WELCOME TO ANOTHER UPDATE FROM...

Hi Everyone!

A couple of you have reached out about the cover thumbnails being a bit too small to get a good look, so here are some larger images. Please keep in mind that while the art is final, but these are just mockups I put together for this update. I'm not the artist or the layout person, so please don't worry about pixel perfect logo placement.

First up are the 5E covers. The Primary cover on the left is by Dan Smith (Smif Ink) and the Alt cover on the right is by Waclaw Traier (Dr(o)))ned Artworks)

Next up, the DCC covers. In order, from Left to Right, are Billy Blue (Billy Blue Art) with the primary cover, Leandro Seidler with alt cover, and Brett Hess (Brett Hess Art) with the Stretch Goal Alt Cover..

The Deluxe Edition for DCC RPG is the Brett Hess (bottom right) cover. The Deluxe Edition for 5E is the Dan Smith (top left) cover.

I hope that helps!

Alright, next up, Bob Brinkman share a Designer Diary for Veins of the Fallen.

Designer Diary #1

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve always liked dwarves. The thing is, I didn’t really start playing them until 1984, when Mayfair Games re-released their Role Aids book on the subject. I was immediately hooked. Digging through the lore provided, really fired my imagination in new directions, and I decided I wanted to make a dwarf-centric campaign. I immediately set to designing a campaign map, and locations for a dwarf kingdom.

Using above-ground castles, you know, like dwarves always do?

I have no excuse that I can offer. I’d read the Lord of the Rings in the 70s, before I’d even starting playing D&D, so… yeah… No excuses. Needless to say, it is likely for the best that those initial notes didn’t come to fruition. Still, I didn’t let the idea go.

Every few years or so, I’d pull out my notes, play around a bit, develop things a bit more and then put it aside (sort of like I have been doing with my idea for an AEG Stargate SG-1 black-ops campaign). I think all of us who run games might do things like this from time to time. If we don’t? Just lie to me because, frankly, I need the moral support.

Eventually, it fell by the wayside. That is, until I started writing for the Heroic Adventure! line. I mean, I’d already played Michael Curtis’ adventure Glitterdoom and that really fit the bill at the time.

Yet, I wanted more.

When working on Vault of the Murderworm, I got to expand the surrounding areas, creating a hex map and dropping plenty of locations for judges to sink their teeth into and expand on. That, and places that I might be able to expand on in later releases. Grungin was included in that, and I had a few rough notes for the place, and that is where things stood.

When it came time to pitch the next adventure in the line I happened to be rewatching Conan. The “riddle of steel” as a memorable bit of prose and then it hit me. What about the mystery of mithril? It is certainly used in DCC RPG, but there isn’t really much explanation for this new metal other than it doesn’t burn elves on contact. I got to thinking about why that might be, and what that could really mean.

Once I had come up with the answer, I was off to the races. The origins of mithril are not simple, and they are certainly darker than one might imagine. There is far more to it that it merely being a rare mineral.

Did I mention that I’m a horror buff and I like to write things that get a bit dark? I get a chance to stretch that side of my creativity. I don’t get to do it too often, but when I can, I will always take advantage of it. Darkness and things that go bump in the dungeon….oh yeah.

So TLDR? Yes, it is because I have a beard.
-- Bob Brinkman


Thanks Everyone! I was going to save this for tomorrow, but then I realized it's after midnight here, so.... good enough.

Chris