The marmotfolk live in the bone mountains called The Ribs of the Father, in an uneasy equilibrium with the powerful spectrum satraps to their north. But I haven't drawn them yet! This is what is written about them:
While I'm working on wrapping up the UVG, I've also been working on an adjacent project. It's still only a codename and hints of pictures I've released in the past on G+ and other social media, but where the UVG is broad and long, this one is sharp and focused on the conquest and looting of an ancient city.
In the picture: Catburner Skirt, Kamini treasure hunter extraordinaire and currently a deserter, waits for an Iksan white-bone walker to pass behind the Lord Administerial tomb.
A...
2018-07-05 02:14:25 +0000 UTC View Post
The Ultraviolet Grasslands continue, with voyagers reaching the Chasm that divides the great steppe from the western ridges and finally, that locus of the imagination, the Black City.
This update adds:
1. More character generation options at the beginning.
2. Encounter and misfortune rules in the introduction.
3. The Dead Bridge—a vast, city-sized bridge crawling with degenerated creatures. Including rules for generating quarterling tribes.
4. The Dark Light ...
Hello everybody, patrons, followers, and casual visitors. Writing continues on Update 14 and it is nearly ready. All that is still waiting is a breakdown on the long-distance encounter rules and the points of interest for the Dark Light passage.
Besides the regular writing, I've been modifying some of the text, added an adapted character generator at the beginning of the work, and a section on the quarterlings of the utter west.
But neither here nor there! You'll see it soon, and thank y...
2018-06-24 23:23:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Wow! I expected this, but still ... it was unexpected. I check in, and we're over the 300 mark. There is little to say here, except: well done and welcome!
I would certainly never have written this book (yes, it is long enough to be called a book now) without your support and encouragement. Thank you.
This has been an odd week here in Korea: between teaching a summer school on top of my regular magazine job, I'm utterly exhausted. On the other hand, it looks less likely like my home will...
2018-06-17 00:38:38 +0000 UTC View Post
I tend to greet everyone who joins personally, and get a bit of a conversation going ... and I've been falling behind on that. I'll get around to it. Totally.
But, till then, greetings and welcome, everyone together—here's to us having a great time together!
Meanwhile, I've compiled the music of the UVG into a post, along with a couple of playlists made by other readers. It's interesting to see how different interpretations of the UVG emerge from different writers.
Tim requested if I could share share the Neon Ziggurat in wallpaper size. Well, here it is - 2560x1440 pixels - only lightly marred by the attribution at bottom left.
Built of massive limestone blocks shaped so finely that not even an amoeba could crawl between them, it rises out of a scarred plateau. The limestone is protected by a magical aura that preserves it white and pristine against the rains and the fine dusts of the grassland.
It is now decked in illumination and singin...
2018-05-31 02:32:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Welcome, patrons, to update 13!
Every sixtieth day the Grand Observer of the Rotations of the Wheels manifests precisely 217 meters due north of the third portal to hand down a Prophecy Out of Time.
Update 13 adds three areas, instead of two: the Spectrum Palace, The Iron Road, and The Ivory Plain. We are at 25 of 30, folks! The end is nigh!
Seven new illustrations done, including the Neon Ziggurat.
Added a relationship table for the NPCs.
Oh, yeah, and in cas...
2018-05-26 13:25:35 +0000 UTC View Post
The poster says it all. You wonderful, crazy people, supporting a strange illustrated gamebook grown out of a mishmash of arty comic books, post-modernist sociology cross-polinated with brutalist architecture, and slow, doomy metal riffs!
Thank you so much.
How shall we celebrate?
I mean, besides the update that's nearly done, right.
Yours: Luka
Suggestions:
#1 - release a special, limited edition remix of the Purple Worm Dungeon
#2 - show us the UVG Tarock...
In less than a week since I published the free introduction, new heroes have joined in their tens, and brought us through the psychological $200 boundary. I'm still amazed and astounded and half-disbelieving that you, my patrons, vote with your wallets for my writing and my drawing. However, if the $100 boundary was a lightbulb moment of, "wow, my art doesn't suck," the $200 boundary has me thinking: ok, how far can we go?
The answer: quite far. The UVG is on track to be completed in Augu...
Dear patrons and casual browsers.
This is a free, 78-page art-packed introduction to the psychedelic metal pointcrawl that are the Ultraviolet Grasslands. It covers less than a fifth of the complete written UVG content I have created so far with the support of my generous and incredibly cool patrons.
Yes, it is a freemium taster - but it's a good one. Neatly laid out, with extreme prejudice, in A5 format, I'm sure you will enjoy it.
It covers:
1. the introduction (we...
2018-05-07 14:31:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Whew! Made it! Nearly there, four more updates and the main body of the Ultraviolet Grasslands will be complete.
This was an art-heavy update. Besides the two areas - the bone mountain known as the ribs, inhabited by the marmotfolk (wtf?), and the old highway of the Cage Run - I've added eight detailed illustrations and 100 NPC voyagers to add to the journeys.
I've also added a mini-adventure - the Glass Palace of the Merchant Prince. The map is pretty loose, because space is not the pre...
2018-04-29 02:38:49 +0000 UTC View Post
One thing I've wanted to add for a while (but hadn't before) is a crawling biomechanical factory (the source fac in area 3, I think).<br><br>Yesterday I playtested the first half - it worked smoothly enough, though I was really surprised when the druid cat went ahead and ate the brains of the hive-mind drones to acquire their memories, considering how ok they were with sending rabbits to eternal damnation.<br><br>I usually use flow-chart-like maps like this to figure out ...
2018-04-26 02:35:38 +0000 UTC View Post
(yes, the piece of art is older, but it's just there to make the post a wee bit more colorful!)
I'm running an offline group of ttrpg newbies through the UVG, and testing various subsystems as we go. As a rule, the sessions are great fun and I've been happy with several things:
- using weeks and abstract resources to create long voyages through the wilderness is working well. There are some kinks to iron out, but overall: satisfied.
- explicitly giving XP for exploring str...
2018-04-19 02:05:09 +0000 UTC View Post
This was one of the first points of interest I wrote up in the UVG. A thousand-foot deep submerged cavern filled with treasures and horrors.
2018-04-11 03:13:36 +0000 UTC View Post
--//--
Yes, I know the secrets of the iron and mind
They’re trinity acts, a mineral fire
Yes, I know the secrets of the circuitry mind
It’s a flaming wonder telepath
--//--
In this update I reformated the entire introduction, expanded the equipment lists, filed down the appendices, added caravan sheets and the Big Map. That was quite a lot. There is also new art, some older art you may have not seen yet, and two new areas.
Oh, and I ...
2018-03-29 04:00:56 +0000 UTC View Post
You might recall one of the earliest points of interest, aka. mini locations, in the UVG: the Crystal Pylon. Or you might not, it's pretty forgetable:
"
Crystal Pylon (+2 days, 150 XP): a voluptuously whorled crystal pylon lies on its side in a heavily eroded crater, the sides covered in a riot of perfumed mind-altering brambles. Nomads say it transforms memories into life. This is true (touch with forehead, lose 1 point of Intelligence permanently, gain 1 hp perma...
2018-03-28 04:48:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings, dear patrons!
The February-and-March update continues to drag along slowly. You may well be wondering: what in blazes is Luka up to? Has he given up the ghost? Has he the flu, or the flux, or an embezzled fluxonator?
No, none of that.
As I've mentioned previously, the UVG has grown—a lot—and I got some friendly editing input from Skerples, and from that I realized I needed to restructure the introduction, so that the UVG makes sense to somebody approaching it ...
"Luka! Why are you taking so long?!"
"Because I'm really busy, damnit!"
"You had one job."
"No, actually, it was more like two ..."
"I don't care."
"Fine, here's part of the reason. I want to get the damned map into working order, so the Referee can run this danged steppe from a single reference file!"
"There's too much white on this map."
"Yes, I know. It's not finished yet - but it's also a reference sheet. Like ... a pointcrawl you'll be able to note down...
2018-03-20 10:10:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I've mostly been posting just finished updates, but ... sometimes a peek behind the ivory curtain is also interesting. A lot of my creative process is a dialogue between my drawings and my writing.<br><br>In this case, I realized I needed a better intro to the UVG. After all, the damned thing is ninety pages long. Realization hit me in the form of two harsh truths: first, a fellow writer's valid critique of the arcane density of my introduction; second, when I tried to read Gardens o...
2018-03-13 05:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post
I was just blown away tonight. A good friend of mine, Peter Leban, a long time player and now a DM in his own right, is also a 3D artist and a few weeks ago he mentioned how much he loved the Porcelain Throne and how he was going to throw it at his players.
Then he asked me if he could render it in 3D, and I said, "yes."
Then I stopped thinking about it.
And now he sends me these work in progress shots.
Damnit, Pero!
Hello patrons!
One of the things that the next update is bringing is a divergence. The appendix and glossaries are becoming their own thing, while the UVG is getting a bit more rigorous structure and an introduction that should draw in more casual adventurers, and explain how to use the whole thing!
... and I've asked the estimable Skerples of Coins and Scrolls to give the UVG an editing pass. Besides a ...
This is an excerpt from a wholly different module I'm working on, that deals with the fall of an ancient city, its plunder and destruction. As I sent it off to the editor, he said, "Oh, this is set in the Rainbowlands, too, isn't it?"
I replied, "Of course it's not! It's its own thing!"
Then I reviewed it and realized that, oh, wait, yes it is. From the perspective of the UVG it is in the faded Long Ago, but the Black City stood even then, far off and ominous, even as it stands...
The Stratometaship continues to journey west, inching closer and closer to the Black City. The first update of 2018 and it's a massive on! In fact, so large I couldn't neatly fit all the new pieces into the document without risking exploding all my formatting.
What's new?
- Near Moon region: including some odd moon creatures, a few more NPCs, and two pieces of art.
- Three Sticks Lake region: a massive region and mini sandbox that grew completely out of hand, at 12 pages (50–61), ...
This mini-update is an excerpt from Three Sticks Lake - an over-detailed region of the central Ultraviolet Grasslands. A perfect location if you want to start with a party of Icemen (see glossary of next update).
Red Bear is a village honey-combed through a great amalgamated skyscraper, built through the centuries-long action of the village's domesticated builder badgers. It is surrounded by several fences of thornvine and thornstone, patrolled by spider fetishes. The...
2018-02-07 01:46:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Where is the monthly UVG? What is going on? Has it died?
No, no. The UVG is fine. Most of the update is written, most of the art is ready, but I've had a month so packed with family, travel, jetlag, additional projects, and work that I was left with a stark choice: rush out a half-assed update or opt for (potentially) two updates in February.
I've chosen the second option, and I'm sure you'll understand.
---///---
Teasers for the update:
The Spirit Voy...
First, a happy new year. You've been great, and you're the reason the UVG has grown the way it has. I wish you all the best, many weird voyages, memorable adventures, and good friends found in games and lives.
Second, I did a bit of a competition for character "retirements" to immortalize in the UVG with pictures. I think only Rafael Balbi and JW Devini responded, so both of their heroes are getting immortalized. If anybody else had a fun "retirement" to depict, y'know, drop a message. Frotz a...
2018-01-09 14:12:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Last update of the year! We've made it to the Moon River, in sight of the swollen Near Moon, on the frontiers of Satrap Domains. Whoah. This update has been pretty major, including:
-two new areas
-more retirement tables
-trade obstacles
-river crossings
-languages
-one extra gun (and not a very good one)
-and a few pictures. Yeah, those were the original motivation for this patreon.
You folks have been great, and I'm really happy to be able to embark on this jour...
Hello, my fine and dear patrons! First, a happy xmas and a merry new year, since we're in that seasonal period. I've weathered most of the family holidays, and hope you have, too.
We've also weathered the Patreon-billing-modification-episode (well, I didn't do a thing, and neither did most of you, which makes us all happy campers).
Some folks have also weathered floods, others have weathered heavy snows, and I weathered some atrocious jet-lag. Lots and lots of weathering.
Which is...
2017-12-28 09:26:10 +0000 UTC View Post
This free mini-update is an excerpt from the Glossary expansion of December's update to the UVG (it's going to be UVG-9). It's cozy and cuddly, but I haven't put it into a .pdf because layout takes time and I'm writing and oh, god, did you see, patreon back-tracked and you can support at the $1 level again? Yeah, lots of stuff happened this last week.
We also got featured on an ENWorld RPG patreons spotlight (2017-12-15 03:18:27 +0000 UTC
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