[OSR Sci-Fi Horror] Sample Art

Quick and dirty Art

You might remember that I teased a new OSR project, last week.

The design crew (that's me and a friend) has decided to go for a very OSRish approach, not only concerning the rules, but also the Art which will be included in our next RPG.

I wanted to present you some of the Art I've developped for that game, because i'm kind of very proud of it.

The Setting

The setting will be a planet of horror, settled by a satanic cult who achieved to break some Seals, align the stars, or create an arcane apocalypse (no one really knows, and those who know... don't tell...)

CyberDemonPunk

So it's a futuristic setting, with cyberpunk elements (don't think only of chrome, but more of very powerful megacorporations, poluted ecosystems, and galactic misery apart for the top 0,1%), with black magic, and demons. No Angels, no other arcane powers than the dark art.

Yes it will be pretty bleak.

If you think of Doom, right now, yes, that's a major influence (along with Blade Runner, Transhuman Space, Dead Space, and a bunch of others)

The (quick and dirty) Art

I've spent a day developping a method to create Art quickly and used it for the Art you are about to see.

I'll probably make a tutorial out of my method, once the game is out.

The first art took a while, but now I need less than 2 hours for each image (and would take much longer to make it "undirty" - #StillLearning)

You can find those images on ArtStation too, where I also will add newer art pieces, later on (and will not add them into this post)

The firedemon

Wreaking mayhem and playing fire in a plaza? Yes, that's a typical fire demon

The Chainsaw-Massacre-Demon

This is probably gonna be our Cover. This is the first art piece I created.

What noise could have troubles this Demon? I'll wait for your answers in the commentaries

The quick and agile Demon

 

Most of the life on the planet is settled deep under the earth. These swift jumpers are rarely seen not in packs, and are a bane for travellers.

Demonic Infighting

 

Demons would not be demons if they were not bickering under themselves. It's always a good thing for the colonist when they steer their anger at each others...

The Patrolling Cyborg

  

Cyborgs are human brains implanted in a robotic body. There is no reason for anxiety, they are mentally stable and not prone to PTSD or loss of humanity. Never. Not at all. Remember these are the good guys.

And good guys go to bars, don't they?

The sad Cyborg

 

Why is he sad? He's working in one of the few places over the surface of the planet, at the equator.

Well why do you think he's sad?

That's all for today!

As always, comments are welcome (and I normally publish them quickly - no bots allowed here though...)

Ruleset Review: Microlite 20 fifth - adamantine edition

Review: Microlite 20 fifth - adamantine edition 

Lately, i've been working on translating, editing, layouting and co-creating an OSR game. Its pitch is "The "Ravenium Rush" brings hundreds of new settlers on the "Satanic Planet", but only a few will survive the horror, the demons, and the corporate greed..."

With my creation mate (he created the setting), we decided we wanted an OSR system.

I had my eyes set on EXTINCTION, which is an really really good hack of the Black Hack for Space-Horror like Alien (the movie), with a touch of other Sci-Fi influences (blade runner, for example).

We could have tried to make a module for  EXTINCTION, but we wanted our system to be under the hood.

I've then looked around at other influences, because I felt that I would only want to copy EXTINCTION and add here and there some bits and odds, if we were to go "the Black Hack way".

So I needed some other basis to have my mind crunch on.

I decided to look at 5E clones/simplifications and so on, because I really like the 5th Edition and its elegant mechanics (and newer people to the hobby were more keen on trying something based on what they know).

1.) What is it?

"Microlite 20 fifth - adamantine edition" is the latest incarnation of the microlite series of D&D simplifications. Microlite has a good reputation, this version is 17 pages long (including a character sheet and the "OGL licence" for the 5E)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J_gPJjuDygOQWnVKXyLcAuGcIUNHeSsf/view

2.) When did I hear about it for the 1st time?

On the RPG forums and discord I delve, Microlite is often cited as a reference for D&D simplifications (there's a microlite 74, one on D&D3, another on D&D4, and this one simplifying D&D5 [There are more than just those])

3.) What did I expect?

I expected somthing easy and streamlined vaguely related to the 5th Edition. For Vanilla Fantasy.

4.) What did I find?

A stremlined and simplified version of the Basic Rules of 5E. Which means it's open source content, for the vast majority. 

It keeps the 5E feel and its iconic mechanics (advantages, Bounded accuracy) but refines it to its most simple core:

You now have only 3 Attributes and 4 skills, along with 4 classes. Still it is very well designed and written, making the core shine like a 100 GP pearl (yeah, identify is important).

It allows itself the luxury to add monster creation rules that generates 1-line-stat-blocs, encounter building guidelines, and an appendice to introduce more classes.

I really liked the quick and simple ruleset.

It's not as deadly as an OSR, but you could apply some rules from 5E-HARDCORE-MODE from Runehammer to spice up / OSR up the game experience.

5.) Will I use it ?

I need to convert my co-autor to base our game on this, but I'm really tempted to create a game based on this motor. I would make it less simple in the end, but I hope it would be an upgrade on the basis, not an over-complexification.

If he's not up for it, maybe I'll build a game around it for this blog. Or rebuild around this ruleset my SciFi project "Stellar Fiefdoms"

6.) Would I recommend buying it?

Well, since it's free, you should definietly grab a pdf. Then print it as a pamphlet at work (it's 16 pages, once you remove the page 16 where the licence is), read it in the train back home and play with your hastily got together friends and neighbourgs.

Maybe also print a one-page-dungeon?

Disclaimer:

Some of the links included in this article are affiliate-links.

One day, I will have a few dollars credit on Drivethru and I'll re-buy an item on Pay What You Want (PWYW) I found very useful there. So somehow this is supporting indie creation, right?

Any of you played with Microlite 20 fifth?

What is you go-to 5E related system?

Do you jerry-rig your 5E?

[OSR SciFi horror] New project teaser

What's going on with the setting of D.R.E.A.D.? 

Well, even if I haven't posted anything for a while, i still continue to develop things, in my head or on paper. To be honest, i've been working on quite a lot of other projects too, cooperations with other autors or illustrators that can't really write but still got to get their ideas on print... 

New projects

Anyway, right now, i'm working on 2 collaborations: 

• One narrative urban fantasy game with faeries and a big influence of the Tarot. 
•  The other one is probably more for the public of this blog: It's an OSR space horror game with demons and satanic cults. 

We are in the beginning stages, but the framework of the background already stands. And I made a cover for it, that I can show you here. We've decided to start really talking about the game in September, once everyone is back from holiday, but I wanted to present you with a small teaser...

And as always, they'll be a lot of random tables...

The "Ravenium Rush" brings hundreds of new settlers on the "Satanic Planet", but only a few will survive the horror, the demons, and the corporate greed...