I have knocked up a prototype of the Umlaut ashcan. Dragonmeet is a month away, so I have a short while to iron out the kinks.
Some things work, some don't, but in general the thing looks OK and isn't a total nightmare to produce.
It's a comb-bound book plus 8 sheets of A5 card which can be cut out to make counters for Glory, Cash and Flaming Skulls, plus 4 sets of Style cards. I'll make that lot downloadable to anyone who buys the thing. The sheets of card will be supplied in a sturdy envelope. Which might have a printed sticker on the front, if I get around to doing that.
The inside layout is pretty rough at the moment. But you get the idea.
The cover of this one is printed on regular paper and then covered with a plastic front sheet, much the same as the ones I had earlier in the year. I'm not sure about that, it looks OK, but I'm also thinking of maybe using some black leather effect card I have and stencilling onto that with silver paint.
I really wanted the writing on the tape to look handwritten, but my handwriting is utterly illegible. So I used the standard font and then distressed it with some filter or other to make it look badly inked. It looks OK to me.
That looks very good Rich!
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Thu, 25/10/2007 - 08:09.
That looks very good Rich! Can't wait to see it in the flesh!
How many are you going to make, and how much are you planning on selling them for?
What made you decide to make an ashcan, rather than going ahead with a final version?
Good questions...
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Thu, 25/10/2007 - 10:42.
How many are you going to make, and how much are you planning on selling them for?
I am currently planning on making 20 for Dragonmeet. I think that'll probably be double the maximum number I expect to sell, so there will be some left over. I'm selling them for £6 on the understanding that anyone giving me useful feedback gets £6 off the full version if they want to buy that.
What made you decide to make an ashcan, rather than going ahead with a final version?
A combination of factors:
Firstly there's the issue of layout and artwork. It takes time to go from a finished text to a laid out book, and I really don't have that time right now.
Then there's printing. Adding the time for getting the book printed to that and meeting any type of deadline becomes harder at best, and impossible at worst.
Most importantly though, is the fact that I've written the thing, and I've tested it and found it to be good, but I haven't received anywhere near enough outside feedback to feel 100% confident in either the game's design or text. Until it's been tested more by other folks, read by people who've never played it and all that feedback gathered and acted upon, I'm not willing to take it through the next steps of copy editing, then layout, then printing.
By home-building and distributing this version, the plan is that I can hopefully engage with enough people who can give me the feedback I need to progress the game and the text to the point where I can publish a finished book.
I'm looking forward to seeing this at DM...
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Thu, 25/10/2007 - 11:48.
Oh, and I put in "height" and "width" tags with the images so as not to break the layout of the forum pages (they're set at 480 x 360).
The images when viewed in a separate window are still 640 x 480.
Looks very metal Rich! Nice
Submitted by JoE PrincE on Fri, 26/10/2007 - 07:21.
Looks very metal Rich!
Nice 80s aesthetics.
We need to talk licensing at Dragonmeet - I'll do you the same deal as Morningstar, basically licensing in exchange for playtesting.
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JoE
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Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....