Expanded Petty Gods Update

Don't have a ton of time for this (busy work day, even for a holiday). I'll be brief, but I wanted to share progress.

Apart from the indexes, THE ENTIRE BOOK IS LAID OUT!!! It clocks in at 384 PAGES!!! (not including the indexes, will will have to be the absolutely last thing added to the book). There are plenty of artholes left to be filled, there is still a bit of content missing on the "Minions" and "Cults" sections, and there is some tweaking to be done to the "Spells" section... but that's it!!!

Artwork is continuing to ooze in... and the latest submissions are killer! (I will try to do a post in the next couple of days showing off some of the newer submissions.)

If I can keep the art needs on track, I'm still aiming for release by the end of February. (Those who are waiting, keep your fingers crossed. Those who are slated for art contributions, keep those pens/styluses busy... and THANK YOU!)

Expanded Petty Gods: Call for Spells (due 1/15/15!)

VERY IMPORTANT!!! The Gods, Minions, and Divine Items sections of the book are COMPLETELY CLOSED FOR NEW CONTENT! If you add a spell, please do not add a minion, god, or divine item!!! Thanks for understanding.

Got spells?

Do you have any god-related spells? Or do you have any ideas for god-related spells.

Or spells for clerics (or magic-user followers) of certain types of petty gods?

If you wrote a god (or gods) for the Petty Gods book, why not write a spell associated with that god? 

Feel free to post spells in the comments section below (but be sure to inclulde your name as you'd like your credit to appear).

OR SEND SPELLS TO: pgcopy(at)newbigdragon(dot)com

Deadline is this Thursday, January 15th (I'll cull Friday a.m., first thing)

In the format below, the "Affiliations" can be VERY loose (e.g., petty gods of molds and fungi, petty gods of vegetation, petty gods that use battle axes, petty gods related to books/scribes/writing instruments, etc.) or specific (e.g., Morbiphalligus, petty god of venereal diseases and sexual afflicitons — yes, I wrote that god myself!).

FORMAT TO FOLLOW (BX/Labyrinth Lord):

Name of Spell 

Affiliations: Name of Petty God, Pantheon, Minion and/or Cult

Level: # Class

Range: Touch (or) #'

Duration: # rounds (or) # turns

Put any saving throw information, total HD effected, total creatures effected, etc. in the body description (use BX or LL as your "go by" for this). Do not include in range/duration above.

SOME OF MY SPELLS FOR EXPANDED PETTY GODS:

Animate Fallen Warrior

Affiliation: The Fallen One, petty god of fallen warriors

Level: 5 Magic-user

Range: 60'

Duration: 1 turn

Similar to the spell animate dead, this spell animates a number of recently deceased warriors (who died within the last turn). The number of warriors that may be animated is equal to the level of the spellcaster plus 1d6. Each animated warrior fights and saves as a 1 HD monster (with 1d8 hp). Like all undead, animated warriors are immune to sleep, charm, and hold, but are susceptible to the effects of turning. They will remain animated until all of their hp are lost, or until 1 turn has passed (whichever comes first). This spell may only be used on any fallen warrior once, after which they will immediately be taken up by The Fallen One.

Related Entries: G) Fallen One.

Locate Jade

Affiliation: Jaiden, petty goddess of jade

Level: 1 Cleric/Magic-user

Range: 60' + 10'/level

Duration: 6 turns

As the spell locate object, but only locates the presence of jade. The duration and range are doubled for clerics dedicated to the petty goddes Jaiden. The spell does not work through lead.

Related Entries: G) Jaiden.

Touch of Morbiphalligus

Affiliation: Morbiphalligus, petty god of venereal diseases and sexual afflictions

Level: 3 Cleric

Range: Touch

Duration: Indefinite

On a successful “to hit” roll, this spell infects the target with an extreme form of venereal disease (no saving throw). The effects of the touch are determined by the level of the spellcaster as outlined below:

[effects table to come]

This spell may be counteracted by remove curse or cure disease. If cast by clerics dedicated to the petty god Morbiphalligus, all saving throws are made with a -2 penalty.

Related Entries: G) Morbiphalligus.

Pallid Veil

Affiliations: The Yellow King, petty god of the madness that comes with old age

Level: 1 Cleric/2 Magic-user

Range: Touch

Duration: 6 turns

The target  of this spell is made to appear 5 years younger per level of the spellcaster (though they are not actually physically aged). It is used mainly by the elder members of the Pallid Conclave to appear younger, and thereby enable them move infiltrate groups of younger people, helping the cult to more easily spread the chaos and madness of the Yellow King. Reluctant victims are allowed a save vs. spell.

Related Entries: G) Yellow King; C) Pallid Conclave.

Jaundice Veil

Affiliations: The Yellow King, petty god of the madness that comes with old age

Level: 5 Cleric/Magic-user

Range: 240'

Duration: See below

The target of this spell succumbs to two different effects: first, they are made to appear 10 years older per level of the spellcaster (though they are not physically made older); second, they are affected as by a feeblemind spell. Separate saving throws must be made for each effect. To avoid the effects of the aging, the victim must make a successful save vs. paralysis. To avoid the effects of the feeblemind, the victim must make a successful save vs. spell at -3. The aging effects last for a number of days equal to the level of the spellcaster. The duration of the feeblemind effects will remain until counteracted by dispel magic.

Expanded Petty Gods Update

I'd like to begin by apologizing for not posting Expanded Petty Gods updates more often. I know that's one area where Greg Gorgonmilk was particularly good (sharing ongoing contributions, etc.) where I have maybe not been so good. But things are chugging along nonetheless.

CONTENT
As mentioned several days ago, the open collection of content is essentially closed for the "Petty Gods" and "Minions" sections. At this point, a few folks are working on some "filler" gods and minions to assist the layout with page breaks, etc. I've also received all the outstanding cult entries. (Right now, there are 10 cults; I think for the section to feel nice and full, that number should be 15, so I may do a couple of "cult speed rounds" next week.)

ROUGH LAYOUT
I've moved into the layout of the Appendices of the book (with the Spells section to follow). The Petty Gods, Minions, Divine Items, and Cults sections are essentially laid out. With the appendices that have been laid out so far, the total page count stands at about 335 pages. I imagine the Spells section will take about 10-15 pages, and the remaining Appendixes will take about 20-30. So by the time the indexes are added to everything else, the total page count will likely be right around 400 pages (as I've suspected for a while).

ART NEEDS
Wednesday's call for artists seemed to work. While there are still 50+ god illustrations that need to be assigned, the minions art need was CUT IN HALF! There are now less than 15 minion illustrations left to assign!!! (Woo-hooh!) Thanks to all who stepped up the challenge (né guilt trip). I still feel like this may be the biggest stumbling block on the path to getting the final version published. The holiday break has given several artists the chance to catch up on art assignments that have been hanging, and given new/additional artists the opportunity to crank out an illustration or two. But the world will go back to its normal schedule next week, so we'll see how it goes.

A NOTE TO CONTRIBUTORS
Feel free to share the things you've been creating for Expanded Petty Gods (art, text, whatever). With so much content coming in and getting into the layout over the last few weeks, its been hard for me to choose who/what to feature fairly. There are so many great things coming in, and so little time to blog them (e.g., in the last week alone, I got four great cults!). This is that area where I mentioned Greg was much better about it than me. So for now, I'll stay "asses and elbows" on keeping this train moving, and trust that the contributors will fly the EPG banner as they share to their blogs and Google+ pages the wonderful things they've been contributing.

This is me... begging for art... for Expanded Petty Gods.

Now that the base layout for the "petty gods" and "minions" sections of Expanded Petty Gods is done, I'm going to beg profusely to the OSR community for art help. (This is a community project and I am seeking donated contributions.)

There are currently 60+ gods entries and 30+ minions entries that have not yet been assigned to artists (in addition to the 2 dozen things which are currently assigned and still in-progress).

New to Expanded Petty Gods? Check out these links:
- Original Petty Gods
– Expanded Petty Gods

If by some stroke of luck I could get 90 volunteers to each contribute 1 piece of grayscale or line art (or 45 artists to each contribute 2 pieces, or 30 to contribute 3 pieces) in the next couple of weeks, then 97% of the art for the entire Expanded Petty Gods book would be complete (and the book would be weeks away from being complete)! [All interior art for this book is B&W/grayscale.]

I do have a list of art needs, which are mostly single-figure images (but see below). As artists volunteer their services, I'm asking their preferences as to content type (e.g., odd/weird, dark or humorous, no females, prefer animals, etc.), then I'm going through the needs list with an editor's eye on tone of entry vs. artist's prefs, then throwing out 3 or 4 possibilities, and the artist can choose from those (or pass, if they prefer). Generally, unless I describe the image need otherwise in the offerings, the format for each piece is an individual w/out a background (this allows me to make the image as large as possible in the limited space the layout offers; putting backgrounds on these figures severely limits how large I can make them). Additionally, I'm trying to keep these on 2-week turnaround before considering re-assigning them. I know people have other jobs and/or commissions, but I also know that this stage is the pitfall that could force this project into eternal 'languishment'.

If you have existing illustrations that could be used as a minion, I'll consider accepting those. These are being used as "filler" to assist page breaks, so there are limitations as to what this kind of minion will be named, and how long the copy for that minion will be (at editor's discretion).

The only other "open" submissions I'm taking right now are cult images. (You can provide any input you want for the cult image you provide, even going as far as to write it up, or you can just send a pic and I'll find a writer to create a cult around the image.)

Anyone kind enough to offer up their talents for this daunting project can email pgart(at)newbigdragon(dot)com with their preferences and links to samples (as a reference for what fits your personal style).

This is a great opportunity for people who are trying out new styles or working on spec stuff for themselves as experiments. (E.g., I noticed Jez Gordon was trying to find a new personal style that wouldn't be so labor/time/computer-intensive; this is a great opportunity for everyone to try something out for themselves while simultaneously contributing to a community project.) This is also a great opportunity for people who are trying to expand their profiles as artists and illustrators (e.g., many of you may know Josephe Vandel as a kick-ass map-maker, but the image above is his illustration (and a very cool one, at that).

Any writers that have contributed to this project who would prefer their entry not appear with a blank space next to it, please add your begs and pleads in the comments section below. [Cue Sarah McLachlan music along with pictures of writers in cages, staring up at the camera with puppy-dog eyes.]

d30 Sandbox Companion 1-year Anniversary

It was 1 year ago today that I released the d30 Sandbox Companion.

If you would have told me then that 1 year later it would still be bouncing around the Top 20 at RPGNow, I'd have thought you'd failed your save vs. insanity. But there it is, still hanging in there.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to offer the entire OSR community a huge "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" I've continued to be humbled by the love this oddity has found, not only with old-school RPG'ers, but those outside in the larger RPG community as a whole who've put up with the convention of its odd dice usage, and accepted it on their bookshelves as well.

Also, thanks again as well to Welbo, who helped me polish and polish this thing to be the best it could absolutely be.

Petty Gods "Call for Cults"(DUE BY MIDNIGHT THIS FRIDAY, JANUARY 2ND!)

Have you written a cult that you'd like to see included in Expanded Petty Gods? Send the text by Friday, January 2 to cults(at)newbigdragon(dot)com. If you have not written a cult, do not tell me you'd like to write a cult or that you have an idea for a cult. Only email me if you have a completely written cult for inclusion. If I do not receive it by Saturday morning (January 3) when I check my email, it will NOT be included.

PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU SHARE THE EMAIL ADDRESS ABOVE, PLEASE POST IT AS IT APPEARS AND DO NOT ADD A "mailto:" LINK! The robots are awful about scouring blogs for email addresses and sending spam.

There's no real format for what a cult listing does/doesn't include (or the order in which it is presented). Generally, the cult entries have an overview of the god(s) (or lack of deity) the cult worships, the organization and practices of the cult members, and there are usually stats for key personnel (treated as monster encounter listings... e.g., stats for priests of various levels, stats for initiates, etc.), and sometimes the addition of new spells and/or magic items (spells and magic items will be moved to a different part of the book, so treat them as separate listings, but within the same document; stats for cult members will stay with listing so feel free to work them in as you see fit).