Monday 24 September 2012

Horror Among Updates

It's been a bit quiet around here of late, not because of a lack of interest in gaming -- we've played a bit of Call of Cthulhu, playtested D&D5 and have even returned to Pathfinder in the past couple of weeks -- but rather because I've been preoccupied with working on Horror Among Thieves. The adventure exists in a playable form as of right now, and I managed to get in a playtest with my regular group, but there's still a lot of work to be done to get it into something that can be published.

That said, I thought I'd share a bit of a preview. This is one of the least spoiler-laden locations in the scenario, the House on Willow Lane:


This is a rough version of how I want the book to look; if the adventure hadn't reached its funding goal and I'd put it out myself this is how it would look more or less, but with James Raggi's layout people putting it together it should look much better, and of course there are still changes to be made. Even so, this should give you an idea of what I'm going for.

14 comments:

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    1. Thank you! I expect it to look better once a more appropriate typeface is chosen and someone who knows something about layout -- I think Jez Gordon will be doing that part -- has tidied it up.

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  2. That's a really nice layout. Did you do it yourself?

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    1. Thanks James! It's more of a proof-of-concept than a final page design -- I don't have any sort of design training, unless you count an "E" at GCSE -- but yes, I put it together myself.

      Truth be told, it's a scan of a page from my Moleskine, with the handwritten text replaced with a digital font in Gimp.

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  3. Very nice! I really like the way the maps are detailed enough (showing furniture and so on) that you don't need to use text to describe that stuff.

    Maybe it's just the small size of the scans, but I do feel that the lines for the internal walls could be thicker -- I didn't notice them until the text for the 1st floor differentiated between them.

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    1. Thanks Gavin! You're right about the walls; that's something that will get fixed in the finished piece.

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  4. Style-wise it reminds me of WFRP adventures. Looks great Kelvin. I can't wait to get my hands on it! :)

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    1. Thank you! The WFRP feel is due in part to the font I've used, as it's very similar to that used in a lot of Warhammer products. That said, I'd be lying if there wasn't a bit of a WFRP influence in the general style too; the White Dwarf Marienburg articles have been close at hand during the design process.

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  5. I like your crisp black and white floorplans, detail level is just right as purely decorative flourish like floorboards does not detract of the clarity and does not make things look cluttered.

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    1. That's exactly what I'm going for. Thanks Jonas!

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  6. Looks great, I'm psyched to see more!

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  7. I really like the scritchy-scratchy, slightly cartoonish art. helps bring it to life. :)

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    1. I was thinking that the final book would be less scritchy-scratchy, but this has turned out well, so maybe not!

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