Darin Shuler's Awesome Stranger Cover

This is way cool! Darin Shuler, who did the back-cover artwork for my D&D adventure, The Purple Worm Graveyard, is the cover artist for this week's Seattle Stranger! Go, Darin!

Jumping Jehosephat!

I never intended to print additional copies of The Purple Worm Graveyard. I mean, how many copies of a 12-page, half-pint D&D module can you really expect to sell? Apparently all of them! So a second printing is now in the works!

The Purple Worm Graveyard is Available

OK, now that vacations and Go Play NW are done with, I can finally get around to selling copies of The Purple Worm Graveyard! You can find it now at The Purple Worm Graveyard Home Page. The adventure was very well received at Go Play NW, with several people picking up copies, and one person even running it right there!

Hey, also if you're going to be at Gen Con, copies of The Purple Worm Graveyard will be available in the Indie Press Revolution booth, so you can save some shipping!

The Purple Worm Graveyard - Not Quite on Sale Yet...

This thing has been printed for a couple weeks now, but I've just been too busy to put up a Web page. So hang it, I'm just going to blog it!

This post was going to be a place where you could buy the Purple Worm Graveyard, but it looks like you can't put a PayPal button in a Blogger post. Which seems annoying and lame.

So hold on a bit, and I'll put a Web Page somewhere for this thing.

December Compilation and an Upcoming Adventure

Nick at The Fantasy Cartographic, has been doing compilations of each month's dungeons here at Year of the Dungeon. Here's the December Compilation!

Also, Nick has been doing layout on the The Purple Worm Graveyard, an adventure for levels 1-3, which will be ready for sale very soon! Here's a glimpse of the interior art by Ed Heil:

Waking up Again...

I'm slowly coming out of hibernation again, and making plans for the new year. New Years is kind of a big deal. If you're going to do anything interesting with your year, now is a good time to think about it.

So what's up for this blog in the new year?

• More Microdungeons: I'm not done making these little things, not remotely. There will be a new microdungeon every week, maybe two.


• Other Art: And I've been drawing some new and weird art, so I'll be posting some of that.


• Old School Gaming Stuff: because old-school is awesome.


• Another art show: Cafe Verite in the Madrona neighborhood, June-July 2011! This show won't be explicitly dungeon themed, but there will be fantasy maps aplently.


• Writing projects: The Purple Worm Graveyard, a Labyrinth Lord Adventure; and a sequel to How to Host a Dungeon


• Mercantile projects: And I have some commercial projects, including an Etsy store to sell some art and prints. I'm very happy to have a decent career that means I don't have to rely on art to pay my bills. However, when I can make a few bucks at art, that means less financial pressure, and more time for interesting projects. So a big part of my plans for this year is to spend less time working and more time drawing.

Hibernation

I'm still hibernating...

It's a weird transitional time right now. I'm forced to realize that so much has changed in my life in the last 4 months that going back to the same-old isn't even an option.

I'm back from Canada and the news is that my Mom is doing much better than anyone, including her doctor, considered possible! She's currently recovering in hospital. At her age a heart attack is always a serious matter, but the current news is good. Thanks to everyone that sent prayers and wishes.

At work, the big software launch is imminent, which means there will be some pressure off in the consulting business, which means a bit of a break, hopefully. This has been the biggest and busiest few months in my career history, which has all sorts of implications for what comes next.

With lots of time on the plane and in hospital rooms over the last week, I decided to take a bunch of movie stills from the old Tron movie and play with the design aesthetic to see what I can make of it for some weird cartography and illustration stuff. So now I've got a big stack of new ideas to play with.

The Year of the Dungeon art show was also an unforeseen success. I really did not anticipate the response (Thanks ya'll!). That opens up a whole bunch of options for me artistically.

Plus the Purple Worm Graveyard and How to Host a Dungeon sequel are quietly mutating in my desk drawer.

So the upshot is that I may have a modicum of time and even a bit of capital to play with over the next few months. There's a strong potential for life-chaning awesomeness in all this.

But in the meantime, I'm working, thinking, and hibernating.

Discombobulated

I am very busy right now. With all the thinking and preparation around actually hanging my art in coffee shops and the like, it has been hard to focus on the dungeons, hence the lack of posts this week. And it's only going to get worse. There are a number of large writing assignments looming for October-November at work, not to mention continuing progress on The Purple Worm Graveyard. And then there's Go Play NW 2011 to think about. Also, I have more dungeon compilations from Nick to post! But I'm going to try and keep posting. After all, there are only a few months left in the year!

More Purple Worm Art

I just got some more Purple Worm art from Seattle painter Darin Shuler. Actually, Darin is formerly of Seattle, now of South Carolina. When I told Darin I was putting together a D&D module he got very excited and contributed an awesome Purple Worm God image for the back cover. It's weird, surrealistic, and spectacular and not what you expect (in a good way). I'm not going to post it now, though. I'm going to make you all wait until the final is done. :) Also, I probably owe you a preview of the interiour art by Ed Heil, whose work I have admired since the days of Trollbabe.

Art Preview!

I'm looking at the cover preview for an upcoming project, and it's extremely awesome!

Click to see the full image
This is an early preview of the cover for my Purple Worm Graveyard module. Eugene Jaworski is the artist. I think his old-school aesthetic is perfect for it. Plus he really knows how to draw monsters! Ed Heil is doing the interior artwork. I can't express how awesome it is to be able to hire professional artists. The work they do is pure magic.