Scanning with Pens and Steampunk Musha

[alanajoli]

Every so often, Rick Hershey slips me a little sample art work so I can see what's going on with our Steampunk Musha projects. We've just finished up the text for the d20 version of the player's book, so that'll be out and available in the near future (I don't have an exact release date, but I expect that "any day now" is probably about right--it'll be available through the Empty Room Studios store). At any rate, I got permission to share a little bit of the teaser art with you guys, so here it is:



This is one of our Shangti Cowboys--gunslingers who tend toward being private eyes and bounty hunters. They're our most noir characters, I think--so, of course, I love them. In fact, the first comic script I did was the introduction of Amura Hiroko, a female Shangti Cowboy, to her side-kick, a rooster Juunishi-p'o (small creatures that share human features with the features of animals from the Chinese zodiac) named Del. I'd forgotten that my script is actually up on my Empty Room Studios profile page, if you're interested in seeing how I go about scripting a comic. Remember though that this was my *very first* script and it still hasn't been turned into actual serial art yet. I'm still looking forward to that!

This is one of Rick's concept drawings of Hiroko.



Real quick news on the progress of DocuPen. I made the OCR software work today and think I am picking up some good technique with it that will enable me to finally make some progress on my scanning project. Actual pictures and description later!

Comments

[militiajim.livejournal.com]

WANT! Now I just need a job so I can afford to buy a copy.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

It's gonna be awesome! :)

[militiajim.livejournal.com]

I'll have to spend some time making a little conversion sheet so I can run stuff using Spycraft 2.0. It has dwarves, right?

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Not dwarves actually. The keshou are kind of dwarf-like, though genetically they're said to be more related to goblins.

[militiajim.livejournal.com]

That should be close enough. I've got a couple strong requests for dwarves, and I'd like to try some Steampunk.

Also:
SC 2.0 > D&D 3.5

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

SC 2.0 = OGL? ;)

I think you'll be interested in a lot of the alternate rules Rick brought in, like the backgrounds and such. I don't know if you'll thing d20 SPM > SC 2.0, but I can hope!

[militiajim.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more like: SPM fluff + SC 2.0 crunch = AWSOME

A question

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not quite clear on the status of the Player's Guide. I've looked at the preview PDF and I see that it uses the d20 system. Is the Player's Guide *the* d20 version of Steampunk Musha, or is it supplementary to a separate d20 conversion of the core rulebook? IOW, will the PG contain all the setting information from the original Musha book, or not?

Wyvern

Re: A question

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

The d20 Player's Guide and the d20 DM's Guide (or Campaign Book--I'm not sure what Rick is officially calling it) are designed to be used independent from the original book. Not all the setting material is in the PG--most of it, as well as greatly expanded materials, are going to be included in the DM's Guide. But we've expanded the history a bit and have included some of the promotional materials we created, as well as developing the religions quite a bit more than they were initially. Because we've converted to d20, we've included a number of classes and some pclasses (including the "kits" we had in the original book, which have been adapted). All of the race rules are there.

So while the PG is not necessarily enough to start your whole campaign, because the setting material isn't as fleshed out as it will be in the next book, it's everything the players will need. My understanding is that this book and the DM's Guide will be published together in print, but will come out separately in pdf.

I hope that's helpful!

Re: A question

[(Anonymous)]

Very helpful, thanks! One more question: when you say "published together" do you mean they'll be combined into a single book, or just that they'll be released at the same time?

Wyvern

P.S. I hope the final product will be edited better than the preview -- I noticed quite a few typos when I read through it! (I'd gladly offer my services as a proofreader in exchange for free copy. :) )

Re: A question

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I *believe* that they will be published together in a single volume--but the person you should really follow up with is Rick! I think he has a contact e-mail up at the Empty Room Studios (http://www.emptyroomstudios.com) site. ;) He's the expert--I'm just the lead writer.