Kudos By Gaslight

As I have mentioned previously here on Cthulhu Reborn, I had the incredible good fortune late last year to contribute a small amount of artwork (mostly handouts and character sheet) to the new edition of Chaosium’s fantabulous 1890s “Gaslight” setting for Call of Cthulhu. This happened pretty much by accident thanks to the Art Nouveau character sheet (still downloadable from the blog’s Downloads page) I had created for a project of my own .

Although my contribution to the book was very small, I am nevertheless extremely excited by the news that yesterday, “Cthulhu By Gaslight, 3rd Edition” was awarded the gold medal for “Best RPG Supplement of the year” in the prestigeous ENnie Awards (announced at GenCon). This is extremely cool, and a worthy recognition of the enormous amount of effort Chaosium’s freelance team of authors, artists and graphic designers put into this book. Perhaps the two biggest “culprits” in this grand endeavour — and the two who should be proudest — are Kevin Ross (who re-wrote pretty much the entire text, completely overhauling the previous edition from the ground up) and Badger McInnes (layout genius extraordinaire).

The book also took out a second award — a silver for “Best Cover Art.” The incomparable Paul Carrick contributed that evocative pic, and I think is a worthy winner.

Here’s hoping that all those big contributors — as well as all the countless others who (like me) chipped in their own smaller pieces — call all raise a glass, virtual or otherwise, in celebration of a job well done!

All Quiet on the Cthulhu Front?

Anybody who has dropped by this blog over the past couple of months might have gained the impression that I’ve packed up my tools. The blog hasn’t been updated in quite a while … but, ironically, it has not been due to a lack of Cthulhu-related design or writing projects but an overabundance. Over the past couple of months I have been invited to participate in quite a number of different commercial projects — things that are still “in the pipeline” with various different publishers.

I have also been plugging away (although at a reduced pace) on several different projects for release here on the blog. Although some of these projects, I can’t say much about (and a few I can’t even mention since they have yet to be announced!), here are a few quick notes on what I have been up to. Y’know, just so you don’t think I’ve suddenly gone off and got a life or something 🙂

• Colonial Lovecraft Country (Sixtystone Press) — there are several books in the works at Sixtystone which provide a very colourful Colonial Amercian setting for Call of Cthulhu (thanks again to the ever-patient Mr Kevin Ross). Just in the past couple of days the first public games using this setting were run at GenCon. I was asked to design a 1700s-era character sheet for use within these Sixtystone-endorsed convention games. The design actually turned out really well … and I believe this will be the sheet to be included with the Colonial Lovecraft setting book when it is published! Yay!
• Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion (fan project) — anybody who has lurked on Yog-Sothoth.com’s forums for long enough will have heard of the legendary 500-page “Masks Companion” book which has been in preparation by various forum regulars and diverse other hands since 2007. Because it has been going for so long, this project has taken on almost legendary status … although it is now definitely nearing completion. I was asked to contribute some handouts. I figured this would only be a handful of pieces — this is, after all, a book designed to complement a campaign already reknowned for its copious handouts. But, as it turns out, the Companion itself also has a bunch MORE handouts … so it was actually quite a big job. Fun though.
• Dockside Dogs (Paul Fricker’s Charity Fundraiser scenario) — As I’ve already mentioned here, I was lucky enough to be able to provide some rapid turn-around layout and design services on this amazing scenario book, which has already raised a sizeable amount for Cancer Research charities and continues to sell well over on DrivethruRPG.
• Lost In The Lights (Sixtystone Press) — Another of the fine upcoming scenario / sourcebooks from Sixtystone, this book by Jeff Moeller is quite an intriguing one. I was asked to provide handouts … and some of the items were quite a challenge. When this book comes out keep an eye out for some excruciatingly detailed PhotoShop montaging by yours truly.
• CthulhuReborn — There are three main projects I am currently working on for Cthulhu Reborn: one is a brilliantly detailed campaign set in Kingsport, another is a revamp of an old scenario by a very familiar Cthulhu author, to be set on the South-East coast of England. The last is something very unusual which I have penned myself.
• Things I can’t talk about — there are at least two other large Cthulhu projects I am contributing to, mostly in a writing capacity … all I can say is, “watch this space!”