Blood & Treasure Basic is going to officially be called Bloody Basic. I like the sound of it, and that’s all the market research I need (or can afford).
The draft is completed and the layout is finished. I’m now editing the text, and should be done by the end of the day (which is good, because I need to finish up layout on NOD 23 and then get my butt in gear on the Monster Tome – some of the art for that thing is so awesome I’m chomping at the bit to get it out there). The first publication will be the Classic Edition in blue. At the moment I plan to follow it up with the Contemporary Edition in red, the Fairy Tale edition in green and then maybe a the Victoriana Edition in brown.
All of these editions will be the same basic game, but the illustrations will be different and there will be slight alterations made to fit the rules to the theme. The Fairy Tale edition, for example, will be based on my “Mother Goose is My Dungeon Master” articles. The Contemporary edition might have automatons and tieflings as playable races, and sub-classes like shadow dancer and soulknife.
That’s the plan. This is probably the quickest I’ve ever gone from idea to publishing, so hopefully it won’t bite me in the ass (fingers crossed).
These covers are mock-ups – I plan to vary the cover images for the different editions – but they should give you the idea. Obviously, if these prove popular, I might other editions, assuming I can come up with a theme that can sustain an edition – the one that comes immediately to mind is a sort of “mirror-mirror” Chaos edition, where you play the monsters and the dungeons are actually human and demi-human fortresses.
Okay … actually, that sounds pretty good.
Land of Nod 
Holy cow, that looks amazing! Great work.
Btw, I don't think you should vary the cover art. Keep it unified. Not that I know anything.
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I think an edition with the players playing the monster should instead be the monsters living in dungeons, defending their homes for the invaders: that would be more like the regular dungeon concept and make the monsters seem more like the underdogs. Like if you're some weird creature minding its own biz and along comes these wretched bipeds with sharp things trying to take your stuff and crash and burn everything. Now that would be a game worth playing. Having the PCs raiding human dwellings sounds too horrid to me: like you're obviously playing villains. I feel it would appeal to a wider audience the other way round.
As to the colours, blue and red…well, I hear the sound of CEASE AND DESIST orders being typed up by the current copyright holders: they gave ones to the guys who worked on OD&D and 1e for using their own characters, including ones that were anagrams of their own names…but people LOVE giving them their money instead of brilliant folk like yourself and others. Though I doubt they really will hassle you—I hope not.
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Red is the colour that matches the title. Great name by the way. Do you only use art from public domain? Or do you also commission artwork?
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Sounds good to me. I don't think it will come back to bite you in the butt.
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Edited by the end of the day? Geez. Does that mean it'll be up for download/sale/whatever tomorrow? One can hope
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Maybe longer than that. I like to give it a couple read- throughs with a little time in between.
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For this project, I'm using stock art I've already purchased or public domain. In the past I've commissioned art for the magazines and the games – I commissioned quite a few pieces for the upcoming Monster Tome.
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Well, I can help with the editing like last time if you need a little help. School just ended for me as well, so I'll have time
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This sounds absolutely awesome!
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Bloody Basic is probably a better choice than Basic Booty. Either way, I'm glad to finally have a paycheck coming in, so I can turn around and throw part of it at you.
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I'm going to take you up on that offer. I'll shoot a revised draft over to you today and let you look through it – it weighs in at just 40 pages, so it shouldn't take super long.
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The problem with the “defending your homes” version is that it'd likely take a lot of the excitement out of the game for the players to sit in one space. The existing plan for the Chaos edition sounds better.
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Bought “Blood & Treasure” softcover and loved it – plan to pick this up as well (at least as a PDF), wife and finances willing…
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I'm not a professional editor, but everyone tells me I'm a grammar Nazi, so I'd be happy to look it over as well. If you want. I won't be able to get editing info back to you until tomorrow afternoon (Saturday, 04-26).
hideously.deformed [at] gmail.com
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This looks awesome. I will be checking back daily to find out when this hits Lulu…
You make great stuff!
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I'm cash poor. Will you accept a pound of my flesh for all five?
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I got a print copy of Bloody Basic from Lulu. Thank you for creating this wonderful little rpg. Reading it, it feels like OD&D updated by way of D&D 3.x. I'm amazed at how much material you have managed to include in a mere 44 pages!
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