The Overlord doth decree ‘tis time for another update on the status of The City State of the Invincible Overlord crowdfunding project.
As you’re about to see, layout continues and the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter. We’re in the midst of not only checking for typos but confirming all the cross-references across the eight(!) books are all pointing to their proper places, hunting down the dreaded “see p. XX”s that litter the landscape, and otherwise tidying things up for the printer.
Art, and there is a substantial amount of it, continues to flow in, but as these images show, just because we don’t have all the art doesn’t mean layout has stalled. We just block out a section for it and keep proofing and cross-referencing. Once the final city state map is complete, we’ll make sure all the coordinates point to the right places on the map and it’ll be off to the printer.
Until then, let’s look at some of the pages from both the 5e and the DCC versions. Remember: these are all works in progress so if you see something a little funky, we just haven’t gotten around to stomping on it. But stomp it, we shall and deliver unto you an amazing gaming product filled with years of adventure.
A page spread from Book 1: The City State of the Invincible Overlord (5e version)
A page spread from Book 1: The City State of the Invincible Overlord (5e version)
A page spread from Book 4: The Dungeons of the Invincible Overlord (DCC version)
A page spread from Book 4: The Dungeons of the Invincible Overlord (DCC version)
A page spread from Book 4: The Dungeons of the Invincible Overlord (DCC version)
That's where things stand right now, and the CSIO teams are working hard to get things finished up and off to the printer. We'll be back next month with our next milestone and more news about getting things out the door. Until then, may the Black Lotus never hear you complain about the Overlord!
Just as we promised, here are previews of the 5E version in glorious grayscale! Still has that Old School feel, but with updated rules elements and stats for NPCs and critters. Everything you need for an immersive experience in the City State of the Invincible Overlord!
There's a lot going on there! Which one of these stupendous spreads is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
In the meantime, we're continuing our work and putting some final touches on this prodigal project before sending it off to the printers. We'll keep you in the loop as we progress.
And by the way... if you're a DCC fan or looking to become a DCC fan, you might want to check out the Book of Funnels crowdfunding happening RIGHT NOW!!!
We're already ticking off stretch goals and Funnels are a famously fun way to start your characters off right in Dungeon Crawl Classics. As CROM Intended!!!
Work on the layout continues. In the spirit of "a picture is worth 1000 words," let's just start with a lot of pictures! Here are in-progress images of layouts. More at the end; here, first, are 20 page spreads across 4 books:
One technical note: the DCC side of layout is running a bit ahead of the 5E side. That's why we are only showing DCC page spreads here. Both layouts will feature the same set of imagery. Once the DCC layout is complete, 5E will catch up. By the time of the next update we will hopefully have some 5E layouts to show off as well.
But overall - looking pretty snazzy, eh? We think so! Tell us in the comments what your favorite page spread is!
This is a brief update to let you know that layout has begun!
We several hundred pages worth of text formatted and placed. We wanted to show you some actual layout previews, but at the moment the art isn't placed yet. So the layout is pretty basic looking - just pages of text.
In a couple weeks, when we have a lot more of the art placed, we will come back with another update showing, well, a whole lot of layout pages!
We are nearing the tail end of art creation. The last several dozen illustrations have been steadily trickling in. So this update is going to start with even more art. These should give you a sense of what we've been working on. BTW, the Doug Kovacs chapter starts in particular are just awesome, as you are about to see.
So first some art - then a little more "reporting" at the end of this update...
Next up will be layout. As a quick estimation, we have roughly 50-60 illustrations still to come in. Several books inside the boxed set are close to having all their art completed.
As the art is completed for each specific book, we will start layout. Our next update should include some page spreads for you to check out!
Tell us in the comments what your favorite image is!
