Working on a publication: Kaidan

[misteradam]

glad to see this coming together! the cover turned out great.

[Gamerprinter]

Announcement at D5 forum for the soon-to-be-released OGL 3.5 compatible first of three adventures set in Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting. It looks like it might go into early July, instead of end of month. I don't know where the author is at in the initial storyline.

At least that's an official statement, that my first publication is getting close, and I can begin promoting it officially (still need a date of release though.)

I'm excited!

Kaidan Announcement on D5 forum

GP

[Steel General]

and once again I say... Congrats GP!

[Gamerprinter]

Working on the cover design for my 3 part mini-campaign arc, The Gift, for the Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting...

Using Jan Pospisil's illustration of the Dark Lord, I centered it, as I didn't want to cover up the art with text, so it works as a center piece around which the title logo and other front cover labeling. I tried a design with my standard bamboo mat texture and it looked too bright.

Since the illustration is so dark anyway, I thought the red outline gave some attention to it, while the subdued black background kept things looking dark. The subdued print in the black is my Kaidan map with a special transparency applied over a black background to give it that nice look.

Whatcha think? I want to start promoting this soon!

GP

PS: I noticed some grammatical errors, this is just my first draft of the cover, still needs tweaking.

[Ascension]

I think it looks fine except for the title but I don't have any better ideas right off the top of my head right now...spent the whole night drawing mtns by hand so I'm kinda fried. My first thought is to lose the bevel, use the darker red like in the picture frame and maybe the outer glow...keep it simple for now.

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks, Ascension, tried your suggestions, fixed the grammatical error, removed some double labeling, looks cleaner and sharper.

As I mentioned earlier, Mark Hyzer (painter for WotC MtG CCG card art) is doing my beastiary for the eventual Kaidan Handbook, but I needed one his drawings for the main monster in the first and second adventure - Hebi no onna (snake woman), a Demon-Spirit.

Finally, Simon Turnbull, is doing both color and b/w work for me, this is a b/w illustration of Agoya Temple, on the other side of the mountain pass on the way to Tsue-jo castle to deliver the gift.

Of course, here's the map of Yonshu, the island of Kaidan, where the entire adventure takes place (for those who haven't seen it...)
Yonshu Island map

Although I will reveal the cover design on other sites, this art will only be posted here, until publication - so its an art spoiler guys!

All Rights Reserved on the art.

Here's the promo text:

The Gift - what begins as a simple escort of a gift to a powerful lord in a foreign land leads to a series of uncanny events that risk more than the lives of a party of adventurers, rather the fate of their eternal souls. Deceit, vengeance and dark revelations follow the party as they explore a dark fantasy world called Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting. Kaidan is a breathtaking empire of samurai, ninja and undead lords rich in legend, culture and nightmares.

The Gift is a mini-campaign arc and an introduction to Kaidan, a dark fantasy setting of oriental myth and gothic horror. It is a world sure to make the bravest adventurer’s blood run cold.

Enjoy!

GP

[Steel General]

Not that there's anything wrong with it now, but I wonder for on the module cover, the title font should be something with a bit of an oriental twist to it, just an idea. *shrugs*

The temple image is amazing.

[Gamerprinter]

The font for the gift is the same font I used on the Genpei map and my Yonshu map. I actually hate those overly oriental looking brush stroke fonts, they look cheesy and fake, almost cartoon oriental.

The font I used has a "brush like" appearance, yet is very readable. I think it works as an oriental style, if only subtly so. I'm keeping the font.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

GP

[Gamerprinter]

I started posting that cover design on several other forums - Paizo, Goodman Games, and EnWorld, with initial promo on Kaidan RPG in existing threads of mine on those sites, or new ones in the Announcement boards.

Right away I got interest and responses, but also right away, they asked for link to a website so they can get more details. Whoops, I didn't have one ready yet, so I rushed on getting this up. There's some "hidden" information under About Us dropdown menu - setting, that gives more details than the obvious pages.

Check it out and tell me what you think?

Kaidan RPG site

I still plan to add more pages, more details, perhaps its own forum and what not.

GP

[Ascension]

That morbid geisha and that monster thing are great, you got some serious talent gathered and a whole ton of work to maintain yet another thing on your plate. I'm positive that if anyone can handle all of those things that you can. I breezed thru the site and everything looks fine on first glance. I didn't read every word but I didn't find any errors or anything. I like the simple straight-forward style there as well since it doesn't require java or flash or any of that nonsense. Color scheme looks good too. Good job man.