by Jeremy Mohler | Nov 18, 2014 | announcement |
Hello folks!
The big day is here!
We’ve been working on this for months and we’re excited to announce the launch of the Kickstarter for the Shotguns & Sorcery RPG! This is your chance to help us fund the project and publish it, not to mention get your hands on the game itself.
There are a lot of incredible things happening with this – first off, Matt Forbeck, the creator himself, will be handling the majority of the writing chores on this. And to round out the writing team is amazing game designer Robert Schwalb to help integrate the rules system. I don’t think we could have possibly found a more amazing team!
We’re also the first third-party publisher to license the Cypher System from Monte Cook Games, which just by itself is pretty amazing. We’re really excited to be working with MCG and integrating the Cypher System with Matt’s setting.
This is also going to be one of the first books I’m fully illustrating myself! I can’t wait to dive into the work.
We’re also revealing the full color version of the cover as well – full art by me. Check it out below –
Here is some information about the project as well –
Outland Entertainment wants to make it possible for others to explore the fantasy noir stories of author Matt Forbeck’s Dragon City through the Cypher System, the game engine behind the Origins and ENnies Award winning games Numenera and The Strange. Whether you are playing as your favorite character or unraveling their mysteries for the first time, this hardcover, 300-page core book with 20 pages of full color artwork includes all the rules for game play, allowing you to explore Dragon City and its outskirts as never before.
Shotguns & Sorcery will be the first third-party standalone game to use the rules system featured in Numenera, The Strange, and the just announced Cypher System rulebook. You don’t need to purchase any other books to play.
In a way, this is full circle for Matt and Monte. They first worked together back in 1990 on one of Monte’s first assignments as the Hero System editor at Iron Crown Enterprises, editing Matt’s Western Hero sourcebook. We’re extremely excited to have them joining forces—even indirectly—again!
We also have acclaimed game designer Robert Schwalb on board to help integrate the Cypher System seamlessly with our setting! Robert came to us highly recommended by both Monte Cook Games and Matt. In fact, readers may recognize him as a contributor to the Numenera Character Options and Technology Compendium: Sir Arthour’s Guide to the Numenera. He also has years and years of experience working on Dungeons & Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and his upcoming Shadow of the Demon Lord. We’re extremely fortunate to be working with such talent!
Let us know what you think about the project and please, help us fund it!
JM
by Jeremy Mohler | Nov 5, 2014 | Uncategorized |
Hey folks!
So, things have been quiet the last few weeks in regard to Shotguns & Sorcery. However, that’s not because we haven’t been working!
I’ve spent the last three or four weeks working on the drawing for the cover of the RPG. It’s a big image, planned as a wrap-around cover, and measuring around 23″x18.5″. So, it’s a large, involved image. I’m currently working on the colors and I expect to have those wrapped up sometime toward the end of this week or over the weekend.
I had a lot of fun with this and I think it shows! I also hope this shows how much fun I’m going to have illustrating the whole book. I can’t wait to really dig in!
We’re getting really close to the Kickstarter. In fact, I expect we’ll be launching sometime mid-week next week – we’ve just been working out some final details and I’m excited about some things happening behind the scenes, which I’ll talk more about closer to the launch of the Kickstarter.
In the meantime, I hope you guys dig the cover! I’ll be premiering the colors when we launch the Kickstarter!
JM
by Jeremy Mohler | Nov 3, 2014 | Uncategorized |
Here is a cover I completed for Kraig Dafoe’s latest novel, Skorch, earlier this year.
It was a fun piece to do – I don’t often get asked to just do images like this with a single figure and a fairly uncomplicated background. Though, perhaps that’s partially my own fault for making many images more complicated than they need to be, I dunno. Anyway, I think the most fun I had with this piece was the background, which admittedly, isn’t that abnormal. Especially when it comes to drawing nature, which I love.
Part of the fun is doing the research and looking at all these inspiring images of forests – I take a lot of inspiration from nature and I absolutely love doing pieces that have trees, rocks, leaves, etc.
Below are my initial sketches, the drawing, and the final with type.
You can see that this went through a variety of different approaches until we landed on something the client liked. Personally, I would have loved to do the second background with the twisted up old forest with mossy rocks, but ultimately, it didn’t fit the material as well. With that said, I do really like how the trees, vines, and leaves in the final turned out. And over all, I’m pretty darn happy with the colors.
I’m also not a designer myself and I always feel a little nervous about sending something out that I set the type on. It’s nothing too fancy and the client was happy, so at least there’s that!
JM
by Jeremy Mohler | Sep 8, 2014 | Uncategorized |
2013 saw a lot of work for Th3rd World Studios, from the Orange Man + Orange Woman material, to The Mortal Instruments, and the Aegisteel project. Another project I did for them was an alternate cover for their book, Finding Gossamyr.
I love doing covers, but traditionally, I get asked to do work that is pretty involved with landscapes and complicated backgrounds. And don’t get me wrong, I really love doing that kind of work, but I rarely get a chance to just do an action piece. So, when Mike Devito approached me about doing an alternate cover for one of their books, I thought this would be a great opportunity to do something a little different!
Below you can see the process – the initial layout, the finished pencils, and the final color work.
Not only did I have a lot of fun with the action in this piece, but I also enjoyed drawing the creatures. I don’t believe I’d ever actually drawn a rhinoceros before, so researching those and trying to convert them into these rock-like creatures was a blast. I absolutely fell in love with how craggy and wrinkled a rhino is.
Anyway, it was a fun project to be involved in! The book is a lot of fun too, so be sure to check it out!
JM
