The Mutant Epoch YouTube Channel goes live

First of all, a very special thank to our tech specialist Jakob, for getting us started with movie maker and setting up our youtube account so quickly.

Outland Arts now has a dedicated The Mutant Epoch channel and we managed to load a simple slide show of just some of the art from the Hub Rules book. The music is by Neuroclasm and used with permission. I love it!

If you wait until the end of the video you'll get a sneak peak at our finished front cover for the Hub Rules book. Art is still coming in as are new sections and edits. We have two months to get the book done and off to press if we want to see printed copies at BigCon at the end of September. While we are working our butts off trying to reach that goal, we may only have beta copies available for new local playtest groups to walk away with... which would also be a huge step. There are also several very supportive people out there who will be getting a printed beta copy as well.

At any rate, enjoy the slide show and let me know what you think,

Regards,

Will McAusland

Creator

The Mutant Epoch

Here there be MONSTERS: Mutant Beasts

The art is arriving faster than we can place it in the layout these days, but we want to get these new images on the blog. Today’s offering includes both animals and humanoids that are destined to both terrify and challenge the player characters.

The Mutant Dog shown here is just one of many possibilities, as each pack or individual offers from the next. Found as both wild or domesticated, these canines are cunning, unpredictable, heavily mutated and relentless predators. One of my favorite PCs was killed by a mutant pit-bull in a narrow passage when the PCs shotgun ran out of ammo.

Moaners, also called rubble zombies are diseased, mutated, nocturnal humanoids who delight in torturing and eating humans, however are known to enslave attractive pure stocks of the opposite gender as mating companions… untie the tire of them or food supplies run low. When I saw the movie I Am Legend, I was thrilled to see a similar specimen come to life.

The Horrlify is of human design, a sort of mutated-reptilian dog thing with a powerful beak and randomly determined cybernetic implants. The few that are still around serve as attack-patrol animals for advanced factions, corporate holdover strongholds, and other technologically advanced groups.

Green Walkers appear to be sickly, diseased humans from a distance, perhaps even moaners, but are actually plants which inhabit the frames of humanoid victims, utilizing their sensory organs, skeletal frame and certain organs while living off the tissues of the host. Slow moving and relentless, these nightmares are disturbing to behold and tricky to dispatch.

Dune Spiders are enormous, fast running inhabitants of the wastelands and streets of ancient metropolises. They have evolved to simply run down and dismember their prey, forgoing the use of web or poison.

More beasties coming shortly!

WM

After listening to The RPG Haven Podcast's most recent show 'genre emulation', I decided to take myself away from a digital illustration of assorted post apocalyptic armor and write a review for them on itunes. Here it is:

I’ve listened to a lot of RPG podcasts over the years and this one is now one of my favorites. It is an excellent tabletop RPG podcast because of the knowledge and open mindedness of the hosts, the varied subject matter, games and game related topics. As the publisher of an upcoming rpg, I found their friendly neighborhood gamer section to be refreshing, entertaining, eye opening and very valuable. Keep up the great work guys.

You can find them at: http://www.therpghaven.com/podcast/

Regards,

WM

Got guns?

The art for the Mutant Epoch Hub Rules book is really coming along and we are in the last 90% of it now. Of course in the last blog entry I mentioned the addition of a new PC race and a bunch of skills being added to the book, which will of course mean more art, edits and layout, but we think its worth it.

Today we are offering up a few of the weapon illustrations. Most of these use ink wash over the underlying ink line drawing, followed by some touch ups in Photoshop. While time consuming, this process really makes these weapons stand out. I would love to have a few in small frames to sell or give out as gifts to the many people who have been so supportive of Outland Arts and this project in particular. Maybe a contest giveaway through Excavator Monthly magazine?

Enjoy,

WM

Weapon Expert Skill illustration

Today we have another image for the Hub Rules book. This one shows an ambidextrous adventurer with two razor swords standing over the bloody bodies of three skullocks. This is for the Weapon Expert skill entry and was rendered in graphite, then scanned, and digitally blended to give it an oil paint-like look. This is a slow process compared to inking, but for larger images, something we are planning to use extensively. The upcoming monster book called Mutant Beastiary One, which has a hundred new creatures to add to the multitude already included in the TME hub rules book, will generally be in the digital-oil style shown here.

Hey, just a reminder if you haven't already joined The Mutant Epoch mailing list, why not sign up as we are about to start releasing that shortly.

We have signed up at technorati dot com to try and get this blog listed in their directory. The following code is required to be added to this blog in order to verify that we are the blog writers.

http://technorati.com

EHQT2RBBEJA4

The Mutant Epoch web site

Beware the Great Worm

Thought we’d add another entry today as this digital grayscale painting was just completed.

This is the last image for the creature section of the Mutant Epoch Hub Rules RPG book. It is a half pager that took me a couple of days to pull off. It shows up small here but if you click on the image it should resize to a larger view.

In this scene I wanted to show a few diggers in the ruined streets of an ancient city, perhaps getting the hell outa the underground levels after disturbing something big… which followed them up and now emerges. Notice the feet of the guy with the shotgun. There is some debris across his path. He needs top make a perception based hazard check to see if he sees the bar or not. If not, he trips and the enormous jaw worm gets the initiative.

More art and news coming soon. Back to work on the Cover art and design.

WM

Our First Convention: BigCon 2010

Outland Arts will be at our first gaming convention… BigCon 2010 in Kamloops

, British Columbia, September 25^th and 26^th at the Kamloops Convention centre^.. While I am one of the volunteers, doing the logo, some posters and industry liaison, Outland Arts will be paying for a table and sponsorship spots.

Since BigCon is only a few months away, the likelihood

of having the TME Hub Rules book available for sale at the event is now low. It seems we are adding a new character race and some skills and these will need edits, play testing and art and there is no way we can rush these aspects into the book. What’s that saying: ‘No wine before its time’? I guess

that’s the opposite of ‘the perfect is the enemy of the done’. I tend to think the core game book for an RPG should be as perfect and close to the creator’s vision as possible, as all other supporting products are based on it.

Still, we will set up a table and run demos, pre-sell, preview the art, meet gamers, and maybe sell some posters, original art, a lino print of polyhedron dice (hand pulled, hand colored and limited edition).

We have designs for the table setup which I'll scan and post alter and are looking into a table banner, side roll-up posters, hand outs, business cards, bookmarks and much more. The bookmark for the Mutant Epoch is basically done, I am just waiting for the final touches on the cover art and will apply that and off to press they go.

Clearly, there is much to be done.

Below are a couple of posters I've presented to the organization committee.