Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone from Outland Arts, William McAusland and Family.
I just sent out a long-overdue Outland Arts Insider Newsletter If you didn’t get it, or want to be added to the list, just email me here: info@outlandarts.com and I’ll set you up.

Have a great night and Happy Holidays to all
WM

Eye issues, the damn sequel:: Retinal Detachment

My earlier eye surgery failed, retina tear turned into a much worse retinal detachment.

Noticed it camping over the previous weekend as vision stopped its rapid improvement and a great dark curtain fell across my vision from the nose to about halfway across my right eye’s field of view. Got an emergency inspection by my regular eye doctor and my wife drove me to another city to see a specialist.

Had a short surgery in Kelowna Monday and then had to eat, sleep, and travel face down for several days which was hell on my neck and back.

Last Thursday I had an hour-long horror show of a surgery here in Kamloops. Science Fiction reference aplenty but I’d prefer to have been unconscious for that sorta thing in the future.

Right after the surgery. I'm smiling, sorta, because the freezing hasn't come out yet.  Wasn't looking so smug around 7pm that night. Tylenol allowed me to sleep a few hours - face down on a special foam pillow.

The morning after the surgery. Posted this in blue to spare you the gore.

My wife’s parents drove me back to Kelowna for the follow-up and somewhat gory bandage removal early the next morning. Doctor was very happy with the results but the ‘heavy oil’ they put in my eye to stabilize it won’t be removed until December during another surgery... so will I be a one-eyed near useless specimen until after that? F**k.

Returning from Kelowna the morning after the surgery and post-op follow-up. It was good news from the doctor that the surgery went well. Another surgery in December, however. 

At least doc thinks the eye has been saved but will be a lifelong concern. The removal of the tiny cataract in that eye some years ago seems to be the likely culprit.

Home now with a bloody swollen eye, on T3s and now able to lie on my back or sit at the drawing table and fantasize about drawing, inking, and oil painting. I am, however, able to use my left eye to doodle and ink previously penciled art for the Expansion Rules but need to go real easy. As for working on a computer, that might be weeks away.

What an ordeal.

I’ll add updates and bits of art when able. This will, of course, delay the New book’s release, but at least the incredibly talented doctors saved the eye.

Regards,

WM

I didn't get too far from bed this weekend, and one of my cat's Rory, would not leave my side!  

Introducing Monday Mutants

So for the past three Mondays, I have released a new creature for the game. Most of the art is stuff I did the pencil work for over the past two years knowing I was planning this collection - although back then I imagined it being called 'Friday Freaks', but, with Fridays being so busy with family event sand and visitors, I thought Monday would be better.

Here's what we say on various storefronts and at our site about these offerings...


Monday Mutants provide game masters with an all-new deviated freak for your next post-apocalyptic Mutant Epoch game session. Until further notice, we will be releasing a new beast every Monday, with a minimum of 12 planned out in advance and more to follow if the first wave meets with a favorable response.

While crafted for The Mutant Epoch RPG, which is armed with the Outland System, GMs can easily modify these wasteland monstrosities to accommodate other game systems. 

Priced to move at the always affordable Pay What You Want cost, these critters are sure to add an element of the unexpected to your next ruin crawl. This first batch is written and illustrated by the creator of the Mutant Epoch, William McAusland. Each includes a full page version of the ink artwork for use as a player hand out – which at our table we simply use within the PDF and hold up the iPad to show the player what their characters see. 

For those of you who like a print book at your table, we aim to compile these weird things into a book once we have plenty of them posted here.

 Of course, I didn't think they would take a full day to write up, layout and publish, even with the main art already done. Why I am concerned is that I have this impossible dream to get the Expansion Rules out for the end of August so I can have a stack of the new books at Attack-X in mid-Septemeber.

While I am still working toward that goal, I have only two and a half months left to finish the last of the writing, paint the cover, do the in interior pencils then inks and then the layout, final edit, and proofread, not to mention playtesting various points along the way. Danny Seedhouse has been doing a ton of the writing and its wicked stuff, so surely couldn't do this without him-- to say nothing of all of you who have submitted mutations, house rules, bestial human templates, relics and much more.

So, as for the Monday Mutants go, I will try to keep them to 5-page PDFs including cover and the full page player handout version at the back.  They are certainly keeping a focus on the game, getting a few donations and perhaps triggering sales and so introducing new fans to the world of the Mutant Epoch. However, I think the real benefit of these weekly freaks will come when I have enough to put them, plus a heap of never before seen extra beasts, into a print and PDF book.

While as mentioned above, the plan is to produce just 12 of these and then see where I am at based on fan response and time limitations, but as you can tell, I love monsters and am thrilled to share these critters with the Epochian community.

Okay, so here are the first three with links to both our gumroad store (where we get 95% of anything you wanna throw in the tip jar) as well as at Drivethrurpg.com (where we get 60%. I am a huge fan of Drivethrurpg.com, but wish they'd pay at least 70% like they used to when I first started working with them. I imagine they will flip to a 50/50 cut in the years ahead since their new store, Dungeon Masters Guild is 50%. has done so.)

If you haven't tried gumroad.com yet, give them a shot even if you're downloading these totally for free, just to see how the system works. I might even make a product that is only available via gumroad just to get people familiar with it and show them how easy it is. And, I must say, it has the sweetest product loading system I have ever seen on any storefront and I expect great things from that site in the future.

Anyway, time to promote the Skayl on the forums, then contact Warehouse 23 store and submit a title there for their consideration -- they might be hosting TME PDFs soon enough if they like what they see.

 Have a great day, Comment, share and all the rest,

Will

Monday Mutants: 1

Junko

Released: June 3 2019

The Junko is a lumbering mutie of the wastes, an eater of men, a user of bait loot, and an unpredictable, ravenous foe. Use with caution, as just one of these brutes can result in a TPK of low-rank excavators, especially if the damn thing gets into melee range with a group. 

Grab it at:

Gumroad.com https://gumroad.com/l/YLrFL 

Where we receive 95% of any tips

Drivethrurpg.com https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/278883/Monday-Mutant-1-Junko

Monday Mutants: 2

Beaked-Slasho

Released: June 10th 2019

Beaked-Slashos are aggressive, swift-moving pack hunters which inhabit nearly every non-aquatic terrain type. Although they have a beak and squawk and call like vultures, they are actually warm-blooded reptiles. They have night vision and can be found on the prowl any time of day. Their leathery, scale-covered hides are grayish brown in dry or ruin areas, while olive green among strains which dwell in swamps and woodlands. Most exhibit dull, yellow beaks and narrow, blood red eyes, white talons and garish, unnaturally purple tongues, although albino and almost entirely black specimens have been seen.

They use a limited form of inter-species telepathy and can communicate openly with all members of their own kind within a one-kilometer range. They use this power to alert each other to nearby threats, sources of water, carrion, or the arrival of prey animals — including humans and their off-shoots

Grab it at:

Gumroad.com https://gumroad.com/l/vxgoU

Where we receive 95% of any tips

Drivethrurpg.com

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/279634/Monday-Mutant-2-BeakedSlasho

Monday Mutants: 3

Skayl

Released: June 17th 2019

Skayls are entirely carnivorous and favor the flesh of fish, rodents and human-based entities, including their mortal enemies, skullocks.

Territorial, bad-tempered, and prone to worshiping colossal beasts, mad robots or digital beings, these tough little creatures spend their time hunting, patrolling their lands, and seeking new and better weapons with which to engage larger creatures, hostile tribes, or the incursions of human excavation teams.

Loot your copy here:

Gumroad.com

https://gumroad.com/l/vCvZU

Where we receive 95% of any tips

Drivethrurpg.com https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/280346/Monday-Mutant-3-Skayl

Oh, I should mention we've set up a Monday Mutants webpage http://www.outlandarts.com/mondaymutants.htm 

and an art gallery http://www.outlandarts.com/monday-mutants-art-gallery1.htm

Bundle of Holding presents the Mutant Epoch: Mind Crushing Savings on our PDF RPG books!

Want to explore the Mutant Epoch at an incredible price? From June 3rd until the 24th a huge part of our RPG books are available through Bundle of Holding!

For just $7..95 you can get the starter collection of three books or level up to the Bonus Collection.

Already got these PDFs? Well, tell your TME gamers about this mind-crushing deal so they can get their own copies and spread the Epoch themselves. Maybe they can learn the rules and become your group's back-up game master or run the Mutant Epoch for you next weekend?

Learn more about this incredible, one time deal at https://bundleofholding.com/presents/MutantEpoch

Join me on a post-apocalyptic art thread at ENworld.org

Just a quick note in case you missed this on twitter.

Howdy Epochians and artists who illustrate postapocalyptic RPG and related art. Years ago I started a thread on ENworld called Post Apocalyptic Art. Why not stop by and say hello or add your own PA art?

Join me here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?330579-Post-Apocalyptic-Art-Thread

Expansion Rules Ink Art and update from the Mutant Lord

Hello Epochians, I'm back with a huge array of newly finished inks for the upcoming TME Expansion Rules. I am posting this both here on the forums and my blog. These images, shown at the bottom of this post,  are also posted to the website now at the book's own art gallery here: http://www.outlandarts.com/TME-Expansion-Rules-ArtGallery1.htm

I've been in a deep, deep creative cave all winter, and supporting my family by producing a ton of art for Goodman Games and a select few other RPG publishers, but for the most part, working on the Expansion Rules and the Mutant Epoch novel series. yes, although I am using a pen name for the serial style, fast-paced TME Fiction series, it is me. After three years of all most full-time writing, The first draft is now written and I will be spending about three hours a day doing my initial author edits over the next year.

Why novels and not RPG content? Well, the game actually comes from a massive novel I wrote many years before and takes place in the Shallow Sea Region just north of the Crossroads Region. And many of you might not know this but I originally set out to be a novelist and not a game designer or illustrator. I learned to draw and paint so I could do the maps, interior inks and covers for my books, and sorta fell into illustration work by accident but have always been a tabletop gamer since I was very young.

Anyway, back to the Expansion Rules.
I get a lot of questions about the release date and I am honored by the interest and believe me it does encourage me, but the only fixed date I know it will be ready by is this coming September when I must have a stack of print copies at my booth at two local game conventions here in my home town (AttackX and Kamcon). But, to have print copies shipped here to Canada means the books will have to be available far sooner than that, so I am thinking August. Yet, unlike the hub rules, which I rushed to release perhaps a month or two before I was really ready, I will go with the 'no wine before it's time' mantra and only release it if it's as perfect as my team and I can make it. In the meantime, I will be posting almost daily art updates on the following social media sites:

https://www.instagram.com/mutantepoch/ (where I am probably most active whenever I can find my phone)

https://mewe.com/i-front/williammcausland (which replaces G+ and I like a lot)

https://www.facebook.com/TheMutantEpoch (I love-hate facebook and am so confused by the interface, changes and all the different notifications, and distrustful of the people who own and run the service... yet this is where so many TME fans hang out and it is a very lively feed. So, I love the Epochians but hate the site, in short.)

https://www.pinterest.ca/wmcausland/the-mutant-epoch-pinterest-gallery/ ( not really social media but I love it. Feel free to pin TME art to your boards; it helps it spread the word)

https://twitter.com/mutantlord (reliable workhorse, but not sure how many people use it anymore)

Feel free to post these images to your own feeds with mention of the Mutant Epoch RPG and website ( www.mutantepoch.com ) whenever possible. This game generally gets 5-star reviews, but what I learned from going to GenCon 2017 was that nobody has heard of it, and it is obscurity that all authors dread more than even potential bad reviews. More on that later, and how I can encourage reviews and the introduction of TME to the TTRPG world.
Stay tuned for more shorty as I am going to the inking table right now.

Finally, I apologize for my hermit-like departure from the forums for so many months but know that I work on this stuff every single day, sometimes 12 hours a day, and there is a storm of content in production.

Kindest regards from the southwestern of Canada,
William 'Mutant Lord' McAusland