Last Edits being inserted and TME website near completion

Hi Anonymous, and you others who are waiting so patiently!

The final edits got turned in and we have about 60 more pages to go through and then it is good to go. I'll order a test print copy via lulu.com to make sure the conversion looks fine, and then make it available as both print on demand and PDF versions at once. We'll get a shipment of hard copies sent to the office and deliver these to the local game shops and book stores, and commence the mail order for those in Europe and elsewhere who have been waiting for their copy.

The only issue now, besides inserting the final edits is working with our server host to get the Society of Excavators password protected area of web site up, and the phpBB forum inside the members area fully operational. All is going according to plan but not to schedule. Getting the game on the market before Christmas seems to be a objective that is slipping away by the hour, and the Christmas party lat night and my subsequent hang over today didn't accelerate my productivity. Still, every hour I work, and press my hirelings and talented henchmen to work, brings the release an hour closer.

Speaking of henchmen, I have a lot of talented people helping me with this project, and The Mutant Epoch could not have gotten to this stage without tons of feedback, play tester advice, family support and sacrifice. There have also been a lot of people online, including some of my illustration client-rpg publishers, who have been very gracious with advice, resource sharing and camaraderie. I'll be thanking them properly in the book credits and on the website.

To close off before I settle down to several hours of edit insertions, thanks to all of you who have signed up to the Outland Arts Insider newsletter and TME inform mailing list, this blog and wrote me email asking about the game. Although Outland Arts hasn't started marketing this Post Apocalyptic game, other than a few cryptic tweets, some banners here and there and a teaser ad on roleplayingtips.com, we are still getting a lot of attention and it is a huge motivator toward getting this done as soon as possible, without sacrificing artwork, rules clarity, game balance, grammar, spelling or other RPG book publishing challenges.

Thanks and Merry Christmas,

William McAusland

Creative Director,

Outland Arts.com

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

"The Perfect is the Enemy of the Done"

Between edits, play testing, layout and art production, we’ve been busier than ever here at Outland Arts. When it comes time to sit down and either add an entry to this blog or get another section of a book or magazine edited, we seem to go for the edits instead. This has certainly kept our updates here at a minimum.

Our plan for this blog has been to utilize it frequently once the initial RPG release is imminent and after the release to update readers on new products and showcase art and related media.

From now to the release of the Mutant Epoch Hub Rules book, we will be making more regular blog entries, presenting art as it pours in.

This week’s imagery, spread through this entry, covers a newly added section to the core book: Typical Humans of the New Era. In earlier drafts of the Hub Rules book these people appeared only under the typical humans table as well as in special encounter listings, but as they are so often met in various adventures, supplements and circumstances, we felt that a richer, more detailed description of each, as along with an illustration, was welcome.

The added section has certainly slowed the release of the book as about twenty new inks drawings and another visit to the book’s layout had to be accomplished, not to mention more work for our editor and proofreaders.

Yes, the now famous and very true saying “The Perfect is the Enemy of the Done” is constantly on our minds here, and as we revisit rules, art, and edits of the hub rules book, we are painfully aware of how long it is taking to get this game on the shelves.

We have a few other sections to be inserted in the book yet including Common Vehicles, Scrap Built Vehicles, Airships and a few smaller sections, all needing edits and artwork, so the struggle and progress continues.

Our goal to release the game in early 2010 is still in our sights, and given the intensity of our recent progress, feel confident about meeting that goal. Once the Hub Rules book has all its art, cover art and design and final edits done, and the first printed proof on my desk, we will give a fixed release date and begin pre-launch promotions in earnest.

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