The Scourge of Northland is a low-level adventure campaign designed for use with Old-School Essentials or your favorite OSR ruleset.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
December Update, happy holidays!
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Dec 28, 2022 at 07:21:37 PM
Hello everyone!
I hope everyone is having a safe a enjoyable holiday here at the end of 2022! The family and I braved the weather (bad timing + stubborn) to stay with family for the holiday break. Made it to our destination safe so there's that.
The module is still moving forward and the new cover art is coming along nicely. I'll be sure to post the art in an update when it's finished as well as some other interior pages with finished art. Interior art will be a mix of black and white illustrations as well as hand painted pieces. The cover art is being rendered with digital painting (using Krita and Photoshop), much the same way my previous covers were. The book will contain noAI generated art whatsoever. It was a mistake for me to even dabble in it, let alone entertain the idea of publishing with it.
I think moving forward I'm going to update only with finished work or at least extremely close to complete. I've found that many, if not most, folks are happy to see the production process, but a loud minority get attached to early drafts and then emotions get high, etc.
So, the MO for future projects is not to show too much of how the sausage is made and if I launch a project through this platform, the book will be closer to completion.
That's all for now. Have a great rest of the year!
Jacob
Project Update, Slight change in course.
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Nov 25, 2022 at 07:21:28 PM
Apologies on the late update. I know I said monthly update, but that didn't happen. I'll try and be more communicative going forward. It's been a stressful few month here at home and that caused me to have to divert my attention. The project is still moving along but slower than was planned. Again, I apologize.
While I have been working and thinking about the project as a whole, I've been reflecting on some choices I made early on and I've come to a decision on one facet of the book: the art. Initially I was quite taken by the sudden accessibility of AI art like Midjourney and was really impressed with what could be achieved fairly simply using the tool, but since I've spent a good deal of time looking at it in the working documents, I've come to not like it as much. It doesn't feel like anything worth publishing and I would personally regret it later. I wasn't expecting this project to receive the kind of support that it did and I very much want to produce something that is worthy of that.
So, that's a long-winded way of saying that I'm ditching all of the AI art and doing all the illustrations myself. That includes the cover as well. It will be in the same spirit as the placeholder cover but digitally painted—either by me or by an artist who is more skilled. I'll post a couple of the illustrations that I've completed here.
Crab Spider Attack
Troll Encounter
With that said, I think the book will be better for it in the end. The unfortunate reality is that the December deliver date is unlikely and will have to be pushed until early 2023. I will do my best to expedite that, but I do not want to rush it and release something subpar. Thank you for your patience, it will be worth the wait.
Jacob
Monthly Check-In
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Sep 29, 2022 at 04:36:20 PM
Hey Everyone,
Happy Monday! This is just a quick update to check in and let you all know the project is still on track and moving along. I'll have pages and spreads to show off later in the next update once they've been through edits and are closer to the final stages. Have a great week everyone!
Jacob
Glorious Campaign, Now Back to Work!
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Aug 24, 2022 at 11:29:39 PM
Hey Everyone!
I took an extended weekend to decompress after the end of the campaign and now I'm back to it! This Kickstarter campaign was beyond what we could have hoped for and now we're fueled and ready for the fun part. Zine Quest is still going strong so be sure to check out some of the other projects still funding. I won't post any of them in this update, however if you follow along on twitter, I'll be doing my best to spread the word for our friends.
The next month is all integration of the adventure location maps into the working document which includes descriptions, layout, and adjusting the maps where needed. I won't bore you too much on the production details though. Suffice to say, this is my favorite part of the journey.
Have a great rest of your week and thank you all again!
Jacob
Final Countdown and Other great projects from Zine Quest 4
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Aug 19, 2022 at 11:43:17 AM
Hey Everyone!
We're in the final 48 hours of the campaign and far beyond what I had hoped to reach. We're extremely grateful for all your support!
Now that we're in the final stretch, I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight some great Zine Quest projects that are currently running and one comic book project from personal friends of mine.
A Shadow over Odir is a 32-page mystery adventure for 5E blending Studio Ghibli and Lovecraftian inspirations and designed for 2nd to 4th level characters.
The manual includes:
An exclusive adventure written and designed by the prize-winning
author of Big Empty Blue. Community tested and approved;
Tons of art created exclusively for the world by Big Empty Blue's
lead artist;
10 brand-new traits and abilities;
7 new and unique monsters;
4 new magic items;
2 new maps (1 map of the market with locations; 1 dockyards battle map);
2 new subraces;
And one brand-new playable race: the Tritonids, nomadic Merfolk of the Big Blue.
The adventure will also include tons of prompts to personalize your gaming experience according to your party and give every character their time to shine.
Dive into the Big Blue. Back A Shadow Over Odir now!
Both Zaratos and WORLDBREAKER are being developed for Old-School Essentials (compatible with nearly all OSR-style retroclone games) foremost and then converted to the 5th edition of the world's most popular roleplaying game.
Both will be A5 format saddle-stitched zines, approximately 50+ pages per booklet. Not only is this project TWO different zines, WORLDBREAKER is comprised of FOUR individual books and The Dark Tides of Zaratos is TWO books!
CURRENT STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED INCLUDE:
A new monster to crossover with The Lands of Loor project (see below)!
TONS more original art for both WORLDBREAKER and Zaratos!
TWO complete adventures for The Dark Tides of Zaratos (~50+ pages each)!
One complete adventure for WORLDBREAKER (~50+ pages)!
FIVE new songs for the WORLDBREAKER gaming soundtrack! (soon SIX!)
Custom character sheets for both projects (both OSE and 5E)!
Sticker pack add-ons with themes from both projects!
All digital rewards are included to all backers of PDF level or higher!
Do you have what it takes to scout the Honey Hex for Queen and Hive?
Take on the role of a Royal Messenger, tasked with delivering a supply of honey from your sovereign to the ruler of a friendly queendom. Along the way, explore this unknown-to-you territory, gathering information and new nectars and pollens for your home. But beware: not every queendom is as easy to navigate as your home realm, and may harbor dangers beyond your imagination...
Honey Hex is a solo game of exploration and optional journaling by Edaureen Muhamad Nor. While the game as written was designed for a solo player, it is easily expanded for multiple players working either cooperatively or competitively. It is also highly replayable, with an optional campaign mode that allows you to expand on your Messenger's story the more you play.
