Ostensible Cat

After looking at my wife Daisey's pictures from out trip to the Bolzano area and the Italian Alps a week ago, I just had to share.  It was a most excellent trip and I had a most excellent time.  It was most inspirational from a story-telling/game design aspect (heh, yeah, I'm that geeky that I think about that stuff when I travel.  Here's a few pictures from out trip and see if you agree that the southern alps (or northern Italian Dolomites) are beautiful and most inspirational from a game design standpoint.  And I gotta tell you, there is nothing quite like sitting at the top of the world and enjoying a well crafted German Pilsner followed by a cup of Italian Espresso and Apple Strudel ;).  Yeah, it sucks to be me.  Happy gaming gang! 

Today would have been the 74th Birthday of the Grand Master of DMs, Gary Gygax.  Gary, the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, in part bears some responsibility for my endless day dreams and flights of fancy for the past 32 years.  I myself turn 40 on Monday and am deeply indebted to the master of the game.  Oh, and in a rather fun coincidence, I received my copies of the 1E AD&D reprints, OSRIC 2.2, Tim Short's zine The Manor , and Terminal Space in the mail today.  Cheers Gary, and thanks for many hours of fun and many, many more to come!

Joe Browning over at Expeditious Retreat Press has announced the latest release in the Advanced Adventures line:  Beneath the Heart of Empire.  I had the pleasure of doing the art for this module.  Check out the spiffy job Daisey did on the color cover. Here's a look at the art for front and back covers: Speaking of spiffy color work, check out the latest post on Kobold Quarterly's blog .  More artisitc stylings by myself and Daisey. Can you name the old school D&D references in the picture?  Go over to Kobold Quarterly represent the Old School and sound off!

For those wanting a print version of Delve! issue 1, the PayPal button is now fixed.  Send me your cash ;)!

I currently at the airport in Frankfurt waiting for my flight back to Venice and home.  I'm excited to get back to the family.  I wasn't productive on the Delve! side of things since I was pretty consumed with my day job, but I do have lots of ideas for delve issue 2.  Issue two will be centered around the town of Dustchapel Downs and it's strange inhabitants.  I'm thinking about working up some variant werewolf rules to make them a bit more scary than they have been.  Sure, silver MIGHT be effective, but was it appropriately blessed and fashioned?  I'll explore some of those things.  As to Dustchapel Downs, it'll be somewhat similar to Dunwhich but perhaps a bit more whimsical...  Sales for Delve! issue one pdf have been pretty good.  To date, I've sold 22 pdf copies and four print copies.  If you are thinking of getting a print copy, you can click the paypal link on the right.  Five dollars US gets you 36 pages of wierd fantasy ...

OK, a couple of caveats here:  1)  I haven't been able to get to the Italian Post office (WHY must they have such ridiculous hours?!?!) so at this point, I'm opening it to US/Canadian orders only since I have to figure out how to navigate the Italian postal system (sorry non US/Canadians, I'll try to make it to the post soon and figure out that system) 2)  I won't be able to ship any orders until Monday  23 July at the earliest since I have a business trip leaving Thursday.  Other than that, click the button on the right to send me your $5 US (postage paid) hard earned cash and I'll send you back a copy of Delve!  Sound easy enough?  We'll, let's get to it then ;).

Delve! issue 1 has received a first review.  Fellow old school blogger Brendan over at Untimately has penned his thoughts on my first foray into the game design, er, *ahem* game.  I definitely appreciate the thoughts and am going to play around with the spell format that he suggested.  Delve!  issue 2 is in the works.  I haven't done much with it yet cause I'm too busy livin large off the proceeds from Delve!  issue 1 and chillin in the Italian Alps.  Actually, it is a nice, much needed vacation with the family.  Here in a bit I'm going to do a video interview with Ed Healy of Gamerati fame.  I'm going to be discussing Strange and Sinister Shores and probably Delve! my art and whatever else we get around to.  Well, that's all for now.  Gotta go prep for my interview!  

Good news and bad news!  The card stock just arrived today!!  Bad news (well, good for me since I'm going on vacation with my family to Bolzano, Italy to see Otzi the Iceman amongst other things), I'm leaving town for the next five days.  More bad news, I'm only going to be back before I have to go on a business trip for a week and a half to Germany (yeah, that one does suck for everyone - although it will be to Heidelberg, Germany so it won't be too bad).  So what does this mean?  It means that I won't get the rest of my promo copies mailed to you European folks until Tuesday when I get back from Bolzano.  As for the rest, I guess I am probably going to actually realize open season on the print version of Delve! Zine on my birthday.  The plan is to print up a bunch of copies and sell some direct and send a bunch to Noble Knight Games for sale there.  So, for those waiting, why not go check out the PDF version?  You can get it at RPG Now here...

A religious order seeks to utilize an ancient artifact to plumb the mysteries of the universe and touch the face of god. An explosion destroys vast tracts of land in a remote region of the Grand Duchy of Ostregoth. A Grand Duke seeks answers for the tragic event. An intrepid explorer seeks to win glory but never returns. An aging patriarch seeks to veil the truth to preserve the tenets of his faith. A fanatic seeks to expose the truth and bring down the establish order and usher in a new age. An unscrupulous tradesman seeks to capitalize on tragedy. A reality from beyond our own manifests in the devastation. A tale of conspiracy, greed, hubris, misplaced faith and insidious horror unfold in a remote wilderness.   Factions conspire to bring about their own agendas and utilize the unwary for their own ends .   Strange and Sinister Shores offers the opportunity for players to explore an environment warped by a misguided sense of faith, steeped in plot and intrigu...

OK, so I just sent out the contributor copies of Delve! today.  I'm working on creating a stock of print issues.  I've still got two things I need to do until I'm ready to distribute hardcopies.  1)  I'm waiting on some card stock to arrive for the covers and 2) I still need to get to the Italian post office to send out the postal rate test copies.  Ultimately, I'd like to send some stock to Noble Knight Games to make them available there.  Ambitious?  Maybe.  But ultimately I only want to print so many copies and move on.  That means I'll probably only solicit issue 1 for 1 month and send a set amount to Noble Knight for sale.  But, while you're waiting or in lieu of a hard copy, Delve! issue one is now available at RPGNow .  The PDF version is bookmarked and there is a computer format bookmarked version AND a printer ready digest booklet sized version so you can print your own.  Either way, Delve! is out there in the world an...

For some reason I mentioned my interview with Jenn Steen but didn't post the link.  Here is where you can go to hear me being a total geek.  Daisey has been gone all week which always causes a sense of disorientation and she just returned home yesterday so perhaps I'll be back to normal soon ;).

My interview is up for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Great Campaign .  Being as this is my first opportunity for you to get to hear me vocalize about why you should care, the interview is not just about Strange and Sinister Shores, but about Delve! and about me.  I know that I'm not a household name like some of the other folks on the list, so I felt getting folks to understand where I'm coming from, who I am and what I do would get folks to care more about why the should support Strange and Sinister Shores . So, having said that, why should you care?  Well, much like Delve! and the artwork for which I'm primarily known, I am putting myself and my love of gaming, horror, sci-fi, history, comics, movies, and all of my various influences to bear for this.  It's difficult for me to be eloquent when talking about me and my projects.  It's not something that I'm comfortable about doing.  But I DO LOVE THIS STUFF.  I hope that comes across....

So, Delve! zine is poised and ready for takeoff.  The only thing I haven't done is go to the Italian pot office to check on shipping rates.  So here's the deal.  First person who contacts me from England, Germany, Italy, and other European type country via email with their address gets a FREE copy of Delve! so I can test the postage rates.  Send an email to johnathan DOT bingham at gmail DOT com. to inquire for more.

I can now say that Delve! has a physical presence in this world!  I went out and got myself a laser printer after work and have been playing around much of the evening.  I figured out how to manually duplex (they didn't have anything but the low to mid range laser printers at the Italian electronics store).  So I settled on a Canon and so far it seems easy and works well for what I'm going to be using it for.  At any rate, I did an ashcan edition just to see how it would come out.  Here's some admittedly bad photos just to prove to you fine folks that I'm not just spouting out my pie hole: So as you can see, lots of art, lots of tables, hopefully a fun little adventure to play around with along with new items, monsters and spells belonging to a new school of magic.  This is the kinda stuff I get up to when left to my own devices, so BEWARE!  I have a few tweaks and some logistics to address and then I'll announce that Delve! is ready for p...

So today marks the thrird birthday of the Blog Ostensible Cat.  It is sure a fun ride and great to connect with you fine folks out there.  I don have to come clean on something though.  Folks have asked how we accomplish all of our creative endavours around here.  Well, this horrific scene reveals the truth behind the conditions here at Team Bingham HQ: In all seriousness (well, OK in partial seriousness) I went to the Post Office today to find out what shipping on Delve! would be.  I think the final price for you folks Stateside is gonna be $5 with shipping.  That's 35 pages of game content and art (actual 44 pages but there are 9 pages of non-game stuff like cover and OGL, etc).  For you folks in the UK and elsewhere, I still need to swing by the Italian Post Office and check the prices.  I still am working on the PDF so I can sell Delve! on RPGNow.  That should be forthcoming.  So what's left then?  I'm going to get myself...

I'm done!  Well, not exactly but the art for delve is done, the layout is complete, a few more edits and I should be good to go.  I printed out a mockup today and it looks good.  I have some card stock for the covers and I'm going to go get myself a laser printer to take up the print duties.  I've registered on RPGNow and I'll do pdf copies through them.  I'm going to go to the post office tomorrow and see what shipping costs will be to ship Stateside before I settle in on a price.  The first issue has lots of art and new spells, new monsters, a new unique demon, a new school of magic (pathognomancy), new magic items and more with the whole weighing in at 38 pages (actually 44 but I'm not counting the cover and OGL).  So, stay tuned, I'll probably be announcing the print version sale soon.  For the pdf copy, I've got a little tweaking to put in bookmarks and the like and to get it into a more friendly format for folks who like to view pdfs on com...