Open Design Blog

Please support Open Design in the ENnie Awards! We've been fortunate enough to grab two nominations this year, both of them in the Electronic Book category.

To vote for them (and all the other deserving products that you love), please visit the voting booth today. The voting period ends tomorrow!

Nicolas Logue's Blood of the Gorgon horror adventure has shipped to its patrons.

It's definitely not something WotC would ever publish. And I think players are going to have an absolute blast with it.

Thank you to everyone who supported the project, and thanks to Mr. Logue for all his hard work. It's a standout book.

If you haven't heard already, the ENnie Awards voting booth is now open. Please go and vote for our nominees in the Electronic Book category, and support your favorite nominees across the board!

Mind you, you don't have to vote at all in categories you don't want to; voting in just the categories you care about most and have the most experience with is probably the way to go.

Nicolas Logue is well known for his horror writing, from the Hook Mountain Horror for Pathfinder to the madness that surely awaits us in the Razor Coast. He's got a knack for disturbing and creepy and fantastic villains.

And now he's blown the lid off that, with Blood of the Gorgon. I've literally sent the last updates to typesetting, and it will ship to patrons in a matter of days.

In other words, this is your last chance to pick it up at the insanely low price offered before the limited edition goes into the "available to current patrons only" status. So, if you have any interest in a dark urban mystery that will make your players twitch a little, I heartily recommend supporting Blood of the Gorgon today.

There's a podcast about the Blood of the Gorgon project available over at the Tome Show. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Open Design is very pleased to announce that two of its patron-supported projects have been nominated for ENnie Awards this year. Those two are both nominees in the Electronic Product category (as makes sense for primarily PDF products). They are:

Empire of the Ghouls by Wolfgang Baur
Six Arabian Nights, by Wolfgang Baur, David "Zeb" Cook, Clay Fleischer, Jeff Grubb, and Joshua Stevens

Naturally, I hope you vote for your favorites in this and the other categories, though I fully expect that Monte Cook is going to take the ENnie in this category. For a retired guy, he's quite a juggernaut, and deservedly so.

In the larger scheme of things, it doesn't matter who wins the Electronic Book category. I’m absolutely 100% thrilled to have two nominations in that category, given that Open Design released exactly two products eligible for nomination. It's like we're doing something right....

Congratulations to all the nominees!

The locations for the KQ and Open Design seminars have changed. Updated information:

Freelancing for Kobold Quarterly
Interested in submitting art or articles to the Kobold Quarterly RPG magazine? Come to this seminar, meet the editor, and learn who, what, when, where and how! Periodicals are a great way to break into the game design world, and KQ is the leading magazine for gamers.
Time: Friday Noon
Location: Embassy Suites
Room Number: Chancellor 3 Coronation II

Steampunk and Open Design
Do you love steampunk, clockworks, warforged, and the gritty adventures that go with it? Come talk to Wolfgang Baur, the designer of the Zobeck steampunk setting of Open Design, and meet patrons of the Open Design community. This event will also serve as the Open Design meetup, and an opportunity for patrons to discuss what they want from upcoming projects. Help shape the release schedule for Open Design in 2008 and 2009!

Time: Saturday 10:00 AM
Location: Embassy Suites
Room Number: Chancellor 3 Consulate

Working In Print
Wolfgang Baur shares the Kobold Quarterly story and talks about the challenges of print. Learn about what it took to get the magazine off the ground and the challenges of running a magazine. Find out what works and what doesn't.
Time: Friday, 2 PM
Location: Westin
Room: Congress 1 & 2

Hope to see you there!

It's official: the 4E D&D project that will launch Open Design's newest product line, the Wrath of the River King, is fully funded.

Thanks to everyone who has supported this one. I'm still working on the licensing, but the design is kicking off on the private site now.

It's the final week of June, and Wrath of the River King is so very close to being commissioned.

The project is a few dollars short, but folks are excited about it and we have already headed into monster discussions. There's a new 4th Edition hag, a new minion, giant frog, a nixie, a new troll posted by patrons for feedback. I've written up a few of my own (a lorelei and a giant frog). Finally, much to my surprise, there's a dragon in this adventure. For a little more detail or for questions, check out the Open Design forums.

And I've been working on an expanded outline, taking the adventure from a small village to the depths of the Feywild, and on a few detours as well.

To see the adventure as it is written, please support the project with a donation directly through PayPal or through KoboldQuarterly.com.

And at first glance, the GSL is absolutely terrible for Kobold Quarterly. I'm not sure it will matter much for Open Design, as the Wrath of the River King will be in a separate product line.

I was hoping for better. Bah.

With the release of the 4E core books, the 4E adventure discussion for Wrath of the River King has heated up a bit. One of the patrons has posted a new monster design over in the KQ forums, and we're talking through some likely encounters.

Unfortunately, though, the project has not yet been commissioned, so there's no way yet to pay for art, maps, and final text. I'm looking for a few more patrons interested in a professional-quality adventure set in the Feywild. Your donation goes directly to the fine mappers, designers, and artists of Open Design. Please sign up today!

There's a quiz about the direction of KQ over on (surprise) the KoboldQuarterly.com site. If you want KQ to support 3E, 4E, Pathfinder, or the white box rules, please go and vote accordingly.

Yes, despite various life-threatening adventures, Kobold Quarterly has reached its first anniversary with the release of issue #5!

This issue is a great one (though I may be biased), because it includes:

• An Exclusive 4th Edition Interview: We asked the designers of the 4th Edition Player’s Handbook for D&D a few pointed questions—and gotten the inside scoop! Andy Collins, James Wyatt, and Rob Heinsoo offer wisdom, wit, and some suggestions for character conversion from 3rd Edition.
  
• A truly creepy Ecology of the Homunculus
  
• improving your improvisation skills from Nicolas Logue, and
  
• the Arch-Devil Jezebel by Paizo’s master of the diabolical, James Jacobs!

Give it a look, won't you? You can pick up a copy from Koboldquarterly.com.

Or you could just subscribe, because there is a year full of adventure ahead.

They said it would never happen. They said the Zobeck book would always lose to flashy new horror/fey/steampunk/Arabian adventures.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Tales of Zobeck are commissioned, and design begins tonight!

While this is good news for patrons, it is bad news for everyone unfortunate enough not to have signed up earlier. The price of patronage will bump up as soon as I have a spare minute to reset it.

I've got two Open Design projects going well with early outlines and polls about 4E and Zobeck, but both need a few more patrons to actually meet the commissioning bar.

The first wave of pitches for Tales of Zobeck has been posted and voted on, and the second wave will be underway next week — if about 10 more patrons show up.
Sign up today and help shape the Zobeck campaign setting!

With the leak of 4E information, the 4th Edition adventure has had new things to discuss. The Wrath of the River King plan is to write an adventure that's not dumbed-down, beginner-level material, but a fully-developed plot arc with new monsters and a glimpse of the Feywild, plus the inside track from 4E playtesters. If you'd like design that challengesr experienced players, this is your project. Please donate and sign up today!