First: the surgery went well, and I'm cancer-free again, if somewhat altered. However, the run-up to it was predictably stressful, and the aftermath was also a bit of a physical and emotional roller-coaster. As, I suppose, is normal facing cancer.
Second: the second of the OGA card decks is finished. It's actually a bit more ambitious than initially appeared likely, as I ended up drawing a few new pieces just for the deck.
One is the Astropyramid of the Mythophage
Another is this rare visualgram of Ill-Nano, the Chaos Dwarf, ascending a Biomountain.
A few more saw me adapting landscape pieces to the vertical format of the cards.
Behold, the Givertaker.
And some, some were simply pieces too good to not contextualize.
Ah, so this is what those where!
I'll do a full post on how to play with the cards, but here is a useful d6 table:
Anti-canon on the Ministry and Nemesis (and Ill-Nano and Jubilee) - that’s the text boxes.
Add context to illustrations from the books, for those who want it.
Randomizers for monsters, spells, traps (the numbers on the side).
Spark for plots / locations / stories by using them like a tarot.
Use as its own tarock style game.
(added by KYA) Random colour palettes similar to colour cube (but 50% more yellow).
The remaining steps in the OGA saga: 1) the referee screen 2) the final final FINAL map 3) the adventurers' notebook 4) layout on the two zines 5) final cover art and box art 6) & review the editor's feedback on OGA and make the final proofready PDF
We're in das Heim stretch, good humans! More updates as soon as possible.
On Monday I had the surgery to remove the tumor and it was successful. I'm off to the hospital now to have the stitches removed. Hopefully the new look won't be too dramatic. Couple more days and the meds will be done, too.
Then, I trust, it'll be back to work. I look forward to sharing the rest of the cards with you next week. Meanwhile, here's some art ...
Been in a bit of an empty place, so this Asteropyramid will feature in a future thing.
I need a couple of custom pieces for the second card deck. Here is one of the Ill-Nano's illegal portals.
I've struggled to visualize the Ill-Nano. This won't be it ... but, well, it's still fun.
Thinking about emptiness ... I think I drew this the day after the surgery.
Chapter art for the Green Land in the OGA.
Generated by human hand ... this won't get used here. But, I needed to draw it to get my mind off things.
Anyway - off to get the stitches out. Hopefully the healings going well and so on. Hopefully I get off all the meds soon and can do some proper exercise again. Things like that.
Have a lovely spring, everyone. Hope the flowers are out (for the fellow northern hemispherics) and, talk to you soon.
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.
These are supposed to be the good guys, right?
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?
Wait, is there a game for these cards?
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 ...
Yup. Definitely the good guys.
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 ...
This lovely fellow is from the Vastlands Guidebook, the skeleton's path. Kolgar also appears in Longwinter as a buried hero, but that's neither here nor there. This can't be the same Kolgar.
And here's the postmodern soldier. Older flavor text, but now the card has done gotten colored.
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.
Welcome to March. This update brings both some good and some bad news. It was supposed to be about 1–2 weeks earlier, but the reason for its delay will soon be as clarified as ghee.
The Bad News
I'll start with the bad. Two weeks ago I was diagnosed with skin cancer. It's not the worst kind, but is serious enough to require surgery and I'm booked for treatment at the end of the month. I've been told to expect another month for recovery. Fortunately, the treatment prognosis is good and, save for regular checkups, I should be mostly ok afterwords.
Yes, but, still. As you may well imagine, the diagnosis was not the easiest thing to process, nor am I looking forward to the surgery and healing process.
It may also cause delays. It shouldn't cause too many, but it may. Let's hope not. Could be worse, after all.
Ok, that was 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.
1 of Blades - the Indivisible Cleaver
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).
XVIII - Ancestral Councilor
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.
XXI - The Given World
The cards also provide more context on some art from the UVG, for those who want more bones for their players to gnaw upon.
00 Null - Holy Field
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.
OGA - mortirobotics spot art
And meanwhile, I'm also finishing up the OGA spot art. About one piece per day.
OGA - on human variation
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.
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.
Cover art for the pananthropy zine.
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.
Aww, look! life, uh, finds a way!
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 ...
I've had this illustration for one of the powers for ages, but I'm not sure I'll use it. Oh, since 2022. There it is.
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
I'll take a few days off, so ... you've got time to convince me which will be best done next!
Ongoing
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.
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Anyway, hope the tail end of winter is treating you well. Over here we're healthy and alive and getting this beastie done ... but I don't have more to add to this post (well, aside from 16,000 words in the two zines), since I have to go gefetch the child from the creche.
Be well, Good Backers.
Another update soon, another mile closer to the Endtime.
![Our Golden Age (OGA): An Ultraviolet Grasslands RPG []equel](https://images.backerkit.com/active_storage/backerkit_production/blob/w3x8sovt158sexgb2brviuof2eia?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&auto=compress%2C%20format&cs=srgb&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop)
