Good Golden Agers,

The first of the theme card decks for the OGA (which I'm now calling OGA vastlands cards in my filing system, because of course one must variegate one's filenames) is complete.

That's 60 cards. Here's one.

How do the cards work?

• At the top left you have the card's value (in this case III) and, if applicable, suit. This one has no suit, since it is a triumph card.
• At top right you see the card's alignment. Nemesis or Ministry.
• The left side lists level, life, power, target, duration, and range scores. These are to help the referee generate NPCs, powers, special effects, spells, traps, what have you. The target, duration, and range sometimes deviate from plain description to more evocative suggestions.
• The text box at the bottom is descriptive text and countertext to accompany the ...
• Art in the middle. Which is really why these cards exist, after all, isn't it? Isn't it?
  
  

Yes, actually there is. It's a trick-taking tarot derivation of tarock games I played in Slovenia. It should be quite familiar to many central Europeans ... and a fun in-world amusement for groups who've decided to just hang out in the Ultraviolet Grasslands and not go anywhere further than where they are for now. Maybe they're stuck for the winter or something ...

We're in the home stretch: one deck and the referee screen left, then a bit of layout. The good editor also just sent me the annotated digiscript of the OGA.

Ok, a few more cards ...

Ok, that's it for this deck—you'll find links to it in PDF and jpg forms (if you want to use it in a virtual tabletop) in the exclusive contents for backers special section.

Next week, if all goes well, the next deck. Then: surgery. Hopefully that goes fast and uh ... yeah, fast and well.

Take care, good humans!

The Bad News

The Other News

The editing on the OGA is nearing the end, the zines are writ and waiting to go into editing, and so I'm tackling the last part: the cards.

All along I'd meant to make them feel a little more worn down, aged, so now I've finished the hand-drawn borders for the text and stat boxes. I've still to finish all the hand-written labels and I want to tweak the set (nemesis, ministry, etc.) labels. I'm also seriously considering (i.e. I will probably do it) designing a set of custom ligatures for the blocks on the left.

The conceit of the cards is that you can use them for a straight up card game (the swords and numbers), you can use them to generate random opponents (level and life), and to generate random powers (or effects or traps or what have you), and the cards themselves also provide location / character / event / item ideas (with the happy text below).

I'm also going to do some custom ligatures / stylings for the roman numerals ... because why not? Well ... I'll see. I'll do a test on those.

The cards also provide more context on some art from the UVG, for those who want more bones for their players to gnaw upon.

A few of the cards are not designed as part of the in-game card game, but just there as art cards to fill out the deck to 60. Still ... I trust they will look nice and perform the other functions.

Next update I will either have the first full deck for you (60) as a pdf, or the finished hand-lettered / hand-ligatured style. One of those.

More Other News

Some of the dropbox links broke a few weeks ago! I've been doing some digital-administrative work in the background and found ... uh ... odd permissions in dropbox. However, fixing that crashed all the existing links. Which is totally brilliant, isn't it?

I'm appending all the revised / fixed links below.

And meanwhile, I'm also finishing up the OGA spot art. About one piece per day.

I'm timing that to be done right about the time the editing is ad acta, so we go to proofs with all the art in place.

Right. That's all I've got to say today.

Oh, no, wait. Sunscreen. Use sunscreen. And don't get sunburnt as a child! Or your children. Don't sunburn those.

Good luck and take care everyone, see you soon!

—Luka,
Seoul, Spring

Good Backers,

Happy New Year of the Vermilion Horse!

Last week was a big holiday here in Eastasia, with the Lunar New Year, which meant a few days with the kids. Nice to have a bit of a break.

Now, here is where you'll suspect I'll have some unfortunate news about delays and whatnot? No! It is not so.

I've finished off the texts on both of the zines, the Pananthropy and the Biomantica. And thus, today, you get both of them (down below the backerfold).

These are not laid out yet—I'll do that and add the final art after a pass from the editor.

I'm also redoing the Biomantica cover, so, uh, currently you just see the title as it will be. The rest will coalesce around that in the fullness of drawingtime.

Some of the interior art may be older pieces ... after all a lot of the biomantica is already illustrated and I have lots of humans lying around ...

Anyway, we'll see. These zines have much simpler layouts, since they're single column, so that'll be quite a quick thing to do. Illustrating them up will take a bit longer, but ... that's a sleepless night or two for future me.

Coming Next

• The Cards
• or the Poster Adventure
• or The Adventure Journal

• The OGA editing is now 70% done.
• Still need to adjust the final map (need to add the Legend).
• Revise the box art.
• Book endpapers for the two hardbacks.

Favored Backers,

The Belated One would wish you a "Happy New Year." I, your bedraggled scruff-strewn creator, shall not, for I cannot aspire to the spiritual power of the Belated One. Instead, I will merely regale you with a celebration (or presentation) of the next step.

But first, a mountain.

I spent my two-weeks-and-change away from the labors of Our Golden Age doing something completely different ... uh ... besides walking the dog and changing diapers and feeding little humans, that had to happen every day irregardlessless (that's how one spells it, yeah?). I drew and painted mountains. Some of them came out quite nice.

I doubt any will fit into the OGA books and zines, but one could use them very easily with my Longwinter ttrpg icebox, yes, very easily indeed. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

The other thing I did was nuke my existing website (www.wizardthieffighter.com) on the way to its rebuild. It'll be back online in some form soon enough, but because my priority is the Golden Box of Our Age, it's not going to be in the driver's seat.

Let's review where we're at:

• Our Golden Age is with our munificent editor, the most wordie lexical M. B. Stoddard, accummulating instructions for its further perfection. Subsequent to that editing, I will review and revise the grand file and assemble the Index and End Pages, completing the tome for a semifinal pass and the printing of the proof copy. That's where real live humans with naturally selected intelligences will read words on paper to see mistakes I have made (like the line missing in UVG 2E because I covered it with a piece of art - mea culpa). The editor has already found a spot where I seem to have gargled up two spreads.
• The Vastlands Guidebook is also with the aforementioned M. B. Stoddard for a last pass of some revised spreads before I finalize the endpapers and it goes for proof-printing.
• I'm going to prepare the Two Bonus Zines for your delectation: the Biomantica, a tome of spells biological and chirurgical and archiatric, and the Pananthropy, a bestiary of creatures human, citizen, and personable. I haven't precisely decided which of the two I will complete first since I am tackling them together to ensure they comply in style and content with one-the-other and the two books of OGA and VLG. It's a fair question: which would you like to see first? I would be a falseling if I said your preference on that subject did not matter to me.
• Then, after those are done and art'd, I'm going to tackle the poster adventure, the cards and finally the adventure journal. Step-by-step, to the end. Which is now in sight.
• I haven't even mentioned ongoing tweaks, like fixing up some art, adjusting the final map (I've added roads), revising the box art (it's secretly a map, shhh), and other details. That's just par for the course.

Good Backers,

It is my great pleasure to present you a small gift for your patience on this Saint Sylvester's Day, this Eve of the Novel Year, to whit—the editor-ready PDF* of Our Golden Age.

• 260 pages (for now)
• 250 graphics and pieces of art (for now)
• a few words
• an idea or two less than originally intended**

• does not include all the final spot art
• may see some pages rearranged before the end
• may see a spread added or removed to make the correct page count (I suspect I might have space for an extra spread at the end, but if the index needs an extra page I'll find something else)
• does not include final page numbers, cross-references, and some navigation aids
• certainly includes weird typos and [errors]
• does not include all the final maps—the labels are a separate linked PDF file which I will update once I have finalized the map completely (adding some locations from the OGA, revising some symbols, adding more roads and travel connexions)

• the noösphere, including rules for navigating there and modifying characters translated into that liminal space
• the near and far void, including rules for travelling on voidships

That's All For This Year Folks!
Between the OGA and the VLG we've gone and finished* 432 delectable ttrpg pages for your enjoyment this year. I can say without a doubt, that's all folks [for this year]! Together with the UVG, the Polychrome Trilogy aka. the Vastlands Collection (we should vote on the name) stretches to over 600 pages. Whew!

*see above

I'm now going to take a couple of weeks' sabbatical from this project. Take care, enjoy the last day of the year, have a wonderful and happy New Year, and see you in January!

—Luka,
Seoul, Saint Sylvester's Day 2025