longwinter or, taking a bit of a break, go full void-and-cosmos traveller, and make it for the gate-voyages alluded to in UVG.

Though there are some people also demanding that I start with the peng-ling cute-critter skin first ...

If you have preferences, let me know - it'll definitely impact the next step!

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Again, a thank you.

Luka, oot