April Update
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Apr 27, 2022 at 02:42:45 AM
We are two months past the Kickstarter campaign, so here is another monthly update. The state of the zine is strong. We continue to churn through writing, editing and art for the book and a couple spreads are getting ready for layout. I recently commissioned a pretty massive piece of art from Sam Mameli, and I'm excited to show you all the final product.
I am putting together some guidelines for guest writers, and they will be getting started on their bars over the coming months. Our slate of guest writers is one of my favorite aspects of this adventure, so I am looking forward to seeing what they each put together for their bars.
This month was slightly less productive than future months will be because the Prismatic Wasteland team (W.F. Smith and K.T. Nguyen) took a vacation and even got engaged. To each other, even; what are the odds?!
As always, here are a couple more new pieces of art that are going in the zine.
Thanks for your continued support and please stayed tuned for next month's update!
The Bard of Bars,
W.F. Smith of the Prismatic Wasteland
March Update
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Mar 25, 2022 at 04:08:33 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
A Toast to A Successful Campaign
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 05:18:18 PM
Last night was closing time for our Kickstarter campaign for Barkeep on the Borderlands. When I was first setting up stretch goals, the highest one I added was for $15,000, which I thought was ambitious. But I am glad to have been proven wrong! This was my first campaign, and it has been such a surprise (to me) success! But I could not have done it alone. I would be remiss if I failed to extend my utmost gratitude to everyone on the Barkeep team; my partner, layout artist and graphics maestro, K.T. Nguyen; Ava Islam and Ty Pitre for their constant advice and troubleshooting; the entire MAMR community for their unending love, support and hype; all of our artists and guest writers for giving this campaign their all, and you, our backers, for your support.
However, before we continue to go around the room giving toasts to each other, there is a zine to finish! This month, I will get my initial sections into final shape for initial playtesting and editing with the guest writers and other friends. I will also be commissioning more art. I plan to send y'all monthly updates this year so you are apprised of our progress and get some sneak peaks of any new art.
I'm making this update visible to the public because you might be reading this as a non-backer, green with envy for being late to this campaign. Well, no worries, I have set up a mailing list so you can also get notified when the Backerkit is up, which will allow for pre-orders. Backers are of course welcome to sign up too if you want updates when I release new projects. I also have a separate mailing list up for blog fans.
That's all for now! I hope you are as excited as I am.
W.F. Smith of the Prismatic Wasteland
The Home Stretch: All Stretch Goals Unlocked!
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Feb 24, 2022 at 09:34:19 AM
Good news, everyone! As I was nestled all snug in my bed, while visions of plum brandy (slivovitz) danced in my head, we crossed over our final stretch goal: Luka Rejec, the acclaimed author of the Ultraviolet Grasslands, will be packing his creative might into one of the many pubs of our pubcrawl! And I have each of you to thank for exceeding my wildest, most brandy-soaked dreams.
But the campaign is just heating up. As we head into the last few days, we will continue our efforts to get Barkeep on the Borderlands into as many hands as possible. At this point, extra funds are going into even more color art from all of our illustrious artists on board. As an example, TorTheVic just finished a new portrait for the zine: the Bishop of the Cult of Chaos and proprietor of the multi-level nightclub, Our Lady of the Sacred Speakeasy. They are a potential antagonist or ally of the player-characters as they navigate both the pubs and politics of the Keep. If you'd like to read about how the Cult relates to its predecessor in the classic Keep on the Borderlands module, I recently wrote about it on my blog.
Another Project to Feast Your Eyes Upon
If you haven't already, check out The Toxic Wood, a really slick looking adventure that is also funding for ZineMonth. The Toxic Woodis a corrosive hexcrawl adventure for old school essentials. A deadly extraction adventure into a hazy luminescent wood filled with spiteful mutated horrors, ancient insectoid witch sisters, an isolated cursed village and a corrosive dragon cult.
I will leave you with the now filled-out stretch goal tracker. It is a nice roadmap of all our progress so far.
To your health,
W.F. Smith of the Prismatic Wasteland
New Stretch Goals featuring Luka Rejec
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 10:12:36 PM
Barkeep on the Borderlands has more tricks up its sleeves. As we approach the last of our initial stretch goal (for which all of our contributors will be paid an additional 10% over and above their current asking rate) at $15,000, a spectator may remark that this humble pubcrawl adventure venture has surely reached its zenith. This is not so. In fact, we merely ascend one last precipice before the full mountain that lay before us could come into view. Now we may gaze upon the resplendent beauty which, together, we shall ascend. Without further ado, presenting our new Stretch Goals:
Our Final Guest Writer: Luka Rejec
The esteemed author of the Ultraviolet Grasslands (winner in the categories of Best Art, Best Setting, and Best Adventure in the 2020 Questing Beast Awards), Longwinter and Witchburner, among others, will be joining our team to write and illustrate his own bar if we can reach the $20,000 mark. Luka is an extreme talent and one of the individuals most responsible for inspiring me to throw my hat into the TTRPG ring. I am so excited to see what he will create alongside all the other amazing guest writers.
Bookmarks on the Borderlands
At the $16,000 mark, everyone who pledges at the Print + PDF tier ($20 USD) or above will receive an illustrated bookmark with a drinking game that ties in the adventure (a PDF of which will also be available for download for those getting the PDF tiers or higher), for those groups that want to drink in real life as their characters drink (or not) in the game. At the $17,000 mark, we will add 3 custom cocktail recipes from the adventure (e.g., the Cava of Chaos) to the bookmark as well.
The form factor of the bookmarks is an important aspect of this reward. While the consumption of alcohol is an aspect of this adventure, and some groups will find a drinking game an enjoyable supplement to their fun, not everyone can drink or wants to drink alcohol. Adding the drinking game and cocktail recipes into the zine itself could send the signal that this is a default, or even required, mode of playing the adventure, which is absolutely not the case. A bookmark makes these rewards more modular; simply use it if you want or set it aside if you don't. And for those groups that do want to incorporate, it lets the gamemaster pass around the drinking rules to the players while still being able to reference the separate adventure.
Progress Report
Since our last update, we broke through two more stretch goals, adding Ben Laurence and Zedeck Siew to our star-studded roster of guest writers. I continue to spend most of my free time working on this campaign (or anxiously refreshing it; that counts as work, right?), and have a few art commissions in the work that I hope will be finished in time to show off before the campaign ends. Hopefully the next time you hear from me, I will have some details to share about the pubcrawl procedure. Before we leave, let's hear from Ben and Zedeck themselves, shall we:
Zedeck Siew (GUEST WRITING) - One half of A THOUSAND THOUSAND ISLANDS; creator of Lorn Song of the Bachelor and Spy in The House Of Eth. Will probably draw from the clubbing he did in his twenties, for this.
"I thought a little about the thing I want to write: SAVE THE WHIRLING MUMMY The mummy was cursed to dance. Nobody remembers why. It danced as its city burned down; as a new harbour rose around it. Nobody remembers the mummy's name. They built a house for the mummy. There is music every night, in the house of the mummy. One cannot dance without music. There are many dancers. Basically the Whirling Mummy is under threat. Maybe a table of scenarios? Or all at once: moral police wanting to shut it down. Flautist guild angry that the style of music being played has moved onto drums (or something). Gang financiers looking for the owner. Etc."
Ben Laurence (GUEST WRITING) - Author of Through Ultan’s Door and Mazirian’s Garden. Purveyor of dreams, merchant of nightmares, speculator in rare fancies.
"My favorite bar in Zyan is the Sky Goose in Volish Hill. I ran a session there once where the characters did drugs, ate roast cat, and burst through the pub in a skyship they found in the basement, with the authorities in hot pursuit."
Another Zine You Should Back
If you are wondering what or where "Zyan" is, it's Ben's setting that is fleshed out in the Through Ultan's Door zines, but also featured in his current project, Downtime in Zyan, which is live on Kickstarter at this very moment!
Downtime in Zyan is a zine about what characters do between adventures. It presents an elegant system for all your PC's dreams and schemes, whether it's building institutions, cultivating relationships, crafting items, researching obscure lore, engaging in wild revelries, or plumbing the perilous depths of spellcraft. While the mole rats of Zyan, illustrated by the whimsical art of Evlyn Moreau, serve as guides to this topic, Downtime in Zyan is setting and system neutral and doesn't presuppose familiarity with the world presented in Ben's other zine, Through Ultan's Door.
