Ostensible Cat

I'm sure by now just about everyone who reads these old school gaming blogs has heard that the Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign is over.  Four projects were successful in funding.  I offer a most sincere congratulations to all of them.  There are lots of folks that are going to be debating the outcome of this and I think it is most worthy of discussion.  But right now, I want to talk about my campaign, Strange and Sinister Shores.  It came nowhere close to funding.  I had hoped it would do a lot better than it did, but I also realized that I was competing with a lot of folks with more street cred than me.  Frankly, I'm honored that I was asked to the game.  I realize that to stand on equal footing with some of the other campaigns would have required more salesmanship from me than I was able to do or even felt comfortable in doing.  Having said all of this, I do think that Strange and Sinister Shores has some merit and I'm committed to fully developing the proje

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!  

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 intrigue, and sh

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 and I'm getting geared up for

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.  I hope that

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 a new laser printer in the next couple of

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 computer r

So, I mentioned a little while back that I was participating as a writer/artist for an upcoming crowd funded Lamentations of the Flame Princess project.  Well, the time has arrived!  Strange and Sinister  Shores is my contribution to the campaign (check it out here ).  What is it about?  Here's the flavor text from the campaign: The night of the hell born star, still oft remarked upon five years hence in the city of Ostregoth. A night when the sky was brighter than the sun at the height of summer and the ground swelled and heaved like the seas in a storm with the very city walls still bearing the scars. Sir Gustav Klemt, with letters patent from Grand Duke Ruprecht IV and an expeditionary force of thirty men provisioned for three years set forth to learn the fate of the 120 men, women and children of fishing village Tunguk on the great lake of Bykaal and the nearby monastery of St. Georg of the Chalice. That was four years ago. Not one word has been heard of the Klemt

It's almost time for the campaign to kick off.  I'm pretty excited and hope that folks will check out the adventures.  There's quite a lineup.  James Raggi has just posted the adventure summaries and they all look pretty darned cool.  Here's the link .  More to follow on this one for sure!

I just finished doing a podcast interview with Jennifer Steen for the jennisodes podcast.  She still has to edit it, but when it's done I'll post the link.  I highly encourage you to check out her other podcasts here .  She is also doing a fun RPG called Ninja Panda Taco with a kickstarter.  I'm totally getting in on this one.  I mean, getting to play competing masterminds and minions out for world domination, sounds like a good family game for the Binghams.  Yes, I must have my minions help me take over the world ;).  So why was I doing a podcast interview?  Well, I'm going to be participating in the Lamentations of the Flame Princess summer campaign Inidiegogo crowdsource project.  Yeah, this time I'm doing the whole enchilada, art, writing, design, cartography, etc.  A lot of fun for sure but a bit intimidating considering some of the folks on the list! I'm chugging along pretty well on Delve!  I've incorporated most of the typo edits and editorial

And it's a good thing!  I've started editing the Delve! Zine manuscript this morning, getting by with a little help from my friends.  Thanks for the great work to my stalwart proofreaders!  So it looks like everything is coming together nicely.  I'm thinking the final release will be in July.  I still have the interior artwork to do and finish the edits.  I'm also working on ideas for Delve! issue 2 in which I'll probably expound on some things in the first issue.  Not to mention, I'll be participating in a crowd funded Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure.  James Raggi has put together a very cool lineup of folks for a series of Weird Fantasy adventures (check out more here ).  I'm going to be one busy dude as I am going to be doing the art, maps and writing for this adventure.  Not a lot to say other than what I'm working on has some elements of the Tunguska Event, the Sir John Franklin's disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passa

Yep, I am going to join the crowdfunding OSR RPG crazy train.  However, I am not going it alone.  I've signed on to be part of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Grand Adventure Campaign !  Much like Delve!, I'm doing all of the writing/art/cartagraphy chores.  This adventure will be designed with the LotFP rule set in mind, but as with all the OSR rules, you can easily adaprt to your rule set of choice.  I've got a ton of work to do for this and there is a pretty impressive lineup (yeah, I gotta admit it's kinda intimidating, but exhilerating at the same time to be mentioned in the same company as these folks).  I've got lots of ideas that will fit in nicely with the LotFP feel.  I don't have much to share at the moment but watch this space for more! Oh, back to Delve!  I've almost finished the cover and have some work to do on the interior art.  Delve! will for sure be "Weird Fantasy" as well, so if you like that sort of stuff, then I think

Lots of great gaming stuff coming out for us old schoolers and it looks like more goodness is on the horizon. I just purchased my copies of Lamentations of the Flame Princess Carcosa and Isle of the Unknown today ( see here for details ). I have been follow the progress of both and am excited to see the fully realized products. I have the original unexpurgated version of Carcosa and enjoyed it. Yes, there are some rather dark descriptions in there, but I felt that it really hit the nail on the head as far as trying to capture the horrific nature of sorcery as described by the likes of H.P Lovecraft, R.E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and well, you know the stable. Sorcery in those worlds is ugly, evil, and highly ritualized - not the fire and forget spell slinging that seems to be the norm in modern fantasy. At any rate, I'm excited to see James Raggi really giving this a delux treatment. Another project that is along similar lines as far as dark/weird fantasy is the Astonish

A lot going on with Team Bingham as we have friends in town from Seattle and I've got to go to a conference in Germany next week so my posting will be sparse. I'm almost done with my latest batch of commissions and am thinking about some of my side projects. I'm getting pretty psyched about recieving my copies of Vornheim and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Grindhouse Edition in the mail. I did one illustration for the grind house for the malefic eye which you can see below:

OK, so it didn't happen exactly like that, but, well, um, yeah. At any rate, James Raggi has opened the preorders for the Grindhouse Edition of Lamentations of the Flame Princess , Zak Smith's Vornheim, the Pembrooktonshire Gardening Society memberships (I'm member 17 for all you hosebags late to the game - which makes me one of the original 31;), and T-shirts. Why am I mentioning this? Because I have artwork in the new edition. OK, so I only have one piece of artwork in the new edition (but it is acompanying my writeup for a magic item I created for the game - the Maelific Eye of Putrescence - also known as the stink eye). But seriously, I really think Mr. Raggi has an innovative and interesting product here. The game itself is provocative and evocative, the artwork is top notch (I'm actually the bottom feeder of the bunch - Amos Sterns just rocks), and well, it's different. This is not a game for everyone (which is awesome - people shouldn't be affraid

I’m pretty pleased at the direction and sheer creativeness that the OSR seems to be taking. It would have been a simple matter to just rehash stuff from the old days or doing pastiche work. Indeed, in the early days of the OSR, it seemed that was where things were headed. However, several clever souls have been spending their free time crafting up some pretty inventive stuff. James Raggi of Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP) fame has been one of those who are taking the OSR in wildly divergent directions (I'll do a review as soon as I'm done reading through and reviewing Carcosa by Geoffrey McKinney - that should be up this weekend). Of course this is not without controversy, but hey, most people don’t take change and new ideas without grumbling. At any rate, I just received my official Pembrooktonshire Gardening Society membership kit in the mail (member 017 since October 2010). There is a certificate of achievement; a membership card and a very nice print of th

The Old School Renaissance (hereafter OSR) has spawned quite a bit of hobbyist gamers into becoming RPG designers, pundits, publishers, etc. This is nothing new. The hobby has pretty much had folks that have created their own additions, house rules, divergent systems, etc since the inception of the hobby. And even with the seemingly cyclical “sky is falling” doomspeakers that always seem to predict the end of the hobby, it is precisely because of the very inherent grass roots nature of the hobby that no one will ever to be able to effectively kill it. As the hobby has grown over the years, the flagship title or the game that stated it all created by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, has gone through several iterations; morphed beyond the original concept; become an industry success and a darling in the public eye as well as almost disappearing totally due to financial mismanagement and being reviled by many as a gateway to all kinds of alleged aberrant behavior. But quietly, the origin

I just picked up my copy of Arc Dream Publishing's Delta Green supplement Targets of Opportunity. Again, nota lot of time to devote to it at the moment, but a cursory glance through leaves me with the feeling I'm really going to enjoy this one. But of course, I'm really itching to go through Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I hope to devote some time to that this weekend.

What a lovely boxed game. I'll hand it to Mr. Raggi, this is one nice boxed set that is filled to the gills. I haven't had much time to do anything other than give a cursory look through of the contents. I will read through it and give my impressions here. I have to say that I really like many of his ideas so I'm really excited to dig into this one. My only realy dissappointment was that I didn't get to contribute any art to this set. Mr. Raggi did contact me about rates but I never heard back (heh, I even indicated I'd do it pro bono just because I liked his ideas). Ah well, that's OK too I suppose. I'll dig in and report back later with more.