More illustrations for the new edition:

While the first draft of the revised edition is being edited, I've been working on doing illustrations for the new edition so that when the edits are finished I can go directly into laying out the book. (That's the theory, anyway. We'll see how that works out.)

I've been pleased with the work I've done so far. I have to admit that I had put down the sketchbook several months ago because I was frustrated that I couldn't translate my knowledge of the human form to drawings that didn't look like cartoony shit. Six months or so seems to have broken down that particular block, for which I am very grateful. So far I have been very satisfied with the quality of what I have been producing. So without further ado...

A character that will be referenced in the examples of play, a secret Christian within the emir's court.:

(CLICK FOR LARGER VIEW)

I have to admit, the inherent sexism of the setting was killing me. So when I found a way in the examples to have a woman in armor, I didn't even think twice. What she's wearing is a mish-mash of Christian and Muslim armor, which I had fun doing.

(CLICK FOR LARGER VIEW)

Because there is an Islamic angel, there also needs to be a Christian angel. I'm quite happy with this illustration - especially with the reflections cast by the halo and with the fact that the wings don't look like total crap.

(CLICK FOR LARGER)

And, because Thou Art But A Warrior is, of course, a tragedy... (I showed it to Kit last night when I finished it. His response: "Well that's cheerful.") I actually really struggled with the composition/pose of this one.

So that's proceeding well, even if I've decided to re-do the very first one that I drew. (The faces were just... weird.) My plan is to have eight illustrations, so that means I'm five eighths done! If I knuckle down, I should be able to finish by the end of next week as long as the inspiration continues to flow.

I'm impatient for my software to get here. (It's now officially in the mail! Yippee!) I want to start laying out this thing!

Sagefight.org

New edition of Thou Art But A Warrior! (Plus updates on other projects)

(Quick note: Yes I know my website is down. Again. It'll be back up soon.)

It's been a while since I posted - I've been a busy, busy geek. Since it's been so long I thought I'd give an update on various projects that I'm working on. But first, my plans for the revised edition of...

Thou Art But A Warrior

I've mentioned a few places online that I'm working on a revised edition of Thou Art But A Warrior. The past few years, I've encountered some issues with play that have led me to want to make some changes. Also, sales have pretty much slowed to a small trickle, which I attribute to the fact that Thou Art But A Warrior is a supplement. $30 is a tough sell for a supplement and the base game in this economy.

After some examination of my numbers, and looking back at my experience last year trying to sell Thou Art But A Warrior as part of Pirate Jenny, I've come to the conclusion that most of the people who own Polaris and are interested in Thou Art But A Warrior already own the supplement. For people who don't own Polaris, the price of both books is acting as a barrier. Ben has been kind enough to give me permission to release an edition of Thou Art But A Warrior that includes the Polaris system.

This represents a substantial addition to the book, effectively doubling the amount of text. It required a lot of writing, and re-writing, and more re-writing, but I did finish a first draft and that draft is currently being edited by my long-suffering husband who I voluntell to help me with my projects for no pay. (I love you, sweetie!) Currently, it's too early to say what price point I will be targeting, but I can say that I would like to include color in the new edition if it's at all feasible. I can say that I plan on releasing the revised edition for the end of this year.

As for the current book, there are a few print copies of Thou Art But A Warrior in stock. I plan on letting the book go out of print, which means once they're gone they're gone. My struggle to access a professional copy of Acrobat that will let me add bookmarks continues, but I have every intention to start selling PDFs once I have run out of books, and anybody that buys the unrevised PDF will receive a free copy of the revised supplement PDF once revisions are complete. At the very latest, I will have PDFs for sale around mid-August.

Lastly, while the book is being edited, I've also been working hard on completely re-vamping the design of the book. When I published the first edition, I gave myself a month and a half to do the layout and all the illustrations. Considering that I laid the book out in Word, that wasn't nearly enough time. As a result, I wound up rushing the interior illustrations and I've never really been happy with the quality of the artwork. Since the interior design is changing anyhow, this is a good chance to re-work the illustrations for the new edition. I've already penciled two updates to existing illustrations in the book that I may or may not add color to digitally. (Experimentation is in order.)

The first (graphite and white prismacolor on tan sketch paper):

With the old illustration, I was super happy with how the fabrics and the swords came out, but I always hated the anatomy and the faces. I also thought the shading was kind of flat. I'm much more pleased with the new version.

I also did a new drawing for the Islamic angel that appears as an illustration. Here's the old version.

Not bad. It was actually my favorite illustration from the previous edition, but I'm not crazy about the face or the wings. The drapery is nice in spots, like with the sash. But overall, I thought I could do much better if I had more time to do it right. Which is why I drew this:

MUCH better. The wings don't feel stiff, the shading is much more interesting with the hand as a light source, and the drapery looks much more natural. (Click to view a larger version. I'm very proud of the subtle shading.)

So that's it for Thou Art But A Warrior. I think it's safe to say that things are proceeding well. I just hope I can get my hands on a copy of InDesign by the time that it's time to start doing layout!

And now, something completely different: A card game

I've been cheating on Black Sky lately. There are several problems that I'm not sure how to fix, so I'm letting it lie fallow for a while. In the mean time, I've been working on a silly card game about playing MMOs. I have to admit that the original idea came from Cape Freak, but he's taking his MMO card game in more of a dungeoneering direction. So I decided to design the MMO card game that I wanted to play - game about MMO economies and screwing over your fellow player. I just finished the prototype deck yesterday:

Now I just need to give this baby a test run and see if it's any fun. I hope it will be fun, but who can tell?

That novel I've been promising to write

I've been working on this novel off and on for the last two years, obsessively outlining the plot and detailing all kinds of background information. Lately I started actually writing the damn thing. Currently, I'm ~15,000 words in - significantly further than when I attempted this thing last time.

It's amusing that the valuable lesson I'm applying from having completed NaNoWriMo is that I'm giving myself permission to not write perfectly. I'm not writing at the break-neck, mind-numbing NaNoWriMo speed that results in huge volumes of crap, but I'm not spending two hours on four paragraphs either. That's what re-writes are for.

I feel good about this. This is something I will finish. I just hope I don't take too long about it.


And that is all for now.

Tea Party: some commentary

My struggle to acquire a copy of InDesign continues. I hope to God that I get it soon, because I did all of the layout for Tea Party in Word, which was enough to make me want to scratch my eyes out! I did eventually get it to look the way I wanted, but I wound up putting way more work into it than I should have.

I blame Jason Morningstar for all of this. I wound up taking a look at an early draft of a Lady Blackbird hack of his called Death School. One of the characters reminded me of something I’ve always wanted to do with an RPG – have a character who got mechanical bonuses for offensively gratuitous uses of the American flag. I suggested this to Jason, and he used it, but then I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

So I’m thinking about this, and then I hear a news story on NPR about the Tea Party, and I realized that I had to write a Lady Blackbird Hack about the Tea Party. (So, sorry, Jason. I liked my idea so much that I had to take it back. Oh well. It happens.)

This was frustrating to me, as I had other creative things that I wanted to work on! But noooo… I couldn’t get Tea Party out of my head until I wrote it. So here it is, and it’s been posted on my website. Just for laughs, I’ve also re-posted STAB! STAB! STAB!!, my original foray into satirical game design.

I’m glad it’s done. Now back to other things.

This is Satire

(Crossposted from Story-Games)

Tea Party
A Lady Blackbird Hack by Anna Kreider

Despite decades of warnings from conservative visionaries like Ronald Reagan,
the creeping socialism propagated by the intelligista and the liberal media has
caused the collapse of American society as we know it. Under the crippling
double-burden of national debt and entitlement programs, the American dollar
has collapsed and everything is in chaos.

The last of the Tea Party patriots have formed a stronghold in Nashville where
they have stockpiled food, weapons, and ammunition. But it won’t be long
before they are overrun by forces in league with the new socialist regime. It’s up
to you to make things right.

Free PDF here: http://www.browserbeware.com/TeaParty.pdf

It amuses me to think that someone, some time will find this and not understand that this is satire.

(Jeez. I guess there’s some kind of Lady Blackbird-hacking mania going around. Anyway, I blame Jason Morningstar for getting me started on this, and Graham Walmsley for encouraging me to finish. Thanks, guys. That was a week that I didn’t work on other projects at all.

Dear BP: In Case You Forgot

Dear, BP

I know you've had a lot on your mind these past two months. I know that I have trouble remembering things when I get stressed out, so I thought I'd send you a friendly reminder. I hope the following helps you out:

(All before photos taken by me in 2008. All after photos taken from the Associated Press)

Now selling prints on ImageKind

I've been wanting to sell my fine art photography for a while now, but the problem has always been finding a way to do it where I don't have to handle fulfillment; shipping from Canada to the US is problematic at best, and expensive to boot. The problem was finding a service where I could make more than a pittance on each print.

Thankfully, I found ImageKind. They're owned by CafePress, and have very civilized pricing and payment options. And best of all, I don't have to worry about printing or shipping anything. Sold!

I've uploaded selected prints of my fine art landscapes and wildlife photos, and I plan to put up selected illustrations for sale within the next little while. So please, go check it out.

[/crass plea for money]