Thinking Out Loud About the Darkness Beneath Megadungeon

[calithena]

I'm trying to think of how to handle the art for a more polished project like this. It would be awesome to just do it with volunteers, but it would also be cool to create a more polished look, hire an artist or two and a cartographer and pay them money to make it look good. Our simple layout supported the eighties 'zine feel but for a 'pro' version it might make sense to get a more polished layout too.


I am thinking it might be good to do this as a kickstarter (indiegogo, whatever) to generate interest and revenue so we could pay for art, cartography, and maybe even layout. Technically the Darkness Beneath submissions were pre-approved to eventually be published this way - that's the only FO! content we kept the right to republish, and only in the format of a stand alone megadungeon book - but conceivably we could try to get some money to authors too.

Another money idea would be, if the kickstarter went well, to randomize the authors and artists in Fight On! #1-14, set aside money for them - say if we raised $1000 make it four prizes of $250 each or something like that, I'm just spitballing - and then do a livestream where we roll d1000 on the author and artist table and award prize money appropriately. This would be a nice bonus for people who donated their articles to our 'zine if it worked out.

I'm prepared to put some real time into finishing the dungeon and also sharing some cool framing material that hadn't made it into the 'zine so far. Well, if people have ideas for what they'd like to see, post them here!

[rredmond]

Kickstarter is a great idea! I think you get more donations when there are stretch goals that benefit the donors. But I dig the fact that you are trying to give back as well, in a nice Fight On! mannger

[Deleted]

Hail!

[geoffrey]

For the cartography, get Christopher Boll (who did the very cool Rappan Athuk dungeon maps 20 years ago). If you can't get him, get someone to do the maps in Boll's style.

For the art, get EROL OTUS. Here's how to keep the cost doable: Do a kickstarter. The only piece of art included in the basic kickstarter would be a full-color cover measuring 17" by 11" (so you have to open up the cover to see the entire piece). If that funds, then have a full-color Erol Otus plate (8.5" by 11") included in the book as a stretch goal. If that is reached, have a second full-color Erol Otus plate (8.5" by 11") as the second stretch goal. Etc. Put as many full-color Erol Otus plates in as you can get.

That's my Darkness Beneath Christmas wish list.

[calithena]

I've been thinking about asking Erol what he would want for a cover or interior panel, or both. That won't get the whole megadungeon illustrated though. But if he had the time and was willing to work for something I felt like we could raise, oh hell yeah!

[calithena]

I'm feeling it. I haven't felt it for years! I'm like Kane back from his slumber! Let's do this!

OK - the product itself - I'm thinking two books - the dungeon book and a monsters and treasures supplement - even in the already published materials there are literally over a hundred new monsters - so the dungeons just get bare bones stat blocks (enough to play without the M&T book, but no more) in one volume and then there's a page for each monster and ample supplemental material on new classes, magic items, etc. in the second book.

And each of them will get done for both S&W and OSE.

We will probably need to pay for some art. But it would be cool to have fan contributions too. The inequality in that arrangement bugs me, but nobody has to contribute I guess.

I have talked to Rob Conley about editing and layout and I am trying to get in touch with Dave Bowman to see if he wants a coauthor role.

Something in the kickstarter to award 'zine contributors, at least a little.

Suggestions welcome!

[makofan]

I am not averse to editing the Fungus Forest to bring a bit more variety to its treasures, or allowing others to modify/expand/change it to bring it in line with a cohesive whole

[calithena]

MAKO! Great to see you man!

I'd love your input. Got anything for the new issue?

[rredmond]

You should have no problem getting proofers and editors from here. I'm assuming these FO! threads will start jumping once GaryCon is over

[calithena]

Thinking about this a little more (two years later now that we are actually REALLY running again) I am thinking that it might make sense to develop TDB as a series of modules - I think the first one probably would be levels 1-5 (possibly excluding 4). That's a good BIG but self-contained multilevel dungeon and would also allow me to introduce some (minimal! this is old school! setting/environment stuff contextualizing the megadungeon complex in its surroundings.

Is that still a kickstarter type project? A series of smaller kickstarters like this might be more manageable for us, and proven success might lead to greater backing over time. Something to mull over.